Matt Manning was planning to play baseball and basketball in college after excelling in both sports for Sheldon High School in Sacramento, Calif.
But the Detroit Tigers expect Manning’s long-term future to be on the baseball field despite the fact he committed to play both sports at Loyola Marymount.
The Tigers selected the hard-throwing right-handed pitcher with the ninth pick in the first round of Thursday’s Major League Baseball draft and don’t anticipate having any problem convincing him which sport is his best option.
“We’ve gone through all those questions and Matt is a baseball player and that’s what he wanted to be,” said Tigers director of amateur scouting Scott Pleis. “And even though he played a lot of basketball he sees himself as a baseball player now.”
Manning’s baseball season started late this year because he was still playing basketball, where he averaged 26.0 points. So he didn’t put up any gaudy numbers.
A first-team Rawlings Perfect Game preseason All-American, Manning had a 2-1 record, 1.91 ERA and 77 strikeouts in 40.1 innings last season.
He was rated the second-best right-handed pitcher and 11th-best prospect in the draft by MLB.com.
The Tigers liked everything about Manning after he worked out for them.
He’s got great size at 6-foot-6, 185 pounds; his fastball has been clocked as high as 99 mph; he’s got an above-average curveball; he’s very coachable, according to his high school coaches; and he’s obviously an outstanding athlete.
“I think we definitely had an idea last year when we saw him at all the summer events, and going into the spring, he was definitely one of the guys we liked, wanted to make sure we scouted heavily,” Pleis said. “A lot of things about him that attracted us to him.
“His size, his athleticism, the way he does things, the ease of his actions. We always saw the plus fastball. We saw the curveball in there. He’s just been a good performer when we’ve seen him and we’ve liked him since then.”
The Tigers don’t know for sure if Manning has finished growing but Pleis admitted it’s possible he could get taller given his bloodlines.
Manning’s father, Rich, is 6-foot-11 and played for the NBA’s Vancouver Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers from 1995-97. His brother Ryan is a 6-6 basketball play at Air Force.
MLB Network analyst Dan O’Dowd warned that taller pitchers can be slow to develop but Pleis doesn’t anticipate that being a problem given Manning’s athletic ability.
“Usually when you see a guy his size already, you see a little bit more of a gangly guy who can’t control his body and repeat things,” Pleis said. “But with this kid, he’s such a good athlete and the basketball comes in play there, it’s helped him with his body control and never really ever seen him in a position where he couldn’t control his body.
“He’s a good athlete. I think we got a fresh arm, somebody that hasn’t maybe logged as many innings as maybe a guy who didn’t play basketball. So I think we look at it that way. We’re not concerned about the timetable.
“We know he’s a good athlete and we know he’s going to pick it up fast.”
In addition to his fastball and curveball, the Tigers also like Manning’s changeup.
They expect that to be an effective third pitch even though he didn’t throw it much in high school given the velocity of his fastball.
“We worked him out,” Pleis said. “He did very well, worked out really well. Was up to 98 (mph), really threw well for us, and it was nice to get a fresh look at him right here before the draft. He’s got a changeup. Obviously, it’ll be improving, getting better all the time, like all his pitches.
“But with his plus fastball, and his breaking ball, sometimes these high school kids don’t throw their changeups that much, because they don’t need to. But the way he does it, he’ll have no problems developing that pitch.”
It’s been reported that Manning would be demanding a $5 million signing bonus but he denied that, according to a Sacramento Bee story.
The Tigers don’t anticipate having a problem signing Manning.
“It always comes into play,” Pleis said. “Our guys do a great job. We know going in what it’s going to be. That’s not something that we’d ever take lightly. It would never be a situation where we’d take a pick and worry about it later. We know what that going in.
“At this point, we’re happy to have him, happy to get him, so we’re just going to enjoy that tonight, and we’ll be getting into that later.”
The Tigers have no picks in the second and third rounds. They’ll pick again in Friday’s fourth round.
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