........
Re Brandon League, Mojo likes what he sees:
Contrast Brandon League:
Cooler tattoos,
Better control, League can paint the corners when he wants, and can throw his sinkerball for a strike.
Good stuff too, He hits 98 on the radar gun, has a good sinker ball, and has that fork thing as his offspeed pitch.
Has thrived in Seattle, with 3.42 and 2.82 ERAs while pitching high leverage innings for the lowest run scoring and most disappointing offenses in history.
Does not whine, Last year, he never whined, that we know of, during all those 1-1 and 0-0 tie games where he pitched his heart out for at least two innings, and the Mariners lost anyway.
Did not whine, when he was behind the DA even though he had better stats.
Did not whine, when he was moved to closer, and had added pressure.
Is an all star.
Will be traded next July for Jesus Montero, Mike Trout or someone similarly awesome, OR
Will sign with the Mariners as the closer of the future for a hometown discount, OR
Both.
Sometimes we need to count our blessings. League is one of them.
STIPULATED THAT, objectively speaking, this guy has been closing games ... and closing them with great tempo, attack, and attitude ... and that his stuff is super-elite. He gets ahead in the count, too.
I would counter that 6.3 strikeouts is definitely not closer material -- neither is his sky-high 3.73 lifetime ERA. His lifetime FIP of 3.99 is terrible for a late-inning reliever making big money.
I'm biased here, because I can't bear to watch the man pitch. It's a personal bias of mine that I don't want to be around people who talk "AT" you rather than "WITH" you.
League, refusing to think on the mound, refuses to include the hitter, catcher, or coaches in the conversation. That can do nothing but make him worse, and in fact it has made him worse, MUCH worse than he should have been as a baseball pitcher.
He's about as reliable as Aardsma. Which is fine compared to Chris Ray, but not so fine compared to a real closer.
...
I should acknowledge that League's mental problems lower his effectiveness from "should-be star" to "actual fairly-good reliever." His stuff is just so sensational that it braces up his floor -- you still want him on your ballclub.
You guys want to enjoy the tats and the "you can't touch this" attitude and the machine-like predictable Clubber Lang onslaughts, who can blame yer.
...
OBF:
BTW I was trying to look up team DER to see if the blue jays have a terrible defense and I couldn't find it, can someone provide a link?
Fangraphs > Team Totals > Fielders allows you to sort by UZR/150 ... the Blue Jays are middle-of-the-pack.
Baseball Prospectus > Statistics > Team Defensive Efficiency again puts the Jays solidly middle of the pack, at .708.
Morrow's BABIP this year is fine, up a little maybe at .310, but the real issue is his strand rate. He's stranded only 63.2% of all baserunners, with 70% being the norm.
Is Morrow uncomfortable in the stretch? That would be a little odd, since he served 3 years' apprenticeship as a reliever.
Still, his numbers are somewhat off in the stretch, and visually to me he looks far more comfortable from the full wind. This probably does play into that "bully" factor where he enjoys life when things are going great but tends to wish he weren't there, when they're going less well.
I wouldn't exaggerate the factor -- he's been pitching with runners on base since ... well, since he's been pitching. But I'd agree that Morrow has some work to do, before he can reliably "bear down" when the going is tough.
.
Or not,
Dr D
If the hitters are up there gambling, going after high heaters, then they're swapping some SwStr's for some HR's...
Morrow definitely needs to show that he can stay away from the long ball, will cheerfully concede that...
I don't know how fangraphs determines low, medium, and high leverage, but Brandon Morrow's homerun rate in his career is 50% higher in high and medium leverage situations than it is in low leverage situations. It doesn't appear to be an in the stretch problem either, because his homerun rates with the bases empty, men on base, or men in scoring position are all similar.
I never believed the accusations that Brandon was soft, I just thought he was erratic due to lack of experience and the need of a well defined role. But the numbers are not good support for my opinion...
Doc...I know you got annoyed with Brandon the first half of the year...heck...so did I. But have you noticed that his situational pitching has improved? When I last watched him close a game, he three to four batters, and three of them got a first-pitch slider or sinker and two of them got a 1-1 slider or sinker. So it's not like he's just whipping a fastball in there to start every at bat or to get ahead in counts anymore.
But, looking at his pitch selection chart, seems like he stil throw an Awwwwwwful lot of fastballs. Especailly when behind in the count 2-0, 3-0, 2-1, 2-1 are still just as bad as early in the year. Where League has gotten better is in throwing his solit more when even or slightly behind, mostly has evidenced by a drop in FB rate on 0-0, 1-1, and 3-2. And I actually think it helped him improve by not throwing the split as much when way ahead. It was easy for the hitter to just not swing 0-2 because they knew a buried split was coming. But League increaed his FB percentage on 0-2, 1-2, and 2-2 so thats good.
bias against Morrow that probably make me less than a stellar adjudicator of anything involving him, I think you may have developed the same for League. Yes he gets a little predictable sometimes, but if you throw 98 located low in the zone, that's a pretty good pitch to go for the easy early GB,and that's what League does. Plus as Matt said before League IS improving, albeit maybe not as quickly or thoroughly as we would like, but he has changed his attitude some at least.
During his melt down in Baltimore I almost completely dismissed him, but other than that blip he has been great as a closer and causes me WAY less hyperventilating when he comes out on the mound as compared to Aardsma ;) In fact these days I would say I trust League just about as much as I trusted JJ Putz back in the day. Putz was also liable to throw an arrow straight fastball 95 in the zone and give up an untimely HR once in a while.
Bottom line is the dude is an All Star closer, and is top 10 in saves with 34, which is blamed hard thing to do when your team only has 61 wins to begin with! Maybe the style of closer you prefer is the one that gets lots of k's while getting the guys out, but worm burners to second work just fine to me :)
Plus personality wise League is a MUCH better fit both in the clubhouse and in Seattle in general. The glasses, the tats, the way he is going to do his own thing regardless and succeed the way he wants to succeed all that is very young, hip, and northwestern :) I bet he even listens to the bands that LL talks about on fridays (all of whom I have never heard of), shops for local organic green certified produce at a co-op or farmers market and drinks kombucha ;)
...drinking Tab while munching Bugles.
...listening to The Beach Boys.
...driving a '65 Corvette Sting Ray.
Right?
Or have things changed...?
For me Morrow represents a direction. I do like League though. In fact I'd like to see what League and Felix could bring back in a package from, oh say, the Yankees or Phillies. Loose cannons as far as I'm concerned.
Those glasses are an important part of the League "Sports Entertainment" experience. After all, baseball is supposed to be fun. The Clubber Lang comp is also good stuff. Having a good closer is good, but the WWE stuff is better.
About that other guy: Shakespeare, a well regarded European baseball blogger from the Ye Olde English Cricket Blog, had this to say of Brandon Morrow.
All that glitters is not gold;Often have you heard that told:Many a man his life hath soldBut my outside to behold:Gilded tombs do worms enfold.Had you been as wise as bold,Young in limbs, in judgment old,Your answer had not been inscroll'd:Fare you well; your suit is cold.
I think that what Shakespeare was saying, was that many teams will grow old and die chasing the dream of Morrow's electric arm, or maybe Morrow's pitching ability is the gilded tomb. We can tell that when Shakespeare is talking about young in limbs, but lacking old judgment, he is acknowledging Morrow's special arm while having doubt about makeup. Whatever the case, We can be certain that one Bill Bavasi gave his baseball life chasing the Morrow gold and the suit for Morrow Gold has been cold for some time and has never really warmed up, XFIP notwithstanding.
...he wasn't asking for League to throw a BUNCH more splits...he just wanted it in the batter's mind early in counts often enough to paralyze them against the fastball. Yeah, if he gets behind 2-0 or 3-1 or 3-0...he's probably in trouble if he doesn't spot his fastball perfectly...but...how many pitchers have a good enough splitter to throw for a strike reliably on 2-0?
He's improved over his May state...it's not perfect, but it's probably good enough to keep him effective. Just my 0.02 though.