I'm not even a Twinkie fan, but as a baseball fan I just hate to see young "lights out" talent get hurt like that.
Assuming health, there's a certain upper tier of pitchers who have that kind of talent where they can just take over a game and put the opposition away. It's obviously open for debate, but I consider that group currently to be:
Johan Santana
Chris Carpenter +
Francisco Liriano +
Roy Oswalt
Carlos Zambrano
Roy Halladay +
Rich Harden +
Pedro Martinez +
Scott Kazmir +
Cole Hamels +
Ben Sheets +
Jake Peavy +
Mark Prior +
Kerry Wood +
Now everyone with the "+" either is hurt, or was significantly hurt in the past 2 seasons. Does the ability to straight up put a batter's lights out and K 200 batters a year put you at a higher likelihood to get hurt or for your arm to fall off?
Anyhow, I don't like seeing injuries at all, but when players on that list go down, it really puts a damper on things as a fan. As it is, Pedro's practically out for the year, Kerry Wood is already banged up, and Mark Prior is clinging to his status as a baseball player in the Cubs minor league affiliates.
With the season right around the corner, it's Dressel's pitching staff man crush time:
![](http://www.ninetyandnine.com/sblog/uploaded_images/oswalt-788445.jpg)
![](http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/sp/getty/cd/fullj.getty-73455749cp003_oakland_a_s_v_4_31_20_pm.jpg)
![](http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/sp/getty/52/fullj.getty-73508460gs001_tampa_bay_dev_5_45_27_pm.jpg)
![](http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/sp/getty/81/fullj.getty-73493132es017_tigers_yankee_5_07_06_pm.jpg)
![](http://rightwingnuthouse.com/images/r359555598.jpg)
The fury is unleashed April 1st, 2007.