No doctor needed for Morrow's arm

Baseball Betting Lines

06/25/2010 - Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Morrow appears to be doing his best Roy Halladay impression of late. Though you could argue that the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander is simply, finally, being himself.

The 6'3" Morrow has been coming into his own, most recently propelling the Blue Jays to a 5-0 win on Thursday night over the St. Louis Cardinals, helping his ballclub avoid a three-game sweep. Morrow lasted eight innings, while striking out eight and issuing only one walk.

Morrow improved to 5-1 at the Rogers Centre in Thursday's win, where he sports a 2.82 ERA in 51 innings. The youngster has struggled at times on the road, with a 0-4 record on the road and 7.09 ERA in 33 innings away from Canada, but a thaw has been detected in that ice as well.

Over his last six starts, Morrow has not allowed more than three runs in any outing and has lowered his ERA by more than two runs. While overall, his stats (5-5, 4.50) still might not look spectacular, performances like Thursday's make it obvious why the Jays were set on making him a part of the rotation. Whether Morrow's success has registered with the casual fan or not, it is safe to say that his exploits have not gone unnoticed by those wearing Blue Jays colors.

"This kid is just going to get better all the time," Jays manager Cito Gaston told the Associated Press. "We're talking No. 1 or 2 starter one of these days, as far as rotation. He's got that kind of stuff."

Apart from his first two starts of the season, where he struggled against the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox, Morrow has thrown only two poor outings, both in unfriendly environments. He allowed six runs each in road starts during May against the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Red Sox can give any pitcher trouble - just ask Roy Halladay - and Arizona hitters have a slugging percentage of .485 at home, good for second in all of baseball.

Morrow is sitting sixth in the American League with 92 strikeouts and has thrown nine quality starts this season. For comparison's sake, that is more quality starts - a much better indicator of a pitcher's success than wins and losses because of the role bullpens can play - than the Yankees' young pitching stud Phil Hughes, who boasts a record of 10-1.

Recently, Morrow has shut down nothing but worthy opponents. His last six starts dating back to May 26 have been against the Los Angeles Angels, Tampa Bay Rays, Yankees, Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants and Cardinals. All of those teams have better records than the Jays, aside from the Rockies, and are all playing above .500 ball.

"When he's able to locate and throw strikes, he has as good as stuff as anybody," Vernon Wells said of Morrow.

The 25-year-old seems to have really found his place and role in Toronto. It is all on Morrow, however. The talent is certainly there, but he will have to drastically cut down his walk rate in order to even think of becoming the anchor of this rotation. The 42 free passes Morrow has issued this year are second among American League pitchers.

There is no doubt that the Blue Jays won the offseason deal, which saw them ship Brandon League to the Mariners. Morrow was the fifth overall draft selection in 2006 for a reason, and has been showing the Blue Jays glimpses of that throughout the season. Consider this the first fleecing Alex Anthopoulos has made since taking over as GM for Toronto.

LOOKING AHEAD

Unfortunately for Toronto, the team will not be able to ride the home momentum they've received from Morrow because of the G20 summit taking place in Toronto this weekend, which forced the series to switch cities to Philadelphia.

It would have made for quite the emotional return for Roy Halladay, who was the former ace of the Blue Jays pitching staff. The uber-talented "Doctor" - slated to the open the series in Philadelphia Friday night - threw 49 complete games over his 12 years with Toronto. The Phillies shipped highly-touted prospects Kyle Drabek, Travis d'Arnaud and Michael Taylor to Toronto for the former Cy-Young winner. The Jays then immediately shipped Taylor to the Oakland Athletics for Brett Wallace, a power-hitter who has excelled at every stop on his journey towards the big leagues.

To this point, both the Phillies and Blue Jays can be content with the return they received from the deal. Halladay is the ace of a Phillies team that has won the National League pennant two years running, tossing a perfect game in May and leading the NL in innings pitched (115) and complete games with five. The Jays, on the other hand, are enjoying the development of three young players, who the club envisions as having a big stake in the team's future. So far, albeit at the minor league level, none have disappointed.

Drabek has jumped out to a 7-7 record with a 3.26 ERA for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Jays' Double-A affiliate. Wallace is batting .297 with 14 HR and 42 RBI in Triple-A for the Las Vegas 51's and is a Lyle Overbay trade away from getting the call-up. Meanwhile, d'Arnaud, the 21-year old backstop, is sporting a .276-5-28 stat line at the Class A advanced level for the Dunedin Blue Jays.

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