It is hard to consider that the Twins would have a gnat’s ass chance of slipping past the Detroit Tigers without their All Star first baseman in the lineup. The truth, however, is we have not had him in the lineup since mid-July. Up until July 22nd, Justin Morneau shot lasers and rainmakers around the nation’s ballparks, hitting .316/.398/.588 with 23 HRs and driving in 78 runs. From the 22nd on it was like a parasitic-likeness of Alexi Casilla on creatine inhibited his body, guiding him to eke out a .175/.281/.351 batting line with 7 HRs and 22 runs batted in. This was not Justin Morneau. This was Matt Tolbert interloping in the heart of the order.
The question is how many games did this second-rate Morneau’s bat situated in the middle of the lineup cost the Twins? Could it be worth three in the win column over the course of 48 games? When the Grande Canadian was chugging on all cylinders, he was driving in runs with e...
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