MInnesota's Joe Mauer is in a 2-for-22 slide since Aug. 26. He posted a .276 batting average in August, his lowest mark of any month this season, which supplanted his monthly low of .293 in July. The Twins' catcher was batting .381 when play began on July 24, but he has dipped to .346 for the season. Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter trails Mauer for the American League batting title by just two points at .344, the same average he had on July 24. There's a reason an AL catcher has never won a batting title: the position he plays. It appears the grind of working behind the plate may keep Mauer from accomplishing what no backstop has ever done in the 105-year history of the league. August and September have been Mauer's least productive months in his brief big league career, so it will take a special effort to hold on for the batting title. It takes a special player to win a batting title, and perhaps this budding star will put on a final surge and defy the conventional wisdom that says he can't get it done.