Tigers select prep pitcher Matt Manning with ninth overall pick – Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Tigers drafted high school right-handed pitcher Matt Manning, the son of former NBA player Rich Manning, with the ninth overall pick in tonight’s MLB draft.
Matt Manning (6-foot-6, 185 pounds) is a good basketball player and is committed to Loyola Marymount for both baseball and basketball.
But the Tigers have invested a lot of time scouting Manning, who pitched at Sheldon High in Sacramento, Calif. and were comfortable that he wants to pursue baseball as a pro career.
“We’ve gone through all those questions and Matt’s a baseball player and that’s what he wanted to be,” said Scott Pleis, the Tigers’ director of amateur scouting. “Even though he played a lot of basketball, he sees himself as a baseball player now.”
Pleis said Manning’s fastball was clocked at 98 m.p.h. when they brought him in for a workout.
Pleis said young pitchers that are as tall as Manning are usually gangly and have trouble repeating their delivery. “Never seen him in a position where he couldn’t control his body,” Pleis said.
The Tigers scouted him heavily last summer and again this spring.
Manning was 2-1 with a 1.91 ERA and 77 strikeouts in 40 1/3 innings in eight starts this season. He also averaged 26.0 points per game in basketball.
Pleis said there’s a lot to like about Manning: “His size, his athleticism, the way he does things, the ease of his actions.”
Pleis said Manning has a plus fastball and “we see the curveball in there.”
Manning didn’t throw a lot of changeups but Pleis said: “As a high school pitcher, especially with the velocity that he does, you don’t necessarily need to throw (the changeup). His fastball command has been good and he’s just steadily got better.”
The Tigers view Manning’s time split between two sports as a positive.
“We have a fresh arm, someone that hasn’t maybe logged as many innings as a guy who didn’t play basketball,” Pleis said. “We’re not concerned about the timetable. We know he’s a good athlete. We know he’s going to pick it up fast.”
There were reports that Manning was demanding a $5 million signing bonus. Matt Manning told the Sacramento Bee for a story published Thursday: “I don’t know where that’s coming from, and there are a lot of rumors that are not accurate. We never put a number out.”
According to Baseball America, the Tigers have $5,424,300 in bonus pool money. Only five teams have less money available for the draft – the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants, Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs. Five teams have more than $11 million to spend, led by the Cincinnati Reds ($13,923,700).
Asked about signability being an issue, Pleis said: “At this point, we’re happy to have him and we’re happy to get him and we’re just going to enjoy that tonight.”
Pleis did say signability always comes into play and “we know going in what it’s going to be. That’s not something we’d ever take lightly.”
Although there was a lot of uncertainty about who would be available to the Tigers when they drafted, Pleis said they were never in a situation of a player being available they hadn’t considered to be there.
Pleis wouldn’t address whether they had considered high-school left-handed pitcher Jason Groome, who was drafted by the Red Sox with the 12th overall pick.
“As far as the other guys go, they’re other draft picks right now,” Pleis said. “We’re not concerned about talking about those guys.”
Manning was the highest draft pick for the Tigers since they selected Jacob Turner with the ninth pick in the 2009 draft.
He’s the third consecutive high school player drafted with their top pick. The Tigers drafted right-handed pitcher Beau Burrows last year and outfielder Derek Hill in 2014.
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