Tigers top draft pick: Coach's change pays big money for Manning – Detroit Free Press
As a sophomore, the lanky basketball star moved from shortstop to pitcher — and it seems like the right decision
It’s a good thing for the Detroit Tigers that Mathew McGrew became the varsity baseball coach at Sheldon High in Sacramento, Calif. three years ago.
Right-handed pitcher Matt Manning, who the Tigers drafted with the ninth overall pick in the MLB Draft on Thursday, had been moved up to the varsity team as a freshman and played shortstop.
“He was coming out right after basketball,” McGrew told the Free Press on Friday about the first impression of Manning as a sophomore. “Obviously, I’d never seen him play. He told me he played short and didn’t really do good. He shouldn’t have been up on varsity.”
McGrew suggested a move to the outfield for Manning, who had just gone through a six-inch growth spurt to 6-foot-3.
“His first throw home in the outfield, I saw his arm action, his release and said, ‘Okay, tomorrow we’re going to throw a pen,’” McGrew said. “You’re going to be good. And he said, ‘Oh, I haven’t pitched since I was 12.’ I said, ‘Okay, we’re going to work on it. You’re going to be good.’”
McGrew said two weeks later Manning pitched in a game and was throwing 86-87 m.p.h.
“He didn’t know what the hell he was doing,” McGrew said. “And he worked that whole summer and I went to his dad and told him you need to get a legit pitching coach and this could be something special. And he did that.”
Manning and his father, Rich, a former NBA player who went on to play professionally overseas, confirmed McGrew’s accounting of how he made the switch to varsity pitcher and began to excel.
The Tigers worked Manning out before the draft and clocked his fastball at 98 m.p.h.
Manning excelled at both basketball and baseball at Sheldon. He ultimately chose baseball when he made a college commitment to Loyola Marymount before getting an offer from the basketball team, too.
“You could just tell he’s been a hooper his whole life,” McGrew said of Matt Manning’s basketball ability. “He’s always played in AAU. He’s always played high-level basketball and he’s always been the man on his basketball teams. That was his sport. He never said it out loud, but he knew he was good.”
McGrew said Manning was “like a baby giraffe” when he first saw him on the baseball diamond.
“He didn’t know how to move the right way on the baseball field,” McGrew said. “So that summer when they fired the coach, he was questioning what he was going to do because he was unsuccessful playing shortstop.”
Manning said he has been compared to Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard and Jered Weaver.
“Loose like Jered Weaver, a little bit of the same arm action, but it comes out nice and firm,” Manning said.
Manning said his fastball is deceptive.
“A lot of people think it’s coming out low-90s, but it’s actually coming out high-90s,” he said. “Just because of how loose and easy it comes out. I have a four-seam fastball that I’ve been able to locate a lot this year, which has been big for me.
“And I’ve really developed my curveball, which has kind of taken me to the top of the board for this draft. And I think I have an above-average change-up for high school, but I haven’t been able to use it in high school because it’s like a fastball coming to high school hitters. I think I have a lot of downward movement and a lot of sink to it.”
Now Manning and his family will spend the next couple of weeks deciding whether he should sign with the Tigers or honor those college commitments.
Manning told the Free Press on Friday he’s optimistic a deal can be worked out with the Tigers.
“I knew they were really interested,” Manning said. “They liked me. I really like the Tigers. I hope it’s a really good fit.”
The slot value for the ninth pick is more than $3.5 million. The Tigers have about $5.4 million total in pool money.
“It’s going to be a big decision for my family,” Manning said. “I’m just really blessed to be in this position. I’m really thankful for how much the Tigers liked me at this pick and how much consideration they put into me. We’re going to be in touch and see if we can make this work.”
Manning is just beginning to understand what his father learned long ago, that pro sports is a tough business.
Rich Manning said he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the second round of the 1993 NBA Draft.
“They cut me the day before the season started,” Rich Manning said. “First time I’d ever been cut in my life.
“Thought I had made it. I think some of my teammates thought I had made it at the time too. That’s when I really realized it was a business.”
Manning went on to play 55 games in the NBA over two seasons with Vancouver Grizzlies and L.A. Clippers. He also played overseas.
Manning is now a mortgage loan officer for Summit Funding, which has an office in Bloomfield Hills.
Matt Manning has a good idea of what his father went through in his quest to be a pro basketball player.
“He traveled overseas when I was playing and I was chasing my dream,” Rich Manning said. “There’s always life lessons to be learned.
“Of course, this year made those conversations much more of a point.”
The Mannings were able to glean a lot of information from Orsino Hill, the father of Tigers’ 2014 first-round pick Derek Hill about the draft process. Orsino Hill had coached Manning’s summer team in California in the past.
While Matt Manning was pitching for a pro future as a senior, his father wanted him to have fun.
“I allowed him to continue to be a kid, to continue to do the things 17 and 18-year olds do,” Rich Manning said. “Once you leave high school it’s no longer a game.”
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