Mauer Activated; Set to Start Friday

The Minnesota Twins have shown real signs of life lately.  After last night’s 1-0 victory over the White Sox, the Twins have won 4 straight and 11 of their last 13 games.

This resurgence should only be strengthened as the team welcomes back former MVP Joe Mauer.  Mauer was activated yesterday and is expected to be in Minnesota’s lineup for today’s contest against the Padres.

Mauer was only able to play in 9 games before hitting the disabled list with what was determined to be bilateral leg weakness.

If you’re anything like me you’re wondering what exactly bilateral leg weakness is?  Is it something that happens when a pretty lady walks by?  Does it occur when you’re waiting in line for a ride on the Mountain of Doom?

Thankfully, GM Bill Smith came out yesterday and cleared everything up.

"“In its simplest form, bilateral leg weakness means he had weakness in both legs. The majority of that was due to the knee surgery he had in December, and if you take the extremes much further, to bilateral leg weakness, there’s a lot of very challenging results that can happen.“We’ve never believed that this was anything more than a leg weakness, mostly caused from that knee surgery. I think when Joe started to go through that, it starts to affect throwing mechanics, swing mechanics, it starts to affect a lot of things.”"

One large rumor that’s surfaced since Mauer has been on the DL is that he is suffering from some sort of disease.  Well, Smith and his All-Star backstop wanted to clear this issue up very quickly before it became a speed bump for the now rolling Twins.

"“I don’t have Lyme disease. That’s the thing. I think everybody’s kind of formed their own opinion on that — why I’ve missed time is because of my knee and weakness in the legs, and compensating for my knee. Is my knee good to go now? Yeah. I still have to work at it.”“I have no disease or anything like that, so I think that’s probably a good thing to clear that up a little bit.”"