Congratulations Brandon
That couldn’t have gone any better.
Some numbers for the night from Pitch F/x:
106 pitches thrown, 72 strikes (17 of them swinging), 34 balls
62 fastballs, 16 changeups, 15 sliders, 12 curveballs, 1 splitter
Average fastball velocity: 95.7 MPH
Fastest pitch – 98.4 MPH fastball
Slowest pitch – 80.7 MPH curveball
Morrow only threw his fastball 58% of the time tonight, compared to 76% of the time when he was a reliever. That’s a huge change in approach, and one that he absolutely had to make. That he was able to sustain a fastball with an average of 96 MPH for 106 pitches is pretty remarkable, honestly – no other starter in baseball consistently rushes their fastball up to the plate at that speed. Not even Felix.
If he’s going to keep throwing 95 and mixing in offspeed stuff 40% of the time, he’s going to be terrific.
And, just for fun, here’s a histogram of Morrow’s pitches tonight. He might be the easiest pitcher in baseball to discern between his fastball and offspeed stuff.
That was very exciting and extremely encouraging. Despite missing the no-no, everyone has to be thoroughly pleased with Morrow’s first major league start and there’s no way they can ever put him back in the bullpen now, unless something drastic happens. Dave — what did you think about his approach and secondary stuff?
Wow! I just discovered that I’m still a fan. This has been a hard year.
It looked nice even on GameDay.
With certain remaining stupid, interfering lugs removed fom the front office and a USS Mariner-approved GM, I will start pulling for this team again.
PLEASE!!!
“…there’s no way they can ever put him back in the bullpen now…”
I think that’s a lot of what Dave was saying in this post. There wasn’t a more emphatic way of saying, “this is where I belong” than throwing 7 2/3 of no hit stuff at the Yankees.
It’s exciting to think about next year’s staff.
…I wish the hitters didn’t suck.
What a great game by Morrow! The Phils Brett Myers went through the same thing this year when they signed Brad Lidge to be their closer. At the beginning of the season Myers was horrible as a starter, but after they sent him to the minors to get his head straight, and get used to being a starter agaim he has been lights out. I see the same out of Morrow for the rest of this season, and into next. I think he can be a big help to King Felix in the rotation next season!
I was especially impressed with the breaking stuff. I’d seen the slider occasionally when Morrow was a reliever, but I don’t think I’d seen much of that curve.
Really, all of his pitches looked good tonight. I’ll be very interested to see his next start.
Damn. Felix + Morrow + three spare parts == a rotation you can contend with.
Too bad the position players are baseball’s answer to the Hanford site.
Game of the year, right up there with that extra inning game with the Rays?
Just caught up to the end of the run on my DVR… wow. That was ELECTRIC to watch. Congratulations young man, this mound is yours now.
Huzzah!
I guess you can say that the Mariners now have a Two Aces(tm) rotation after all.
Felix, Morrow and Washburn will make a great rotation.
Wait…
Huzzah, indeed! Congrats to Brandon. That was far better than expected.
The curve looked awfully tough, and during Giambi Major’s last AB, Morrow had some impressive control of the fastball. And, this was the Yankees, not some helpless bunch of shrimp-bats. I’m impressed.
Look on the bright side: if the rotation’s future is this bright, and they’ve got enough arms to fill out the back end with arms to spare… then the team can focus on building the lineup.
Yeah yeah, Armstrong blah blah reduced payroll blah blah. This team likely has no concerns in the rotation other than awaiting the expiration or offloading of two albatross contracts, while waiting out a big mistake.
A great night. We’re still going to need bats and defensive upgrades in 3/4ths of the infield before we’ll be able to compete (in 09), but this is the first slightly encouraging moment in months.
Can someone get the memo to Felix? You don’t need to “establish the fastball”.
That’s a pretty hellacious speed differential between his FB and his offspeed stuff. If he can keep hitters from picking up the difference in his presentation before his release, he’s going to make a lot of hitters look really foolish.
Wow, that’s fewer fastballs than I thought. I was at the game and it seemed like he was throwing the fastball quite a bit, although he was also mixing in his breaking ball going for first-pitch called strikes like we saw him do as a reliever. I was impressed at his approach to the lefties though; he seemed to be able to mix his change in effectively and keep them off balance. The Yankee hitters didn’t look comfortable at the plate against him.
It really is nice to have something to look forward to. As much as management sucks, they know how to not suck up some things, which is good to see. Hopefully that’s one less piece to go looking for in free agency.
That kind of stuff he was showing, you pretty much have to let him in the rotation to see how often he can repeat that. Finished product or not, he’s in the rotation….
(Felix, Morrow, RR-S, Bedard, Silva and Dickey/Feierabend/Batista is a fairly competent top six)(and you really should go six deep….)
Yes, you’re rebuilding, but astute GM-ship (and no ham-handed interference from the incompetent bosses who only THINK they know what they’re doing) can make that a short rebuild…
In Giambi’s first at bat, the pitch he struck out on broke so hard and so late it was simply unfair. The ball approached the plate in his wheelhouse and ended somewhere around his ankles. I fear for Morrow’s arm when I see pitches like that, but holy crap is it impressive.
Wow.
Re: I guess you can say that the Mariners now have a Two Aces(tm) rotation after all.
We’re all aware that “one swallow…” etc., but it does seem ironic that we gave so much for an “Ace” when we already…
what a ball game! that was the best. Gotta love a ray of light in such a dark storm.
Great Job Brandon! Maybe the L word will never been said again.
I have been wating to see Mr. Morrow start since the ASB last year. This was indredible.
There you go Mariners you have been missing that for the entire year. What an organization you are.