AGING DEAC
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YES SIR ! Good ( Texas ) defeats Evil ( California ) !!!!
YES SIR ! Good ( Texas ) defeats Evil ( California ) !!!!
The Astros raised eyebrows around the baseball world when they rushed to sign him after last season to a two-year, $14 million contract, plus incentives. Charlie Morton? The guy with the 46–71 career record and 4.54 ERA, making for the worst winning percentage of any active pitcher with at least 150 starts? The same guy who would be on his fourth team and has surgeries to his elbow and both hips in addition to his hamstring? The guy who took six years to get to the big leagues, only to go back down first to work with a mental skills coordinator who worked with soldiers at West Point, and then again to re-learn how to throw as a sinker-slider pitcher with a low arm slot?
The Astros saw a different Morton. They saw a guy who was throwing his sinker and four-seamer 97 mph, a 5-mph improvement after he redesigned his training regimen after the 2015 season, losing 15 pounds and generating more speed with his body and arm. They also saw a guy who, in that brief time with the Phillies before he broke down again, owned the fifth-highest curveball spin rate of any pitcher who threw at least 50 curveballs.
Morton had long been interested in analytics himself, sharing such passion with his father, a Penn State graduate who works in finance. The Astros saw the spin on his curveball and realized he should be throwing it more, especially to lefthanders. It was a similar story to how they found Collin McHugh and his under-utilized high-spin curveball on the scrap heap.
“Through the ups and downs of the game, you can find the truth in the data,” Morton said.
Morton increased his curveball usage against lefties from 25% in 2015 with Pittsburgh, to 35% this year with Houston. Wise move. They hit .064 against the pitch.
“When hitters are [10] for 113 against a pitch, you throw it,” said pitching coach Brent Strom. “Credit the front office for recognizing his spin rate and his ability to throw his fastball for strikes. I hesitate to bring it up, because people like to make fun of what we do with spin rates. The heartbeat is still important, but the numbers don’t lie.
“The one thing we heard was that he was something of a pessimist, a glass half empty kind of guy.”
Said Hinch, “I think more accurately, he just doesn’t want to disappoint people. He’s a pleaser by nature. He wants to be successful for others, so there’s a selflessness to him. He’s tougher than he’s been given credit for because of how well he wants to do and how hard he pushes through.”
Morton went 14–7 for Houston, a career high in wins. He hit 99 mph with his fastball. His curveball equaled that of McCullers as the fastest-spinning hook in baseball. Batters hit .114 against it, lower than every pitcher but David Robertson and Corey Kluber. It was the arsenal of a No. 1 starter.
“The front office was all in on Charlie from the very beginning,” Hinch said. “They never sopped believing in him and telling us about his strengths. With guys like Charlie it’s easy to criticize the things he hasn’t done. He hasn’t stayed healthy, he hasn’t done this or that. But when you look at what his weapons are and think what he can be, it played out exactly the way our office told me it would.”
So excited for the parade today - are you going TexasDeac10 (or any other Houstonians)?
TBD. I'm on the fence. The route is 4 blocks from my office, but there were already people camping out when I got to work this morning at 8:45. As much as I want to be part of the festivities, there isn't nearly enough space in downtown Houston for as many people as they're expecting.
A plane matching Roy Halladay's tail number has crashed in the Gulf of Mexico and reportedly a person is dead, but no confirmation that it was him on board.