PITTSBURGH _ When the Pirates traded for Charlie Morton in 2009, management praised his "electric stuff" so often that it became a punchline among fans as he struggled early in his career in Pittsburgh.
As it turned out, his best seasons with the Pirates were far less scintillating. He relied so heavily on inducing ground balls in 2013 and '14 that he earned the nickname "Ground Chuck." The results were pretty good, as he posted a sub-4.00 ERA and was worth about three wins above replacement across those two seasons, according to Fangraphs. Still, he wasn't exactly the guy to put a charge into a crowd with an overpowering strikeout.
That's changed as Morton has become a postseason hero for the Houston Astros. Playing on the first year of a two-year deal with the team, he's posted good numbers amid a spike in his strikeout numbers and is finally living up to the label the Pirates gave his talents almost a decade ago.
In 25 regular-season starts, Morton struck out 10 batters per nine innings. That's quite a surge over his career average of 6.9 and even his full-season career-best 7.2 with the Pirates in 2014. And that newfound ability to produces whiffs helped him a lot in perhaps the most important start of his career Saturday when he struck out five hitters in five scoreless innings to get a win in Game 7 of the ALCS that sent the Astros to the World Series.
For all that success, he can thank a spike in velocity and a devastating curveball.
Morton has never thrown harder than he has this season. His four-seam fastball this season averaged 96.1 mph, almost two ticks faster than he ever threw it with the Pirates. He's also had extra zip on his sinker _ sometimes classified as a two-seamer _ and his curveball, the two pitches he deploys most often.
This has helped him better set up hitters. His sinker hasn't been too tough get to _ opponents hit .317 with a .902 OPS against it in the regular season. But the greater contrast in speed with his breaking stuff has confounded hitters. Big time.
Opponents are hitting just .104 with a .356 OPS off the curve this season, and Fangraphs, through its pitch values formula, estimates that the pitch has saved the Astros 15.5 runs this season. He never posted a figure better than 6.0 with the Pirates.
All of it added up to a 3.62 ERA in almost 147 innings this season, which Fangraphs values as 3.3 wins above replacement. Quite the bargain for Houston, which paid him just $7 million this season and has him locked in at the same price next year, when he'll be 34.
Of course, that's not guarantee he'll produce as well under the bright lights of the World Series. Regardless, he unquestionably is the latest former Pirate who fans will remember with envy as he's re-invented himself in another city.
