Maybe he should pull an Ankiel.  Or maybe a reverse-Brooks Kieschnick.  His career hitting numbers aren’t super impressive, but they might be good enough to get him a job if he were to practice hitting every day.

There’s a few different lenses you can examine Willis’ career arc through.

In one sense, he’s a lesson in the power of having your career year early (a la Dale Sveum).

In another sense, he’s a lesson in the importance of component ERA measures like xFIP. (His home run rate was absurdly low in 2005, and his k/9 was never that great.)

In a much sadder sense, he’s a lesson in the bad things that can happen when your coaching staff bungles a young pitcher. Willis threw over 800 major league innings before his 25th birthday - that doesn’t usually turn out well.

There’s also sentiment that the Marlins coaching staff tried to fix something that wasn’t broken. They put in a lot of work trying to refine his mechanics to improve his command and prevent injury. I remember watching a Willis start in 2007, and the guy was throwing his fastball 89-90 from the windup but 93-94 from the stretch. I can’t ever remember seeing a pitcher gain 4 mph going from the stretch.

Thank you Lens for the info. Its good to hear this.