By the seventh round of a PEBA Amateur Entry Draft, players are rarely fighting off potential suitors. The middle rounds turn out the occasional star player (Davis Sutherland and Josh Shaffer, come on down!), but by and large the players selected in this portion of the draft end up finding another line of work. Such was the burden of Warrior pitching prospect Craig Swanson, the 157^th overall pick in 2013.

Swanson finished his career at Notre Dame with a less than stellar 6-15 record with a 5.94 ERA over three seasons in South Bend. Not exactly Wheaties box territory, my friend. In fact, he’d be more likely to grace the label of chicken broth with that name. To that end, he was anointed the nickname Gravy when former Evangelist manager Héctor Serrano noted in a pre-season press conference that “anything Swanson gives us is gravy” prior to the 2013 season. That one stuck like Aunt Betty’s spuds.

Alas, leave it to first-year GM Bill McKenzie to grant a 6-15 pitcher a chance at redemption by selecting him in Round 7 of the draft. The scouting report wasn’t a complete disaster. Swanson threw hard and struck out more than a batter per inning over his college career, but there is a reason players fall into the 100s during the draft. The scouts pegged him a long shot to make a AAA bullpen, let alone a starter anywhere.

The scouts were right for a while. His 2013 season at Short-A Kailua (4-5, 4.60 ERA) was decent enough, but he ended up spending two full seasons in High A ball afterward with little success. Office Depot was already engraving his name tag when the team called him and moved him up to AA Mississauga. A little tutelage there on his offspeed pitches paid dividends, leading to a 9-7 season last year with a 4.28 ERA, 154 strikeouts in 145 innings, and the best WHIP in his professional career.

His 2016 season got him an invitation to spring training, where he gave up 3 ER in 11 IP. While this effort wasn’t good enough to force a spot on the major league roster, it did get the attention of most people in camp. His fastball is definitely a plus pitch and most scouts also like his overhand curveball. Swanson will begin the season in the Madison rotation at AAA, but I predict the fireballer will be in the Warrior bullpen this season.

Yes, Warrior fans, the Gravy Man cometh.