Matt Morris Released
by steve_z
on Apr 27, 2008 1:12 PM EDT
Paul Meyer reports the bad news. It's always sad to see a career end on this kind of sour note. But Morris will get a $10M pad on which to land once he becomes a civilian. So, it's not as though he'll need to work at KFC to make rent next month.
This trade was nearly as bad as the Aram gift to the Cubs. The irony, of course, stems from the fact that the Pirates gave away a possible HOFer when they traded Ramirez because he would have cost too much but then ate a $10M contract by releasing Morris.
* * *
UPDATE by Charlie: Phil Dumatrait heads to the rotation, which may not work out well, but at least he's not Morris; John Van Benschoten joins the team and will be in the bullpen, at least for a day or two. Anyway, I don't feel like writing another post about how terrible Morris is, and I don't feel like eviscerating Dave Littlefield for the millionth time, either. That horse is dead. You can check out what I wrote at the time of the acquisition.
0 recs |
19
comments
Read Related
Email
PrintComments
The AP article I read was kind enough to the last Pirates regime not to mention that Littlefield was fired just a few days after acquiring Morris.
by scoreboard on Apr 27, 2008 1:19 PM EDT 0 recs
Well
Kind of surprising to me to be honest, but it is probably the first tangible sign of improvement.
by Bukanier on Apr 27, 2008 1:26 PM EDT 0 recs
Closing the book on Morris
Here’s what $13.8M bought the Pirates (according to my calculations from data at espn.com):
16 GS, 84.3 IP, 7.04 ERA, 13 Unearned runs, 38 K, 29 BB
AND
Dave Littlefield fired almost immediately
Might have been worth every penny.
by scoreboard on Apr 27, 2008 1:42 PM EDT 0 recs
linked article
Ha ha. Read the article written right after the trade and got a good laugh. You picked the over/under for Morris’s ERA at 5.50 this year. You could have raised it to 9, taken bets (everyone would have picked under, over is insane) and made a freakin’ killing! It’s nice to see ownership willing to eat the contract, even though we should never never never have taken it on to begin with. Remember, we were the only team that didn’t want money as part of a deal.
Having said all that, Matt came off as a good guy who knew he was pitching horribly and I feel bad for the guy. It’s hard when your career ends like this, assuming somebody doesn’t take a chance on him. Good guy, but good riddance.
by Moonglum on Apr 27, 2008 7:06 PM EDT 0 recs
It was worth $10 million...
to get Littlefield fired and makes up for the money he saved by gifting Aramis to the Cubs. The problem is that I’m not impressed with Neil who is afraid to pull the trigger on a trade preferring instead to captian our ship into another season of fultility. JVB stunk the last two times we brought him up and I fail to see what is any different now. If Neil continues to refuse to make any deals then at least bring up the guys at Indy and give them some experience at losing so they’ll blend right in with everybody else. Last time I looked our team ERA is still the worst in the entire NL by over one run per game!
by Illinois Pirate Fan on Apr 27, 2008 11:44 PM EDT 0 recs
I've asked this a couple of times...
...but on what trade should he have “pulled the trigger”? The only concrete offers that were reported in the press was Lee/Shoppach/Gutierrez for Bay and Nick Hundley for Nady, and both of those would’ve been seriously ugly for us.
by Vlad on
Apr 28, 2008 4:00 PM EDT
up
0 recs
Matt Morris could make a nice gesture
towards the organization and its fans by buying up the Matt Morris stuff-jerseys and whatnot-at the PNC Park gift shops before heading home. If I remember correctly, Masumi Kuwata reportedly spent $8,000 on all his stuff after his release last summer. Just a thought.
Illinois Pirate Fan: Yeah, let`s make a move just for the sake of making a move.
Makes a lot of sense.
“It was worth $10 million to get Littlefield fired”
No, it wasn`t. He would`ve been fired at the end of the season anyway. Do you think Nutting and Coonelly would`ve kept DL around after reviewing the body of his work over several years?
By “gifting” Aramis Ramirez to the Cubs, DL got a gift in return in the form of his current job as a Cubs` scout. This is a small gift to the Pirates in 2008, too, because they can deduct the amount of his Cubs` salary from the salary they owe him this year under the terms of his contract as Pirates` GM.
by patthatt on Apr 28, 2008 4:44 AM EDT 0 recs
It was worth $10 to get Littlefield fired quickly...
before he could do even more damage. Who knows which player he would have gifted to other clubs in an attempt to save his job? Bay? McClouth? Nady? No, I disagree with you. It was worth the money to get rid of this idiot before he ran out and signed Charlie “Wild Thing” Sheen to shore up our bullpen just because he saw his movie—although in fairness to “Wild Thing” he does throw harder than Duke and Morris.
When this season is over you will look back and understand that we lost a chance to give the few talented players at Indy at chance to mature instead of playing re-treads and “never-was”. Face it—this season is over and it’s time to look towards the future because that’s all we have left. Russell shouldn’t be expected to turn this group of “never-was” into a .500 team. Don’t confuse the movie “Major League” with “Miracle Worker”.
by Illinois Pirate Fan on
Apr 28, 2008 9:59 AM EDT
up
0 recs
Illinois Pirate Fan
“It was worth $10 to get Littlefield fired quickly before he could do even more damage. Who knows which player he would have gifted to other clubs in an attempt to save his job? Bay? McClouth? Nady? “
$10, yes, $10 million, no. He was fired 3 weeks before the end of the season, IPF.
Charlie Sheen, “Major League,” and your point?
“When this season is over you will look back and understand that we lost a chance to give the few talented players at Indy at chance to mature instead of playing re-treads and "never-was". “
I disagree strongly with this. McCutcheon and Pearce need more work on various parts of their respective games. They will be in Pittsburgh in the next few months, especially if Bay and/or Nady are traded as many predict.
Neil Walker is still learning the 3B position and he needs to prove an awful lot before the job in Pittsburgh is given to him. It may happen next year, but most certainly not yet.
Incidentally, a guy like Brian Bixler, who was hyped by many here a year ago, is proving in his first major league trail to be anything but the heir apparent at shortstop.
How do we know that in the long run McCutcheon and/or Pearce will even approach the production of the guys they will probably replace in the OF? Maybe they will, maybe they won`t. Therefore, it would behoove GM Huntington to trade Bay and/or Nady later this season when they are at their highest value to bidders. Same thing goes for Marte, too.
Prospects, prospects…the Baseball America plan for change, change, change.
Pitchers like JVB and Burnett will get a chance from now to prove once and for all whether they can hack it or not. Bullington has done nothing so far this year to show that he deserves another shot.
It is a 162-game season, IPF. And last I checked, we are still in the month of April.
I`ll say it one more time: The new people need time to get things in place like new scouting systems/areas, get the new Latin American facility up and running, get their first draft done in June, and a whole host of other things. Much most be done, and a lot of it will take years before we know if the proper decisions were made. You can`t change 15 years of stupidity and neglect in a few months. I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt until they have had sufficient time to get things in order, and a month into the 2008 season is nowhere near long enough.
by patthatt on
Apr 28, 2008 10:51 AM EDT
up
0 recs
Reply to Patthatt:
Baseball Prospectushas devised a system of rating player performance one of which is called “Value Over Replacement Player” which projects the number of runs a particular player adds to his team beyond what a replacement player would contribute. Further, they define “Replacement Player” as the average hitter/pitcher in the MLB. According to this metric, the Pirates have only 4 hitters above the average performance (McClouth, Doumit, Nady, and Bay) while a team like the Cardinals currently has 15. Further, the Bucs have only 5 pitchers rated above average (Grabow, Maholm Capps, Snell, and Dumatrait) while the Cardinals have 12. Now, considering this information, do you still think that we are not in need of a complete roster overhaul? Sure, we can’t erase the mistakes of the past 15 years in one week but it is certainly time to begin taking steps to do so rather than idly standing by as Neil would have us do and ruin another season without taking any steps to improve ourselves. Aren’t you tired of losing, yet?
by Illinois Pirate Fan on
Apr 28, 2008 2:28 PM EDT
up
0 recs
IPF
It goes without saying that everyone here is tired of losing.
What does it take for you to not just read, but to comprehend?
According to reports, they have taken a number of long-term steps to putting this organization back on the proper track. (Scouting in and out of the U.S., everyone on the same page with regard to player development within the organization, the new Latin American facilities, these things take time, IPF, but are crucial to the long-term success of the organization.)
Give them a chance to have their first draft in June and see the analyses from the many knowledgeable guys on this site.
Give them a chance to undo 15 years of stupidity and neglect, IPF. It won`t happen overnight.
As for the team on the field in 2008: What does it take for you to understand that the options of GM Huntington have been limited thus far?
You talk about “a complete roster overhaul.” YES, we need major changes to the product we put on the field. But, as Vlad also asks you, what would you do? Bay`s trade value was way down last year because of his knees/poor performance. Nady couldn`t stay healthy and not much was reportedly offered for him. Something of value was offered for Jack Wilson from a pitching standpoint(Jair Jurrens), but would we be better off with him in the rotation, but also Brian Bixler manning shortstop? I don`t think so.
When the timing is right later this season, IPF, I bet you GM Huntington will “pull the trigger” on some deals to add prospects to the minor league organization and, hopefully, some young major-league ready guys for our future. And McCutcheon, Pearce, Walker and another guy or two will get the first of extended trials to even attempt to prove they are major league caliber players for the long-term, let alone standout ones.
I`m not going to respond to you on this again for now. Let`s come back to it in 3 months after they`ve had their draft and the trading deadline has arrived. Then we`ll be able to get a better picture of the progress-or lack thereof-the organization is making.
Feel free to have the last word.
by patthatt on
Apr 28, 2008 9:58 PM EDT
up
0 recs
I agree completely,
except for your assessment of the Jurrjens offer. I would gladly stomach and entire year of Bixler if it meant we had control of a guy like Jurrjens for a few years.
At the beginning of this year, some were scared of a Gorzo injury but not many thought he would be this bad. Going into ‘08 a top four of Snell, Gorzo, Jurrjens and Maholm would have looked pretty good—for ‘08 and for the future.
by DITO on
Apr 29, 2008 9:57 AM EDT
up
0 recs
Sure, we can’t erase the mistakes of the past 15 years in one week but it is certainly time to begin taking steps to do so rather than idly standing by as Neil would have us do and ruin another season without taking any steps to improve ourselves. Aren’t you tired of losing, yet?
This statement assumes two things: (1) that Huntington did not make any attempts to improve the organization over the 2008 offseason, and (2) that there were good deals available to Huntington that he did not make. I find these assumptions to be largely incorrect: (1) there was much reporting of Huntington’s attempts to deal Bay and Nady for prospects, and (2) all reported return offers were pretty meager and probably would not have benefitted the club.
This is one of the more annoying habits of some irrational Pirate fans: they scream their heads off and jump up and down about a perceived problem, but they don’t offer a viable solution or alternative to solve or avoid the problem.
What moves were the Pirates supposed to make? Who could they have reasonably acquired? Honestly, if Huntington really was as idle as IPF says he was in the offseason, what opportunities did he pass up on?
Formerly known as Econolodge
by Willton on
Apr 29, 2008 12:59 AM EDT
up
0 recs
Today`s PG
by patthatt on
Apr 29, 2008 4:04 AM EDT
up
0 recs
Talented players at Indy
The only guy at Indy who should be up with the big club is Pearce. We don’t want to rush McCutchen just because he’s off to a hot start, Walker isn’t ready, Bixler’s already up, and everybody else at that level is a fringe prospect at best (minor-league relievers are, definitionally, fringe prospects).
Yeah, the Pearce thing is a black mark, but it’s more of an isolated incident at this point than proof of bad intent.
by Vlad on
Apr 28, 2008 4:04 PM EDT
up
0 recs
"definitionally"
I like this word.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST
by cocktailsfor2 on
Apr 29, 2008 9:54 PM EDT
up
0 recs
I think I won the Morris Bucs Dugout Community Projection
and I wasn’t nearly pessimistic enough.
by scoreboard on Apr 28, 2008 8:58 AM EDT 0 recs
Willton is right on....
here in my opinion. I’m so tired of hearing Pirate fans kill the organization, as if there are 15 guys out there waiting to be acquired or promoted that would immediately improve the product on the field. At best, this is a three year process. Five might be more realistic. Huntington has done a fine job thus far, but the real challenges still lie ahead with the draft, trade deadline, contracts and another year of free agency. IPF is way off base here in my opinion.
And citing the VORP of the Cardinals 25 games into the season is no way to construct an argument. First it’s small sample size, second it’s selective. If the Cardinals are over .500 at the end of this year and again next year, I’ll profess my ignorance and gladly (or unhappily) eat crow. I’m pretty sure if you matched them up with the Pirates all the way through the roster you are going to have about half Pirates, half Cards and that is certainly true if you are taking the best 25, obviously.
by dtoddwin on Apr 29, 2008 1:45 PM EDT 0 recs
And.....
It’s the reason I was banging my shoe in defense of Evan Meek when he was getting killed the first two weeks and everyone wanted him released. People here need to take a slightly longer view than the past three game series, whichever one happens to set them off. Meek isn’t blocking anyone. Let’s see him pitch for two months and then see if we want to carry him for four more in order to control him for the next SIX YEARS…........Hmmmmm, this really doesn’t seem like a difficult decision and I don’t understand why some of the intelligent fans on the site don’t get it.
by dtoddwin on
Apr 29, 2008 1:51 PM EDT
up
0 recs
New FanPost
