The second game of the Saturday, July 9, Texas League doubleheader between the Arkansas Travelers and the Wichita Wranglers was postponed due to rain.

So the homestanding Travelers, with a scheduled day off on Sunday the 10th, had some unexpected time on their hands.

How would a couple dozen young men, most in their late teens or early twenties, spend that time?

And how do those young men wile away the long bus rides...from Shreveport (LA) to Jackson (MS); from San Antonio to Midland (TX); from Tulsa (OK) back home to Little Rock?

The imagination runs wild...but the reality of it all is probably on the boring side.

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Chad Hutchinson is a highly touted 22 year old righthanded pitcher who currently toils for the Arkansas Travelers.

Without being certain...I'm-a-thinkin' that what young Hutchinson was carrying under his left arm, as he left the clubhouse on July 9, speaks volumes for how he passes time.

Would you believe that Chad Hutchinson was toting a dog-eared rather thick anthology of Ernest Hemingway's writings?

Imagine that.

The Draft

Young men, teen-aged young men of high school age, are now eligible for the annual two-round player draft held by the National Basketball Association.

The prospect of eighteen-year-old basketball players "turning pro" has resulted in much hand-wringing by everyone from NBA commissioner David Stern to Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.

It seems likely that the Sterns, Krzyzewskis, and countless other moralizing North American basketball big-shots are most worried about the size of their own piece of the very lucrative hoops pie.

But to the eyes and ears of many, the consternation of those who bemoan the NBA cherry-picking seems especially nonsensical.

That's because Major League Baseball teams have been paying big bonus money to talented high schoolers for decades.

In other words, precocious teenagers with outstanding baseball talent and potential are given a choice--a contract with a major league organization...or a college scholarship.

After all, wasn't it proper that Dwight Gooden, who as a 19 year old starred as a New York Met, was allowed to make his own choice regarding his baseball career?

Kinda seems like the American way, doesn't it?

Besides...college, and the pursuit of a college degree, isn't for everyone.

And the rules of MLB's amateur draft have led to a diversity in the baseball experiences, and in the life experiences, of the players drafted in each June's cattle call.

Prospect 1

For example, 19 year old Rick Ankiel, the lefthanded ace of the Memphis Redbirds' starting staff, was picked in the second round (72nd overall) in the 1997 amateur draft...right out of Port St. Lucie (FL) High school.

It would not be wrong to think of Rick Ankiel as Pitching Prospect 1 in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

Heck, it may not be wrong to consider Ankiel the highest-rated pitching prospect in all of baseball.

After signing with the Cardinals in August of 1997, an 18 year old Rick Ankiel began his professional career in 1998 as a member of the Peoria Chiefs.

Recently, Ankiel was asked about his interests outside of baseball.

"No man...just baseball," he replied.

Prospect 1A

Which leads back to Chad Hutchinson.

It is Hutchinson's lot in life, at least as a 1999 Cardinals farmhand, to be a tad behind Rick Ankiel.

In baseball pitching experience, that is.

And if Ankiel is Prospect 1, then the righthanded Hutchinson is Cardinals Pitching Prospect 1A.

Hutchinson's career numbers ('99 statistics through July 14) are shown below...

                                 W  L    ERA   G SV  IP     H   R  ER  BB  SO
1998 New Jersey                  0  1   3.52   3  0  15.1  15   7   6   4  20
1998 Memphis                     2  0   2.79   5  0  29.0  20  12   9  11  31
1999 Arkansas (thru 7.14.99)     6  5   3.84  16  0  93.2  77  44  40  54  91

But that's getting ahead of the story.

The Choice

Chad Hutchinson, 22, was drafted by the Cardinals in the second round (48th overall) of the 1998 amateur draft, and, like Ankiel, started his professional career in 1998 (with the Prince William Cannons).

But Hutchinson's 1998 selection was his second time through baseball's Amateur Draft.

In 1995, fresh out of Torrey Pines HS (Del Mar CA), the pitching-rich Atlanta Braves made Hutchinson their first-round selection (26th overall) in that year's draft.

But Hutchinson, who packs 230 pounds on a six foot five inch frame, was also an accomplished football player, and found the lure of a Stanford Univ. scholarship too appealing to turn down.

Especially because the Stanford athletic scholarship offered Hutchinson the chance to play D-1 football and baseball...an important incentive to a young man who also played a mean quarterback at Torrey Pines.

So the college vs. professional baseball question, for Hutchinson, was answered when he signed on with Stanford University.

At Stanford, Hutchinson played football and baseball, and starred in both sports, for three years, until he was drafted and signed by the Cardinals on June 23, 1998.

The Opinions

Pitchers at the prospect stage of their life cycle are constantly scrutinized.

And high draft choices that commanded six figure signing bonuses, like Chad Hutchinson, are carefully scrutinized.

Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty and longtime scouting supervisor Fred McAlister have compared their initial impression of Hutchinson with their first look at Cardinals righthander Alan Benes.

According to Jocketty, he and McAlister believe that "[Hutchinson's] approach on the mound, his stuff, and the way he goes about his business...and his competitive nature," all compare favorably with Alan Benes.

The Cardinals minor league pitching coordinator, Mark Riggins, agrees with the Hutchinson-Benes comparison.

"I also compare Chad with a young Alan Benes. Their make-ups are similar, and, at similar stages of development, both have had a very hard, tight slider."

More from Riggins on Hutchinson: "He's coming along really well...the second half [of 1999] is going to be a big plus for him. He's had a couple of stretches recently where he's won back-to-back games.

"His main issue is control. He has three pitches...fastball, slider, and change-up, and when they're working, he is going to be very very tough."

Hutchinson's manager at Arkansas, Chris Maloney, sees him every fifth day.

"He's coming along nicely," said Maloney when asked on July 10 about Hutchinson.

"Chad has a world of potential. He has a great arm."

Maloney continued: "At times he has trouble with his command. That's because he has struggled with his mechanics. But his fastball and slider, but especially his fastball when he keeps it down in the strike zone, can be dominating. His fastball has more movement when it is down in the strike zone.

"And like most pitchers at this level, he is working on his change-up."

"Chad Hutchinson is a winner," concluded Maloney.

Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty, with the last word on Chad Hutchinson: "Chad is like J.D. Drew. He has tremendous ability, but he hasn't had the opportunity to pitch a lot, because he was playing football at Stanford. He played spring football, so he missed a lot of baseball early in the season with Stanford. He's a kid that's learning, and trying to progress more and more all the time. But he's very intelligent, he picks things up quickly, and he's going to advance very soon. He's got stuff that may be better than Alan Benes."

A Conversation with Prospect 1A

A feature-length interview with Chad Hutchinson, conducted prior to the July 10, 1999, Arkansas-Wichita game, can be heard by clicking here.

A closing thought: if Chad Hutchinson pitches as well as he interviews...and can stay away from arm and shoulder miseries...well, the whole baseball world may learn a lot more about a young hard-throwing righthander who reads Ernest Hemingway for pleasure.