Pittsburgh Pirates September Call-Up Surprise: Could It Be Bryan Morris?
By Tom Smith
Bryan Morris is pitching
rather well at Altoona since being moved to the bullpen. The final piece of the Jason Bay trade, Morris is battling to show he belongs in black and gold in a relief role. The right hander has a 2.09 ERA in 23 games. His strikeouts are coming as well with 33 in 38.2 IP with just 12 free passes.
But taking a look at his results in the past ten, there is a slight blip with six walks to go with seven strikeouts over 11.1 IP. Three of those walks came in one game on July 24. Morris has allowed six runs over that same ten game stretch.
Cory Giger has some interesting quotes from Curve pitching coach Wally Whitehurst in the article below about the improvement in Morris’ performance this season.
The article glosses over the successful run that Morris did have as a starter, but what the hell, the quotes are what are interesting.
With Joel Hanrahan pitching like the Hanranator we all expect, would a September callup of Morris be a possibility? Well it’s at least mentioned in the article by Whitehurst.
Another interesting point is Hanrahan’s contract will be coming up in 2013. Could Morris be the eventual replacement? It would be great to see the Pirates want to keep a leader like Hanrahan around Pittsburgh. The guy is a stud on and off the field. He will want paid handsomely because he frankly is pitching like one of the top closers in the game.
In the article, Morris shows respect for the Pirates closer which is another reason we are a fan of the right hander.
But looking at this team currently, Hanrahan is a two thousand dollar set of rims on a SmartCar. We trust that in 2013 that isn’t the case.