Joe Mauer

[Rajah]

Saturday night I went to see the Kane County Cougars play the Quad City River Bandits. As some (maybe all, never know) of you know, Joe Mauer is the starting catcher for the River Bandits. For those of you who are unaware, Joe Mauer was the number 1 pick in last year's draft, a high school catcher from Minnesota.

That said, I just wanted to post my assessment of Joe Mauer. He looked good, really good. He was easily the best player on the field (not saying much - Kane County is dead last, and quad cities not much better). He played defense very well, I think he picked off a runner. His offense was very impressive. He was 3 for 5 (per my scoring - can't find an official box score), also reaching on an error. He hit a double as well. He doesn't have a great deal of power yet. Power enough to hit doubles, but only 2 home runs on the season. His hits were all deep into the outfield though. He also scored a few runs, and moved several guys into scoring position. I can't remember if he had any rbi's. Unfortunately, I don't have my scorecard with me.

My gut feeling: he'll develop more power with time, and the Twins dodged the first round high school catcher bullet. He should be in the majors in a few years and I don't see any reason why (barring injury of course) he won't have a very productive career.

Just found the official box score. Must have miss coded one (I was at the game with the family, sometimes had to rely on second hand accounts of what happened). Mauer only had 2 hits, plus a HBP. Lots of HBP in that game.
Here's his stats up to the game I was at:
Mauer, Joe,C .293ba 174ab 26r 51h 8db 0 2hr 27rbi 31bb 21so 0 0 .374slg .398obp 3errors

BTW, anyone have a minor league scouting notebook. I noticed that Kane County's 1b Jason Stokes is like the best hitter in the midwest league. anyone know anything about him? He looked a lot bigger than the rest of the players, so I suspect that he's older.