Rockies' Morales a man in search of himself

Demoted youngster working hard on mechanics in Triple-A

By Jack Etkin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 5, 2008 at 4:25 p.m.

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Photo by Special to the Rocky

After a shaky start to the 2008 season with the Rockies, Franklin Morales returned to Colorado Springs. In his first start he pitched the first five innings of a combined no-hitter by Sky Sox pitchers. In five starts with the Sky Sox Morales has a 7.13 ERA.

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COLORADO SPRINGS - If he wasn't back to square one, Franklin Morales was plenty close enough on this blustery afternoon.

He was throwing a bullpen session between starts recently for Triple-A Colorado Springs, his control more of a foe than an ally and his frustration evident.

At various times between pitches, Morales circled the mound or picked up the rosin bag and flipped it away or scuffed the mound with one of his spikes. Sky Sox pitching coach Chuck Kniffen interjected brief reminders.

"Extension, extension," Kniffen said. "Reach out. Reach out. Reach out."

And this . . .

"Stay level, comprende?" said Kniffen, leaning to show Morales he was creating an uphill plane with his back shoulder lower than his front.

And this . . .

"Your arm's just getting slow. Feel it slowing up? Just throw a fastball."

Pitching tutorial

It's all part of a pitching tutorial the Rockies hope will get Morales back on track and back to the majors.

He is 3-2 with a 7.13 ERA, 23 walks and 15 strikeouts in 24 innings for the Sky Sox. He has been dealing with some attention-related issues.

"I think my concentration is going to get better, and once I get my concentration good, everything's going to go well and I'm going to be up there (in Denver)soon," he said.

Morales has made the same number of starts (five) for the Sky Sox and Rockies. He began the season in the majors and despite some recent progress, isn't on the verge of returning.

"He's a work in progress," general manager Dan O'Dowd said before Morales' most recent outing. "We don't have him on any kind of watch. We're just going to let him pitch."

Since this particular side session, Morales, a left-hander who is scheduled to start Saturday, has worked into the seventh in two starts and has shown better fastball command.

That was the first priority for Morales after he went 1-2 with a 6.39 ERA for the Rockies, had nearly twice as many walks (17) as strikeouts (nine) and allowed 46 base- runners in 25 and a third innings.

"He's probably throwing maybe just under two out of three for strikes his last couple outings, where before his command of the fastball wasn't that high," Kniffen said.

On May 27, Morales threw 50 of 78 fastballs (64 percent) for strikes. Sunday, he threw 56 of 91 (62 percent) for strikes. But in each game, he threw only nine

curveballs. And he threw four changeups Sunday, one more than in his previous start.

"He's got to get to the point where he can throw his curveball in fastball counts - early in the count and behind in the count," Kniffen said. "And he's got to get to the point where he can throw his changeup more, especially to right-handed hitters in fastball counts, because throwing 80 percent fastballs at the major league level's not going to cut it."

It has been nearly six weeks since Morales threw his last pitch for the Rockies, on April 28 at San Francisco.

He is 22 and possesses a prized left arm. Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca says the youngster still is prominent on the big club's radar.

"Our assessment of him is still very, very high," Apodaca said. "But we've just reduced the heat on him as far as how long it's going to take to cook. We just need to keep the flame low and let him develop at his time frame."

Big help in 2007

After suffering injuries to three starters in the second half of last season, the Rockies turned to Morales out of need, and he made his major league debut Aug. 18.

He helped the Rockies make their historic sprint to the postseason, going 3-2 with a 3.43 ERA in eight regular-season starts, but he didn't consistently throw strikes.

"We saw glimpses of it," Apodaca said. "He didn't set the world on fire last year, but he showed flashes of it. If he shows flashes of it, it means he's capable of doing it."

To get Morales into a relaxed environment when it became evident he needed to regroup, the Rockies sent him from San Francisco to extended spring training in Tucson.

There, he worked on one of the minor league fields with roving pitching coordinator Jim Wright, who has a long history with Morales.

"The smile was gone on his face, so there was some concern there," Wright said. "So you try and get him into an area where there's not as much pressure. First of all, we started to work on his delivery. He's got delivery issues because when a pitcher loses confidence, your delivery can do all kinds of things.

"You're very hitter-conscious. You're starting to open up (with your front shoulder). You're pulling out. You're behind in counts. And you start worrying about things which you shouldn't worry about as a pitcher, which is the batter instead of the pitch you're going to make - that one pitch, one pitch at a time."

Wright said Morales was throwing across his body, landing on his heel with a stiff front leg, and spinning toward the third-base side of the mound.

As a result, Morales was cutting off his pitches, causing him to miss high and away to his arm side (away from a right-handed batter) or low and in to his glove side (inside to a right-hander).

To correct Morales' delivery, Wright "took more of a mental approach" and tried to "get his mind back on throwing to a target" without concerns about sequences, counts or even a catcher.

They did a series of basic drills, and rather quickly, Wright said, Morales regained a feel for his delivery and realized he had to think about making one pitch at a time and making it count.

At one point, Wright said, Morales admitted, "I haven't done that. I've been thinking about the next 25 pitches and forgetting about the one I'm making."

Morales' fastball was 88-89 mph with the Rockies this season. He averaged 91 mph in his past two starts, hitting 98 mph on May 27 and 96 mph Sunday.

It's more about throwing strikes and quality strikes than velocity, but an increase in the latter is an indication Morales is doing better with his alignment to home plate.

"That was the big thing with him," Kniffen said. "He was throwing across his body, cutting off his pitches, so his line's been better, especially his last two outings.

"Fastball is staying truer on his glove side. He's not cutting off as many pitches as he was."

With the Rockies, Morales repeatedly threw pitches high and outside to right-handed hitters, missing his target by a wide margin. Kniffen said in Morales' most recent start, when he moved his head too quickly, he would start spinning off in his delivery "and kind of recoiling." But this hasn't happened as often lately.

"He'll pull his head off line, and that's when the ball will ride up and away to right-handed hitters," Kniffen said.

"He's just trying to overthrow, gets a little too frisky."

Work to do

Franklin Morales walked the final two batters he faced Sunday, likely because of fatigue as he threw more than 100 pitches in a Sky Sox start for the first time this season. While Morales has shown improvement recently, walks have been abundant and he has not thrown enough strikes.

May 11, Albuquerque (W) 5 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 BB, 3 SO, 90 pitches/49 strikes

May 17, at Fresno (L) 4 IP, 8 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 7 BB, 2 SO, 86 pitches/43 strikes

May 22, at Sacramento (L) 2 IP, 3 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 SO, 67 pitches/33 strikes

May 27, at Salt Lake (W) 6 1/3 IP, 5 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, 90 pitches/53 strikes

June 1, Sacramento (W) 6 2/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 5 SO, 105 pitches/60 strikes

Pitching 101

Immediately after the Rockies optioned Morales, roving pitching coordinator Jim Wright worked with him for a few days in Tucson.

* In their first session, Wright had Morales try to hit a seat pad that was about 2 feet by 2 feet, the idea being, Wright said, the pitcher will be able to feel what he's doing throwingwise. "I think the first 30 throws, he hit it like three times," Wright said. "He could tell he's pulling off. . . . By the time he got to about 25, he was kind of zeroing in a little bit but still off. So we took a break and picked up the balls."

* Wright then changed the target, substituting an orange traffic cone and topping it with his glove. "I set the cone where the catcher sits and put my glove on it and that's about knee-high," Wright said. "And I said, 'Your target's going to be smaller now,' " and had him throw 30 more throws at it. I think the second one, he flipped the glove right off the cone. Then I started moving the cone around, in and out, and had him throw curveballs at it and by the time that session was over, he knew what was going on."

* After a day off, they repeated the drill, and Wright said Morales got locked in and was able to hit the cone or the glove with his curveball. In his third session, Wright said, Morales "was real consistent" and started to throw the ball well.

* Wright accompanied Morales to Triple-A Colorado Springs, and before his first start May 11, they went to the indoor batting cage and Wright put his glove on a batting tee. Again, it was just them, no catcher and no batter. "And he was the best yet," Wright said. "He was getting better on line with his step towards home. It was getting almost exactly where you wanted it, and there was no weight on his heel and his extension was a lot better."

Another matter

Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca said Morales has so many moving parts to his delivery, "he looks like an expectant father out there." Apodaca cited Morales' long arm action as "something that's very, very hard to correct during a season. Correcting something of this magnitude is something that is better served, maybe, in the offseason."

Sky Sox pitching coach Chuck Kniffen agreed. Morales takes his arm straight down, to where his pocket would be if he were wearing slacks, Kniffen said, then out behind him, instead of out and down to his waist and then behind him.

"This is just the way Franklin's thrown his whole life," Kniffen said. "I agree with (Apodaca) that this is something that's going to be maybe hard to address. I think the things we need to look at now are with his direction and trying to get him to feel comfortable with his landing."

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