O Brother Where Art Thou!

Brian Moran toiled in the minors and independent baseball for 10 years after being drafted by the Mariners in the 7th round of the 2009 draft. Yesterday, at age 31, he made his major league debut in the fourth inning, pitching for the lowly, barely-above-independent-baseball Miami Marlins.

The first batter he faced was Wolverine and fellow Brian Bryan Reynolds, a fellow debutant about seven years younger who is among the National League leaders in batting average, hitting .333, .398, .538 on the season.  On his first pitch as a big leaguer, Moran got Reynolds to ground out to short.

The third batter Moran faced was Wolverine Josh Bell, age 27 and OPSing .945 in his fourth big league season. Moran hit Bell with the 14th pitch of his career. On his 15th pitch, Moran got Melky Cabrera (age 35, in his 15th MLB season) to fly out to right.

Ah, but what about that second batter Brian Moran faced? It was his little brother Colin, 6 weeks younger than Josh Bell, also in his fourth season and OPSing .890. Here is how the 2nd through 7th pitches of Brian Moran’s career went:

2:  Way low and outside with an 84 MPH change.

3:  Outside with an 84 MPH change.

After all, his parent were watching. He didn’t want to hit his little brother in front of Mom and Dad.

4:  Colin fouled off a low and outside 74 MPH curveball.

5:  High inside 83 MPH slider, ball 3.

Brother or not, Colin has to quit leaning out over the plate.

6:  Colin fouled off a high 84 MPH slider.

7:  Colin took a 74 MPH curveball at the bottom of the zone for strike three.

Brian’s fastest pitch of the inning was an 86 MPH “changeup” to Josh Bell. Even so, he got through a no-hit shutout inning. I can think of some Wolverines who could learn something from Brian Moran.

I have no idea how long Brian’s career will be.  No, actually, I have a pretty good idea about the career prospects of a 31-year old debutant whose fastest pitch is an 86-MPH change and who hits one batter out of every four.  But  I have some observations about this:

1.  When Brian is out of baseball, he will look back at his career with several times more satisfaction now than he would have had he never made the majors, or had spent his first inning playing against random major leaguers on another team.
2.  I watched this happen, and the Pirates announcers were speculating what the odds would be of a pitcher striking out his little brother during the pitcher’s debut inning in the majors.  They settled on “one in a million.”  But it looks to me like Don Mattingly, with his starter having surrendered 5 runs in the first three innings, and Colin Moran coming to bat, engineered this match-up.  Which makes the odds irrelevant, and also makes me like Don Mattingly a whole lot more despite his long association with the Yankees.
3.  In the top of the 5th the Marlins rallied to take the lead. Mattingly brought in a reliever to replace Moran going into the bottom of the 5th.  The Marlins never lost the lead.  Brian Moran got the win.  Which makes me like God a whole lot more, despite His long favoritism toward the Yankees.

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