In 2006 he was diagnosed with lymphoma. In 2007 he was coming back from battling lymphoma.
Apparently cancer has an affect on going deep in games. That’s the reason it was “definitely a thing” in those years.
Right, obviously we had no idea about the cancer until retroactively after it happened.
That being said, in 2006 he made 15 starts. He threw 1507 pitches, so nearly exactly 100 per start. He threw 81 1/3 innings in those games, so, a shade under 5 1/2 per game. He was throwing 100 pitches in 5 1/2 innings. He had some control issues and that led to fewer IP.
Coming back in 2007, he was at roughly 97 pitches per start in about 5 1/2 innings. So a slight improvement.
And then in 2008 he blossomed.