Hall of Famer Jenkins to represent Cubs at Draft
Three-day event to be conducted June 4-6 in Secaucus, N.J.
Jenkins, 69, played for the Cubs from 1966-73, and again from 1982-83. He was the Cubs' first Cy Young Award winner in 1971, when he was 24-13 and totaled 30 complete games and 325 innings. In 10 seasons with Chicago, he was 167-132 with a 3.20 ERA, 154 complete games in 347 starts, winning at least 20 games in six consecutive seasons, starting in 1967.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will announce the first-round picks while each team's representative will announce the supplemental picks.
The Cubs have the sixth pick in this year's Draft, and two compensation picks in the supplemental round, Nos. 43 and 56, because of the departure of free agents Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena.
The annual First-Year Player Draft takes place this year from June 4-6, beginning with the first round and Comp Round A on Monday at 7 p.m. CT. The first night of the event will be broadcast live on MLB Network and streamed live on MLB.com. Rounds 2-40 will also be streamed live on MLB.com on June 5-6.
MLB.com's coverage, sponsored by CenturyLink, will include Draft Central, the Top 100 Draft Prospects list, Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of every Draft-eligible player, and Draft Caster. You can also keep up to date by following @MLBDraft on Twitter. And get into the Draft conversation by tagging your tweets with #mlbdraft.
Per the new Basic Agreement, the Draft will have 40 rounds instead of 50. The Draft will cover three days. On June 5, teams will pick rounds two through 15, and on June 6, it will be rounds 16 through 40.
Jenkins, who also pitched for the Phillies, Rangers, and Red Sox, was inducted into Cooperstown in 1991. The right-hander is the only pitcher in the Hall of Fame to have more than 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks. Coincidentally, Greg Maddux also finished his career with more than 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks (999). In 2009, the Cubs retired No. 31 in honor of Jenkins and Maddux.
Other pitchers to finish their careers with 3,000 whiffs and fewer than 1,000 walks include Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez.
Jenkins led the league in wins twice, fewest walks per nine innings five times, complete games nine times, and home runs allowed seven times. His streak of six consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins is the longest in the Major Leagues since Warren Spahn did so from 1956-61.
Cubs area scout John Ceprini, who handles New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, eastern Pennsylvania and Washington D.C., will accompany Jenkins as the team representative.