Last December 11th the M's acquired Logan Morrison for an expendable relief pitcher (see K. Morales and C. Denofia) with a live arm. "Fleeced 'em again!" seemed to be the thought of the day around the SSI neighborhood. It was a fair thought. Morrison, after all, was once a quasi-Golden Boy, for a year or two. In his rookie '10 campaign he was an OBP hero (.390) who slapped 20 doubles and 7 triples in just 62 games. He only hit 2 homers, but except for one season in A -Ball (24 HR's, age 19, '07) he wasn't a homer guy down on the farm, either. His forte was doubles and OBP. From '08-'10 his MiLB OBP's were .402-.408-.424) and he had whacked 76 doubles in 285 games.
So his 1st season in the bigs was right in line with his minor league performance.
Then in '11 he morphed into a masher. His average dropped from .283 to .247 and his OBP from .380 to .333, but his homer total leaped to 23 inless than 2X the AB's. He had hit 27 doubles/triples in 287 AB's as a rook, in '11 it was 29 in 525 AB's.
What changed? I don't know*...but something did. His OPS+ dropped from 123 to 116, btw.
* Well I do know that as a rookie he batted 2nd almost exclusively. He hit in an OBP slot. The next season he batted 3rd and 5th, RBI-slugging slots, almost 85% of the time. He saw only 17 PA's batting #2. He was moved out of an OBP spot to a slugging one in the order from Day 1. As early as this spring I pointed out that batting him at the top of the lineup might be advantageous.
In his 3rd season, Morrison became an struggling ex-rookie hero: .230-.308-.399. This is the neighborhood in which he now lives. I think his address is #1 What the Heck Happened Drive.
He was so lost (or unwanted) that Miami dumped him for less than San Diego did Chris Denorfia. Morrison had three relatively cheap years left. Denorfia had 55 games left.
This season Logan Morrison has plummeted to new lows: .209-.264-.333. He's not good. His career vs. RHP Slg% and OPS figures have been .428 and .757. In '14 he's a .307-.560 man. He was broke early in the year, too....so this just isn't a post-DL thing (and he's had two months to find his stroke).
OK, OK...."But he's got a 4-game hit streak (4-13) going, Moe! He's back," sez you. Or, "But he's been bad-lucked by line drives right at people and a vR .209 BABIP."
To that I will point out that his season numbers are actually worse than they seem. Right now he's hitting .209-.264-.333 . But guys, he's had two good games that stack the deck. If you take away his 3-6 on July 5th and his 4-4 w/2 HR's on June 23rd he is actually hitting .180-.243-.275. He's been terrible. Man, he's even way below the Endy line.
He had 18 nice games in Tacoma. Beyond that he's not shown much.
What to do with him?
Option 1: Let him get his whacks. Believe his 4-game hit streak indicates he is on to something. Plug him in there nearly everyday.
Option 2: Exchange him for Smoak/others
That's about it for the option list, too.
Lots of guys come up as future stars and then quickly become ex-future stars. Morrison is one of those guys. The last three seasons indicate that he isn't the rookie he was back there in '10. I suspect Miami sniffed out something "serious" and dumped him. Were I Hojo and I was trying to get LoMo to re-find his mojo, I would seek to find a way to help him discover his top-of-the-order/BB'ing/doubles-hitting/inner child again. His BB rate is a career low this year, BTW. Quit pretending you're a homer guy, kiddo. Take pitches and then take them the other way would be a good message, I feel. The modern shift may be hurting Morrison more than most guys. I might suggest he's trying to beat the shift by hitting the ball harder, which actually plays right into the defensive strategy (see his vR BABIP).
Whatever, Logan Morrison is on a very short leash for me. That leash is no more than a handful of games long. If there isn't a glimmer of production (I need a bit more than 4-13) then I'm plugging Smoak or spaghetti-ing Choi or Kelly or somebody else into that slot, until Saunders gets RF and we can give Denorfia the DH go. Actually, Denorfia and Kelly would be a nice platoon, which plays into each of their significant strengths.
Batting order-wise, I'm batting Morrison 9th right now and trying to get him to think his job is simply to set the table.
But no LoMo mojo means less sunshine for the M's WC chase. We can't go with that very long.
moe