The Charlie Morton era has begun

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The Charlie Morton era has begun

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Morton, who has gone from unknown to sky's the limit late bloomer in a matter of eight months, will start his first game this weekend:
The Braves will promote Charlie Morton, who has gone 4-2 with a 2.05 ERA for Triple-A Richmond, to make his Major League debut against the Angels on Saturday
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... Id=rss_atl
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Post by Orioles »

Ouch. I created Morton in November, held onto him the entire offseason, then stupidly dumped him Feb. 3, a month before he busted out. Dumb. Probably would have done well to axe one of the army of injured crappy veterans I carried into the season who are no longer Marlins anyway (friggin' Nomar, etc.). For a team in need of LH SP, Morton and Dumatrait (also added and dropped the first month of the season) would probably be useful. Win some lose some I guess.

2023 GM Totals: 1780 W - 1460 L | 0.549 wpct | 89-73 (avg 162 G record)
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Post by Rangers »

I still find this guy to be possibly the most intriguing player on my roster. He's 25 and who knows if he's mentally strong enough to be a consistent winner, but in addition to him being an enigma, I find it curious that the Braves spoke in such superlatives about him and that the Pirates clearly valued him significantly in the McLouth deal, yet BA, et al seemed to completely ignore his talent, to the point that a lot of us had barely heard of him even after he'd emerged. Look at his AAA numbers last year and this year and listen to what these guys say about his stuff, and tell me that all you can imagine this guy possibly becoming is a middle reliever. Just so curious.
MIAMI -- There had been questions about Charlie Morton, long before he became the Pirates' most immediate return in the Nate McLouth trade.

Chief among them:

1. Was he mentally tough enough?

2. Could he translate all that terrific stuff into success at the top level?

It was only one game, this 7-4 flattening of first-place Florida last night at Land Shark Stadium that included rare home runs from Brandon Moss and Ramon Vazquez, but perhaps it began Morton's process of answering the above.

Emphatically.

"He was impressive," manager John Russell said. "What Charlie did out there ... very impressive."

Despite two rain delays and a persistent drizzle that cost him a good grip much of the evening, Morton kept the Marlins scoreless through six innings on just one single.

He did walk four, twice when he clearly lost a grip on full counts, but he also used that stuff to quash his only two jams.

Again, emphatically.

The first two Florida batters reached in the fifth, ending Morton's no-hitter, but he promptly nailed down a popup, groundout and swinging strikeout of John Baker over a biting changeup.

Or was it a curve placed on fast-forward?

The first two batters reached again in the sixth, but Morton responded with a groundout, a popup by the Marlins' greatest talent, Hanley Ramirez, and a flyout from cleanup man Jorge Cantu. The latter came on a 94-mph fastball that tailed in toward Cantu so dramatically that it broke his bat for a flyout.

"It really moved," catcher Jason Jaramillo said.

"We had Morton against the ropes a couple times, but he made pitches when he had to," Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said.

This was Morton's fourth start with the Pirates, but his first at full health. A tight hamstring knocked him out of his debut and limited him in the next two.

One thing no one has questioned about Morton is his stuff.

Well, maybe just one question ...

Bob Walk, former pitcher and current broadcaster for the team, asked this upon emerging from the booth last night: "When was the last time you saw anyone on the Pirates with stuff like that? With that combination of velocity and movement?"

The question was taken to shortstop Jack Wilson, the most tenured current player.

"If you're talking just about movement, I'd say Sean Burnett when he first came up as a rookie, before getting hurt," Wilson said. "His pitches moved like crazy."

But Burnett never threw 95 mph, as Morton did routinely last night.

What about overall pure stuff?

"No one," Wilson answered without hesitation. "Not since I've been here."

If Morton was allowing any aspect of the evening to get to his head, it did not show.

"You know, I've been pitching really well in the minors for about a year and a half, and that's it," he said. "I threw six innings out there tonight, and I need to go deeper."
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Post by Rangers »

Ugh

Pittsburgh IP H R ER BB K HR WHIP Season ERA
C. Morton (L, 1-2) 4.0 10 5 5 1 3 0 1.48 4.29
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