Why this card is awesome: Because, damn, look at the season he had in Lynchburg, according to the text. 19 wins and 300 Ks. If you check his minor league stats, you can see that he did that in just 191 IP!!! Oh Doc, if only you had stayed away from the cocaine.
Cool stat: Dr. K's 1985 makes the top 10 for most IP in a season allowing fewer than 200 hits (since 1901 at least.)
3 comments:
It really is a shame; though it's impossible to quantify the role of other factors in his career erosion. Between Stottlemyre's tinkering, shoulder surgery in 1989, and his cocaine addiction, Doc is the personification of "what could have been."
If he came up now, of course he wouldn't be allowed to have a season like 1985 because they'd baby him and not let him pitch more than 6 innings a game. I'm not a big fan of the current method of not letting starting pitchers work.
gooden's downfall wasn't the cocaine, it was the shoulder injuries. you can pitch through the blow, you can't pitch through rotator cuff issues.
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