Add new comment

... is a much, much, much more daunting task than assembling a roster full of talent.
Bavasi actually did his best to assemble talent for his stay -- and we all saw the miserable results.
What Z did in Milwaukee, and what I've been seeing from him in Seattle is that he is *NOT* interesting in simply assembling talent. The Yankees have been assembling talent to beat the band by don't have a title this century. Building a winning ORGANIZATION is much, much harder -- but the rewards are bigger and longer lasting.
Kudos on a great call on Morrow, Doc. But, here's the thing that is really, really subtle, but I believe is playing a MAJOR role in the whole Morrow saga.
1) Morrow comes in as a golden boy and advances to Go, collects his $200, and is a major league reliever. He's got all kinds of nasty stuff. The "pitchers" that cycle through are dreadfully awful journeyman pitchers that don't have nearly the stuff Morrow does - *AND* they have pedestrian to awful results. That creates an environment where Morrow is perfectly justified in assuming ...
A) I'm better than these Bozos.
B) They can't teach me anything.
C) I should be getting these starts over every guy on the staff - except maybe Felix.
2) When Bedard shows up, he comes off as arrogant and standoffish, (especially to the press), but gets hurt, and so doesn't actually get to pitch that much. But, he's a similar "talent" based on casual observation.
3) Morrow has ZERO reason to believe that AAA is going to do him any good at all, because he's been watching the Keystone Kops of a pitching staff for 2 years. When Putz gets flushed, Morrow has every reason to believe he can simply step in and do what Putz did, (especially having watched his pedestrian 2008 performance).
4) And being under the age of 30, Morrow likely Google's himself regularly, so I suspect it's likely he's read MANY articles noting how special he is.
============
So, that was the baseball world he was introduced to the Majors thru. We'll call it, "The Land of the Lost".
Z comes in, and basically throws out the entire ego-centric elitism of the previous regime. When asked to go put in some AAA time to become a starter, he NATURALLY bristles, because he already knows he's way more talented than most of the schlubs. "Make me a closer, boss!" (Putz wasn't all that great, anyway).
Z has stated that he's not after simple talent. He keys on those intangibles that don't show up on radar guns. He looks for baseball INTELLIGENCE. So, he goes out and gets guys like Vargas and Olson. But, Z understands the importance of defense behind these pitchers - and gets F-Gut for CF and Endy for LF. He doesn't have the flexibility to do much about the infield, though.
But, he cedes to Morrow's request/demand, and then Vargas and Olson, (guys of seriously less talent than Morrow), come in and thrive as starters. Meanwhile, Morrow is struggling more and more as "just" a reliever. (He's also being called a wuss all over the web, which he probably knows about, too).
Why is Morrow listening today, but wasn't yesterday?
Because he had the opportunity to *SEE FIRST HAND* the results from pitchers who have put in the time. He is getting to see first hand that a guy like Washburn, with a fraction of the talent, is out-pitching Felix. (And more importantly, out-pitching Morrow). But, I suspect it is mostly the way the other "young" pitchers have stepped in and had success, while Morrow has struggled, that is pushing his reassessment of his situation. Heck, even Jaku has a better ERA than Morrow at this point. With Silva on the DL, Morrow has the most talent and worst ERA on the staff. You could ignore something like that for a week or two -- but a month? Two months? Uh-uh.
You want your really, really talented guys to work harder? Bring in less talented guys who just continue to outperform them. THEN, they might get the message. If not, it won't take long to know you're dealing with a lost cause.
To learn ... first you have to listen.