The Thing About Justin

So, Justin Morneau hit his 30th home run the other night, ending a 19-year drought for the Twins, during which every other major league team has had at least three 30-HR hitters. And that is fantastic. But the next time he came up to bat, they flashed his stats down at the bottom of the screen and I said (out loud, despite being home alone at the time) "Whoa, he's hitting .322!"

Somewhere along the way I got so used to Justin's average being right around .260, and I stopped paying attention. I focused, as so many of us have, on his sheer awesome power. The thing about Justin is that those homers are so impressive, and frequent, they kind of steal the scene. But is the longball really all there is to Justin Morneau?

I browsed the leader boards to find out.
(minimum ABs to qualify was, at the time of this writing, 353)

		Rank
Measure	Value	Team	AL	MLB
HR	30	1	7	12
BA	.319	2	9	19
OBP	.373	2	23	51
SLG	.598	1	6	11
OPS	.971	2	9	15
RBI	101	1	2	3
2B	24	3	25	56
R	66	3	29	53
H	130	2	12	24
SF	8	1	2	2
XBH	54	1	6	13

Well, clearly there's room for debate as to which is actually the best hitter on the team--Justin or Joe? And Justin (like Joe) is obviously one of the elite hitters in the league. And, hello? 3rd in the majors in RBI while on a relatively light-hitting team (cumulatively speaking, though the last two months have been just delightful).

Anyway, there you have it. Justin Morneau: Well-Rounded Hitter. He's not just for homers anymore.

Ain't it grand?