Joe Mauer. C, Min
It seemed like in all of the playoff/championship matchups I was in this year, Mauer seemed to be on the opposing team. Usually drafted in the top three for catchers, Mauer had a breakout season at the plate, hitting over twice as many home runs as any season in his career while putting up an OPS over 1.000 and a career high .365 average.Mauer did have a BABIP of .377 when he's been a career .349 guy, so you can expect the average to drop a bit in 2009, but is .330 really that bad?
I'm not necessarily sure I'll be drafting Mauer in the first round since I usually like to draft a catcher later on and just leave them for the entire season, but I do think people will be all over Mauer in the first round and number nine overall could even be a little low.
Personally, if he were to make it to me in the second round, I'd probably take a chance on him. If he truly has proven he can be a 25-30 home run guy, I will have absolutely no problems drafting him early, but I would like to see at least one other season before I can really believe.