Baseball Canes: Just How Safe Is Jim Morris?

Round one of the MLB draft has come and gone, and the ranks of possible future Hurricanes has been decimated. a total of five Miami signees went in the first round, and there are 3 signees who are ranked in the top 400 that could potentially go in the later rounds. Couple this with the disappointing end to the Canes' season, and it's no wonder why so many fans are clamoring for Jim Morris' job.

Should he really be fired though? Let's take a look.

Under Jim Morris, the Canes have 2 CWS titles....although they came way back around the time the football team won their last championship, 1999 and 2001. Those were won when Miami baseball was still an independent. Since joining the ACC in 2005, Miami has been to the CWS just twice, winning the regular season and conference tournament once, each in the same year of 2008. Since joining the ACC, he has won just 49% of his games, including a conference record of 133-73, or 56%. While these numbers aren't terrible, he has only led the team to a finish above 3rd in the conference just once.

Now, you can blame him, or the rest of his staff, for the Canes' shortcomings. You can look at the recent losses not only to teams that they seemingly should have beaten, but the more glaring losing streaks to rivals like Florida. However, perhaps the problem lies more with the fact that the highest ranked player Morris has kept from the MLB draft is Jemile Weeks. Miami always seems to have highly skilled and sought after signees, but they always end up in the draft. That is not Jim Morris' fault. There is no way that he is going to be able to convince a kid who gets drafted in thefirst round to turn down that money to come play college ball.

Just look at the talent that was lost this year alone:

SS Carlos Correa, ranked 6th in the Top 500 by Baseball America

CF Albert Amora, ranked 7th

SP Walker Weickel, ranked 37th

1B Keon Barnum, ranked 155th

RF Nick Travieso, ranked 40th

Not to mention that the Canes could still lose SS Brandon Lopez (154th), SS Adrian Marin (192nd), and SP Myles Smith (358th). The 5 guys that have been drafted already is a core of a very good team. If there is a silver lining here at all, its that David Thompson appears to be all but headed to school, where he will play both baseball and football, and figures to be a great player for both.

Look, maybe it is time for a change, some new blood, to be brought in as manager of the team. It's hard to argue that. Morris has been there since 1994, and while he has had success, it has been waning in the last few years. Are the team's problems 100% his fault? I would say no, but a lot of them are. While he can't control losing players to the MLB, he can control what they players he has under his tutelage does, and as of late he does not seem to be living up to those expectations as well as he should. What do you all think?

GO CANES!