A Debut Duel of Historic Proportions

The Detroit Tigers took Rick Porcello at #27 in the first round during the 2007 amateur draft out of Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, New Jersey. The Toronto Blue Jays selected Ricky Romero at #6 in the first round during the 2005 amateur draft out of Cal St. Fullerton. This past Thursday, April 9th, both made their major league debuts despite somewhat drastically different routes to the big leagues.

More interesting is that they made their debuts against one another, which according to the MLB Network happens to be a baseball first, in that this matchup marked the very first time two rookies previously drafted in the first round made their debuts while squaring off in the same game.

Porcello surprisingly earned a spot in the Tigers rotation out of spring training after never pitching above A-ball. On top of that, a strict development program instituted last season specifically called for Porcello to work on his secondary offerings at the expense of some performance based indicators. Though he failed to fan more than six batters per nine innings in a low level of minor league baseball, many scouts remarked that Porcello was merely toying with the hitters, capable of dominating at any point if the Tigers shortened the leash on his throwing program.

In his debut, Porcello lasted five innings, walked one, fanned four, and induced grounders on 64% of his balls in play. Essentially, though his actual pitching line will not earn him the Game Score of the year, Porcello performed as advertised, recording strikeouts, showing solid poise and control, and keeping the ball on the ground.

Romero has a bit more seasoning, having attended Cal St. Fullerton from 2001-05 before spending the next three seasons in the minor leagues. The last year and a half of his minor league career is particularly intriguing in the sense that Romero performed better against tougher comptition. In 2007, after 4.1 innings in High A-ball, Romero posted a 8.2 K/9 and 5.2 BB/9 in Double-A. His first 121.2 innings in 2008 came in Double-A, where the aforementioned rates regressed to 5.8 and 4.1, respectively. 41.2 innings of Triple-A competition later and Romero was striking out 8.0 batters per nine while walking just 4.2 over the same span.

Though his pitching line appears much better than Porcello’s, specifically the 6 IP-2 ER part, both had very similar outings. Romero walked two, fanned five, and induced grounders on 59% of his balls in play. Both even throw their fastballs at very similar velocities. The major difference in their debuts can be found in pitch distribution, as Porcello, perhaps happy to once again have free range with the fastball, threw the pitch 74% of the time. Romero, as is the case with seemingly all Blue Jays starting pitchers, threw under 50% fastballs and incorporated more of his offspeed pitches.

Romero is not likely to have as much wiggle room as Porcello given his age and that the Blue Jays passed on Troy Tulowitzki and Matt Garza to acquire his services. Unfortunately, I fear that even if he becomes capable of holding down #3-starter status in the big leagues–which is no easy feat–Romero may be viewed as a disappointment. Both of these pitchers will forever be linked by the historical nature of their debuts and our eyes should be kept on each as the season progresses.