We professed yesterday a disdain for any more Joe Mauer or Christian Ponder discussions, hoping to move on to bigger and better things. As such, let's acknowledge that Mauer has been struggling mightily during the Twins' May run-scoring swoon ... but so have other players, as well.
The upshot? Mauer's problems have hurt the offense, but he's not the only one. Let's go player-by-player through many of the rest of the Twins' regulars:
*Brian Dozier (leadoff): It's hard to be too critical of Dozier because overall he's having a very nice season and his dip is pretty recent. That said, he's just 4 for his last 31 with two walks in his past eight games. The Twins have scored just 16 runs in that span, going 2-6.
*Trevor Plouffe (normally bats third): Plouffe ended April batting .304 with an .887 OPS. In May, he's hit into some tough luck with a large handful of hard-hit outs. But he's also not squaring up the ball as much, and it's added up to a .198 average and .606 OPS this month
*Chris Colabello (often batted in a power spot, now in Rochester): From April 24 to May 23, the final month he was here before being sent to Class AAA after that scorching start, Colabello was 8 for 73 with a .164 slugging percentage.
*Chris Parmelee: He gave the Twins an early lift upon his recall from AAA with two big home runs, but since then he's just 2 for 27 with a .185 slugging percentage.
*Jason Kubel: From May 2 through yesterday, a span of four weeks, Kubel did not have an extra base hit or an RBI. He was 9 for 60 in that span, with a .150 slugging percentage.
*Kurt Suzuki: Like Dozier, Suzuki has been one of the Twins' most consistent performers much of the season. But even he has been fighting it lately, going 5 for his last 30 to drop his average from .322 to .291.
