[ayaghmour2]

As ominous as this title may sound, that does not mean I am leaving my post as Chicago Cougars general manager. I think you'd have to take me out kicking and screaming from the GM's chair and then you might want to call for backup! No, we're changing how the draft works a little (more on that closer to the next draft) so there may not be many more first round selections since I love making picks and the new format takes that away in the first two rounds a little, so I am more then likely going to trade my first and second round picks most seasons (we'll probably see the "why would this make sense" second for third round pick trades a few times in the next couple seasons) so I can ideally get FABL pieces or at least prospects I've drawn a liking too instead of one of the top 32 players on the mock draft.

Anyways, enough about that; let's talk about the future of the Chicago Cougars pitching staff. I tried my best to hide who I really wanted to take in the Mock Draft (almost like all the pitchers have longer writeups...), but I had to turn "electric stuff", "surefire ace", "dream pitcher", and "if I could design a perfect pitcher he would look a lot like this" into "ultimate combination of high risk, high reward" "a single homer each season with an absurd 4.8 H/9" and "blessed with a high 90s cutter and fastball". Honestly, blessed was probably the highest compliment I've given to many players, but if you couldn't tell already, I selected Pete Papenfus from West Plains high school in Missouri.

More commonly known as "Peter the Heater", the 18-year-old from Willow Springs, Missouri is a polished four pitch pitcher with an FABL quality selection of offerings already. I also undersold his velocity, it's not just high 90s, its 97-99, and I'd be stunned if he debuts before adding more velocity. Not only that, just take another look at his numbers: 15.3 K/9, 0.93 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, 0.1 HR/9, 4.8 H/9, 30-1 record. This kid is an over the top power pitcher who doesn't specialize in keeping the ball on the ground, but can also do a pretty good job of that. Yes, there are command issues, an okay 2.8 BB/9 that is deflated a little by an unstoppable freshman season, but who's afraid of a few walks? Not me for sure!

Let's talk about that "if I could design a perfect pitcher he would look a lot like this" part. This is more from a modern lens, but to me, if you have overwhelming, dominant, electric stuff, you don't necessarily want to control it that well. Don't get me wrong, but if you have a triple digit heater, do you really want a well controlled changeup that sits in the strike zone? Do you really want to paint the corners with a pitch that could end up hanging a little and get punished? No! I want a guy who you are scared to stand in the box against because that 100 mile per hour fastball could take your head off or end up right down the middle. I don't want him locating curveballs and changeups on the corners to get called strikes, I want guys swinging out of their shoes on 58 foot breaking balls that out of his hand look like triple digit fastballs. When your stuff is as good as his, you can live with the walks, especially with how good he is at erasing batters. He'll walk or strikeout the good hitters, but even when they get on base, he can just get the slow guys to ground out. Eventually, our middle infield defense should be elite with Billy Hunter and Ducky Jordan, so this strategy seems like a sound one.

Of course, he's far from a sure thing. 18-year-old with high 90s fastball just screams future arm injuries, and look no further then Tommy Wilcox to see what one bad RNG role can do to your career. That being said, I have a lot of hope that Papenfus will blossom into an ace that can rival Tom Barrell and Rabbit Day's strikeout numbers. He's polished in baseball skills, is loaded with pitching talent, and I don't have to worry about a lagging changeup hampering his career. All his pitches can be thrown effectively and he doesn't have many off nights. Truly his only flaw is his command, and that's something I can live with. Sure, I would have loved Sal Pestilli patrolling center in Chicago for the next two decades, but all Papenfus will cost is our first rounder. I expect to add two more pitchers with my next two picks, before spending most of the remaining picks on position players. I do need a catcher, so potentially one of my seconds will be used on one, but I imagine one of our next five picks will be used on one.