The WGOM

Joe Mauer is your 2009 AL MVP and Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter were both shut out of first-place votes! This was already mentioned in the cup of coffee, but I figured it deserved its own post.

Joe got all but one first-place vote and was second on that ballot. Some moron voted for Miguel Cabrera. You know, the idiot that went on a drunken binge in the final week of the season while his team's lead in the division was wasting away to Mauer's Twins. It will be interesting to see who voted for Cabrera. My guess is it was a Detroit writer. Either that, or the guy voted for O-Cab and the BBWAA assumed he meant Miguel.

I also have been noticing a lot of Favre for MVP love right now. Could the Twin Cities have the MVPs for the nation's two most prominent sports this year?

Yes, I'm calling it right now. There is no chance that Mauer loses his lead now. After he went 1-for-4 Friday night, Ichiro went 0-for-4. That gave Mauer a .366 to .350 lead going into the final two games.

Assuming no more than five at-bats in each game, if Mauer went 0-for-10, Ichiro would have to go 10-for-10 to edge out Joe .360 to .359. That's not happening. This is a slam dunk, no-doubt-about-it, would bet my life savings on it happening. OK, maybe not. But, I think it's safe to say the Twins have a much, much better chance of getting into the playoffs than Ichiro does of winning the batting title.

Of course, if the Twins force a one-game playoff, then those stats also will count and then all bets are off, but I think it's safe to call it even with that scenario happening.

So, Mauer can now relax and go for homers 29 and 30 and enough RBIs for 100. Actually, I would settle for him getting the best batting average ever by a catcher in a full season. I believe that was .366. That is definitely doable.

Have you ever had a sporting moment when you were absolutely on fire? Where you could do no wrong?

I distinctly remember three such events from my younger "athletic" days. The first was a pick-up 3-on-3 basketball game in gym class in junior high. I don't remember many details other than I couldn't miss, and I knew I wasn't going to miss no matter what kind of crazy shot I took. The second was in co-ed rec league softball when I hit for the cycle. I was Gardy's favorite type of No. 2 hitter, so just hitting the homer was a big deal for me, but what I remember most about that was the other team was pretty much awful.

The third time was in college in a pingpong game and it was the best I had ever been locked in. Now, I consider myself a far better pingpong player than basketball or softball player and I had had plenty of good games and matches with good players. This time stood out because I was playing a guy who was comparable to me and I beat him 21-3. I believe I had won more than my fair share against this guy before this, but he had beaten me before and every other game had been competitive, but this time I couldn't be stopped. And it wasn't that I was keeping the ball alive until he made a mistake. I was taking his best shots and slamming them back at him so no one could return them. I would literally look at my paddle after a shot and wonder "Where did that come from?"

Is that what it's like for Joe Mauer right now? Is he "on fire" or has he reached a new level of play? That's the big question right now for Twins fans.

If this power surge continues much longer for Joe, I wouldn't be surprised to hear some national writers begin to question if he has had some other kind of help from doctors. On the other hand, this just might lead to kidney obstruction surgery for catchers becoming as common as Tommy John surgery for pitchers.

If Mauer is just having one crazy month and does go back to "just being Joe," how good this has been shows how good he really is. He is hitting .444/.530/.914 with 11 homers and 31 RBIs this month. Justin Morneau's career high for homers and RBIs in a month are 10 and 29. The 31 RBIs are a team record and he has six more games to go this month.

Taking it a step further, Albert Pujols has bested 11 homers in a month just twice (14 & 12) and 31 RBIs just twice (33 & 32) and his career-best OPS (March/April 2006) of 1.423 was a tad lower than Joe's 1.444, although Joe's OPS+ is 280 compared to Pujols' 264 in his best month. So, Joe is having a month that would match Pujols' career best. And Pujols is recognized as the best hitter in the game today. At least for now.

And when Barry Bonds hit 73 homers in 2001, not once did he get 31 RBIs in a month. His high was 30 when he hit 17 homers in May. That's amazing. He drove himself in 17 times and his teammates 13 times. A roided up Bonds had a 1.422 OPS for a full season in 2004 at the age of 39. Although that was "just" a 263 OPS+. So Mauer's May is comparable to a roided up Bonds at his best for a full season.

Do I expect this power surge to continue? No, of course not. Of course, I didn't expect this to happen to begin with. I don't expect him to hit a home run tonight. I didn't expect him to hit one off Boston's Jonathan Papelbon. The last five or six homers he's hit, all I coul do is exclaim, "No way!"

And what if it doesn't continue? What if he stays healthy but just goes back to "just being Joe?" Well, if he hits for his career averages for another 400 PAs the rest of this season he'll hit .346/.429/.562 for an OPS of .991, which would be a career year for him. And he would finish with 20 home runs. For comparison's sake, Mike Piazza's career OPS was .922.

Smells like an MVP to me.

Anyways, we probably shouldn't get all wrapped up in how long this other-worldly level will last for Joe. Just enjoy it while it does. And the Twins need to start taking better advantage of it, too.