Pittsburgh Pirates Notebook: Morton Undergoes Surgery, Maholm’s Days Are Done
By Matt Shetler
I wanted to have my grades on the pitching staff out by today, but that will likely have to wait until tomorrow.
Beginning today, I will start my weekly Pirates notebook featuring general news from the team, Arizona Fall League performances, etc.
That way you can stay current with the news until the Winter Meetings begin, in which the coverage will likely pick up as well.
Now onto today’s big story.
– Charlie Morton had surgery on Monday to repair a torn labrum in his left hip. It doesn’t sound like a very painful surgery, but the recovery time is at about six months which will have Morton or target to miss Opening Day.
Morton finished the year with a 10-10 record, but pitched well enough to easily win 15+ games. His 3.83 ERA was also a big improvement from the 2009 campaign as well.
The surgery is bad news because down the stretch Morton was the Pirates best pitcher and would be looked upon to fill a top of the rotation spot in 2012.
– The Pirates will not be picking up Paul Maholm’s $9.75 million option, which should come as no surprise to anyone.
Just because the Bucs had a solid four months of the season, it doesn’t mean their philosophy changed. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though.
By midseason, with Maholm pitching extremely well, it looked like picking up his option was a real possibility; something that wasn’t even thought about entering the 2011 season.
Now $9.75 million seems like a lot for an average left-handed starter, but you have to remember how much pitching costs these days.
I kept saying all season that be careful on overvaluing the Pirates starters. They were bound to come back to earth. I didn’t necessarily mean that would happen in July, but it would happen in 2012.
Having said that, a Pirates rotation that struggled mightily the final three months of the season will now be without 40 percent of the rotation come opening day.
The projected 2012 rotation will look like this: Jeff Karstens, James McDonald, Kevin Correia, Brad Lincoln, and Morton (when healthy).
– The Pirates have a new home on 93.7 The Fan beginning next season. This is a good move to get away from 104.7, which featured too much political talk to carry games on.
The Fan will carry all regular season games and a minimum of 16 exhibition games; as well as pre and post game shows and The Neal Huntington Show.
Unfortunately though, the broadcast team of Greg Brown, Bob Walk, John Wehner, Steve Blass and Tim Neverett will remain in tact.
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