Justin Morneau: Great Hitter, But Is He Clutch?

Justin Morneau is having a great start to this season.  So far, he’s leading the American League in batting average, hitting at .381, he leads the AL in On Base Percentage at .497, he leads the AL in Slugging Percentage at .697, he’s second in the AL in walks taken with 36, he’s tied for 5th in the AL in home runs at 11, and he’s tied for 5th in the AL in RBIs with 34.

Those are impressive numbers all around.

But so far it’s seemed to me that he’s not coming up with a whole lot of big hits.  So, I decided to look at the numbers a little bit.

With nobody on base, Justin’s batting average is .456 in 68 at bats.  In a way, that’s great.  It means he’s coming up to bat with nobody on and generating a chance to score for the Twins.

But on the flip side, if his batting average is that high when nobody is on, it means it takes a dip when runners are on base.

In 87 at-bats with runners on base, Morneau’s average falls to .322.

In 49 at-bats with runners in scoring position, Morneau’s average drops to .306.

In 24 at-bats with runners in scoring position and two outs, Justin’s average drops to .292.

He has been up to bat 7 times this year with the bases loaded and walked away with only 1 hit for an average of .143.

Of his 36 walks this year, 21 of those have come with runners in scoring position.  15 of them have come with runners in scoring position and two outs.

To put that into easy to see numbers,  there have been runners in scoring position in 32% of Morneau’s at bats this season, but 58% of the walks he’s taken have come in those at bats.

Only 3 of the 36 walks have been intentional.

I appreciate the fact that Justin is great at taking walks this year, but as arguably the strongest bat on the team, I think he’s the guy you want swinging the bat when there are runners in scoring position, particularly when there are two outs.

Especially since the guy that usually follows him in the lineup (Michael Cuddyer) leads the majors in grounding into double plays with 12.

Justin Morneau is a great hitter, and I’m glad he’s having a successful year so far.  I think, though, that the Twins would have a better chance at scoring some more runs if Morneau would be a bit more agressive when the Twins are in scoring position.

Other Posts You Might Like:

1. Justin Morneau is Not Going To Chicago
2. Justin Morneau is Improving
3. Some Interesting Stats about the last 4 Twins Games