Is the Twins' Brian Dozier turning a corner?

After two pretty dismal months in which he dropped below .200 for a while and hovered near it for a lot of the other times, Brian Dozier's slash line in 13 June games (53 at bats) is this: .321/.429/.528. The first, of course, is batting average. Add the last two (on base and slugging) and you get a tidy .957 OPS.

Those numbers are Dozier at his best: getting on base (17 hits and nine walks in those 14 games) while also hitting for power (two homers and five doubles among his hits).

Two weeks doesn't make a season, but it is interesting to see how much that hot stretch has brought his season totals far closer in line with his previous years. He batted .244, .242 and .236 in his three full season with the Twins from 2013-15. Now he's batting .232. His career on-base percentage is .315; this year, it's .324. His slugging percentage is still lagging — last year he had 71 extra-base hits while this year he has just 19 more than a third of the way into the year — but it's creeping upward. His OPS is .704, just 20 points below his career average.

With another two-week stretch like the one he just had, Dozier's numbers will be Dozier-esque. And maybe instead of insisting he is more than that — it would be nice, but maybe he isn't? — it's OK to be OK with what he is.

La Velle E. Neal and I talked about Dozier, Robbie Grossman and the Ichiro/Pete Rose debate on a Twins Insider podcast we recorded today. The first 15 minutes or so are spent dissecting the team's awful pitching, with Ervin Santana at the forefront. If you prefer the negative stuff, it's right there. If not, my feelings won't be hurt if you skip to the other talk.