Jack Morris never won the Cy Young but he was most definitely the guy you wanted on the mound when it counted in playoff time back in his days. I was thrilled when he finally got voted into the HOF and now I've got thoughts of trying to build an OL team around him.
I've had this in mind for a while now but every time I look at Morris' "best" seasons I shake my head and go "naaah".
Looking at his numbers his best ERC# season is 2.77 in 1981 but I don't want to use that season because his BB/9# is too high 3.58 and K/9# too low 4.44, if I want a Morris, I want one that can whiff 'em.
Next best season would be 1983 but with a ERC# of 2.93, 30 HRs, OAV# .232 and whip# 1.16 it still looks like a very risky experiment.
So... with numbers such as these "Cactus" Jack would need all the help he could get.
First thing that comes to mind is he'd need a pitcher's ballpark with the lowest HR numbers possible, that would be the Astrodome, a park I usually never use.
Second thing I'm thinking of is A+++ guys on the field to take away as many hits as possible, but as we all know that kind of range is pricey and if you invest too much on range then you get guys who can't hit or get on base.
Then to get some offense at the Dome I'm thinking I'll need guys who walk some and can run, since the Dome will erase a % of the hits, ballpark effect can't take away walks...

I usually keep all those thoughts in my mind as I fool around the draft center/player search but this time I thought I'd toss it into the forum to see what some of you guys think of it.
Experimenting stuff can be fun but when it turns out like a dud it just becomes two very long and frustrating months lol

It is an interesting narrative that has evolved around Morris. Count me as one who always felt he was overrated, even while he was active. The voters of his time were not that impressed with him - he never won a Cy Young, even in years when they made absolutely terrible choices (I'm looking at you, Pete Vuckovich, Steve Stone, and Lamarr Hoyt). When the Tigers had their great year in '84, even then the voters couldn't bring themselves to vote for Morris.

His career postseason record: 7-4, 3.80. A fine record, but not exactly Bob Gibson. Basically he had 2 great postseasons (84 and 91) and two terrible ones (87 and 92).

But none of that gets to your point...so I think the things to do with Morris are some combination of the following:
1.) Play at 70M or lower if you can.
2.) If using him in an OL, he could be your 3rd or 4th starter if you had at least 2 300 IP aces up front...then he'll be someone you'll use to eat up innings in the regular season and then stick at Long A for the playoffs.
3.) Put him in an extreme pitcher's park. Astrodome might be OK, but I'm thinking Safeco or Petco. Those parks will also allow you to go with a minimum number of innings, so you can spend more on offense.
4.) Pitch him at home as often as possible, or on the road in other pitcher-friendly parks. Avoid Coors, AFCS, Yankee III, at all costs.
5.) Have a decent 75-100 IP guy Long A you can use to come in for him if he gets shelled. Maybe consider him in a tandem with a shutdown lefty on the backend.
6.) Have 1 or 2 mopup guys who can finish for him if he gets shelled, so you don't burn your bullpen.
7.) I personally would not spend a lot on range if using the above strategies, because the range is wasted money in those parks and for the rest of your (assumedly stellar) pitching staff. Just minimize the potential damage when he's on the mound and hope for the best.

Posted by contrarian23 on 4/6/2019 1:18:00 PM (view original):
It is an interesting narrative that has evolved around Morris. Count me as one who always felt he was overrated, even while he was active. The voters of his time were not that impressed with him - he never won a Cy Young, even in years when they made absolutely terrible choices (I'm looking at you, Pete Vuckovich, Steve Stone, and Lamarr Hoyt). When the Tigers had their great year in '84, even then the voters couldn't bring themselves to vote for Morris.

His career postseason record: 7-4, 3.80. A fine record, but not exactly Bob Gibson. Basically he had 2 great postseasons (84 and 91) and two terrible ones (87 and 92).

But none of that gets to your point...so I think the things to do with Morris are some combination of the following:
1.) Play at 70M or lower if you can.
2.) If using him in an OL, he could be your 3rd or 4th starter if you had at least 2 300 IP aces up front...then he'll be someone you'll use to eat up innings in the regular season and then stick at Long A for the playoffs.
3.) Put him in an extreme pitcher's park. Astrodome might be OK, but I'm thinking Safeco or Petco. Those parks will also allow you to go with a minimum number of innings, so you can spend more on offense.
4.) Pitch him at home as often as possible, or on the road in other pitcher-friendly parks. Avoid Coors, AFCS, Yankee III, at all costs.
5.) Have a decent 75-100 IP guy Long A you can use to come in for him if he gets shelled. Maybe consider him in a tandem with a shutdown lefty on the backend.
6.) Have 1 or 2 mopup guys who can finish for him if he gets shelled, so you don't burn your bullpen.
7.) I personally would not spend a lot on range if using the above strategies, because the range is wasted money in those parks and for the rest of your (assumedly stellar) pitching staff. Just minimize the potential damage when he's on the mound and hope for the best.

You make some very valid points concerning Morris' career, it's true that he wasn't always the most reliable starter, had some pretty bad outings, but it seemed that whenever I watched him pitch a game, he did well. I'd never compare him to pitchers like Gibson, Ryan or Carlton just to name a few, but then again, even those guys had bad seasons and bad starts in the playoffs.
Jack, over the length of his career had many good to very good seasons, if never the type of dominant season that would give him the votes for a Cy Young.

As for your suggestions, I will definitely think about some, the problem though is that his only usable seasons have him pitching near 300 innings for close to 8 million$, that's a lot of inning to start spot pitching him on the road or using him in a tandem or as long relief if that team would make the playoffs.
I guess Petco would be best, then I'd need guys who walk a lot.
Still very hesitant about the whole project at this point, will try a few things in the draft center and see what it looks like.

The assertion that A+++ range is expensive is incorrect. It is very cheap, especially compared to Ks

Posted by ozomatli on 4/6/2019 7:18:00 PM (view original):
The assertion that A+++ range is expensive is incorrect. It is very cheap, especially compared to Ks

Well, range alone isn't that expensive right, I guess I should have specified, range with decent fielding, like over C fielding. Getting A+++ range with poor fielding is usually a recipe for distaster and indeed those are cheap.

Agree to disagree, I suppose. I have at least one D/A+ or C/A+ guy on probably 90% of my 100+ win teams.

Posted by ozomatli on 4/8/2019 1:08:00 AM (view original):
Agree to disagree, I suppose. I have at least one D/A+ or C/A+ guy on probably 90% of my 100+ win teams.

Sure, I have em too, but mainly because of their bats, and depends at which position, I usually draft a C/A+ Garry Templeton at SS cause he's my favorite player but I have to brace myself for at least 50 errors, he always gets way more than his actual total even if he rarely gets as many chances, meaning his fielding % will be considerably lower than his actual even if I'm playing him at 100% all season long. Same with '90 McGee, he will sometimes double his actual E total, which is horrendous for an outfield, I have him with 17E in 88 games right now, that was his total for his entire actual season.

Shortstop is really the only position where the costs outweigh the benefits and fielding is more important than range. '90 McGee is great