Manning gives glimpse of tantalizing talent

ERIE, Pa. -- Matt Manning's breakthrough season in the Tigers' farm system didn't end the way he wanted on Monday. But as he finished his second start for Double-A Erie, he still left fans and scouts with something to keep in mind for 2019.
After a 32-pitch, three-walk second inning, Manning bounced back with a 10-pitch third that included a three-pitch strikeout on Akron hitter Andrew Calico. Manning dropped a breaking ball on the corner for a called first strike, then hit his spots on back-to-back changeups for two more calls.
Manning struck out five of his first 14 batters before five hits in a four-run fifth inning ended his season. But the 20-year-old right-hander provided plenty of smile about.
"I'm pretty happy with how this year has gone, coming off injury and then going from low-A to here," said Manning, whose season began late thanks to an oblique strain. "That's all stuff that I wanted to work for."

Manning will have one more chance to make an impression Wednesday in Chicago, where he and fellow SeaWolves starter Beau Burrows will throw bullpen sessions for Tigers pitching coach Rick Anderson. It doesn't mean they'll compete for Detroit's rotation next spring, but they've done enough that the staff wants to see them.
"Just hang around, see what's been going on since Spring Training, go with them on the field and see them throw it," Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters Monday in Chicago. "And these guys are a little more advanced than the others. Andy's been talking about it."
While the Tigers have added top college arms in the past two Drafts with Alex Faedo and Casey Mize, Manning has emerged as potentially the best of their five prized pitching prospects. Detroit used the ninth overall pick in 2016 on the two-sport star who didn't begin pitching until high school, believing his body frame and athleticism as the son of a former pro basketball player would allow him to learn and adapt.
What Manning did this season exceeded expectations, even for someone ranked third among Tigers prospects and 56th in baseball by MLB Pipeline.
After returning to Class A West Michigan to begin 2018, Manning not only earned a midseason promotion to Class A Advanced Lakeland, he quickly ruled the Florida State League, despite being three years younger than the league average. Beyond a 4-4 record and a 2.98 ERA in nine starts was a .994 WHIP; he allowed just 32 hits and 19 walks over 51 1/3 innings while striking out 65 batters. Midway through the year, he was rewarded with a selection to Team USA in the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game.
After Manning struck out 25 batters over just 16 2/3 innings in his final three starts for Lakeland, the Tigers gave him one more challenge. He blanked Harrisburg for six innings with eight strikeouts in his Double-A debut, then encountered growing pains on Monday.
"First game, he had really good command," Erie pitching coach and former Tiger Willie Blair said. "Today, he wasn't quite as sharp."

Even so, Manning threw as many first-pitch breaking balls as fastballs, spotting them for strikes more often than not. His changeup, a show-me pitch last year, is more useful, setting up a mid-90s fastball. When he missed the outside corner, it wasn't by much, and he went back to it.
"Being able to throw different pitches in different counts, I don't have to rely on my fastball to try to get out of jams," Manning said. "It's been good just being able to rely on all three of them and have different weapons."
By the fifth, the combination of 117-plus innings this year, late-summer heat and an aggressive Akron lineup caught up with him. Still, averaging 6.9 hits and 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings across three levels made for an impressive bottom line.
"I think he's got a chance to have three plus pitches and have really good command," Blair said. "He's got a lot of intangibles, got a lot of tools. Great kid, works hard, good head on his shoulders. I think he's going to be really good."
The numbers were more mixed on Burrows, a midseason callup to Erie at age 20 last summer. Detroit's No. 5 prospect lasted just 4 1/3 innings in his each of his last two starts, using 100 pitches in his finale Saturday, but he also had two second-half outings of seven innings of one-run ball.

Though Burrows' fastball was erratic Saturday, the difference between good outing and bad for him usually comes down to his curveball and slider -- sometimes sharp, sometimes flat, sometimes wild.
"My curveball and slider have gotten way better than the beginning of the year," said Burrows, who went 10-9 with a 4.10 ERA in 26 starts while striking out 127 batters over 134 innings. "I'm more comfortable with them now. I have trust in them."
A promotion to Triple-A Toledo never came, but Burrows might be better for it.
"It's all about consistency, with all his pitches," SeaWolves manager Andrew Graham said.