“I’m getting tired of everyone bitching about Morales not being able to get the job done at 1B, without seeing him get consistent playing time in the MLB.”

You have not seen that either.

“Do YOU know who Kendry Morales is?”

Have you met him?

Do YOU know his work ethic?

Do you? Have you spent significant time with him on the field? Maybe you are his trainer and saw him in the weight room? Possibly saw him grow up and watched his work ethic in school? Enlighten us.

No one knows how good he is going to be or if he is better than Kotchman or Teixiera

I believe you also fall into the “No one” range, making your entire paragraph above this sentence moot.

So why don’t we use some logic.

I’m game.

There is a guy that had the title of Director of Player Development….The name of that man is TONY REAGINS

Every team has one, does that mean every team’s DoPD is infallible? Just still trying to use that logic you asked us to still.

Tony Reagins said MORALES IS READY. Why do you suppose he did that? I don’t know

I do. To beat the Red Sox in the playoffs, and get us to that next level. It is called a “win-now” mentality and often occurs when you have a shrinking window of opportunity due to aging stars. Reagins also said this himself.

I don’t know, but if I had to take a wild guess I would have to say, “Because Morales IS BETTER than Casey Kotchman.”

You don’t know but you are making an entire fanpost to lecture us about how you do know? Sure….

Put it this way, if you had 2 cars for 5 years that both were in excellent condition and your wife (or hubby) told you, YOU HAD to get rid of one, which one would it be? Obviously you would keep the best one and give up the other one even though it was also good and you were attached to it.

Jesus, this comparison is so completely off-base it hurts my head. Please think things through before you post. We didn’t have two quality players and HAD to get rid of one. We choose to do so without giving the other car a test drive. We just kind of hope the other car we have sitting there is reliable and good enough to do what we need…. you know I cant even turn it into anything remotely good. Just….. don’t make comparisons anymore.

That’s the same kind of decision Tony Reagins had to make, Morales or Kotchman,

No, his decision was Tex or Kotch. We had every intention of keeping Tex because he is significantly better than the other two. We lost out on Kotch now we have to hope your man-crush is for a reason. There is a significant difference.

Jack Howell hit .373 for two consecutive years at AAA, absolutely tore the cover off the ball to the extent that he was considered a “can’t miss” prospect.

He missed. In fact, largely, he sucked.

Kendry Morales was good in AAA. Jack Howell was good in AAA. Kendry Morales was good in Cuba. Unfortunately, Jack Howell was good in Japan.

Now, I’m of the school that Kendry Morales is a solid player, none of this is to say that Kendry Morales won’t be good at the Major League level. Hell, he might even be great. But if he’s not, he won’t be the first highly-touted prospect to fall short of expectations. In fact, despite his talent, he could even bomb completely, just as so many have before him.

But you only set yourself up for disappointment when you count on prospects making good on their potential. The simple (and maybe sad) fact is that the overwhelming majority of touted prospects do not live up to expectations. It’s just a reality of sports, and especially of baseball.

I hope Kendry Morales is all you think he can be, I truly do. I’ll be rooting for him.

But I’ve also followed this team for enough years to know that most prospects bomb miserably and are out of the game within a matter of a few years.

As to what Tony Reagins sees in players, I’d like to remind you of something important. Casey Kotchman and Kendry Morales are almost the same age. They had nearly identical minor league numbers. If Morales had more upside than Kotchman, then the Braves would have demanded him instead. John Schuerholz has been one of the best GMs in the game since Tony Reagins was an unpaid intern. He knows a thing or two about player development, don’t you think?

To expect that Kendry Morales will appear as a regular Angel first baseman and not suffer the same growing pains as has Kotchman is just plain unrealistic. To be frank (since you’ve requested "logic"), it’s illogical.

Kendry Morales isn’t a magic elixir. He’s a solid prospect, nothing more, nothing less. If he comes even close to producing at the level of Kotchman’s2007, I’d be shocked (and extremely satisfied).

But he’s certainly not going to become Mark Teixeira in his first full-time season. He’s just not. He’s going to take his lumps like nearly every player does when they first become a regular.

He’s going to disappoint all of us with his defense (coming off of Erstad, Kotchman, and Teixeira, I can ASSURE you of this) many times this season. The Angels are going to be breaking in a new first baseman this season. Even Teixeira struggled to get on base in his first full-time season.

Albert Pujols, you say? Well, Pujols spent one season in the minor leagues, destroyed every level, and never looked back, becoming one of baseball’s best hitters in his very first year (at the age of 21), shortly after playing Junior College ball. Kendry Morales is no Albert Pujols and never will be (Pujols’ five season head start virtually guarantees that).

If you want logic from others, Acuda, start by displaying it yourself. Your blind love for Morales is borne of completely outrageous expectations and an exceptionally short baseball perspective.

Kendry Morales will be LUCKY to put up whatever numbers Kotchman puts up in 2009. That is the logical outlook. It’s just that simple.

I think every single Angel fan at HH wants to see Kendry Morales prove you right. “Logic,” however, simply dictates that it won’t happen.

I’ll tell you one thing of which I’m certain. A guy who hits 15 HR at Salt Lake City (remember, at altitude, in one of the friendliest hitters’ parks in all of minor league baseball) is going to find the night-time marine layer at the Big A more than daunting (he’ll be hitting mostly left-handed).

He’s slow, he plays sub-standard defense (especially relative to the benchmark established by Angel first basemen over the last 25 years…Carew, Joyner, Snow, Erstad, Kotchman) and, like it or not, he’s unproven at the Big League level.

Rev made a comment in his Johnny Ray write-up about the failed Mark McLemore experiment. Well, McLemore was one of the best Angel prospects in team history, another player labeled “can’t miss.” Hell, McLemore even put together a servicable Major League career that lasted nearly twenty years. But you know what? When given a full-time job, and an opportunity to prove himself, he absolutely shit in his hat. It’s far more common than is first year production.

The Angels gave another proven minor leaguer a chance at the full-time first base job not long ago. How’d that turn out?

Before you accuse long-time fans of lacking “logic,” perhaps you should consider that it is you, actually, who seems to lack either logic or perspective.

Now, let’s go Kendry Morales, all us Angel fans are pulling for you.