Red Sox Sign Penny

How to come to your own take would be to read a bunch of the articles linked to in his rotoworld news page.

My take: Red Sox got a good deal. I thought Penny was worth the option. The dodgers didn't. Ken Gurnick, the guy that follows the dodgers for the mlb.com family of sites hinted that the dodgers don't like his attitude (he was kinda sour grapes during the playoffs), his work ethic (I think this is the main reason), and I'm going to have to assume his injuries factor in there somewhere.

But enough about my uninformed opinions, let's get to Penny's history with the dodgers. He came over in a trade with the marlins. He was supposed to be flipped to Arizona with others for Randy Johnson but GM Paul DePodesta backed out of that trade with the diamondbacks and yankees. Harsh words were flung around about never dealing with the dodgers again lalala.
Yankees and Arizona worked out a trade later without the dodgers.

Penny started a few times after being acquired before having to be dl'd with what was at first just a mysterious arm injury that ended up being a pinched nerve. They rested him and then put him back out there but he still was ineffective and bothered by the nerve. He finally had it cut in the offseason and was fine after that. He's had a problem with his shoulder being sore like almost every pitcher does, but I believe he's never had anyone fooling around in there (except to ensure he hadn't torn a labrum or rotator cuff when they weren't sure what was wrong with his arm yet).

The thing that bothered me the most about him medically was an la times or a dodgers mailbag article (can't find it) where he complained about his back. Look at his pre and post all star game splits year-by-year. Penny typically starts off like a very dominant pitcher (and gets into the all star game) and then completely disappears the rest of the season all Jekyll and Hyde style. He said that some of his problems were due to pain in his back that didn't allow him to throw the split fingered fastball that he used to use as his out pitch (Penny throws a 4& 2 seamer, what used to be a looping curve that's now almost a slurve, a weak change up, and used to throw a splitter). So he started pitching to contact (watch the lowered k/9) with mixed results.

Another rap on him was the bitching you and your father do about Dice-K. Penny, could hit 100 pitches before getting through the fifth inning. That was another reason he chose to try to pitch to contact a season or two ago. So even if he's completely healthy don't expect him to go deep into games, as he misses few bats.

Penny got knocked around badly this year. It was hard to watch. People keep talking about his last appearance in the all star game as a reliever throwing 99 mph. That's all well and good, but when he was throwing 95+ as a starter, he would still get hit and hit hard. Reason he was is because his pitches had zero movement because (in my opinion) he was trying to protect his back. Now to tie this in with the rumor dropped in a dodgers mailbag article about why Penny's option wasn't picked up. Gurnick hinted that the dodgers weren't happy about his work ethic. I'm thinking that was in part due to his back. He has a bit of a gut but he wasn't hungry-hungry hippo looking like Sidney Ponson.

This leads me to believe there is next to nothing wrong with Penny's arm/shoulder--at least a kind of problem that stops him from throwing the ball extremely hard. He was throwing 95 in the start before he was put on the disabled list. He was throwing 98-99 before coming off the disabled list but had to be put right back on two starts later and stayed there for good. The guy never lost velocity, which you would expect if your shoulder is bothering you. The doctors found scar tissue in the shoulder on MRI that may be impinging his rotator cuff--that's the closest thing to defining the shoulder problem that I can find.

Right after that the organization put it out there that they might not pick up his option if he continued to have problems with the shoulder, with the article about being unhappy with his work ethic not coming out until November. All pitchers deal with some level of soreness, but it doesn't usually kill half your season. ***(go to rotoworld.com and look at the articles linked to in his player information page because I'm going mostly on memory)***

I believe It's primarily his back, and Penny's got to be the guy motivated enough to do the exercise it takes to keep those muscles strong back there so he can throw his breaking pitches for strikes again so guys aren't just sitting on his fastball (yes, that's what people did because it was that straight). All this talk about the Red Sox shoulder program is a great match for Penny is a bunch of hogwash homerism that tries to find genius in every move the red sox make. I'm sure the sox rehab program and people are great, but Penny probably doesn't have shoulder problems (at least the kind I'm used to seeing where the guy goes out there and throws 88 mph when he usually sits at 92-93), and if he does it's not doing anything to his velocity.

I think I've repeated myself through here enough times to almost want to check if some guy named William who's last name starts with a B might really be my biological father. To offset all the smack I just did about Penny, he is a fierce competitor. I wouldn't be surprised that the recent derailment of his career/earning potential might be just what was needed to restore his work ethic if that is indeed the problem. Add in that he's only their 3'rd or 4'th best pitcher in terms of talent where he was used to being called the ace or at worst a #2 in L.A. Penny, when healthy, is a dominant pitcher who should've won a C.Y. already. All he needs are his breaking pitches to work and movement on his 2 seamer and he's set to pitch very well, even in the A.L. beast. He's a bargain for the sox at 5+ million. I wish he would've been willing to do the work to be the best he could be as a dodger, but I can also see why he didn't (bad defenses, high turnover, being the "top dog" already on the team, oh yeah, and poor ass run support). Good luck with that, Biz.