Morrow to start in Bedard’s place
DMZ · June 12, 2009 at 6:15 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Limited to 60 pitches. Larry Stone:
“The main thing is, I’m going to try to be conservative with my pitches and give them the best start I can, and the most innings I can, to make it easier on the guys after me,” he said.
Five innings, he said, would be “ideal.” Combining our Cal educations, we figured out that would mean an average of 12 pitches an inning — not easy to accomplish.
Hee hee hee. I uh… I’m unreasonably excited about seeing Morrow start again. If you got tired of me cheerleading for him last season, you might want to stay away from the site that day.
Comments
29 Responses to “Morrow to start in Bedard’s place”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Wait, what?! We knew the move was happening, but still…
I’m suddenly stupidly excited… Damn me for not being somewhere I can watch the game!
i just did alittle dance around my living room and i think that my wife belives i’ve finally lost that last marble.
I’m really excited for this and think it is a great move for the mariners.
He’s starting in place of Erik Bedard (left shoulder inflammation) – how is that good news?
While I don’t mind this for a start or two (excited about it actually), I’m not happy about the fact that Wak is alluding to the fact that they might not send Morrow to Tacoma and may rather try to develop him at the big league level as a starter.
Three IP is a victory in my book.
And what happened to Bedard? I assume he’s dead and will never pitch again?
His “lady parts” are sore.
Bedard has shoulder inflammation that is considered very minor. Skipping him is supposedly just being extra cautious.
I’m stoked about this… but also fearful that it will cause them to tinker with the rotation schedule this week and I won’t get to see King Felix start on Tuesday here at Petco. If that happens, I will be extremely pissed.
This calls for a celebration:
http://www.webhamster.com/
Oh good. I thought I was the only Morrow fanboy left on USSM. Let’s see a filthy start, Brandon!
You want to be careful with your tradebait.
Ugh. Just send him down already. This doesn’t sound like giving him the time that is needed for him to learn to actually pitch. Let Jakubauskas start or bring up RRS and have him start.
One clause of this sentence is accepted wisdom; the other is not.
You know, missing another start sure isn’t going to help Bedard be a Type A free agent.
No, but Peavy being out for 12 weeks will help his trade value.
The report I saw only said “at least a month,” but true enough.
I’m with rmac. Seeing this as good news is perverted.
Really? You think that I’m unable to separate my concern for Bedard from my excited reaction to see Morrow take a turn in the rotation? Thanks! I didn’t realize I was so perverted.
Where exactly am I seeing Bedard’s injury as good news?
Brandon Morrow going on an emergency start in Denver while being limited to ONLY 60 pitches. . .
Yikes.
The bullpen might have to move mountains to win a game or two in this series, they could be getting in A LOT of innings.
To give Morrow a soft landing, Junior is going to start that game in the outfield.
I am going to the games today and tomorrow, not happy about this. I am missing Felix so I was at least excited to catch our other ace for a game. I can imagine the Ian Stewart bomb flying over my head right now.
I agree with dchappelle above.
Does Morrow have the secondary pitches to be effective for 60 pitches?
If Morrow needed more time in Tacoma to develop as a starter, why set him up for possible failure here?
If he didn’t need the time in Tacoma, why make a fuss about sending him down there to stretch out in the first place – why wouldn’t he be taking Olsen’s spot in the rotation?
Isn’t a pitch count of 60 just begging any half-decent team to take, and work the count, and get to the pen as quickly as possible, especially if you’re going to see that same team again the next day?
I know they wanted to get him used to a starting role, but where does good player development stop and just out and out coddling begin?
I’m really starting to get sick of hearing about Morrow.
Morrow has the pitches, we’ve seen him succeed at this before. The issue is whether he’s good enough working with all of them, particularly his ability to hit spots with each of them, that’s the question.
The good thing, and I should have put this out there earlier, is that his low, low pitch count will make things a lot easier on him, because he won’t have to face the same hitters three, four times (unless he’s getting a ton of one-pitch outs, which would be hard because he’s not facing our hitters)
I see this as nothing but bad…first with Morrow…if he gets shelled, it will kill the bullpen, and his confidence (maybe he will NOT want to be a starter again)…if he is lights out, then maybe they will think he doesn’t need to go to AAA…he HAS to go down and learn to be a starter if he’s going to be any good…
And with Bedard, we want either A) maximum trade return B) type A free agency or C) contract extension…neither of these seem likely if he keeps getting hurt…
I’m as big a Morrow fan as anyone, and will enjoy watching the kid pitch, but to quote the trilogy, “I have a bad feeling about this…”
He has the pitches, but he doesn’t (or didn’t) have the confidence in them so he was throwing strictly fastballs (hence his “pitching machine” comment). He missed a big chunk of spring training and then was in a one-inning role; for a young pitcher who hasn’t had a lot of practice getting the feel back after an offseason, I could see how you’d just fall back on throwing harder.
Maybe his time in the bullpen and pre-game work has got him to the point where he can feel confident about throwing those other pitches. But in the interview with Drayer the other day he seemed very committed to going back to Tacoma and staying there as long as necessary until he could come back as a full starter with an arsenal of pitches and the stamina to go 100+ pitches per start. Perhaps this is just a one-time thing because they were waiting for Corcoran to come up so they can send Morrow down. But I have to say I’m with Drayer on this
I don’t get it either.
I’m still a Morrow fan- I get a little thrill out of the times I can remember seeing him just rear back and fire and watch the hitter flail at 98 MPH that he knew was coming.
I’m praying for the best-case scenario here- Morrow turns in a half-way decent start, gives us four or five innings…maybe even racks up a “W”…then goes right off to Tacoma to learn what off-speed pitching is and how to survive as a starter in pro ball.
And as for why The Hyphen isn’t back- maybe that 267-4 shellacking on his last start changed things a little- my brother was at that game and told me the stadium gun never hit 90, consistently 87-88.
On a stadium gun, that means he was trying to make do with 85-86 MPH stuff.
With Chris Shelton as your third baseman? That’s the stuff pitcher’s nightmares are made of.
Could be he’s just not ready to come back yet.
Well, I don’t necessarily agree with Drayer that RRS is the alternate choice. Jakubauskas is sitting out there in the bullpen too, after all. I mean, I get that the circumstances may be such that Morrow gets a spot start. But it seemed like everyone in the org, from Morrow to the FO, was in agreement that to fully develop his potential he’d have to spend some quality time making starts in Tacoma. If that’s still the plan and this is just a hiccup resulting from the intersection of Bedard’s fragility and RRS’ unreadiness, fine. But if the plan now is to put Morrow into the rotation and have him try to learn how to be a starter in teeth of big league offenses while the team is trying to stay above .500 and catch the Rangers…. not so fine.
But maybe there’s another shoe about to drop, and this is in preparation for Washburn’s departure to other climes? Or perhaps there’s nothing wrong with Bedard’s shoulder, and he’e being held out on the request of the trade partner?
Or perhaps there’s nothing wrong with Bedard’s shoulder, and he’e being held out on the request of the trade partner?
I can’t imagine that’s very likely. If there was no shoulder issue, then the Mariners would want to showcase him. The trade would have to be this close to being consummated for a team to get that kind of concession, since it hurts their ability to sell other teams on him. The rumors would almost certainly be much stronger than they currently are.