Justin Morneau, baseball’s defending Home Run Derby champion, said he is leaning toward missing this year’s event to give himself more rest.

Morneau joked that he’d be going out on top. He said he’s excited to be heading back to the All-Star Game, along with teammates Joe Mauer and Joe Nathan. But he remembers how hot it was in St. Louis when the Twins visited last weekend, so missing the Derby would add to his rest.

“I don’t know, we’ll see,” Morneau said. “It’s something I’m leaning toward not doing. I maybe could use that extra time off, and just go there, play in the game, and enjoy the time. The last two [years] I’ve been in the Derby, and it’s been kind of hectic. I haven’t really got to enjoy it too much, so I’m kind of leaning toward not doing it.”

Mauer said he won’t try to nudge Morneau one way or the other.

“It’s his decision,” Mauer said. “He’s been in a couple of them, and he’s won it, so I don’t know. It’s a great event. If I was asked, I know I would go in it, but we’ll see what happens.”

So, a reporter asked, he’s throwing his hat in the ring?

“If they ask me, I’d have a tough time saying no,” he said. “Something might be hurting or something like that, but I don’t know if they want to see me go the other way [to left field] or anything like that, so we’ll see what happens.”

Also, Manager Ron Gardenhire said the Twins will not alter their starting rotation before the All-Star break as he had hinted before today’s 6-2 victory over Detroit.

So it’ll be Scott Baker, Glen Perkins and Anthony Swarzak against the Yankees. Francisco Liriano, Nick Blackburn and Baker will follow against the White Sox. Then, after the break, Gardenhire said the Twins will go to Perkins, Baker and Liriano against Texas.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.