Too early?

A few years ago, there was a rumor that indicated that a pitcher was looking for an opportunity in Asia. In the end, it showed that the pitcher might be Dontrelle Willis. Well, I don’t know if the rumor was correct. However, a couple of weeks ago, I got a baseball card with an autograph of Dontrelle Willis. On the front, we can see the photos of two other pitchers from the Cubs.

Dontrelle Willis, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood had been dominant on the mound for a while. However, their dominance didn’t last too long for some reasons. But, looking back at their careers, there’s something interesting.

Career Stats
Player	IP	W-L	SO	ERA	WHIP
Dontrelle Willis	1221.2	72-69	896	4.17	1.43
Mark Prior	657.0	42-29	757	3.51	1.23
Kerry Wood	1380.0	86-75	1582	3.67	1.27

Among these three pitchers, Kerry Wood and Dontrelle Willis used to win the Rookie of the Year award. Kerry Wood made his MLB debut in 1998. He made 26 starts and threw 166.2 innings with a 3.40 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. Additionally, he punched out 233 batters in his rookie season. Mark Prior made it into the big league in 2002. He made 19 starts and tossed 116.2 innings. Prior didn’t win the Rookie of the Year award, nonetheless, his rookie season wasn’t a bad one. Prior posted a 3.32 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP in the 2002 season. On May 9, 2003, Dontrelle Willis made his MLB debut. In his rookie season, Willis made 27 starts and threw 160.2 innings. Willis finished the 2003 season with a 3.30 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP. He was selected to the All-Star game and won the 2003 NL Rookie of the Year award. In addition, these three pitchers were pitching in the 2003 NLCS. We might still remember the Steve Bartman incident, but let’s just look at these pitchers’ performances in the NLCS. Dontrelle Willis didn’t pitch well in the 2003 NLCS, he gave up 6 walks and allowed 7 runs (all earned) over 3.1 innings. Moreover, Mark Prior made 2 starts in the NLCS. He took the win in the NLCS game 2, but took a tough loss in game 6. In total, he gave up 8 runs (5 earned) over 14.1 innings. Furthermore, Kerry Wood made 2 starts in the 2003 NLCS and he allowed 10 earned runs over 12.1 innings. Finally, Mark Prior took a loss in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS and it was his last postseason appearance. Prior only threw 657 innings in the majors. Dontrelle Willis tossed more than 1200 innings in the majors. In particular, he got 22 wins in 2005 and finished 2nd in the NL Cy Young voting. However, after tossing 205.1 innings in 2007, he never threw 100+ innings in a single season again. Kerry Wood tossed 100+ innings in each of his first 6 seasons in the majors, but later in his career, he became a reliever. In total, Wood threw 1380 innings in his career. Mark Prior made his MLB debut at age 21 and he finished 4 seasons with 100+ innings. Dontrelle Willis made it into the big league at age 21 and he had 5 seasons with 100+ innings in his career. Kerry Wood made his MLB debut before turning 21 and he owned 6 seasons with 100+ innings. They became big league pitchers at a young age and used to be an All-Star. Nonetheless, Mark Prior’s last MLB appearance was at age 25. After turning 26, Dontrelle Willis couldn’t toss more than 100 innings in a single season. Kerry Wood didn’t throw 100+ innings in a single season after turning 28. It’s not easy to make it into the big league. Making it into the big league is like a dream come true for many players. Having a great season is surely memorable, but how to have long-term success and avoid injury are always tough.