Pettitte strong, but Morrow dominates

by 26 Comments

Trenton sweeps into the Eastern League Championship series
A Tale of Two Stadiums

Brandon Morrow is 24 years old. Prior to Friday evening, he had thrown 100 big league innings and had made a grand total of zero starts.

This year, Morrow, one of the Mariners’ top pitching prospects, has thrown up some impressive numbers. In 36.2 innings, he’s allowed 18 hits and has a better than 3:1 K:BB ratio. He also throws in the upper 90s.

The Yankees, meanwhile, were coming off a night game in Tampa and a cross-country flight. Clearly, that’s a winning combination for the Mariners, and Morrow did not disappoint. The youngster didn’t give up a hit until Wilson Betemit doubled in a run in the 8th. He walked three, struck out eight and threw 72 of his 106 pitches for strikes. On nights like these, you just tip your cap to the opposing pitcher and salute him for a stellar game.

On the Yanks’ side of the ball, Andy Pettitte, with his pinstripe future in doubt, had himself a nice outing. He threw seven strong innings, striking out nine Mariners and allowing three runs on seven hits and a walk. He did what he’s supposed to do against a punchless offense. Too bad the Yankees were even more punchless tonight.

With that loss, the Yanks fall 8.5 games behind the Red Sox for that final playoff spot. More alarming, however, is the 0.5 games separating them from the Blue Jays. Right now, I’ll retire my pipe dream of seeing the Yankees overcome the odds to play in October and start rooting for them to avoid a fourth-place finish. Considering their schedule the rest of the way, they don’t have a lock on third place.

Trenton sweeps into the Eastern League Championship series
A Tale of Two Stadiums
  • Hitman

    What kind of organization would be so stupid to convert a potential ace starter to a relief pitcher? They’d have to be complete retards. The yankees would never do anything like that!

    • cult of basebaal

      THEY’RE PUTTING THE EIGHTH INNING AT RISK!!!!

  • Ivan

    It’s been a difficult season for the yankees obviously as they will most likey miss the playoffs this season. Alot things that could of went wrong basically and as a result the yankees just had a subpar year for their standards.

    Right now you can’t really stop focusing on the offseason and thinking about next season because lets get real 8.5GB and very little games left and a Boston team that’s playing god baseball, hey you gonna need a miracle on that one.

    As a Yankee fan, I just want them to play well to finish the season and it on a good note.

    On the bright side, Tomorrow you can watch the SWB playoff game with Phil Hughes pitching.

    It’s dissapointed but better days are ahead and hey the yanks had a great run. One of the best runs in not only baseball history but sports history as well. Like the old saying goes, before you feel joy, you gotta feel pain. Better days are comming soon, we just gotta wait for a while.

  • Batty

    I’d rather they lose the rest of the season and get some better prospects – retribution for this year’s debacle.

    • Jack

      I hate you.

  • Steve

    MLB trade rumors had something interesting recently. The Padres are looking to slash payroll this off season to 50 mil, and will be looking to retool their roster and organization with an eye towards 2010.

    Adrian Gonzalez at 1B anyone?

    They have a kid 1B named Kyle Banks who’s almost ready in AA, maybe a stopgap 1B and some young pitching get it done.

    http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/B/Kyle-Blanks.shtml

    • http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike A.

      I was talking to Joe about Adrian the other day. He’s young, an excellent hitter and an excellent defender. He really would be an excellent fit. I’d give up Hughes for him, but it would take more, they’d need a position player back – preferably and outfielder – as well. Remember, he’s locked into a real nice contract for the next few years.

      I don’t think the Yanks can pull that off unless they get a third party involved.

      • Steve

        Here’s how I look at it, combination of business and Baseball. In terms of production, A-Gon and Tex are pretty much the same player.

        -Tex will cost the Yanks 140-150 mil to sign. Plus two draft picks.

        -A-Gon will cost around 6-7 mil over the next 2 years with a club option of 5.5 mil the year after.

        So the question becomes is a package of two or three top prospects, maybe (USC hometown boy) Kennedy/A-Jax+ worth 130 mil to the franchise? No, not even close. The most optimistic projections for both players would save the franchise around 30-40 mil each through their arby years, and chances are one of them fails and saves you nothing anyway.

        Even if they were to extend A-Gon for 2 years into his free agency like Cano, he would still only cost them around 40 mil. He would still save the Yanks around 100 million. Plus, you have more roster and payroll flexibility by having A-Gon for 2-5 years instead of being locked in to Tex for 7, the last few of which he will likely be in decline and much less productive. That’s how we got where we are now with players like Giambi, we shouldn’t repeat that same mistake, even if its years down the road.

  • Steve

    “The Yankees start Instructional League on Sept. 17. The first workout will be Sept. 18. They will play a six-game schedule:

    Sept. 22: Phillies at Yankees, 1 p.m.
    Sept. 24: Yankees at Pirates, 1 p.m.
    Sept. 26: Rays at Yankees, 1 p.m.
    Sept. 29: Yankees at Phillies, 1 p.m.
    Oct. 1: Yankees at Pirates, 1 p.m.
    Oct. 3: Pirates at Yankees, 10 a.m.

    Here’s who was invited:

    Pitchers: Manuel Banuelos, Dellin Betances, Jeremy Bleich, Noel Castillo, Wilkins de la Rosa, Christian Garcia, Brett Marshall, D.J. Mitchell, Jhonny Nunez, Mike O’Brien, Dave Phelps, Matt Richardson, Amauri Sanit, Nik Turley, Arodys Vizcaino.

    Catchers: Franciso Cervelli, Kyle Higashioka, Jesus Montero, Austin Romine, Chase Weems.

    Infielders: Dave Adams, Carmen Angelini, Mitchell Delaney, Corban Joseph, Brandon Laird, Garrison Lassiter, Eduardo Nunez, Jimmy Parades, Damon Sublett, Brad Suttle.

    Outfielders: Abraham Almonte, Kelvin DeLeon, Eduardo Sosa, Taylor Grote, Francisco Santana, Chris Smith.

    A few notes: Lots of notable 2008 draft picks in this crew. Bleich, Adams, Smith, Lassiter, Marshall, Mitchell, etc. … Sanit is the oldest player on the list. The 29-year-old is a Cuban defector who now resides in Costa Rica.”

    From LoHud

    Since we don’t have a top prospect list out yet, this can serve as a substitute. This roster tells you who the Yanks think are on the come in their organization in the lower levels.

    • Andy in Sunny Daytona

      I am so disappointed that Melvin Croussett is not coming over for the Instructional League. It’s heartbreaking.

  • Mickey Rivers Rules

    The 2008 – 2009 off-season should at least be a hell of a lot more interesting than the 2008 regular season.

  • http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CRsmithT1.jpg tommiesmithjohncarlos

    From Mike: “Wilson Betemit has three at-bats since August 15th, he’s basically useless now, no way he can do much of anything with all that rust …”

    Mike, Ben, Joe: from now on, I demand that you put some random disparaging comment predicting a players struggles at the bottom of every game thread. That little irrelevant comment singlehandedly saved us from being no-hit.

    Thank you.

    • Cam

      I just had a chance to read the last couple of posts and noticed that line about Betemit. I have no idea if he went back and added that after the fact, but man is that creepy.

      • http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike A.

        Nah, I wrote that in the original game thread, which I posted about 30 mins before first pitch. Helluva coincidence.

    • http://www.riveraveblues.com Joseph P.

      That happens a lot with us. Last year, every time we killed Mientkiewicz, he got a hit.

      • Ed

        I know the feeling. I had tickets to 2003 ALCS Game 7. I was watching game 6 with family. The entire night I was bashing Aaron Boone, saying he couldn’t hit at all. It took a while for me live that one down. At least his complete sucking ever since Game 7 made it easier though.

  • Tim Sherman

    It really makes no difference if the Yankees finish in third or fourth place this year. The fact is that they have been terrible all year and judging by the way they’ve played against Toronto lately, Toronto is a better team. Actually it would be better if they finished fourth as they would draft higher and maybe get better prosects, but judging by this year’s debacle of failing to sign two of their first three picks, you can’t really count on that either. Bottom line is that this team is a mess and needs a complete overhaul. Cano needs to be traded, Jeter needs to move to second as he obviously can’t play short at a major league level anymore. Abreu needs to go as well. He has been a cancer and in my mind is one of the reasons that Cano and Cabrera have regressed. They both look up to him and both now play the game the same way, but with less talent. They need to find a shortstop with some range and a real centerfielder. I believe the pitching will sort itself out, but this team is horrbible both offensively and defensively on most nights. I have been watching the Yankees since I was a kid in the sixties and this is by far the most heartless bunch I have witnessed. Even during the lean years, they played hard. I am hoping for a completely different look next year with some guys who hustle and can score some runs consistently.

    • steve (different one)

      Jeter has been about average this year on defense.

      the rest of your post is too stupid to warrant a response.

      seriously, you should throw your computer off the highest building you can find.

  • E-ROC

    Can the Yanks tank the season so they can protect their first round pick?

    • Mike R.

      That is mathematically improbable. Even if the Yankees lost 75% of their games here on out they still wouldn’t have the 15th pick. Damn NL mediocrity!

  • mustang

    “rooting for them to avoid a fourth-place finish. Considering their schedule the rest of the way, they don’t have a lock on third place.”

    With all respect what does it matter.

    • mustang

      Don’t they get a higher pick if they finish 4th I would think some people here would be jumping for joy about that.

  • huuz

    if we’re not in the playoffs, i would just assume be in last place. there is no effective difference between 5th place and last place in the AL…assuming you continue to sell out games.

    • mustang

      Damn right