Twins 1B Justin Morneau Among Missing

Joe Mauer will be there. Ron Gardenhire will be there. Brian Duensing and Denard Span will, as will Tony Oliva, Rod Carew, Bert Blyleven, Tom Kelly, Dan Gladden and a host of other current and former Minnesota Twins personalities.

But where is Justin Morneau?

Morneau, the eight-year veteran whose MVP year saw him bat .321 with 34 homers in 2006, is among the missing as the team sets out on its two-week Winter Caravan promotional tour. His absence doesn't necessarily point to disaster, but it is none too reassuring either, given Morneau's health issues over the past three seasons.

If there was one person fans would want to see smiling, healthy and happy more than any other, it would be Justin Morneau. The tour runs through Jan. 30, but Morneau's not coming, now or later.

Various team testimonials depict the 6-foot-4 Canadian working out and healthy in sunny Florida, eagerly getting ready for 2012. But that's the same news that was reported last year when the ailing slugger missed half the year, then hit a mere .227 with just four homers in 264 at-bats.

Morneau, 31, because he makes up half of the team's critical M&M keystone with Joe Mauer, needs to recover his playing ability if the Twins are to avoid another disaster like the 2011 season. The problem is, in addition to other illnesses, Morneau has suffered mightily from post concussive syndrome, the result of a repeated blows to his head since he began playing hockey as a teenager.

The malady is marked by headaches, dizziness, nausea, blurry vision, inability to concentrate, sunlight aversion and other manifestations, none worse than an inability to function as normally as anyone else throughout the day, to say nothing of being able to play professional baseball.

It is not only the type of disorder that permanently sidelined former Twins corner infielder Cory Koskie, it IS the disorder. Said Morneau recently to the London Free Press: "I won't know how my body is going to react until I do baseball activities."

He told MLB News Network: "Something's not right."

'Yogi Berra Plan' a Cure for Mauer's 'Cyberchondria'

Whether sidelined Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer suffers from so-called 'cyberchondria' the early stages of arthritic knee or merely a virus, one thing is for certain: There is no cure better than the 'Yogi Berra Plan.'

The plan -- being advanced by Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse -- brings to mind the creativity of the New York Yankees some 50 years ago when the team wanted to work emerging young catcher Elston Howard into the lineup.

Because Howard was blocked by Yogi Berra behind the plate, Berra was moved to left field. The Twins could do likewise with Mauer, who has undergone invasive knee surgery and currently is out of the lineup due to "bilateral leg weakness,' potentially linked to neurological and spinal complications involving structural deficiencies related to an arthritic knee.

Because Mauer's contract binds him to the club for the next six years, his absence from the lineup set off a round of blogosphere 'cyberchondria,' a newly termed phenomenon in which commentators, pundits and prognosticators peruse online medical texts to determine his pronosis.

 Look, take it from Doctor X, a licensed physician: Joe Mauer suffers from the advanced manifestations of a trauma-induced arthritic knee, a condition that will grow worse and worse until is fairly safe to predict that barring a miracle, if Mauer finishes his career in a Twinkies uniform, he certainly won't be wearing it behind the plate.

 Does that mean he can't finish this season as a catcher?  No. What it means is that Mauer's time is running out, and the sooner he stops spending a couple hours a day squatting the better off he'll be.

It also means that because outfielder Delmon Young's contract is coming up, a potentially costly negotiation, it is time to trade Young in a deal that will bring back a young catcher, and to move Mauer to Young's spot in the outfield.

 For the Twins, it's a matter of health.

No News Looks Like Bad News for Justin Morneau

Injuries have kept the heart of Twins offensive corps -- Joe Mauer, Delmon Young, Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau -- from playing a single spring game so far, setting a dire tone at the outset of the new season, with Morneau looking for all the world like he will be lucky to return to action at all, let alone before the first official game.

Though Mauer likely can return soon from a rehabilitating knee injection, as will Young from a bout with turf toe and Cuddyer from a common wart excision, Morneau continues to suffer from concussive syndrome resulting from a second base collision at mid-season last year.

Morneau already has missed nearly a full eight months of normal baseball play, leaving doubts as to his readiness even were he to return to the diamond tomorrow. Worse, his return to full play still looks to be days, even weeks, away, with permanent disability a distinct possibility.

Doctors continue to limit his activities while he continues to suffer from headaches, dizziness, nausea, sunshine aversion and other symptoms that only will worsen if he trains too hard before his recovery is complete.

What's especially disquieting about Morneau is that return-to-play medical criteria after a sports-related head injury generally calls for a simple, gradual progression from complete rest to light exercise to sport-specific exercise with a gradual addition of resistance training. That's followed by non-contact training drills. Finally there is limited contact, then full-contact training before a complete recovery can be declared.

Progression through each step, however, is dependent upon the presence or absence of symptoms, and Morneau still continues to have plenty of bad moments, as evidenced by his need to wear dark glasses all the time, even during limited periods of swinging at bat in the cage, reportedly no more than 40 swats at a turn.

There is no science behind these procedures as the strategy is largely based on anecdotal expert group consensus panel recommendations. Typically, however, return to play occurs in one to two weeks after the initial injury. No such luck for Morneau.

Frustratingly, it's just as likely that he would be in the same position even if there were no medical interventions or recommendations. It's surprising how little medical experts understand about the condition.

A recent study from from Pace University in Pleasantville, N.Y. , (Mayers, L., Arch Neurol 65(9):1158, September 2008) reviewed the findings cerebral response following a concussion, better known as traumatic brain injury -- a subject undergoing an ambitious (read: expensive) investigation by military scientists pertaining to injured troops exposed to explosive blasts.

This effort includes the placement of multi-million dollar magnetic resonance imaging machines into remote forward field hospitals to help facilitate both pre- and post-deployment neuropsychiatric testing in for all members of the U.S. military.

Small studies of EEG event-related potential recordings in concussed athletes reported deficits (unrelated to the results of neuropsychological testing) for up to five weeks in both symptomatic and asymptomatic athletes, and for up to 30 months in those sustaining multiple concussions.

A study that assessed motor-evoked responses on transcranial magnetic stimulation reported abnormalities for up to nine months in multiply-concussed athletes, an interesting finding considering Morneau has sustained three concussions, two while playing for the Twins and one while playing hockey as a teenager, a term of nearly a decade.

The results of small studies using highly specialized research techniques suggest that simple concussion produces brain dysfunction, even in asymptomatic subjects, that can persist for at least one month, indicating that safe return to play after concussion might require at least four to six weeks after the injury.

So far, so good, but from time-to-time clinicians see samples of patients that evidently did not read the medical textbooks, whose conditions do not follow the usual pattern of healing and rehabilitation.

It is not too soon to predict that, for all appearances, Morneau is an unfortunate member of this subset, not dissimilar from former Twin's third baseman Kory Koskie, the Giants Mike Metheny and a long list of other athletes who were forced into retirement following a substantive blow to the head.

Twins C Joe Mauer Closer to Return

Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer, rehabbing from back inflammation, remains on the disabled list but is making progress toward rejoining his teammates on the field.

Mauer took batting practice and worked behind the plate Wednesday night, both firsts in his recovery from the back problems that have his sidelined. The batting and catching sessions took place at the Twins' minor-league camp in Florida.

Mauer hit one ball out of the park in the batting practice session, which was his first since September. Mauer's biggest issue remains with running, an activity that causes much pain and which he hasn't been able to do comfortably since December.

Joe Mauer Passes Jason Veritek in All-Star Voting

It has been no small accomplishment for the Twins to wage a political campaign on behalf of a relatively obscure catcher in a forgotten prairie backwater like Minneapolis in an endeavor to overtake Red Sox captain Jason Veritek, who has the distinct advantage of playing in the cosmopolitan baseball hotbed of Boston.

Yet here it is with just three days left to tally the totals, and young Joe Mauer has parlayed his recent hot streak into a tenuous but tangible lead, a shocking misdeed achieved through devious, sinister, underhanded and borderline corrupt (gasp!) BALLOT BOX STUFFING!

Yes, the "Vote for Mauer" mantra has been repeated so often and so ubiquitously that rumor has the young Minnesota native overtaking even Gov. Tim Pawlenty on presumptive presidential nominee John McCain's vice presidential short list.

Dishonest? Sure! Cynical? Most definitely! Republican? Well, let's not go that far. But at any rate, is it Joe Mauer's fault that he finds himself riding the crest of a tidal wave of love, admiration, loyalty and devotion? And whom, after all, is more deserving?

In the best tradition of late broadcaster and National Baseball Hall of Fame board member Tim Russert, an examination of the public record shows Mauer has hit nearly .360 over the past two months, raising his season average to more than .330 while playing outstanding defense, an All-Star qualifying resume if there ever was one.

The All-Star game will be held at Yankee Stadium -- one of the last contests before it is demolished -- on July 15, with voting to be concluded Wednesday via the Monster online ballot at MLB.com, and the winners to be announced July 6.

Barring a filibuster in New England, expect Mauer to be named the starter, and deservedly so.

Twins Joe Mauer, Trick Knee, Arrive With Bravado

The good news is that Twins catcher Joe Mauer has arrived in Fort Myers, Fl., reassuring friends and teammates that his knee is "100 percent" healthy and that he expects no setbacks for 2008.

The bad news is that Mauer said virtually the same thing last year, when -- just a month into the season -- he went on the disabled list for 32 days with a strained quadricep before having to be reassigned to Class A for a rehabilitation.

For the record, in addition to the quad strain, Joe Mauer's 2004 meniscus cleanup is well behind him, and technically meniscus surgery is the best kind of knee surgery to have. That is to say, if you must have knee surgery, maniscus repair offers a full chance of recovery in time, and Mauer has had more than enough time to feel confident about his durability.

And yet, anyone -- let alone a 6 foot five, 220-pound man who squats for a living -- remains highly vulnerable to arthritic repercussions as the result of any invasive trauma at the knee joint. So for Mauer, arthritis is more a question of when, rather than if.

Mauer's bravado and the Twins willingness to keep Mauer behind the plate instead of moving him to designated hitter, first base or third indicates that no such arthritic condition is on the horizon for now, and with any luck might not appear until after Mauer retires.

In the meantime, fans can enjoy watching one of the best young catchers in the game, and see that he still offers outstanding play behind the plate, can continue to his for average, and hopefully not only stay healthy but maybe even begin to hit with power.