Burning questions on aces of the staff

Today's Press Telegram poses two burning questions regarding our two aces of the staff. I understand there are no definitive answers to either of them, but for future consideration I will post them here. If nothing else, we could see how Lowe and Penny fare throughout the season with these issues in mind:

"Is Lowe, whose contentious, ongoing divorce battle admittedly affected his focus at times last year, in the right frame of mind now that those all-too-public proceedings have again surfaced just as a new baseball season is beginning?"

"Can Penny, his well-chronicled elbow problems apparently behind him, finally become the staff ace the Dodgers thought they were
getting two summers ago, when they sent All-Star catcher Paul LoDuca and two others to Florida to get him?"

Photos: [www.nandotimes.com] up: Derek Lowe; right: Brad Penny.


We'll be coming back to these questions rather frequently throughout the season, but after yeasterday's double-header in Philadelphia, sensible replies are: "Lowe's frame of mind is better than his strike zone control" and "Penny's splitter will help his cause" :).