From: (Gerry Gryschuk)
Subject: Re: Morris Season begins Wednesday
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 10:50:59 GMT

From article <BvtFtw.Dv9@mach1.wlu.ca>, by brea9430@mach1.wlu.ca (breadner kenneth cecil joseph u):
> In article <1992Oct8.092801.16527@access.usask.ca> (Gerry Gryschuk) writes:
>>From article <BvpL52.9sB@mach1.wlu.ca>, by brea9430@mach1.wlu.ca (breadner kenneth cecil joseph u):
>>> As soon as a game gets close, that's when Morris' arm starts to really pick
>>> up. This technique of "saving himself" is going to give him about five years
>>> longer in the spotlight than the alternative, which is throwing you hardest
>>> pitch EVERY pitch.
>>> 
>>
>>IMO Morris is an average pitcher at best although he's pitched better lately.
>>
>>There is no closer score in a ball game than 0-0. Knowing this please tell
>>me why Morris would not want to pitch his best right from the start?
> 
> I think I answered that up there in that bit of post I didn't delete to save
> bandwidth. Aside from flukes of nature like Nolan Ryan, who has thrown SEVEN
> no-hitters and must thus qualify as a kind of pitcher's God, most pitchers
> just don't have the kind of endurance it takes to rip their arms off game
> after game after inning after inning. I'm curious to know how many starts
> Jack has missed in his career. I doubt he has missed many. Know why?
> Because he is smart enough not to go crazy, pitching every pitch like it was
> his last. All Jack knows is that he can help his team win.

That bit of post that we are discussing says that Morris doesn't pitch his
best right from the start of the game, that he "saves himself". It also says
he pitches better when the game *gets* close. But the game can't be any closer
than at the start of the game, that is when I and presumably his teammates
want him to pitch his best.

By not pitching his best from the start he forces his teammates to always
be batting their best to makeup for the runs Morris will inevitably give up
due to throwing less than optimal fastballs/forkballs/whatever. However it is
impossible for Morris to know at the beginning of the game how his teammates
are actually going to play. If he was truely a good pitcher he would pitch
his best until his teammates showed they were going to get him a comfortable
lead. After that I have no problems with him "saving himself".

To actually not try your best when the team needs it the most is very selfish
of a player, this type of player I neither need nor would want on my team.

> 
> But I bet, after last night, he IS a little miffed at himself. I STILL can't
> figure out why Cito didn't call for Ward/Henke/ANYBODY else to pitch the
> ninth. No matter how good your starter is, the odds that somebody will burn
> him increase with each of his trips through the batting order.

Well see what happens when your pitcher saves himself. If Morris truely pitched
better when the game was close he wouldn't have given up the first two taters.
The Jays would have been up 3-0 going into the ninth and then Morris could 
afford to have given up the homerun to Baines.

For the record I think Morris always trys to pitch his best it just so happens
that his best at the beginning of the game isn't all that good. Its my
understanding that he has given up most of his runs this year in the first
couple of innings. As the game progresses he does seem to get better, this
is good otherwise he would be a truely awful pitcher rather than just average.
--
Gerald Gryschuk            Saskatoon,Saskatchewan = a place with 9 months
gerry@sask.usask.ca           of hockey and 3 months of poor skating.
Go Habs!!!