Return to story

Wanted: Young gun (or two)

February 21, 2007 12:50 am

BY TODD JACOBSON

VIERA, Fla.

And he's not planning on letting it bother him.

Matt Chico, the 23-year-old left-hander acquired from the Diamondbacks last season, understands that of all the candidates to make the Nationals' starting rotation this season--and there at least a dozen, from 36-year-old Chris Michalak to Chico--he might be the most intriguing to the team's decision-makers.

"Basically I am just trying to show them how I am and my presence on the field and how I pitch," said Chico, whose entire spring training experience is a first--he was never invited to big league camp with the Diamondbacks.

The Nationals will surely be watching, and moving cautiously, because rushing young pitchers to the majors can be a dangerous game. Baseball is filled with stories of phenoms who flame out, young pitchers like David Clyde or Todd Van Poppel whose early ticket to the majors lacked staying power.

For every Tom Glavine that rebounded from a disastrous rookie season, there is a sob story, a Zack Greinke or Rick Ankiel whose rise to the majors was almost as quick as their fall.

"Sometimes when a guy gets up there too young and they struggle, they get in a deep hole," said former major league pitcher Jose Rijo, a special assistant to Nationals' general manager Jim Bowden. "They don't think their stuff is good enough and they just lose it mentally."

Chico isn't the only young pitcher the Nationals are considering for the starting rotation. First-year Nationals manager Manny Acta said last week that he'd like to develop at least one young starter in the rotation, and that could be Chico, or right-hander Beltran Perez.

Perez, 25, has pitched just eight games in the majors, and they all came last season when he jumped from Double-A to the big leagues, going 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA. Collin Balester, 20, and Garrett Mock, 23, also could make noise out of the Nationals' minor league accelerated development camp.

In each case, the team officials will carefully weigh their decisions, taking into account a player's maturity as much as his ability to make pitches.

"It all depends on the makeup of the individual if he can take it or not, having an 8-15 record," Acta said. "We'll see who can handle that, if he's a young guy we can develop."

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

The Tigers threw several youngsters into their rotation in 2003 with mixed results. Right-hander Jeremy Bonderman struggled at the age of 20, going 6-19 that season with a 5.56 ERA. He's matured into a star, winning 39 games the past three seasons.

The results were different for right-hander Nate Cornejo. At the age of 23, he went 6-17 for that Tigers team. By last season, injuries and ineffectiveness had sidetracked his career, and he made just four appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A in the White Sox's farm system.

"I don't think you can just do it historically," Nationals pitching coach Randy St. Claire said. "You've got to take the kid and know the kid, and know his psyche and know whether he can take defeat or whatever so he doesn't get absolutely shell-shocked. Some people can handle that and it doesn't affect them at all."

The Nationals will examine Chico this spring, perhaps closer than any other pitcher in camp.

When Chico threw his first bullpen session of the spring, a group of team officials huddled behind him, watching as he worked for eight minutes. They'll carefully chart his outings over the next week, and watch intently as he makes his first live appearances when spring training games start March 2.

"He has a chance," Acta said. "He's going to compete. Experience and age has nothing to do with what we're looking for here. We are looking for the guys that are going to give us a chance to compete and have us set up for the future here."

How Chico will react, however, is a bit of a wild card, though he's confident that he's learned to deal with failure during his young career.

After turning down the Red Sox out of high school, he played one year at the University of Southern California but flunked out. He talked to the coach from Palomar Junior College but never enrolled.

He ended up in an over-30 men's league team in San Diego--"a beer league team," Chico said--to stay in shape. To catch the eye of scouts, he worked out at an indoor batting facility in San Diego, where Nationals vice president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo--then the director of scouting for the Diamondbacks--saw him pitch.

Arizona took him in the third round, but the minor leagues weren't easy.

He was dominant in Double-A last season, going 12-6 with a 2.88 ERA in 27 starts with three different clubs, but just two years ago, he was 1-7 at Double-A Tennessee.

It all prepared him for this moment--and perhaps what this season will bring--Chico said.

"Everybody has struggles and that's what makes you better," Chico said. "You learn from your mistakes. I've had my struggles already in the past and I've bounced back from them. I know how to handle those situations."

Todd Jacobson: 540/735-1974
Email: tjacobson@freelancestar.com