Get To Know A Prospect: Rick Porcello

Get To Know A Prospect is an ongoing feature highlighting top prospects from teams around the league. Players discussed are generally close to breaking into the big leagues and tend to have been bad ass mother fuckers in the minors.

Tigers prospect Rick Porcello was the 27th pick in the 2007 draft. That's a bit misleading though, as he would have been a top 5 pick if not for his bonus demands and Scott Boras. In the end Porcello ended up with a four year-7 million dollar contract (with a 3.5 million bonus). Porcello went 8-6 with a 2.66 ERA in 2008 as a 19-year old in High Class A. He'll start out at AA Erie in 2009 and I wouldn't be suprised if he is in Detroit by the end of the year.

The righthander can throw in the mid-90's consistently and has a good slider, change, and curve. BaseballAmerica has ranked him as the No. 1 prospect in the Tigers system the last two years and had him as the No. 21 prospect in all of baseball last year.

As a White Sox fan i'm still pissed that the Sox went cheap and passed on him in the 2007 draft.