That testing was tainted from the start and we still found 104 who were too stupid to beat the system.

As others have posted, Morneau had a pile of XBH’s last year, so to say his power is declining is simply wrong. He’s a great player and will post great numbers. I do however like the arguement about drafting the 6th best player at a position in the 2nd round. It’s interesting, but in the same breath, the top 3 third basemen SS’s and OFers are gone by pick 20. Probably the top 2 second basemen too (depending on the health of Utley). So does it matter? 4th best OFer or 6th best first baseman??? I’m not so sure it does. And I’m certainly drafting pure numbers like he will produce over the top catcher, closer, starting pitcher – in fact, I will NEVER draft the top catcher, SP or RP.

I think Morneau will get that homerun stroke back. He set a career high in extra base hits last year, even though they were going out at lesser rate, so he was still obviously driving the ball. That HR/FB% will come back up. Morneau has too nice of a swing that puts loft and drive on that ball. He has always been very streaky and mechanical and prone to slumps, so that knee definately could have been an issue. As long as he is healthy, I full expect him to crush it as he enters his age 28 season. A season in which most hitters establish career highs in HR’s.

According to poster larry, Matthew Namee has done some work on this (available only with a subscription to Bill James’ site) and found that lasik surgery tends to improve power (ISO) rather than plate discipline or contact rates, at least in the few cases of players who are known to have had the surgery. I haven’t seen the actual study, so I can’t vouch for the details or how statistically significant it is, but that’s the only work I’ve heard of on it.