Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Matt Morris. Enough said.
The trainwreck that is Matt Morris pitching for the Pirates claimed another game last night as Morris surrendered eight runs in four innings en route to a 10-4 loss to the hands of a Florida Marlins team that should be among the worst in baseball. Morris is quickly becoming an automatic loss before the game even begins, which is unfortunate for both the team (for obvious reasons) and for Morris, who seems like he legitimately wants to succeed.
The effort that Morris is seemingly putting forth is much more than he needs to, as he can just receive his $11 million without trying at all, but is being a professional about this situation and is working significant amounts between starts with pitching coach Jeff Andrews. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that Morris just isn’t very good anymore. His fastball hits 85 mph, maybe and his location is terrible.
The Pirates, who have to be pretty close to hitting the panic button, really can’t afford to keep Morris around if they want to reach the .500 plateau, which looks like it would be an accomplishment even without Morris due to the other starting pitchers. The team can not, however, afford to send out a pitcher 25-30 times in a season and know that they are going to lose each and every time, which is the situation with Morris. The concept of a white flag in the bullpen (Wasdin, Meek for instance) is a familiar one, but having a white flag starter is a brand new and even more dangerous idea that Pirate fans really don’t deserve.
The most important story in all of this, of course, is that Nate McLouth got a hit to extend his streak to 19 games, the longest to begin a season since 2006. Okay, that obviously wasn’t the most important story, but as long as McLouth continues to get one hit in each game he plays in there will be a slight silver lining in what is otherwise a cloud of losing.
The magic number is down to 70 and the losing streak is up to five and this Pirate team is playing some of the worst baseball I have seen in my time as a fan.
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