Mike Hargrove is Delusional
The Brandon Morrow issue continues to be the only noteworthy thing around. Today, John McGrath weighs in with some quotes from Bavasi and Hargrove.
“Originally, we were sending him down to the minors (to) start him,†general manager Bill Bavasi said. “If he makes the club in relief, it alters how you develop him as a starter.
“Now, we may have to look at something in the offseason – sending him to a half-season of winter ball, perhaps, and have him re-establish a third or fourth pitch there. But that would depend on how many innings he gets between spring training and the regular season.â€
Good News – Bavasi isn’t yet pigeonholing Morrow as a reliever, talking about coming up with a plan to still attempt to develop him as a starter in other ways. Of course, the M’s paid this same lip service to Rafael Soriano as well, so it’s good news with a caveat.
When Hargrove considers the debate about assigning Morrow a big-league roster spot, he recalls the soul-searching once invested over a flaky Cleveland Indians prospect he wanted on his big-league team in 1994.
“Manny Ramirez,†Hargrove said. “He turned out OK. People called me an idiot then, too.â€
Manny Ramirez’s minor league career before being called up to the Indians:
1991 – Burlington (rookie): .326/.426/.679 in 215 at-bats as a 19-year-old
1992 – Kinston (high-A): .278/.379/.502 in 291 at-bats as a 20-year-old
1993 – Akron (double-A): .340/.414/.581 in 344 at-bats as a 21-year-old
1993 – Charlotte (triple-a): .317/.424/.690 in 145 at-bats as a 21-year-old
After his rookie league debut, he was named the #37 prospect in baseball. After dominating high-A ball, he moved up to #13. After destroying Double-A and Triple-A, Baseball America tabbed him as the seventh best prospect in baseball, one spot behind Alex Rodriguez.
By the time Hargrove plucked Ramirez out of the minors, he was well known to every person in the game as an elite talent and had dominated every level of minor league baseball over a three year span.
Yea, that’s the same thing we’re doing with Morrow.
Head versus heart. Caution versus impulse.
It wasn’t supposed to be this complicated.
It’s not. Every other organization in baseball has already farmed out their big armed elite pitching prospect to help get them more development time and allow them to make the show when they’re ready. Only the Mariners are so swayed by 8 innings of exhibition work that they’d overhaul their development plan at the whim of a manager whose usefulness has long since expired.
Momentum, problems, superstition
Hickey tells us the M’s master plan for this spring:
“We wanted to get to the final week of the (spring), win every game that week and go into the season with some momentum,” bench coach John McLaren said. “We’re in position to do that.”
In talking about errors in yesterday’s win, Hargrove said
“We made some mistakes that we wouldn’t make if we did it 100 more times,” Hargrove said.
Say, like hiring Mike Hargrove to manage the team after Melvin got the axe.
Baker on M’s superstitions.
With Amazon and B&N shipping last Friday, some of you should be getting The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball today. May it make you happy. In the meantime, you can always enjoy the blog, where yesterday was the Kent Hrbek/Ron Gant 1991 World Series incident.
Rotation roundup, Sherrill’s struggles, Majors for Morrow?, Ichiro: “Icky!”
AP story: M’s announce starting rotation. King Felix, Washburn, Batista, Ramirez, Weaver the Lesser. Is Jeff Weaver, at $8+M, the most expensive fifth starter in baseball? Hmm. Hargrove did say that given Weaver’s veteran-ness, they won’t be skipping the fifth starter even when given the opportunity by the schedule.
I can’t decide if this headline is amusing, or sad. “Sherrill lowers ERA to 15.00.” Ouch. I’m sure he’s got this one pinned up in his locker.
Also, Mark Lowe begins throwing this week (multiple sources).
As for young Brandon Morrow…
PEORIA, Ariz. – Final roster decisions won’t be made until next weekend, but one thing has become a near certainty for the Seattle Mariners.
Rookie pitcher Brandon Morrow, a spring training invitee who has just eight games of professional experience, has all but made the team.
“I don’t have a whole lot of problem with it,” manager Mike Hargrove said Saturday. “There’s been a lot of discussion but if he continues to throw the way he’s throwing, I know what my recommendation is going to be.”
Finally, from the Arizona Republic:
Ichiro laid down a perfect drag bunt that started a winning ninth-inning rally against the Oakland Athletics. During the postgame celebration, Piniella, his manager – arguably most exuberant and extroverted manager in baseball since Billy Martin – rushed up with a bear hug and a big ol’ smooch on the cheek.
Ichiro didn’t say much at the time but later told a Japanese TV crew: “It’s something that makes most Japanese men want to throw up.”
Uh huh.
Felix first, Guillen’s grudge
Felix will be the Opening Day starter. Hickey considers historical precedent and gets Felix’s reaction:
Since 1970, the only other Opening Day starting pitchers who were younger than 21 were Fernando Valenzuela (Dodgers, 1981) and Dwight Gooden (Mets, 1985).
“I never saw either of those guys pitch,” Hernandez said Friday, about an hour after manager Mike Hargrove named him to start the opener. “I don’t read much baseball history. But I’ve heard both of those guys were pretty good.”
That cracked me up.
And Felix offers this on being the starter:
“You are like a leader of the pitchers,” Hernandez said. “I want to be a leader for my team. This is one of the greatest things in my life.”
Baker’s got the same story for the Times.
Jose Guillen doesn’t like Mike Scioscia.
Greg Johns on Tui’s struggles.
But the Tuiasosopo name comes with more than just extra vowels. Things like leadership, work ethic and a stubborn pride have the youngest of Manu Tuiasosopo’s sons champing at the bit to get things turned back around this season.
Includes a rare Greg Hunter quote.
After a strong performance that may not be in his long term interests, Morrow is stunned to find Hargrove serenading him with “You Shook Me All Spring Long” in an attempt to woo him to break camp with the club.
What to do with Brandon Morrow
This has been a pretty boring spring, so far. Besides the Putz arm scare, there have been no injury problems of note, and besides Willie Bloomquist hitting like a man possessed, the performances have been pretty blase overall. Until last week, anyways.
That’s when Brandon Morrow showed up in Mesa with a 95 MPH fastball and a tight slider that made the heart of the Cubs order look stupid. I was highly impressed watching him, and I wasn’t alone, as Mike Hargrove used that performance as a launching point to begin publically lobbying for Morrow to make the team out of spring training. He’s continued to pitch well since that appearance, and Grover’s fondness for the kid isn’t getting any more private. After every outing, he makes it well known that he’d like to see the Mariners first round pick from last summer come north with the team as a reliever when camp ends.
While the Mariners are well known for rushing their kids through the system as quickly as possible, this certainly wasn’t the plan heading into March. Despite all the talk since the pick, the Mariners drafted Morrow as a starter, and he was ticketed for a rotation spot Double-A West Tennessee. The organization has always hoped that Morrow would develop into a starting pitcher, and he wasn’t drafted to be the closer of the future.
However, with Putz’s questionable availability for opening day and the organization short-sightedly creating a mediocre to bad bullpen behind him, Morrow suddenly looks like something of an answer to a legitimate problem on the 2007 squad. With guys like Mateo and Reitsma being handed the ball in the 7th and 8th innings, the Mariners lack a power arm who can be asked to get a strikeout in a key situation that isn’t a save possibility. Successful bullpens aren’t built around handing the ball to guys like Mateo and Reitsma in high leverage situations, so Hargrove has correctly identified the need for a legitimate quality arm to stick in front of J.J. Putz.
The question, then, becomes whether the Mariners should put the short term needs of the 2007 roster ahead of the long term needs of the franchise. Brandon Morrow, at some point in his career, needs to start some games in the minor leagues. His longest appearance in his professional career is three innings. He’s never had to go through the line-up a second time and make adjustments. He’s never had to pace himself to get through a professional game, knowing that there aren’t glaring weak spots in line-ups like there are in college. If you want Brandon Morrow to be a starter in the majors, then he has to be a starter in the minors, at some point, for at least a little while.
The question isn’t whether Morrow would be an effective major league reliever in 2007. It’s likely he would be. He’s got top shelf stuff, especially when he’s throwing max effort for 15-20 pitches, and relieving is the easiest job in baseball. The question is whether you’re willing to delay Brandon Morrow’s ascension to the rotation in order to patch a hole this year. For Mike Hargrove, whose job is on the line, it’s an easy answer. For Bill Bavasi, whose job description is to care for the franchise and not concentrate solely on winning games this year, it’s a tougher one. There is no obvious, easy answer here.
Personally, I’m torn. I want to see this team win, because I’m tired of finishing in last place, blogging about a team that has some upside but is forced to focus on the failures of its manager and the roster construction that left holes that could have easily been filled. I don’t want to see Ichiro leave. I don’t want to go through a summer of what-could-have-been as Doyle hits .320 for the Nationals while the Mariners struggle to find someone who can get on base with any kind of regularity. I want this team to win, and to win, they need a power right-handed setup guy to get to J.J. Putz. Brandon Morrow could legitimately be the answer to a problem that the team is going to have to address at some point.
But I also want the team to win in 2008, 2009, and 2010, and I think everyone will agree that those teams will be better if Brandon Morrow is throwing 100 pitches every five days than if he’s throwing 15 pitches every other day. The Mariners still have rotation holes to fill going forward, and most of the promising young arms in the system aren’t going to be ready for a few years. If the organization wants to fill those holes from within, Brandon Morrow is likely the best chance they’ll have.
While it’s pretty common for prospects to come up early as relievers and then move to the rotation, it isn’t common for those same pitchers to learn to how to pitch as professional starting pitchers in the major leagues. If Morrow is carried as a reliever this year, and then the team decides to shift him to the rotation for 2008, he’s going to have to learn on the job in front of 30,000 people. That’s not good player development. At some point, for his own best interest, Morrow needs to spend some period of weeks in the minors as a starting pitcher.
That either needs to happen this year or next year. If you carry him as a reliever this year and still intend to let him start at some point, you need to be prepared to have him begin 2008 in the minor leagues, regardless of how well he pitches out of the pen this year. And it’s nearly impossible to send a kid to the minors once he’s had success in the majors without creating all kinds of ill will with the player.
So, I can see both sides. I can see why Mike Hargrove wants Morrow on his staff, and I can see why Bill Bavasi should probably tell him that he can’t have him. Not yet, anyways. Morrow’s future as a starting pitcher is too valuable to this club to push back his timeframe on joining the rotation. Send the kid to West Tennessee and let him start for a month or two. If the team still needs a right handed power arm in June, give him a look.
If you carry him as a reliever on opening day, you may never have the chance to get him back to the minors. And asking him to learn how to be a starting pitcher at the major league level just isn’t fair to Brandon Morrow. The long term risk outweighs the short term rewards. Resist the temptation. It’s not worth it.
Sherill in peril, Raul stays cool
Both the Times notebook and the PI notebook carry “what happens to Sherill now” articles.
Ibanez is comfortable hitting cleanup. And we all float on.
The M’s FSN deal
I see a number of interesting issues.
The M’s won’t be starting the M’s channel for at least 10y
The M’s are now the highest-rated, most-lucrative team without being broadcast on a regional sports network they’re owners of. It’s a great way for teams to hide money from revenue sharing, and the M’s, it seems, have decided again to forsake it.
The ratings
That FSN was willing to go 10y, 300m given the team’s fortunes says a lot about how the ratings have stood up over the last couple of years. They must be selling a lot of heavy-duty trucks.
10y/300m is a ridiculously small bump
If you look at TV deals for sports packages, they’ve increased in cost a lot since the last deal the M’s signed, and yet this one doesn’t reflect that. The M’s are getting a lot of money, but it’s surprising that they weren’t able to get more, as so many others have.
Why sign for so long?
This is what really baffles me. If the team believes that they’re going to return to contention, wouldn’t they want to extend the current deal, and make about as much money now, and then, as they did with the last one, push for a longer deal when they’ve got a pennant and all the leverage? With the market for sports broadcast rights ever-increasing, why would the team tie themselves down for the next decade for such a modest raise?
Obviously they think this deal makes good business sense, and the M’s are, business-wise, great at getting money out of the franchise. But I wonder what their thinking was here.
Bonanza of broadcast bucks, Broussard benefits bench
The PI reports that the M’s and Fox Sports Net nearing a 10-year (!) $300m (!!) deal. Also, Broussard looks like he’s wrapped up that bench job.
Geoff Baker, on the team’s intangibles and other stuff… well, let’s cut to it:
The numbers here can lead to silly debates among those reading the box scores thousands of miles away.
Where some Mariners fans are concerned, the debate is whether Ben Broussard, or even Tony Torcato, should replace Richie Sexson at first base. Or whether sizzling spring star Willie Bloomquist should be handed Ichiro’s leadoff spot in the order. There have been calls for homer-plagued Jeff Weaver to be dumped from the rotation in favor of Ryan Feierabend.
What? Who?
Did Steve get to you?
Lowe lurid, Ichiro intellectual, Weaver whacked, Burke backup?
A dastardly tale of deception over in the Everett Herald. Apparently being injured doesn’t save you from the wrath of the team’s pranksters.
Ichiro has a TV show, in case you weren’t aware. This piece is more noteworthy for some typically philosophical Ichiro quotes, however.
If your mantra is that everything you do should be for the benefit of the team, you become incapable of valuing yourself. You become a less-than-ideal player. You become a player that fans don’t pay to come and see. In the end, that kind of player doesn’t benefit the team.
Times: Jeff Weaver doesn’t like getting up early. Poor baby.
Also, LHP Eric O’Flaherty is pitching well. Given Arthur Rhodes’ stiff elbow and George Sherrill’s control/mechanics problem… well, you never know. Plus, red-hot Armando Benitez update!
John Hickey notes that 35-yo Jamie Burke might break camp as Johjima’s backup. Except he calls him “Larry.” Considering Rene Rivera is terrible, I don’t see how that could be a bad thing. Hargrove says Burke and Rivera are even. Burke’s career numbers, if you’re interested. In any event, Jamie-Larry is starting for the M’s today behind the dish.
Roster moves: RHP Cha-Seung Baek and LHP Ryan Feierabend were optioned to Tacoma. RHP Renee Cortez was sent to minor league camp.
Fat Felix and Edwin Nunez
My buddy Seth chimes in with his thoughts on King Felix’s off-season conditioning, over in the PI.