Profile: Mike Morse is a 30 year old right handed first baseman/left fielder for our Washington Nationals. Morse has spent parts of seven seasons at the big league level with the Mariners and Nats but was never able to nail down a full time job until this past season despite hitting well every time he was given an opportunity. 2011 was a major breakout season for Morse, he went from never even playing 100 games in a season to being the Nationals Player of the Year and finishing 19th in NL MVP voting. In 522 at bats last season Morse mashed, hitting .303 with 36 2Bs, 31 HRs, 95 RBI, and an impressive .910 OPS. Morse has proven himself as a hitter and I fully expect him to continue to hit well this year if hes healthy, but that’s a big if. Morse is dealing with a lat injury in his throwing shoulder that has kept him out of spring training action since March 13th and may cause him to miss opening day. He recently underwent a procedure made famous by Kobe Bryant where platelet-rich plasma is injected into the ailing muscle. Assuming Morse gets the same positive results Kobe got, he will be the starting left fielder and clean up hitter for the Nats. With Morse’s health concerns going into 2012 and how great his 2011 season was, I think it would be a little unrealistic to expect better numbers than he put up last season. However, I still think Morse will be a very solid bat in the Nat’s lineup and should compete with Zimmerman, Werth and LaRoche to be the team’s top run producer.  Read more...