Morales showing signs of improvement
Left-hander Franklin Morales has been on a two-week roll at Triple-A Colorado Springs where Sky Sox pitching coach Doug Linton has made some mechanical changes that have been beneficial.
Overall, Morales is 3-0 with a 3.08 ERA in 21 games for the Sky Sox but with 18 walks and 30 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings. But in his past six games dating to Aug. 6, Morales has not allowed a run in eight innings while giving up three hits and five walks with 10 strikeouts. Three of those walks came in an outing Aug. 10 when Morales worked 1 2/3 innings.
Morales is using a lower leg kick and at Linton’s suggestion has lowered his hands in his delivery.
“I’m just trying to smooth him out and get out of those herky-jerky movements,” Linton said, “trying to get him to work more north to south, instead of being real rotational.”
It wasn’t as if Linton imposed change on Morales. On the contrary, after an outing where Linton recalls Morales threw about 30 pitches in one inning, Linton and Morales viewed the video of that performance.
“I mapped out all 30 pitches and it was a complete diagonal from the left-handed batters box high all the way to the right-handed batters box low,” Linton said. “All the misses, they were high or low, so it just showed me there’s a lot of rotation in his delivery. I’m trying to get him to work more north to south, and it’s worked, so his misses now are getting more of the plate up and down instead of missing pitches high arm side and yanking pitches low glove side.”
Linton said he felt it was imperative to try to simplify Morales’ delivery. He carefully explained what he wanted to do, Morales agreed and at this point, has a short sample of desirable results. Which if nothing else is a start, possibly, for the always tantalizing Morales, who at times has been sitting at 93-94 mph with his fastball and has touched 97 mph.
“Somebody throwing 97 miles an hour doesn’t belong in Triple-A,” Linton said, “and we got to figure out a way to make him be confident up there (in the big leagues) and harnessed where he can throw strikes, I wouldn’t say at a max effort but just a notch below that.”
Good luck!
Honestly, I either hope he does great in the minors so we can trade him for something or I hope he stinks it up.
The worst thing that can happen is Morales gets called up again so he can blow the games that count in the show.
Any chance we see Frank as a starter again?
The man could throw a perfect game, and I would still have my concerns/partiality towards his MLB talent.
I still wish him luck, as he is quite young – either here, or with someone else.
Geeze guys. It’s a good thing some of you aren’t running this team and organization.
Here’s a post about some mechanical changes that are being made to the young lefty that seem to be working and all you can do is rag on him. The same Morales that was key in the 07′ run.
No offense, but this year hasn’t been what I hoped it would be either, but some of you guys are just getting a bit ridiculous.
Despite what happens with Morales, trade/no trade/big league club next year or not, it is of the upmost importance that he improves.
When I think of Morales, I think of DLR. I specifically remember being a proponent of DLR last year, even up when he was 0-6 with an inflated ERA. I remember people on this very site bagging and ragging on him, calling for him to be replaced. Well we all know how that turned out.
Morales’ improvement only does one thing for the club- and that is to make it better.
Prog- I’ve always thought you were a pretty knowledgeable poster. But I think it’s time you take a step back and look at the bigger picture here. In all honesty, I was in your shoes a while back. I let my emotions get the better of me, but after taking a step back I’ve become more level headed. I suggest doing the same.
Baseball isn’t about one game, or even a few games. Morales was sent down because of control and performance issues. Well, now we are seeing improvement. It’s on a small scale, but that comes along with the fact that there are mechanical changes taking place.
Well said Dustin! This team needs Morales to work things out and be a contributor in 2011. There are more than a few stories of guys who had mechanical problems and once they got them worked out had successful careers. I hope for all involved that Linton got Morales worked out (he has done pretty good down here working with our pitchers). A good team needs depth, and we might even see Morales be able to reclaim the closer role next year (the MLB Network Spring Training preview everyone one of the guys on there thought that Morales was a better choice as the closer because his stuff is electric).
The more good news we have for 2011 the better!
It’s only to the team’s benefit if Morales rights the ship. He can contribute in a variety of bullpen roles or if he proves to be a useful trade chip, that works, too.
He’s been struggling with his control for a long time, which makes me a bit pessimistic about his prospects, but the stint in AAA really helped Belisle–remember how awful he was at the start of the 2009 season? Maybe Morales can make the same leap.
I agree with most of the posters here, it is beneficial to Morales, the Rockies, or whomever he plays for next that he gets himself straightened out…
BTW, he threw 29 pitches today in a game for the Sky Sox…and threw 23 strikes. When was the last time we had seen that?!
of course it will be good for him to improve, but only so that the team can trade him. sorry, to disagree, but I’ve seen enough of him to make my own opinion that he doesn’t have the mental aspect to perform well as a reliever. i feel he can’t be trusted with a lead. that said, i suppose Huston Street and Manny Corpas can’t be either anymore, so go ahead and promote him, whats one more shaky and mentally fragile closer on the roster?
if i was reading that he was coming back as a starter, i would have a totally different perspective.
the kid has electric stuff thats for sure, and my first impression of him in 07 was that he would be the first Rockies pitcher to throw a no hitter.
I can totally live with seeing him on the hill every 5th game. I think he had the makings of a guy that could win 1/2 of his games because about half of his innings would be great and half of them not. I’d take it.
When you start talking about Morales in the bullpen, that means he’s going to be put into ball games 3 times a week. I’m sorry but thats way too many games someone as shaky as Morales too have a role in the outcome.