If you haven’t noticed, Michael Morse is having a pretty good season with the bat. But while he continues to rake the ball, what isn’t being talked about is just how good he really is.
He’s currently hitting .323/.371/.562 in his first full year of being a starter. This gives him an OPS+ of 155, good enough for best in the history of the Nationals. He actually has the second best OPS, behind Nick Johnson’s 2006 number of .948, the year he finished with an incredible .428 OBP. But thanks to adjusting for the league now, with hitting down across the board, Morse is actually better compared to the rest of the league than Johnson was.
He’s currently in 2nd place in the batting title race in NL, but winning that may not be doable. Jose Reyes is comfortable ahead, batting .336, and has about 60 more ABs, meaning sitting on the DL for a few weeks won’t drop him out of the competition, and Morse has to catch up rather than hope Jose falters. And his .323 would also be best in the history of the Nationals, for full time players, of course. But he doesn’t just look great among Nats players.
He’s also 7th in the NL in OPS, behind prennial MVP candidates: Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Matt Kemp and Joey Votto. He is having one of the best offensive season’s in the league. I’m not predicting that he’ll be this good next year – he may not actually be a .323 hitter. If that average drops 25 points to .298, and his OBP and SLG drop accordingly, though, he’d still have an OPS of .883, enough to be the best hitter on this team still, and it would be good enough for 8th best in the history of the Nats, not counting whatever he does this year.
To think, they got this guy in exchange for Ryan Langerhans.