Morton Fish & Chips = Bucs win

How about Charlie Morton’s line?  Six innings, one hit, four strike outs, four walks with a 45 minute rain delay tossed in early to boot.  It was the first time I had looked hard at his stuff and he showed me a four seamer that tends to bore in on right hand batters, a two seamer with some heavy sink, a slider that runs tight occasionally, and an average change.  I believe I saw a curve here and there but it wasn’t a good pitch.  His fastballs are his bread and butter which set up his off speed. 

Right handed Marlins batters simply couldn’t lay off his four seamer in which typically ran in and off the plate, but since they swung at it they ended up getting sawed off more often than not.  Since it is the only pitch he tends to leave up, I suspect more experienced batters would be able to lay off it resulting in a ball more often than not.  His two seamer has very heavy sink at times and it’s the pitch he throws when he expects the ball to be put in play.  Marlins batters wanted to pull everything so they beat that pitch into the ground. 

When Morton started to labor in the 4th (around the 70 pitch mark and well over two hours after starting to warm up for the game) it became even more obvious that he can’t control the movement on either of his fastballs.  Think late year Paul Maholm.  Now it wasn’t just that Morton was toast as the fourth dragged on that made me feel that way, it was obvious during the entire game that few of his pitches really entered the zone. Instead, batters routinely expanded the zone.  BTW, put a red flag on Morton for his next two outings since Kerrigan over extended him through 2.5 hours of work and around 90 pitches.

Down the line I don’t see Morton having as much success except against players who are impatient and free-swingers.  Against the rest of the league, his two seamer will have to be up more in the zone to be called a strike and will likely get hit harder. And when you visit his career stats the majority of his success has come against youthful batters like the Marlins and Brewers, and somewhat crushed by the rest of the league.  I think it’s also important to note that he doesn’t fit PNC because batters are going to put his stuff in play more often harder than softer so he would fit a smaller park better. 

So I’m thinking to myself he’s a perfect 6th and 7th inning kind of guy who is going to get ugly swings the first time through the lineup, but after getting exposed too much is likely to get hit hard.  Ohlendorf, Karstens, and Snell all fit into that same category.. a category that Huntington has decided to build his short-term rotation around because he has no choice – he can’t get premium pitching, he has only one possible plus arm in his system with Lincoln and one maybe plus arm being developed in Morris.. the rest are coin-flip guys until they prove themselves.  So you have to believe Huntington’s long-term plan includes buying premium arms when the stars start to align (good luck there) and starts to explain his draft philosophy a bit better.

Simply put, all the 7th inning type guys we have are too inconsistent as a group to ever compete for the division, and bringing in Kerrigan takes them all one step closer to being back of the order guys because of Kerrigan’s hard work, but the best we should expect from them as a group is what we are seeing now which is a group – majorly lucky because the group’s core is constantly changing leaving clubs a bit off balanced.  Once they are out there too many times, boom.. they lose their luck advantage and that’s going to be the real problem as time goes by and the more starts they get, especially against NLCD teams.

Hanrahan who came in later is more of a Tyler Yates setup kind of talent with Matt Capps kind of stuff – straight heat reaching up to 98 at times with just enough bite on a slider to make his fastball even more dangerous.  He’s not going to be effective more than a few batters at a time because he just doesn’t have plus command or enough deception, and major league batters can turn on high heat.  I think he was added instead of a lower level prospect because Yates is probably done for the year (he’s been done since he got here), Grabow is all but certain to be dealt, Capps too since he’s a Littlefield holdover I’d guess, and Chavez and Meek are AAAA fodder at best.  If Hanrahan starts coming out in the 6th or 7th in close games, I think we’re in trouble.  He needs to be worked in a setup role I’m guessing.

The game went well considering Volstad opened up missing up in the zone and was punished by Moss and Vasquez for it.  But that’s the book on him – he leaves his stuff up to left hand batters and gets mauled because of it all too often.  Throw in Morton getting happy swings from almost every Marlin, a little timely defense by the Bucs (thanks to us pitching away from Jones in left LOL), and this game was setup for the win from the start and we executed.

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Evidently Sanchez had something in his back bite on him when getting out of a cab at the park so he evidently is day to day.  What great timing considering the deadline is quickly approaching.  Ughh..

I’m guessing this was a lingering issue because remember the other day I mentioned he refused to stretch for a Jack Wilson relay?  Then yesterday he stretched awkwardly for Wilson’s relay off second on a DP attempt.  Since he’s also been swinging at first pitches and doing a little hacking at the plate, I’d guess this has been nagging him for about a week or so.

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There sure seemed to be a lot of scouts sitting around jawing at this game.. not just scouts, but old timey pro scouts.  Wish I recognized who some of them were and what clubs they were with.

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Gorzy throws an 8 inning, 5 hit, complete game and takes home the loss.  How sad is that?  (8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB 5 SO)

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Free Wesley Freeman!  He now leads the GCL Pirates in hitting (OPS, all batters more than 10 AB) while hitting at a .267/.389/.533 clip over 15 limited AB.  He has 3 walks, 5 strikeouts, and 1 home run so far.  Not too shabby a start considering the junk he’s having to face and the inconsistency in play (rain outs) down there.

I’m telling you, this kid might be raw but he’s going to give Grossman a run for his money and needs to be at State College being evaluated so he could be in WV in 2010.

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It is my belief we are out of the running on Sano and everything we are hearing about him in Pittsburgh circles now is BS.  I’m sure we have or will make him a token offer, but unless we move into the stupid-stupid money realm here real shortly, I don’t think it gets done.  But is he worth stupid-stupid money?  I also think our FO has known we’ve been out of it for quite some time. 

I have nothing to support all this except a few chats, but they have all had the same ending to be coincidental.  But you know what happens when you ASSuME too much..

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KANSAS CITY — The Royals signed Nicaraguan prospect Cheslor Cuthbert to a reported $1.35-million bonus as the international signing period began.

Cuthbert, 16, is a right-handed-hitting third baseman with power potential, according to Rene Francisco, the Royals’ special assistant to the general manager/international operations. Cuthbert was ranked seventh among the top 25 Latin America prospects by Baseball America.

“He’s going be able to hit and with power and he’s very, very solid defensively at third,” Francisco said. “He’s very athletic with good range and size. We’re very happy with him.”

Cuthbert reportedly was close to signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates after being scouted by most of the Major League clubs. But the Royals outbid the Bucs. — Royals MLB site

Outbid.

Story of our lives.

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But hey, we are doing some good things in the community!  On several fronts (nice stuff Neal).

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The Astros are 20-12 their last 32 games.  Opps.. make that 20-13 last 33 the way it’s going Friday night.

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Something to think about..

The Bucs have played the fewest one run games and are 5-12 in those which is the worst in the game at .294.  If they were 8-9 (league average is 11 and 11) they would be a .500 team.  If they were 11-6 they would be tied with the Cards for 1st place in the division (the Cards have won 56% of their one run games).

Perhaps the real reason Hanrahan was brought in, you say?  Naw..

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Bet you didn’t know that Friday nights win over the Marlins was only our third win of the year in Friday contests.  Yep, and combined with our 3-7 Thursday record, we have won just six now on Thursday and Friday combined.

Ouch.