Mark Gubicza's card shows him throwing Tom Seaver style with his knee hitting the mound as he gets his last push off while throwing the ball. A second round pick by Kansas City in the 1981 draft it took him only three years to make it to the majors, even though in his first two years in the minros he only threw 104 innings. At AA Jacksonville in 83 he threw 196 ip.
Though he was only 10-14 with a 4.05 ERA the Royals made the playoffs only to be swept by the eventual World Series winners Detroit Tigers. He didn't make any appearances in that failed effort but the next season he switched his numbers and had almost the same ERA. He did make a couple of appearances in the ALCS going 1-0 with a 3.24 over 8.1 innings. However, he didn't appear in the World Series the Royals won in seven games.
1988 was his career year when Gubicza went 20-8 with a excellent 2.70 ERA over 269.2 IP's. He had a WAR of 7.5-his career best-and finished out third in Cy Young Award voting, finishing behind winner Frank Viola, and Dennis Eckersley. Viola, though, had a WAR of 7.4 while Eck finished with a 2.2. The season pictured saw Gubicza win 15, lose 11 over 255 innings while seeing his ERA rise to a very good 3.04. At this point in his career the 6,5 right hander was 84-67 with a 3.51. After this he was 48-69 with a 4.61 and was averaging just over a 100 innings a season. Arm troubles including a torn rotator cuff limited his effectiveness and his time on the mound.
In spite of that he pitched for those next eight years until the age of 34 when he retired. Now he announces for the last team he pitched for the Angles or as I prefer to call them-The Los Angles Angles of Anaheim California. I mean it gets all the possible names they used and no one will be offended by it.
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