Rick Porcello gamble paying off nicely

Detroit

A spicy debate was boiling at the end of spring training.

Should the Tigers make a bold move to add a 20-year-old rookie to their Opening Day rotation, or send him to the minors for grooming that Jeremy Bonderman never got before he was promoted?

There were points on both sides. Some of us who had seen Rick Porcello pitch for seven weeks, and who had watched him during spring camp a year ago, figured he was the exception to a necessary rule: Don't bring up kid pitchers too soon.

Others had in mind Bonderman, who never was able to work on a third pitch before he went north in 2003.

Both sides could have made their case during Thursday's game at Comerica Park. Porcello began slickly, pitching no-hit ball into the fifth inning. But by the sixth, he was out of the game, mostly because he and his pitches still are so tender.

What mattered from the Tigers' perspective was the final score and a starting pitcher's role in it: Detroit 7, Baltimore 3. Porcello won his 10th game. He beat a good-hitting team and helped keep the Tigers in first place heading into this weekend's home series against the Twins.

"I'd have to say anybody who would have said on Aug. 6 that Porcello would have 10 wins, that's pretty good," manager Jim Leyland said, wryly.

"Knock on wood. But it's really worked out almost perfect. We haven't over-pitched him. Really, we might have under-pitched him.

"But from a managerial standpoint, it couldn't have worked out any better."

A major contributor

Take away Porcello's victories and quality innings, and the Tigers probably aren't in first place. They might not be in second or third.

But at what price has a stunningly poised 20-year-old bailed out the Tigers staff?

Some wonder if the Tigers weren't subjecting the kid, who can't even order a drink until Dec. 27, to an overload of physical and mental stress. After all, he wasn't even two years out of high school when he was put to work in Leyland's rotation.

A few folks wondered, properly, about his pitching repertoire and its development. In fact, his pitching menu has changed significantly in recent days.

After he started strong through April and May, he ran into trouble, in part because his curveball became ragged. It turned into a kind of cross between a curve and a slider that often hung high and got belted.

Heading into Saturday's start in Cleveland, Porcello broomed the curve and went back to his slider, which had been put on the shelf at the end of last summer, his first full season in pro ball.

Leyland wondered this spring why the slider had been abandoned. Now it's back as Porcello's second pitch -- and it's making everything else click, beginning with his two-seam fastball and the 94-95-mph four-seamers he was throwing Thursday.

Protecting their investment

The Tigers had to be careful on another front, one to which Leyland referred after his team had beaten the Orioles for the third time in four days.

Porcello came with an expiration date when he joined the big league team. He pitched only 125 innings in 2008, with a 75-pitch limit. The Tigers were looking at a 95-pitch limit for him in 2009, with no more than 170 innings.

On Saturday night, he threw 91 pitches in eight innings, Thursday he had 85. There hasn't been much slack in Porcello's short leash.

Porcello has perhaps 11 starts remaining. If he averages six innings per start, he will finish the regular season with 177 innings, just about the team's target number.

But it's unlikely he will start 11 games. The Tigers already have rested him for stretches of nine and 15 days. They will give him another break soon enough. They will not risk damaging one of the most important talents and investments in club history.

Porcello talked about Thursday's game. But he wasn't expansive. Justin Verlander stood a few feet away, playfully telling a reporter to "shut it down." He and Porcello were late for a social engagement.

It was a telling moment.

The kid not only can pitch. He's one of the boys.

lynn.henning@detnews.com">lynn.henning@detnews.com