"I don't want to leave," Penny said. "I want to finish what I started here." That's been his problem here. He has started, but never finished.
Well that's not entirely true; Brad Penny had a complete game for the Dodgers in 2005 against the Mets, as seen here, where he outdueled Pedro. Remember, it only takes one instance to disprove the word "never."
It is also worth noting that the connections to Penny's health are a bit more back door. Because he began relying on his fastball too much, he became more hittable or easier to hit a foul ball off of.
Another point in the Plaschke column:
He says he is sorry for each of last year's three infamous temper tantrums, and he has vowed to avoid them this year.
What were these:
1) He got pulled from a game after giving up 5 runs with a gigantic lead, and Grady wasn't about to let it slip away. It was the 5th inning, so that meant no win. But hey, the player's win-loss statistic is meaningless, so that's a stupid concern. Isn't that right, Bill? Oh wait, you think pitchers' win statistics matter? But you're a sports columnist, so you don't have any sense of responsibility? Ok, sure.
2) A poor umpiring call. Grady Little went to talk to Brad Penny, stepped off the mound to say a word to the umpires when they interrupted him, and then stepped back on to talk to Penny. Padres manager Bruce Bochy claimed that was a second trip to the mound, and so Penny should have only had one more batter, and the umpires actually bought such foolishness. Grady Little was ejected from this game, the only game of the season where that happened. Penny figured he was out of the game anyway, so he might as well get ejected while he was at it.
See DodgerBlues, and look for this picture, and it will remind you that Julio Lugo was also thrown out of this poorly officiated game. The score up top is wrong, though, and Penny did give up 6 runs.3) Penny's supposedly most egregous error was in screaming at Kenny Lofton. To be fair, it is good to have a policy on this sort of thing, and Penny should not have screamed like he did, as he acknowledged. However, it is also true that Kenny Lofton was a nightmare defensively. In fact, the only way one can truly make sense of the Juan Pierre signing is in light of this incident. Pierre led the NL (and I think the majors too) in zone rating last year, meaning that if someone hit the ball to center field, he'd get it more often than anyone on average. Pierre was signed because he was the best defensive option in center field, unless you think Alfonso Soriano's arm outweighs his instincts (like 1 handed catches on routine flies). Even as he'll be a dropoff from Kenny Lofton at the plate, Pierre will probably make up at least some of that in center field. Penny has played with Pierre before too: back in Florida, where they won the World Series in 2003.
******
Now admittedly, Penny needs to cool down quite a bit, but so does Bill Plaschke.
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