I don’t have much to say about the game from last night, obviously. I watched a fair amount of it and there was some sloppy baseball on the Pirates’ part, but I thought the blown call in the first inning was a huge momentum shifter. Not much we can do about it now.
Also, Bryan Morris is getting slowed up a bit at Altoona after some rough outings in his last few starts. His strikeout rate is still pretty good and his walk rate there is still better than it was in Lynchburg last year, so I’m not all that worried. Keep in mind that he only threw 72 2/3 innings last year and his 103 this year is already a career high. This is why I wrote pretty early on that I thought Morris needed to get to Altoona as quickly as possible; he’s never thrown a lot of innings and he’s going to have a shorter season this year than other guys because of that fact. They got him to Altoona and he pitched well there for a stretch and now it looks like he’s hitting a wall. But at least they got him to Altoona to see what he could do there before he hit that wall. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle him down the stretch.
Keeping the minor league theme going, State College is a heck of a fun team to keep an eye on now that Mel Rojas Jr. has signed and Billy Cain’s rehab stint is over. Lots of names worth watching on that club. West Virginia is, too, now that Quinton Miller and Brett Lorin have finished their injury rehab and joined the Power’s rotation. I had hoped Lorin would go to Bradenton since he’s 23 now and had no trouble with the Sally League in the past, but I guess there’s still a little bit of time for that to happen.
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