Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Matt Morris is really terrible
[Ed. I'm not sure what happened, but this post was deleted at some point yesterday. Its been fixed.]
After Nate McLouth brought the Pirates back above .500 with an assist from Adam LaRoche on Monday, Matt Morris took to the hill on Tuesday and promptly brought the team back to the magic mark. Morris looked solid through three innings, but then reverted to typical form in the fourth and fifth innings, meaning that he went a total of four and two-thirds innings and surrendered six runs.
Morris really is the weak link in the Pirates’ pitching staff right now as Zack Duke has even been able to keep the Pirates competitive in their games, while Morris just heads out to the mound every fifth day and is shelled. He really is near the end of his major league tank, but the Pirates seem bound and determined to pitch him until they can trade him. The other issue is they they really don’t have another potential starter unless you count John Van Benschoten or Bryan Bullington, both of whom are pitching okay but not great at Indianapolis and could conceivably make the jump to a fifth starter role eventually.
Morris does not belong on a major league roster right now, but the Pirates don’t have any other realistic options. For now, they will still need to trot him out every fifth day and put one in the loss column before the game even begins.
Evan Meek has becomes this year’s white flag, as John Russell lets him pitch whenever a game is completely uncontested, such as tonight when the Pirates were already down 8-1. Meek responded to this opportunity by surrendering four hits and giving up three runs, two of them earned. He did not, however, walk anyone which is a huge step in the positive direction for him. (Well, as far as pitching a terrible baseball game can be seen as a step in the positive direction.)
Nate McLouth extended his hitting streak, meaning that the legend of Nate the Great continues to grow in Pittsburgh. If he can maintain this pace, the city will have not been so excited about a player since Freddy Sanchez went for the batting title in 2006. It’s a shame that his home run Monday couldn’t have taken place in PNC Park or somewhere else on the East coast, as most sane Pirate fans were asleep, not watching the ball leave stadium and the Pirates win that game. It was a very good moment for the young team.
The magic number is, however, down to 75 now, meaning that it’s really at about 52 since Russell is insistent on throwing Morris every fifth day. If the Pirates do not release him and let the alternatives do what they can, which actually can’t be worse than what Morris has done, fans should actually stop attending games in which he pitches. Think about it. Instead of having a walkout, fans can just boycott Matt Morris for representing all that is wrong with the Pirates. (It is late and I am tired, but that idea actually doesn’t seem too bad and I may revisit it at some point in the near future.)
Leave a Reply