RealGM

Posted: **Mon Apr 9, 2007 5:00 am**

Really now. Why are the Mariners wasting him in the bullpen? It does nothing for his development if he's just coming into games and blowing heat by guys. Send him to AA or AAA and let him work as a starter.

So lame. I'm not even a fan of Brandon Morrow, but if you're going to draft a guy in the early first round I figure you probably want to let him develop his craft instead of rushing him up to the majors so he can throw fastballs in losing efforts.

Seems to me that it's just Bavasi trying to make up for the fact that he let Tim Lincecum slip through his hands.

What do you fine folks think?

Posted: **Mon Apr 9, 2007 5:56 am**

Bleeding Green wrote:Really now. Why are the Mariners wasting him in the bullpen? It does nothing for his development if he's just coming into games and blowing heat by guys. Send him to AA or AAA and let him work as a starter.

So lame. I'm not even a fan of Brandon Morrow, but if you're going to draft a guy in the early first round I figure you probably want to let him develop his craft instead of rushing him up to the majors so he can throw fastballs in losing efforts.

Seems to me that it's just Bavasi trying to make up for the fact that he let Tim Lincecum slip through his hands.

What do you fine folks think?

I don't think it's about Lincecum so much as it's about Bavasi overestimating the depth of the bullpen when he shipped off Soriano for a #5 starter. Putz gets hurt in spring, Reitsma sucks...and the need to press Morrow into bullpen action arises when he puts on a dominant spring performance.

I don't know that Morrow will be used in losing efforts...I think he'll actually see action as the RH setup to Putz.

And honestly, it depends on how long they use him in that role and how he looks doing it. If the teams sticks him there to rot while one of their starters inevitably falters, I'm going to wonder what the point is.

Since you're a Sox fan, the way the M's are handling Morrow seems Papelbon-esque. Do you think Papelbon closing is harmful to his long term potential? Because I think Morrow's in the same boat...

Posted: **Mon Apr 9, 2007 8:06 pm**

No, the point is that the Mariners aren't going to be competing this season in all likelihood so why waste a year of your best pitching prospect's development in the bullpen? I don't follow him all that closely, but it seems obvious that he would be best served by getting regular innings in AA or AAA. It makes no sense to put him in the bullpen unless you're trying to justify the draft pick or you're (Please Use More Appropriate Word).

Papelbon wasn't rushed through the minors and thrown into the bullpen a year after being drafted so there really isn't any correlation there. Papelbon was basically a finished product when he started closing games in Boston. Besides, Papelbon was a closer in college and his stuff is better served to the bullpen it seems.

Posted: **Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:30 am**

Bleeding Green wrote:No, the point is that the Mariners aren't going to be competing this season in all likelihood so why waste a year of your best pitching prospect's development in the bullpen? I don't follow him all that closely, but it seems obvious that he would be best served by getting regular innings in AA or AAA. It makes no sense to put him in the bullpen unless you're trying to justify the draft pick or you're (Please Use More Appropriate Word).

Who knows if the M's will compete or not? They clearly have issues but so does the rest of the AL West. Bavasi and Hargrove have no choice to go all out this season to try and save their jobs...hence the trading of young talent for veteran crap in hopes of having some stability in the lineup I guess. Do I respect that logic? No...it's selfish and can hurt this team in the long run. But I don't think the M's are out of the running this year.

I don't look at the A's, Angels, or Rangers right now and think "gee, we're not at their level." All four teams have some fairly severe weaknesses at the moment.

I'm not so much concerned about wasting a year of development as I am about starting his major league clock...just gets him free agency that much quicker, right?

I don't think Morrow was a bad pick in the slightest. As I said, I think the error comes from Bavasi butchering the bullpen over the winter and being forced to do something to try and fix it.

But does facing AA/AAA batters make Morrow any better? I don't know...wuite a few scouts agreed that Morrow was going to be wasted down in the minors...some times scouts are wrong, some times they're not.

Posted: **Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:31 pm**

A lot of great pitchers started off as hard-throwing relievers before becoming starters. Pedro Martinez, Sandy Koufax, Lefty Grove... maybe Papelbon and Morrow are next. The virtue of this approach is that it saves young and inexperienced pitchers from having to throw 100+ pitches in a game, when fatigue sets in, technique breaks down and injuries occur. It also helps build confidence when a player is broken in slowly.

Posted: **Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:49 pm**

It also doesn't allow them to develop anything. None of those other pitchers were as raw as Morrow is right now. Also, the game was a lot different when Koufax was playing and even more different when Grove was pitching. I don't even think teams had minor league systems back then.

Take today for instance. Morrow's fastball command was completely nonexistent. Players ready for the major leagues aren't that wild no matter the circumstances. Looking at Morrow's minor league track record (a whole 16 innings) he doesn't even look that impressive. 17 strikeouts to 9 walks; that doesn't tell me that he's being wasting in the minors. He hasn't even pitched against AA competition yet.

I know it's just beating a dead horse but Bavasi is clueless. I honestly feel bad for the Seattle fans, and it seems like there are a lot of them.

Posted: **Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:01 pm**

Bleeding Green wrote:Take today for instance. Morrow's fastball command was completely nonexistent. Players ready for the major leagues aren't that wild no matter the circumstances. Looking at Morrow's minor league track record (a whole 16 innings) he doesn't even look that impressive. 17 strikeouts to 9 walks; that doesn't tell me that he's being wasting in the minors. He hasn't even pitched against AA competition yet.

Did anybody look good on the M's today? The box score seems to indicate they were playing like a team that had been screwing around in the snow all weekend long...

Some scouts said he was ready this spring...I can't vouch for their veracity.

Bleeding Green wrote:I know it's just beating a dead horse but Bavasi is clueless. I honestly feel bad for the Seattle fans, and it seems like there are a lot of them.

The problem with Bavasi is he does do some things well, but the big things just kill him. For all the good work he's done in revamping a minor league system (or at least hiring people to do that job) after Gillick did his traditional Slash 'N Burn Specatular, he does an extremely poor job gauging the value of free agents and commodities on the trade market.

I remember at one point this offseason he admitted that he was caught completely off-guard by the price of pitching, so they had to go to Plan B. That shouldn't happen. Beane was prepared...he said as much this season, which is why he added Loaiza for cheap last year.

Soriano for Ramirez? Snelling for Vidro? You could've grabbed those guys for free. There's no way you could convince me the Nationals required talent in return for taken Vidro's contract off their hands. We did them a favor...times two.

Of course, there's a chance those new acquisitions work out...but even with they do, their value at the time of acquisition is what matters.

And ultimately it doesn't matter if you restock the minors if you saddle the big team with players with contracts that ensure their bloated corpses will be blocking the young players who are trying to come up anyway.

How can you have a $115 million roster and still be expected to finish last in the conference? How sad...

Posted: **Thu Apr 12, 2007 6:26 am**

Everything I've heard about Morrow is that he needs time in the minors. He had one year in college where he was productive (the year he was drafted) and even then he was walking over 3 guys per 9. His two other years in college? He was either injured or just plain ineffective. His freshman year he walked more kids than he struck out. None of this sounds like a really sound, polished product. Watching him yesterday, it's clear the kid's got talent. But he needs to be getting regular work. If his stuff is best suited for the bullpen (that's a bit of a waste of a pick having a #5 overall pick be a set-up man or a closer as best case scenario), then he needs to get regular work in the minors to refine his command because he's not going to be successful as a reliever if he's walking as many guys as he has his entire college and professional career. mahalo
~Chach~

Posted: **Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:59 am**

morrow seems to be having some success at the mlb level, i just wonder if its worth it in the long run because he does have very good stuff. also its not like the mariners have a lot of great arms in the rotation besides felix, felix and marrow could be a deadly duo in 2 or 3 years.

Posted: **Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:29 pm**

FaTaL wrote:morrow seems to be having some success at the mlb level, i just wonder if its worth it in the long run because he does have very good stuff. also its not like the mariners have a lot of great arms in the rotation besides felix, felix and marrow could be a deadly duo in 2 or 3 years.

If you're looking out to 2 or 3 years, they actually have very high hopes for a couple of other youngsters in the system, Tony Butler and Chris Tillman. Call it a deadly foursome, and along with Ryan Feierabend (not a top-tier prospect but probably the safest bet of the bunch), a complete 5-man rotation. Of course, history shows that at least one and likely more than one will probably fall short of expectations....

Posted: **Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:05 am**

Morrow looked alright the other day...3 K's in one inning, and his fastball looked untouchable at times. I'd say he fell under the category of "effectively wild" because I don't know that the ball was going exactly where it was supposed to. However, he certainly kept the hitters off balance and had them guessing...were the pitches going where he wanted or no?

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:52 pm**

Please tell me the Mariners are going to at least try Morrow in the rotation now that Hernandez went down. As far as I can tell, Cha Seung Baek is getting at least a start in his place.

What, exactly, is the point then of calling up Morrow, your top pitching prospect and not spot-starting him in a situation like this? I like Baek as much as the next guy but, really, dude

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:50 pm**

Basketball Jesus wrote:Please tell me the Mariners are going to at least try Morrow in the rotation now that Hernandez went down. As far as I can tell, Cha Seung Baek is getting at least a start in his place.

What, exactly, is the point then of calling up Morrow, your top pitching prospect and not spot-starting him in a situation like this? I like Baek as much as the next guy but, really, dude

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Why is Brandon Morrow in the bullpen?

Why is Brandon Morrow in the bullpen?

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