ERA more than seven? See ya, Matt Morris

If you’ve balanced your obsession with the Penguins’ playoff run and the first few weeks of… If you’ve balanced your obsession with the Penguins’ playoff run and the first few weeks of the Pirates’ season, you may have noticed the Pirates’ four-game winning streak.

But on Tuesday night, Matt Morris put the streak out of its misery, stabbing it repeatedly with full force until the final score read 11-2.

Morris’ final line for that night: 4 2/3 innings, seven hits, six runs, one walk and one strikeout. His ERA currently stands at 7.02.

The truth is, Morris has got to go, unfortunate as it may be. By all accounts, Morris is a great guy and an exemplary teammate. The 11-year veteran’s words of pitching wisdom are aiding the development of Pittsburgh’s young pitchers Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny and Paul Maholm.

But those numbers are just intolerable, even at this stage of the season. Experts cry about small sample sizes and to not get caught up in the hype in the wake of a great or horrible start of a new year. The Pirates’ brass and media preach patience when it comes to Morris, that his ship will be righted soon enough.

Right now, the Titanic’s fate looks more promising than Morris’. Once a brilliant starter with the St. Louis Cardinals, Morris has 121 career victories and came in third in the Cy Young voting in 2001 when he went 22-8 with a 3.16 ERA. The stuff that made Morris an elite pitcher has vanished into the baseball abyss and will likely never surface again.

Since arriving in Pittsburgh in a head-scratching move at the trade deadline last year, Morris’ record is 3-6, but a further delve into the statistics prove the assertion of an over-the-hill pitcher.

In 78 2/3 innings since becoming a Pirate, Morris’ ERA is more than six. He has given up an astounding 104 hits in that span, while walking 27 batters and striking out 35.

The only above-average pitch that remains in Morris’ repertoire is his curveball. His fastball routinely sits at 85 miles per hour, a speed that Kevin Polcovich could step back into the majors and slam for a double.

What about the argument to keep Morris?

Well, the 33-year-old is seen as the Pirates’ fifth starter. Unless you have a $100 million payroll, the fifth starter in any rotation is supposed to plainly eat up innings and keep his team in the game however he can. Morris can do that: He has pitched more than 200 innings in a season five times.

Oh, and that salary thing, too, that’s kind of important. The figure is so ridiculous that it deserves its own paragraph.

This year, Morris is in line to make $10,037,283.

That’s not a misprint.

Former general manager Dave Littlefield saddled Neal Huntington with this debacle of a contract last summer, when he traded outfielder Rajai Davis to San Francisco for Morris and offered to take on all of Morris’ salary.

The kick was that the few teams that asked about Morris were hoping the Giants would pay at least half of the remaining salary, and they were considering doing so until Littlefield gave the Giants’ GM Brian Sabean a call.

The move was something a contender would do, not a team headed toward its 15th straight losing season. The trade was so asinine that a scout told ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark last year: “That move is so far out of left field, it’s in the Monongahela.”

Morris’ contract is a detriment to a team that is always scrounging for extra pennies. Consider that his salary is not only more than what all the other Pirates starters make, but also more than every other Pirates pitcher on the roster combined.

And not by just a tiny bit, either. Morris makes more than $2 million more than the whole pitching staff.

Snell, Gorzelanny, Maholm and Zach Duke are all better pitchers than Morris, and he currently pulls in almost five times more money as they do put together.

That cash would be more useful elsewhere, such as in continued improvements in Latin American scouting or signing a true top-quality prospect since Pittsburgh holds the second overall pick in this June’s draft.

With Sean Burnett a full-time reliever now, Morris’ spot in the rotation can easily be handed to Bryan Bullington. The former first pick in the 2002 draft, Bullington has already missed a year because of an injury and his developmental clock is ticking toward its conclusion.

Bullington’s numbers are nothing special in the minors, but he would likely produce equal or even slightly better results than Morris at 1/15 of the cost.

The old regime messed up by picking Bullington, a cheaper target than B. J. Upton, who went second to Tampa Bay. Upton batted .300 with 24 home runs last season. That’s the good old Pirates’ luck for you. The team should just bite the bullet with 27-year-old right-hander and see what they’ve got.

It’s time to cut the losses and sever ties with Morris. He likely won’t wish to retire, since he’s only 33, but management should offer him a coaching job or scouting position anyway.

At this stage, I’d trust his opinion of someone’s fastball over his own pitch inching toward Prince Fielder’s bat.