Sleeper

Why I Love Rich Hill

Coming into the season, I had a rather unhealthy obsession with three pitchers, each from a different tier: Zach Greinke in the top tier worked out well, Chris Young has dissappointed thus far as a mid-tier starting pitcher, and Rich Hill has found his way back to the big leagues which I’ll deem a rather large success.

This is why I love Rich Hill, just incase you weren’t a fantasi-holic back in 2007:  11-8, 195 IP, 183 K, 3.92 ERA, and a 1.19 WHIP. Unfortunately, Rich Hill lost it in 2008, essentially Rick Ankiel-ing the situation. Rich Hill managed to walk 18 batters in 19.2 IP, yet somehow posted a 4.12 ERA. Injuries and ineffectiveness sent Rich Hill to the minors, where instead of improving he deteriorated into a shell of his old self, walking 28 batters in 26 IP.

An off-season trade to the Orioles and a brief, yet consistently wild, stint in the minors later, and Rich Hill has found himself back in the Show.  Hill’s return to the MLB has more to do with the current state of the Orioles’ pitching than his success in Triple-A.  Yes, Hill did post a sparkling 1.35 ERA in 13.1 IP down on the farm, but he also continued his wild ways, walking 9 batters over that stretch.

I still love me some Rich Hill though, not because he’s a fireballer (he only hits 90mph,) but instead because he’s got one dirty-dirty 12-6 Curveball.

Four starts in, and Rich Hill’s sitting on a 4.15 ERA, a 2-and-0 record, after having faced the Royals, Nats, Blue Jays and Mariners.  While the Blue Jays spanked Hill for 7 Runs (6ER,) Hill’s yet to walk more than 4 batters in a game — Good Start!  What really opened the Fantasy Gods’ eyes was Hill’s most recent start against the best team in the Pacific Northwest — Yooooouurrr, Seattle Mariners. Hill went 7 Innings, holding the Mariners scoreless, while only giving up 2 hits and 3 WALKS! and striking out seven! He did only strike out Beltre x 2 (18% K Rate,) Balentien x2 (24.5% K Rate,) Branyan (30% K Rate,) Rob Johnson (29% K Rate) and Mike Sweeney (13% K Rate,) so it’s really not saying ALL that much, but it’s a start.

Hill’s fastball is sticking around the velocity that made him effective as a Cubbie (89mph AVG, 91 MAX) in his most recent start against the Mariners.  Furthermore, while Hill’s not pounding the zone, he’s close enough on most of his fastballs to warrant a giant exhale:

Against a more disciplined team at the plate, Hill may run into some trouble but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.  For now, he appears to be close enough to the zone, especially when he needs to be, to keep his walk total under 4 batters per 9.  What’s interesting is Hill’s release point — While I didn’t watch the game, I did notice Rich Hill has dropped down to throw an off-speed offering:

Rich Hill’s release point is fairly well clustered, and should lend credibility to my man-crush.  When a pitcher loses it, it’s almost always release point / mechanics oriented, at least to start.  In the end, it obviously becomes a mental issue which is often harder to fix, even against lesser competition in the minors.

Hill’s fastball is painfully straight, so he has to rely on changing speeds and locating.  Once Hill starts mixing in his Change-Up and Slider, to previous rates — he should give himself a bit more leeway.

Prior to his Seattle start, Hill averaged a mere 88 mph on his fastball against the Jays and only hit 89mph on four occasios. In the start before that against the Nats, Hill only hit 89mph once and averaged 86.8mph.  This is what makes Hill hitting 90mph against the Mariners on eight different occasions, such a solid indicator of Hill putting it all together.

The days of Rich Hill posting a sub-1.20 WHIP are probably over, and even if they aren’t — it’ll be a pleasant surprise.  However, if Rich Hill can get his BB-per-9 to somewhere around the 3.5 range, he’ll have the potential to be quite effective. Facing the toughest division in baseball on a weekly basis probably won’t help, but it’s not that out there to predict a 4.05 ERA and 1.30 WHIP with 7 K per 9…. is it?

It probably is, but this is why I love Rich Hill.

Just incase you were wondering, the Orioles have Oakland, Seattle, Atlanta, the Mets, Philly, Florida and Washington coming up before they get back into the teeth of the AL EAST.  I’m sure you could find 3 or 4 good starts for Hill in that stretch, with some of them being sans designated hitter.

Sleeper

Cleveland Bullpen: Perez and Betancourt

In 2007, no team had a better lefty/righty one-two punch than Cleveland and their two Rafaels.

The left-handed portion of the equation was Rafael Perez, who dominated in his first full big league season. In just over 60 IP, Perez compiled 1.78 ERA and 0.92 WHIP to go along with his 9.2 K/9 and 4.13 K/BB rate.

From the other side of the mound, Rafael Betancourt was equally as dominant at age 32. Betancourt posted a 1.47 ERA, 0.76 WHIP in nearly 80 IP. Betancourt posted guady strike-out numbers as well, striking out 9.08 batters per 9 while only walking just over 1 batter per 9.

Perez and Betancourt were simply dominant as set-up men for the Tribe and their dominance would continue into 2008, even if their luck drastically changed. Perez, who had posted a .248 BABIP and 84% Strand Rate in 2007;  found his numbers at .313 BABIP and 74% Strand Rate by the time 2008 came to a close. Betancourt regressed in a similiar manner, seeing his .246 BABIP in 2007 translate into a .323 BABIP in 2008. Betancourt’s 2007 Strand Rate of 86.4% also took a mighty hit, as he ended 2008 with a strand rate of a measely 70%.

While both players had great luck in 2007 and terrible luck in 2008, Perez’s skill level remained consistent.  Perez posted a 3.01 FIP in 2007 which only moderately increased to 3.22 in 2008. Betancourt, on the other hand, saw his FIP nearly double from 2007 (2.22 FIP) to 2008 (4.40.)

Thus, one would expert Betancourt to continue a slow age-induced decline while Perez, age 26, to continue his dominant ways. In 2009, this has been half true as it appears as though Betancourt is declining but Perez has been down-right awful.

Other than awful ERA’s, Perez (15.19 ERA / 6.27 FIP) and Betancourt (5.14 ERA / 4.40 FIP) share one devastating trait.  The stuff is still there, but neither one can avoiding walking batters.

Betancourt who owns a career average of 2.29 BB/9 is currently walking twice that number, at 4.50 BB/9.  Perez who’s career average sits just shy of three batters per nine, is currently walking an astonishing 7.59batters per nine.

Betancourt, whose strength has always been pounding the zone with his 92mph fastball, threw less than 60% of his pitches in the strike-zone last year for the first time since entering the league. In 2009, Betancourt’s continued to miss the zone, now throwing less than 50% of pitches inside the strike zone.

Although he doesn’t rely on location nearly as much as Betancourt, Perez has suffered the same fate. Perez has only been able to locate 45% of his pitches inside the zone thus far and needs to be much closer to 50% to be effective.

The PFX Data reveals that Betancourt and Perez both still have their downright nasty stuff.  The sample size is still relatively small, but both pitchers have eclipsed the 200 pitch mark, so it’s not completely useless. Both Betancourt and Perez have actually increased their average velocities, which could well be a result of overthrowing:  Perez is up one full mph across the board, while Betancourt is about half an mph faster than his career averages.

As you can see, Betancourt generally increases velocity as the season progresses. Below is a fastball velocity chart for the last two years, and is courtesy of fangraphs.com. I’d highly recommend checking out all of their graphs and trend-stats.

Rafael Perez’s velocity chart echos the same sentiments:  a slow and steady velocity increase over the course of the season.  It wouldn’t be a stretch to label both Perez and Betancourt as warm-weather pitchers, or second half pitchers.

In addition to the consistent velocity, the movement on both Betancourt’s and Perez’s pitches seems close enough to the mean that drawing any conclusion would be premature.   If you’re interested in this kind of stuff, feel free to scoot over to Perez’s fangraph page or to Rafael Betancourt’s fangraph page. They’ve both lost about half an inch of horizontal movement off their sliders, and you can take from that what you will.

The final piece to this puzzle of ineffectiveness is the hitters that they’re facing, obviously.  Perez has seen his overall Swing-Percentage drop almost 9 pts, from 49 percent to 40 percent. The main component of this decline is Perez’s O-Swing Percentage.  Perez’s swing percentage on pitches outside the zone has dropped from a 2007/2008 average of 35 percent, down to an awful 22.6 percent in 2009. In turn, hitters are making unbelievable contact on the pitches that they do make contact with, both inside (96% Z-Contact / up 10%) and outside of the zone (52% O-Contact / up 12%).

Betancourt is actually inducing more swings, and has returned his  Overall Swing Percentage (57%) to the level of his most dominant years.  Batters are making slightly better contact with all of Betancourt’s pitches, but the percentage falls well within the margin of error at this point.

At this point, Betancourt seems much improved from 2008 although his current ERA of 5.14 and WHIP of 1.64, don’t show it.  With Betancourt’s BABIP sitting at an ugly .364 and his strand-rate at a god-awful 60% — It’s a safe bet to invest in Betancourt to regain his form.  A Strike Out Per Inning, an ERA around 2.90, a 1.20 WHIP. Hopefully his BB / 9 will regress, but many of pitchers have been effective with a 2.00 K:BB ratio.

Rafael Perez on the other hand is a mess.  Perez has a higher ceiling and the potential to be lights out, racking up K’s, HLD’s and great ratios. Until Perez starts finding the strike-zone however, he’ll be useless. Perez’s BABIP is .418 and LOB% is 39.9% but that’s almost expected given that batters are either walking, or crushing a Perez mistake (27% of hits off him are LD.)

I’d venture to guess that Perez is either injured, or out of shape.  Either way, his mechanics are off and it’s going to take a while for him to get back on track.  I’d definitely keep an eye on Perez though, as his ERA is going to take forever to come down and all he has to do is start locating.  If you see Perez go a couple of games without a free pass or you’ve noticed him exhibit better control, snap him up.

The problems unfortunately do not end with Perez and Betancourt, as Kerry Wood (4.50 BB/9, 7.20 ERA, 4.08 FIP) and Jensen Lewis (3.95 BB/9, 5.93 ERA, 8.30 FIP) are both having the same issues. The Indians bullpen has infinite potential, and the back-end of it contains 4 players that are all capable of notching a strike-out per inning.

Until the relievers get their control issues sorted out, I’d be quite worried if I was expecting W’s from any of the Cleveland Indians starting pitchers. With such a small sample size, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Weather was the prominent factor in the bullpen’s control issues. It realistically could be anything, but it’s definitely an organizational issue.

At the very least, keep in mind that Cleveland has managed to run into all of their opponents at the wrong time. They opened the season in Texas, and went on to play two over-achievers in Toronto and KC. From there, they played New York, KC, MIN, BOS, Detroit and then Toronto again.  The schedule definitely doesn’t get easier with a series against Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Tampa, KC, Cinci, TB, and then NY.  While it’ll be tough for things to get worse for Betancourt, Perez, Lewis and Wood, it’ll probably be just as tough to improve upon their number with their upcoming schedule.

Sleeper

Jose Guillen Is A Bad, Bad Man.

Jose Guillen is bound to be one of the more popular pick-ups on Monday after his 4 RBI Sunday afternoon against Scott Baker and the Minnesota Twins. Over the past week, Jose Guillen’s hit .357 with 3 HR and 10 RBI and has seen his Yahoo! ownership increase to 19% — Yes, Jose Guillen is a bad, bad man.  If you already know Jose’s enjoyable history, you can skip the next couple paragraphs and go directly to his fantasy analysis. Read more

Sleeper

Mike Cameron: Talk About A Small Sample Size.

Mike Cameron’s always been one of the more buzz-worthy fantasy players, at least in deep leagues.  It’s almost impossible to decide whether or not Broken-Headed Mike Cameron (thanks Beltran!), is under-valued or over-valued. The fleet-footed Cameron seems to be a lock for 20 Home Runs and 20 Stolen Bases at this late juncture of his career: In a mere 120 games last year, Cameron decided he’d drop 25 HR and 17 SB on the fantasy community. His numbers could have been eye-popping, if not for a suspension and his knack for batting sub-.250.
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Sleeper

Let’s Talk About Sex: Justin Verlander

I’m probably not the only one that’s compared Justin Verlander to a beautiful woman, a woman that’s clearly out of your league. A woman that you bring home for a chandelier rockin’ night of passion only to wake up the next morning and realize that your wallet’s gone, you’re handcuffed to the bed, and your radio’s stuck on the Colin Cowherd show…NOOOOO! TURN IT OFFFFF!
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Sleeper

Khalil Greene – For The Win!

In standard 12 team mixed leagues, you’re accustomed to seeing Khalil Greene’s name atop the waiver wire.  The man just sits there like a plague, each and every year, waiting for some fool to notice his latest power surge between stints of being downright awful and add him to their roster.
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Sleeper

The Tommy Hanson Article

The Tommy Hanson Article has been put off until the time was right — Guess what? The time is right. Every day for the last month I thought about writing this article but figured you were getting your fair share of hype from the major media outlets. Read more

Sleeper

Double J, Not Just Jeff Jarrett — Josh Johnson Too!

Jeff Jarrett, an up-and-coming country music star, needed to add some buzz to his music career so he took up wrasslin‘ in the Dubya-Dubya-Eff in 1993.

Jarrett, an incredible wrestler, decided on the catch-phrase “AIN’T I GREAT?”

Josh Johnson, Marlin’s starting pitcher, apparently has laid claim to not just the moniker Double-J, but also the “AINT I GREAT” catch-phrase.

So great that the boys over at ESPN  have decided he’s worthy of a major spot on the ESPN fantasy page.

Johnson, a 25-year old righty, has been floating around the Marlins rotation since 2005, but has run into his fair share of injuries. Luckily, unlike other Marlin’s youngsters, he’s refrained from getting tasered by police.

Jul 10, 2008: Missed 91 games (elbow surgery).
Oct 1, 2007: Missed the last 77 games of the regular season (forearm injury).
Jun 18, 2007: Missed 70 games (bicep injury). (courtesy of sportsnet)

Johnson’s yet to pitch a full-season in the majors, but has succeeded in each of his brief sprints.  2006 was Johnson’s most successful season, as he managed to rack up 133 strike-outs in 157 IP, while posting a 3.10 ERA, and a 3.99 FIP.

In 2008, Johnson managed 87 IP, a 7-1 record, 77 K and a 3.61 ERA.

So Is Josh Johnson The Fantasy Jesus?

2 Wins, 0.56 ERA, 0.83 WHIP and 15 K in 15.2 IP – That’s Johnson so far in 2009, and it’s true, he may indeed be the Jesus.

Johnson’s posted these numbers against two fairly solid offenses in the Mets and Nats — unfortunately, neither of these two clubs has looked quite right against anyone yet.

Johnson’s Stuff

Rotoworld.com reports that Johnson’s trimmed a few mph off his slider during Spring Training which has probably contributed to his improved effectiveness.  I’ll do a pfx analysis of Johnson’s slider over the next couple days, but it’s almost a given that it’s been biting more.

Aside from his above average slider, Johnson throws hard — real hard.  His average fastball velocity is up a couple miles per hour over his previous seasons.  This is further evidence that he’s put the Tommy John surgery behind him, and is no longer being nagged by his bicep/forearm.

Johnson’s fastball is coming in at 94.7mph, on average.  Everyone knows Johnson can hit 95-96mph on the radar gun, but to average 95 is almost ridiculous.  This puts Johnson very close to Ubaldo Jiminez’s league-leading 2008 number of 94.9.

Velocity isn’t everything though, as you can see by Johnson’s peers at the top of the velocity board:  Ubaldo Jiminez, Justin Verlander, Josh Beckett, and Edwin Jackson. Verlander has all sorts of potential, but it just seems to go to waste.  Edwin Jackson’s also very interesting, and will be looked at in a later article.

Johnson’s also added 1mph onto his change-up, increasing it’s value to 88.5mph too.

Josh Johnson isn’t quite this good…

Johnson’s increased velocity has resulted in 8.62 K per 9, which while it’s a small sample size, is still telling us something.  It would be wise to up your projections for his K to 9 from previous years, but at this point — Johnson’s probably more of a 8 K per 9 guy, rather than a 9 K per 9 guy.

Johnson’s leaving everyone on base (90% LOB), and the hits aren’t falling (.291 BABIP).  So we should obviously expect regression from his sub-1.00 ERA.  Currently his Fielding Independent Pitching, is sitting at a crisp 1.52.

The nice thing about Josh Johnson, is that he’s only walked 1 batter, producing a BB:9 of 0.50.  Josh Johnson may improve on the 3.50 BB/9 predicted by the robots — but he’s not a 0.50 BB per 9 type guy.  I’d put Johnson at about 2.50 BB per 9, which still makes him a reliable fantasy option.  This should put him at about 3 strike-outs per walk, which is floating in ACE territory.

Where do we go from here…

Johnson’s always been average with his pitch control: producing a league-average amount of swinging strikes both inside and outside of the zone.  Johnson’s average across the board, and throws about an average amount of first pitch strikes.

In 2009 however, Johnson’s getting a lot more swinging strikes outside of the zone (28%), and a lot less contact on those (44%) pitches. Combine this with Johnson throwing about 10 percent more first-pitch strikes, and we’ve got a dominant pitcher.

Conclusion

Johnson’s got dirty stuff, and taking a bit off his slider really appears to have helped him.  Johnson’s bringing it at 95mph, and batters are going to be baffled, so long as he maintains his velocity.  Contrary to the basic principles of physics, the ball tends to go further as it gets warmer which is mainly do to hitters being able to stay loose.

While you’d expect a bit of regression on Johnson’s part, he’s shown that he has a great arsenal and potential Cy Young stuff.

Unfortunately, Johnson’s still a massive injury risk.  While Johnson’s out there, I’d expect a sub-3.50 ERA, with the potential for a sub-3.00.  If Johnson’s improved control is for real, the days of him posting 1.30-WHIPs are long gone.  He’s definitely more of a 1.20-WHIP guy, at this point.

Johnson’s blazing fastball will catch your eye, but what you should focus on is his new-found control.  If he returns to the pitcher that walks 3 per 9, then you’ll want to sell high.  If he can keep it under 2.50 — expect Ace-Like numbers.

Whether or not Johnson can get 200 IP is up in the air.  I’d probably set the over/under at about 160 IP, with Johnson’s history.

If I was a Johnson owner, I’d wait about a month or two before I shopped him.  There is definitely still value in acquiring Johnson at this point, but in the long-term you’ll want to trade him when the Dog-Days of August roll around.

Great Stuff, Great Park, Solid Offense is what a Fantasy Ace needs.

Photo Courtesy of WallyG Flickr

Sleeper

Francisco Liriano: Overreaction Time?

If you drafted Liriano, you’re stuck with him.  After two lackluster outings, you probably will have to trade him for seventy-five cents on the dollar, which I wouldn’t recommend.

Liriano did however look anything but a fantasy ace today against the Chicago White Sox giving up 5 ER in 4.2 IP.  Liriano allowed 4 walks, 6 hits to go with 3 strike-outs.

This comes after he lead off the season with a 7 IP, 4 H, 4ER, 3K performance against the lowly Seattle Mariners.

Undergoing Tommy John surgery, nearly two and a half years ago, in the fall of 2006, Liriano should be good to go by now — he’s not.

Unfortunately, MLB’s GameDay data magically dissappeared for today’s outing against the White Sox, so we’ll have to rely on the miniscule sample size of the Seattle game.

Liriano’s base-line for awesomeness:

1. Throw Hard: 95mph average fastball in 2005-2006
2. Throw Slider: 37% of the time, at 87.7mph

Unfortunately, these are the qualities that caused Liriano to undergo Tommy John surgery, and these are the qualities he’s shying away from.

In 2008,  a year and a half after undergoing Tommy John surgery, it was clear that Liriano was protecting his elbow.  His fastball averaged out at 91mph, and his slider at 83.7mph. Liriano also shyed away from his slider, throwing it 10% less than previous years.

There was optimism though; Over the course of the season Liriano slowly began adding velocity to his fastball and slider, eventually raising their velocities to 91.2mph and 84.9mph.

The movement was still there, but it’s far easier to achieve the same movement at lesser speeds.

Francisco Liriano in 2009

Fastball 91.9mph, Slider 85.4mph. Liriano also threw his slider about 30 percent, which we can’t gather too much from, considering it’s only one game.

Liriano’s velocity is up from the previous fall, but it’s still nowhere close to where it was when he dominated.

The question becomes whether or not he’ll ever return to that point, and the answer is, probably not.

What made Liriano ridiculously unhittable was the amount of movement he achieved on a slider thrown so hard.  Batters would flail at pitches, and just look silly — this is how Liriano managed to post almost 11 strike outs per 9, in his first full major league season.

There is a glimmer of hope, which I’ve omitted purposely up until now, and that’s Liriano’s change-up.  The pitch has ridiculous potential, and he’s going to have to use it to be successful.

Liriano still may add another mile per hour onto all of his pitches, but I’m pretty certain the Twins will limit him.  They already screwed up once allowing him to pitch a full 200 innings between levels in 2008.

It’s a shame that the PFX cameras were down in Chicago, as I’ve been planning on watching this start for a week.  Alas, with an improved change-up, Liriano can still be a high-sevens strike-outs per 9 pitcher –  It’s not the end of the world.

Unfortunately, batters will continue to swing less and make more contact against Liriano, which’ll drastically decrease his fantasy value. With batters swinging less at pitches Liriano throws outside of the zone, Liriano will have to improve his control to succeed.

The things Liriano got away with in the past, are indeed, the past.

I’m not saying dump Liriano, but I am saying monitor his average velocity and pitch distribution very carefully over the coming weeks.

Photo Courtesy of Jon McNab

Sleeper

Is Big Fat Brad Penny Worth Rostering?

Is Brad Penny Worth Rostering For a Full Season? …Hell No!

Is Brad Penny worth rostering for part of a season? Maybe, Let’s find out…

If you’ve been playing fantasy baseball for more than a year, you know the story behind Brad Penny.

Penny is serviceable before the All-Star break, but downright awful after it.  We’ll give Penny a freebie for his injury plagued 2008 season, but here goes:

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After excusing 2008′s woopsie moments, we have a pretty solid pitcher.  Early in Penny’s career, he was equally as dominant after the All-Star break  and often better.  This is why Penny’s career splits aren’t quite what you’d expect.  Penny’s no longer that pitcher, so focusing on the recent past is the most beneficial.

Looking at Penny’s first half splits, who wouldn’t want a pitcher that posts a sub-4.00 ERA to go with a WHIP of 1.20?

Whether or not Penny can maintain those numbers is up for debate however.  Penny has only ever pitched in two of the better pitches parks in the MLB: Florida and Los Angeles.

However, Penny also posted a better ERA and WHIP on the ROAD in both 2007 and 2006. Without digging too deep, this is almost certainly a result of pitching in the NL West.  In addition to the Dodgers’ home park, San Diego and San Francisco are also two of the pitcher-friendliest parks in the league.

You should expect somewhat of an increase in Penny’s ERA switching  from the NL West to the AL East. In addition to more hitter-friendly parks and better hitters, Penny will also now be facing a DH.

Luckily, most of the hitters haven’t seen Penny yet, which should give him some leeway early in the season; which is when we’ll be rostering him.

Now, the only question is whether or not Brad Penny is the same pitcher after last year’s nagging injury induced shoulder pain.

In 2008, Penny’s average fastball speed dipped more than 1mph to 92.4mph rendering Penny less than effective.

Penny’s effective when he’s averaging 93-94mph and hitting 95-96mph.

Let’s take a look at Penny’s start against Anaheim, which he’s allowed 3 Runs in 6 Innings work, thus far.

Penny’s average fastball is coming in at 92.5mph — uh, oh.

Digging deeper we find that Penny started out throwing 88-89mph to Figgins in the first, and slowly started to amp up his speed.  By the second inning, he was hitting 94mph against T. Hunter, 93mph against Morales, and 95mph against Juan Rivera.

By the third inning, Penny was consistently hitting 93-95mph, which is where he needs to be.

Penny maintained this speed well into the game, and was still hitting 94-95mph well into the 6th inning.

Penny’s final line on the day: 6IP, 3ER, 2K, 2BB, 5H, 2HR — which isn’t all that bad considering he was held for most of Spring Training.

Penny’s next three starts are: vs. BALTIMORE, vs. MINNESOTA, @CLEVELAND.

I can’t completely recommend Penny until reports come out about how his shoulder feels tomorrow, but if 6IP and 3ER is rosterable in your league, then Penny’s worth an add.

Obviously, this is probably all for not because some Red Sox homer undoubtedly already owns Penny.

If you’re in a league that values performance over name-recognition though, Penny’s probably sitting on your waiver-wire and you should think about Rent-A-Penny for the next month or two.

If you do pick up Penny, be sure to keep an eye out for injury reports and his velocity (which you can follow on MLB gameday)

One final caveat about Brad Penny: There are almost certainly better options on your waiver-wire, so think before you grab Brad Penny.

Photo Courtesy of Malingering . Flickr

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