Sid Hartman: Healthy Mauer means more Twins wins

Joe Mauer won the American League batting title in 2006 with a .347 batting average in 140 games, with 84 RBI and 13 home runs. The Twins won the Central Division title with a 96-66 record and advanced to the playoffs, where they were beaten by the Oakland A's in the division series.

Last season, the Twins catcher hit .293 but played in only 109 games, drove in 60 runs and hit only seven home runs. The Twins dropped to 79-83 and finished third in the Central, 17 games behind division winner Cleveland.

If Mauer, now healthy after having a number of injuries last season, has a year more like 2006 rather than 2007, it would mean a much better record for manager Ron Gardenhire and company.

"I feel better this spring, and I took a lot of time over the offseason to heal up," said Mauer, who had minor surgery in October on a non-baseball-related condition near his back that he declines to be more specific about.

"I had a lot of things going on last season, but it was definitely good to get that taken care of and just moving forward, looking forward to '08," Mauer said. "Yeah, it was a long year. Leaving spring training, I wasn't feeling too good. So when you got 162 [games] staring at you, it's not a good feeling. But I'm just putting that all behind me and just looking forward to this year."

Mauer played in 17 games this spring and hit .349. And the talk about Mauer shifting to third base was just that.

"I've taken a few ground balls, but nothing too crazy," he said. "I told Gardy I want to catch and I'm going to be his catcher this year, so that's the plan."

"We've got a lot of good young arms," he said. "Just looking to try to be consistent with these guys and have them go out there and give us good starts. If we can get the ball to our bullpen, we feel pretty good about our chances."

Mauer was asked about Livan Hernandez, the one veteran pitcher added to the staff.

"He's not going to go out there and blow you away with his fastball or anything, but he knows how to pitch and he's a guy that has to hit his spots to be successful," Mauer said. "He's a great control guy, and I look for him to eat up a lot of innings for us."

The Twins are not expected to do well this season, but Mauer disagrees.

"It's the thing every year. We've won all those division titles, and nobody's picked us to go first," he said. "So we're used to that, and we kind of rally around that a little bit. But we're going to be exciting. We've got a lot of young guys, and we're getting familiar with each other down here in spring and we're feeling pretty good about our chances."

The Gophers have scheduled Iowa State, Cleveland State and Cornell for next season, and now comes the announcement that they will play Louisville in University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals, in December as a part of a doubleheader. Smith is interested in scheduling teams such as the University of Alabama here because he wants to recruit in that area.

Devoe Joseph, a player from Ontario who is one of Smith's top recruits, has been selected to play for an international team against an all-star high school team from the United States in Oregon on April 12.

Devron Bostick, the Gophers' junior college recruit from Southwestern Illinois, was named player of the year in the Great Rivers Conference.

Torii Hunter will come to the Metrodome in an Angels uniform Monday night after having a great spring, having gone 19-for-56 for a .339 batting average with five doubles, two triples, three home runs and 10 RBI.

Moses Alipate, the highly recruited quarterback from Bloomington Jefferson who has committed to Minnesota, said his mail from colleges all over the country has doubled for some reason since he committed to Minnesota. "My commitment is solid for Minnesota," said Alipate, who was on hand for Gophers spring practice Saturday. Alipate also is an outstanding basketball player, averaging 14.5 points this past season.

Tony Mortensen, the Gophers senior backup quarterback from Hutchinson, might see more action because the other day he volunteered to coach Tim Brewster to become a long snapper so he can still contribute to the team if not at quarterback.

Gophers baseball coach John Anderson is amazed at the progress Gophers wide receiver Eric Decker has made with the baseball team after not playing competitive baseball for three years. Decker has two years of baseball left at Minnesota, and Anderson is convinced Decker has the athletic ability to be a high draft choice in baseball as well as football.

Sid Gernander, who died recently, had one son (Bob), who is a top scout for the Dallas Stars, another son (Scott), who is head basketball coach at San Jacinto (Texas) College, and a grandson (Ken), a former Gopher who is head hockey coach of the Hartford Wolf Pack in the American Hockey League.

Currently Gophers season ticket holders for hockey, basketball and football pay, in addition to the ticket price, a contribution to the Williams Fund. They pay $975 for each seat in choice locations for the three sports, $650 for seats in the corner of the particular stadium or arena, and $325 in the end sections. But rest assured it is likely those contributions will go up in basketball in the future.

Justin Gominsky, the Mahtomedi football player who originally signed with Iowa Western Community College, has now decided to go to Minnesota.