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Jose was just named the International League Player of the Week!!! Good for my homeboy!!

Any Lotto Numbers??

You bet!!! I've been following Jos since he signed as a skinny shortstop and if you see his numbers... the only really negative things are (a) His first month and a half in New Britain, after resting for a year. His BA was so low that even though he hit around .290 the rest of the season, nobody seemed to notice. (b) The fact that he lost almost a full season due to back spasms.

It's sad everybody seems to write the same lines over and over: "He can't replace Mauer", "Jose is not ready yet", or "nobody expected these AAA batting numbers from Morales". Heck,... It's obvious he hasn't had a super star minor league career but, if you think of it, any other team not having a solid catcher (like we do in Mauer) would have already sent for him. Jos has played winterball with AAA and ML ballplayers for a while, last winter (yep, after the New Britain sour-months) he hit a team leading .321 and ever since starting for Rochester, he has maintained his average steady (last night he went 4 for 5 against Buffalo). The kid has a great makeup off the field and for all those saying he has no power, you should see him taking BP. On a daily basis, while taking BP he'll hit the pitcher's protecting L-net 6-7 times and then, on the next 30 swings, he'll hit 27 low liners or hard grounders through the infield, 2 gappers and maybe one fly ball. When asked why he doesn't try to hit for the fences, he once told a local reporter, "hitting for me is much like golf, where people try to drive for show but the good putters get the doe. I can --and have-- hit a ball over 440 feet, but in reality my inside out swing promotes less lift on my swinging plane, and thus more consistency hitting sharp lines. I feel like I can better help my team hitting for average because it comes to me more naturally than looking for the fences." You see all the singles on Jose's career numbers and you'd think he's a "punching Judy" swinger. Thinks again, he's been a natural gap to gap line driver ever since I first saw him play for Vic Power as a 14 year shortstop. I believe he has about 17 doubles this season.

As I recall (and I have kept a very close eye on him, on Molina, on Garcia...), he was once asked to cover up for Mauer at the Florida State League and he hit over .350 during the couple of weeks he spent there. Who says he can't cover for him again? Personally, I am a Joe Mauer fan (who isn't), but this year the Twins have to either put Jos on the roster or let him try free agency... You tell me.... what would you do if you were Terry Ryan and you had to make such a decision with a kid who has done everything the organization has asked from him to do and who is actually one of the Twins' minor league hitting leaders? I say that sometime next year we'll have three guys with initials JM playing for the same team!!! Can I be wrong?.... hell, I've been wrong before, but the truth is that pushing almost 6'6" you're too small to guard Shack, and too big to crouch three hours a day 6 times a week. I am the first one who wants Joe to capture 4 more batting titles, but something tells me he'll find it much harder to do from back there.

Let's say I'm just an old man pushing for his homeboy.
Any Lotto numbers??