The article points out that he's the first Hall of Famer who never started a major league game, and Bill DeWitt Jr refers to him as a pioneer who changed the role of the late inning reliever. I'm wondering was he also the first pitcher (or at least the first successful pitcher) developed specifically as a reliever? He only made two starts in his professional career. Guys like Rollie Fingers and Goose Gossage were predominantly starters in the minors and even after their initial major league success their teams tried to see if their effectiveness would transfer back to a starting role. Even in the '90s teams were still widely criticized when they used a 1st round pick on a college reliever.