Arrieta says he is ready for the bigs

[Pheasants]

Another reason for pitchers to change from minors to majors is guys like Trembley who keep talking about how the majors is so different from the minors and what worked down there won't get major league hitters out. I'm not going to search but I know that he's said that.

[DuffMan]

I could see a pitcher getting to the majors and change styles due to nerves. When facing ML hitters, I would not be surprised if a pitcher would feel more pressure to make the perfect pitch and not challenge hitters the same way that they did in the minors.

You see it all the time.

You mean like Garett Olson?

[Three Run Homer]

The "consensus" scouting report on Arietta (according to those who have read the recent ESPN Insider article) is that he has a great fastball but that his other pitches are below average.

I find it hard to believe that Arietta would be having this much success at AAA with just one good pitch. Maybe that scouting report is out of date? Has Arietta's secondary stuff gotten better this year?

[allstar1579]

The "consensus" scouting report on Arietta (according to those who have read the recent ESPN Insider article) is that he has a great fastball but that his other pitches are below average.

I find it hard to believe that Arietta would be having this much success at AAA with just one good pitch. Maybe that scouting report is out of date? Has Arietta's secondary stuff gotten better this year?

Pretty sure that was the "consensus" coming out of the draft, but he has worked the past 3 years on those secondaries. He probably has the best fastball out of all of our SP prospects, but I'm sure he has done some real work learning how to "pitch" instead of throw.

[Hank Scorpio]

If Arrieta can consistently locate his fastball, he doesn't really need to have much more than average secondaries IMO.

[Singleton]

Yeah, because I didn't clearly follow that up by saying I would take talent over attitude any day and I didn't clearly preface it by saying I was putting objective analysis aside for a second.

In response to your point, maybe Daniel Cabrera looked like that for the first three seasons, when he was a young fireballer who was getting better and looked like he would turn into something special, but the Daniel Cabrera of latter tenure often looked hesitant, lost, lacking confidence and constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown. He hit guys because he had no idea where the ball was going, he was losing velocity by the start and he looked like he was waiting to be rescued out there.

That's the opposite of what I've seen in Arrieta.

In any case, I wasn't saying that I favor charisma over talent, but that I am excited to see a young, talented player whose demeanor is also a bit different than most of our staff.[/QUOTE]

And I'm saying -- assuming were not talking about extremes -- like a guy who is shaking in his shoes -- his demeanor means nothing.

Some guys are cocky (Roger Clemons) and some are unflappable (Greg Maddox). Both approaches work just fine and it's about the last thing i worry about.

[clapdiddy]

If Arrieta can consistently locate his fastball, he doesn't really need to have much more than average secondaries IMO.

You sound like Jim Palmer!

I mean that as a compliment. Palmer knows his pitching.