It isn't as if the Tigers' pitching staff is filled with Hall of Famers, either. This is a starting rotation that overworked a bullpen in 2008 to the point where it was among the worst in baseball.

And the starter with the most victories (right-hander Armando Galarraga, 13) wasn't even with the club when spring training ended in 2008.

Do you think Jim Leyland, a manager of enormous integrity and pride who is not under contract for 2010, would have any hesitation at all in running even a 15-year-old out to the mound if he thought that youngster was his best chance of getting hitters out? Of course not.

There might be some interesting conversations between Leyland and general manager Dave Dombrowski if Porcello continues to look to be at least the equal of struggling left-handers Willis and Robertson as spring training winds down.

Even though Willis and Robertson each have two more seasons of big guaranteed money coming to them, it's difficult to imagine Leyland running either one of them out to the mound if he were to get thumped two out of every three starts.

"If they're so talented, though, that they are the best we've got, then you have to have some conversation," Leyland said. "There are so many things that weigh into it, such as what we need, what's going to make us the best team and what's going to be best for their careers.

"So I'm not writing either one of those guys off, and I'm certainly not putting either one on the team right now. I'm just telling you the truth. Do they have a chance? They have a chance.

"Would it be the best thing? I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't know how it will play out. But I think it will actually put us in a pretty good dilemma. If something makes you stop and look, at some point it could make you stop and think."

Even were Porcello to make the team, there's no way the organization would let him pitch anything approaching 200 innings, not when he just turned 20 and his entire pro experience consists of the 125 innings he worked last season in the Florida State League (when his 2.66 ERA was the best in the league).

He was on a five-inning, 75-pitch limit last season, and the preliminary thinking was to let him work up to 100 pitches per start this year.

Even though Robertson, Willis and Zach Miner need to start along with Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson, the absence of Galarraga (with Team Venezuela) and Bonderman's delay getting into action because of a nerve issue in his shoulder meant Leyland could get extra looks at Porcello in a role to which he is accustomed.

If he continues to look good, who's to say Leyland might not get creative and have Porcello start with someone like Miner picking him up after the fifth inning?

There will be opportunities to skip the rookie during the season, too, to keep his innings in the 140-160 range.

Then there's Perry, who followed pick Porcello, the Tigers' No. 1 pick in 2007, as Detroit's top draft choice last summer.

He's not a prospect who pitched all his life; he wasn't even a full-time reliever last year. Yet Perry has that sin-covering asset all relievers need -- a 100-mph fastball. He allowed enough hits to make a manager nervous last year (15 in 12 high Class A innings) but he also averaged a strikeout an inning for Lakeland.

Zumaya returned to Detroit on Friday to have another sore shoulder checked out. Whether he's healthy or not, Leyland (and Dombrowski) are attracted to pitchers who can erase their mistakes and inexperience with unhittable pitches.

One factor that takes the prospects of Porcello and Perry making the Tigers out of the realm of fantasy is that Leyland gambled on two talented but unproven youngsters in 2006 -- Verlander and Zumaya.

The Tigers went from awful in 2005 to the World Series the next year, with Verlander and Zumaya playing big roles.

In the end, the way others pitch will play as big a role as how Perry and Porcello pitch in determining whether the heralded yet inexperienced pitchers can duplicate the role that Verlander and Zumaya played for Detroit in 2006.