striker42

I don't tend to watch the Marlins on ESPN when they play. I've seen Willis pitch before but only limitedly. This was the first chance I've had to see him extensively. Time will tell who's right.

No, I just got to see Willis in depth for the first time. Every other time he's facd the Braves I've missed the game. This is really the first time I've seen him pitch out of the highlight reels. I've seen guys with wacky deliveries go down with arm problems before and I was wondering what the word on Willis is. If I was trying to rain on the performance I would have come over and complained about the ump or luck or something like that to belittle Willis' performance. I'm not doing that. Willis pitched well. His delivery leaves me with questions about his longevity though.

He may not have arm troubles but it's really easy to see that his arm is not the most gently used in the game. Wouldn't surprise me to read at any time of Willis coming down with sore elbow. I hope I'm wrong because it's never good to see a player get injured (as a Braves fan I know more about that than anyone this year). And shape means very little. Smoltz, to use him again, is one of the game's best athletes and he's had multiple arm troubles.

I see your point on Prior and the same could be said of Smoltz. Time will only tell if Willis' arm can hold up. I just wouldn't be surprised to see a Sandy Koufax (maybe not as good as Koufax, those are big shoes) type career out of Willis. A very good pitcher till the day his arm falls off.

Dontrelle has never had an arm injury of any kind. 823453[/snapback] But he's only 23. He doesn't have a lot of miles on his arm. John Smoltz didn't have any injuries when he was 23. As for Vida Blue, never saw him pitch. I was just disturbed by the strain it looks like Willis puts on his arm.

I'm a Braves fan but I come in peace and I'm no flamer. I was watching Willis pitch tonight and was kind of disturbed by Willis' mechanics. It's never good to see a young arm explode but Willis looks to be headed that way. He looks to put a lot of strain on his arm when he throws. I was just wondering what the word on that was. It's really detestable but it wouldn't surprise me to see Dontrelle out of baseball before he's 30 because of arm injuries. What's the word from Florida on that?