Morrow’s 4th AAA Start
by Jon Shields ~ August 21st, 2008
Just got back from PGE Park after checking out Brandon Morrow’s latest start, which was a true gem. He stretched himself to 4.2 innings while striking out 10 and walking just one. The only two hits he gave up came in the third inning. One was a chopper back to Morrow that he attempted to field while falling down, and the other was a solid double which brought in two runs (a strikeout victim that reached on a wild pitch and the lone walk).
Aside from the sloppy third inning Morrow was dominating, and his performance was even more impressive than his stellar line. His fastball was blowing Portland Beavers away and stayed around the mid 90s throughout the game, topping out around 97-98 in all five innings. He buckled a few knees with his slider/slurve and worked it in well. He even successfully worked in a handful of changeups, a pitch he seems reluctant to use. Hitter’s seemed genuinely overmatched from my vantage point a few rows back of home plate. If Morrow keeps this up he’ll be starting in Seattle after a couple more starts.
I really liked what I saw, even through my untrained eye. For a slightly more in depth look at Morrow’s outing from a scout perspective, I direct you to Prospect Insider’s post on the outing (see comments).
PS: I love Luis Valbuena.
2 Responses to Morrow’s 4th AAA Start
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment. If you don't yet have an account, please register here and join the discussion. Registration takes only a few seconds!
1 August 21st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Some additional notes from the ballgame:
I arrived at the ballpark to encounter the one thing that will ruin any baseball game… Red Sox fans in the row behind me! Red Sox fans that talked in depth about how Brandon Morrow was injured and was on a rehab start. Red Sox fans that said that they could only watch college baseball with the sound muted, because “ping” isn’t the sound of baseball, but the crack of the bat made by the sound of the ball “hitting hickory” was. Red Sox fans that talked at length about how a guy couldn’t be successful in the big leagues with a 87 MPH fastball. Red Sox fans that talked in depth about how they would have made every defensive play, that called for the Beavers pitcher (Justin Germano) to be lifted because Rob Johnson was fouling off too many pitches in the 2nd inning. One of them looked like an unathletic version of Kevin Youkalis. I digress.
The reason why I said I loved Luis Valbuena is because he’s much more athletic in the field compared to Jose Lopez, is much more of a weapon on the basepaths compared to Jose Lopez, and he looks like a young Luis Castillo with hints of Jose Reyes or Rafael Furcal. If his bat comes around next season Lopez will have to watch his ass.
Kevin Howard, a non prospect recently aquired, homered three times.
I left after Morrow left, so I dunno what happened after the 5th.
2 August 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 am
Lol at the Red Sox fan stuff. I had a recent experience like that at a Mariner game.