Plouffe was drafted 20th overall by the Twins in 2004, but has never made Baseball America's top 100. After the 2007 season, Plouffe was the #8 prospect on the Twins according to Kevin Goldstein, and he hasn't made Goldstein's list since.

Around 2008 or 2009, after OPSing around .700 for several years in the minors and not really impressing with his defense at shortstop, I recall Plouffe being on the receiving end of a nasty little jab in a Baseball Prospectus annual (that my wife has since made me throw away). Something about "Plouffe" being the sound a souffle makes when it collapses, and how that imagery is more or less an accurate assessment of Plouffe's prospect status.

Then in 2011, Plouffe tore up the International League over 220 plate appearances, hitting .313/.384/.635, which made him the best hitter in the league with at least that many chances. Up until then, he’d done enough to keep moving up levels, but his 2011 in Rochester was pretty much Plouffe’s first professional statistical achievement of any significance.

But it wasn’t translating the major leagues, and I’m not sure anyone exemplified the futility of the 2011 Twins season as much as Plouffe and his .238 batting average, .305 OBP, godawful defense, and -0.6 WAR. It continued in 2012. He hit .121/.275/.242 in March and April. .185/.254/.400 in May.

And now, suddenly, the souffle is reinflated. Plouffe is hitting a face-melting .396/.420/1.042 (that last number is his SLG, not his OPS) in June and might be on the verge of something...historic?

But all sorts of losers can luck into a great 2-week or month-long stretch, can’t they? This doesn’t really mean anything, does it? I wanted to find out.

It’s hard to look at 2-week stretches on stat cites, but looking at months is easy, so I put together some numbers for the best months over the last decade. I pulled numbers for 2 stats Plouffe appears poised to dominate this month: home runs and wRC+ (measuring overall offensive contribution—100 is average, 200 means you produce twice as many runs as an average hitter per plate appearance).

First of all, in June so far, nobody’s close to Plouffe in baseball. 9 homers in 12 games and a 291 wRC+. Joey Votto is also playing out of his mind, but with “only” a 251 wRC+ and 4 homers. Jose Bautista has a 224 wRC+ and 7 homers.

Now, it’s hardly a given that Plouffe will continue to maintain his lead on these two MVP types over the rest of the month, and almost nothing is more assured than the fact that Plouffe won’t hit as well in the second half of June as he has in the first. But if he can keep up best-in-baseball numbers until the end of June, are we to the point that we can, you know, get pretty excited about him?

Well here are the best hitters in baseball for each calendar month over the last decade.:

Year	Month	Player	wRC+
2004	March/April	Barry Bonds	326
2012	June (1-15)	Trevor Plouffe	291
2002	August	Barry Bonds	285
2003	July	Barry Bonds	279
2005	July	Jason Giambi	277
2004	August	Barry Bonds	277
2008	May	Lance Berkman	269
2012	March/April	Matt Kemp	264
2011	Sept./Oct.	Mike Napoli	260
2011	March/April	Jose Batista	255
2004	July	Jim Edmonds	254
2010	June	Josh Hamilton	253
2011	June	Matt Kemp	249
2003	June	Jason Giambi	247
2006	March/April	Jason Giambi	246
2004	June	Ivan Rodriguez	246
2009	May	Joe Mauer	240
2005	June	Vladimir Guerrero	239
2005	May	Bobby Abreu	239
2005	Sept./Oct.	Randy Winn	237
2007	Sept./Oct.	David Ortiz	234
2007	July	Pat Burrell	234
2002	Sept./Oct.	Barry Bonds	234
2011	May	Matt Joyce	233
2008	Sept./Oct.	Andre Ethier	229
2007	March/April	Alex Rodriguez	229
2008	June	J.D. Drew	228
2008	July	Adam LaRoche	226
2007	June	Alex Rodriguez	226
2006	August	Travis Hafner	226
2005	March/April	Brian Roberts	226
2010	May	Justin Morneau	225
2003	August	Alex Rodriguez	224
2011	July	Dustin Pedroia	223
2010	August	Albert Pujols	223
2010	July	Delmon Young	223
2004	Sept./Oct.	Barry Bonds	222
2004	May	Lance Berkman	222
2012	May	Carlos Ruiz	221
2011	August	Joey Votto	221
2008	August	Manny Ramirez	221
2009	March/April	Jorge Cantu	220
2002	July	David Ortiz	220
2009	June	Albert Pujols	218
2003	March/April	Jim Edmonds	217
2009	Sept./Oct.	Derrek Lee	216
2006	Sept./Oct.	Ryan Howard	215
2010	March/April	Robinson Cano	214
2006	July	Chase Utley	213
2006	June	Joe Mauer	207
2007	August	David Wright	205
2009	July	Matt Holliday	204
2008	March/April	Chase Utley	204
2005	August	Alex Rodriguez	202
2009	August	Matt Diaz	201
2006	May	Matt Holliday	199
2003	Sept./Oct.	Barry Bonds	197
2007	May	Kevin Youkillis	196
2010	Sept./Oct.	Shin-Soo Choo	187
2003	May	Bill Mueller	184

The first thing that jumps out at you is that, over a full month, nobody hits as well as Trevor Plouffe has so far in June. And by nobody I mean absolutely nobody expect Barry Bonds in early 2004 when he was walked over 40% of the time.

The other thing is that almost everyone on this list is a big star. Sure there’s Matt Diaz, Jorge Cantu, Adam LaRoche...Delmon Young. But almost everyone else here is or was a true stud. In short, it’s pretty hard to be the best hitter in baseball over a month without also being one of the best hitters in baseball period. Marginal talents almost never just luck themselves into a full month at the top of the majors.

It’s pretty much the same story for the monthly home-run leaders:

Year	Month	Player	HR
2010	Sept./Oct.	Troy Tulowitzki	15
2004	June	Jim Thome	15
2003	August	Alex Rodriguez	15
2009	June	Albert Pujols	14
2007	Sept./Oct.	Alfonso Soriano	14
2007	March/April	Alex Rodriguez	14
2006	August	Ryan Howard	14
2006	July	David Ortiz	14
2006	March/April	Albert Pujols	14
2005	July	Jason Giambi	14
2003	June	Jim Edmonds	14
2002	August	Jeff Kent	14
2009	May	Mark Teixeira	13
2007	July	Hideki Matsui	13
2007	May	Prince Fielder	13
2006	May	Ryan Howard	13
2005	June	Andruw Jones	13
2004	August	Adrian Beltre	13
2004	July	Edmonds/C. Lee/Teixeira	13
2003	July	Sammy Sosa	13
2012	May	Stanton/Hamilton	12
2012	March/April	Matt Kemp	12
2011	Sept./Oct.	Adrian Beltre	12
2011	May	Jay Bruce	12
2010	August	Jose Bautista	12
2010	May	Jose Bautista	12
2009	August	Carlos Pena	12
2008	August	Ty Wigginton	12
2008	July	Adam Dunn	12
2008	June	J.D. Drew	12
2008	May	Dan Uggla	12
2005	Sept./Oct.	Manny Ramirez	12
2005	August	Alex Rodriguez	12
2002	July	Alex Rodriguez	12
2010	July	Jose Bautista	11
2010	March/April	Paul Konerko	11
2008	Sept./Oct.	Ryan Howard	11
2008	March/April	Chase Utley	11
2007	June	Alfonso Soriano	11
2006	Sept./Oct.	Frank Thomas	11
2006	June	Jason Giambi	11
2005	May	Bobby Abreu	11
2004	Sept./Oct.	Vladimir Guerrero	11
2011	August	Curtis Granderson	10
2011	June	Fielder/Konerko/Pena	10
2011	March/April	Braun/A. Soriano	10
2010	June	Prince Fielder	10
2009	Sept./Oct.	Fielder/Bautista/Cuddyer	10
2009	July	Garrett Jones	10
2007	August	4 players	10
2004	May	Ken Griffey Jr.	10
2004	March/April	Barry Bonds	10
2003	Sept./Oct.	Soriano/Thome	10
2003	May	Pujols/A. Huff/E. Martinez	10
2003	March/April	Jeff Bagwell	10
2002	Sept./Oct.	4 players	10
2012	June	Trevor Plouffe	9
2011	July	Aramis Ramirez	9
2009	March/April	Adrian Gonzalez	9
2005	March/April	Alex Rodriguez	9

Again, Plouffe’s current pace would put him right on top of the leader board for most homeriffic months of the last decade, this time including the Bonds division. Even the 9 homers Plouffe already has would be enough to lead baseball some months. If he hits 18, well, that would be freaking crazy. He’s not going to do that, but if he adds just a few more, he’s likely to lead baseball for June and be in pretty elite company.

And again, almost everyone’s an All Star-caliber player here. Garrent Jones and Ty Wigginton? Maybe not, but essentially everyone else.

By the way, the most homers ever in a month is Sammy Sosa’s 20 in June of 1998, but get this. He only had a .331 OBP that month and his wRC+ of 188 trailed 5 other players. Typically the biggest homer-hitter and the best wRC+ guy each month are 2 different people.

Anyway, something fun to watch over the rest of June. It will take a while to figure out what we really have in Plouffe, but it is streaks like this that make watching even a pretty bad baseball team a lot of fun.