Pitched Battleground

PALMDALE —  Matt Harrington developed his 97-mph fastball growing up in a working-class neighborhood. Yet he is waving off a fortune as golden as his right arm.

As scouts jockeyed for position in rickety bleachers at high schools throughout the Antelope Valley last spring, Harrington stunned them by doing what he has always done best--grip the seams of a baseball and fire it.

Then the Palmdale High standout stunned the team that drafted him seventh overall in June, the Colorado Rockies, by eschewing a multimillion- dollar offer from a franchise desperate for pitching.

Somewhere between the innocence of high school and the billion-dollar world of professional baseball, Harrington grew up quickly, hearing the whispers of family members, friends and agents while listening to his heart.

Considered the best high school prospect in the draft, Harrington has demanded $4.9 million, a figure his representatives contend he was promised by the Rockies before the draft.

The Rockies have a $4-million signing bonus on the table, which would amount to the highest bonus ever paid a high school pitcher signed via the draft. But it might not be enough to keep Harrington from reentering the draft.

Harrington recently signed a contract with the St. Paul (Minn.) Saints, a team in the independent Northern League that has provided harbor for such players as Darryl Strawberry, Leon Durham and Jack Morris as they tried to resurrect derailed careers.

If signing with the Saints was a ploy to prod the Rockies into ponying up, it apparently failed.

Needing pitchers who can survive in hitter-friendly Coors Field, the Rockies doled out $172.5 million to free agents Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle in recent weeks, signaling that Harrington’s chances of getting what he wants are thinner than the mile-high air.

“There hasn’t been much good news in a long time,” Harrington said. “As a matter of fact, there hasn’t been any news. The holidays just ended and a lot of the winter meetings are over, so things could happen. But things might not happen. It’s crazy.

“Until I start playing again, it’s going to be crazy. There’s no possible way you can sit there and not be crazy about what’s going to happen. If something happens soon, you’re going to end all the stress there.”

Represented by Utah-based agent Tommy Tanzer, Harrington is the only unsigned player from the first round of the draft. He might stay that way.

“Ultimately, the ball is in their court,” Rockies scouting director Bill Schmidt told reporters in Denver. “We want Matt Harrington. We think he’s a great prospect. But what value do you put on him? He’s still [a former] high school pitcher.”

His rights are retained by the Rockies until a week before this year’s draft. If he remains unsigned, Harrington would reenter the draft in June, free to be scooped up by any team.

This year’s draft, however, will be full of talented pitchers, including Mark Prior of USC, who throws 97 mph, Josh Karp of UCLA and Mike Jones of Thunderbird High in Phoenix.

Harrington is risking not getting as sugar-sweet an offer as the Rockies have on the table now.

Many teams aware of Harrington’s demands steered clear of him in a dollar-driven draft last June, allowing him to slip to the Rockies at No. 7. The top pick, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez of Chula Vista Eastlake, received a $3-million signing bonus from the Florida Marlins.

Harrington, who has purchased an insurance policy believed to be worth several million dollars, has already passed up a scholarship offer from Arizona State.

He has tried to stay focused by working out and playing for Team USA in a World Cup qualifying tournament in Panama during Thanksgiving. But hiding the disappointment is tough.

“We’re frustrated, the Rockies have to be frustrated,” Harrington said. “The hardest thing is hearing from a lot of different people what they think I should do.

“There’s a lot of things that could happen. But there’s a lot of things that have to be healed and patched up. I don’t know if people are willing to do that anymore.”