Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Jays to lock up Morrow tomorrow?

Shi Davidi tweets that the Jays and Brandon Morrow are set to announce......

......a 3 year, $20MM contract with a $10MM option. If true this would leave only Casey Janssen unsigned amont the arbitration eligible players.

Posted by braden on Monday, January 23 2012 @ 07:22 PM EST.

Jays to lock up Morrow tomorrow? | 30 comments | Create New Account

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Glevin - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 07:31 PM EST (#250983) #

Lots of potential Jays news...they are said to be in on Cordero (which doesn't make a lot of sense) and even stranger, they are said to be close to signing Omar Vizquel. Why would the Jays be interested in him? He's been a useless player for years.

Mike Forbes - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 07:34 PM EST (#250984) #

First Oliver now Vizquel. Starting a new retirement home here in Toronto.

Anders - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 07:34 PM EST (#250985) #

Davidi corrected his tweet, the $10 mil is an option, not a buy out.

braden - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 07:40 PM EST (#250986) #

Thanks, Anders. It seemed odd to me. I've corrected the story.

China fan - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 07:43 PM EST (#250987) #

Vizquel has been signed by the Jays, according to multiple sources. He appears to be the new John McDonald: terrible with the bat, but a better defensive SS than Mike McCoy for those late-inning defensive substitutions. And can lay down a bunt or two.

damos - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:01 PM EST (#250989) #

Anyone fluent in Japanese?
Apparently, this Yahoo page says the Rangers have agreed to trade Koji Uehara to the Jays?

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20120124-00000019-sph-base

smcs - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:28 PM EST (#250993) #

Using Google translator, the first paragraph reads: "Rangers of Major League Baseball, Blue Jays and pitcher Koji Uehara (36) reached an agreement on June 23 that trade negotiations revealed. Requesting the transfer of forces that drive development of the pitching staff is urgently needed, the military reports received. But Uehara has a veto trades to six teams, the military block is contained within it. If you refuse to transfer the right arm, broken off and trade."

So, um...not very helpful.

Zao - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:31 PM EST (#250994) #

No, but I used Google Translate and it does appear to say that. But that Koji can veto a trade to 6 teams. That's about all I understood.

If true, I'd like to see him moved into the rotation.

Zao - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:32 PM EST (#250995) #

Oops too slow. The whole article is filled with military and army references. Pretty funny.

Dave Till - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:32 PM EST (#250996) #

Vizquel? Really? I think that AA is choosing to deliberately sign the last guy any of the Jays' fan base would think of. He keeps more people guessing than Oil Of Olay. (By the way, that stifled sob you hear is coming from the McCoy household.)

I assume that Job One for Vizquel is to serve as Hechavarria's personal mentor.

I like the idea of a Morrow extension. He's got all of the good bits of A. J. Burnett without the bad bits.

joeblow - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:35 PM EST (#250997) #

Google translate makes your head spin but that seems to be the story. No indication who he was traded for. Not too impressed after watching his bad performance in the playoffs last season.

Uehara, the team agreed to the Blue Jays trade

BlueJayWay - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:44 PM EST (#251000) #

Google translate makes your head spin but that seems to be the story. No indication who he was traded for. Not too impressed after watching his bad performance in the playoffs last season.

First of all the playoffs are a small sample, so whatever. The guy can K batters and has a good walk rate. Only thing I don't like about Koji is he is a flyball pitcher.

Hodgie - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:50 PM EST (#251001) #

Not too impressed after watching his bad performance in the playoffs last season.

I sure hope there is a sarcasm tag introduced into HTML5 because I know this can't be a serious observation. As telling as 1.1 innings of playoff performance can be I will take a wild guess that the 9.63 K/9 and 7.23 K/BB ratios in 175.2 regular season innings are slightly more relevant.

Gerry - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:58 PM EST (#251002) #

I believe Morrow had two years left before free agency. With the option year the Jays have bought out up to two years of Morrow's free agency. It looks like a good deal to me.

braden - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 09:00 PM EST (#251003) #

Wilner tweets that Uehara talks have cooled as the Rangers want too much.

They didn't give up a hell of a lot.

Dewey - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 09:22 PM EST (#251007) #

But Uehara has a veto trades to six teams, the military block is contained within it. If you refuse to transfer the right arm, broken off and trade."

So, um...not very helpful.

It�s perfectly clear: if he refuses a trade, the military is going to break off an arm . . . and trade it.

TamRa - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 10:20 PM EST (#251010) #

"I assume that Job One for Vizquel is to serve as Hechavarria's personal mentor."

Very good insight. if he does nothing more than serves as Hech's personal coach during ST and then all re-asses their options in late March.

JohnL - Monday, January 23 2012 @ 10:23 PM EST (#251011) #

Somehow, I think this part of the Uehara story is very important, but I'm not quite sure how...

I accepted a transfer to become the first team third major Soredakeni Xintiandi is subtle.

ayjackson - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 12:42 AM EST (#251013) #

Dewey, I`m in tears, I`m laughing so hard.

Dr B - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 01:05 AM EST (#251015) #

That would leave him as the Lefty One Arm Guy. That's quite a specialisation.
(And we complain about 7 man bullpens...)

Kelekin - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 01:17 AM EST (#251016) #

I would be happy with either Uehara or Cordero, but only one of these costs us a player. Granted, I'd argue Uehara is currently the better player.

Geoff - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 01:46 AM EST (#251017) #

I would have been so pleased had the title of this story been :
Jays to give $20MM to Morrow tomorrow
but only because I'm an ignoramus.

Mike Green - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 09:03 AM EST (#251021) #

I like the idea of a Morrow extension. He's got all of the good bits of A. J. Burnett without the bad bits.

Except that Burnett was a much better pitcher. Morrow has a career ERA of 4.58 as a starter. His ERA over the last 2 years is below par for a starter. Burnett was well above-average when he was signed, if not an ace. We all have hope that Morrow will emerge as an above-average starter throwing 180-200 innings per year, and there is a chance that he emerges as a great pitcher. There is, of course, a greater chance that he blows out his arm. Right now, though, he is what he is.

I am indifferent to the move. It's a fair but not great gamble.

Ryan Day - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 09:34 AM EST (#251024) #

Morrow's incredibly frustrating to watch, but I suspect it would be even more agonizing to watch him go to another team and finally become awesome.

If he stays at his current level of results, then it's an okay deal. If he improves, it could be an extremely good one.

Chuck - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 09:51 AM EST (#251025) #

I don't believe that Morrow's actual on-field results of the past two years merit the money. That he has underperformed his xFIP is certainly a basis for optimism, and a reason to think that the extension could be a good one, maybe a very good one. But he may be one of those guys whose huge wind-up/stretch performance gap means that he will always do more poorly than he "should".

If you want to see a poster child for how FanGraphs and BBRef calculate WAR differently for pitchers, it's Morrow. FanGraphs leans most heavily on peripherals, thus making Morrow a 3.5-win player. BBRef leans most heavily on runs allowed, making Morrow a 1.5-win player.

Morrow could well become a very good pitcher. But I don't think we should assume it is a sure thing.

bpoz - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 10:05 AM EST (#251029) #

Morrow could become good, lower hits than IP, huge Ks, BB may be OK.
If the best he can do in 2012 &/or 2013 is 200IP with a 4.50 ERA then he is still tradable IMO.

Lylemcr - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 10:21 AM EST (#251032) #

I like Morrow as a #3 or 4 starter, but not as a #2.

If it is true that Uehara is coming to the Jays, the bullpen is 100 times better than last year. The bullpen was the glaring weakness of the Jays last year and it should be a lot better.

IMO, the new biggest weakness is the starters. The jays do not have a starting staff to contend in the AL east, unless a lot of things go right (ie. McGowan comes back to 2008 form, Alvarez is the real deal, Cecil comes to camp in shape,etc) It would be nice to move Morrow to the #3 slot. When you compare him to other #3 pitchers, he is good.

But.. Who knows. AA holds his cards so close to his chest. We could wake up one day and we have that #2 starter. One thing we do know is that he will not give up the farm to get that person.

MatO - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 10:27 AM EST (#251035) #

Love Google translations.

Mylegacy - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 12:39 PM EST (#251042) #

From having watched his every start with the Jays - I see Morrow as two different guys. With NO runners on base he's god(ish). With runners on base he's my mother's sister's best friend Maude. Put a runner on and the guy falls to pieces.

Surely, they can teach him something to get over that - I hope.

hypobole - Tuesday, January 24 2012 @ 12:50 PM EST (#251044) #

To my (untrained) eye it seemed last year Morrow couldn't locate his fastball down in the zone when pitching out of the stretch, causing him to continually fall behind in the count. Then when he elevated the ball to throw a strike, hitters were jumping all over it.

Jays to lock up Morrow tomorrow? | 30 comments | Create New Account

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