It is a profound testimony to how thinly spread quality talent has become in baseball — particularly middle-of-the-order power hitters — that all of sudden the most sought-after player this winter is Michael Morse, the hulking, injury-prone, defensively challenged 30-year-old Washington Nationals slugger whose propensity for striking out far exceeds his willingness to take a walk.
...There is no question Morse is a legitimate power hitter, but as with so many power hitters today, with the home runs you have to live with the strikeouts. They’re a little easier to live with if you’re, say, Adam Dunn, whose major league-leading 222 strikeouts last season were at least offset somewhat by his 105 walks, which also led the majors. In Morse’s case, however, he walked only 16 times last year, as opposed to striking out 97 times, for a 6.1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio that was the worst in the majors for players with 400 or more plate appearances, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
“With each passing year, the hardest thing to find in the high schools and colleges are middle-of-the-order power hitters with plate discipline,” said one longtime amateur scout for an American League team. “Just look around the majors. How many big-time power hitters do you see coming out of any organization? It’s hard enough to find guys with 35-homer power, but so many times when you do, they turn out to be Justin Smoak/Bryan LaHair types with big holes in their swings who can’t cut it in the big leagues.”
Repoz
Posted: January 12, 2013 at 10:29 PM |
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1. Walt Davis Posted: January 12, 2013 at 11:00 PM (#4345914)Over the last 3 seasons, 25+ HR by age:
35-39: 10
30-34: 47
25-29: 63
20-24: 10
So one out of 13 seasons
Now from 1998-00:
35-39: 18
30-34: 68
25-29: 75
20-24: 22
So one out of about every 8.5 seasons.
As to "35 HR power" there have been only 23 such seasons in the last three years and only 5 guys have done it twice, nobody three times. Nobody has 35 HR power these days. Surely everybody learned from Bautista -- you push 50 and the roid rumors start.
I'll spot you Pujols, Dunn, Cabrera and Bautista. Name the 5th.
Granderson?
EDIT: Fizzy drink to CP
On the actual topic, I'll believe Morse is in high demand when he brings a high return in trade. At the moment, he's a slightly above-average, 31-year-old slated to make $6.5 M next year then an FA. That's a nice piece to have but he's not bringing back a lot.
Well, it's an article about HRs, walks, strike outs and holes in hitters' swings. It's hard to be a Yankee fan and not have Granderson immediately come to mind in that context.
That's why it's important to throw in an injury-shortened season once in a while. Keeps the counting stats from looking too gaudy. Too bad Sammy Sosa didn't tyhink of this.
Huh? The general reaction to a Morse trade will be "who's Morse?"
There hasn't been a single GM in the history of baseball who was deterred from trading a player like Mike Morse due to fear of backlash. It's like trading Glenallen Hill.
That's why it's important to throw in an injury-shortened season once in a while. Keeps the counting stats from looking too gaudy. Too bad Sammy Sosa didn't tyhink of this.
Silly Sammy did it in reverse, hence all the "never hit more than 40 then suddenly..." silliness.
This is ignorance - Nats fans think he's Ryan Braun.
I don't know how many Nats home games you caught on the radio in 2012, Walt, but Morse's walk up music was (curiously) Take On Me by the Norwegian 1980s band A-Ha. Morse was probably 2 years old when that song (and its really cool music video) broke big in the States. But the fans loved it. The house would play the song up to a certain point in the chorus, then a considerable block of fans in the stands would sing the remainder of the chorus. It got to be a "thing". Regardless of his K/BB ratio, it's tough to replace something like that among the fan base. Silly, yes, but fun. I agree that scoring runs and winning games counts for a heck of a lot more, but when things aren't going well the silly stuff can carry the fans through to better times.
Let's have some fun out here! This game's fun, OK? Fun goddamnit.
PA K BB K/BB %258 50 18 2.78
48 7 3 2.33
20 4 1 4.00
11 4 1 4.00
55 16 3 5.33
293 64 22 2.91
575 126 36 3.50
430 97 16 6.06
If you exclude 2005-2008, his K/BB ratio has been getting progressively worse.
For the record, I think Morse has no business on a National League team as long as the DH rule is in effect in the AL. He moves like a pregnant yak, so getting to balls hit to left field is suboptimal for him. If he can't redeem himself with the bat, the Nats have no good starting spot for him.
I mean, the two are in tension in terms of OBP, but a 200-strikeout/100-walk guy is a different beast than a 20-strikeout/10-walk guy. I'd probably rather have the former, because the latter is going to have to be really hit-lucky to maintain value.
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