In most cases, it creates what we all like to call "a curse," where this newfound exposure creates an opposite effect to the type of exposure it was given.
Example: in 2005, Jeff Francoeur came up and batted like .million and hit four homers instantaneously after being called up. Sports Illustrated jumped all over this, put him on the cover, labeled him "The Natural," (a la this year's Rick Ankiel) and then Frenchy came back to earth. Had he been called up sooner, I'm sure his averages would've dipped beneath .300 and his homers wouldn't have looked that impressive.
But in a rare few instances, the player who receives positive exposure will feel their confidence rise, and in turn their abilities will rise. I believe Webb is one of these instances. Not only does he feel confident that he is a good pitcher, all of the players in the league who have also seen this exposure now have this gnat-sized piece of doubt in the back of their mind that the next time they face Webb, they might just get dominated. With this kind of intimidation on his side, Webb's already won half the battle before even throwing the first pitch. Pitchers who win Cy Youngs are never the same pitchers again - you'll very rarely see them get completely annihilated barring hidden injuries, or the coming of age.
I do not mean to de-value Webb's abilities, but let's face it - Skip Caray, Bobby Cox, all the players on both teams, anyone who remotely follows baseball; we all know what's coming. A sinker in some sort of fashion; Caray called it best - "Everything webb throws has some sink to it." And that is not an exaggeration! He delivers his change-ups at a higher angle so that they still fall into the strike zone, and his fastballs that look like they're coming straight down the pipe will all sink and miss the strike zone...but since none the Braves are willing to be a little patient, they'd never notice this.
Naturally, this negative tirade, is the result of a frustrating loss. Sometimes I get tired of seeing Atlanta being made into examples, or being a red carpet for another player or team onto something interesting. Hearing that Webb now has four more complete games than the entire Atlanta pitching staff is kind of irritating, and I texted and IMed everyone i could to let them know that Webb was throwing a potential no-no, just to try to induce one of those "jinxes," which seemed to work when Kelly Johnson blooped a hail mary into no-man's land to get on base.
So let's just hope that Atlanta can blow out the D-Backs the next two nights, so everyone can talk about Arizona's embarrassing run-differential some more instead.
EDIT: Just got back from the second Arizona/Atlanta game. I thought I said let's have Arizona get blown out, not Atlanta... Micah Owings, the pitcher, hits two homers, and the Braves just pretty much stink up the joint, to the point where nobody cheered for damn near anything. Nights, stretches like this, are what make it frustrating to be a sports fan.
I need something to make me laugh.
That'll do.
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