A soft timetable already was at work on the night of July 11, 2021, when the Tigers opted with their second pick in the MLB Draft to snag a right-handed ace, Ty Madden, from the University of Texas.
Madden, it was speculated, could be in Detroit inside of two seasons.
Little has changed in 14 months. Madden, 22, is 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, throws right-handed, and has been rehearsing for the past five weeks at Double-A Erie after being airlifted from West Michigan, where he had outgrown Single-A hitters.
Now, it seems, he is ticketed for a next stop — which by next season probably involves Detroit.
Consider his last four starts at Erie:
Madden has tossed 21 innings. He has allowed 14 hits. He has walked four — and struck out 26. The batting average against him in those four starts: .187. The OPS is .492. The last 90 days, which involves his work at Single A and Double A, those figures are .211 and .592.
He is doing this with a four-seam fastball that cruises 93-94 mph and hits 95-96. He has a fine slider unleashed from a steep 12-to-6 delivery that has been refined by Tigers pitching tutors. He has a curveball that is a definite third pitch. It leaves the change-up as his challenge.
The change-up’s evolution will determine how quickly, or how tardily, he makes it to Comerica Park.
As for that foundational piece — Madden’s delivery, the towering sky-to-earth motion that had some wondering as he left Texas if he might be destined for the bullpen. It had to do with mechanics making it potentially tough for Madden to master the very pitch he’s fighting to tame: the change-up.
The Tigers were, and are, aware. They’ve been tinkering and tweaking, from Gabe Ribas, who is the Tigers’ director of pitching, to Erie pitching coach Dan Ricabal, a one-time Dodgers and Giants farm reliever who before joining Erie this year was a pitching coach in the Angels system, and then at Loyola Marymount, Long Beach State, and Cal State Fullerton.
“His head is a little more on line now,” Ricabal said, speaking of Madden during a Saturday phone conversation. “If you look at his throwing-slot in relation to his head, the slot is probably the same, but his head is a little more upright.
“From a dimension standpoint, it probably looks like the slot has dropped — but it all must be measured in relationship to the head. He’s not putting that head ‘out there’ anymore. His arm is staying in line with the head, which allows him to create direction, and improves the feel for his release-point.
“It’s when the head pulls out that inconsistencies exist.”
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Fastball command: It is pitching’s First Commandment. Always with Madden, especially as he moved on from Big 12 batters to professional hitters, fastball authority has been a theme. Could he defeat batters at the top of the zone with that tall, letter-C delivery? Could he fire the ball, consistently, at a hitter’s knee-tops?
“It’s much improved,” Ricabal said. “Like any young pitcher, in 10 starts, you’re going to have really good command for five starts, average command for two or three, and poor in one or two.
“If you want to focus on the one that goes sideways, fine, but we like to focus on the five that are on-point. Last night (Friday, against Altoona, four innings, five hits, one walk, five strikeouts), it was not great. His timing wasn’t great, his feel wasn’t great.
“So, that was the conversation we had (Saturday) and now we get back to work. But his overall fastball command is improving, and it will be even more improved by the time he’s ready for that jump to the next level.”
Metrics typically tell the story. Spin rate is heavy there, of course. It reveals whether pitches can miss bats.
The Tigers have been digesting their data.
“As far as him being able to spin the ball at the top of the zone,” Ricabal said, homing in on some Madden analytics, “for the most part it’s been really good. There was an outing two starts or so ago when the spin was a bit inefficient, which impacted his ability to ride the ball up.
“It (spin numbers) was down a little. But after a couple of sessions looking at some video, we came up with a game plan, which is what makes him special. That week after, there was more ride on his fastball — getting the vertical break up, which improved by 5 inches from one start to his next.
“He has that ability to get under the hood, as it were, and make those adjustments and correction. Which is what makes him good.
“Is that ride going to be there every start? Probably not. But he knows how to fix it.”
The remainder of his repertoire explains why a pitcher who figured to go in the top 15 of the 2021 draft, and who probably fell due to some agent-based money squabbles (the Tigers got him for a slightly above-slot $2.5 million), is on track for Detroit.
“His slider is an advanced pitch, a pitch he can command — back door to a lefty, or glove side to a righty. It has all the metrics you’re looking for,” Ricabal said.
“He has a feel for it, he trusts it. It’s a really good pitch for him.
“His curveball will be serviceable.”
That leaves the difference-maker. The change-up.
“He’s had outings where it’s really been good, and it’s all about his arm speed,” Ricabal said. “When he’s been aggressive with his arm speed, and really throwing the baseball, it works. When it doesn’t work is when, subconsciously, you feel a need to throw the ball softer.
“But when he’s aggressive, when he doesn’t try to manipulate it, which slows his arm down, he can throw it for a strike at the bottom of the zone.”
There it is — his most basic need to join a Tigers rotation in 2023 that, at some point, almost assuredly will need Madden.
“He’s had outings when he has really been good, and in those he’s thrown a high percentage of change-ups,” Ricabal said. “And he’s had outings where his feel was not quite at level he could be.
“When he’s pitched really well, there has been a high number of change-up usage. He’s going to need that pitch if he’s going to be a rotation guy at the major-league level.”
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.