Joe Mauer Contract On the Horizon

It was said best by Eric In Madison yesterday:  There's too much smoke for there not to be any fire.  While Rosen's WCCO report of a ten-year extension for Minnesota golden boy Joe Mauer may have been called premature, bits this big don't just fall out of the air.  Here's what we know so far...

    * Early Monday afternoon Mark Rosen of WCCO reported that the Twins and Mauer had come to a preliminary agreement on a ten-year contract extension.
    * Ensuing reports could not confirm that an extension had been agreed upon and signed.
    * There's been speculation that the framework for a deal has been laid out and likely agreed upon (from "two people close to the Mauer family"), but that the two sides are still working on the small print:  deferred payments, details on incentives, and whether or not Minneapolis will now be called Mauerapolis.
    * Whatever kind of contract this ends up being, it will be a "Legacy Contract":  "It will recognize what Mauer has done for the franchise until now, and what he will do in the future, and it could be worth at least $20 million per year."  I'd replace the word "could" with "will".
    * There have been confirmed reports that clueless Yankee and Red Sox fans are doing one of two things:  pretending they never made ignorant predictions about Mauer playing in New York or Boston, or crying.  Intelligent Yankee and Red Sox fans resigned themselves to this deal months ago.