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This doesn't quite rise to the status of "news" yet, but Dejan Kovacevic reports that Charlie Morton could take the place of the injured Ross Ohlendorf when Ohlendorf's turn in the rotation comes up this weekend.
Morton has become, believe it or not, a bit of a sabermetric darling among some Pirates fans, mostly because, in his disastrous 9.35-ERA stint in the majors this year, more balls in play fell for hits than one might expect, and more of his fly balls went for homers than you'd expect as well. I see what these folks are saying, since both these numbers historically tend to regress to the mean, and I don't think any of these people are mistaking Morton for Bob Gibson anyway.
Still, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit for Morton's return. Yes, he has exceptional stuff, but it's tough to take solace in things like his ratio of homers to fly balls when he starts throwing cookies as soon as there's a runner on base. Also, his statistics this year even in the minors leave a lot to be desired -- his ERA at Class AAA Indianapolis was fine, but he failed to strike out twice as many as he walked, which doesn't bode particularly well for his success against major league pitchers. He might still have a career with the Pirates in his future, and I don't see any harm in letting him have a few starts in the last month of the season, but that doesn't mean I'm eager to see them.
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Edited by Charlie Wilmoth
Charlie was born and raised in Wheeling, about fifty miles southwest of Pittsburgh. For the last five years, he has been the author of the Pirates blog Bucs Dugout. He has a doctoral degree in music composition from the University of California, San Diego, and he... See my profile
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Comments
It's strange
that he could strike out batters at a fair clip in the majors but slipped in AAA. I know it’s dumb to just assume things, but I feel like one has to think he was working on something different after being sent down that affected those numbers.
The big difference that translates to the lower AAA ERA is the HR/9. He have up like 14 per 9 in the majors and less than 1 in AAA. I think that is at least somewhat encouranging, but who knows.
I not only don’t see harm in letting him start in meaningless games down the stretch, but I prefer it. Especially when the Bucs are playing competition that doesn’t consider the games meaningless.
by DITO on Aug 25, 2010 9:50 AM EDT reply actions
No harm...
but if he gets lit up in this latest call up and in Spring Training and still somehow makes the Buccos rotation, I will be done.
Accountability is a nice word to throw around, but it takes more than words to actually have it.
So far this kid has been Kris Benson and Kip Wells rolled into one, and is not better than giving a legit shot to Morris, Owens or Wilson next year.
The only reason Morton, assuming he flames out again, would start on the big club would be to protect the clocks of the aforementioned players.
"It WILL happen."
Bill Mazeroski
June 19th, 2010
by Coxswain on Aug 25, 2010 11:26 AM EDT reply actions
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