Tigers Future Rests on Right Arm of Debuting Porcello

The Detroit Tigers, a team once so promising that nearly every ESPN expert picked them (below),

turn today to 20 year old Rick Porcello, who gets the start against fellow rookie Ricky Romero. Porcello, the Tigers 2007 first round pick, is a hard throwing sinkerballer who came out of the draft compared to Josh Beckett. He wowed scouts with his fastball and curveball combination.

You’ll hear people gripe about his low strikeout rate in 2008, which he accumulated at single A. While he may not develop into a Beckett type of pitcher, he was developing his slider and backed off of his trademark curve a great deal, enough so that his strikeout numbers went down and groundball numbers improved. Look for the training wheels to be off and the devastating curve to return.

Porcello is raw, no question, at 20 years old who isn’t? But he has electric stuff and should fall in the 10-14 wins category, and if he can stick it, will be an important piece for a Tigers rotation in turmoil.