CLEARWATER, Fla. - When the Pirates told Charlie Morton to forget everything he ever knew about pitching, it was February 2011, and the 27-year-old righthander was the worst pitcher in baseball. Jim Benedict, a pitching whisperer so revered that the Marlins this winter traded Pittsburgh a minor-league player for the rights to hire him as a vice president, saw Morton straining to be something he was not.
"A guy's mechanics on the mound," Benedict told Morton, "are a manifestation of their personality."
If that's the case, it is complicated for Morton, 32. He scrutinizes every detail. He admits to over thinking.