I don’t want to overreact to a relatively brief stretch of success, and I certainly don’t want to jinx anything. But Christopher Morel has looked pretty darn solid at third base the last couple weeks, hasn’t he?
Maybe some of that is just the contrast to how brutal that first week was, but like folks have said all along, it was never outside the realm of possibility that Morel could simply develop at the position with more reps and get better and better as the season goes along. Maybe that’s what we’re seeing? We’ll check back in on the big questions like that when we get deeper into the season.
In the meantime, what prompted the comment was Christopher Morel’s incredible play today at third base. If you were watching, you know the play I’m talking about. And if you weren’t watching, get a load of this baby:
There was NOBODY over there except for Morel, who was shifted well off of third base. So you rarely see a third baseman have to range that far to his right and then make the leaping, turning throw to first. The arm strength and the accuracy(!) on that throw were so impressive.
Consider the context, too. That’s the 9-hole hitter about to reach base to lead off the 7th inning of a one-run game. Who knows what happens if he gets on to start that frame?
One more look: