It's obviously impossible to say that without being abused McDonald and Prior would have had much longer careers, but it's still obvious that they were abused.

Okay, so maybe McDonald wasn't abused that much--220+ innings at ages 24 and 25--but we'd have to see pitch counts and think about how hard he was worked in the minors (ah, duh, I remember now--he barely pitched in the minors). And a workload like his early major-league one would never happen now, either.

Okay, so maybe McDonald wasn't abused that much--220+ innings at ages 24 and 25

Prior never threw 220-plus innings in a season even once.

But we do know Edwin Jackson was abused in that sickening 132-pitch start a couple weeks ago.

McDonald was abused in college.

We know Prior's pitch counts, though; a truckload of 120+ and even 130+ games.

I realize that hot amateur pitching prospects (which is what this article is about) aren't the same thing as hot young rookie pitchers, but the cases I remember were hot young pitchers in the majors. Those guys did wind up with major league careers - after all, they had their rookie year and usually a number of years after that.

I've been a baseball fan for a long time. Here's a name that sticks with me: Gary Nolan. Man, there was some excitement about him.

As a 19 year old rookie in 1967, Nolan pitched 226 highly successful innings. His 147 ERA+ was 3rd best in the league (4th in raw ERA). He was particularly notable for his strikeouts - that's why he drew so much attention. Since his IP number was nowhere near league-leading, neither was his raw strikeout number. But his strikeout rate - 8.18 per 9 innings - appears to have led the league, and he did that without walking a ton of batters (like Bob Veale). He made the top 10 of the league in WHIP.

(I had to check on Nolan Ryan: he's one year older than Gary Nolan, but he didn't appear at all in the majors in 1967, and what bb-ref has on him in the minors has just 11 IP that year.)

He did have a substantial career, retiring with a 110-70 lifetime W-L record. He was around through most of the "Big Red Machine" years, including that he was still useful as a pitcher in 1975-76. But he wasn't striking batters out any more by then. 1976 - his age-28 season - was his last effective season, although he got a few scraps of work after that.

Taylor and White descended into the moat of the minor leagues, never to be heard from again.

They got hurt, Taylor in a non-baseball injury. Kind of a major detail to omit, unless you think it would detract from your predetermined point.

Taylor and White descended into the moat of the minor leagues, never to be heard from again.

They got hurt, Taylor in a non-baseball injury. Kind of a major detail to omit, unless you think it would detract from your predetermined point.

Except that Schwarz didn't omit the nature of Taylor's injury. In fact, the web article even provided a link to the original 1994 story about Taylor's surgery, which also mentioned the fight. Here's the part of Schwarz's article that you apparently missed:

a shoulder injury sustained in a fight tore up Taylor’s ticket to Yankee Stadium