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Spent the morning in general anesthesia; who knew that P90X would literally bust a gut, but it did.  So if we don't have the energy tonight to screen-grab the videos, perhaps you'll find it in your blue-and-teal little hearts to forbear.  ::bah humbug::

Right-clicking the link to open the video up in a new window ...

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=== The Swing, to RF ===

Who does this remind you of, the guy taking this swing rat cheer?  Key components:

• Stands tall at the plate
• Wide shoulders, narrow hips, body closed
• Spine-rending, Canseco-like torque of the upper body with bat followthrough cracking him in the back (exploiting the pecs)
• Notice that the belt buckle stays closed to RF, as Saunders' should (in mirror image), and yet the lead shoulder lands in Oslo to collect its peace prize
• Low followthrough, on top of the ball

Oh, very well.  Below is the money screen grab from the above vid.  Dig the static lower body and the cold fusion occurring above the waist.  This is what I was swearing up-and-down that Matt Tuisasopo would be doing.  I do not know whether G-Money recalls our debate at all.   :-P

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That's Mike Piazza's swing, and Morse has the same Bret Boone-like propensity to go yard the other way.  Leading the article is his 2012 HR tracker.

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=== The Swing, to LF ===

Getting the bat out in front, tell me this vid doesn't remind you of Richie Sexson.  The static lower body, the James Paxton pike-grounded front leg, the extreme topspin, the chin bounce into the dirt, it's all Richie.

Sexson give ya 35-45 homers a year in his prime.  Morse has a much higher batting average, though not a higher OBP.

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We don't say that Michael Morse is a great player.  It's that he intelligently exploits his special-class UPPER body strength to take the lower body out of the equation.  Fewer moving parts, much simpler to synch the machine to the incoming energy.  This is Billy Butler's secret also.  If you're strong enough to be able to do that, it's a tremendous advantage.

I guess if you're 7'6" tall and can dunk without jumping, it makes the timing easier.  Good work if you can get it.

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You might ax, why isn't Morse thought of as a Piazza or Sexson.  Well, he's not as talented, so the peak of his career arc will not last for 15 years like Piazza's did.  Morse's highwater mark was 4, 5 years of 130 OPS+'s.  Good on him.

You know how labels are.  It's still impossible for Seattleites to think of Raul Ibanez as a MOTO hitter; he was that guy who used to hit .219 for us at age 27.  Morse was labeled, and after he got as good as the Billy Butlers of the game, we just couldn't adjust.  I still can't, can you?

::shrug:: he's slugging five hunnerd.  Life.  In pitcher's parks.  He's got the chest, the guns and he's got the swing.

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