Charlie Morton is not the most popular and is probably one of the most frustrating Pirates of recent memory. He’s obviously talented, but he’s almost always maddeningly inconsistent. I suspect that a lot of this has to do with his health; he’s had Tommy John surgery, got both of his hip labrums fixed, and dealt with a sports hernia last year. In the rare occasions that he can stay healthy for an extended period of time, though, he’s been a perfectly serviceable middle of the rotation pitcher.
What the Pirates need right now is a perfectly serviceable middle of the rotation pitcher, in the way that Morton was the last time he came back from hip labrum surgery in 2013. I don’t know if he’s going to be that guy again this year (he had a bad spring but has had a strong rehab run), but I think he deserves a chance and it’s not like Vance Worley or Jeff Locke have done anything to keep him out of the rotation this year. Let’s see how this goes, and figure things out from there.
The Pirates’ opponent tonight is the Marlins, who just hired their general manager to be their manager. The Marlins are a punchline and they deserve to be a punchline. David Phelps starts for them. He’s off to a decent start this year, mainly on the strength of not having allowed a home run in his first 42 innings. His groundball rate is only 42.5%, which means that he’s got one of the biggest FIP/xFIP splits I’ve ever seen right now (2.72/4.03). The Pirate team that played the Mets this weekend could probably help him build that home run rate up some. The Pirate team that took the field most nights before this weekend probably couldn’t. So let’s hope the Marlins see the same Pirates that the Mets saw.
First pitch tonight is at 7:05.
Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images
