Pedro's 2000 season and Gooden in '85 were more dominant for the era.

They were just so much better than their contemporaries.

Now to Gibson's credit, throwing 300+ innings and going the distance in 28 of your 34 starts is pretty amazing. But hell, Gooden only threw 30 fewer innings in an era where dudes weren't throwing 300 innings anymore.

Best pitching season ever was Gooden when accounting for relative dominance and volume, IMO. Pure dominance was Pedro. Raw numbers was Gibson but as noted, it was "the year of the pitcher" and there were a lot of guys ripping dudes up that year.

I just think a lot of people sleep on Gooden's 85 season. It destroyed his career (throwing 276 innings at 20 years old) so we should at least acknowledge its greatness. Best overall SP season of all time, IMO.
[Reply]

From Baseball Prospectus:

Gordon Graceffo, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals (Triple-A Memphis): 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K.
Graceffo picked up the loss Tuesday against Durham despite spinning his best outing of the year. It’s his second straight game going seven innings and allowing just one run, helping to bring his ERA to 2.92 for the month of May. Injuries and a fastball that became a bit too hittable last year caused a backslide for Graceffo in 2023, but he’s showing signs of a rebound this season. The fastball velocity is ticking back up, helping the entire arsenal be more effective.
[Reply]

Looking like another possible 5th starter in a system where Tink Hence MIGHT project to be a 3rd starter and the organization won't pay to acquire a top of the rotation guy.

If you're lucky, Hence, Robberse and Graceffo can make a viable 3-4-5 (and realistically, one of those guys won't make it so you're looking at hoping someone like Hjerpe makes a leap to backfill there; and as a 23 yr old with middling numbers in his 2nd go round through A+, there's little reason to truly hope there).

There's just very very little to look forward to in this entire organization. I mean our recent 1st round pick, Chase Davis, is down in A ball (not even High A) and has a sub-600 OPS for the 2nd straight year despite being overaged for the level.

I mean ultimately we have 2 guys in our top 10 prospects in Crooks and Bernal who are A) Catchers (so buried by our best young player AND the only veteran we have who was actually hitting and has 3 years left on his deal after this one) and B) Just not great prospects. They're that high by default - If your lucky, Cooks and Bernal are quality backup catchers someday.

But when you use trade capital on guys like Cesar Prieto, this is going to be the state of your system. When you don't know who's actually good so every trade you make is just a poo poo platter of C- prospects, you probably shouldn't be shocked when your system is full of JAG prospects.

In no world should this team have been eager to add Cesar Prieto or Drew Rom to the system. Except that Mozeliak knows he sucks so he's content just throwing numbers at the problem in the hopes he gets lucky.

Things just look awfully dim for a very long time. We're 5 years away from relevance. If we're lucky.
[Reply]