In 2006, pitcher Luke Hochevar signed a four-year, $5.3-million deal with the Royals after being the nation's No. 1 Draft choice.  That expired last season when he earned $1.325 million for the year. Tuesday he signed a one-year, $1.7-million contract for 2010 with the Royals.

For most of us, making $5.3-million in your first four years of work and signing a $1.7-million contract to work in your fifth year would seem like a dream, but for Luke Hochevar it has to be a disappointment.

As the nations No. 1 pick, Hochevar was expected to be fast tracked to the major leagues and be a star.  I'm certain that by now he expected to an impact player on a MLB club with a multi-million dollar arbitration award if not already locked up in a multi-year deal.

You can't say that he's been a bust because he's shown glimpses of lights out unhittable stuff. Hochevar began last season with Triple-A Omaha and was called up after a 5-0 start. In his young career Hochevar already has an 80-pitch, complete-game victory over the Cincinnati Reds, a 13 strikeout game against the Texas Rangers and a three-hit shutout of the Chicago White Sox.  There are MLB pitchers that have 10 year careers that don't have those dominant type performances.

Then there are the bad days - the first overall pick in the 2006 amateur draft  was bothered the big inning, a lot of them.. Houchevar gave up three or more runs in an inning 16 times! In fact, in his final three starts of the season, he allowed 21 earned runs in 14 innings. Ouch!

Hochevar is expected to be a key part of the rotation this season this year. Last year he was 7-13 with a 6.55 ERA in 25 starts. The Royals are expecting much, much more from this highly touted pick. While it may be too much to expect the kind of explosive season that Zack Greinke had last year, Hochevar still projects to be a top of the rotation guy and with 49 career starts under his belt, he should find a comfort zone and lot more consistency this year.

I'm not suggesting that you bid a lot for Luke Hochevar in your fantasy draft but if you let him go for $1 to someone else, you will be kicking yourself as they protect him for the next 4-5 years and he performs like the number one pick in the nation that he was. - Mike Cardano

Mike is the founder of Around the Horn Baseball Blog & Extra Point Football.

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