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we need to take the training wheels off and have him pitch with buck or jp for at least one start and see how it goes. i don't see us paying molina another 2 mill.

Or we could keep him pitching with a guy who's helped him have the best stretch of pitching in his career thus far... I'm just saying. Buck is probably going to be gone after this season, so we may well keep Molina for Morrow and JP for the rest.

To me it was the 2nd best game ever pitched by a Blue Jay (Steib no hitter). He may have even been better than Steib.

tsherkin wrote:Or we could keep him pitching with a guy who's helped him have the best stretch of pitching in his career thus far... I'm just saying. Buck is probably going to be gone after this season, so we may well keep Molina for Morrow and JP for the rest.

what if molina gets injured? or we molina decides to sign else where, we might as well get him comfortable with a future catcher...down the stretch now...

baulderdash77 wrote:To me it was the 2nd best game ever pitched by a Blue Jay (Steib no hitter). He may have even been better than Steib.

Stieb's no-no had a game score of 92, if that mattered. 123 pitches, 9 strikeouts, 4 walks, 6 grounders to 10 FBs, 2 guys got caught stealing, just under 61% strikes.

The no-no part was impressive, especially because of the huge cathartic release everyone got from him FINALLY achieving what he'd flirted with for so long, but I think Morrow actually pitched a better game, or at least a more dominant one. Guys looked SILLY against him, completely silly, waving at his nasty breaking stuff and failing to catch his heater, etc.

Also, it was against the RAYS. That carries a lot of weight, too.

Alfred wrote:Also, it was against the RAYS. That carries a lot of weight, too.

however they also been no hit twice this year including a perfect game and one perfect game last year...lol

Pop Rozay wrote:what if molina gets injured? or we molina decides to sign else where, we might as well get him comfortable with a future catcher...down the stretch now...

Maybe. I'd personally try to keep Molina around a little longer. He's a solid defensive catcher who's hit well in his limited appearances. He's worth keeping around if his presence can continue to help Morrow. I don't disagree though, he should get a few games here and there with JP, but I don't see any reason to make too big a deal over it.

^^
I was actually gna say the same thing.
For a good team. its amazing how many good games pitchers have against them!

Molina's a backup catcher and he's doing an admirable job. I would think on the other hand that Buck considers himself to be a starter, and rightfully so. JP Arencibia will be the starter next year. Agree with the article. 17 strikeouts is insane - 63% of the outs were by the strikeout. That's nuts.

Yeah Buck is all but gone at the end of the year. So we bring back Molina and make JPA the full time catcher. Let Molina catch Morrow, which gives JPA a lot of rest.

"A glimpse of great expectations
August, 9, 2010Aug 98:27AM ETEmailPrintComments
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Scouts always saw Brandon Morrow as a major talent, but how he's been used has been an issue.

The Seattle Mariners had the fifth pick in the 2006 draft and they selected Brandon Morrow, passing on a local kid who grew up within a hard groundball of Safeco Field, Tim Lincecum.

It doesn't make life any easier to have this kind of thing on your resume. And while Lincecum became great immediately, Morrow did what a lot of young pitchers do -- he struggled. He switched from being a starter to being a reliever and then he went back, and by the end of the 2009 season, there were enough questions about him and enough doubt that the Mariners traded him to the Blue Jays for Brandon League.

If you had only tracked Morrow by his earned run average, which stood at 4.79 going into Sunday's start, you might've thought that he's continued to struggle. But he has had bursts of excellence all summer long, innings and games when he was completely dominant, when you could see him putting together his fastball and his changeup and breaking ball more consistently, when you could see his potential coming together.

"The only question about him now is his consistency," one talent evaluator said at the All-Star break. "He'll lose it for an inning or a series of batters."

But Morrow held it together throughout his start on Sunday, en route to 17 strikeouts, on the way to a near no-hitter. He was absolutely dominant, in a way that few pitchers can be. After the game, Morrow didn't seemed overwhelmed by the disappointment of failing to finish the no-hitter, and given where he came from -- and where he seems to be going -- that was completely appropriate.

How Morrow nearly no-hit the Rays, from Albert Larcada of ESPN Stats & Information:

A) He threw 25 changeups (career high) for 18.3 percent of his pitches (3rd-most in a start in his career).
B) The Rays chased 38.5 percent of pitches out of the zone (2nd-most in a start in his career).
C) He threw 70.8 percent strikes (2nd-most in a start in his career).
D) He induced 20 swings-and-misses (2nd-most in a game in his career).

He also joined a club of pitchers that have lost a no-hitter with two outs in the 9th inning since 2000 (Mussina and Galarraga had perfect game bids):

Brandon Morrow: Aug 8, 2010 vs. Rays
Armando Galarraga: June 2, 2010 vs. Indians
Curt Schilling: June 7, 2007 vs. A's
Mike Mussina: Sep 2, 2001 vs. Red Sox

Then there's Blue Jays history:

Blue Jays Close Calls
These are Toronto pitchers who've had a no-hiiter broken up with two outs in the 9th Amazingly, the Stieb occurrences happened in back-to-back starts.

Pitcher Year Opponent 1st Hit
Brandon Morrow 2010 vs Rays Evan Longoria
Roy Halladay 1998 vs Tigers Bobby Higginson
Dave Stieb 1989 vs Yankees Roberto Kelly
Dave Stieb 1988 vs Orioles Jim Traber
Dave Stieb 1988 at Indians Julio Franco

According to Bill James' metric "Game Score," which is a one number-summary of how good a pitcher's single-game performance is, Brandon Morrow's 17-strikeout, 2-walk, one-hitter on Sunday -- which got a score of 100 -- is tied for the 4th-best single-game pitching performance since 1920. It was the highest by any pitcher in a single game since Randy Johnson scored 100 in his perfect game back in 2004.

High Ball
Highest pitcher "Game Score" in a 9-Inning game since 1920.

Year Pitcher Opponent Game Score
1998 Kerry Wood, Cubs Astros 105
1991 Nolan Ryan, Rangers Blue Jays 101
1965 Sandy Koufax, Dodgers Cubs 101
2010 Brandon Morrow, Blue Jays Rays 100

Morrow came oh-so-close to throwing a no-hitter, writes Ken Fidlin. Morrow made a scout proud, as Bob Elliott writes. A near-miss like this will haunt you, says Dave Stieb. Cito Gaston wanted him to finish the game. Vernon Wells gave up his body to make a big play.

By the way: Dave Perkins was the official scorer in the Rogers Centre on Sunday, and he deserves credit for having integrity on the Longoria play. There are a small minority of official scorers who would have made a different call in that situation, with the home team's pitcher so close to history on a ball that hit the glove of the fielder -- but Perkins made exactly the correct call, immediately.

A) He threw 25 changeups (career high) for 18.3 percent of his pitches (3rd-most in a start in his career).
B) The Rays chased 38.5 percent of pitches out of the zone (2nd-most in a start in his career).
C) He threw 70.8 percent strikes (2nd-most in a start in his career).
D) He induced 20 swings-and-misses (2nd-most in a game in his career).

He was getting a hell of a lot of 0-1 counts, and pretty much every time he went 1-0, he came back with at least one strike right after. And I loved seeing how much he was mixing up his pitches... he was out there throwing pretty much 4 pitches that were really brutal to go after. We saw the heater from 92-95 mpg most of the night, the change, the brutal slider and his snap curve and guys just looked like Little Leaguers fanning at his stuff. And the sick part is, if he really needed to, he could have dialed it up a little higher. I love that the Jays did with Morrow what they did in some small part with Doc, told him to dial back a little to get some more control, and it's working out.

I was watching the game at the gym starting from the 7th inning onwards. Absolutely dominating. I remember Roger Clemens had a 18 strike out game back in the late 90s, and it reminded me of that game. Morrow was throwing the fastball at the mid90s, but it was his changeup that was the killer.

Having said that, I am not too crazy about him throwing 137 pitches. I would have pulled him out of the game after the no-no is gone. He might struggle for the next couple of starts.

Pchu wrote:I was watching the game at the gym starting from the 7th inning onwards. Absolutely dominating. I remember Roger Clemens had a 18 strike out game back in the late 90s, and it reminded me of that game. Morrow was throwing the fastball at the mid90s, but it was his changeup that was the killer.

Having said that, I am not too crazy about him throwing 137 pitches. I would have pulled him out of the game after the no-no is gone. He might struggle for the next couple of starts.

It was 1 out to go. Out of respect, you have to leave him in there. He got you that far. He either loses it for you or wins it for you. If anyone earned a chance to dig themselves out of a hole, it was him.

Not sure if this has been posted, but here's an interesting article about Morrow and his diabetic condition.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=s ... etes080810

SmoothTofu wrote:Not sure if this has been posted, but here's an interesting article about Morrow and his diabetic condition.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=s ... etes080810

Good article

I listened the this entire game on the FAN590 making my way home from up north in brutal traffic Sunday. Incredibly entertaining for a game with so little offense. What also impressed me (other than Morrow of course) was the amount of hustle the Jays seemed to exhibit according to the broadcast- in addition to Wells great catch at the wall, there were other fair-ball plays and foul balls that the guys seemed to be going all-out for.

I know they're pros and they get paid to do that, but it doesn't always work out like that. Even Hill, who missed that play on the only hit, was in the clubhouse immediately afterwards with Butterfield looking at tape over and over again beating himself up about missing that play. I love that about this team.