When the story of Joe Mauer's creepily ambiguous leg weakness broke, it seemed like an ominous sign for the Minnesota Twins' catcher. Then when he also had to be checked into the hospital for a viral infection, people thought a) that dude's had a bad week, and b) the infection and the weakness have to be related.

Not so fast. Joe Mauer, who is the first to acknowledge that he isn't a doctor, doesn't think the two issues are related. From the Pioneer Press:

"I'm not a doctor or anything, but I don't think they're related," he said. "Before I started feeling sick, (the DL stint) was going to be done. I couldn't go out there and play. I was just making things worse."

Mauer thinks the leg weakness is related to a much more simple explanation -- his legs weren't strong enough coming out of spring training, in part because he had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in the offseason that caused him to miss a significant portion of his offseason regiment.

It would have made for a quick resolution if the problem was something that could have been handled quickly with antibiotics, but the problem is still on the mysterious side, with Mauer still uncertain when he'll be back.