Porcello in Impressive Company
By Blake VandeBunte • Sep 3rd, 2009 • Category: 2009 Season, Dave Rozema, Frank Tanana, Rick PorcelloYou can pretty much pencil in a win when Rick Porcello goes up against the Cleveland Indians. The rookie was dominant again last night as the Tigers topped the Indians to move to ten games over .500 for the first time in months. Porcello gave up one run in seven innings before giving up a solo homer to the only batter he faced in the 8th inning. Had he allowed no more than the single run it would have been the fifth time he went at least 7 innings and gave up one earned run or fewer. He’s pulled off that feat four times this season:
- Apr. 19 against Seattle
- May 5 against Minnesota
- June 12 against Pittsburgh
- Aug. 1 against Cleveland
So, if you’re keeping track at home, that’s four such games all before turning 21 and all in one season. Last year, amongst all big league pitchers, exactly one player that young threw one game with similar numbers. Young pitchers just aren’t supposed to be this good this soon. Quite often young pitchers can keep teams of the board, but they are not able to pitch into through 7 innings because of pitch counts. That’s what makes Porcello so impressive. In his 7+ innings of work last night he threw only 80 pitches.
Porcello has thrown 4 of these games with at least 7 innings and no more than 1 ER, here’s who has done in more often, the list is impressive:
- Felix Hernandez: 6 times in 2006
- Zack Greinke: 7 times in 2004
- Dwight Gooden: 18 times in 1985
- Bret Saberhagen: 5 times in 1984
- Dwight Gooden: 17 times in 1984
- Fernando Valenzuela: 12 times in 1981
First of all, it’s no wonder that Dwight Gooden fell apart, they rode that kid hard. Greinke was amazing in 2004, but struggled for a couple years after that season. Hernandez is coming into his own this season and has always been a good pitcher. Both Hernandez and Greinke are Cy Young contenders right now.
Porcello is not flashy. He doesn’t get a lot of strike outs or talk a lot of trash, but we are really seeing something special this season. The Tigers also deserve a lot of credit for judging him correctly. They thought he was ready to make the move to the bigs at the age of 20 and they deserve kudos for pulling the trigger and for keeping him healthy.
Should Porcello make a few more starts this season, he has a chance to move up the leaderboard for wins by such a young player. In the expansion era of baseball (since 1961), only 13 pitchers aged 20 and younger have won more games than Porcello. He his currently tied with Felix Hernandez on the list with 12 wins, the most by a kid since 2006. Here’s the leaders:
- Dwight Gooden (20 yrs) 24 wins
- Wally Bunker (19) 19 wins
- CC Sabathia (20) 17 wins
- Dwight Gooden (19) 17 wins
- Don Gullett (20) 16 wins
- Bert Blyleven (20) 16 wins
- Dave Rozeman (20) 15 wins
- Jim Palmer (20) 15 wins
- Frank Tanana (20) 14 wins
- Gary Nolan (19) 14 wins
So, with a couple more wins this season, Porcello would join a pretty impressive list. Don’t put it past him, the pressure of this playoff race doesn’t seem to bother him.
Blake VandeBunte is a posting fiend.
Email this author | All posts by Blake VandeBunte