I saw an article online that Buster Olney of ESPN had provided about a once bright shining star in the Toronto Blue Jays system named Dustin McGowan. Most of you probably aren't familiar with the name, but if you were a Toronto fan about 5 years ago, I can guarantee that you would recognize it.
The story can be found here: http://www.torontosun.com/sports/baseball/2011/03/13/17599806.html
As far as pitching prospects go, McGowan was it. He is tall, athletic and very competitive. Oh and I almost forgot, he had some of the best stuff I have seen in a long long while. His fastball was in the mid to upper 90's with good movement and improving location. He had a changeup that fell off the table and had a significant gap of MPH between his fastball. But his best pitch was his curve, which ranks in the 75 range on the 20-80 scale and that may be generous. It played better than most because of the velocity and arm angle. I suggest you go and look up some video of him pitching to get an idea of just how talented this kid was. I can remember the day that McGowan, AJ Burnett and Roy Halladay were on the same staff and a lot of teams must have been wondering how they had a chance to win when they were facing the 3 guys with arguably the best arms in the AL East.
It's guys like McGowan that you see come more often than the Pedro Martinez's of the world that deft all logic. Even McGowan had a big frame and the body type that you would project as staying relatively healthy. Some people are just not meant to be, and it's a shame because I would have loved to see him healthy and flashing his plus stuff every 5 days.
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