RealGM

*drinks heavily, dances in street*

Phenomenal thread title. Honestly though, what took so long?

About a year too late, but better late then never!

Now all three participants in the "twin brother Pepe" commercial have been axed.

I found this quote in the Tacoma News Tribune deeply troubling:

Riggleman said he thought Vidro, who was batting .234, would have been targeted by another team before the July 31 trading deadline.

This is the second time Riggleman has demonstrated utter cluelessness about how bad Vidro really is. The first was when he attempted to justify batting Vidro in the cleanup spot by saying he would provide "protection" for Ibanez -- the theory being that, even though Vidro was struggling, he still had a good reputation. No, Jim. Pitchers aren't afraid of Vidro and no team ever wanted to trade for him. Vidro sucks and everybody knows it except, apparently, you.

I dont know if this has been posted somewhere else already, but it is official, Morrow has been sent down. I have been waiting for him to start a game for over a year now. I was starting to get worried that management would never do it. At the least Morrow starting a game in September should bring some excitement.

bennith13 wrote:I dont know if this has been posted somewhere else already, but it is official, Morrow has been sent down. I have been waiting for him to start a game for over a year now. I was starting to get worried that management would never do it. At the least Morrow starting a game in September should bring some excitement.

Let's hope he holds up better a certain other young reliever-turned-starter with 100-mph stuff, who's now on a flight to see Dr. James Andrews....

Joba never went down to build up his arm though. Morrow will alright. Didn't Joba have an injury history too?

I hate the move. Morrow’s been lights-out this season, mostly because he’s been thriving off that high-90s fastball (76% of his total pitches are fastballs in 2008) and whatever other pitch works that day (slider/curve, mostly. He throws it 14% of the time with the splitter at 8.2%) He’s all but scrapped his change (1.6%). As a starter, you can assume that he’s going to have to pace himself so that 97-99MPH fastball will lose a few ticks of velocity and he’ll have to start learning to throw the change – one of the hardest pitches to master – a hell of a lot more.

I’ve said it before: Morrow profiles better as a power reliever, when he doesn’t have to worry about pacing himself or making his stuff more deceptive to hitters. He can get by with pumping heat and supplementing it with the occasional breaking ball. No worrying about the change, no having to put more movement on his fastball. It’s like Papelbon’s situation where a dominant RP is more valuable than a middling starter. And lord knows how many middling starters the M’s already have.

well, i'm late to the party and i have to agree, great thread!