Big problems with player development

[TwinMonster]

Didn't Doc Gooden fade due to drug use? I seem to remember him having some dope/weed type problems.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by TwinMonster

Didn't Doc Gooden fade due to drug use? I seem to remember him having some dope/weed type problems.

Cocaine, which didn't help. The author of that Baseball Prospectus article puts it down to his overuse in his rookie year. The reporters at the time thought the biggest problem was that the Mets' management wanted to change him from a two pitch to a four pitch pitcher (ironically, to save his arm), and in doing so they ruined his mechanics. Certainly they ruined his attitude. All he wanted to throw was fastball/curve, and he really resented being forced to change because he thought management was saying he wasn't good enough. He started doing the coke (we think) later that season (his third).

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

I would argue that 1) they were overused and 2) the reason they are Gods instead of Mario Soto imitators is that they got lucky.

Sometimes genetics trumps Dusty Baker. But not usually.

Here's the top 20 in innings pitched at age 21 or younger, since 1960:

INNINGS PITCHED                 IP     
1    Dwight Gooden             744.2   
2    Bert Blyleven             729.2   
3    Larry Dierker             676     
4    Catfish Hunter            570     
5    Frank Tanana              552.1   
6    Wally Bunker              550     
7    Fernando Valenzuela       495     
8    Gary Nolan                486     
9    Ray Sadecki               482     
10   Don Gullett               431     
11   Dave Rozema               427.2   
12   Bret Saberhagen           393     
13   Vida Blue                 392.2   
14   C.C. Sabathia             390.1   
15   Dennis Eckersley          386     
16   Joe Coleman               384     
17   Dick Ellsworth            364     
18   Bob Moose                 356     
19   Rick Wise                 349.2   
20   Jim Palmer                349.1

That breaks down into 12 guys who were essentially done as effective major league pitchers after the age of 30, two guys who had to move to the pen (Eck, Sadecki), a handful who were still decent in their early 30s (Tanana, Wise), one guy it's too early to tell (Sabathia), and Jim Palmer and Bert Blyleven.