Morrow to Double-A
Dave · March 28, 2008 at 10:35 pm · Filed Under Mariners
The M’s optioned Brandon Morrow to Double-A West Tennessee tonight, choosing to have him start the season in the warm weather of the Southern League and try to find his command. Mark Lowe seems to be a lock to take Morrow’s role as the second right-handed setup man.
The best case scenario here is for Lowe to pitch extraordinarily well, allowing the team to re-evaluate their need to have Morrow in the majors as a reliever. With him finally heading to the minors, perhaps they can rectify last year’s mistake, stick him in the rotation, and let him learn how to pitch while he’s down there.
And to think, we probably could have, and should have, traded Morrow while his value was super-duper high and kept Sherrill and Tillman.
I guess this is a first step in the right direction for the M’s. Hopefully a season in the minors as a starter will help him be ready to take the fifth spot when they dump Washburn.
This has to probably be the best unintentional move for the Mariners since having Sasaki close in 2001.
Three cheers for common sense!
And to think, we probably could have, and should have, traded Morrow while his value was super-duper high and kept Sherrill and Tillman.
I don’t really agree with that, Morrow has more potential than Sherrill and Tillman put together. The problem is that to really fulfill it, he does need to spend this year in the minors, and I don’t have much confidence Dave’s scenario will play out. Are they at least going to use him as a starter while he’s in the minors, however short or long that time may be?
With him finally heading to the minors, perhaps they can rectify last year’s mistake, stick him in the rotation, and let him learn how to pitch while he’s down there.
I’m curious, did the M’s really see something in Morrow that told them that, after pitching in college as a starter, he’d be the perfect candidate to get thrown to the wolves in the majors as a reliever? Was it merely that he was already over 20 and pretty good, or something more? To parrot everyone else here, it looks like the M’s are finally realizing what we here all knew a year ago.
5: I think they thought they needed an eighth inning righthander with Lowe out, and just decided he was their best candidate. Since players themselves tend to take the view that any major league job is better than any minor league job, they got no resistance from him.
Of course the M’s history with promoting starters out of the minors directly into major league starters isn’t exactly stellar. See everyone but Felix this millennium.
If it takes Morrow more than a few weeks to get back to form, it makes little sense to even keep Morrow as a reliever. Might as well get him back to a starting pitcher role in the minors.
AA would be the perfect place to start.
By May 1, Arthur Rhodes will be ready to go and take any spot of someone who needs replacing. That gives the M’s another buffer to keep Morrow on the farm, perfecting a starting role.
Rhodes is a lefty, but is a power pitcher like Morrow. He is also experienced, a McLaren favorite trait.
5: I think they thought they needed an eighth inning righthander with Lowe out, and just decided he was their best candidate. Since players themselves tend to take the view that any major league job is better than any minor league job, they got no resistance from him.
Yup. Not like a club would get resistance out of anyone they chose to promote to the big league club less than a year after being drafted.
Dave, any report on what role he’ll have in West Tenn? Will he be starting or closing? Perhaps the price they’ve had to pay for mediocre starting pitching finally registered with the M’s and they realized how incredibly short-sighted it was to turn a #5 draft pick into a reliever without even giving him a chance at making the rotation.
Agree 100%. I really hope that is what happens.
Imagine a rotation led by Bedard, Felix, and a mature Morrow.
I’m glad to hear that so many people are optimistic about the M’s decision making, because to me it seems like they’re just putting a lot of faith into spring training statistics. Morrow was pretty good last year even with just one pitch and no control – I would think that if they thought he could repeat that production they’d use him again in the majors.
My initial reaction is to think that they’ll just use him in relief in the minors and promote him ASAP. I like the optimism though, I hope I’m wrong and everyone else is right.
I’m shocked at the sensibility of this move, especially in the wake of Bavasi emptying the minors of every interesting relief prospect to get Bedard.
The question is: rotation or bullpen?
An Angel gets injured, Mariners could win the division. A Mariner gets injured, and it may be the best thing to happen to this team since Putz.
This is all well and good, but Karma is not in our favor once the season starts.
If you take a look at Morrow’s peripherals… you see some obvious flaws in his game. 35.2 GB% is pathetic, and the 4.3% HR/FB rate is unsustainable. His K rate is very impressive, but giving up almost that many walks per game is ridiculous. He needs minor league work even if the Mariners decided he would be a career reliever. He needs control and a second pitch.
The million-dollar question is: Do you actually think that factored into the M’s decision?
This is an inexplicable stroke of luck. And I absolutely love it.
Wow! I really messed up those tags.
Here’s the link –
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080329&content_id=2464693&vkey=news_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea
MaLaren – “I see him being back fairly soon.”
What would be a reasonable estimate of the number of minor league seasons it would take to mature Morrow into a MLB starter based on what we’ve seen of him so far? Or is that completely idiosyncratic for each pitcher?
He’s destined to the pen. When I say destined I mean doomed. They can’t wait to get their golden boy back up.
With the Mariners trying to hold on to both Baek and Dickey, I think there’s a good chance Morrow stays in the minors. So long as Lowe is as effective as we know he can be and Morrow doesn’t make giant strides (which is not too terribly likely) I don’t see any compeling reason to bring him up even if he’s down to only 1 BB/IP.
So, going back a few posts to revisit the overall bullpen, Dave said this when Reitsma was released:
J.J. Putz works the 9th inning in games where the M’s lead by 3 runs or less.
Sean Green and Eric O’Flaherty will work the 7th and 8th innings of close games.
R.A. Dickey will be the mopup guy when the game gets out of hand.
That leaves several holes, with roster spots going to three of Brandon Morrow, Mark Lowe, Arthur Rhodes, Ryan-Rowland Smith, and Cha Seung Baek, assuming the M’s go with a 12 man pitching staff again. I’d call that very likely at this point, especially considering Morrow’s questionable status.
And then yesterday Mac and DaveN were talking about an 11 man staff.
Closer: JJ Putz
RHP1: Green
RHP2: Lowe or Baek
LHP1: O’Flaherty
LPH2: RRS
Mop-up: RA Dickey
If they went with a 12 man staff, they can keep Lowe and Baek. I’m not a big proponent of a 12 man staff, but maybe it would be a good thing here. If it’s a choice between keeping Baek and keeping Cairo, I say go with the bigger bullpen.
Does anyone want Baek pitching after the 6th inning in a semi-close game…seriously?
Doesn’t Green still get eaten up by lefties?