LAKELAND, Fla. — Wladimir Pinto is an under-the-radar pitching prospect for the Detroit Tigers who can blow up the radar gun with a 100 mph fastball.
“How fast is your fastball?” I ask him in the Tigers' clubhouse.
“I can reach triple digits,” he says through translator Carlos Guillen (who is not the former Tigers player). “But I’m between 95-98.”
“100?” I ask. “For strikes?”
He smiles and nods. “Sometimes.”
After Pinto's first official bullpen, Tigers pitching coach Rick Anderson was impressed.
“The ball flies out of his hands,” Anderson said.