I guess part of what I was getting at when speaking of “rushing” has to do with the maturity level of the player. That’s hard to quantify I know, but it seems to be something the scouts and coaches take into consideration when evaluating talent, but the only time we pay attention is when someone like Porcello (“mature beyond his years”) shows up. Then it’s a big deal, something to get excited about. Off the top of my head, as a counter-example I am thinking of Matt Anderson. There was a guy with loads of natural talent (100MPH heater), but whose mental accuity was clearly lagging behind his physical develpment (million dollar arm/ten cent brain kind of thing). I am not calling him stupid, but I don’t think he was particularly mature, and I wonder what effect a longer time in the minors under some more careful guidance wouldn’t have been beneficial. We’ll never know of course. He could as easily blown his arm out in Erie or Toledo. There are more than a few similarities between Anderson and Zumaya, I think. However, I certainly can’t claim to be close enough to these kinds of subtleties to the game to call these thoughts any more than idle speculation. But it is the off-season and it’s kind of fun to talk about something besides Leyland and his silly lineups, etc. (thank you very much Carlos Guillen – I will refrain from commenting in that thread).

I do think Andrew Miller was rushed and he hasn’t recovered. Maybin was a desperation move but his cup of coffee I don’t think caused his problems.

Drucker isn’t a prospect but he could be organizational filler/spot starter at some point.