Braves' Jurrjens vs. Pirates' Morton: The One That Got Away vs. the One Gotten

A couple nights ago, Pittsburgh had a pitching dual against Atlanta, led by the current Brave Jair Jurrjens, against the former Brave Charlie Morton.

Morton pitched seven-plus innings of a two-run quality start, enough to win on most nights. But Jurrjens pitched even better, yielding NO runs in seven and won. His eight-game start with a 1.56 ERA puts him in a class (over a similar time frame) with all-time Atlanta "greats" including Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. And he's still only 25.

The slightly-older Morton was acquired in 2009, along with outfield prospect Gorkys Hernandez, and pitching prospect, Jeff Locke, for Nate McLouth. Morton now appears to be a more valuable player, although both he and McLouth went through their trials in 2010. (And we still haven't seen what the other two can do.)

Jurrjens was a pitcher the Pirates COULD have had, in 2007, when the Detroit Tigers needed a new shortstop, and were willing to trade the then untested pitching prospect for Jack Wilson. But somehow the deal fell through, and Jurrjens, plus the above-mentioned Gorkys Hernandez, went to the Braves instead for Edgar Renteria.

So Jurrjens and Morton were teammates for 2008. But that was the year that Jurrjens became an established major-leaguer, while Morton was shuttling back and forth between the majors and minors (as he would, all the way to 2010).

Morton has since come into his own, but he is not yet in a class with likes of Maddux and Glavine. Which is why the botched trade for Jurrjens was missed.

Had it gone through, the recent two-game losses against Atlanta could have been two wins; the one he would have pitched for the Pirates, and the one he WOULDN'T have pitched against Charlie Morton.

Pittsburgh doesn't play particularly well against Atlanta. Fortunately there are only four more games in the season series. They're all in Turner Field, but for a change, the Pirates actually play better on the road than at home.