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Brandon Morrow of the Seattle Mariners is a perfect late-season addition for fantasy baseball squads. The 24-year-old pitcher startled fans by almost throwing a no-hitter in his first career start. If he had completed the honorable milestone, he would have driven the final stake into the heart of the New York Yankees’ 2008 Regular Season.

He can drive a final stake into your fantasy baseball competitor’s season, too.

Most people shied away from the relief-pitcher fearing that he would produce Braden Looper-type statistics as a starter. But, now everyone wants him. The MLB sophomore sparkled in his debut as a starter and will likely become a part of the Mariners’ future pitching-staff.

In all of his minor league starts, Morrow only threw 82 pitches. In Friday’s game against the Yankees, he tossed a total of 106 pitches. He confessed that, “[he] was tired. [His] arm felt great, but [he] was tired.” Morrow’s arm will progressively adapt to pitching more innings. But for now, owners can count on him to pitch about five solid innings without giving up a plethora of runs.

Also, the youngster will not need a lot of time to adapt. The 2006 First-Round draft pick only needed a mere sixteen innings in the Minor Leagues before jumping into the Majors. It will only be a period of time before he evolves into a full-time starter capable of pitching eight innings or so.

Originally, scouting reporters believed that his small repertoire would not last six-innings. However, in Friday night’s miraculous start against the Yankees, he pitched strong through 7.2 innings. In fact, he would have lasted longer had Wilson Betemit not broken his no-hit bid scoring a run.

According to Pitch F/X, he threw his fastball 58% of the time on Friday night. As a mediocre relief pitcher, he depended on his fastball 76% of the time. He will be pure gold if he continues to utilize his full repertoire of a fastball, split-finger, and a curveball.

Brandon Morrow’s flaw had always been controlling his fabulous pitches. But, he had no evident issues during Friday night’s game. Joe Girardi commented, “When you have stuff like that and you can locate with that stuff, you’re going to shut down a lot of lineups. He was electric tonight.” He will continue to “shut down,” powerful line-ups in the future.

His average velocity during last night’s game was 95.7 MPH. USS Mariner, one of the most-popular blogs covering the Seattle Mariners, believes that if he continues to throw 95 MPH pitches most of the time, “he’s going to be terrific.”

At this moment, ESPN.Com claims that Morrow is owned in only 33.0% of its various leagues. Patrick Dahl of Rotoworld believes that the starter is, “worth a flier in mixed leagues.” A key acquisition now could be the difference between being glorified as the league champion and not even being in the playoff-picture.

The National League had six MVP’s this week compared to the American League’s two. It was all hitters for the NL and all pitchers for the AL. Does good pitching beat good hitting, or vice versa? I guess we’ll find out next week in NYC at the All-Star game.

Here are the week 14 fantasy baseball MVP’s.

Catcher: Geovany Soto | Chicago Cubs - Soto’s slash stats were impressive last week at .370/.452/.667. He also hit two home runs, scored six times and drove in five. And how can I not select Soto for the MVP award this week as he became the first rookie catcher ever to be selected to start an All-Star game for the National League?

First Base: Adam LaRoche | Pittsburgh Pirates - LaRoche had an impressive slugging percentage last week of 1.000 as five of his nine hits were extra base hits (two home runs, two doubles, and a triple). He had a batting average of .474, scored five times and drove in eight runs.

Second Base: Brandon Phillips | Cincinnati Reds - Two hitters deserved this award this week, but I am only giving it to Phillips, since snubbing ball players in en vogue lately. Ian Kinsler was a very close second place, but Phillips’ extra RBI’s were the icing on the cake. Phillips batted .481/.500/.667 with 4 runs scored, one home run, nine RBI, and two stolen bases.

Shortstop: J.J. Hardy | Milwaukee Brewers - It’s amazing when we have a week where Hanley Ramirez hits three home runs, drives in eight and scores seven times but isn’t even considered for this weekly MVP award! Hardy batted .600/.625/1.367 with eight runs scored, six home runs, 12 RBI, and a stolen base, and was arguably the most valuable fantasy baseball player last week.

Third Base: Alex Rodriguez | New York Yankees - ARod only had eight hits last week, but they all counted in a big way. He batted .333/.448/.750 with eight runs scored, three home runs, seven RBI, and three stolen bases.

Outfield: Cody Ross | Florida Marlins - Here’s another situation where excellence wasn’t good enough for a player to win the weekly MVP award. Matt Holliday belted three  homers, drove in 10, and stole three bases, but couldn’t hold a candle last week to Ross’ .500/.529/.813 with eight runs scored, two home runs, and 15 RBI.

Starting Pitcher: Roy Halladay | Toronto Blue Jays - Halladay beat up on the American League West last week earning wins over the Angels and the Mariners. He pitched 16 innings and struck out 13 while only walking one. His ERA was only 1.12 and his WHIP was 0.69.

Relief Pitcher: Brandon Morrow | Seattle Mariners - Morrow has slid into the closer’s role very nicely in Seattle. Last week he notched three saves, one win, and struck out five while only walking one in 4.1 innings of work. His ERA was perfect at 0.00 and his WHIP was 0.23.

News out of Seattle today is that Mariners GM Bill Bavasi has been fired.  Manager John MacLaren can’t be that far behind him.  What this means to fantasy owners (aside from the M’s fans among us having a good reason to crack a beer and celebrate) is that it should mean the beginning of a youth movement in Seattle, now that Bavasi isn’t throwing every young player under the bus in an attempt to save his job.

Assuming the M’s ownership brings in a GM who is ready to build for the future (something the team hasn’t been willing to consider in the last ten years) this could mean a few interesting developments for fantasy owners:

• Jeff Clement should see time in the majors, immediately. He’s killing AAA, and could be a big surprise in the second half for fantasy owners with his Catcher eligibility. Look for him to DH primarily and get a couple starts a week behind the plate.
  Big Loser: Jose Vidro

• It’s a little up in the air what will happen until JJ Putz gets back, but Brandon Morrow is easily more valuable to the M’s as a starter than a reliever. I would expect him to get sent down to AAA to get stretched out, and then be back up in the second half to join the rotation.
  Big Winners: The M’s have liked Mark Lowe in the closer spot before, and Ryan Rowland-Smith has to be an option as well. If Morrow closes until Putz returns, look for one of these guys to take up the reigns as Putz’ backup until draft pick Josh Fields is ready.
• It wouldn’t be a surprise if Jarrod Washburn were to lose his job, whether that means a move to the bullpen or an outright release.  The M’s don’t have a lot of major-league-ready starting pitching talent in the organization (which makes giving away Cha-Seung Baekfor nothing and keeping Morrow in the ‘pen even more indefensible) but trying just about any young arm in the rotation would be better for the team in the long-run, and might even net better short-term gains than sending Washburn out there every five games.
  Big Winner:  Ryan Feierabend?

• With the team’s focus undoubtedly changing, underperforming soon-to-be free agent Richie Sexson could find himself benched or even released.  The smart move would be to move Raul Ibanez to first base full time (as his awful defense negates any offensive contributions he makes), which would open up left field for a full-time player.
  Big Winners:  Jeremy Reed (your full-time left fielder), Wlad Balentien (Right Field).  Balentien has bigger offensive upside than any young player the Mariners have in the upper minors, aside from Clement.  Giving him the rest of this season to adjust to the majors could pay huge dividends.  He’s somebody to target for ‘09 in deep keeper leagues if this happens.

I’m in a couple of leagues that run their minor league draft after the MLB draft is finished. Here’s some thoughts for fantasy GMs in similar situations. (That’s telekinesis, Kyle!)

• Pedro Alvarez going to Pitt is good news for his value. He’s much more likely to stay at 3B now than it looked like earlier in the year when everyone thought he was going to Tampa. Of course, it’s not likely the Pirates’ lineup is going to be good anytime soon.
  
• Yonder Alonso to the Reds is a surprise pick, and it means that either he or Votto is likely to move to the outfield. Yonder (along with Alvarez) might be the most polished hitter in the draft, and should move quickly.
• I probably don’t need to say it, but Justin Smoak in Texas could be a monster. The team has to be thrilled that he dropped that far, as they’ve had some pretty good luck with switch-hitting slugger first basemen.
• I liked Jemile Weeks a lot as a guy to draft for fantasy leagues, as he’s polished, has a good bat at a thin position (2B), and can steal a lot of bases. I’m hoping that landing with the A’s won’t mean he’s going to be limited on the basepaths. Hope for an Ellsbury-esque SB% in the minors.
• Brett Wallace is an interesting choice for an NL team that has Albert Pujols playing first base. I think this pick might hurt his value in fantasy leagues, because nobody really believes he can play major league defense anywhere but 1B.
• The Brewers selected Brett Lawrie out of high school in Canada. I’m not going to talk about many high school players (I try to avoid drafting any of them in fantasy leagues unless the upside is huge) but the interesting thing is he was announced as a Catcher, which most teams think is a stretch. If the Brewers keep him there, he’s an impact bat at that position for sure.
• Josh Fields isn’t going to be much of a fantasy threat, but I wanted to take this opportunity to rip my favorite team the Mariners (I know, thanks for your sympathy) for a terrible pick. A team that needs to detonate and rebuild, and has shown their only organizational talent to be developing relief pitching, has no reason to pick a college reliever in the first round. Fields also has questionable control, and poor size and mechanics. Fantasy-wise, this is good news for Brandon Morrow owners, as it pretty much guarantees his move to the rotation. It’s where he should have been anyway, but again, it’s the Mariners.
• The Red Sox’ pick of Casey Kelly (another HS kid) is one of my favorite of the draft. He’s got a lot of athletic ability, and dropped to #30 because he has a football scholarship at Tennessee. It’d be hard for any young player to pass up guaranteed money for the best team in baseball though, and I’d keep an eye on his progress for fantasy leagues.