Category Archives: Minors

Minors

MiLB.com Top Prospect list

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The Tigers placed 2 players on the MiLB.com top prospect list. Cameron Maybin ranks 3rd overall behind Jay Bruce and Evan Longoria. Rick Porcello debuts at 14 which is impressive to say the least.

There are still a couple of prospect lists that still to come. John Sickels list should be coming in the next week or so, and Baseball America is still a ways away. Once they are all in (Tigstown and Baseball Prospectus have already completed their Tigers lists) I’ll aggregate the results into a consensus top 10 list.

As a side note, Gorkys Hernandez who is now with the Braves, just missed the list and checked in at 53. As for the rest of the AL Central, the Royals had 2 players on the list. But the Indians, White Sox and Twins combined to have 2 players in the top 50.

Minor League Baseball: News: Top Prospects

Minors, Players

Gushing reports on Porcello

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While the Tigers received bad news in the form of Casey Crosby’s Tommy John surgery, the news is ridiculously upbeat concerning Rick Porcello. Lynn Henning chats with Glenn Ezell (director of player development) and Jon Matlack (roving pitching instructor) and has all kinds of praise for the first rounder.

“I don’t know what he’ll pitch at, but he hit 97 (mph) numerous times and worked comfortably at 94-95,”

and…

“He has two quality breaking balls (overhand curveball and slider), which are occasionally above-average, and one of which I believe will become better than average.

“And he has a plus change-up,”

and…

“He can do things with his fastball: sink it, run it in, ride it. He is far, far advanced beyond just about anyone 18 years old I’ve ever worked with.”

Now keep in mind these are very early reports and are based solely on the instructional league. But it is far better than hearing that he sucks, or that is stuff is pretty good.

At the end Henning mentions that Porcello is likely to start the season at West Michigan, which was to be expected. But he also throws out the nugget that he could finish the year in Lakeland. Don’t know if that is speculation on Henning’s part, or if the Tigers will look to really challenge him – provided he fares okay for the Whitecaps

Contracts, Minors, Trade Rumors

GM Meeting Wrap

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More great stuff from Jon Paul Morosi in the Freep today as he catches up with Dave Dombrowski at the conclusion of the GM meetings.

The cliff notes are:

  • The Tigers made an offer to Kenny Rogers and are waiting on Scott Boras at this point
  • The Tigers have contacted agents of Mariano Rivera and Francisco Cordero
  • The Tigers contacted the Astros about Brad Lidge, but talks were never serious.
  • On the possibility of being close to making a deal Dombrowski said ““I don’t know. We’ll find out. We’ve had a lot of discussions.”
  • Dombrowski was talking up left handed outfielders Matt Joyce and Clete Thomas.  I don’t know if this is because the Tigers think Joyce/Thomas could help at some point this year, or if they are trying to downplay their interest in left handed hitting outfielders, or if they are trying to boost the stock of their own prospects for a trade.
  • Maybin is now healthy but won’t play the last week of the AFL season.

Dombrowski has inklings of deals but no inkings

One more thing

This doesn’t deserve a post because I know you the reader probably don’t really care, but this is just a quick follow up to the McCosky article. He hasn’t responded to email attempts to reach him (one sent Saturday, another sent Monday), nor has the Detroit News sports editor (an email was sent Monday). He also hasn’t identified which blogs were having a field day speculating. Those are the facts. I’m done with it now.

Front Office, Minors, Trade Rumors

The Tigers aren’t interested in A-Rod unless they are

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The Alex Rodriguez to Detroit rumors just won’t die. Going into the offseason I thought the Tigers chances would be similar to their playoff chances in September. Stuff had to fall their way, and it was a longshot, but that they were still in a better position than most teams. But since the end of the World Series, the rumors haven’t stopped.

I thought that the acquisition of Edgar Renteria would take care of that speculation. It didn’t even put a dent in it. Ken Rosenthal still thought it was a fit. Even if it meant bringing in the fences. Meanwhile Jayson Stark was saying that he saw Rodriguez ending up with the Mets or Tigers. Jon Heyman from SI.com lists the Tigers as one of 3 teams moving up in the A-Rod race.

So to squelch all this talk Dave Dombrowski flat out said:

“We don’t have any interest”

…

“We filled our spot when we acquired Renteria”

Still, that isn’t enough to dampen the A-Rod to Detroit enthusiasm. Buster Olney reports that other executives think that Boras could just negotiate directly with Mike Ilitch. But interestingly Jerry Crasnick spoke with 15 GM’s and none mentioned the Tigers as a potential destination for Rodriguez. Maybe the latter group of GM’s read the Business Week article about Ilitch from September when Ilitch said the Tigers weren’t ready to make the $30 million a year leap.

And 3 more A-Rod/Boras-y articles I couldn’t work into the above narrative:

Tigers lose 2

It looked like the Tigers were grooming their next manager in Matt Walbeck. He had 3 successful seasons and asked for and was granted a promotion to Erie last year. Now he’s the Texas Rangers 3rd base coach. Maybe this is just some MLB seasoning for the 2010 season? No replacement has been named but Tom Brookens, the Whitecaps manager in 2007, will be considered.

The Tigers also lost scout Greg Smith who will be scouting director in Pittsburgh.

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers have 3rd best draft in 2007

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While it is probably a little premature to rate any draft after only 4 months, this is especially true in baseball. In many cases drafted players haven’t played in a league type setting, or if they have the experience has been limited to short season ball. Still, Baseball America likes the early returns for the Detroit Tigers in this year’s amateur draft.

BA rated the Tigers as having the 3rd best draft behind the Nationals and Rangers. Detroit ranked ahead of the Giants and Yankees who rounded out the top 5.  The full article is premium content, so I’ll just hit the highlights.

The Tigers draftees received some individual accolades on a variety of top 5 lists including:

  • Danny Worth – 4th best defensive player
  • Rick Porcello – 2nd best fastball
  • Rick Porcello – 4th best secondary pitch
  • Colin Kaline & Cale Iorg – 3rd and 4th most intriguing backgrounds
  • Rick Porcello – 5th closest to the majors among high schoolers

There was also a draft all star team selected based on performance and level of play.  No Tigers made the team. 

In terms of early returns I’d have to say that Charlie Furbush (61 2/3 innings, 2.35 ERA, 69K, 14 BB at GCL and West Michigan) and Danny Worth (251/325/363 in High A ball) had the strongest debuts.  While Worth’s numbers weren’t dazzling, he gets extra credit because he debuted at such a high level for a new draftee.

Of course the strength of the Tigers draft was in the players who signed late and haven’t yet competed outside of the instructional league. In addition to Porcello, players like Casey Crosby, Iorg, and Matt Hoffman are who helped earn the Tigers such a high overall ranking. They are also the players who will hopefully make for an entertaining minor league season.

BaseballAmerica.com: Draft: 2007 Draft Report Cards Overview
2007 Tigers Draft – The Baseball Cube

Minors

News in a minor key

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A little bit of this and that on the guys who might be the next great Tigers…

International Signings

Baseball America lists all of the international free agent signings. The Tigers inked eight players from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. All of the players are 16. Who know, maybe one or more can be helping the 2014 Detroit Tigers.

Dominican Republic: RHP Yinio Calderon, 16; RHP Emmanuel Del Orbe, 16; SS Domingo Gonzalez, 16; RHP Carlos Melo, 16
Venezuela: OF Avisail Garcia, 16; IF Oscar Gomez, 16; 3B Francisco Martinez, 16; SS Hernan Perez, 16
BaseballAmerica.com: Prospects: Full List Of 2007 International Signings

Mike Hollimon

Mike Hollimon is a hard guy to peg as a prospect. He’s always been old for his league, but he’s always hit well. And this year he skipped hi A ball and succeeded at AA. Now he’s hitting well in the Arizona Fall League. And now, he’s been featured by Jon Paul Morosi. Without having full developed a Tigers top 10 prospect list, I know that Hollimon would rank somewhere in the 6-9 range for me. He’ll also be one of the players to watch during the spring to see if he can play his way onto the roster.
QUICK TURN: Tigers’ infield prospect Hollimon gets back on track

Arizona Fall League

Today’s Freep also had a feature the AFL in general. If you haven’t been keeping up with the daily updates from Take I-75 North, the Tigers haven’t had overwhelming results. Hollimon has been solid, and the good news from Cameron Maybin is that he’s only fanned 5 times in 31 at-bats. Larish has had the toughest go at only 3 for 25 with no extra base hits.

STAR SEARCH: Looking for the Tigers’ next hero? Check out the Arizona Fall League

Front Office, Minors, Trade Rumors

What are they talking about?

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Leyland and Dombrowski
Dave Dombrowski, Jim Leyland, and Chuck Hernandez took in some instructional league action today. Everybody is in Lakeland this week for organizational meetings so they could have been discussing anything.

Maybe they were talking about the way that the ball explodes out of Rick Porcello’s hand, or maybe the kid’s follow through.

Perhaps they were discussing how much David Eckstein would be worth if he left the St. Louis Cardinals. Would 2 years and $14 or $15 million be too much for a player with declining skills?

It could be they were thinking bigger and deciding if it is worth dealing with everything besides the money it would take to get Alex Rodriguez signed. That negotiation certainly wouldn’t be a picnic (thanks MetsBlog.com!). Would you want to deal with this?

‘All these things have to be part of the deal or there’s not a deal,’ including an office at the stadium for his marketing person, a luxury box where he could host people, and after the game people come down to the clubhouse and get things signed. That he had become so big he can’t fly commercially, so he’s going to need charter airfare. That he wanted to meet with ownership and go through the scouting reports in the organization, since he’s making a long-term commitment, of who is coming up in the farm system to know there’s a bright future to play with around him. He wanted to have a tent in spring training to sell A-Rod apparel. He wanted to know what the team marketing plan was going to be around him as he joined the team. I think that’s about everything.

Or maybe they were just talking about Cameron Maybin’s 2 homer night in the Arizona Fall League.

Really, it could be anything.

Minors

Striking down striking out

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One of the Detroit Tigers organizational goals for the year was to address strike outs throughout the system including the minors. So how did they do on this front in 2007?
Tigers Minor League Strikeout Rates
The organization saw improvement in strikeouts per at-bat through every level. The improvements weren’t huge, but they were most likely real. Whether or not it was due to an emphasis on coaching, or the maturation of players, or the composition of the teams would of course require a deeper dive. Because in large part the teams are made up of new members each year, a proper analysis would require looking at how each player did as they progressed. But I’m oging to stay with the quick and dirty for now and look at the big picture.

At the same time batting averages saw small to increases as more balls were put into play. Walk rates didn’t seem to suffer so the organization saw an increase in batting average. It does appear though that the Tigers minor leaguers sacrificed some power.

What’s particularly encouraging is the progress at the lower levels, which to me seems that there is an emphasis on contact skills in the draft.

Context is always helpful because it’s hard to know what constitutes good or bad rates. The table below shows how each team ranked in their leagues the last 2 years.
Tigers Minor League Organizational Rankings
The upper levels still strike out more than most teams, but the Oneonta and West Michigan teams, the teams comprised of players drafted in the last 2 years, are among the best in their leagues at not striking out.

2007 Season, Minors, Playoffs

Whitecaps win Midwest League Championship

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Congratulations to the West Michigan Whitecaps on their MWL Championship. The Caps won the rubber game in a best of 5 series 11-6 over the Beloit Snappers.

It was a night of big innings as West Michigan used an 8 run 5th inning to wipe out the Beloit 5 run 3rd inning.

Scott Sizemore and Michael Bertram each had 3 hits to lead the offensive attack.

Charlie Furbush was knocked out in that 3rd inning and Luis Marte came on in relief and threw 5 shutout innings allowing just 2 hits and no walks while fanning 9.

Congratulations to manager Tom Brookens and the rest of this year’s Whitecaps.

The Surge – Whitecaps Baseball: West Michigan Whitecaps – 2007 MWL Champions
Minor League Baseball: Scoreboard: Scoreboard

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/22/07

Indianpolis 4 Toledo 8
Brent Clevlen and Mike Hessman both homered and singled. Omar Infante was 2 for 4 with a walk. Jordan Tata had an excellent start allowing 1 run on 5 hits, 2 walks, and 8 K’s in 7 innings. Macay McBride was knocked around for 5 hits and 3 runs in 1 inning of work.

Akron 4 Erie 7
Clete Thomas was 2 for 5 with a homer. Jeff Larish had 2 hits and a walk. Jon Connolly started and allowed 2 runs on 7 hits a walk and no strike outs in 5 1/3 innings.

Sarasota 2 Lakeland 0
Justin Justice tripled and had 2 walks. Lucas French went 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs while fanning 6.

West Michigan 2 Great Lakes 9
Jordan Newton was 3 for 4. Brandon Timm had 2 hits. Jonah Nickerson was knocked around for 6 runs on 8 hits in 4 innings.

Oneonta 2 Brooklyn 4
Crhis Carlson was a triple short of the cycle. Sean Finefrock allowed 4 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings.

GCL Tigers 3 GCL Indians 2
Carlos Ramirez had a 4 hit day. Christopher White added 2 hits. Manny Miguelez allowed 1 unearned run on 5 hits in 7 innings. Richard Zumaya allowed an unearned run in an inning of work while fanning 2.

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/18/07

Columbus 6 Toledo 0
Joel Zumaya made his 3rd rehab start, and this one didn’t go as well. he walked 2, allowed 2 hits, and allowed 2 runs in an inning of work. He also made a throwing error on a pickoff play. He threw 30 pitches, 19 for strikes.

Erie 2 Altoona 1
Burke Badenhop had a nice AA debut allowing 2 hits and just 1 run on a solo homer in 7 innings. Jeff Larish tripled, for the only extra base hit for the Seawolves.

Erie 3 Altoona 0
Randor Bierd pitched 5 innings of no hit ball. Cory Hamman surrendered the lone hit the Wolves allowed in 2 innings. Mike Hollimon allowed 2 hits. Jeff Larish hit his 23th homer and drove in all 3 runs.

Fort Myers 2 Lakeland 5
Mark Haske, Max Leon, and Justin Justice all had 2 hit games. Kevin Ardoin pitched 2 2/3 innings allowing 2 unearned runs on 3 hits and 3 K’s. Josh Rainwater worked 3 innings allowing 1 hit and 1 walk while fanning 2.

West Michigan 2 Fort Wayne 1
Scott Sizemore doubled and Jeramy Laster picked up the only RBI. Matt O’Brien allowed 9 hits and 3 walks in 7 innings, but only 1 run crossed the plate.

Oneonta 14 Tri-City 1
Lots of highlights in this one as the O’Tigs racked up 20 hits. Justin Peter and Chris Carlson had 3 hits apiece. Cory Middleton was a triple short of the cycle. Sendy Vasquez allowed 1 run on 5 hits in 5 1/3 innings.

GCL Tigers 2 GCL Yankees 11
Hayden Parrot doubled and singled. Brandon Johnson allowed 5 runs, 2 of which were earned, in 3 1/3 innings. Richard Zumaya had a rough night allowing 3 hits, 2 walks, and 5 runs in 2 1/3 innings.