foxsports.com: Tigers taking it slowly with Porcello

Porcello has attributes that will buy him extra outs, in accordance with those guidelines: He has a fluid delivery, and his power sinker induces well-timed double plays, as happened twice on Wednesday.

“He’s not a max-effort guy,” Leyland said. “That makes a big difference. But I’m going to watch him.”

It’s not known if Porcello’s representatives made any suggestions to the team about his innings limit. The Scott Boras Corp. negotiated his $7 million major-league contract following the 2007 draft, but Porcello has since changed agents. He’s now represented by the Houston-based firm of Randy and Alan Hendricks.

Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw may be the most relevant comparison for Porcello among recent 20-year-old pitchers. Kershaw threw 122 innings as a minor leaguer in 2007, followed by an increase to 169 in the regular season last year, of which 107 2/3 were in the big leagues. He added two in the playoffs.

Kershaw did not arrive at that total by accident. Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said Wednesday that team officials determined a 50-inning increase would be acceptable.

“But the best criteria are what you see and how those innings are accumulated,” Colletti added. “Had he accumulated more ‘stress innings,’ his total would have been less.”

Former A’s and Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson believes that annual increases of 30 innings are optimal for developing pitchers. A bump of 40 innings or more, he said, could cause concern.

But when Peterson was told that Porcello exceeded 90 pitches only three times entering Wednesday, he replied, “That’s very wise of them. You can tell that they’re being very cognizant of his workload. They’re doing the best they can.”