Tuesday, March 31, 2009

He was never a K-Madder, I swear

Prospectus on Mark Pawalek

[T]he Cubs appeared to have quite a find in Pawelek, when the left-hander that some saw as the top high school pitcher in the draft fell to 20th overall due to bonus concerns, and quickly signed for a slightly over-slot bonus of $1.75 million. Seen as a highly polished product who might move quickly, instead conditioning issues, effort issues, and the occasional ridiculous injury (he broke his non-throwing arm two years ago by tripping over his PlayStation) led to just four innings in a full-season league, and just 149 1/3 IP overall in his four professional seasons. Harvey and Pawelek were supposed to be the team's starting right fielder and a fixture in the rotation by now, but instead they're just footnotes in a long thesis proving that the draft is an inexact science.

1 comment:

Smiff said...

Who is the monkey running the Cubs' drafts?

Seeya, woouldn't want to beya:

Cubs released OF Ryan Harvey, LHP Mark Pawelek, RHP Grant Johnson and LHP Edward Campusano.
The Cubs have purged their system of the sixth overall pick in the 2003 draft, the 20th overall pick in 2005 and the 66th pick in 2004. Harvey finally made it to Double-A in his sixth year in the system, but hit just .216/.276/.360 in 111 at-bats there. He had a sub-.300 OBP in his nearly 1,800 at-bats in the Cubs system. Pawelek, the 2005 first-rounder, was a complete bust after a promising start. He had throwing just 42 1/3 innings over the last two seasons, and the Cubs were never pleased with his conditioning and attitude.