May 18, 2010
.374/.491/.710
Seriously.
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He is the real deal…span on base..hudson behind…mauer on 3…Mauer in homering…wow!!!
Comment by Chris — May 18, 2010 @ 12:45 am
Perfect year for a career year.
Comment by Chris — May 18, 2010 @ 12:50 am
With all the RBI opps, he could be a serious MVP candidate once more.
Comment by Pat — May 18, 2010 @ 2:36 am
So is that good?
Comment by mike — May 18, 2010 @ 6:15 am
Courtesy of Fangraphs…. he’s killing it!
WAR: Batters
Justin Morneau 3.2
Chase Utley 2.5
Marlon Byrd 2.2
Alex Rios 2.2
Vernon Wells 2.0
Comment by MC — May 18, 2010 @ 6:25 am
And according to the same measure, Liriano’s the best pitcher in the AL year to date.
WAR: Pitchers
Roy Halladay 2.4
Tim Lincecum 2.3
Ubaldo Jimenez 2.0
Francisco Liriano 1.9
Ricky Romero 1.8
Comment by MC — May 18, 2010 @ 6:26 am
Scary thought: Barry Bonds had that slash line beat every year from 2001-2004.
Comment by P — May 18, 2010 @ 6:54 am
It is hard to judge Morneau. On the surface, it seems like he is having an okay season so far. I mean, his BA is in the 300s which is good and his OPS is over 1 which is okay for that position.
But on the other hand, he’s striking out 20% of the time and only manages to put the ball in play 60% of the time. Only 20% of his bbip’s are line drives.
Meh, just color me unimpressed. I think his stats are more of a reflection of the rest of the league being crappy all through history than him being good.
Comment by Jake — May 18, 2010 @ 7:43 am
Jake, I really hope you are joking.
Comment by Mike M. — May 18, 2010 @ 8:10 am
Yeah, Jake, you can’t comment anymore until you get a bit more schooled on the game in general. I mean, a guy sports an OPS of 1.200 and has the track record of a good average hitting slugger and you’re worried about a 20% strikeout rate? He’s blowing his career walk rate out of the water, which could admittedly come back to earth, but still. Would you rather he grounded out an extra few times instead of striking out and risk double plays and injury hustling down the line instead? Just sayin.
Comment by JD — May 18, 2010 @ 8:32 am
Whatever bp trick he has for not getting injured better work out this year.
Comment by JFB — May 18, 2010 @ 8:40 am
AN OPS over 1 is not just OK for his position, it’s great for any position. But we’ve seen great looking years before, only to fizzle at the end. I want to see him finish the year the way he starts. If he can do that, the Twins can win in the playoffs.
Comment by cmathewson — May 18, 2010 @ 9:09 am
Anyone who thinks a post that ends with:
“I think his stats are more of a reflection of the rest of the league being crappy all through history than him being good.”
is serious really needs to get their sarcasm detector checked.
Comment by SL__72 — May 18, 2010 @ 9:29 am
One thing that has been a nice sign so far is the composition of his homeruns.
Hittracker has 1 No Doubt, 8 Plenty and 2 Just Enough homeruns.
He’s pulling the ball and he’s doing it with authority.
http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2010_39&type=hitter
Comment by Ryan — May 18, 2010 @ 9:43 am
And come August, so very, very tired…
Comment by Neil — May 18, 2010 @ 10:04 am
The amazing thing is how little press Morneau gets outside the AL Central. Really, outside the Twin Cities. He’s overshadowed by Mauer, but also by the four other excellent AL first basemen who all (other than Cabrera) play in bigger markets. Nonetheless, none of those other four guys are former MVP’s. I don’t recall a slugger, leading his league in batting average and on-base percentage a quarter of the way through the season and on pace for 45 homeruns, getting so little attention. He’s hitting the crap out of the ball, but all we hear about is how hot Miguel and Youkilis are. Maybe I’m just missing it on Baseball Tonight or something.
Comment by MCA — May 18, 2010 @ 10:49 am
At the start of the season I was worried for Morneau because he had a look on his face that said, ‘I hope I don’t hurt my back again.’
That look is gone now, replaced by one of pure joy. I hope Morneau plants 40 in the seats this year and bats .350. But I also hope the Twins play Harris and Cuddy at first base enough to keep Morneau from wearing himself out. Same with Joe – gotta give him enough time off to keep the body from breaking down. It’s a long season.
Comment by jimbo92107 — May 18, 2010 @ 11:01 am
Before everyone goes crazy with the .350 and 45 HR talk with morneau, remember his career first half/second half splits:
1st half: .303/.374/.549 with 106 HRs in 1786 ABs
2nd half: .260/.334/.457 with 65 HRs in 1526 ABs
That being said, he’s beasting right now, more so than ever in his career, so hopefully looking at career tendencies wont’ be relevant…
Comment by Pete — May 18, 2010 @ 11:14 am
MCA’s point is a very good one. I think that a lot of Twins fans would be stunned how little people know about him. Sure, the fantasy baseball crowd follows him, just like they know who Pablo Sandoval (on the Giants) is. But when he won the ’06 MVP, the pissed off Jeter backers weren’t mad because of the numbers or b/c Morneau was a 1st baseman, etc.–they were upset b/c Jeter lost the MVP to a guy they’d never HEARD of.
His profile is similar to the way Jason Bay was viewed when he played for the Pirates. No, I don’t think MLB systematically shuts down coverage of Canadians. But if you swapped teams with Morneau and Youkilis or Pedroia, is there any question that Morneau would have a MUCH bigger profile and nobody would even know who the heck Youkilis or Pedroia were? Part of that is the lack of postseason success, but ESPN really does treat 28 of its teams like boring flyover territory.
Comment by Jeff H — May 18, 2010 @ 2:45 pm
Morneau’s approach seems perfect right now. He’s taking the walk 20% of the time as teams pitch around him. He’s taking monstrous rips at balls early in the count to get some extra basers. And he is pretty good defending the plate with two strikes as he can contact, and sometimes even get hits, on balls out of the strike zone.
Perfect approach and great results so far. We need Cuddy to start producing behind him. Cuddy’s weak start has cost us games because that dude always has runners on base when he hits.
Comment by Jake — May 18, 2010 @ 3:28 pm
And by the way I my first post was obviously sarcastic. I thought based on Gleeman’s article consisting of a line, a picture, and a word that we were having fun in this one.
I am well aware of how impressive a 1.2 OBP is for a man with a naturally sized head.
Comment by Jake — May 18, 2010 @ 3:30 pm
I don’t understand why people are so surprised by Justin’s performance. It’s his turn right. I mean Morneau and Mauer are suppose to take turns winning the MVP for the next eight to ten years. Sure A-Rod and Pedroia kind of got in the way, but I heard M and M came up with this plan playing The Show in Mauer’s basement. Anyway, I guess my point is, given this plan no one should be surprised.
Comment by Ryan — May 19, 2010 @ 7:23 am
ESPN is televising 3 games nationally this week.
Monday: Yankees vs. Red Sox
Wednesday: Yankees vs. Rays
Sunday: Yankees vs. Mets
Is it any wonder why no one outside of Boston or New York gets noticed?
Comment by RT — May 19, 2010 @ 9:39 am
its not ESPN’s job to provide exposure, all that matters is ratings.
Comment by ? — May 19, 2010 @ 2:22 pm
And a third of his strikeouts have come in three games.
Comment by duane — May 19, 2010 @ 2:59 pm
What baseball fan watches ESPN anymore? Why watch that when there is the MLB Network?
Comment by AndyW — May 19, 2010 @ 4:46 pm
And they are televising the Yankees on Tuesday and Thursday
Comment by steve r — May 19, 2010 @ 9:22 pm