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Sandy - Raleigh's picture

Well, if he is "physically" perfect for great control -- but has a long history of control issues -- then it pretty much becomes the default answer -- the control issues are in his head. While this may be blood-sugar related, it certainly doesn't have to be.
What's interesting to me in regards to Morrow's "makeup" is the insight that he asked to be a starter because "closer" was filled. That, in my mind, is exactly opposite of the assessment that he is "weak" in character. The guy with no ambition is the guy who does what he's told - never opens his mouth - gladly takes over as a setup guy, a swing man, a long reliever, and never says a word.
By his own words, it's a case of "if I can't close, then I want to start." This is not the picture of a guy attempting to avoid anything. In point of fact, it's a picture of a guy who WANTS to be "The Man".
While the mathematicians can talk value -- it is EASY to see how a player could view closer as being as much or more valueable to a team. He gets to pitch more often - almost always under pressure - and he gets to be a part of more victories.
The more I hear from Morrow, the more I interpret his actions and words as showing EXACTLY the type of "go-get-'em" character that he's been accused of lacking. His response to his meltdown was to say he needs to have a short memory. CLEARLY, he wants the situation, and understands that he needs to set aside the negatives and plan on succeeding next time out. THAT is exactly the kind of attitude you want in any ballplayer, but especially a closer.
As for the inability to figure out why he couldn't throw strikes. That is NORMAL for young pitchers. That's precisely what learning on the job is about as a ML pitcher. As noted previously, when starting, he was everything from stellar to dreadful. No clue as to what you were going to get on any given day. But, the kid still has VERY few ML innings under his belt. It takes time to build up that resevoir of experience and start finding those "go-to" solutions when things go awry. After two outs, he couldn't clear the mechanism. Why? He doesn't know. I don't know. But, I'm betting the coaches are going over the tape repeatedly to find some crumb to give the kid the next time things go wonky.
Ultimately, it probably isn't about what the crumb is - just that the kid has something to "try". That, by itself, may be enough to avoid another such collapse.
Then again, I wonder, if Batista gets the final out, and the club wins - is the angst about Morrow nearly as strong?

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