Joe Mauer, the Minnesota Twins star catcher and popular pick to win AL MVP this season, was on 2nd base Tuesday night in a pivotal late season game against the Detroit Tigers. A crafty fan noticed that Mauer was stealing signs from the Tigers in an attempt to help out his teammate, Jason Kubel, and created the video you see here. We passed the video along to an MLB scout this morning to get his take on the gamesmanship.

First off, the scout made it clear that this sort of thing happens regularly – and will happen increasingly in the postseason – and is not really that big of a deal. (Still, he is just as curious as we are about whether or not ESPN blows this up into a story today.) He also added that the “good players don’t want to be tipped to what might be coming. It is a double-edged sword – yeah, it could help, but if you get the wrong sign, the batter will have no chance at the plate.”

The big thing the scout noticed in this video is that Mauer isn’t tipping what type of pitch is coming, but rather location.

1st pitch – Joe Mauer touches his ear hole. Youtube guy thinks that means curveball. Pitch comes down the middle. Fouled back.
2nd pitch – Joe Mauer touches his ear hole. Youtube guy thinks that means curveball. Pitch comes down the middle. Announcers call it a breaking pitch. Kubel takes for a strike.
3rd pitch – No sign from Mauer, as the catcher had changed up his signal. Pitch comes in the dirt inside. Announcers call it a curveball. Was it a slider?
4th pitch – Joe Mauer touches his face. Pitch comes inside. Announcers call it a 99-mph fastball.
5th pitch – No sign from Mauer. Pitch (slider?) comes low. Kubel fouls it off.
6th pitch – No sign from Mauer, as the catcher yet again changed up his signal. Breaking pitch just misses outside.
7th pitch – No sign from Mauer, as the catcher yet again changed up his signal. The fastball is hit deep to center, deep enough for a run to score.

To us, the most interesting aspect of this is the cat-and-mouse game between the Tigers catcher Gerald Laird and Mauer. Once Laird knows Mauer is trying to help Kubel, he instantly begins to change his signals (by either touching his facemask, or his knee pad, or pounding his glove, or his shoulder, whatever.

And no, we don’t think this video will do any damage to Mauer’s MVP candidacy.