With Arm on the Mend, Titan Pitcher Beck Anxiously Awaits Draft Day

Mark Beck rehabilitates his arm, waits and wonders.

A year ago, he was pitching for Cal State Fullerton in the College World Series. That summer, he would have a shot at making the U.S. Olympic team. After another year of college baseball, he could expect to be taken high in the draft, pocket a hefty signing bonus and be on his way to the minors--and eventually, many thought, to the big leagues.

Now the draft he had anticipated so confidently last year approaches. It starts Monday, and lasts three days. But Beck no longer has any idea where he will be chosen. A year ago, had he been eligible, he might have gone in the first round or high in the second. Now, there’s no telling.

His right shoulder got sore last summer--tendinitis--forcing him to drop off the Olympic team in August. Later, it became clear he would need surgery to repair cartilage in his shoulder--that came in February. There was no college season for Beck, nothing but a lot of nights on the bench and a lot of work, mostly stretches and weights to strengthen his arm.

Now, the organization that drafts Beck will be drafting a player who has not pitched since last year. It will have to negotiate with him without seeing him pitch, since he won’t be cleared to start throwing again until September or October. If an organization chooses Beck, it could be throwing away its pick. If the uncertainty translates into a bonus that isn’t big enough, Beck will go back to Fullerton in the fall rather than sign. And should he do that, the organization loses its rights to him, the draft pick wasted.

“You hear everything, and you just wait,” Beck said. “I’m in a unique situation.”

Because he did not play this season, Beck still has two years of college eligibility left. He would rather not use them.

“I want to sign,” he said. “But I don’t know yet. I’ll wait and see where I’m drafted.”

Beck is in a quandary. Should he sign, even if he goes lower than he hopes and the money isn’t so good, below the $80,000 or more he might have commanded? Or should he go back to Fullerton, where he already holds the season record for strikeouts with 162, see how it goes next season and then sign after the June draft, making the wearying jump from a college season to the minors?

The organizations that want him are in a quandary, too. They wonder if he can come back, and how much of a bonus they should risk on him. Can he come back? Will he demand too much, using the leverage of returning to school? Should they draft someone else, someone who can go to the minors this summer?

“They all know it’s a risk,” Beck said. “But I’m so young (20), I’ll probably recover pretty quick.”

While everyone involved waits and wonders, there is a game of cat and mouse. Beck won’t say how much he’ll require to sign, and puts his prospects of signing rather than returning to school at 50-50. Hard to read.

Scouts won’t talk much either, preferring not to reveal their thinking to other organizations, preferring not to build Beck’s hopes.

“He would have been a very interesting kid this year,” said one scout who has watched Beck since before high school and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “You have to think he would have gone high. This is not a good college draft.”

The emphasis is on the past tense. His organization, he says, plans to wait and see.

“We definitely have an interest in him when he comes back,” he said.

Of course, Beck may well be gone before that. He might get the bonus he wants, or he might decide to take the chance while he has it.

“If a kid is halfway smart, he won’t allow somebody to get him for nothing,” the scout said. “That doesn’t help him or the organization.”

After the certainty that surrounded his future a year ago, Beck can’t help but be disappointed.

“It was going to be a big year for him, financially and otherwise,” said Dennis Rogers, a Fullerton assistant coach.

“It’s pretty disappointing, really,” Beck said. “I don’t live for money, but it would have helped.”

The wait to start pitching again continues, but the wait for the draft is drawing to a close. “I think the draft will be a gut feeling on the organizations’ part, whether they think he’s going to regain the ability he once had,” Rogers said.

“I want to get on with it,” Beck said.