Andrew Morris tossed his first college pitches at Division II Mesa State in Colorado as a 16-year-old. As a child, he moved around the country, from New York, Alaska, Oregon, and Colorado. While in Alaska, he was homeschooled for a little while and was able to skip second grade. That certainly created some challenges when he got to Monarch High School in Boulder.
“Because of my age, I didn’t even make the C team. I was on the Level 3 team my freshman year which is below the C team somehow. C team was like the freshman team.” He continued. “The next year I made the C team, and then I was on JV the year after that. My senior year was the first that I actually played on varsity.”
Looking to grow and mature, he went to Mesa State in Grand Junction, Colorado. Despite his youth, he went 7-1 with a 3.88 ERA during his freshman year. He was able to pitch in the Division II College World Series that year. He was 2-1 over five starts in the Covid-shortened. Then in 2021, he went 9-0 with a 2.19 ERA. After struggling some with his control earlier, he struck out 115 batters and walked just 19 batters in 78 innings.
At that point, he was hearing some from scouts, but he decided to enter the transfer portal and ended up at Texas Tech. “I had some draft offers. I just felt like I needed to take the next step without going to the draft yet and face some better lineups and better competition.
In his one season in the Big 12, he went 8-2 in 16 games. In 88 1/3 innings, he struck out 91 and walked 28 batters.
The Twins drafted him in the fourth round. Trevor Brown is the Twins area scout. “I only talked to him once, and I didn’t really think they were interested. Oddly enough, I didn’t even fill out their questionnaire that you’re supposed to do, so I thought they were probably not going to take me but then they did.”
For the draft, his parents rented a hotel suite in Las Vegas. His dad lives in Oregon with his little brothers. His mom lives in Colorado Springs with his stepdad. It was a good place to meet in the middle. His girlfriend and her family were there as well. And some of his high school friends.
He was on the phone with Brown when he heard his name called on the television.
This summer was more about introductions and physicals and adjusting to pro ball. He’d already thrown a lot of innings in the spring, so he spent time working with the Twins staff on weight training, diet, analytics and technology, and more. There were a lot of meetings on pitching and discussions on what has made them successful.
He did pitch one inning in one game in the FCL. Then he joined the Ft. Myers Mighty Mussels for their playoff series. He pitched once and worked three scoreless innings.
The 48-minute video includes a ton of Morris’s thoughts on a variety of topics.
- How he feels about how the Twins use analytics and technology.
- His time on the Mighty Mussels playoff roster.
- Getting to know his 2022 draft class and seeing how much talent there is. For instance, he said, “Ben Rakes!”
- The work done at Instructs, workouts, throwing, scrimmaging, and more.
- Developing his offseason plan for working out and throwing.
- What he does away from baseball.
- Bordering the line between ‘routine’ and ‘superstition.’
- And much more.
A four-pitch mix (at least) means that he is very likely to spend his time developing as a starting pitcher. Despite playing four college seasons, Morris only turned 21 years old on September 1st. The future is bright.
Your turn. Share your thoughts on this Twins prospect as he begins his pro career. And who knows, maybe he’ll check out the Comments, so feel free to ask him questions as well.
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