With more notorious home run hitters like Justin Morneau, Mark Teixeira and Josh Hamilton declining their invitations to participate in this year's home run derby, the door has opened for Joe Mauer to participate in his first derby.

Mauer has certainly shown an increase in power, already amassing a career-high 15 home runs on the season, but throughout his 5+ year career he's been more of a single & double hitter. A common thought has always been that Mauer could hit more home runs if he chose to sacrifice some average and on-base percentage. He'll now get a chance to prove that.

He's up against some stiff NL competition.

• Prince Fielder (22 HR)
• Adrian Gonzalez (24 HR)
• Ryan Howard (21 HR)
• Albert Pujols (32 HR)

The AL is still looking for participants with Brandon Inge (19 HR) being the only other to confirm so far. Evan Longoria (17 HR) and Jason Bay (20 HR) are the most likely to fill out the AL's squad.

Of all the participants, Mauer has the lowest home run total, but also missed the entire month of April. His teammates certainly aren't looking past him--in fact Glen Perkins has no doubt he'll win it.

Adding to the interest of the story is that he has invited his high school baseball coach, Jim O'Neill, to be his pitcher for the event.

Every year players decline, fans and media complain, and people generally worry that a player will "mess up" his swing by participating in the derby. Surely, some players have seen their numbers decline post break, but that can hardly be specifically tied to the derby. Player production fluctuates throughout a season, and as Mauer himself said, "I don't think one night will affect your swing for the rest of the season."

Justin Morneau won the 2008 home run derby, so it's now up to Mauer to keep the crown with the Twins--one of the last teams that has historically been associated with power hitting.

What do you think? Does Mauer have a chance? Is he making a mistake by participating? Do you even care?