An interesting pitching case for control issues has been Brandon Morrow since he began his professional career. He has only had one season over 50 IP with a BB/9 under 4.00. In the majors his current career rate before yesterday was 5.21, but he has made some strides this season getting down to 4.18. Against the Rays though he not only held them to 2 walks in 9 IP, but he struck out 17 batters. This season he has made strides and this was an extension of those skills. While Morrow has been slightly ignored since his trade from Seattle, yesterday was a reminder of the skill he has.
The power display by Carlos Gonzalez this year has been great, but could we see a little patience? He hit his 25th homer yesterday, but has seen a walk rate of only 4.4% so far this year. That is quite a drop from the 8.8% rate we saw last season. Even with an amazing .368 BABIP, which is sure to drop, he has only a .349 OBP. It might be nitpicking, but it would be nice to see the few extra walks to solidify his patience. Giving him a few extra steals and runs by getting on base those few extra times.
There must have been a competition between Jeremy Guthrie and Trevor Cahill to see who could throw a better 8 innings yesterday with the least strikeouts. We already discussed Cahill the other day, but Guthrie has been an interesting case. His fantasy relevance will always be nothing more than the deepest AL-only leagues, but he has an interesting ERA/FIP split. In 742+ innings he has an ERA of 4.26, which is quite a bit better than his FIP of 4.80. His LOB% and HR/FB are near league averages, but his BABIP is at .280 in his career. This is interesting since during his 4 major league seasons the Orioles have had a negative UZR/150 in three of them. Perhaps something can be learned from how he is pitching to hitters.
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