Wes and Barnes are easily the most versatile bowlers on the PBA tour. Duke, Water Ray, and PDW are a cut just below. The reason I say they are a cut just below is because they each have patterns that expose weaknessess. Barnes and Malott doesn't seem to have any weaknessess. They have the rev rate to play deep and the ball speed to play straight, and the accuracy to play the flatter patterns.

I don't think Wes gave good reasons for skipping the tourny in the article. He sounded a little more informed on the TV today. His reasoning sounded better today. He must've given it a lot of thought and said to himself that he didn't want to be labeled a chicken. He does seem to be a bit of a whiner though. He certainly let Wilbon get to him way too much. He should've said his piece and then let his bowling do the talking.

I guess good publicity is better than no publicity. I hope they have a plastic ball tourny every year. Let the ball makers rotate making the ball for a given year.

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I haven't seen Wes throw outside yet. His inside shot is good enough that he can throw it on every pattern, obviously, so maybe he's fantastic out there, too. :shrug:

Wes has played straighter up the lanes, but playing a different line is only a part of versatility. It's being able to make other changes to keep the ball in the pocket and score. I'm not sure how well Wes does all that, but he has shown he can bowl on all the conditions. Barnes definitely has the skills and talent to make the show, but like others have said many times before, he lets being on TV rattle him some.

As for Duke, WRW and PDW being versatile, I think Duke is really the most versatile out of those three. He can make more adjustments hand and speed wise than the other two plus play more parts of the lane. WRW can move in when the lanes break down but he sticks to his "A" game when ever possible. PDW has trouble getting more speed on the ball and as admitted so himself. He just has such a consistent clean release that he can score on most conditions and play some different lines but still using his "A" game much like Wes.

Wes played outside for the different pattern on each lane. if you remember he was throwing a silver streak on one lane and i think a cell pearl on the other.

I have read the article. The writers will write what they want to. What I want to hear is the actual interview.

From the little interview segment that they showed during the telecast is that Wes didn't like the placement of the tournament in the schedule. I can't for the life of me figure out why that would bother him but maybe someone else can think of something.

The reason Wes can play all of the patterns is because of one his ball speed and he must be able to kill some of the revs to play straight. I have seen him play pretty straight, at least for him. I haven't seen him venture out to the first arrow. But I have seen him play second arrow and around there. Duke makes his straight game work for him on all patterns. Ditto for WRW Jr. Barnes is the only one who can not only play first arrow as well as Duke, but also play 4th/5th arrow as well as PDW. To me, that's versatile. Being able to play a certain style and winning with it is two different things though. Wes is on the verge of dominating the tour. He has the speed to play the short patterns and the revs to play the long patterns. If he can show the accuracy to win on the tough patterns, he will win multiple titles each year.

One thing about Wes. It always seems to me that he doesn't put much on the ball. Maybe that's because I can't see the rotation on his ball. But his ball sure comes back strong. It seems like effortless power.

That's why I think Fagan will be player of the year next season. He's been on TV enough to get rid of the jitters not he just has to roll with it.

There are too many variables to even try to predict who will be Player of the Year next season. This season's isn't completely wrapped up yet but Wes's win today does give him an advantage.

Demo, the plastic tournament was between a grueling major and a grueling 54 game tournament.

Smooth, he has actually been backing off his release this year a bit, it seems to me. If you watch the US Open he made, in his match against PDW, they did a slow-mo of his release, and it was just sick what he did to the ball. He has been nicer to it lately. He has also been playing more up the back of the ball on a lot of patterns, like the Shark. However, he does still get more on the ball than most of us, and with little to no effort. He (and Fagan) are perhaps the PDW of the young guns.