Three Quick Things Submitted For Your Consideration

by Jeff Sullivan on Jun 14, 2009 2:52 AM PDT in Miscellaneous

Brandon Morrow's location against Jason Marquis:

On the left, you see Burke's target and a small yellow circle where the pitch (approximately) wound up. On the right, you see an actual image of where the pitch wound up, just in case you don't believe the yellow circle.

Spare me the talk about how Jason Marquis is an unusually good hitting pitcher. He's a pitcher. He has a lifetime .530 OPS. He was the worst hitter in Colorado's lineup tonight by an enormous margin, and with two outs and the bases loaded, Morrow should've been going right after him. And perhaps that's what he was trying to do - he gave Marquis five consecutive fastballs - but all five fastballs missed their spots, the last two by quite a bit, and the result was that Brandon Morrow drove in a run by walking the pitcher.

Brandon Morrow couldn't throw strikes with his fastball against the opposing pitcher tonight when he needed to. That should be all the proof you need that he's in over his head right now as a starter in the Major Leagues. His stuff moved pretty well over those three innings, but once again Morrow didn't have the slightest idea where the ball was going to go, and that just makes it nigh impossible to succeed. If he can't locate his fastball, how can we expect him to work on his secondary stuff? If he can't work on his secondary stuff, how can we expect him to develop as a starter?

The place for Morrow right now is AAA, where the team can keep a close eye on him and mandate certain things while removing all the pressure. It's easier to implement some tweaks and make a guy throw a 3-0 changeup when the outcomes don't really matter. And right now I've no choice but to trust that the organization is aware of this. Hopefully Bedard's able to return next Friday as scheduled and Morrow can go down to Tacoma and do things the right way, like we were all told he would. Because Seattle isn't the place for Morrow to learn. Not now. Not yet. Quit freaking me out, Wakamatsu.
Mark Lowe is killing me. How is it that he's able to generate such significantly worse results than David Aardsma despite throwing three times as many kinds of pitches and a harder fastball with more movement? So far in June, Lowe has thrown 78 pitches, with 46 strikes and 3 missed bats. That's pathetic. There's no other way around it, and when your results already aren't impressive, it's generally a bad idea to play like ass in the field as well. Wakamatsu's done the right thing by supporting his pitcher and conceding that those were tough plays, but at the very least, Lowe gave Tulowitzki an extra base and then blew a chance to get him at third on Gonzalez' bunt. If Lowe makes a better toss to Beltre, the entire game would've been different.

Anyway. I know you have it in you to be a dominant reliever, Mark. I know it. The quality of your stuff is there for everyone to see. For the love of God, pitch better.
Mariner offense by month:

April: .302 wOBA
May: .310 wOBA
June: .329 wOBA

Thanks to Lopez and Beltre deciding to chip in, this team is finally starting to hit. And things'll be looking up even more pretty soon when Kenji's able to replace the three-headed monster behind the plate. This is finally looking like the lineup we were supposed to have from the beginning of a season. If only Griffey weren't, y'know, him.

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This team would be so much better if a few of the players actually lived up to their potential.

Wlad needs to actually hit for power to be of any use to this team. Lowe has the stuff, but hasn’t displayed the ability to use it. Morrow is a fucking headcase. I realize baseball is the type of game where a lot of players don’t work out in the end, but it’d be nice to have a draft pick or two come up and smoke the big leagues.

Please don’t suck, Dustin.

Awaiting the day I catch a Russell Branyan foul ball. I will make love to it.
Preserved In All His Greatness - R.I.P. The Reignman 1989 to 1997

by JLProck on Jun 14, 2009 3:38 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

Maybe Lowe is tipping his pitches?

I was at Shea for the Felix-Slam!
Personal M's record: 5-4.

by EnglishMariner on Jun 14, 2009 4:03 AM PDT reply actions

For what it's worth, per Larue

Mark Lowe probably should have called in sick … the Seattle Mariners right-hander put a fever and sore throat behind him, warmed up, went out – and lost a game to the Colorado Rockies, 5-3.

"I knew he had a sore throat," manager Don Wakamatsu said afterward. "I didn’t know how bad he was feeling until I saw him in the dugout and he was sweating hard."

How bad did Lowe feel?

"Like (bleep)" he said, shaking his head. "But I’ve gone out there feeling lousy before and had a good inning. Everybody in here as played feeling like this. It’s no excuse."

by msb on Jun 14, 2009 8:38 AM PDT up reply actions

But I thought battling through flu-like symptoms made pitchers get better results!

Case in point: Silva; Washburn etc.

I was at Shea for the Felix-Slam!
Personal M's record: 5-4.

by EnglishMariner on Jun 14, 2009 9:18 AM PDT up reply actions

Griffey is done. Hopefully everyone understands that now.

Griffey could hit 24 more HRs and walk 100 more times this year and he would still be done as a major league player.

Lowe is fustrating and I hope he turns it around. Wouldn’t it be awesome if Aardsma was traded and the main streamed booed booed Jack Z because we were getting rid of yet another proven closer. Only to have the FO know Lowe finally figured it out and became the dominate shut down ace we have always hoped he would become for all these years.
Jack Z put together another JJ Putz deal and get a few good pieces to the puzzle. It would be awesome. Seriously, that is how positive I am on this FO. I really think they could pull something like that off!

by mark sobba on Jun 14, 2009 4:44 AM PDT reply actions

Also, Morrow was exactly what I thought he would be:

a guy that needs about 10 minor league starts.

by mark sobba on Jun 14, 2009 4:47 AM PDT reply actions

Would have liked to have seen a bit more shame from Morrow

In the postgame he was talking about how he’d allowed the pitch count to get in his head… nary a breath about loading the bases (2/3rds of which due to walks) and then walking a national league pitcher.

If you’re going to be an insecure, Brandon, at least be insecure about the right things.

And if Brandon gets one more start for some reason, in the name of his development, I think Ryan Rowland-Smith may very well have an aneurysm.

by Spoomeister on Jun 14, 2009 7:54 AM PDT reply actions

It's the same thing that always causes Morrow to fly out of wack.

This time, the pitch count got into his head and he reverts to trying to “guide” his pitches. He tried to guide them in Game 2 vs. Minnesota and walked the bases loaded. Same thing that caused him to get clobbered in Texas. Same thing that happens here.

Doesn’t really matter what the situation is. That’s something he has to work on; Preferably in AAA.

by ThundaPC on Jun 14, 2009 9:49 AM PDT up reply actions