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Should you care if Justin Morneau wins a batting title?

By Hayden Kane

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Justin Morneau erupted for a huge game as the Colorado Rockies blew out the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday at Coors Field. With that impressive showing, Morneau retook the lead for the National League batting title.

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That allows us to ask and consider a simple question: should you really care if Morneau wins a batting title? Does it really do much for you, even if it is a silver lining on such a horrible season? Besides, haven’t we evolved to the point that we aren’t supposed to care about batting average? And won’t people outside of Colorado just poo-poo the accomplishment anyway because he plays his home games at Coors Field?

Michael Cuddyer won a batting title in 2013. That was cool, I guess, but all we really have to show for that is an inevitable bad decision from the Rockies’ front office this off-season and this weird bobble gnome thing.

So I don’t know what to tell you. Let’s mull over some thoughts.

Yes, you should care, because what else have the Rockies given us to cheer for this season?

I totally get this line of thinking, and I even think I am on board with it. Cheering for Cuddyer to get a batting title last season was admittedly quite fun, second only to enjoying Todd Helton‘s send-off. Morneau’s batting title chase will be right there with “Corey Dickerson is awesome” and “hoping for good things from Eddie Butler” on my list of top reasons to enjoy Rockies’ games the rest of the way.

On a related note…

Yes, you should care, because Morneau’s comeback is a great story.

This guy had a depressing couple of years in Minnesota as he dealt with neck/head/concussion issues. His return to top form is absolutely a feel-good story, especially because Morneau seems like such a likable guy.

Speaking of likability…

No, you shouldn’t care, because we should not validate the dumb front office making dumb decisions.

Look, I would never, ever cheer against any member of the Rockies to prove a point. That goes double for Morneau, who I have really liked since his days in Minnesota. So this is kind of a fuzzy area to even indulge in the first place, but the Rockies actively made their roster more flawed when they signed Morneau (and also by not trading him).

Between Cuddyer’s production last year and now this, they are going to feel validated. I wish there was a way to cheer for Morneau’s accomplishment while also making sure that the front office doesn’t embrace this as an opportunity to congratulate themselves on a job well done. Because there isn’t a way to do that, I might say you shouldn’t care because of this unintended consequence.

And finally…

No, you shouldn’t care, because people are going to flip about his home/road splits.

We should start here: Justin Morneau has been a great hitter on the road. Great. If he does win, it is not going to be because of Coors Field. But guess what? The mere fact that Morneau is batting .331 at home vs .308 on the road is going to be enough for people to take away from his accomplishment.

Ever the optimist, I am inclined to care about Morneau winning the batting title. I am all-in on the comeback story and the idea of having something to cheer for. It seems like most people feel the same way, but if somebody wanted to not care and roll their eyes at the whole thing, I would get that too.

Here are the National League batting average leaders as of Thursday:

Final note: the fact that Ben Revere is in the top-5 of the National League in batting average might be the strongest reason yet to not care about the batting title.

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