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The Astros 2017 Starting Rotation Preview
By Cody Poage
Starter #3: Charlie Morton
The popular opinion about the Astros this offseason was the need for another starting pitcher. Names like Chris Sale, Chris Archer, Jose Quintana, and Sonny Gray were mentioned as possible fits. Three of those four pitchers may still very well be fits at a later date.
In meantime though, the Astros did acquire a starting pitcher. Charlie Morton just happened to be the guy.
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The 33-year old has pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates Philadelphia Phillies in recent years. In fact, he was in the middle of an interesting development in terms of velocity in Philadelphia before a hamstring injury running the basepaths ended his 2016 season.
The Astros signed Morton to a relatively low risk contract this offseason. In essence, the team is betting on Morton’s small sample size (3.09 FIP in 17.1 innings pitched) translates to long term production. Sure, he wasn’t the sexy signing that everyone was hoping for earlier in the winter. But he could prove to be a heck of a bargain.