But an out's an out, and if I can find a pitcher who can get 27 groundball outs in a game, or 27 flyball outs, he can register a complete game just as well as a guy who strikes 'em all out, and in all likelihood, my guy will throw a lot fewer pitches. Velocity also has this romantic aura about it. Oooh, look at this guy, he throws 98 miles an hour. Which is fine, when it comes in over the plate. Randy Johnson could throw the ball through a wall when he came up with Montreal in the 80s, but he was just a hard-throwing freak until he harnessed that speed AND came up with that slider of his.
Velocity means nothing without control.
But without movement and control, and another pitch to keep the hitters honest, those guys are just as likely to bounce around from team to team, or from majors to minors, as they are to be featured on Baseball Tonight. 4th Inning Arman-DOH Mets reliever and former Oriole flamethrower Armando Benitez has really grown up. The righthander has been known to throw tantrums after failing in his closer's role with the Mets, and before that with the Birds, and judging by some police accounts, all of his anger management issues are not left at the ballpark. On last weekend's trip to San Francisco, Benitez's beast came out again. He didn't answer any questions about the trashing of the clubhouse, he didn't admit he did it, and he didn't offer to make restitution.