With Brandon Morrow's press conference coming up in just about half an hour to announce a brand new 3 year 20 million dollar extension that will buy out his last 2 arbitration years and his first year of free agency. its become a hot topic about Brandon Morrow's productivity and what his productivity should be considering his peripheral numbers.
Chris Cwik over at fangraphs posted a tremendous article on Brandon Morrow and his struggles with runners on base. Click Here
In his article he points out how Brandon Morrow's walk and strikeout rates remain fairly constant with and without runners on base. Yet Morrow gives up more flyballs when runners are on base, which should lead to a lower BABIP, but has actually in fact raised his BABIP by nearly 8%!
I am willing to offer up a solution the the unlucky/poor performance debate.
I watched all of Brandon Morrow's starts last season. he tends to give up alot more hard contact with men on base. The ground balls are sharp, the flyballs are deep to the wall and everything results in hard contact. He also falls behind more often with runners on base and he’ll follow up those outside pitches with ones right down the middle because of his being down 3-1 and such in the count. His stuff is just so good that sometimes he gets away with pitching in the heart of the plate resulting in K’s.
At this point, Brandon Morrow is still equal parts thrower and pitcher, and he'll need to keep improving to be worth his deal. More likely than not though, Morrow for a potential 4 years and 30 million or 3 years at 21 million will be a steal.
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