It’s almost appropriate a curve accompanies the terminology of “the yakker”, Lord Charles or Uncle Charlie. This segues perfectly to Charlie Morton . Among pitchers to throw at least 200 curves last year, Morton finished fifth in baseball, according to Baseball Prospectus, with a 46.27 whiff per swing rate with the pitch. He also finished seventh in the American League in ERA (3.13), 10th in wins (15) and 12th in strikeouts (201). Not too shabby for a pitcher in his Age-35 season.

Morton did leave Houston signing a free agent deal with Tampa Bay. His new ballpark should help his ratios, but starts versus the Yankees and Red Sox lineups will test Morton’s mettle. Keep in mind, it’s difficult to win 15 of 18 decisions as Morton did last year but his 201 strikeouts in 167 innings keep him relevant in fantasy. Morton also recorded a 1.16 WHIP and he’s won 29 games the last two years.

Within his numbers last season, Morton did increase his strikeouts minus walks percentage to 19.7 along with his swinging strike percentage by a point. Although he yielded 2.4 percent less contact, Morton did allow more line drives and fewer ground balls with his hard-hit rate rising by almost three percent. This will need to be monitored as he moves forward.

Before delving into Morton’s performance by pitch, here’s a look at his arsenal using his pitch plot data on Statcast:

He continues to mix up his pitch sequencing to adapt and it will be intriguing to see how he uses them in Tampa Bay. Morton deploys his four-seam fastball and sinker more often depending on the year or month, so which pitch emerges as the most used depends. Here’s how his pitches performed last year:

Representing one of the three traditional starters for the Rays, Morton will not only serve as a mentor to the up and coming arms in the system, but he needs to provide innings. Note, Morton’s only logged 146.2 innings in 2017 and 167 last season. Also, his struggles usually start the third time through the order:

Patient teams who make Morton work will be successful. It’s why facing Boston and sometimes New York will test him. However, Morton should do well versus Toronto and Baltimore providing balance in the schedule. Predicting how many innings he will accrue will affect his overall valuation. Morton’s projections reflect this:

His curve and strikeout upside make Morton an appealing fantasy asset, but he will not carry a rotation. He’s a piece to a puzzle so be sure to build with him in fantasy, not around him. Morton’s ATC projection seems the most realistic this year, so he’s a second pitcher with upside but should not accompany a high risk starter like Chris Sale . Morton fits better with a safer pitcher like Jacob deGrom . Morton did not receive an offer to stay in Houston, so enter with eyes wide open. Morton feels more like a third pitcher in fantasy with second starter upside, it’s going to be a matter of how many innings he logs.

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Statistical Credits:

Fangraphs.com

BaseballSavant.com

THE BAT courtesy of Derek Carty

ATC courtesy of Ariel Cohen

ZiPS courtesy of Dan Szymborski