Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Game 21: Detroit Medley

The rubber match of the Motown Showdown goes down tonight as the Yankees look to climb back over .500. Like Phil Hughes did last night, Joba Chamberlain will get a chance to remind everyone why he should be in the rotation. I think Joba should be a starter until injuries or ineffectiveness prove otherwise. Having too many good starting pitchers is a good problem to have. And that's all I have to say, about that

Toeing the rubber for the Tigers tonight is a lanky 20 year old righthander named Rick Porcello. For those unfamiliar, Porcello was a high school phenom who entered the 2007 draft and was projected to go in the top five picks, with some forecasts placing him as high as number two. His senior year at Seton Hall Prep in New Jersey included a perfect game, a 14.7K/9IP ratio and he was named the Gatorade National Baseball Player Of The Year. 

Porcello chose Scott Boras, and as a result, concerns of signability allowed the Tigers to draft him with the 27th overall pick, just three slots ahead of where the Yankees drafted Andrew Brackman. His total contract was worth over $11M, making him the highest paid high school prospect ever. After spending only one year in High A-Ball, Porcello is already in the Big Show. While he had a solid 2.66ERA in the minors, his strikeout ratio dipped to just 5.2/9IP. Clearly, the Tigers felt pressured by the massive contract they extended to him, along their lack of depth in the starting rotation, to give Porcello some Big League burn. 

So far this year, he has made three starts. Sandwiched between two outings where he gave up 4 and 5 earned runs respectively, Porcello threw seven innings of one run ball against the Mariners last Sunday. By far the youngest starting pitcher in baseball at the moment, just over two decades old, Porcello makes a 23 year old Joba Chamberlain look like a seasoned veteran. 

I must extend a special thank you to local Springsteen Aficionado, Schiff Happens for tonight's song selection. In honor of Jersey boy Rick Porcello, from The Boss, here is a version of Detroit Medley from the '78 Tour, which I have been assured was epic. 

4 comments:

  1. Nice to see the yanks knock a starter out early

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  2. Bruuuuuuuce. Caught him in Hartford last Friday - great show. Spent the whole time checking the GameCast on my phone as Joba put runner after runner on base and wriggled out of trouble with 4 twin killings.

    Of course as soon as the encore ended, GameCast refereshed to tell me Bay tied it up - but no need to rehash that.

    Evil Joba showed up again for the first three innings tonight. Nibbling. Not challenging hitters. Velocity down, control off. 3+ starts is not cause for panic, but it certainly wasn't encouraging.

    Some combination of Eiland getting in his face and the 7 spot the Yanks hung up in the fourth seemingly turned him into a new pitcher for the remainder of the game. He was dominant. Going after batters. Working quickly. Velocity up. Control improved. Great performance.

    Things certainly feel better now than they did 48 hrs ago don't they?

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  3. Maybe I should have waited for the bottom of the ninth to end before I posted that. Ugly 9th notwithstanding, these have been 2 confidence boosting games

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  4. Yeah, I agree completely. The 9th wasn't that big of a deal, it just pisses me off that Girardi feels the need to make so many manuvers.

    Extremely encouraging pair of games, overall.

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