Come What May for Morrow

Image courtesy of Daylife via AP

Brandon Morrow: future Cy Young Award winner. Ask some surrounding the Blue Jays (Gregg Zaun for example), and they believe Morrow is poised to become one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League.

In my eyes, Brandon Morrow has always been a very tough pitcher to gauge. Just when I think I have Morrow figured out, he flips the script and does a complete 180.

One minute it looks like he’s on the cusp of striking out the entire lineup, the next he’s barely getting through the 5th inning on 100 pitches. Now I know what it must feel like for a Red Sox fan to watch Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Brandon Morrow and Dice-K are one in the same, but I think they both share the similarity in that they often ride the fine line between brilliance and collapsing before our very eyes.

Often times I find Brandon Morrow will go on a hot streak much like the one he’s currently riding, and then the wheels will just fall off completely for a couple of starts. If these are the kinds of highs and lows we experience as fans, then I can only imagine how pitching coach Bruce Walton must feel.

It’s kind of hard to believe that Brandon Morrow has only gone more than 6.2 innings on 3 occasions, and he’s never pitched more than 7 innings this season. 6 or 7 solid innings from Brandon Morrow is great, but I find myself still expecting more from him.

Compared to someone like Ricky Romero, Morrow is going to throw more pitches because strikeout pitchers will eat up more pitches than your average pitch-to-contact hurler. There’s no doubt that the strikeout is much sexier, but the ground out does the job just as well.

Then again, maybe I’m asking too much from the Blue Jays number two starter. Most teams would kill to have somebody like Brandon Morrow to back up their ace, and here I am nitpicking about how a strikeout pitcher is throwing too many pitches per start.

All of this aside, I really like what I’ve seen lately from Brandon Morrow and it certainly appears as though he’s turned a corner, and maybe now we can finally put those early season worries behind us for good.

If the Blue Jays really like what they see from hereon out this season from Brandon Morrow, then I think a contract extension should absolutely be in the works. He’s next in line to get paid, and it looks like AA would rather extend his franchise players than go to arbitration with them.

However, if Brandon Morrow falls off the tracks a little bit a la Brett Cecil, then maybe AA might rethink his long term strategy for the starting rotation.

Come what may for Brandon Morrow, at least he always puts on a show whenever he’s on the mound. And for those folks who own him in their fantasy baseball league they’re enjoying what Morrow has to bring to their team, too.