It’s rare to see a guy throw off the mound during mini camp. Usually pitchers are just getting started back up after a short break over the holidays, and only throwing off flat grounds. That wasn’t the case today with Charlie Morton. The sinkerball pitcher wanted to get out on the mound today for the first time since having surgery back in September. He threw a short bullpen session with Ray Searage, Jim Benedict, and Euclides Rojas watching on. Here is video from that session.
Prior to the bullpen session, I noticed Morton had an unusual routine. He would stand with his back to the plate, then turn quickly and fire to the plate. I asked him about the routine after his bullpen session, and he mentioned that it’s a recent idea aimed at cleaning up and making more efficient the arm action in his delivery, based off his pickoff move.
“That’s just trying to clean up my arm action a little bit. Clean up the delivery. More efficient,” Morton said. “[Jim Benedict] saw some things in my pick move that he really liked, because he saw how quick and efficient I could be. And I think he felt that I could incorporate some of that into my actual delivery, where I’m not using as much of my body to throw a baseball. I think the mindset is that you make things more efficient and you avoid problems by doing that. It’s just that basic.”
The work between Morton and Benedict isn’t new. The two worked together prior to the 2011 season to overhaul Morton’s delivery, giving him a delivery that mirrored Roy Halladay, complete with a new body angle and a new approach to pitching. The latest idea is just a continuation of the process that Benedict and Morton have worked on for several years.
“It’s been kind of a process,” Morton said of their work. “Ever since Benny and I have met, he’s very thoughtful and very caring and he thinks a lot about the guys who work with him. And he’s always looking for ways to improve, and that’s just kind of been an evolution of my relationship with him. He’s always trying to help me get better. I’m sure that’s something he’s been thinking of for a long time.”
The key with Morton is his health. When healthy, he has looked great since the initial changes with Benedict. However, he has missed a lot of time with injuries, including Tommy John surgery in 2012, and hip surgery in September that impacted him in the second half of the season. Even with the injuries included, he has combined for a 3.74 ERA in 495.1 innings from 2011-2014, along with a 6.3 K/9 and a 3.3 BB/9. It will be interesting to see whether Morton can continue to improve on those numbers with further adjustments, although the main goal will be keeping him healthy.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
I hope for 180 or so solid innings from Chuck and his second career 100 ERA+. I also hope for Sampson, Kingham, and Taillon and Glasnow all to have nice years and make Morton, Locke, or Worley a nice trade chip next offseason.
freddylang: ERA+ is my next assignment for trying to understand the new world of useful (?) baseball stats. On the trade possibility, why wait until next year? Right now we are showing Locke, Worley and possibly 5 others as No. 5 possibilities in the Rotation – Cole, Liriano, Morton/Burnett, Burnett/Morton, and then No. 5. By next year their trade value will be much less than it is right now. In 2014, Worley was 8-4, 2.85 ERA in 17 Starts, 79K/22W, 111 IP – that’s an average of pitching into the 7th in every start. Locke was more like an excellent #5 at 7-6, 3.91 ERA in 21 Starts, 89K/40W, 132 IP – an average of pitching into the 6th in every start. And they are both 27 and have 4 years of club control.
Agreed emjay…if everyone including the guys at AAA are looking good in June I would welcome a deal.
As an experiment Morton is great as a viable pitcher not so much.
By the time ….after his surgeries and pitching adjustments ….he achieves his goal of being a solid major league pitcher he will be …..86 years old!!
A healthy and consistent morton would be a wonderful thing, as well as a pleasant change from the norm the last couple of years I.e. two good starts followed by who the heck is this guy and what have you done with ground chuck? Then repeat, followed not long after by injury. So a healthy, consitent morton would be the salt to taste seasoning that all bucco fans would love to see. And last but not least, thank you lord for bringing jim benedict to the pirates!
Tim: He looks good and I cannot imagine that he will not break camp with the team unless they want him to get some warm weather innings after ST and then bring him up during the big homestand in the middle of April. We need to see a consistency from him that we have not seen in a few years. I would love to see him get 30 starts this year, and do so with an ERA under 3.50. He has the arm and the movement on his pitches to be a very difficult pitcher to hit. We need a big year from him.