I’d say in their primes Framber has way nastier stuff, Dallas could locate with the best of them though
Didn't Mike Trout say that Framber had some of the nastiest stuff he'd ever seen... and this was back during his rookie year or 2nd year, when Framber was still very much a head case and inconsistent. Has his therapist made it big yet? Treated any other pitchers? This is real life Tin Cup stuff... Also, if Mike Trout can recognize great pitching that fast... the Angels certainly aren't using all of his skills in their roster construction/development.
He just used to get super worked up and couldn't move forward when he missed pitches or made mistakes.
I think all pitchers are head cases to some extent. The real story is he sought help in a somewhat unconventional (or under-publicized) manner… and it certainly worked. If only Tim Redding or Jose Lima (post 2000) had taken a similar path…
After his free fall in August, Pena seems to have stabilized into an actual MLB hitter again. Hopefully he can grow on this and be a little more judicious with pitch selection. Still no damn reason him or Yuli should be hitting 2nd.
I love JV for how down to Earth he is. You would never know he's arguably the best pitcher of his generation.
Framber's sinker curve combo is really a nightmare, he has such a wide berth for control. He could tell the hitters when either pitch was coming and they would still have trouble hitting them with any authority. His command really has to get away from him, which it still does on occasion, but he's been able to quickly right himself. Hopefully he can carry it to October and prove the mess last year was an aberration.
Pena is fast, has power, and has an OBA greater than 350 and BA greater than 300 when batting second. Explain to me again why he shouldn’t be batting second. By the way, he now has batted second in over 40 games, so it is not a small sample size. There were a number of us that were calling for Baker to make this change. It’s finally happened and he has magically “stabilized”. Coincidence, I think not.
I'm thoroughly convinced Pena is just ahead of the curve and has undergone initial success, the rookie wall, opponent adjustment, Sophomore slump and is now entering the Junior comeback surge. All in his rookie season. He has been notably mature as a baseball player since he was first scouted.
