The Ones To Watch

If the executive committee turns down Drew's appeal, and that is likely, the matter may end up in court. And yet another ugly mess in baseball will continue to unfold.

The Making of a Pitcher

Guillermo Mota is a 23-year-old former shortstop who during four years in the Mets organization had not broken out of Class A. But when the Expos claimed the athletic 6'6", 200-pound Mota in last years Rule V draft, they saw "a kid with a pitcher's body and a real strong arm who wasn't working out as a shortstop as far as the bat was concerned," says Montreal director of player development Dave Littlefield. So the Expos shipped Mota to one of their Class A clubs, the Cape Fear Crocs, in Fayetteville, N.C., this spring and asked him to try out as a pitcher. "I said, 'O.K., fine,' " says Mota, a native of the Dominican Republic. "Right now, I forgot shortstop."

Mota has made the transition to the mound rather easily so far. "He's picked up the little things that many people coming in don't get," says Fayetteville pitching coach Wayne Rosenthal. "He's like a sponge." Mota has thrown in the mid-90s from Day One, and his control (something some pitchers struggle with for years) has been "uncanny," according to Littlefield.

Through Sunday, Mota was 5-6 with a 3.65 ERA for the Crocs and had 85 strikeouts in 86⅓ innings, with only 21 walks. "Guillermo is jumping ahead of a lot of guys who have been in this organization for two or three years," says Rosenthal. "It's almost like he's been pitching for 10 years."

Says Mota on his newfound life on the mound, "Now, if they say, 'You want to be a shortstop?' I say, 'No, I want to be a pitcher."

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