Pick 16.11 - 381st Overall

LaTroy Hawkins - MIN RP
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hawkila01.shtml

I had to sweat 40 picks before this spot.  Thought for sure all of my targets would be off the board.  But lo and behold, only a handful of guys were taken from my shortlist.  My top guys was still available - LaTroy Hawkins.  He is a perfect compliment to Steve Kline at the end of the game.  So happy he was still available.

Hawkins came into 2000 off three lackluster years in the Twins rotation.  In 1999 he was pretty much abysmal, losing 14 games with a 6.66 ERA in 33 starts.  He gave up 238 hits in only 174 innings of work, leading the league in earned runs given up with 129.  A move to the bullpen is exactly what his struggling career needed, and beginning in 2000, he never started another game again.  Hawkins is still pitching to this day, and doing so quite well (2.93 ERA in 70 innings in 2013).  He's pitched in almost 1000 games for 10 different teams in his 20 year career.  And he has the year 2000 and his move to the pen to thank for it all.

In 2000, LaTroy pitched in 66 games, tossing 88 innings, saving 14 while compiling a 3.39 ERA.  After a brief hiccup in 2001 (5.96 ERA while saving 28 games), he came back in 2002 and 2003 for the best two seasons of his long career (2.13 ERA in 2002, 1.86 ERA in 2003).  Traded to the Cubs in 2004, he compiled another solid year with a 2.63 ERA and 25 saves.  He's pretty much solid, minus a couple of season, to the current day.  Not too shabby.

So the back end of the bullpen is now set for a few years.  Lefty in Kline, righty in Hawkins.  Both could be setup guys or work the 9th if needed.  Will look to fill up the pen with the best available arms in the next few rounds.