There's been lots of talk lately about Joe Mauer's chances of winning the AL MVP, but rather than focus on how 28 newspaper writers might cast their ballots in six weeks let's concentrate on the historically awesome season that the Twins' catcher is having. After collecting six hits and three homers in the first three games of the Texas series, he's 33-for-66 (.500) with seven homers, six doubles, and 19 RBIs in 16 games since his batting average fell to a season-low .353 on August 1. Yes, a season-low .353.

He leads baseball with a .380 batting average and tops the AL in on-base percentage (.448), slugging percentage (.648), OPS (1.095), Runs Above Replacement (65.0), and percentage of runners driven in. Despite spending all of April on the disabled list he's up to 25 homers, 77 RBIs, and 237 total bases, each of which ranks among the AL's top 10. Oh, and he's also the league's reigning Gold Glove catcher and has thrown out 30 percent of steal attempts this year while making great plays behind the plate.

Mauer has been the AL's best, most valuable player whether or not the 28 people with an actual vote on the award recognize it, but beyond that he's having a truly historic year. What makes his performance so amazing is that throughout baseball history catcher has been home to the worst hitters. This year is no different, as MLB backstops have managed a measly .256/.321/.398 line and .719 OPS that rank as the worst from any position. In fact, shortstop is the only other spot with an OPS below .750.

Not only is Mauer the best hitter in the league, he's the best hitter in the league and a good defender at the least-offensive position on the diamond. Catchers just don't hit like this, which is why Mauer is on track for his third batting title in four seasons after no catcher in the history of the league ever managed even one before he came around. He's also at or near the top of almost every all-time leaderboard for catchers, including batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS:

                  YEAR      AVG                            YEAR      OBP
JOE MAUER         2009     .380          Mickey Cochrane   1933     .459
Babe Phelps       1936     .367          Mickey Cochrane   1935     .452
Mike Piazza       1997     .362          JOE MAUER         2009     .448
Bill Dickey       1936     .362          Johnny Bassler    1924     .441
Mickey Cochrane   1930     .357          Chief Meyers      1912     .441
 
                  YEAR      SLG                            YEAR      OPS
JOE MAUER         2009     .648          JOE MAUER         2009    1.095
Mike Piazza       1997     .638          Mike Piazza       1997    1.069
Gabby Hartnett    1930     .630          Bill Dickey       1936    1.045
Bill Dickey       1936     .617          Gabby Hartnett    1930    1.034
Mike Piazza       2000     .614          Mike Piazza       2000    1.012

Mauer currently has the highest batting average, slugging percentage, and OPS in baseball history for a catcher, ranks third all time in on-base percentage, and Mike Piazza is the only guy from the past 70 years to even appear on those lists. Mauer is on track for one of the single greatest catcher seasons in baseball history and has easily been the AL's best player. He has a 1.100 OPS when no one else is at even 1.000 and, as an aside, his batting average is higher than Mark Teixeira's on-base percentage.

Mauer has clearly contributed more runs to his team than anyone else in the league, he's having one of the greatest seasons of all time for a catcher, and the only other players in baseball history to have a .380 batting average with at least 25 homers this late in the season are Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio. If in six weeks the 28 newspaper writers with an MVP ballot don't recognize just how amazing he's been, then perhaps we should stop caring so much about what they think.

ROBERT RANDALL BUSH | RF/LF/1B/DH | 1982-1993 | CAREER STATS
 
   G       PA      AVG      OBP      SLG     OPS+    WARP     WS
1219     3480     .251     .334     .413     102      8.6     76

Selected by the Twins in the second round of the 1979 draft out of the University of New Orleans, Randy Bush struggled in his first two minor-league seasons before hitting .290 with 22 homers and 94 RBIs in 136 games at Double-A in 1981. After hitting well at Triple-A to start the 1982 season, he was called up to Minnesota and made his major-league debut against the Brewers on May 1, 1982 by pinch-hitting for catcher Sal Butera leading off the bottom of the ninth inning.

With the Twins trailing by one run Bush struck out against Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers, but recovered from that rough first at-bat to hit a respectable .244/.305/.412 in 55 games as a 23-year-old rookie and never went back to the minors. A left-handed hitter, Bush immediately took on what would become a career-long role as a platoon player and bench bat. He never received 500 plate appearances during a season, but typically came to the plate 350-450 times and put up solid numbers.

His career splits are extreme, with a .255/.338/.422 line against righties compared to a .152/.250/.232 mark against lefties, and Bush had an absurdly low total of 118 plate appearances versus southpaws in a dozen major-league seasons. Had his career started in 2002, instead of 1982, Ron Gardenhire would've played Bush every day and stubbornly watched him struggle against lefties much like he did with Jacque Jones.

Instead under managers Billy Gardner and Tom Kelly he was able to thrive in a role that magnified his strengths and lessened his weaknesses. The fact that Bush averaged fewer than 10 trips to the plate per season against lefties is remarkable considering that he batted nearly 3,500 times overall, and his usage shows how valuable a fairly run-of-the-mill player can be when utilized optimally. Bush posted an adjusted OPS+ of 106 through his first 10 years with the Twins before struggling in 1992 and 1993.

Bush enjoyed hitting at the Metrodome, where he had a .796 OPS compared to .699 on the road. He also performed better in important spots, posting a .711 OPS with the bases empty while stepping it up to .798 with runners on base and .801 with runners in scoring position. Bush played right field most often, but also spent substantial time at designated hitter, left field, and first base. He typically batted second, fifth, or sixth in the lineup, but logged over 100 plate appearances in each of the nine spots.

It's difficult to identify the best season of Bush's career because he was so consistent in terms of both performance and playing time. His best overall production probably came in 1988, when he received a career-high 466 plate appearances and batted .261/.365/.434 with 14 homers, 51 RBIs, and 51 runs. Those raw numbers appear modest, but MLB as a whole slugged under .400 in 1988 and Bush had a 121 OPS+ that ranked 28th in the league. He also ranked fifth with 10 intentional walks.

His most effective season was without question 1991, when at 32 years old Bush hit .303/.401/.485 for a 140 OPS+ in 192 plate appearances as a pinch-hitter and occasional starter. He led the league with 13 pinch-hits that season while batting .318/.423/.500 off the bench and hit .378/.489/.622 in "close and late" situations. That also turned out to be Bush's last productive season, as he hit .214 in 1992 and then retired after batting .156 over 32 games in 1993. He's now the Cubs' assistant general manager.

The best game of Bush's career came on May 20, 1989, when he batted cleanup and went 3-for-4 with a pair of homers and team-record eight RBIs in a 19-3 win over Texas. He also came up big in Game 2 of the 1987 World Series, yanking a key two-run double down the first-base line off Danny Cox and later scoring on a head-first slide that evaded catcher Tony Pena's tag. Another memorable moment was breaking up Jim Clancy's perfect game with a ninth-inning leadoff single on September 28, 1982.

Bush's big-league career spanned a dozen seasons and they all came in Minnesota, as he re-signed with the Twins three different times. He finished with a .251/.334/.413 line in 3,480 plate appearances that doesn't look particularly impressive on the surface, but in the context of the low-scoring era Bush played in they were solid. His career OPS+ was 102 on a scale where 100 is average and he's one of seven Twins to be on both the 1987 and 1991 championship teams.

TOP 25 ALL-TIME MINNESOTA TWINS RANKS:
 
Games             1219      9th
Homers              96     14th
Triples             26     14th
RBIs               409     14th
Walks              348     15th
Total Bases       1257     18th
Extra-Base Hits    276     18th
Times On Base     1160     18th
Doubles             54     20th
Hits               763     23rd
Runs               388     23rd

With about two hours remaining before last night's signing deadline Twins first-round pick Kyle Gibson appeared on Seth Stohs' podcast to discuss the ongoing contract negotiations. He seemed frustrated by the talks, but said all the right things, came across as a smart guy, and genuinely seemed to enjoy talking directly to Twins fans. Toss in the fact that he has a chance to be an impact player and I'm very happy that the two sides worked out a deal just minutes before the clock struck midnight.

Gibson was able to secure a $1.8 million bonus that's significantly more than the slot recommendation for the No. 22 pick and the Twins were able to sign a consensus top-10 talent who slipped to them because of an injury that has since healed. Definitely a win-win situation, which along with Gibson's improved health and Pat Neshek-like interest in interacting with fans, plus the Twins signing all of their other picks from the first 10 rounds, makes for a very successful draft. As opposed to this mess.

Michael Cuddyer homered, Justin Morneau and Carlos Gomez each had two hits with an RBI, Scott Baker tossed eight innings of one-run ball, and Joe Nathan closed out a road victory over the Rangers on July 18 as the Twins moved to a season-high three games above .500 at 47-44. Since then they've gone 9-17 despite averaging nearly 5.5 runs per game, as the pitching staff has imploded to the tune of 6.5 runs per game while allowing double-digit runs eight times.

During those 26 games Joe Mauer hit nearly .400 with an OPS over 1.000, Morneau and Jason Kubel both provided a .900 OPS with plenty of power, Denard Span got on base at a .380 clip, and Orlando Cabrera hit safely in all but two games since coming over from the A's. Yet here we are in mid-August and the Twins are in the midst of an awful funk that has seen every starter except Baker get rocked on a nightly basis and the bullpen cough up nearly a run per inning when Nathan or Matt Guerrier aren't in.

Detroit and Chicago are mediocre enough that the Twins aren't completely out of the playoff picture yet, but at 56-61 and six games back in the AL Central it's tough to imagine this team making a serious run down the stretch. Sure, their remaining schedule is favorable, but the Twins just lost four of six home games to the fourth-place Indians and fifth-place Royals, and now travel to Texas for a four-game set against the Wild Card-leading Rangers.

In other words, by this time next week the Twins' remaining schedule may not even matter. Even now, if the Tigers go just 22-23 down the stretch the Twins would have to go 28-17 just to tie them at 84 wins. And they also have the White Sox to contend with. Memories from 2006 of the Twins making a 10-game deficit vanish in 50 games make it tough for fans to give up on this team, but it's worth noting that the Twins were 68-49 through 117 games that year, compared to 56-61 this season.

By the middle of August that team had clearly shown that it was capable of playing very good baseball and in fact despite the double-digit deficit they were on a 94-win pace at this stage of the season. Right now the Twins are on pace for 78 wins and even that looks awfully optimistic given their performance of late. Can the Twins at least make things interesting this year? Sure. Both the Tigers and White Sox are plenty flawed and six games down with 45 left to play is very difficult but hardly impossible.

But regardless of the mediocre competition, favorable schedule, and memories of 2006 if anyone who has watched this team over the past month can still conjure up visions of meaningful late-September games to close out the Metrodome ... well, let's just say that I'm jealous of their optimism. And wouldn't mind a little bit of what they've been smoking. I'd gladly be wrong, but right now this season looks like nothing more than a whole bunch of missed opportunities and wasted individual performances.

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With this year looking more and like a lost cause, I'm going to spend some time on Twins history. My initial plan was to resume the "Top 40 Minnesota Twins" series that unfortunately got stuck at No. 15, but after realizing that the most recent installment came nearly two years ago and most of the entries were posted way back in 2006 it seems worthwhile to start from the top again. That gives me a chance to polish the old entries, write the new ones, and hopefully get everyone interested in the series again.