I can easily admit, Brandon Morrow was my favorite Jay pitcher to watch this year. Half the fun of watching baseball, for me, is watching young players improve. Watching him at the start of the year you could he had the talent to be something special, but we wondered if it would happen and how long it would take. It didn't take long. His one hitter, with 17 strikeouts and just two walks was one of the best games we'll ever see.
His season stats:
Per nine innings Brandon struck out 10.95, walked 4.02 and gave up 0.68 home runs. His FIP (3.16) and xFIP (3.63) were much better than his ERA mainly because he had terrible luck with balls in play (.348 BABIP), have to figure that number will come down this year. Fangraphs credited him with a 3.7 WAR.
Brandon's numbers by month:
April: 2-2, 5.46, 28 innings, 16 walks, 33 k.
May: 2-2, 6.52, 29 innings, 18 walks, 33 k.
June: 1-2, 1.91, 33 innings, 10 walks, 34 k.
July: 2-0, 5.09, 23 innings, 9 walks, 25 k.
August: 3-0, 2.97, 30.1 innings, 10 walks, 49 k.
Sept: 0-1, 15.00, 3 innings, 3 walks, 4 k.
We all remember that the Jays shut him down in September to keep his innings to a reasonable number.
Bill James expects 9-9, 3.78, 27 starts, 162 innings.
I don't know about win/loss...how he could go 5 starts in June with an ERA under 2.00 and only get one win says sad things about our offense. I'm going to guess 12-8, 28 starts, 180 innings (still managing his innings) and a 3.60 ERA. Fewer walks about 3.5 a game. Maybe a few fewer strikeouts. 9.75 a game.
What say you?