I hope Aumont is brought around as a reliever and then made a starter once he meets the innings requirement or whatever goals they set out for him to meet. Maybe they have Fields on the conversion path as well. He seems to have a good fastball and a nasty curve. A third pitch can get him into the rotation possibly.

I’m amazed at how fast everybody is dumping on Jack Z over a couple of relatively minor moves.

“Franchise crippling … ” Really?

So Morrow is going to the ‘pen instead of the starting rotation. Maybe he would have sucked as a starter (Morrow himself seems to think so).

Aumont has yet to throw an inning in the bigs, so maybe he wouldn’t be such a hot starter either. There’s no way to know until he pitches for a season or two.

I remember a lot of “hot prospect” pitchers in the M’s minor league system that never panned out in the major leagues.

It’s not like the M’s are taking PROVEN major league starters and putting them in the ‘pen.

I still have a lot of faith in Jack Z and the rest of his staff. I’m confident that they are looking at the long-term future of the M’s and they are NOT as “dumb” as some of you think they are.

Is this good news? No. I’d prefer that Aumont be given an opportunity to fail first. HOWEVER, I definitely believe that the people running this team are in a much better position to evaluate the player pitching in front of them TODAY (not the player they thought they were getting on draft day), and I give a lot of deference to their opinion that he may be better suited to a relief role at this point for all kinds of reasons (most mentioned by candasharp). I’m sure this would not be Jack Z’s preference, either, but sometimes you have to face reality.

My only question about the decision is if we’re facing “reality” just yet, or merely informed speculation. If the latter, let’s let him start until “reality” actually sets in.

(slightly off track- but [deleted, off track]

Haves the M’s learned nothing from how San Fran developed Lincecum or how they developed Felix? They didn’t fast track them to the bigs as a reliever. They let them develop as a starter in the minors. When he had nothing to prove they brought them up.

I’m amazed if their thinking is that a reliever, pitching 50 innings a year has more value than even a 5th starter going 180 innings.

Just because people making stuff up on the internet pretend to be able to predict injuries based on mechanics does not mean that actual baseball teams buy into it.