A year in the life – 19 April 2012

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a curse, but it is hard not to think of it that way.

The week after my father returned from a medical conference in Minneapolis with a swanky Vikings jacket for me that was the catalyst for my love of all things American sports, they lost THAT game in the NFC Championship game against the Atlanta Falcons. When I moved to university and was able to have my own television, the first Twins game I every watched was in the 2004 play-offs when Joe Nathan blew up (not literally, of course) in extra innings against the Yankees condemning the Twins to a journey back home, then just two years later the day after I bought a Francisco Liriano jersey, he goes and blows his arm out. Buy a Boof Bonser signed baseball, my first such item, and what happened? Yep, you’ve guessed it. He went a little bit awful.

So it is perhaps no surprise that Justin Morneau and Jose Reyes have had poor starts to the season. As of Tuesday, Morneau is batting .231 with two homers and three RBIs, while the Dominican speedster is faring even worse, batting .217 with a lone RBI and three stolen bases.

The duo went into the season with different hopes and expectations. While Reyes was hoping to be the leader of a new era of Marlins baseball, one that would be fun, entertaining and involve a trip or two to the local Base Stealing Anonymous meetings from the likes of Reyes and Bonifacio (although one assumes such a meeting does not actually exist), Justin Morneau was entering the most important year of his career. Eighteen months removed from a sickening knock to the head that saw him play less than a third of the Twins games since that moment, Morneau had a fruitful Spring Training, primarily as a DH, hitting 14 RBIs in 20 games.

The season started with a whole load of razzmatazz as Marlins Park was christened with a game against the defending World Series champs, and it was the Cards that emerged victorious. Reyes went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles but couldn’t ignite his team. The Marlins then had a three game set at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, hitting a single, a double and a triple as he went 1-for-4, 1-for-5 and 1-for-5 in the trio of games, notching his first run of the season in the second match, an 8-3 victory which was the first of the Marlins season.

With a 2-for-4 display against the Phillies his average had risen to .318. He stole his second base of the season, although was caught stealing too. In a 6-2 victory, Reyes was exactly what the Marlins and manager Ozzie Guillen wanted, the catalyst. The top four in the order went 8-12 that day, notching three RBIs, thanks to Reyes testing Cole Hamels and making him earn his outs.

From that moment, however, he has hit something of a slump, going 3-for-24 in six games. He was simply befuddled, as many a batter is, by Roy Halladay in a 7-1 defeat and had a second consecutive 0-for game a day later when facing Blanton before returning for some home cooking.

He went 3-for-12 against the pitching might of Lucas Harrell, Norris Bud and J.A. Happ. It wasn’t the best series from the Dominican, who hit into a double play in each of the first two games, before going hitless in the first game of the series against the Cubs on Tuesday night. It’s early days yet, of course, but if the struggling Marlins are to improve upon their record, then one feels that the struggling Jose Reyes must improve upon his. An interesting stat on the early part of his season is that all of Reyes’ ten hits have come with the bases empty, and he is currently 0-for-10 with runners on base and 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

As for Justin Morneau, it would be fair to say that the highs have been high (if few and far between), while the lows have been low. Like our pal Reyes, he had a decent start before struggling of late. He started the season with a three game set against the Orioles in which he, and teammate Josh Willingham, were the only Twins hitters to leave Baltimore with respectable numbers, going 4-for-10 with two doubles, a run and three strikeouts playing at DH.

Next up was the Angels, against whom he went 2-for-12. Cue special moment numero uno of the season. A two run blast off reliever Rich Thompson that gave the Twins a lead they would not give up, having been five runs down after four innings. Although, even that day was not without frustration as the big Canadian stranded an incredible seven runners.

Fast forward to Saturday against Yu Darvish and the Texas Rangers and it wasn’t much better. Following an 0-for-4 night to start the series, Morneau went 1-for-4 as the Twins somehow contrived to load the bases three times in the first six innings without sending a runner home. Five Twins players left at least four runners on base, with Ryan Doumit topping the list at seven. Morneau himself left four before another 0-for-4 game on Sunday, this time striking out three times.

In the six home games against the Angels and the Rangers, Morneau went 3-for-24 with seven strikeouts. Things did improve, however, once he left Target Field, hitting a two run homer off Freddy Garcia in the opening game in the Bronx, leading the Twins to victory, while recording his second multi-hit game of the season (2-for-5) before being sat down last night against the behemoth southpaw C.C Sabathia. He is expected to have some game time at first base in the near future.

As with Reyes, it is of course too early to be overly critical of Morneau, but a couple of key stats stand out like a sore thumb. He is currently 0-for-11 against lefties, while he is batting .125 at cavernous Target Field (as opposed to .400 on the road). He is expected to be back in the line up tonight to face Hiroki Kuroda in what will be teammate Jason Marquis’ first game in a Twins uniform.