Pitching
He produces tons of groundballs with his downward movement. He's unflappable on the mound, possessing the confidence to throw any of his offerings at any time in the count. Gooden performs extremely well in the late innings, but unfortunately his endurance prevents him from getting there very often. His curveball is solid; he throws it better than your average starter. He has an above-average changeup and the ability to throw from a variety of arm angles. The Retired or Inactive Players hope he can work on his control a little bit. Every once and a while one slips away from him and either ends up at the backstop or in the right field bleachers. He can hit 90 MPH but is too smart to try to get his fastball past most hitters. He traditionally fares better against lefties. He struggles away from home.

Defense & Hitting
Gooden is nothing special in the field. He doesn't have much of a pickoff move and he's slow getting the ball to home plate out of the set position. Gooden is a surpisingly good hitting pitcher. And I'm not sure you can say this about a pitcher, but Gooden has some pop in his swing. Interesting sidenote, The Retired or Inactive Players have been known to use Gooden as a pinch-runner on occasion.

          -- Moostard Nyman