The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: New Hero, Same Result for Twins

There is ample debate about whether or not Justin Morneau really deserved his MVP award in 2006. Critics said that he wasn't even the MVP of his own team, pointing to strong seasons from batting champ Joe Mauer and Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana.

Morneau's backers say his power numbers were what made the Twins division champs that season. He was, after all, the first Twin to hit 30 HR since 1987. In either case, Morneau's 2006 campaign was a great season, perhaps not MVP worthy, but a very good year.

It was the first indication that Morneau might be able to live up to the hype he'd generated in the minors, and substantially raised expectation for 2007.

He more than lived up to it before the all-star break last year, hitting 24 HR with a .945 OPS and a .294 average. After the break, however, Morneau looked like a different player. He hit only 7 more HR all year and dropped 200 points off of his OPS (On bace percentage Plus Slugging percentage,) and seemed to be pressing more and more as the season wore on.

So, when Morneau started off the season a meager 1-16 with 1 RBI and 0 XBH, fans were naturally a little edgy.

Morneau has shown two sides of himself. One is a perennial all-star, the other is a borderline league average first baseman; one helps his team in almost every game he plays, the other is hit or miss. Great players hit slumps, that's not the issue. The issue is what Morneau would do now that he was mired in one. He could press and try EVEN HARDER or he could relax and let the game work itself out.

Fast forward to Saturday night. Gil Meche isn't anyone's idea of a streak breaker. He's a good pitcher, the best the Royals have, and a pitcher who makes adjustments fairly well during the game. I fully expected Morneau to continue his exercise in futility.

Boy, was I wrong.

Morneau easily played his best game of the season (ok, the bar wasn't all that high,) and the Twins were glad for it. On the day when the hitters who had carried the team so far went cold, Morneau stepped up. He went 2-4 with a HR, double and 4 of the 6 Twins' RBI, finally breaking out of his slump.

The Good: Justin Morneau: 2-4, 2R, HR, 2B, 4 RBI. Welcome back big guy.

The Bad: Livan Hernandez: 7IP, 7H, 4ER. Not a terrible day, but not a QS which the Twins need from Livan nearly every he goes out.

The Ugly: Carlos Gomez: 0-4, 3Ks. Ends his 5 game hitting streak.

Like I said yesterday, Gomez will have days like this, but it he can limit them to once a week, I'm ok with that.

Honorable Mention: Mike Lamb and Adam Everett: 0-6. Throw in Gomez and the 8, 9, and 1 hitters went a stunning 0-10 with 4Ks. Everett, a defensive specialist, also committed his second error of the year.