BRADENTON, Fla. -- For the Pirates, the best part about this charity, exhibition opener against a local junior-college team quite possibly arrived as early as the first seven pitches. All were strikes. The first six were swinging, for consecutive strikeouts. The final one was a lazy fly ball to straightaway center.

Bryan Morris delivered.

Not to place too much emphasis on the meaningless inaugural day of a tune-up baseball month where pitchers take warning-track laps during play, but Tuesday shined a ray of sun on a heretofore gloomy, 10-20 minor league career record of a starter who has yet to rise above Class A.

This was the Morris chosen 26th overall in the 2006 draft. This was the Morris considered the linchpin to the Jason Bay-Manny Ramirez deal in 2008. This was the Morris whom the Pirates suspended in August for "unprofessionalism" after arguing umpire calls and whom admitted Tuesday that he fought against changes to his mechanics last year.

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• Up next: at Yankees, 1:05 p.m. today, Tampa, Fla. (MLB-TV, WPGB-FM).

• Camp roster: 66 players, with 36 pitchers, 6 catchers and 24 position players.

• Injury updates: P Joel Hanrahan (arm) will resume throwing today, P Octavio Dotel (oblique) may soon.

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"I'm on the right path," Morris said. "This year, I think, well, it's a very important year. Especially coming off last year, you know. My confidence level is sky high, because I feel like I can make pitches that I couldn't make last year. It's going to be fun, it's going to be exciting. I'm ready to go."

Morris, 22, only a shade older than his Tuesday competition, wasn't about to allow the Manatees' Austin Smith, Anthony Figliolia and Austin Chubb much fun time in his sun. Seven pitches later, they were done. And so was Morris for the game at McKechnie Field day -- although he was credited with the victory in this 6-1 Pirates slap-down of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota that upset a mostly Class A Pirates lineup a year ago.

"He's come a long way," Pirates manager John Russell said afterward. "I think he has really, in our opinion, turned a pretty good corner for himself. The way he's going about it now, if he continues that, he should have a very successful year."

Six feet, 3 inches and 200 pounds of a Tennessee-distilled spirited pitcher, Morris in order went 4-5, 0-2, 2-4 and then, last year, 4-9 with a 5.57 ERA in the minors. He messed up, in his words, by reading where he was a celebrated prospect. And he delivered little to celebrate in those first four years, one of which -- 2007 -- he missed due to Tommy John surgery on his right, throwing elbow. He talks nowadays about controlling his aggression in his delivery, where he exerted too much energy too soon.

Such changes to his mechanics began a year ago, "but it was a big battle all through last season. I fought it, and I paid for it." He worked on them with special assistant Jim Benedict in Instructional League here, then stayed with it through the offseason.

"Honestly, last year, it got to me, it bothered me," Morris continued. "Just about every time I went out, I wasn't doing my job to help my team. It was very frustrating."

This spring, pitching coach Joe Kerrigan made what Morris now calls a "crafty" move by placing him in a pitcher's working group with Paul Maholm.

"I've tried to connect myself to him, following him around like a pup," he said. "To me, he goes about his business the right way, and he works hard, and I've tried to make him include me in his workouts and whatnot. ... I'm very grateful he's kind of taken me under his wing a little bit."

The order Tuesday had Jose Tabata at No. 3 and Pedro Alvarez in cleanup. Tabata doubled and Alvarez went 3 for 4 with an RBI on a left-field pop-up that the wind turned into a double.

"Just give some of the young guys a chance to play, start a game," Russell explained of that lineup. Although he may save his everyday lineup for the home opener Saturday at McKechnie Field, he added that he expected this spring to primarily start "the guys we know are going north with us."

The bulk of the travel squad for the defending champion New York Yankees today includes: Jeff Clement, Aki Iwamura, Ronny Cedeno, Andy LaRoche, Garrett Jones, Andrew McCutchen, Lastings Milledge and Ryan Doumit.

The Pirates returned to McKechnie Field to find a clubhouse makeover.

Stalls were reconfigured in neat rows along the walls. The bathrooms were restructured, with the lockers in front of them removed in favor of a big-screen television and a large couch. The lighting was changed out, the once-gray, dank ceiling refurbished and -- in the part the players seemed to most appreciate -- the former utility room with a rickety card table has been transformed into a bright, inviting lounge area.

Oh, and new carpeting was installed, too.

Marveled Andy LaRoche: "Whole new clubhouse."

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