Comments on: One Huge Opportunity And Ten Signs Of Life For The Pittsburgh Pirates http://rumbunter.com/2010/09/19/one-huge-opportunity-and-ten-signs-of-life-for-the-pittsburgh-pirates/ A Pittsburgh Pirates Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More Sat, 29 Dec 2012 02:45:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Tom Smith http://rumbunter.com/2010/09/19/one-huge-opportunity-and-ten-signs-of-life-for-the-pittsburgh-pirates/#comment-4035 Tom Smith Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:21:19 +0000 http://rumbunter.com/?p=15685#comment-4035 Thanks Tim. We added Duke and Morton to put it over ten signs of life, but sure, Duke has been awful. It's well documented on the site. We simply said he responded to a threat of being removed from the rotation--that's a sign of life. Morton has been awful. It's well documented on the site. But his fastballs looked good recently--the two and four seamer are his best dating back to 2009. That's a sign of life. He needs work on the rest of his arsenal, and we saw some of it. Not nearly enough, but some. So our point was, Duke and Morton have done well for short periods of time in black and gold. Surely one of them should have the ability to be a serviceable five starter on this club in 2011. Especially since Duke will be discounted and we both know how much Neal loves discounts. So for Duke and Morton those are signs of life--I guess you could compare it to a bump in a flatliner of a season for each player, but nonetheless.....they are showing some life. Now if both could just miss a few bats now and then.... http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/dont-blame-duke/ Per Baseball Prospectus’ Defensive Efficiency rating, Pittsburgh has converted the lowest percentage of balls put in play into outs (67.5%) of any big league team. Duke has a whopping .351 BABIP, highest among all MLB starters. Thanks Tim. We added Duke and Morton to put it over ten signs of life, but sure, Duke has been awful. It’s well documented on the site. We simply said he responded to a threat of being removed from the rotation–that’s a sign of life.

Morton has been awful. It’s well documented on the site. But his fastballs looked good recently–the two and four seamer are his best dating back to 2009. That’s a sign of life. He needs work on the rest of his arsenal, and we saw some of it. Not nearly enough, but some.

So our point was, Duke and Morton have done well for short periods of time in black and gold. Surely one of them should have the ability to be a serviceable five starter on this club in 2011. Especially since Duke will be discounted and we both know how much Neal loves discounts.

So for Duke and Morton those are signs of life–I guess you could compare it to a bump in a flatliner of a season for each player, but nonetheless…..they are showing some life.

Now if both could just miss a few bats now and then….

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/dont-blame-duke/
Per Baseball Prospectus’ Defensive Efficiency rating, Pittsburgh has converted the lowest percentage of balls put in play into outs (67.5%) of any big league team. Duke has a whopping .351 BABIP, highest among all MLB starters.

]]> By: Tim http://rumbunter.com/2010/09/19/one-huge-opportunity-and-ten-signs-of-life-for-the-pittsburgh-pirates/#comment-4034 Tim Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:01:49 +0000 http://rumbunter.com/?p=15685#comment-4034 The article started out well and then you brought up Charlie Morton and Zach Duke. Let's not forget that Duke's great season was 5 years ago. He has had his chance to figure it out and hasn't. Morton has one good start and then 4 bad ones. His "great stuff" always gets crushed. At 26 I say he gets one more chance but I don't see it being successful. The only hope is that he has been more successful with Chris Synder calling the shots then that other "catcher" Doumit The article started out well and then you brought up Charlie Morton and Zach Duke. Let’s not forget that Duke’s great season was 5 years ago. He has had his chance to figure it out and hasn’t. Morton has one good start and then 4 bad ones. His “great stuff” always gets crushed. At 26 I say he gets one more chance but I don’t see it being successful. The only hope is that he has been more successful with Chris Synder calling the shots then that other “catcher” Doumit

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