Brandon Inge Topic Page

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.

A dramatic Twins season ended in dramatic fashion. The final day of the regular season couldn't have been scripted much better than it played out on Sunday. The Twins headed into Sunday's game needing to win and needing the Royals to complete the sweep of the Tigers. How it all played out was truly unbelievable. On top of all that Mauer headed into the final game with just a slight lead over Derek Jeter for the AL batting title.

Sunday's game was a tough one to watch. I can't remember a time in recent history when Johan appeared to be laboring so much for an entire outing. He gave up 9 hits and 4 walks in 5 1/3 innings, but amazingly still only gave up 3 runs. The month of July has not been a good one for Johan, by his standards anyway. He has a 3-1 record, but it's his 4.74 ERA that's unusual. I'm not worried though.