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=== Bret Boone? Mike Piazza? ===
BTW, have you ever thought about the difference between "pretty" and "beautiful"? In Greek, beauty carries with it the idea of nobility, of that which is morally sound, of that which imparts a sense of well-being.
Ugly things, you're looking forward to the moment at which you can look away. Pretty things, you're looking forward to spending some extra moments viewing them. Beautiful things, you look forward to thinking about them after you viewed them. A Japanese cherry blossom tree is not only pink, but it's lovingly cultured, it's alive, it is a reminder to us that benevolence exists.
Morse doesn't always hit 80% of his homers the other way, like he did in 2012. In 2011 his scatterchart was a pleasure to behold:
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This speaks to a very talented athlete who listened to the pitchers throwing the ball, who interacted with them harmoniously.
And you want to talk about easy power to all fields. Here is a June 24, 2011 home run, left the bat at 112 MPH, went 444 feet -- to straightaway center field. It broke up a 0-0 shutout in the 8th. The M's could use a few of 'em.
Why didn't he hit them as hard in 2012? He had a torn lat muscle, a bad thumb, a fouled-up wrist. So his MPH and homer distance were only above-average. That's hitting the ball the other way...
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=== Career Path ===
For Morse's b-ref.com comps, life was nasty, brutish and short after age 31. His comps consist of Jay Payton, Kevin Millar, and guys like that. From ages 31 to the end of his career, the ENTIRE comp set had a piddling 102 OPS+ ... for only five more years, which on that chart is pretty short.
You might protest, Morse's comps will be skewed. He arrived late, and b-ref comps go by career hits totals and stuff.
I might reply, true, but have you checked Mike Morse's EYE ratio?
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Morse is year to year. Which is fortunate, because he has one arb year left...
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=== WAR Heroes ===
The Fangraphs article summarizes Morse as a 2-win player, which is to say a Mediocre player. We went through this with Kendrys Morales. See that series if want to trudge through that barren wilderness again -- at the oasis you'll find GM's paying RBI men far in excess of their WAR estimations.
Morse can hit a ton, can hit at least as well as Justin Upton, and then it's on you to find a place to play your shiny new #3-#4 hitters. Hopefully 1B and RF for Morse -- RF against righty-stacked batting orders -- and DH for Morales. In 2013, you'd be talking 120 games apiece for Morse, Morales, Jaso and Montero, but that's cool. Spot them right and you inflate their stats.
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=== Trade Booty ===
Would Dr. D cough up Stephen Pryor or Carter Capps or Charlie Furbush for Morse? Owie. Charlie Furbush, I guess. A cleanup hitter doesn't sound like much, but try and find one some year when you're scoring 513 runs.
Lot of prospects I'd rather give up than Carter Capps, amigo. I need him to land the guy I'm going to hit between Fat Ichiro and Michael Morse.
BABVA,
Dr D