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But Lance Berkman hit the beaches with the Astros with two Hall of Famers and a contender still in their productive years and had the luxury of not having to be The Man the second he got there. Berkman had a 152 OPS+, Moises Alou had a 151, Hidalgo was crushing it with a 147 and even Ken Caminiti was a grizzled vet mashing from the bench in between bouts of steroids.
Berkman was the New Kid, not the RBI Savior.
Morneau got there before hitter-of-the-decade Mauer, just like Smoak hit the beaches for us before hitter-of-the-decade Ackley.  He had Corey Koskie and Torii Hunter on the team, but by definition that means there wasn't a masher.  When Doug Man-cave-itch is the biggest masher on your team, you might not have a masher. They were an average offense when he got his first cup of coffee, but slipped below average his first mostly-full year.  Then Mauer showed with his cup of coffee.  Morneau struggled the next year in full duty as the expected masher, Mauer was plus but not great, and the offense slipped further.
The year after that they both slipped on the gorilla suits, as Lonnie would say, and started being who they were born to be.
It's not a swing-comp or a batting-line comp, but a situational and production one.
~G