Charlie Morton explains career, why weak contact not always key

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CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Phillies' two new veteran starting pitchers looked sharp this weekend, with Charlie Morton picking up Sunday where Jeremy Hellickson left off Friday.

In 2⅓ innings against the Yankees, Morton allowed one hit, walked one and struck out two. He left with two men on base and was charged with one earned run.

Morton retired the first six batters he faced on four groundouts, a flyout and a strikeout. All of the contact was soft.

Keeping the ball on the ground is Morton's M.O. Since 2013, he has the second-highest groundball rate in the majors at 58.3 percent. Only 2015 AL Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel has a higher percentage.

Groundballs don't always equal success for a pitcher. You need a solid infield defense behind you and a bit of luck for grounders to translate into outs at a high rate. Obviously, they're not all created equal — some are sharply hit singles up the middle.

Morton revamped his approach in 2011, changing his arm slot and throwing more sinkers. It allowed him to find an identity as a groundball pitcher, he said Sunday, and it was a "huge weight off" his back when he found that he could make mistakes and not get pounded for them.

It was then that he began to realize that different ballparks call for different approaches and the inducing of different types of contact. Weak contact is normally the key for pitchers, but not always.

"In 2011, I think I had the lowest home run per nine rate in the big leagues (six HRs in 171⅔ innings)," Morton said. "In Pittsburgh, left field is like 280 (feet), 410 in left-center in that little nook and 400 to center. And right (field) there is a short porch. In 2011, I just remembered lefties hit me to the tune of .350. And I think that was a great sample size to look at the kind of contact, because they were hitting me but I wasn't giving up a ton of home runs. So it wasn't like PNC Park was really helping me too much against lefties.

"If you go to Colorado, for instance, people on TV are like, 'Colorado's a tiny park, huh?' But that place is huge. That's a ton of ground for those (outfielders) to cover. So if you get weak contact that's not necessarily a good thing because you get a lot of bloop doubles, fists … if they're shifted, you get ground balls where the grass is cut short."

Morton had a solid year in 2011. He had two more successful seasons in 2013 and 2014, posting a 3.52 ERA in 273⅓ innings and allowing just 15 home runs.

He wasn't as good last season, going 9-9 with a 4.81 ERA in 23 starts. But his end totals don't accurately tell the story of his 2015 season, a season that apparently made him expendable to the Pirates and led them to trade him to the Phillies for little in return.

Morton's groundball rate last season was as high as it usually is, but his ERA was up, the home run rate was up, the line drive rate was up.

What was the difference?

"I think not starting out very well even in spring training and not really hitting my stride right away, and then I went on the DL to start the year," he said. "To start the year I was on the DL for two months almost the beginning of the year. I came back strong, I was 5-0 with a 1.62 ERA. And then I pitched in Washington and I gave up 10 runs (actually nine) in like two-thirds of an inning. It kinda was like, I was pitching really well and then all the sudden you look at numbers — which I do — and it's like wow, it looks like I've been pitching pretty much the same as I always had, which wasn't true. I had five starts that were pretty good and I had one that was absolutely horrendous, probably one of the worst all year in the big leagues.

"My line drive rate was probably a lot higher, hard-hit balls higher. And I think that was why. Very inconsistent. I'd get a guy on and allow a really hard-hit ball at inopportune times. And I wasn't finishing outings. I'd get into the seventh inning four times in a row, really good games I pitched, and by the end of the day it looked like I pitched poorly because I couldn't close it out. Those were really frustrating. I was giving up runs in the first inning and the last inning in consecutive starts like six times. It was crazy."

Hopefully for Morton, the strong defensive infield the Phillies are building with Maikel Franco and Freddy Galvis on the left side will be a help with all those ground balls. Hopefully too, he can continue to induce weak contact through the air which allows his defense to camp under flyballs in one of the game's smaller outfields.

"I think there's an emphasis on weak contact, whether that's a weak flyball or groundballs," Morton said of pitching at stadiums like Citizens Bank Park. "I have a theory about smaller parks: The ground that outfielders have to cover is actually minimized when you have a smaller park. So if you pitch to contact, you pitch to weak contact, especially groundballs, you'll do really well. Knock on wood, but I've had some success at (Cincinnati's) Great American Ballpark, Great American Smallpark. I think some of the reason why that is is if I'm inducing weaker contact or groundballs, that's less area for outfielders to have to cover."

More from Morton
Morton hit the most batters in the NL in both 2013 and 2014 despite averaging just 137 innings. When you see numbers like those, there has to be a reason.

"I go in a lot," Morton said. "And I throw a lot of curveballs that hit lefties. I yank a lot of curveballs to lefties. That's not to say I don't hit a lot of people with my fastball, it's pretty much 50-50. But that's why: I go in. I don't like hitting people, but I gotta go in.

"To lefties, if I start my sinker into a lefty middle (of the plate), that's the only way I'm gonna throw a strike because my ball runs a lot and it sinks. So I have to start it middle. Lefties just stay on it and they commit to it and hit it back at my face or to left field. So really I have to start the ball in and off (the plate). And sometimes I'll pull a fastball, I'll just pull it."

You might also remember that a few years ago Morton remade his delivery to look like Roy Halladay's. The mimicry is no longer as emphatic. Here's why:

"The Halladay thing to me was the tuck, the signature move, the Halladay tuck," he said. "The arm slot, I think it really solidified that repeatability to my sinker and the movement to my sinker. I think when I did that, the tuck, I felt my body was staying back pretty well. Since then — I stopped doing it in 2012 — I had elbow surgery. In 2013, 2014, 2015, I think there's a decent amount of pitches I've thrown since then and I'm still a groundball pitcher. Maybe I'll bring it back, who knows. Right now, it's probably the last option."

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