DrRay11
11-29-2007, 07:44 PM
Tigers' top pick shines
Porcello, 18, wise beyond his years, coach reports
Lynn Henning / The Detroit News
Three months into their grooming of rookie Rick Porcello, the Tigers’ $7.28 million investment looks like money well spent.
Porcello, a right-hander, pitched regularly during October’s instructional league at their Lakeland, Fla., complex, and pitched very well in the view of scouts, including minor league pitching coach Jon Matlack.
Porcello pitched in game situations weekly, about five times total, against Detroit’s top prospects and minor leaguers from Cleveland and Atlanta.
The prevailing view: The Tigers were lucky to get the top-ranked high school pitcher in the nation with June’s 27th overall selection in the draft.
“I don’t know what he’ll pitch at, but he hit 97 (mph) numerous times and worked comfortably at 94-95,” Matlack said of the fastball thrown by Porcello, 18, a high school star at Seton Hall Prep in New Jersey. “He has two quality breaking balls (overhand curveball and slider), which are occasionally above-average, and one of which I believe will become better-than-average.
“And he has a plus change-up,” Matlack said, using a word — “plus” — considered high praise from scouts. “He can do things with his fastball: sink it, run it in, ride it. He is far, far advanced beyond just about anyone 18 years old I’ve ever worked with.”
Possessing two, big league-caliber breaking balls is but one of Porcello’s distinctions. He has an overhand curveball as well as a slider and, as Matlack noted, Tigers instructors aren’t sure which of his breaking balls is more likely to be part of a three-pitch repertoire. They are open to thoughts that Porcello might, ultimately, be the rarity who has command of a curve and slider as part of a four-pitch arsenal.
Porcello was viewed as so talented coming out of high school that most big league teams balked at drafting him, unwilling to pay the price necessary to keep him from accepting a scholarship at the University of North Carolina.
The so-called slotting system was viewed as sacred by some teams.
So he fell all the way to the Tigers, who were willing to pay what turned out to be the largest contract for a drafted high schooler — beating the $7 million the Marlins gave Josh Beckett in 1999.
The Tigers believe they opted sensibly in ignoring the commissioner’s draft compensation recommendations given the exorbitant money paid to free agents who, in most cases, don’t have Porcello’s raw ability or upside.
“I worked with a young guy by the name of Jon Matlack when he was 1861/27 or 19 when I was working in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) instructional league,” said Glenn Ezell, the Tigers’ director of player development. “I said to Porcello, ‘There’s only one other youngster your age who came out of high school who commanded his delivery and carried himself like you, and that was Jon Matlack, who happens to be your pitching instructor.’”
Ezell told Porcello last month that Matlack, who pitched from 1971-83, “didn’t have your velocity, but he had your location.”
Ezell’s tribute to Matlack is faint praise compared with Matlack’s thoughts on Porcello.
“He’s mature beyond his years, both physically as well as emotionally and mentally,” said Matlack, the former Mets workhorse whose early years featured heavy innings and low ERAs. “He has that knack of listening to you when you talk — and not just to me, it’s anybody who is working with him. He makes an active effort to listen and to take in the information, then apply it and execute it.
“This is not a guy who listens, nods his head, and says, ‘Yes.’ He’s putting the pieces together to see how they fit. For a kid to be mature enough to understand that is special.”
Porcello is viewed by scouts as a prospect with a likely fast-track path to the big leagues. The Tigers, however, will take their time, allowing his body and pitches to develop in tandem.
It is likely he will begin next season at West Michigan, the lower-end stop in Detroit’s full-season Class A progression. He could be in Lakeland, the Tigers’ high-end Class A team, at some point in 2008.
“I think the biggest challenge for Porcello, for any young guy coming into professional ball, is going into his first 140-game schedule,” Ezell said of the Porcello’s biggest anticipated adjustmentin 2008. “It’s grueling. He’s going to learn at a young age, with a lot of help, how he’s got to progress each day to get ready. His work between starts is going to get him ready for the fifth day.”
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071128/SPORTS0104/711280385/1129/SPORTS0104
Porcello, 18, wise beyond his years, coach reports
Lynn Henning / The Detroit News
Three months into their grooming of rookie Rick Porcello, the Tigers’ $7.28 million investment looks like money well spent.
Porcello, a right-hander, pitched regularly during October’s instructional league at their Lakeland, Fla., complex, and pitched very well in the view of scouts, including minor league pitching coach Jon Matlack.
Porcello pitched in game situations weekly, about five times total, against Detroit’s top prospects and minor leaguers from Cleveland and Atlanta.
The prevailing view: The Tigers were lucky to get the top-ranked high school pitcher in the nation with June’s 27th overall selection in the draft.
“I don’t know what he’ll pitch at, but he hit 97 (mph) numerous times and worked comfortably at 94-95,” Matlack said of the fastball thrown by Porcello, 18, a high school star at Seton Hall Prep in New Jersey. “He has two quality breaking balls (overhand curveball and slider), which are occasionally above-average, and one of which I believe will become better-than-average.
“And he has a plus change-up,” Matlack said, using a word — “plus” — considered high praise from scouts. “He can do things with his fastball: sink it, run it in, ride it. He is far, far advanced beyond just about anyone 18 years old I’ve ever worked with.”
Possessing two, big league-caliber breaking balls is but one of Porcello’s distinctions. He has an overhand curveball as well as a slider and, as Matlack noted, Tigers instructors aren’t sure which of his breaking balls is more likely to be part of a three-pitch repertoire. They are open to thoughts that Porcello might, ultimately, be the rarity who has command of a curve and slider as part of a four-pitch arsenal.
Porcello was viewed as so talented coming out of high school that most big league teams balked at drafting him, unwilling to pay the price necessary to keep him from accepting a scholarship at the University of North Carolina.
The so-called slotting system was viewed as sacred by some teams.
So he fell all the way to the Tigers, who were willing to pay what turned out to be the largest contract for a drafted high schooler — beating the $7 million the Marlins gave Josh Beckett in 1999.
The Tigers believe they opted sensibly in ignoring the commissioner’s draft compensation recommendations given the exorbitant money paid to free agents who, in most cases, don’t have Porcello’s raw ability or upside.
“I worked with a young guy by the name of Jon Matlack when he was 1861/27 or 19 when I was working in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) instructional league,” said Glenn Ezell, the Tigers’ director of player development. “I said to Porcello, ‘There’s only one other youngster your age who came out of high school who commanded his delivery and carried himself like you, and that was Jon Matlack, who happens to be your pitching instructor.’”
Ezell told Porcello last month that Matlack, who pitched from 1971-83, “didn’t have your velocity, but he had your location.”
Ezell’s tribute to Matlack is faint praise compared with Matlack’s thoughts on Porcello.
“He’s mature beyond his years, both physically as well as emotionally and mentally,” said Matlack, the former Mets workhorse whose early years featured heavy innings and low ERAs. “He has that knack of listening to you when you talk — and not just to me, it’s anybody who is working with him. He makes an active effort to listen and to take in the information, then apply it and execute it.
“This is not a guy who listens, nods his head, and says, ‘Yes.’ He’s putting the pieces together to see how they fit. For a kid to be mature enough to understand that is special.”
Porcello is viewed by scouts as a prospect with a likely fast-track path to the big leagues. The Tigers, however, will take their time, allowing his body and pitches to develop in tandem.
It is likely he will begin next season at West Michigan, the lower-end stop in Detroit’s full-season Class A progression. He could be in Lakeland, the Tigers’ high-end Class A team, at some point in 2008.
“I think the biggest challenge for Porcello, for any young guy coming into professional ball, is going into his first 140-game schedule,” Ezell said of the Porcello’s biggest anticipated adjustmentin 2008. “It’s grueling. He’s going to learn at a young age, with a lot of help, how he’s got to progress each day to get ready. His work between starts is going to get him ready for the fifth day.”
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071128/SPORTS0104/711280385/1129/SPORTS0104