ROB MACKOWIAK
6/20/76; '96 53rd; Oak Lawn, IL (HS)
L/R; 5-10, 190
| Level |
BA |
OBP |
SA |
AB |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
K |
SB |
CS |
| 1996 R |
.267 |
.366 |
.360 |
86 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
13 |
11 |
3 |
1 |
| 1997 A- |
.286 |
.371 |
.389 |
203 |
14 |
2 |
1 |
21 |
47 |
1 |
7 |
| 1998 A+ |
.274 |
.321 |
.428 |
292 |
24 |
6 |
3 |
17 |
65 |
6 |
3 |
| 1998 A |
.243 |
.369 |
.343 |
70 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
13 |
19 |
4 |
2 |
| 1999 AA |
.262 |
.308 |
.415 |
195 |
15 |
3 |
3 |
8 |
34 |
0 |
2 |
| 1999 A+ |
.304 |
.362 |
.441 |
263 |
7 |
4 |
7 |
18 |
57 |
9 |
3 |
| 2000 AA |
.297 |
.332 |
.449 |
526 |
33 |
4 |
13 |
22 |
96 |
18 |
5 |
| 2001 NL |
.266 |
.319 |
.411 |
214 |
15 |
2 |
4 |
15 |
52 |
4 |
3 |
| 2001 AAA |
.263 |
.302 |
.407 |
118 |
5 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
39 |
1 |
1 |
| 2002 NL |
.244 |
.328 |
.426 |
385 |
22 |
0 |
16 |
42 |
120 |
9 |
3 |
| 2003 NL |
.270 |
.342 |
.443 |
174 |
4 |
4 |
6 |
15 |
53 |
6 |
0 |
| 2003 AAA |
.230 |
.286 |
.318 |
217 |
11 |
1 |
2 |
18 |
51 |
7 |
3 |
| 2004 NL |
.246 |
.319 |
.420 |
491 |
22 |
6 |
17 |
50 |
114 |
13 |
4 |
Playing in a bad organization has given Mackowiak opportunities at the major league
level that he would not have received with most teams. He's developed surprising
power for a small guy, but he's had serious problems with the strike zone. He put
together a respectable season in 2002, when he was forced to play regularly for
parts of the season due to the team's lack of legitimate major league players. The
Pirates hoped to use him as a supersub in 2003, but he started the year in a terrible
slump, hitting below .200 with no power until the Pirates finally sent him to AAA.
He didn't hit much better there, but was recalled in August to fill in after the
salary dump trades. Amazingly, after hitting only 2 HRs in 59 games at Nashville,
he hit 2 in his first game back. He stayed hot after that, hitting 348/400/609
after his recall, and probably saved his spot on the 40-man roster in the process.
He got a lot of playing time at 3B in September when Jose Hernandez went into a bad
slump. He was expected again to serve as a UT player in 2004, but played nearly
every day due to the failures of various other players. He had a spectacular May,
hitting 295/356/621 and providing possibly the highlight of the Pirates' season in
a doubleheader sweep of the Cubs. Hours after the birth of his first child, he hit
a walk-off grand slam to win one game and a 9th inning, game-tying HR to set up a
win in the other. Unfortunately, he did little the rest of the year. After hitting
8 HRs in May, he hit only 6 more in the last 4 months. During that time he hit just
233/305/354. His problems clearly stemmed from his inability to lay off bad pitches.
As the season went along, he saw fewer and fewer pitches in the strike zone. He was
especially vulnerable to pitches low and inside, often fanning on balls down around
his shoetops. He also developed the habit of trying to pull every pitch, with the
result that he was stepping in the bucket and pulling off the ball on every swing.
Possibly in an effort to correct the problem of chasing bad pitches, he started
walking much more often partway through August, but his hitting got even worse.
He batted only 149/284/313 in September and finished with an 0-for-5 October.
Mackowiak is regarded as the best athlete on the team; he runs well and has an
exceptionally strong arm. This probably in part explains his attraction to a
tools-oriented team like the Pirates. He played primarily 2B and 3B in the minors,
and was even named the best defensive 2B in the Carolina League, but the Pirates long
considered him poor at both positions. He's gotten a lot of playing time at 3B in
the last two years, however, due to slumps by Hernandez, Chris Stynes and Ty Wigginton,
and it seems to have helped. He had a roughly average zone rating in 2004, much
better than Stynes or Wigginton, and he had a far better fielding percentage than
Wigginton. He's a competent corner OF, with his arm being a major asset. He's been
forced at times to fill the team's CF vacuum, but he doesn't have the range to play
there. He'll almost certainly go into 2005 as a corner UT player. If his hitting
doesn't improve over the last two-thirds of 2004, he'll be inadequate in that role.
There's some reason to believe he may already have peaked and that the decline may
be permanent, given his poor plate discipline, his age, and the fact that he wasn't
that good a hitter in the minors.
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