The 2007 Chicago White Sox first-round draft pick, Aaron Poreda has always impressed with his stuff—namely, a blazing fastball—but, this spring, a certain White Sox pitcher was absolutely mystified by that fastball.
"Mark Buehrle asked me, 'How do you throw 100 miles per hour?'" said Poreda of an encounter with the White Sox left-hander whose fastball rarely touches 90 mph. "I told him I got lucky—the radar gun was juiced and the wind was blowing behind me."
Juiced radar gun and gale-force winds or not, Poreda has one of the best fastballs of anyone in the White Sox organization. It's this fastball that blew scouts away enough to rate him as the No. 1 prospect in the White Sox organization.
"When you get that kind of recognition, it’s a great accomplishment," remarked Poreda of being named the top prospect in the White Sox organization. "But I don't get caught up in it, and I have to continue to work. The White Sox have a very high expectation for me, and I put that expectation on myself."
Poreda is doing a good job of fulfilling those expectations so far with Class-A Winston Salem, sporting a 3.07 ERA and 4.5:1 K/BB ratio. He has not allowed a walk in his last three starts and threw eight solid innings May 1 against Wilmington, allowing three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts.
"I was filling up the strike zone with my [slider and changeup] instead of throwing fastballs that they’d foul off," Poreda reflected on his eight-inning outing. "If you mix them up and throw them all for strikes, you can pitch later into the game."
However, Poreda's out-pitch is still his fastball. "The fastball is my bread and butter," explained Poreda. "It’s my go-to pitch in a key situation."
Poreda also has been tinkering with a curveball. "I haven’t mastered it yet," observed Poreda of a pitch he just recently picked up. "The White Sox feel my harder slider is better for me in the long run. I can’t really have that true 12-6 curve because I throw from three-quarters, not over the top. If I need a strikeout pitch late in the game, it’ll probably be slider."
The left-handed, 6'6", 240-pound Poreda has similar body build and stuff to a sure-fire Hall of Famer, Randy Johnson. Of course, Poreda is just 21 and it's far too early to be placing those kinds of expectations on him, but with the talent Poreda has, anything could be possible.
"I’m nowhere near as good of a pitcher as he is," said Poreda of the 44-year-old Johnson. "I do kind of have the same body type as him, though. That would be great if I could accomplish what he has, but you have to take it one day at a time."
Some feel Poreda's stuff lends itself more to a late-inning bullpen pitcher, however. "If I had a choice, I’d rather be a starter," noted Poreda. "I like knowing when I’m going to pitch. Out of the bullpen, I have to be ready any day.
But if I had to choose between moving up faster as a bullpen pitcher or staying longer in the minors as a starter, I'd choose to pitch out of the bullpen."
Poreda certainly seems to have a bright big-league future ahead of him, but he still will have to do his time developing in the minors. "Realistically, I’d hope to make it to the big leagues in two or three years," added Poreda. "I’m making progress and we’ll see what happens."
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