There's another part to this Mauer tale, which is the improvement of the AL Central, especially the Kansas City Royals. Mauer destroyed the Royals when they were the AL Central bottom feeders, and padded the heck out of his stats. I'm sure most great players have done this against the poorest teams, but check the stats. I think he slugged over 1.000 annually against the Royals; now the Royals are better as is pitching across the board.