Brandon Morrow fits future ace profile for Jays

When Brandon Morrow took the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays in early August last year, all he was looking to do was to give his Toronto Blue Jays team a chance to win. After striking out 14 batters in seven innings without allowing a single hit, he was doing exactly that, and in historic fashion.

Despite having already thrown 102 pitches, Morrow earned every right to pitch in the eighth inning. He notched two more strikeouts and retired a pinch hitter for the Rays to end the inning, putting himself just three outs away from throwing only the second no-hitter in Blue Jays history.

With history within his grasp, he trotted out to the mound for the ninth inning. After issuing a one-out walk prior to retiring the following batter, there stood Morrow at the Rogers Centre in front of a screaming crowd, one out away from a no-hitter, and only Silver Slugger winner Evan Longoria standing in his way.

Morrow let go of a 94 mph fastball on his third pitch of the at-bat and Longoria answered with a weak single past a diving Aaron Hill. It was just enough to prevent Morrow from making claim to TO’s first no-no since Dave Stieb did it way back in 1990.

“Well it was a 1-0 game with guys on first and third with two outs,” Morrow told The Good Point, looking back. “It was time to finish it out.”

It was imperative that the game was closed out, as Longoria had advanced the tying run to third base, since the Jays had only mustered one run of their own in the entire game. Even though a fresh relief arm was ready to go in the bullpen and he had thrown 129 pitches, Morrow remained in the game and struck out the final batter he faced to manage a complete game shutout with 17 strikeouts, 14 of which had the batter swinging.

“I was really glad that Cito [Gaston] left me in there, it was huge to be able to finish it up,” Morrow said. “If you get that far and give up a hit and get taken out, it’s [sometimes] a big letdown.”

While keeping hitters honest with the occasional curveball and barrage of splitters, Morrow stuck to his heavy artillery for the majority of the game. His blistering four-seam fastball greeted opposing hitters up to 97 mph, and his signature 83-89 mph slider thrown from the exact same arm slot deceived hitters, dancing around all parts of the plate as they flailed helplessly at every offering.

“When you start something like that, you want to finish it off,” the California native said.

Fast forward to this year and, after dominating in Spring Training before hitting the disabled list with a forearm injury, Morrow has returned to the Blue Jays rotation, ready to build on his breakout 2010 campaign – his first as a full-time starter – that saw him go 10-7 with a 4.49 ERA (3.16 FIP) in 146.1 innings overall, not to mention a whopping 178 strikeouts.

“All the work we did last year has carried over, my mechanics are feeling good, and I feel like I’m pretty much where I left off last year,” he said.

Morrow ended last season looking like a completely different pitcher than he was when it started, and he’s looking to improve even further with one solid year under his belt. Making the bulk of the necessary adjustments last year, Morrow and Jays pitching coach Bruce Walton effectively addressed his arm slot during his delivery, and erased the majority of issues missing high and low in the strike zone that led to a substantial amount of walks.

With that out of the way, Morrow was able to focus primarily on pounding the strike zone and confidently hitting both sides of the plate. This season, though, there are still many improvements that can be made, to further help the former first-round draft pick develop into one of the elite pitchers in baseball. Naturally, he knows exactly what he wants to work on.

“Polishing up all of my pitches, working on my offspeed pitches; the pitches I may be lacking a little bit in like the changeup and curveball,” Morrow said. “The slower stuff to keep guys off balance are really the two pitches I’ve been working on more, and the fastball and slider are getting there, but I expected them to be where they’re at right now really.”

Having perhaps the best catching mentor currently in the game right now in Jose Molina as a regular battery mate certainly doesn’t hurt either.

With Morrow now back in full swing for the Jays, Molina, who had been working with left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes this season, will instead return to being Morrow’s personal catcher this season. They were an impeccable tandem last season, and with Morrow being such an impressive talent, it makes a lot of sense to continue to leave him in the 11-year veteran catcher’s hands.

“[Jose] just has a knack for calling my game and getting me in the right spot early on, and we were having so much success that we were just going with it [last season],” Morrow said. “Catchers need their day off, and every five days is a good time to get it, so there’s really no reason to switch it up.”

“If it’s working, don’t mess with it right?”

With a Blue Jays rotation that already boasts lefty Ricky Romero, super-prospect Kyle Drabek and southpaw Brett Cecil – who is sure to return to the Majors soon this season – there’s so much potential in the young, controllable group that it’s stirring excitement across the Blue Jays’ fan base.

Add to that group Morrow, who is poised to become even nastier on the mound and develop into a more complete pitcher this season. Some even feel that with a second complete season under his belt, he’ll become the best all-around pitcher on the Jays’ staff with the potential to dethrone Romero as the ace.

While he certainly recognizes the amount of talent the rotation has, Morrow was quick to dismiss any notion that would imply he would eventually become the Blue Jays’ ace in the future.

“I think we’ve got a handful of guys here that could pitch at the top of this staff. Ricky obviously took the ball Opening Day this year, and next year it could be any one of us really. Cecil could have a great year and earn that right, I could have a great year and earn that right, and I think next year or even this year Drabek will be right there too. We’ve got a handful of guys that could be up there. It’s not just one guy at the top and the rest following him.”

When Johnny Damon, a 16-year veteran who has seen a lot of pitchers during his time in the league, says that Morrow is already one of the best pitchers in baseball and one of the best he has seen, he’s obviously doing something right.

Adding more experience and secondary pitch improvements to an already impressive package, Morrow could very well have the rest of the Jays rotation following him without even noticing.