




Well, when you say, without Morris, you have to mention an assumed
replacement.  If the alternative to Morris was letting Cito Gaston
soft-toss the ball underhand to the opposition every 5 days, then
of course the Blue Jays wouldn't have won without Morris.  If the
alternative was replacement level, then I think it would've been very
close, and yes, Morris might've made the difference.  If the alternative
was Frank Viola, the Blue Jays probably would have won more easily with
Viola.


Yes.  You can make the argument that the his presence prevented 
the team from collapsing in August.


Those innings were probably helpful.


Well, I think is complete bs.  What happened most of the time is that
Morris fell behind, and the team came back and rescued him.  Mostly,
this is because he's a lousy 1st inning pitcher, and much better
the rest of the way.  That the team can climb out of 4-0, 5-0 holes
consistently and win them 6-5 is not to Morris' credit; it's to the
team's credit.

Furthermore, while Morris did exceed the W-L percentage that would
be projected from his runs allowed and run support, he hasn't done
this in previous years.  In fact, his W-L record in 1991 is a lot
worse than what it projects to be with run support and runs allowed.
Do you think he just came up with this ability in 1992.

Look at the 2 postseason games he pitched decently in.  Typical
Morris games.  Morris gets behind; team rescues him.  He's not
responsible for that rescue.  And in both those games, the team
just didn't rescue him enough.  Jack Morris pitched as well as he did
during much of the season in those 2 games; the offense just didn't
earn him a victory.


Morris is one of those guys who will reture when he can't start
anymore; he's too bad a first inning pitcher to serve in the bullpen.