Despite hysterical, knee-jerk reactions from both Mariners fans and critical Diamond lovers, Brandon Morrow's departure for Canada is actually timely.
In fact, while most headlines will weigh in Toronto's favor, Blue Jays fans should try to see through Brandon Morrow's good name to Alex Anthopoulos' bad decisions.
Bidding adieu to Brandon League differs only in scale from frittering away earlier, more profitable opportunities to deal Roy Halladay—whether under Anthopoulos or J.P. Ricciardi.
Twice now in two weeks Seattle has bested Toronto.
Both Brandons boasted early promise as prospects. Battling through injuries, both pitchers have outperformed their salaries by at least $4 million—League a little more. Both men remain relatively inexpensive and are under team control for some time—Morrow a little more.
Yet these two middling dealers' paths appear diverging, and Mr. League is taking "the road less traveled."
Morrow's dollar value has outstripped his salary throughout his Major League career, but that's common, if not essential, for good young players. Riddled with injury and stagnating professionally, Morrow seems to have ridden his early reputation as far as it remains profitable.
His 2009 RAR of 2.4 and WAR of 0.2 sustain the general flat-line of his career marks—13.1 and 1.3, respectively. As Morrow commands an even slightly higher salary, his value will vanish completely.
In contrast, League's value is rising and is on track to pace his compensation. After a sterling 2006 season, League sustained a shoulder injury that caused significant regression in 2007.
However, since that sophomore slump of sorts, League has posted steadily improving statistics, including 2009 three-year bests in K/9, BB/9, WHIP and innings pitched —9.16/2.53/1.25/74.2.
If one considers the importance of League's 2009 RAR (10) and WAR (1.0) to his career numbers of 15.4 and 1.5, respectively, one cannot ignore League's slow-building surge. These numbers aren't outliers; rather, the guy's just getting better.
Jack Zduriencik strikes again.
The real question is who Zduriencik has in mind for that rotation spot. It's a little soon to promote one of the youngsters, so he may consider bringing back Joel Pineiro for a more developed encore.
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