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Baseball Primer Newsblog — The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand Sunday, April 27, 2008Post-Gazette: Morris, Pirates could be parting waysHey, I thought we went through the Monty Hall problem already.
SHAZAM! SHAZAM!...Matt Morris released. |
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Easy to say when it's not your money.
Matt Morris, the veteran right-hander added by the Pittsburgh Pirates late last season to stabilize a young rotation, was released Sunday after failing to pitch past the second inning in his latest start.
The decision to cut Morris will cost the Pirates more than $10 million, in addition to what they already have paid him this season. Morris is making $10,037,283 this season, or about one-fifth of their payroll, and has a $1 million buyout for 2009.
"Matt Morris is a true professional,'' manager John Russell said. "He's had a great career. He wanted to help us win, but it just wasn't working out.''
.
This is a good sign, but we're now stuck with Phil Dumatriat (9.87 career ERA; PECOTA projected ERA: 5.69) in the rotation. If Gorzellany goes on the DL, which seems inevitable, we'll have John Van Benschoten (8.78; 5.25) there as well.
It's going to get ugly.
Shudder.
Err, mops.
Pirates fans are now calling for his head. They weren't before.
Nothing. Morris hasn't changed, but the people making the baseball decisions have.
It is mildly encouraging that they decided to eat the money now rather than keeping him around to suck (up innings) - it shows at least some awareness of the concept of sunk cost. Dumatrait, at least, has some upside (albeit not much), and the Pirates have little to lose by seeing what he might be able to contribute. They also might as well find out whether they'll ever get anything out of VanBenschoten or Burnett.
-- MWE
EDIT: Zito gave up 8 runs in 3 innings (6 in the 1st) en route to his 6th loss in 6 starts this season. This is getting REALLY ugly.
The goal is to spend a token amount of money so it looks like the front office is just incompetent and half-assed instead of actively malevolent.
It would be tough to say goodbye to Nyjer Morgan, but maybe Brian Bixler could be exchanged for Dave Roberts or Randy Winn.
I think there are far fewer. The Brewers and Tigers used to be laughingstocks, now they're doing quite well. The Rays have a loaded system. Even the Orioles at least seem to understand they need to get young and replenish the system. The Royals are still losing, but not laughingstocks.
I think there are only a handful of teams in which I truly feel sorry for the fanbase - the Giants, the Orioles, and the Pirates. The Astros are making some pretty bad decisions, but the team isn't awful yet.
So, by admitting mistakes, you admit that the organization is capable of being dysfunctional, but at the same time you are showing that it is less dysfunctional now than it was back then.
I'd like to believe it, anyway. I suspect that #11 is probably right, though; the Nuttings generally don't swallow money until the negative PR forces them to do so.
-- MWE
This is the tradition in Pittsburgh. Derek Bell didn't get released because he sucked, he got released because of his mouth. Kevin Young finally got released when he blamed the fans for the team's poor play.
The flip side is that most fans seemed ecstatic when the trade first happened. It was a classic Dave Littlefield move--create some PR by relying on the fact that the average fan still thinks of Morris as the guy who was the Cards' ace. Same thing he did with Casey, Randa and Burnitz. Hopefully, the PR-driven signings are history along with Morris.
I suspect another reason for cutting bait on Morris was the realization that they can't expect the bullpen to throw five to seven innings three of every five games. With Duke still effectively a batting practice pitcher and Gorzelanny maybe being hurt or who knows what, they have to search for somebody who can last five innings now and then.
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