Why is Brandon Morrow in the bullpen?

[Bleeding Green]

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?

[Sweezo]

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...

[Bleeding Green]

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.

[Sweezo]

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.

[Ex-hippie]

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.

[Bleeding Green]

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.

[Sweezo]

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.

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...

[Chach]

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~

[FaTaL]

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.

[Ex-hippie]

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....

[Sweezo]

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?

[Basketball Jesus]

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

[Sweezo]

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

[Basketball Jesus]

guessing they're looking at starting Morrow since they decided to stretch him out in long relief the other day. I'd rather they do that than just pencil him in as a starter...he hasn't pitched as anything but a reliever since last year, so he could use some innings under his belt to get used to throwing that many pitches.

That makes a bit of sense then.

White > Mateo

Which, of course, brings up another logical question...

The irony being that the Mariners have quite a few talented reliever prospects yet tend not to pull the trigger as quickly as the other prospects and bring them up. I really want to see what ABD can do at the major league level. He just has the kind of name that screams

[Sweezo]

The irony being that the Mariners have quite a few talented reliever prospects yet tend not to pull the trigger as quickly as the other prospects and bring them up. I really want to see what ABD can do at the major league level. He just has the kind of name that screams

[BlackMamba]

got his 1st win, how was he?

[Sweezo]

got his 1st win, how was he?

Pretty good the first inning...he was in a jam so he blew 99-100 mph fastballs at Nelson Cruz and some other batter I don't remember the name of to finish them off.

But after that, he went into a different mode, mixing in breaking balls. That's good news...but his fastball also turned into a middling low 90's pitch. If that's how he pitches, I don't know if his breaking pitches are good enough to make him anything more than a middle of the rotation guy.

I'm hoping the pitching coach told him to ease off the high heat since he was going to pitch for several innings, and maybe they didn't want him throwing his arm out when he probably pitched more than an inning all year including spring training.

But I have no idea...

[Sweezo]

...or maybe Morrow pitched long relief because he's the new long reliever. My God...Hargrove is a total dunce.

RHP Brandon Morrow's 3 1-3 innings of one-hit shutout relief in Monday night's 5-4 win over Texas has convinced manager Mike Hargrove that the rookie can fill the long relief role held last season by RHP Mark Lowe. "Now we know Morrow can go longer and still hold his strength," Hargrove said. Morrow's fastball was still at 95 mph at the end of his stint Monday. Lowe is on the 60-day DL recovering from right shoulder surgery

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Aj_ytV58LmsB5XydBUAktd6FCLcF?slug=ap-baseballnotes&prov=ap&type=lgns

[BlackMamba]

good 2nd win for him. 1.2 IN, 0 runs, 0 hits, 3 Ks

[Sweezo]

When he wants to get an out, he just amps up that fastball and there's not a whole lot they can do about it. That's neat...but is he learning how to pitch in a critical situation or his just rearing back and hucking it?