To steal B. James usage. Feel, that is.
I think we commonly underrate the "feel" it takes for a Bartolo Colon to pitch, or a T. Walker, if he never develops anything beyond the Death-Ray Heater.
Colon must have an exceptional amount of "feel" because he has to know how to get away with his one offering even when he's facing armed and dangerous guys who are sitting dead-red. And his red isn't all that red, if you catch my drift.
He has to take a bit off, move it a bit up, sink it a bit, hump it up a bit...something to make it a bit more unhittable even though some Trout/Pujols is licking his chops, waiting for that very pitch. Nuance is everytihg to a guy like Colon. Nuance is feel.
A Cone/Bunning/Felix could almost have some random generator pick each and every pitch....and they could still survive, nay flourish. They had/have enough quality offerings to dominate, even when one pitch went/goes sour.
It doesn't work that way for a Colon. He lives on feel. Maybe it is a different quality of feel, but it isn't any more insigificant.
Lee Trevino won a ton of majors hitting one shot, just one. He swiped out there that sliding/bending/swerving fade of his....even when it wasn't the shot to hit. Even when it was exactly the shot not to hit!! He had to approach Point A to Point B in a different way than a Tiger did.
What impresses me most about Taijuan is that he's doing it with one quality pitch, that's it. Oh...and he's doing it at 22. Man, he still should be in short pants, shouldn't he?
Different courses for different horses is an old golf adage, but it applies to chucking a baseball, too. Greg Maddux was the greatest RHP I had the opportunity to watch. I do not count that doping doper who won a ton of Cy's up there in Boston. Seaver might be #2 in my "got to see on TV" book. Hershiser was somewher up there. Maybe Pedro was #2. That might be right. Felix is on the short list, too. They were all pitching maestros, artists as it were.
But I do love to watch a Colon or T. Walker say, "Here you go boys, hit this, it's all I've got!" to the best hitters on the planet and still thrive.
Now that takes feel. Huevos, too.
Moe
Caveat: All I had was a sliding fade, nothing else. So maybe I'm a bit too admiring of guys who do one thing and still get by. Truth in advertising, I suppose.