Tigers Tab Manning With First-Round Pick

DETROIT—The Tigers are known for drafting hard-throwing college pitchers with their first pick in the draft.

For the second consecutive year, they selected a hard-throwing high school pitcher.

The Tigers drafted righthander Matt Manning out of Sheldon High in Sacramento on Thursday with the ninth overall pick in the draft. The Tigers selected Texas high schooler Beau Burrows with their first-round pick in 2015.

“(There were) a lot of things about him that attracted us to him,” Scott Pleis, the team’s scouting director, said. “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.”

Manning throws his fastball in the mid-90s and has a curveball and a changeup as well.

“We worked him out,” Pleis said. “He did very well, worked out very well. He 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.”

Pleis is also confident that Manning’s secondary pitches will develop.

“He’s got a changeup,” Pleis said. “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.”

Manning’s father, Rich Manning, is 6-feet-11 and played in the NBA. Manning, who is 6-5 and 195 pounds, was a two-sport star in high school and is signed to play both basketball and baseball at Loyola Marymount. Some have speculated that his desire to play two sports in college might make it tough for the Tigers to sign him, but Pleis doesn’t seem overly concerned.

“I don’t anticipate it being a problem,” Pleis said. “It’s always a negotiation, but I don’t anticipate we’ll have any problems with it and it won’t affect our future picks.”

The Tigers are without second- and third-round picks after signing free agents Jordan Zimmermann and Justin Upton in the offseason.

TIGER TALES

• JaCoby Jones returned from a 50-game suspension and played just 20 games for Double-A Erie before the Tigers promoted him to Triple-A Toledo. Jones replaced Anthony Gose in center field for Toledo. Gose started the season as the everyday center fielder for the Tigers, but he has struggled offensively throughout the season.