Ft. Anne Flamethrower Taken in 4th Round of MLB Draft

As far as I can remember, no athlete that has ever attended Ft. Anne High School has ever been as highly touted to play professional sports than Tyler Mattison.  Back when he was an eighth-grader pitching on the varsity baseball team, the Ft. Anne flamethrower had the size, strength and mental toughness to compete at the highest level, helping Ft. Anne baseball win the Class D State Championhsip.

Mattison would go on to have a tremendous sports career at Ft. Anne where he would shine not only on the baseball diamond, but the hoop courts and soccer field as well.

The kid is a beast, and now he's a Tiger.

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On Monday, the former Ft. Anne standout who went on to pitch collegiately at Bryant College in Rhode Island was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 4th round of the MLB draft and the celebration was on in Washington County.  Few athletes with professional pedigree have come out Ft. Anne, in fact a Google search attemtping to find another yielded very little results.  According to a post by NewYorkUpstate.com, the most notable athlete from Washington County was a pitcher named Frank Mounain who played professionallly - ironically enough - for the Detroit Wolverines.

But that was a longgg time ago.  Mountain was born in 1860.  Tyler Mattison was born 139 years later.

The choice by the Tigers to select Mattison with their 4th round selection has conitnued a trend by the team to stockplie pitching; all four of their selections so far in the MLB draft has been pitchers.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Mattison posseses big league potential, but most scouts didn't have him regarded nearly as high as the Tigers did.

"There isn't a lot out there about Mattison, considering most evaluators weren't expecting him to get picked as soon as the fourth round. Baseball America points out his fastball sits between 92-95 mph and reached 97 mph, and this pitch has proven to sustain its velocity deep into his starts." Detroit Free Press