You just made a pretty convincing argument why Mauer's playoff stats don't matter. Dude hits a double, has it taken away, still draws a walk, and then stands on base for the rest of the half inning. What's he supposed to do at that point? Puckett had a .208 BA and a .538 OPS in his first five playoff games. The Twins still advanced. In the WS, he had a decent but unspectacular .884 OPS. That's Puckett's first 12 playoff games and the Twins won a world series, largely without Kirby's help. Compare that to Mauer, who had a really bad .432 OPS in his first three playoff games. The Twins were swept. Then Joe went and posted a 1.000 OPS in his next three playoff games, despite being robbed of a double by Phil Cuzzi. The Twins were swept. Then Joe had another bad series, posting a .558 OPS in three more games. Again, the Twins were swept. Looking over those series, I draw one conclusion: no matter what Joe did, it couldn't prevent a sweep because nobody else was hitting or pitching. In 2009, he got on base 50% of the time against the Yankees. And, again, the Twins were swept. Not really sure what you expect a guy to do at that point.