Joe or Joseph? Which is first?

Which will happen first?

- Cory Joseph signs with Minnesota
- Joe Mauer signs with Twins
- Neither will happen

You start a lot of weird threads.

A weird thread for sure but I love it! I say Mauer then Joseph, but we're getting both!!! What a great time for MN sports.
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FERRARI 456 HISTORY

Mauer. I still think that the Gophers are a long shot for Joseph.

Mauer first. Then Joseph.

On a similar note, by which date do recruits need to be signed? In other words, regardless of institution of choice, when will we know about C. Joseph?

I haven't validated, but I'd assume they need to be signed by the time school starts.

Just found it. Looks like May 19, 2010.

http://basketball.about.com/od/recruiting/a/signing-dates.htm

So what happens if you haven't signed by May 19th? You can't play at all? Juco?

brucekaupa said:

So what happens if you haven't signed by May 19th? You can't play at all? Juco?

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Not sure - but a Letter of Intent (LOI) only prevents other schools from recruiting the student/athlete. I believe he could still agree to accept a scholarship with any school.

Maybe Joe Mauer can make a nice contribution to the Gopher Athletic fund after he signs for $24 million per year

rrjackIII said:

Not sure - but a Letter of Intent (LOI) only prevents other schools from recruiting the student/athlete. I believe he could still agree to accept a scholarship with any school.

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That's not true. He would have to be released from his LOI, or sit out a year. He can verbally commit to us anytime, but the next signing period is April 14th-May19th. If Mauer doesn't sign first, the Twins are in trouble!

You know, I get that Joe Mauer is the best player in a long time to come through the Twin Cities and is a home town kid and everything, but why are there so many people that want the Twins to give him 20%+ of their payroll every year. If you had any idea how infrequently that model actually works in baseball you would probably think twice about being so anxious with the prospect of him signing for that kind of money.

streetfighter-

What do you mean? Look at how well it worked out for the Wolves paying KG all that money. Oh... wait...

I guess the difference is the Twins set their own payroll, there is no salary cap. It is their own fault if they choose to make Mauer's salary 20% of the total payroll.

Gold Vision said:

That's not true. He would have to be released from his LOI, or sit out a year. He can verbally commit to us anytime, but the next signing period is April 14th-May19th.

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I should have said --- 'I believe he could still agree to accept a scholarship with any school.... (edit) if he has not signed a LOI...' which was in response to the original question.

So what happens if you haven't signed by May 19th? You can't play at all? Juco?

Not sure he needs to sign a LOI at all --- I think he could still accept a scholarship even without signing a LOI. An unlikely scenario but I don't think there is an absolute requirement to sign an LOI before accepting a scholarship.

94Gopher said:

streetfighter-

What do you mean? Look at how well it worked out for the Wolves paying KG all that money. Oh... wait...

I guess the difference is the Twins set their own payroll, there is no salary cap. It is their own fault if they choose to make Mauer's salary 20% of the total payroll.

Click to expand...

The difference there is that in the NBA a bad team can ride one player to at least a decent amount of success (see Cleveland Cavaliers) so paying one player a large chunk of the payroll like that won't have as much of an impact.

With the new stadium, the Twins payroll will obviously increase and in a pretty large way, but you have to figure it still will only be $90-100 million on the high end. That means if they want to keep Mauer (no chance he signs for less than $20+ mil per year) they have to pay him 20-25% of their payroll. Then on top of that you have Morneau scheduled to make $14mil per year for these next 4 years and you have 35-45% of your payroll locked into 2 players (albeit VERY good players).

That makes it tough to build a solid team around them and keep young talent around. I would guess this is the internal debate the Twins are going through. I really feel for the management because they are kind of in a no-win situation (unless they become the exeption to this % of salary "rule"). I am sure they are hesitant to lock up that much payroll in 2 players, but Mauer's is such a unique situation that they have to try something. If they trade him, fans will be apoplectic even if it might be the best thing long term for the franchise.

I am a Brewers fan and they are going (or will be going) through a similar situation with Prince Fielder although he won't be able to command the large salary that Mauer could on the open market. I really love the player, but if I was being pragmatic it is probably better they try to trade him and get some good players in return.

Sorry for the novel, I just love MLB (and Mauer as well) and think it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.