Lesson Learned From Logan Morrison
June 5th, 2016
Logan Morrison and Brad Miller fuel the Rays’ optimists.
Count Joe among the masses who wouldn’t have blinked if the Rays waived Logan Morrison three weeks ago. He was that bad — in the field and at the plate.
But now, Morrison is the poster child for a valuable baseball lesson.
Simply stated, young veteran players (without a steroid or hormone boost) are who their stats say they are most of the time. After two homers today in a thrilling 7-5 win in Minnesota, Morrison is batting .258 with seven homers and 18 RBIs. Six of those bombs and 14 of the RBIs are in the last 15 games.
He’s made an absolutely stunning turnaround. Right now, on June 5, Morrison quite likely has delivered exactly what the Rays expected from him through the first two months of the season. At best, the seventh-year man is probably a 20-homer, 70-RBI guy.
Don’t look now, but Brad Miller, who’s dreadful start to his Rays career was overshadowed by Morrison’s early disaster, has scratched his way up to a .243 average and he made a couple of ninth-inning, outfield catches today — in the sun — that were more difficult than he made them appear.
There’s a real lesson here for fans like Joe riding the painful Rays roller coaster.
The optimist in Joe is wanting to believe the starting pitching will come around. It has to. Right?
June 6th, 2016 at 12:17 am
I’m definitely eating some of my comments… Keep up the great work Lo-Mo, a great setup behind longoria
June 6th, 2016 at 12:58 am
First, I must say, very impressed with the power the team has exhibited this year. Longoria on pace for 30 HRs, 100 rbi’s. Can he keep it up ? I believe so as he usually starts cold and finishes hot (August, Sept.). Jury is still out on the M & M turds from Seattle (Morrison & Miller). Very impressed with Morrison’s home run opposite field on a change up curve today. Takes a lot of power and coordination to pull that off. As a semi pro ball player, I can appreciate that. It’s not easy to do. Any pro can hit a fastball out in all fields letting the pitcher velocity to the plate create the necessary distance.
That being said, a few things should be mentioned. We’ve gone through a third of a season; how many games did we lose due to the M & M turds adventures at the plate and in the field ? The pitching wasn’t as bad then. We played a lot of games against the American League East early. Morrison & Miller sucked against their pitching. What does the future hold for them ? You have to highly discount what happened in the last 4 games against the poorest record in baseball. Last place team with last place pitching.
Look, I’m excited with all the home runs. Even, if we lose at home, it’s still fun seeing a few leave the yard. A lot better than a 3 1/2 hour 2 to 1 game.