Tonight was Brandon Morrow's last start of 2010, as the Jays are capping his innings around 150 for the year to make sure his arm is in great shape for next year. Although Morrow had a rough start to the year (his ERA ballooned to 6.69 at one point), he has pitched extremely well since June and has had a remarkable season, ending with a 10-7 record and a 4.49 ERA.
However, the thing that Brandon Morrow does best is strike batters out. He struck out 17 Rays in one game, and ended the year with 178 Ks. That puts him 11th all-time for Blue Jays pitchers for strikeouts in a season (tonight's stats are not included). You may notice that on that list, he also has fewer innings pitched than most pitchers, so we can look at his SO/9 IP, which is the average number of strikeouts a pitcher records per 9 innings (a complete game).
Morrow ended the year with 178 Ks in 146.1 IP, which means that his SO/9 IP was an astounding 10.95. This ranks as the second highest season SO/9 IP ever recorded by a Blue Jays' pitcher with at least 100 IP (Duane Ward had a SO/9 IP of 11.07 in 1991). If we look purely at starting pitchers, Morrow is only the third pitcher (after Roger Clemens and A.J. Burnett) to post a SO/9 IP of greater than 9 (meaning at least one strikeout per inning), and has the highest SO/9 IP of any Blue Jays starter ever.
So we can see that although Morrow didn't have the greatest season ever, it was certainly a step in the right direction. He is well set up for next year (as this previous post details) with a fresh arm, confidence gained from this year, and the ability to strike out almost any hitter in the American League on any given night.
Showing posts with label Brandon Morrow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brandon Morrow. Show all posts
Friday, September 3, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Brandon Morrow and Other Blue Jays Pitching Gems
Well, now is as good of time as any to write my first post. On Sunday, I went to my first Blue Jays game this season, and happened to witness one of the greatest pitching performances by a Blue Jays pitcher ever. What a game to see! As you probably already know, Brandon Morrow pitched a complete game, one-hit shutout with 17 (17!) strikeouts, and gave up the only hit with two outs in the ninth inning.
So the question is: where does this rank in terms of the greatest games ever pitched by a Blue Jay? Certainly, the best game ever pitched was probably on September 2, 1990, when Dave Stieb no-hit the Cleveland Indians for still the only no-hitter in Blue Jays history.
Here is a list of all games in which a Blue Jays pitcher pitched at least 9 innings and gave up 1 or no hits.
There have been a total of 15 games in which a Blue Jays pitcher threw at a complete game with only one hit. It is interesting to note that the only time a run was scored against in these games was the September 27, 1998 game, where Roy Halladay had a no-hitter through 8 innings before giving up a home run to Bobby Higginson in the 9th (in his rookie season nonetheless!). But Morrow did not simply throw a complete game one-hit shutout. He also struck out seventeen batters. Here is another list of games in which a Blue Jays pitcher has thrown a one-hitter with at least 10 strikeouts.
As you can see, only three times has a pitcher for the Jays gotten at least 10 strikeouts and only given up one hit. And they have all happened this year! Morrow on Sunday, Brett Cecil in May (8 IP), and Ricky Romero in April (also 8 IP). Pretty amazing.
So this game was the first time a Blue Jays pitcher has thrown a complete game one-hitter (also a shutout) with at least 10 strikeouts. And again, he struck out 17 batters, which is the second highest total in Blue Jays history, only behind Roger Clemens' 18 on August 25, 1998 (he's also the first Blue Jays pitcher besides Roger Clemens to get at least 15 K's).
I think the conclusion here is that this was probably either the best or second-best game ever pitched by a Jays' pitcher (up for grabs with the no-hitter). If you want to judge a game by Bill James' Game Score, it ranks as the highest game score ever recorded by a Blue Jays pitcher. It was an amazing performance, and we all hope that Morrow can continue pitching this well the rest of this season and his career!
So the question is: where does this rank in terms of the greatest games ever pitched by a Blue Jay? Certainly, the best game ever pitched was probably on September 2, 1990, when Dave Stieb no-hit the Cleveland Indians for still the only no-hitter in Blue Jays history.
Here is a list of all games in which a Blue Jays pitcher pitched at least 9 innings and gave up 1 or no hits.
There have been a total of 15 games in which a Blue Jays pitcher threw at a complete game with only one hit. It is interesting to note that the only time a run was scored against in these games was the September 27, 1998 game, where Roy Halladay had a no-hitter through 8 innings before giving up a home run to Bobby Higginson in the 9th (in his rookie season nonetheless!). But Morrow did not simply throw a complete game one-hit shutout. He also struck out seventeen batters. Here is another list of games in which a Blue Jays pitcher has thrown a one-hitter with at least 10 strikeouts.
As you can see, only three times has a pitcher for the Jays gotten at least 10 strikeouts and only given up one hit. And they have all happened this year! Morrow on Sunday, Brett Cecil in May (8 IP), and Ricky Romero in April (also 8 IP). Pretty amazing.
So this game was the first time a Blue Jays pitcher has thrown a complete game one-hitter (also a shutout) with at least 10 strikeouts. And again, he struck out 17 batters, which is the second highest total in Blue Jays history, only behind Roger Clemens' 18 on August 25, 1998 (he's also the first Blue Jays pitcher besides Roger Clemens to get at least 15 K's).
I think the conclusion here is that this was probably either the best or second-best game ever pitched by a Jays' pitcher (up for grabs with the no-hitter). If you want to judge a game by Bill James' Game Score, it ranks as the highest game score ever recorded by a Blue Jays pitcher. It was an amazing performance, and we all hope that Morrow can continue pitching this well the rest of this season and his career!
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