The Energetic Spark and Tremendous Talent of Christopher Morel

I love watching Christopher Morel play. His talent is obvious. His energy is uncontainable.

And we know he can hit the absolute crap out of the ball. We saw a display of that power last night, as well as that uncontainable energy:

That isn’t a guy TRYING to pump up his teammates amidst a tough stretch. That’s just a guy who FEELS IT completely when he’s out there. I’m sure some of that is innate to Morel, but I think it’s worth remembering that this is a young man who survived an accident with shattered glass, so badly damaging his left arm and his left eye that he was told he would not play baseball again. He has a perspective very few 23-year-old baseball players do, and he carries it with him everywhere he goes.

I also want to highlight the baseball talent, which exploded off the screen at me last night.

Specifically, it was that double play he helped turn at second base. This is a guy who barely played any second base in the minors before playing there a good bit last season in the big leagues. Then, he didn’t play there AT ALL at Iowa – but he immediately slots in there last night and is making plays left and right. Look at this turn at second base and remember this is a guy who hasn’t played second this year:

Adjusting to that throw, coming across the base, and then throwing a hard strike across your body like that … Morel is, among other things, a superlative athlete.

Of course, a wonderful spark and a tremendous talent do not always generate team wins, as we saw last night. It takes a village. But Morel’s energy and ability seem like a pretty good place to start if you want to turn this thing around. He needs to be playing regularly while he’s up.