MVN: Most Valuable Network

Jeff:  Given the active offseason they had, I went into the year with the M's pegged as a true talent -- 84-88 win team, good enough to stay interesting but not good enough to beat out the Angels in a fair fight. Lackey and Escobar getting injured certainly lifted my spirits, and while I remained forever cautious, I was guardedly optimistic. Then the baseball happened.

As tempting as it is to point to the second day of the season as the turning point - the bulletproof JJ Putz got injured and blew a save - I don't believe in that sort of thing, and it was really just the course of the first couple months that made it abundantly clear that this team was headed in the wrong direction. A thrilling win over the Angels got them to 10-10, and they surpassed .500 the next game, but after that they lost 16 of their next 20 contests and dropped irreversibly out of contention. The offense couldn't hit, the pitchers couldn't pitch, and the defenders couldn't defend. A team that was more hyped than perhaps any in franchise history stood 11.5 games back of first place at the end of May.

So, no, there was no singular defining moment. There was a never-ending sequence of moments. All of them bad.

Jeff:  I hated the Bedard trade at the time. So did the guys over at USS Mariner. It probably sounds like I'm covering my ass, but I'm telling the truth - I thought it was an unthinkably high price to pay for only a modest improvement.

While I was all about Erik Bedard and considered him to be one of the best pitchers in baseball, losing Jones gave us a hole in RF and losing Sherrill gave us a hole in the bullpen -- big holes that were going to cost us runs. And that doesn't even factor in the three prospects.

But things went as they did and now we're stuck with a broken pitcher who delivered all of 81 league-average innings. I still like Erik Bedard. I think a healthy Erik Bedard is a phenomenal asset. The problem is that Erik Bedard is only healthy Erik Bedard like 30% of the time that he's pitching. If I'm in charge, I let Bedard work his way back into playing shape and see how he performs. Then I cross my fingers that he pitches well leading up to the deadline so I can try to move him for prospects to make up some of the massive ground the organization already lost when it got him in the first place.

There's no saving that move. There's only salvaging it.

Jeff:  I haven't been a fan of the way they've handled Morrow, but at least they finally got him starting baseball games late last summer. It took them long enough.

I thought it was silly to push him almost immediately into the Major League bullpen after being drafted, because being a reliever isn't at all like being a starter. He seems to be on the right track now, though, so that's something, provided you think the ends justify the means. Unfortunately being a reliever set back his starting development a little ways, so it'll be a bit before we see him get more polished, but there's still a lot of potential in there.

Witness his first start against New York. Morrow has dynamite stuff; he just needs to work on commanding his pitches better and keeping a consistent grip on his curveball. There's no touching that pitch when he has it working right. A good Morrow curve is one of the best curves on the planet.

Morrow has too much ability not to start. He deserves an extended trial. If it doesn't work out, then whatever, at least they tried, but they need to keep him on the starting path for the next few years to see if they can in part assuage the misery from having passed on Tim Lincecum. The reward is greater than the risk.