Friday,
August 31, 2007
Get
to Know 'Em
Jose Morales
Good morning!
Actually, this is being posted on Thursday evening as yet again, I will
be headed out of town, this time for a nice four day weekend! Labor Day
weekend is great in some ways, an extra day off of work, time at the
lake or with family. Of course, for those teachers and students, it is a
not so gentle reminder that school is about to begin again! For baseball
fans, it marks September, and team's rights to bring up anyone on their
40 man roster.
With
that in mind, I thought the timing of today's posting was pretty
important. One player who I believe should be first added to the Twins
40 man roster and then called up for September is
Jose Morales. The 24 year old catcher is having a remarkable
season for the Rochester Red Wings. Just this week, he was named to the
International League's post-season All-Star team and is still in
contention for the league's batting title. I know his name has started
to be discussed by some in the Twins community, but today I want to put
the focus on him as he certainly deserves it.
Jose Morales was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, back in 1983.
He went to Academia de Providencia High School. The Twins drafted him in
the third inning of the 2001 Major League Draft. You may wonder why they
would take a high school catcher two rounds after taking Joe Mauer
with the first overall pick of that same draft. However, Morales was
drafted as a middle infielder. He signed quickly and reported to the GCL
Twins where he played 23 games at 2B, nine games at shortstop and three
games at 3B.
He returned
to the GCL team and played in 42 games at 2B and eight games at 3B in
2002. After hitting just .248 his first year, he hit .309 in 2002.
It was then in 2003 when the Twins moved Morales to catcher. He started
the season with Low-A Quad Cities, but he spent most of May with the Ft.
Myers Miracle. In 48 games with the Swing of Quad Cities, he hit .271.
In his 12 games played for the Miracle, he hit .357. His season came to
an end in mid-August when he was put on the Disabled List with a
strained back. In 48 games.
He spent all
of 2004 with the Ft. Myers Miracle, and he hit .286/.339/.386 in 91
games. He was a Florida State League All Star and as important as
anything, he threw out 42% (43-103) of would-be base stealers. He
naturally moved up to New Britain to start the 2005 season.
Unfortunately, he spent three weeks on the DL in April with a knee
ligament strain. He played for about a week and a half before going on
the DL on May 5th with a strained back and he missed the remainder of
the season.
2006 was a
very interesting year for Morales. If you look at his year-end numbers,
you will not be impressed. In 80 games, he hit .215/.280/.319. That
isn't good. However, when you realize that at one point about two months
into the season, he was hitting about .050, his numbers are not so bad.
On September 1st, Morales was promoted to Rochester because Chris
Heintz was called up to the Twins and Shawn Wooten left the
team because of an "injury." He played in two games.
That brings
us to 2007. Morales began the year with the Red Wings, and maybe it is
confidence, or maybe he is fully healthy. In either case, Jose
Morales is having a remarkable season. He became the Red Wings first
catcher to make the International League's postseason All-Star team.
Through Wednesday's game, he was hitting .315/.372/.404 with 24 doubles,
a triple, two homers and 35 RBI. He has hit .335/.396/.451 as a
left-handed batter while hitting .309/.321/.370 as a righty. He hit .436
in April and hit over .300 in each month except August.
So, so far we
know that he has had an up-and-down minor league career. He has shown
signs that he could be a future big leaguer in the past. Unfortunately,
he has also missed significant time because of injury, so truly
evaluating him has not been real possible. So, the success that Morales
has had in 2007 is somewhat surprising, or at least the level of his
success. In listening to the likes of Terry Ryan and Jim Rantz,
they sounded very hesitant throughout the season to promote Morales.
They always seemed like they were looking for him to struggle and fall
back down to earth. And sure, his average has come down some, but I
think that Morales has had a very good season and at this point appears
to be a guy who can now be considered the organization's number three
pitcher. It seems as though they are keeping Heintz around as an
honorary backup catcher of sorts (even though they don't play him when
he does come up) and call him up when Mauer goes down. My guess is that
they have done that to allow Morales to continue to play most days at
Rochester and not break up his good streak. But as soon as the Rochester
season is over, I would expect that the Twins will add Jose Morales to
the 40 man roster and call him up for the final weeks of the season. He
has certainly earned it and would have to be protected in the offseason
anyway.
But again, so
far you have seen statistics and injury reports. How about a first-hand
account of the type of player and teammate that Jose Morales has been.
For that, I have asked the opinion of Kevin Slowey. Slowey told
me that Morales caught him in all but one game this season for the Red
Wings:
I feel like he has
done a great job. I'm not sure if he still counts as unheralded
after being voted to both mid-season and post season IL all star
teams. Overall he has really developed the feel for calling games,
which means a lot coming from a pitcher... and defensively he's been
great, I know if I give him a chance to get a base runner... he'll
come through just about every time. Offensively, he's one of the
guys you would rather not throw to... a switch hitter with good
plate discipline and a willingness to hit to all fields. As a
pitcher, there isn't any one way to get him out, which makes it
tough.
To me, the
question is no longer if, but when Jose Morales will become a
Twins player. One thing that I do question or wonder about is whether
this Jose Morales is of any relation to the Puerto Rican
Jose
Morales that was a pinch hitter and DH for the Twins from
1978-1980?
Hopefully
this posting has alerted you to something you did not know about Jose
Morales, or at least give you a little background on a guy who will
likely be making his first Twins appearance in the very near future.
With that, I
am heading out of town for a long weekend. Please be sure to leave any
questions or Comments below. Talk about the Twins games or any thoughts
on them. Please give any Minor League updates that you see if no one
else has. And, have a great Labor Day weekend. Of course, you are very
welcome to e-mail me at any time and I will get back to you as soon as I
can.
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