LOS ANGELES >> The gestation period for a top-tier starting pitcher is not always the same.
In very rare cases, they arrive fully-formed – think Dwight Gooden. In others, the labor pains pass quickly – Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez. Some take longer – Randy Johnson, Jake Arrietta.
Few take as long as Rich Hill has.
“What’s interesting about him is if you took him sort of as he was coming up through the minors and then projected this out – it wouldn’t have surprised me in 2004 when he was in Double-A and Triple-A if he would be doing this at this age,” Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi said of the 36-year-old Hill.