Logan Morrison: The Good

As part of our Unofficial LoMo Day here at Marlin Maniac, I’ll be compiling some of the good that Logan Morrison has brought upon the Marlins, its fans, Philadelphia Phillies fans (apparently), and everyone in general. Collectively, let’s just call it the good of Logan Morrison. Feel free to add anything you guys want in the comments section!

The bat (with stats!)

It wouldn’t be Marlin Maniac without some focus on how strong Logan Morrison was statistically. Last season, he came in and blew the roof off the place, hitting .283/.390/.447 over the course of 287 PA once taking over for Chris Coghlan in left field. That was good for a .369 wOBA, which is ridiculously impressive for a 22-year old. Of course, it should not have surprised us that much, because before making it to the majors, Morrison was tearing up Triple-A as well to the tune of .302/.427/.487 (.400 wOBA), and prior that he ripped a .277/.411/.442 (.393 wOBA) performance in Double-A in 2009. In other words, we all knew Morrison could hit, but the fact that his bat translated so very smoothly into the majors was quite a surprise.

What was impressive about Morrison’s performance? Just like in the minors, much of the good came from his plate discipline. In just 287 PA, Morrison drew 41 BB, an absurd 14.3% BB%. In each of his past two minor league seasons, he has walked more than he struck out, which is an amazing feat given the difficulty of doing such a thing at the big league level. Since 2008, only 12 players have walked as much as 0.9 times for every one strikeout they have recorded, and only six of those players have walked more than 10% of the time while accomplishing this feat. Those six players are all successful major leaguers (Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Chipper Jones, Marco Scutaro, Lance Berkman, and Russell Martin), with four of them being perennial All-Stars at some point in their careers.

The power (of the future)

There was a lot of complaint about Morrison’s lack of power. But there are two good things to point that are related to that power outage:

1) As a result, Morrison got to bat second for the rest of the season, and that is exactly where the team should continue to hit him.

2) There is upside on the future of Morrison’s power.

That’s right, it should not surprise anyone that there is more to the Morrison power story than what we saw in late 2010. Yes, he only hit two home runs last season (and still hit remarkably well despite the lack of power), but did you notice that he also hit 20 doubles and seven triples (!) in that same time span? That 9.4% (2B+3B) / PA was well over the league average of around 5.0%, and the overall rate of 10.1% was well above the league average. In other words, while it looks as if Morrison’s power was low, it in fact was actually pretty high, as evidenced by his .164 ISO (league average .145). There should not be much to worry about going into next season, as I suspect that some of those extra base gap shots that Morrison hit last season will begin turning into home runs starting this year.

The funny man

As we will see later on, Logan Morrison is a pretty funny guy. If you did not know it, you need only check his Twitter page to find out. He’s so funny that Phillies fans love him, and some Phillies fans love him so much that other Phillies fans got all mad at them for ruining the home field advantage against the Marlins. In a roundabout way, that bit of funny was entirely conceived by LoMo.

The good guy

Did you also know that Logan Morrison is a good guy in general? We were all saddened when we heard the news that Morrison’s father had passed away from lung cancer, but you cannot say that Morrison has not handled himself well throughout these difficult times. It’s enough to see that he’s doing better now, but it is even better to see that he is giving back to help others with the disease that his father fought. Morrison held the first annual LoMo Camp for the Cure this month, with proceeds going to the American Lung Association to help those suffering from lung cancer. It was a classy move from a guy who is out there looking to help prevent others from going through the struggle he and his family endured with his father’s illness. As much as I do not like to make attachments and apply morality to sports stars, this is something that I like to see coming from anyone, not just an athlete like Morrison. Good stuff, and I hope we get to see more of this sort of charity work from him in the future.

Ephemera

Ted Hill from Marlins Diehards adds a few more interesting points regarding Logan Morrison and his name.

"LoMo is great because before he came along, I always thought anyone named Logan was a serial killer who lived in the woods."

Of course, there’s no guarantee he can’t still do that, though we know he doesn’t live in the woods.

"Also, LoMo adds to the great database of people with the surname “Morrison”Current Morrison Power Rankings:1. Jim2. Van3. LoganWith another solid year at the plate, he can surpass Van."

I look forward to weekly Morrison Power Rankings updates. I’d also include wrestler John Hennigan, whose WWE name is John Morrison.

"Surprising: In the Wikipedia article for Morrison (surname), Logan doesn’t appear as a notable person with the surname “Morrison”"

Maniacs whom also happen to be Wikipedia editors, please get on this immediately.

Add in your own stories/ephemera/opinions in the comments section! There you go, celebrate Unofficial LoMo Day here at MM with all the good of Logan Morrison!