Breaking Down The Morrow-League Trade

The Mariners finalized the Brandon Morrow for Brandon League and Johermyn Chavez of the Toronto Blue Jays. The trade comes a week after the blockbuster Cliff Lee-Roy Halladay trade which sent prospects from Philadelphia to Toronto.

In that trade Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik sent former No. 1 pick Phillipe Aumont and to other prospects to the Phillies in exchange for SP Cliff Lee. Zduriencik continues to put his impressive finger print on the Mariners franchise by trading or releasing all of former Mariners GM Bill Bavasi players.

Good news for Mariners fans is that Felix Hernandez and Ichiro Suzuki were not brought in by Bavasi.

Now back to the Brandon Morrow- Brandon League trade.

If you look at it on paper it seems like the Jays come out the clear winner but if you did deeper its not as one sided as people are making it out to be.

In his career with the Seattle Mariners, Brandon Morrow has been the guy "who was picked instead of Tim Lineceum", the San Francisco Giants Cy Young winner. In his career Morrow has bounced between being a starting pitcher, relief pitcher and even trying to become a closer last year.

Now mostly to blame for this is former M's GM Bill Bavasi and his staff of clowns but Morrow get's the blame for last season. He said he didn't feel comfortable enough being a starting pitcher so he wanted to become a closer.

Fair enough, he's got the fastball to do it.

Well in a series against the Texas Rangers Brandon Morrow blew two straight saves giving up three homeruns in the process.

Afterwards he was sent down to AAA Tacoma to fix the kinks and develop more. He's never developed into a quality pitcher let alone what people think he can be which is a front line starting pitcher.

Well unless he goes back to single A ball he's just not going to be that big time starting pitcher. Now yes Morrow has shown flashes of greatness with the almost no-hitter against the New York Yankees.

Now for the two players the Mariners will receive in exchange for Morrow, relief pitcher Brandon League and OF Johermyn Chavez (Triple Crown winner in Single A this past season).

League brings an added presents to the Mariners bullpen which was very key to the Mariners success last season. David Aardsma's 38 saves and the rest of the bullpen locking it down.

League brings a great two seem fastball and he's plus groundball pitcher which is great considering the outstanding defense behind him with Chone Figgins, Jack Wilson and others.

League went 3-6 last season with a 4.58 ERA and 76 SO in 67 appearances for the Jays.

The other player the Mariners received in the deal, outfielder Johermyn Chavez is a Jack Zduriencik type of player.

Chavez, a 20 year old who hit .283 with 21 homeruns and 89 RBI's last season for class single A Lansing is an outstanding complete hitter, who still needs to work on a few things before becoming a MLB player.

Luckily for Chavez time is greatly on this side. Chavez's 2009 stats are as follows.

.283 BA, 87 Runs, 144 hits, 21 HR's, 89 RBI's, 40 BB, 137 SO's, .346 OBP, .474 SLG and a .820 OPS.

Chavez will most likely start the season in class A in either Clinton (with the Lumberjacks) or High A Desert Mavericks.

Chavez is an upgrade over former OF prospect Tyson Gillies who was traded to Philadelphia in the Lee deal.

Look for Jack Zduriencik to continue building for his year, which he's pick as 2010.