Draft supplies arms for system
June's picks have come in and performed well, as well as restoring pitching depth to farm teams.
Lynn Henning / The Detroit News
Even if Detroit's bullpen had not blown to pieces Sunday at Tampa Bay, at least with respect to outings by Kyle Farnsworth and Fernando Rodney, the Tigers would have been looking admiringly at their pitching-heavy draft.
Eight of the first 10 picks were pitchers. And most of those eight have been impressing in exceptional ways the people charged with getting them to the big leagues.
Jon Matlack, for instance. Matlack, the Tigers roving minor-league pitching instructor who is not one to embellish, has been watching and grooming all the picks who signed at various points this summer.
"No doubt, this is a very good crop of young arms," Matlack said Monday. "The results have been pretty phenomenal. And everybody's been as good as their numbers."
Ryan Perry, the first-round selection from Arizona who has thrown with such strength he began work last week at Class A Lakeland rather than at a lower rung, is 1-0 in three appearances and has yet to allow a run. .
Cody Satterwhite, a No. 2 pick out of the University of Mississippi, is also at Lakeland, where he [b]has a 1.23 earned-run average and 10 strikeouts in seven appearances spanning 7 1/3 innings.
Scott Green, drafted No. 3 out of the University of Kentucky, has a 3.65 ERA in 10 relief appearances at Class A West Michigan. Green is 6-foot-7, 240 pounds, and "throws the ball with authority," said Matlack, who likes Green's 94-95-mph fastball and, particularly, a new 88-mph cutter that Green seems to have discovered since he arrived in Grand Rapids.
Brett Jacobson, also at West Michigan and, like Green, a right-hander, has a 2.55 ERA in 17 relief shots with the Whitecaps. Jacobson was a fourth-round selection from Vanderbilt.
Tyler Stohr, the Tigers' sixth-round selection out of North Florida, has helped the bullpen at Class A Oneonta to the tune of a 2.57 ERA in 17 games. A 6-2, 210-pound right-hander, Stohr has 17 strikeouts in 14 innings.
Robbie Weinhardt might be the biggest surprise and, to date, the most impressive of all the Tigers draft picks. He was taken as a 10th-rounder out of Oklahoma State and is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 12 appearances. Weinhardt, a right-hander, has a stunning 28 strikeouts and one walk in 20 2/3 innings at Lakeland. He has allowed five hits.
"Weinhardt has been unbelievably good," Matlack said of the 6-foot-2, 198-pounder. "He has an innate ability to match his four-seamer (fastball) with his two-seamer and a feel for knowing when to use each.
"You just don't see that very often from a youngster."
Weinhardt was a 37th-round pick by the Astros in 2007 but decided to return to Oklahoma State for his senior season. He was expected to go earlier than the 10th round, which his early stretch in the Tigers system seems to have confirmed.
"We knew coming in he was better than a 10th-round pick," Matlack said. "He has kind of a slice-and-dice four seamer that goes 93-94. But what makes him effective is that he has very short arm-action that's hard to pick up. A guy watches him from the side and thinks he's nothing special, but that changes when he gets to the plate."
Perry, of course, had the heaviest reputation of all the Tigers picks as he helped pitch Arizona deep into the College World Series.
He throws a fastball that can nick 100 mph and he has the size (6-4, 200) to persuade talent scouts that his heater will hold up for the long term.
"His fastball sort of jumps into the mitt," Matlack said. "It really has good, late life.
"He's got a breaking ball that he hasn't used a lot but will begin to use more, and he has thrown a sufficient amount of strikes to get the job done.
"He's maybe a little visible," Matlack said, a reference to Perry's present habit of showing the hitter the ball a bit prematurely. "It's an area we have to work on as he goes up the (minor-league) ladder.
"But he's got a real pitcher's body and a good delivery."
Stohr and Jacobson have acquired the "good arms" label that scouts and coaches like Matlack use in talking about pitchers and their upside.
For a Tigers organization that had shipped eight young pitchers to three different clubs in big trades during the past two offseasons, restocking the farm system's shelves was a project for the draft.
So far, so good, as far as Matlack is concerned.
"I just hope we have enough patience to give these young guys a solid foundation," Matlack said.
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