Morrow to Tacoma, For Real
Jay Yencich · July 11, 2009 at 5:12 pm · Filed Under Mariners
You should really read the whole thing, but to summarize, Morrow wasn’t throwing his curve last night, Kenji doesn’t consider it to be much more than an “out pitch” at this moment, and he’ll need the better secondary offerings to keep starting. The Mariners don’t need a fifth starter until the 25th of July. The Rainiers won’t get a day off following their all-star break until August 13th. In the meantime, we have Garrett Olson.
Good move. Olson may not have dominating stuff but he’s not bad for bottom of the rotation.
Finally! What a great move! Olson is a better starter at this time.
I would rather have RRS, but if Olsen can pitch like he did in Boston, then I don’t imagine I will think about RRS too much.
It’s the right thing to do. We need to start the pitcher who gives us the best chance of winning and at the moment, Morrow isn’t in the top 4.
Hopefully he’ll come back recharged, and grab a hold of a spot in the rotation for a good while.
So Josh Wilson gets play another day . . . where he won’t actually do any sort of playing.
I trust that the Wakamatsu and the rest of the coaching staff have judged Olson the best 4th starter as of now. If they felt RR-S was ready, he would probably be up here.
It was also interesting to note how Wak puts the responsibility on Morrow shake to his curveball. I can’t really blame Joh for not believing that Morrow could throw if for a strike when he was behind in the count so often.
Excellent move, and overdue.
I have a RR-S post on the back burner that I’ve been working on. It might be up sometime next week. I’m not convinced he’s ready either, but he seems to be getting closer.
Better late than never.
The move we all knew had to be made.
Though as I read this, and then the Drayer piece, I was getting confused…ok, they sent Morrow down, but why wasn’t anyone mentioning who they brought up to fill his roster spot? Did they bring RRS back up? Carp?
Then I saw tonight’s starting third baseman. Oh yeah. 🙂
By this move, can we infer anything about whether the FO views the team as contenders? Or, are 2009’s potential results simply inconsequential vis àvis Morrow’s development?
I can’t decide whether this means the brass thinks the team can contend in 2009 and thus should field the best possible starting rotation, or whether they think 2009 is a lost cause and thus should concentrate on Morrow getting better the “right way” so they can contend in 2010.
(Or both?)
Not really–from where I sit this move is designed to help them in the present and 2010 and beyond.
Morrow is not really an asset in the rotation right now: there are other pitchers already on the 40 man who can get the same results he does. So you really should send him down to develop his potential regardless of what you think about the team’s chances this year. Whether he contributes to them contending in ’09 (or the postseason) is really dependent on how quickly he develops in Tacoma, which is something I don’t think anybody can predict. But if the M’s are still in a pennant race in the last weeks in September, how great would it be to have a much-improved Morrow down there as one more weapon to throw into the fight?
I am of the mind, seemingly like the folks here at USSM, that the team can be both buyers and sellers…that a team can be both a contender this year as well as in the future.
It shouldn’t be seen as a this year/next year move, it should be seen as a move that makes the team better, both now and in the future. Moves like this are moves the previous regimes would never have made (just like trading away Yuni, getting a real outfield that can play defense, etc.). I’m loving the new style of front office agenda.