how for real is brad penny?

[MrGrimmFantasy]

Penny is a stud for the first 100 pitches he throws. In the games I've seen him loose or get a ND it's because they leave him out there with a high pitch count and his fastball comes up in the zone and he gets shelled. When Burnett comes back their pen gets stronger with the addition of Oliver or Willis (less likely) I'd imagine he should only get better with the extra help.

[Transmogrifier]

I have no explanation.... but I don't think he can keep this up.

[Heimush]

He is not for real! He is a cyborg sent from the future to destroy us!

(but hes a damn good pitcher)

[EK711]

Penny is a stud for the first 100 pitches he throws. In the games I've seen him loose or get a ND it's because they leave him out there with a high pitch count and his fastball comes up in the zone and he gets shelled. When Burnett comes back their pen gets stronger with the addition of Oliver or Willis (less likely) I'd imagine he should only get better with the extra help.

I thought your comments looked interesting so I decided to put up Penny's career numbers based on some pitch counts. I'm a sucker for stats that I find interesting so I'll share what I think....

Pitch 91-105 5.28 ERA 1.36 WHIP over 58 innings
Pitch 106-20 7.08 ERA 1.38 WHIP over 20.1 innings
Pitch 121-35 27.00 ERA 1.50 WHIP in 2/3 of an inning

The 121+ pitch count is kind of irrelevant because of the extremely small sample size, but these numbers supports your point. But also let's look at this year.

Pitch 91-105 1.04 ERA 0.58 over 8.2 innings
Pitch 106-20 0.00 ERA 3.00 over 1.2 innings

Even though the sample size is small, I still think it could show something in Penny. Like josebach mentioned, I remembered reading that he was using his changeup much better in the spring. Could we perhaps attribute his success later in the innings on the fact that he isn't relying on his fastball as much as he used to? This would leave him fresher later in the game and could indicate that Penny is turning the corner from a thrower to a pitcher. I love using the "thrower to a pitcher" thing . Although I haven't gotten to watch Penny pitch that much, I think we could be witnessing the break out year that he has had the potential for. Mark Redmond said on Penny after his first start this year that he, "....is learning that you just can't throw it by them," catcher Mike Redmond said. "He's learning that when he uses all his pitches, he can go deeper into the game." I think the catcher could be right.