Morrow Has Setback
Dave · March 10, 2009 at 11:25 am · Filed Under Mariners
Larry Stone fills us in on Brandon Morrow not feeling very good after today’s bullpen session. For the second time in a row, his scheduled Cactus League start on Friday has been scratched, and at this point, he’s questionable for opening day.
At this point, it’s probably likely that Ryan Rowland-Smith will move into his rotation spot, and Morrow starts the year on the DL. Even if it’s not a serious injury, there’s no reason to rush Morrow to be ready for the first week of the season, and the team has the depth to let him take it slow.
Let’s hope it’s nothing that lingers long term. But for now, we probably take Morrow out of the projected starting rotation, at least to start the year.
Really? There’s still four weeks until the season starts and something as (relatively) benign as forearm tightness doesn’t seem like it would take that long to work through.
What kind of work would you think Morrow has to put in before the Wak and his staff deem him ready?
That’s disappointing, but not necessarily surprising. At least RRS gets a more legit chance for the rotation now.
Ape-
Lets say Morrow misses two weeks with arm tightness. He would be missing two weeks of get into shape time. He’s already going to be adding a massive innings load to his totals, might not be a bad idea to put him on the DL to shave a couple of starts off his total to begin with.
etowncoug,
No problem there, and I’m not advocating rushing him, I just figured forearm tightness wouldn’t cause a two-week absence. Say he just misses one week? Where does that put him? If he picks up another start I imagine that only puts him slightly behind where they were expecting him to be.
I guess my question was what’s the requisite amount of work he’s got to get before he’s ready.
Let the kid work his way back slow…he’s hopefully going to have a bright future at the top of the rotation…let RRS have his starts at the beginning of the season…
It’s times like this when it sure would have been nice if the last FO had decided to put Morrow where he belonged — starting in the minor leagues — so that he wouldn’t be having to try to cut his teeth on starting and the extra workload that goes with it. I realize this is probably unrelated, but you can’t help but wonder where he’d be today if the Bavasi hadn’t been firesaling the future to try and save himself . . .
Geez, is there any reason to be excited about this team at the beginning of the year if BOTH Silva and Washed-up-burn are in the rotation?
God, being a Mariner fan just sucks right now. . .
Actually, no, it doesn’t.
Well, I mean, yes, the FUTURE of this team is brighter than what it was a year ago.
But when is the future going to come?
That’s my problem.
I mean, is it so hard to ask for the hope on Opening Day that your team has a chance to win it all?
It hasn’t been like that around Seattle in a LONG time. . .
I hope Morrow is okay, but who knows, this injury could affect him the whole season.
I just put up a post yesterday that says the M’s have a 20% chance to win the division this year.
Your ridiculous cynicism is a year late.
I know you put up that post, I read it, but I’d put it more like 10 to 15%. . .
It’s a rebuilding year this year, as will be the next few probably.
Maybe this year. Probably next. Or the one after that.
Sounds too much like one of the few Pittsburgh Pirates fans that are left. . .
[deleted, beating a dead horse]
The M’s have a better chance of winning this year than they did in some of the past few years. Last year everyone had high hopes based on the 2007 team greatly outperforming their pythagorean win%. They gained Bedard but had several past their prime players who should have been expected to decline (Vidro, Sexson, Ibanez, etc).
This year the masses are depressed, based on the team UNDERperfroming their Pythag Win% in 2008, and trading away players they knew for players they dont know.
And yet those new players are not negatives compared to last year, and we have a lot more upside coming in the future now with young players instead of veterans past their prime.
Even though I am not expecting the playoffs this season (20% chance seems reasonable to me), the future is extremely bright, as our young players improve, and old burdensome contracts fall away, giving Zduriencik room to sign much better players than the ones we had been wasting millions on.
Its exciting to watch simply because the new team actually knows what they are doing and are making strong moves for our future, so its fun to see what move they will make next.
I expect us to be strong contenders in 2010 and beyond, lead by a strong defense (Gutierrez, Ichiro/Chavez/Beltre/etc), great rotation containing Felix/Morrow/Aumont, a solid bullben assembled on the cheap by getting a bunch of undervalued players who have a chance at becoming great and then seeing hwo works out, and an offense improved by new young talent and intelligent free agent signings once the Washburn/Batista contracts go away.
Best case scenario: RRS goes into the rotation and is lights out. Washburn pitches okay. A well-timed injury to a lefthanded starter on a well-heeled club (Cubs?) results in them making an offer for Washburn just as Morrow comes off the DL. This frees up enough salary for the M’s to acquire a midseason bat and everyone lives happily ever after.
Worst case scenario: Batista enters the rotation, pitches just well enough to win with great and unsustainable run support. Lowe and RRS both fail as closers. Morrow is then reinserted as closer and even though Batista starts pitching like Batista, isn’t pulled until the playoffs are well out of reach.
The nice thing is that the best case scenario, with this management, is far more likely than the worst case. The worst case might be described as the Bavasi-McLaren method, or “we have to go with our veterans.”
Best case:
Washburn performs well with the help of a strong defense behind him (especially a Chavez/Gutierrez left-center outfield, where a lot of his pitches end up), and we are able to dump him onto one of the dumb teams after a few months.
Batista performs well as a closer and we are able to dump him onto one of the dumb teams after a few months.
(Alternate: Lowe is closer and perfroms well and we trade him next year for talent while running a Beane-like closer factory)
With the money saved, we are able to make an intelligent signing of a not-overvalued free agent hitter who plays at least decent defense and still has some good years left.
Worst Case: Jack Zduriencik, Tony Blengino, et al, are all killed in a tragic accident and Lincoln/Armstrong hire Bavasi#2 to run the club.
Felix Hernandez is the top player in terms of being an impact player in 2009, and also figuring into the teams future long-term afterwards. Ichiro is 35, and most of the other vets on this squad are either gone during or after 09, or are over 30 and coming off of sub-par seasons (Silva & Johjima) and are untradable. Clement, Gutierrez,
Lowe and some others still have to show they can get the job done in the big-show. Fields might get to the bigs soon, but has never pitched a pro inning yet, Moore and others may reach Safeco late in 09, but not in April or May, they are 2010 and beyond guys. The way I see it the #2 most important 2009 and Beyond player is Brandon Morrow and in that regard there is no filling any void left by him going down. Olson or RRS could do decent jobs, but Morrow can win this year and could be a 15+ winner next year.
ppl
Granted, the M’s were hoping for a good year from Morrow, but we also have the prospect of a healthy(ish) Bedard, and vastly improved defense behind whoever starts, so even pitchers with flyball tendencies could have better years than last (RRS, Washburn, or even Batista).
I think i helps to remeber that you can always replace one player’s contribution in many other ways.
However, i may be getting ahead of myself here, its not as though it has been anounced that Morrow has a torn labrum or something.