And the Giants got their man. Monday it was announced that Matt Morris, formerly of the Cardinals, is now a member in proud standing of the Black & Orange.

As we said earlier, Morris is the proto-typical Sabaen pick-up: a gritty veteran just beginning the downside of his career and coming off a few injury-laden down years. When he was good, which was several years ago, he was the anchor of a pretty good Cardinal pitching staff. In 2001, he won 22 games and is 101-62 with a 3.62 ERA over his career. He is also known as both a "gamer" and an inning eater. Considering the chinese fire drill that was last year's pitching staff, that's a good thing. Last year, however, he was 14-10 with a 4.11 ERA, but he was 10-2 with a 3.10 ERA before the All-Star break last season and 4-8 with a 5.32 ERA after it. That could either mean he lost his stuff and r'uh oh or it could also mean he was simply fatigued after having shoulder surgery at the end of the 2004 season. The Giants hope it was the latter.

Morris signed essentially a three-year contract for $27 million, some of which is just in signing bonuses, and he is scheduled to make only $5 million this year and $9.5 million in both 2007 and 2008. If that sounds like a lot, it is, but we agree with El Lefty and Grant of the McCovey Chronicles that all things considering, it's a good deal. This year was a mediocre free agent market and Morris was one of the best free agents available. In other words, it was either Morris or the Bush. Interestingly, one of the reasons Morris signed with the Giants, besides the fact they were the only team offering more than two years, was because the Giants have a load of ex-Cards on their team, including Morris' old battery mate, Mike Matheny. Sadly, one of those ex-Cards isn't Albert Pujols.

What this means is that you are looking at a rotation of Schmidt, Morris, Lowry, Cain and Hennessey. On paper, that rotation is, well, a lot of question marks. If Schmidt gets his groove back, if Morris was just fatigued, if Lowry has it all figured out, if Cain is the real deal, and if Hennessey isn't half bad, that's a pretty good rotation. That's a lot of ifs, though.