A Sad Day in California
The news hit Kodiak fans hard today, as future first ballot Hall of Fame second baseman, Mike Morla, decided to retire. The #1 draft pick in 2016 rifled through the Kodiak farm system and was the starting second baseman a few short weeks into the 2018 season. That season saw Morla hit 0.308, the first of 13 consecutive seasons batting 0.300 or better.
The next ten years saw Morla firmly entrenched as the BLB’s #1 Batter. Throughout the decade, Morla finish in the top 5 in WAR. He also consistnelyt ranked in the top ten in every major category, every year of the 2020s. He led the league in AVG, TB, OBP, and WAR 4 times, while pacing the league in hits and OPS three times.
He also captured the Stout Slugger Award in 2020 and 2027, and finished in the top three in voting 4 other times. Morla also won the Silver Slugger at 2B an astounding 10 straight years, and 11 overall. 12 times he made the all star team, which would have been 13 and 12 in a row, had he somehow been voted into the all star game in 2020 when he ended up winning the Stout Slugger for the first time.
The consummate batsman had 10 straight years of 190+ hits and 2 years of more than 240! 6 times he managed to hit over 0.350 including two sesons of 0.370+ and a third season that saw him hit an astounding 0.390! He also managed to have a long, healthy career, as he had 12 years of 150+ games, and only sustained a couple of major injuries. The individual highlight may have been tying the consecutive games hit record of 35 games in 2026.
He leaves the game with his name firmly entrenched with some of the BLB’s most immortal. He retires with game’s 2nd highest career (highest career CLEAN!) batting average of 0.327, 6th in career OBS with 0.899, 13th in career WAR with 95.9, 7th with 3285 hits, over 10 000 at bats, and over 1 500 RBI and 1 500 runs.
In terms of second basemen, he holds the season record for average (0.390), slugging (0.632), OPS (1.055), hits (248), and TB (395). Morla also retires with the career second base records in SLG, OPS, TB, home runs (422), RBI (1519) and WAR.
As predicting by the BLB draft preview written by Pat, Morla’s career as a Kodiak, has no comparison… Mike Morla retires as the all time Kodiak leader in every important offensive category for both single season and career. He anchored the Kodiak lineup without peer for the better part of 17 seasons... The first 14 entrenched as the game's preeminent #3 hitter!
He may go down as the greatest offensive second baseman in BLB history. There will certainly be another quite like #38!
Thanks for the memories Yoyo!
The news hit Kodiak fans hard today, as future first ballot Hall of Fame second baseman, Mike Morla, decided to retire. The #1 draft pick in 2016 rifled through the Kodiak farm system and was the starting second baseman a few short weeks into the 2018 season. That season saw Morla hit 0.308, the first of 13 consecutive seasons batting 0.300 or better.
The next ten years saw Morla firmly entrenched as the BLB’s #1 Batter. Throughout the decade, Morla finish in the top 5 in WAR. He also consistnelyt ranked in the top ten in every major category, every year of the 2020s. He led the league in AVG, TB, OBP, and WAR 4 times, while pacing the league in hits and OPS three times.
He also captured the Stout Slugger Award in 2020 and 2027, and finished in the top three in voting 4 other times. Morla also won the Silver Slugger at 2B an astounding 10 straight years, and 11 overall. 12 times he made the all star team, which would have been 13 and 12 in a row, had he somehow been voted into the all star game in 2020 when he ended up winning the Stout Slugger for the first time.
The consummate batsman had 10 straight years of 190+ hits and 2 years of more than 240! 6 times he managed to hit over 0.350 including two sesons of 0.370+ and a third season that saw him hit an astounding 0.390! He also managed to have a long, healthy career, as he had 12 years of 150+ games, and only sustained a couple of major injuries. The individual highlight may have been tying the consecutive games hit record of 35 games in 2026.
He leaves the game with his name firmly entrenched with some of the BLB’s most immortal. He retires with game’s 2nd highest career (highest career CLEAN!) batting average of 0.327, 6th in career OBS with 0.899, 13th in career WAR with 95.9, 7th with 3285 hits, over 10 000 at bats, and over 1 500 RBI and 1 500 runs.
In terms of second basemen, he holds the season record for average (0.390), slugging (0.632), OPS (1.055), hits (248), and TB (395). Morla also retires with the career second base records in SLG, OPS, TB, home runs (422), RBI (1519) and WAR.
As predicting by the BLB draft preview written by Pat, Morla’s career as a Kodiak, has no comparison… Mike Morla retires as the all time Kodiak leader in every important offensive category for both single season and career. He anchored the Kodiak lineup without peer for the better part of 17 seasons... The first 14 entrenched as the game's preeminent #3 hitter!
He may go down as the greatest offensive second baseman in BLB history. There will certainly be another quite like #38!
Thanks for the memories Yoyo!
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