Kevin P. CaseyMariners pitcher Brandon Morrow’s been a frustrating case, no doubt. Through no fault of his own, he was drafted right in front of Tim Lincecum, an eventual Cy Young Winner who grew up in the Seattle area and played for UW. He was rushed up as a reliever in 2007 because Bill Bavasi thought a team that featured Jose Vidro as its DH had a chance to win in the playoffs. Then, after a promising year in ’08–documented at length by SW’s Jesse Froehling–he got hurt, then decided he didn’t want to start anymore. Then he decided he did want to start. Then he almost got sent to the minors. And now he’s easing back into the starting rotation. All of which has been maddening for M’s fans. But for all the hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing, and other frustrated -ings that have resulted from Morrow’s slow, staggered progress toward a regular spot in the starting rotation–and the Mariners’ obvious mishandling of him–the dude still has amazing stuff. How amazing? Lookout Landing took a look at his swinging strike rate–basically, the frequency with which he gets hitters to swing and miss at his pitches–and if he had enough innings to qualify, he’d be first in the American League and third in the majors overall. (NL pitchers face no designated hitters, but do face pitchers, all of which should up their swinging strike rate.) Those numbers might not hold over the course of a season, and as another post at the same site notes, there’s a lot more to pitching than swings and misses–not throwing balls, for example, or not throwing pitches that get hit in the air–but getting big leaguers to swing and miss that often indicates a pretty legit talent.