Hawks Third Base Spring Training Preview(38.20)

[niles08]

This is a series that I have stolen from the Jackrabbits, where we will evaluate each position leading into and during the early stages of Spring Training. Only players currently on the 40 man roster will be included in this series as prospects will be looked at in upcoming weeks. This is the fourth of eleven positions that will be posted. In this part, we will take a look at the third base position.

Projected Starter: Emilio Morales
Backup: Max Hatcher
Trying to find a spot: Gerardo Lopez

No position is permanently inked in more than Emilio Morales at 3rd base. Morales doesn’t need an introduction, and so he is not going to get one.

Max Hatcher is an interesting signing for the Omaha club as Hatcher will surely not impress at the plate other than maybe hitting a home run here or there. No, instead, Hatcher was signed for his glove work and speed on the base paths. He posted a respectable 1.3 WAR last season in Jacksonville over 247 at bats, where he managed to hit 18 home runs. Hatcher could take away spot starts from Jesus Rojas if he plans his cards right as Hatcher can cover all 3 infield positions.

[crobillard]

Morales is such a stupid player. So good. I love looking at his stats. Beautiful. Ridiculous that he's only 28. Bob Ritchie had a shot at the homerun title back in the day. Morales is the closest player ever to come close to Long Chamberlain's mark of 73. I'm pretty confident that Morales could do it someday.

Fun fact: The all time career homeruns leader Bopper Kengos had 314 homeruns in his career when he was 27 years old. Morales is at 285.

[Ted]

I love Morales, but it change your mind at all about how good he is that he played in a ridiculously homer friendly park for RHB. And he hit more than 40 of his homers at home last year? I hate how OOTP doesn't let us see historical splits, but I believe his road line was something like .280/.300/.570. Still very good, but not legendary home run king good. It will be interesting to see if last year was an extreme case or the norm for Morales.