Cubs' Pawelek looking for fresh start
The slender lefty was standing next to a fence installed to backup the catchers. But instead of throwing off the mound, Pawelek was throwing parallel to the fence. He didn't have a ball in his hand, or a towel, but was going through the motion of pitching. Judging from his exertion, he was throwing hard.
"It's part of the work I have to do to keep me from getting in bad habits," Pawelek said. "I get up against the fence and do some drills. It's helping."
The 21-year-old lefty is looking for answers. He was the Cubs' first-round pick in the 2005 First-Year Player Draft out of Springville (Utah) High School, and his Minor League career hasn't exactly gone as he hoped.
In 2005, Baseball America quoted a National League scout as saying Pawelek "has everything you want. Fastball velocity, movement, control, he controls his secondary pitches and they're big league potential pitches." Pawelek the was state's all-time strikeout leader, setting the record his junior season.
But he has been unable to move up the ladder. Part of the problem was his PlayStation.
This season, the Cubs didn't want to rush the lefty, who began 2007 at Class A Peoria. He appeared in two games in April, totaling four innings, but because of the bad weather, he wasn't able to get regular work. Pawelek was sent to Arizona to pitch in extended Spring Training.
Just as he was getting ready to join short-season Boise in June, he fractured a bone in his elbow. Not his left elbow, but his right, non-throwing elbow.
"I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom," he said during a break in his workouts in Mesa earlier this month. "I'm not exactly the cleanest person, and my PlayStation was in the way with the cord hung over the chairs and stuff, and I tripped over it hit my arm on the wall and landed on it wrong."
He suffered a fractured radial head in his right elbow, and was on the disabled list for 69 days. He knows the exact time because the medical staff kept count.
"I still did my throwing program, but I couldn't catch for a month," he said. "They had me doing everything to keep in shape."
He didn't pitch again until July 28, when he threw one inning for the Cubs' Rookie League team in Arizona. Pawelek then joined Boise, and appeared in eight games from July 31-Aug. 25, making one start, and totaled 12 2/3 innings. He struck out 10, but also walked 10, and gave up 13 hits and 13 runs.
"In my mind, I was thinking I'll go to every [Minor League] level and do well and then go to the Major Leagues," Pawelek said. "I've done a lot stupider things in my life to get injured. Little things that I never thought would happen have happened."
Do we want to know what other stupid things?
"You can imagine what teenage kids do in high school," he said.
Things haven't gone the way he planned, so Pawelek is starting over.
"I've been working hard with the coaches, and trying to figure out what the problems were with my mechanical flaws," he said. "We broke down videos, and sat down for long hours, and it's starting to come around again.
"It's a misfortune, a year and a half my pitching hasn't been there," he said. "It's coming back."
The game plan now?
"We basically came up with the idea that I have to stop thinking," he said. "Just get up on the mound and have some fun like I used to.
"I think when I go into the windup or go to pitch, I was thinking, 'Am I doing this?' or, 'Is this fast enough?' instead of worrying about throwing the ball to the catcher and getting outs."
The Cubs coaches have to work on both Pawelek's mechanics and his mental approach. He's staying positive.
"It's a little setback," he said. "I'm still young. I've still got some time. My pitching is starting to come back. I'll work hard this offseason and come back in tip-top shape, and do everything right this offseason so I can have a good Spring Training and good next year."
Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com.