Take 75 North archives

Apologies

mattintoledo — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:31:09 +0000

This is a temporary site, used to provide archives at the eventual location of Take 75 North. That site will ultimately be found at http://www.t75n.com. Thank you for your patience.

Following Tiger prospects as AFL kicks off

mattintoledo — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:27:47 +0000

The good news today for us prospect watchers is the Arizona Fall League started. The better news is it would appear the stadium where the Tigers’ reps are playing their home games, for the Peoria Javelinas, has been outfitted with the equipment necessary to track pitch f/x.

Why is this good news? Well, by the end of the season we should have a pretty thorough idea of what all four of the Tigers’ pitchers who are in the Arizona Fall League throw. Four pitchers? Yes. In addition to Robbie Weinhardt, Andy Oliver and Thad Weber, the Tigers decided to send Scot Drucker.

I’m not sure of the reasoning. The 27-year old minor league vet wouldn’t be considered a prospect by most, but he’s there. In fact, he started the team’s first game. That actually reminds me of another bit of good news. Peoria’s manager is the Tigers’ own Kevin Bradshaw. Today, at least, that meant much representation for the Tigers.

Scott Sizemore started at second. Cale Iorg started at short. Casper Wells started in right. On the mound, there was Drucker for the first two innings and he was followed by Oliver for one and Weinhardt threw 1 2/3 innings later in the game.

That’s about where the good news ends in this one, as the Javelinas were pasted 17-4 and the Tigers’ pitchers played a big part in giving up those runs. Drucker made it out of his two innings in decent shape. He gave up the first run on a walk, a couple productive outs and a single.

The wheels came off a bit when Oliver entered the game. After a leadoff single, he walked the bases loaded before giving up a grand slam on a 3-1 fastball. Thankfully, he settled down after the granny, retiring the final three batters he faced.

Robbie Weinhardt came in with two outs in the fifth and struck out the first batter he faced. Great, right? It was until the sixth. That inning, he gave up a leadoff double and after fly ball to right moved the runner up, he gave up three consecutive singles. After his Tiger brethren got him out of the inning with a double play, he went back out to start the seventh.

This inning started no better. A walk and a single put runners at the corners and a wild pitch had both in scoring position. After a double plated them both, Weinhardt struck out the next batter before plunking the last guy he would face. It was a 1-2 slider, so I doubt words were exchanged.

When this one wrapped up, Tiger pitchers had allowed 10 of the 17 runs while accounting for just 4 2/3 innings. At least we have the benefit of Pitch f/x, so we can at least take comfort in knowing we learned something about these three.

Scot Drucker throws a two- and four-seam fastball that don’t look a whole lot different from one another where Pitch f/x is concerned. The two pitches accounted for three-fourths of his pitch count, though, and sat right around 90 mph. The algorithm also had him throwing a slider, a big, loopy curve and a changeup.

Andy Oliver was much simpler. He really struggled to hit the strike zone with his slider and that meant he had to try to get it over with his fastball, which was usually 93 but ranged between 91 and 94. He hasn’t pitched in a long time, so we’ll have to watch to see if he calms down, evens out and finds some control.

Finally, you had Weinhardt. He threw a ton of low 90s fastballs in the fifth and sixth innings, but turned to more offspeed stuff in the seventh. Pitch f/x saw a changeup, a curve and a slider but I’d be a little surprised if he’s throwing four different pitches. I expect to chart the pitches when I have more time to see how things shake out.

The batters had a little easier go at it in the first game. Scott Sizemore was 0 for 4 with a strikeout and three ground outs, but I was encouraged that the grounds went to the right side of the infield, then up the middle and finally to the left. Those will fall for hits in time.

Casper Wells batted seventh and was 2 for 3 with a sac fly. He singled up the middle in his first at bat, struck out in the second, flew out to center for the sac fly and wrapped up with a double to center. He went up the middle each time he put the ball in play.

Last but not least, there was Cale Iorg. He was 1 for 3 with a single (to the pitcher), a ground out and a strikeout. As far as I can tell, the defense was fine for the Tiger reps. Casper Wells had a lot of extra base hit action in the seventh, but it’s impossible to know if he could have done anything about them. Surprise had 21 hits but most of them were in the air and there were a lot of line drives.

Overall, it wasn’t a great start to the season, but it’s exciting to know the level of detail we’ll be able to see for at least the home games.

What did the Tigers get from the 2009 draft?

mattintoledo — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:36:09 +0000

Sitting at the computer, trying to think of how I wanted to attack recapping the season, I realized I haven’t really taken a look at the players the Tigers took in the 2009 draft. This was a relief because to be honest, I’m not really sure how I want to look back at this past season. It seems like every grouping idea I come up (by team, by position) with has its shortcomings.

That’s a problem for another day, though. Today, I’m going to start digging into the players added to the system via the draft and their first seasons as pros. Let’s start by taking a wide-angle look at what the Tigers did in the 2009 draft.

Most people are aware that they went back to a strategy that worked pretty well in their 2007 draft. They went way over slot recommendations to get the guys they hoped would most help the system. Jacob Turner, Andrew Oliver, Daniel Fields and James Robbins were all given bonuses out of line with the position of their draft picks.

They have famously used this approach to infuse the organization with elite arms such as Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello, and we can only hope they have continued success in Turner and Oliver. They haven’t gone over slot too often with position players, though.

Cale Iorg is a pretty well known exception and the Tigers are having to exercise patience in the hopes that one will turn out alright. That makes Fields and Robbins intriguing players to watch for next year, especially as high school players. Tiger fans could really use some assurance that their organization can take a young player and help him become a major league asset.

We shouldn’t focus too much on those four, though. There are just a small percentage of the players snatched up to boost the depth of the system. Of course, those four make up a much larger percentage of the players actually signed than they usually would.

Of the fifty players selected, the Tigers only signed twenty-five. Baseball America’s draft archives go back to 1999 and 25 players signed is the fewest over that period. Part of that could be all the money they dished out to those big four picks discussed above. Part of it could be the fact that they seem to be stocking the system with more and more imports from the Dominican and Venezuela. It’ll be interesting to see if fewer signings is a trend or simply a result of what the players they had before them in this draft.

That’s enough of a look at the draft class as a whole. Let’s get down to the individual players. Of the 25 players signed, we know three (Turner, Oliver and Fields) didn’t play at all so we’ll ignore them from this point forward since this post is about how draftees did in their first taste of pro ball.

That leaves 22 players, 9 of whom are pitchers and 13 are position players. Since we’re already about 500 words in, I’ll cover the pitchers first. We’ll get to the position players in a second post. (Ages are as of 4/1/10)

Austin Wood, 5th round, LHP, 23, 6’2″, 195 lbs

Lvl	TBF	IP	H	HR	K	BB	BABIP	FIP	GB%
Rk	6	1.0	2	0	1	0	.524	4.20	—
A+	18	5.0	4	0	4	0	.284	1.60	57

I probably could have ignored Wood, too, since he got in just a little more than a week’s worth of work. There’s a strong likelihood the light workload has something to do with his famously throwing 169 pitches and 13 innings in one game for the Texas Longhorns in the College World Series.

We can’t take much from his tiny sample of pro pitching, but he was a reliever with Texas and BA projects him as staying in that role as a pro. They also say he’s a strike-thrower who relies mostly on his fastball (good movement and stays at about 89-91 mph) and a good changeup.

Adam Wilk, 11th round, LHP, 22, 6’2″, 175 lbs

Lvl	TBF	IP	H	HR	K	BB	BABIP	FIP	GB%
A-	140	37.1	23	0	34	5	.244	1.86	44
A	138	36.1	30	2	33	2	.287	2.35	44

Wilk’s numbers are the kind that immediately force people to ask what kind of stuff he uses to achieve them. After all, a kid right out of college putting up a K-to-BB ratio of 16.5:1 in the Midwest League tends to catch your eye. At the same time, seasoned prospect watchers know West Michigan has a rich tradition of making soft-tossing lefties with good control look much better than they ever will again.

So what’s Wilk’s story? A friend of mine let me know he was heading out to a Caps game against Great Lakes. After I found out Wilk had been the starter, I asked what I suspected all my readers wanted to know. What’s his stuff like? The answer explained why he wasn’t profiled by BA and why he wasn’t generating a lot of buzz with his results. The Great Lakes gun had him working at 86 and 87 with his fastball.

I’ve heard nothing to contradict that report and since then, I’ve taken a “talk to me after 2010″ approach to this lefty. It’s just so difficult for a pitcher with that little velocity on his fastball to cut it. Who knows, though? Maybe he can add an mph or two and make better use of what must be a very good approach on the mound. It’s possible. Most adult men who are 6’2″ aren’t filled out at 175 pounds.

Kevan Hess, 14th round, RHP, 22, 6’2″, 190 lbs

Lvl	TBF	IP	H	HR	K	BB	BABIP	FIP	GB%
A-	203	44.0	50	0	35	19	.360	2.97	50

Hess has barely pitched in his baseball career, but when he has he has shown a fastball that can touch 95 mph. With that resume, it wasn’t too surprising to see him struggle with walks. I am impressed, however, by what would appear to be an ability to keep the ball down.

Half the balls in play against him were on the ground. Nobody took him deep and only 13 of the 50 hits he allowed went for extra bases. If he keeps that up, he should eventually be able to coax a better BABIP from the fielders behind him.

Kenny Faulk, 16th round, LHP, 22, 6’0″, 210 lbs

Lvl	TBF	IP	H	HR	K	BB	BABIP	FIP	GB%
A-	123	28.2	22	3	28	15	.264	4.28	33

This college senior is another lefty reliever, with what sounds like a pretty typical profile. According to BA, he works around 89 or 90 with his fastball, uses it to pound the strike zone and doesn’t have a great breaking ball to go with it. The Tigers must have seen something in him because he was the closest thing Oneonta had to a closer.

One thing that wasn’t typical about him is he seems much more comfortable working against right-handed batters. They hit just .169 with just a 0.89 ERA against him while lefties touched him for a .303 average and an ERA of 7.56. A small sampling could be the culprit there, but that’s a pretty stark contrast and I’d imagine the Tigers will see what they can do to help him figure out lefties.

Nate Newman, 17th round, RHP, 23, 6’5″, 210 lbs

Lvl	TBF	IP	H	HR	K	BB	BABIP	FIP	GB%
A-	184	42.1	35	0	34	20	.291	3.29	66

Newman is another guy who I couldn’t dig up a scouting report on. Judging by where he was taken and the results he saw in Oneonta, I’d imagine it involves an average fastball that either stays down in the zone, has good sink or both. The ground ball rate also suggests any breaking pitch would be a slider rather than a curveball.

That’s just speculation, though. I can say that if it weren’t for Newman’s ground ball rate, there wouldn’t have been much about him that would have caught my eye.

Giovany Soto, 21st round, LHP, 18, 6’4″, 150 lbs

Lvl	TBF	IP	H	HR	K	BB	BABIP	FIP	GB%
Rk	180	45.2	33	0	37	20	.264	2.89	54

Okay, can that weight possibly be accurate? If it is this kid will probably need a good 30 or 40 pounds to fill out his frame and even that would leave him pretty lean. At any rate, the Tigers picked him out of Puerto Rico and as you can see, his results in the GCL were promising.

I have to admit, though, that I have nothing on how he did it or whether he has good stuff. Whatever stuff he possesses, I can’t imagine it will be hurt when he fills out enough to be considered three dimensional.

Every time I look back on these later round pitchers it reminds me I need to work harder to make inroads with some people in the organization. I just don’t know anything about these guys other than their roles and the info you’ll see below. For that reason, I’ll show their profiles and stats without comment.

Cory Hamilton, 23rd round, RHP, 21, 6’1″, 195 lbs

Lvl	TBF	IP	H	HR	K	BB	BABIP	FIP	GB%
A-	200	44.2	47	1	32	20	.329	3.47	52

Wade Kapteyn, 24th round, RHP, 22, 6’5″, 210 lbs

Lvl	TBF	IP	H	HR	K	BB	BABIP	FIP	GB%
A-	175	34.2	46	3	16	21	.345	5.31	50

Mike Morrison, 29th round, RHP, 22, 6’1″, 210 lbs

Lvl	TBF	IP	H	HR	K	BB	BABIP	FIP	GB%
A-	86	19.1	16	0	26	10	.359	2.68	47

Tigers will strive to help prospects with plate discipline

mattintoledo — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:22:09 +0000

In his press conference that wasn’t a press conference on Thursday, Dave Dombrowski is reported to have said there is going to be a system-wide effort to improve plate discipline with the batters.

You don’t have to look too hard through the system to understand why he feels such an effort is necessary. I perused each of the domestic teams and time after time you find players who are said to be very talented and promising who – going by the stats – struggle with their plate discipline.

Now, I know walks and strikeouts aren’t necessarily the perfect measure of plate discipline. Players could be struggling with breaking balls. Perhaps there is a lack of understanding of the strike zone rather than a willful stubbornness leading to expanding it.

Regardless of the diagnosis, the symptoms are there. Here were some of the players who stood out. Each is either a player we’ve heard being described as having a load of talent, being close to helping at the big league level or just really, really in need of the imminent memo. I’ll let you figure out who falls into what group(s).

Player	2009 Lvl	PA	K%	BB%	K/BB
Brennan Boesch	AA	571	22.2	5.8	3.8
Audy Ciriaco	A+/AAA	496	18.8	4.2	4.4
Brent Clevlen	AAA	531	26.2	7.9	3.3
Brent Dlugach	AAA	517	26.5	7.5	3.5
Alexis Espinoza	A-	248	25.8	5.6	4.6
Avisail Garcia	A/A+	323	22.2	2.5	9.0
Francisco Martinez	Rk/A+	186	22.0	2.7	8.2
Cale Iorg	AA	532	28.0	6.0	4.7
Jordan Newton	A/A+	338	26.3	5.3	4.9
Luis Palacios	A-/A	262	24.8	2.7	9.3
Luis Salas	A	290	33.1	3.8	8.7
Wilkin Ramirez	AAA	481	29.7	8.5	3.5

You might notice the ratios drop as the level of player gets higher. My theory on that is players simply don’t make it to Double A or Triple A if they are striking out five times more often than they walk.

In fact, if you sort major league hitters who qualified for the batting title by OPS, do you know how far down you have to go before you hit somebody who struck out three times more than they walked? You have to go 76 players deep and stop at Marlon Byrd, who struck out 98 times and walked 32.

Of the 154 batters who qualified for their league’s batting title, only 10 crossed this threshold. Those aren’t real good odds and we’re talking about major league hitters and a ratio of just 3:1.

The list of players above represents a healthy percentage of the position players the Tigers are looking to for future big league help. Is it any wonder the message from the mountaintop is going to be to learn the strike zone and to use it to your advantage?

No Top Prospects in FSL for Tigers

mattintoledo — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:55:53 +0000

Baseball America marched on through the Florida State League in their League Top 20 series, and to nobody’s surprise they didn’t name any Tigers as top prospects. Some good Tiger fan did sneak in the standard “any Tigers?” question for the chat (sub. req’d) about the league’s prospects.

J.J. Cooper, who assembled the list and ran the chat, singled out Robbie Weinhardt. He liked both Weinhardt’s fastball and slider. That sounds to me like a pretty standard repertoire for an up-and-coming reliever, and it caused me to look up his numbers again.

I’m glad to hear Weinhardt is catching attention, but I was already familiar with what he threw and figured his promotion to Erie and selection for the AFL were plenty of affirmation of his potential. I was hoping somebody would slip in a more directed question somebody else’s way.

I wouldn’t have objected to hearing what other teams are saying about Audy Ciriaco or Lester Oliveros, for example. I’d imagine it’s similar to what the Tigers have said in the past – they’re both talented, but need work – but I always like to hear it from other organizations’ mouths.

Site News

Now that the Tigers’ season is over and people are soon going to wonder who might help them in 2010, I’m going to begin my usual offseason process. Thinking in broad strokes, I’ll probably cover what happened in 2009 in terms of individual players and gradually progress into thinking about 2010. There’s not much point in doing the latter until some roster decisions start rolling through. I’m always open to other ideas, though, so shoot me a message if there’s anything you’d particularly like to see.

Note: If your appetite for articles about roster decisions is already stoked, quite frankly, you probably have a problem. Just like me. That’s why I already posted an article about what they should do with Brandon Lyon here.

Getting back to talking about the Tigers’ minor leagues

mattintoledo — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:06:08 +0000

Okay, Tiger fans, we have two days to worry about the Tigers’ chances in the Metrodome. How about if we divert our attentions down to the minor leagues momentarily?

Awards

There hasn’t been a lot of activity since I last posted, but there has been some. I guess I’ll start by saying I correctly guessed the Tigers’ Minor League Pitcher and Player of the Year. Again, I thought Scott Sizemore and Casey Crosby were pretty easy choices but when you are as out of sync with the organization as I sometimes seem to be, you take the little victories.

Arizona Fall League

The most interesting thing on the minor league horizon is the Arizona Fall League. The last time I talked about this, it was because the Tigers had announced Cody Satterwhite, Thad Weber and Robbie Weinhardt would be heading to Arizona as the Tigers’ pitching representatives and Cale Iorg, Scott Sizemore and Ryan Strieby would be their position players.

You may remember Satterwhite and Strieby both dealt with some injury problems during the season. Rather than risk complicating those problems the Tigers have subbed in 2009 second round pick, Andrew Oliver, and outfielder Casper Wells.

It’s a little disappointing to see Wells go since we’ve already seen him excel in the league once (he hit .321/.424/.705 in 78 at bats last year). That makes the results a little anti-climatic since Sizemore has been there before, too (he did very well in 2007). It will be fun, however, to see all Tigers up the middle if they ever go with Sizemore at second, Iorg at short and Wells in center.

As for Oliver, I assume we are getting a glimpse of how highly the Tigers view his abilities. You generally have to get permission to send Hi A players to the Arizona Fall League, so it would seem like nearly a given that Oliver will start next season no lower than Lakeland.

It would, after all, be pretty bizarre to challenge him with this assignment and then reign him back in to the Midwest League. I haven’t thought too much about 2010 assignments, but I know Crosby is hoping to get bumped up to Erie. Wouldn’t it be fun if Crosby was in Erie, Oliver in Lakeland and Turner was in West Michigan next year? Regardless of assignments, next season is going to be a very interesting one as the Tigers try to develop their next wave of starting pitchers.

I think that gets us up to speed on the important developments in the minors. I’ve had my break so you can expect a posting schedule closer to what you’ve come to expect over the next couple years. The Arizona Fall League starts next Tuesday, so that will be one easy subject until the Tigers’ season ends and we can start digging in to the usual offseason schedule of posts.

Tiger Bloggers

If that’s not enough for you, maybe you missed a few fantastic posts by some friends of this site. Mark Anderson of Tigstown.com did a post to calm all the Cale Iorg skeptics out there. Bill Ferris of DetroitTigersWeblog.com interviewed a couple of 2009 draftees, James Robbins and Adam Wilk.

Prospect Rankings

Still not satisfied? Well Baseball America is continuing their series in which they look at the top prospects from each of the minor leagues. The Tigers were shut out of the NY-Penn league, but Casey Crosby checked in at number six (second ranked pitcher) in the Midwest League. According to the chat, he was considered pretty much interchangeable with the top ranked pitcher (number five overall) Mike Montgomery. Getting back to the NY-Penn, Luis Sanz was mentioned in the chat as a possible Top 30 prospect for the Tigers.

Until next time, let’s hope the Tigers can close that cursed Metrodome with a visiting team dogpile on the pitchers’ mound.

BA starts League Top 20s in GCL; Tigers have one on list

mattintoledo — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:25:13 +0000

Baseball America started their series of looking at the Top 20 prospects in each of the minor leagues with the Gulf Coast League. The Tigers had one representative in the form of Melvin Mercedes, an 18-year old relief pitcher from the Dominican Republic.

Mercedes served as the team’s closer, with 25 of his 26 appearances finishing out the game and him earning 16 saves. Saves aren’t a good stat for measuring performance at the major league level, though. They certainly don’t tell you anything about this kid in the GCL.

Even the useful stats (24.2 IP, 19 H, 14 BB, 20 K, 0 HR) only tell us little about a player at this level. It’s problem just as good a sign for him that he’s getting the high leverage innings. Baseball America has him throwing a fastball in the low 90s with a slider that has a lot of potential. Let’s hope we hear a lot more about this lanky (6’3″, 190) right-handed Dominican and are some day groaning at lame puns about his last name.

In the chat they did about the list, there were no other Tigers mentioned. Not the typical “Any other Tigers come close?” question. I thought somebody might sneak in a James Robbins question because he would have started too late to get on BA’s list.

Last note: You may have heard my guesses for the Tigers’ Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year were correct. They were Scott Sizemore and Casey Crosby. Woo hoo. That’s two years in a row I got both right. Of course, it’s been pretty easy both years.

Taking stock of the Tigers’ top prospects in 2009

mattintoledo — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:29:44 +0000

With the minor league regular season being over, you’re going to hear a lot of talk in the offseason about the Tigers’ system being shallow and relatively weak. I agree with that idea to a point. There isn’t a lot of blue chip talent and most agree Jacob Turner, Andy Oliver and Daniel Fields are all immediately among the system’s ten best prospects.

That may be but I also think another story needs to be told. The Tigers’ system actually performed pretty well this season in my opinion.

It gave them a starting pitcher in Rick Porcello who has stuck the entire season and now seems to be pitching himself into the playoff rotation, if you’ll allow me to be optimistic in the middle of the Tigers’ losing streak. It’s true that may be just as much because everybody else is pitching themselves out of that rotation, but when your 20-year old prospect does what Porcello has done you don’t complain.

Similarly, Ryan Perry has filled a spot in the bullpen for most of the season. Early season struggles earned him a stint in Toledo, but he put in his time down there and came back ready to help the team. He seems to be struggling lately, but again, he’s helped the big league club and that’s a success story for most prospects.

Those are two first round picks, though. What happens when we dig deeper into the system? To answer that, I’d like to take a brief look at every player in the system who appeared on either Baseball America’s, Baseball Prospectus’s or John Sickels’ prospect lists for the Tigers. These are going to be brief because there’s too many to go in to depth in one post. More substantial reviews should be coming over the course of the offseason.

First, the pitchers:

Casey Crosby – The Tiger prospect who had the best season, became their best pitching prospect, may have been the best pitching prospect in the Midwest League and is going to earn their Pitcher of the Year award.

Cody Satterwhite – One the Tigers’ better relief prospects, he continued to tally strikeouts but had some control problems. Nothing too concerning, though, as long as late season arm issues turn out to be minor.

Guillermo Moscoso – He was traded for Gerald Laird, so he’s already paid off more for the Tigers than most of their prospects will.

Zach Simons – He moved up to Erie this year and pitched better there than he did last season in Lakeland. I’d look for him to be on the Toledo/Detroit shuttle next season.

Brett Jacobson - He was perhaps a bit disappointing in Lakeland before being traded to Baltimore for the rental of Aubrey Huff. He had a good walk rate but not a lot of strikeouts and was prone to long balls.

Scott Green – Green was having a decent season – a victim of poor BABIP luck – before what I was told was a shoulder injury took him down after his last appearance on July 22.

Rudy Darrow - He was traded to Atlanta for Josh Anderson.

Casey Fien – He had a very good season in Toledo, but as a fly ball pitcher he’s going to need to figure out how to keep the ball in the yard. He has little left to prove in the minors.

Chris Lambert - He pitched well for Toledo but was absolutely bombed when called on by Detroit. They removed him from the 40-man and he was snatched up by Baltimore. My opinion is he’s better than what we saw in Detroit, but the Tigers didn’t lose much when he was claimed.

Luis Marte – He had another season where he seemed to break down at around 100 innings. His strikeout and walk numbers were encouraging, but he started giving up a ton of homers. If that ceiling on innings doesn’t change, he’d be another likely relief candidate.

Robbie Weinhardt - The surprise success of 2008 stayed in Lakeland and remained dominant to start 2009. Just when you had to wonder when he was ever going to get promoted to Erie, it happened. He didn’t dominate in the Eastern League like he did in the FSL – walks became a problem – but he earned an assignment to the Arizona Fall League.

Brandon Hamilton – He came into the year hoping to build on the success he had in the Gulf Coast League late in 2008. He didn’t succeed in doing so. The season was a disaster just about from start to finish and he ended it in the Whitecap bullpen.

Admittedly, there is a definite shortage of impact talent in this group. Go through the list again, though. Nearly every one of these players either took a step forward or stayed flat performance-wise despite moving up a level.

That doesn’t even take into consideration guys like Mauricio Robles, Luke French or Alfredo Figaro. The level of talent may leave us wanting, but it’s almost undeniable that progress was made with the pitching in the system this season. That’s before taking into consideration talent added through the draft.

Now, the position players:

Cale Iorg – He continues to receive rave reviews on his defense, but still hasn’t found a groove with the bat. Erie was an aggressive assignment, though, and I’m still willing to be patient with his progress.

Jeff Larish – Larish entered the season as potential help off the bench for the Tigers, but didn’t impress in limited chances. He was then sent down and put up underwhelming numbers before a wrist injury that ended his season (and hopefully suppressed his numbers) was revealed.

Wilkin Ramirez – Ramirez’s 2009 numbers may look disappointing compared to last year, but it was almost identical to his 2008 except for luck on balls in play. Since he held steady after a promotion, that’s a good sign.

Scott Sizemore – If it weren’t for Alex Avila, everybody would be talking more about the season Sizemore had. He showed he was healthy and may have shown he’s a viable candidate for second baseman of the future.

Dusty Ryan – He lost out on a big league job early, but was eventually called up. Somebody on the Tigers isn’t too comfortable with him having a significant role on the team, though. He seems likely to either be shipped out or set for a reserve role.

Ryan Strieby - Continued wrist problems are concerning, but he continued to mash when he was healthy. I mean really mash, too. He torched Eastern League pitchers and I still see him as a possible option to step in for Thames if the Tigers don’t relish paying Thames in his third year of arbitration.

Casper Wells - He fought some injuries this season, but showed good power and patience. He needs to improve on his contact rate, but as a solid defender with the previously described skills he could be valuable in the Tiger outfield soon.

Alex Avila - The crowning achievement of the Tigers’ development team this season. He handled and aggressive assignment beautifully and has come up big after a surprise promotion.

Will Rhymes - He relies on a good batting average and that didn’t happen this season. He’s one of many potential utility infielders in the system, and it’s difficult to imagine him standing out among them.

This group is a lot like the pitchers in that there isn’t a lot of talent the Tigers can hang their hat on as a future star. There were more steps forward than backward, and not a disaster in the bunch.

A lot of these guys will be able to fill bench roles that can keep the Tiger from entering free agency for reserves. That may save money and may be the difference between settling for a low-risk, low-cost veteran and getting the player they set their sights on during the offseason.

A good farm system doesn’t just provide starters when current big leaguers get too old, expensive or ineffective. It also gives a team depth in the event of injuries to established players. Having players who can do the former is nice, but the latter is valuable as well.

I don’t know how the Tigers really feel about these players. Maybe they aren’t comfortable handing big league roles to more than two or three of them. They should feel good, however, knowing the system as a whole seems to have taken another step forward in 2009.

Guessing at Tigers’ Minor League POYs

mattintoledo — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:20:54 +0000

I expect the Tigers to name their Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year soon. In my mind, the Pitcher of the Year is a slam dunk for Casey Crosby. He had a dominant season that saw him do well whether you go with traditional stats or dig deeper into the stats we use to determine whether a player has potential. The traditional stats are what win players these awards, though, and a 10-4 record with a 2.41 ERA should be enough to get him the award. Throw in 117 strikeouts in 104.2 innings and an opponent’s batting average of just .195 and you write this one in ink.

I think the Player of the Year award comes down to two players – Alex Avila and Scott Sizemore. Yes, Don Kelly hit .331 and stole 27 bases and Brennan Boesch clubbed 28 home runs. Ryan Strieby also had a great season but it was limited due to injury and he won the award last year. Down in West Michigan you had Billy Nowlin and Gustavo Nunez turning in good seasons but the run environment leaves there leaves their overall stats looking kind of ho-hum in comparison.

Those players probably all deserve mention – and I’ll give each plenty later this offseason – but I can’t imagine this isn’t a two horse race. Alex Avila was drafted last season and given a bit of an aggressive assignment when the Tigers sent him to West Michigan. He more than held his own but there were some concerns about him not hitting for a lot of power.

In 2009, he earned another surprising assignment when the Tigers made him the starting catcher for the Erie SeaWolves. This was a nice challenge for the relatively inexperienced catcher – he only moved behind the plate in his final season at Alabama – and he responded wonderfully. In 329 at bats (387 plate appearances), he hit .264/.365/.450 with 12 home runs and had 36 of his 87 hits go for extra bases.

He had some contact problems in tallying 77 strikeouts, but also showed pretty good knowledge of the strike zone while notching 52 walks. These would be good numbers for any 22-year old in Double A ball, but they were eye-opening for a catcher. His ability at the plate and progress behind it earned him a shocking promotion to Detroit in early August that had many of us wondering if the Tigers had grown desperate in their search for an offensive spark.

He has put up good numbers since getting the call, though, and ironically that could work against him in the Player of the Year considerations. The promotion leaves him with incomplete minor league numbers and I wonder if his success will leave decision-makers thinking of him as more of a major leaguer.

That would be good news for Scott Sizemore, but Sizemore doesn’t need a quirk of perception in order to be a strong candidate for the award. Coming into 2009, he had lost some luster after a disappointing 2008 campaign in Lakeland was ended by a wrist injury. He needed to prove he had recovered from the injury and re-establish himself as the Tigers’ best second base prospect.

He did both to an extent that probably surprised just about everyone. He started the season in Erie and tore up Eastern League pitchers to the tune of .307/.402/.535 with nine homers, 30 extra base hits, 35 walks and 46 strikeouts in 228 at bats (269 plate appearances). He was clearly back and the Tigers decided to challenge him with a promotion to Toledo. He spent the rest of the season with the Mud Hens and his numbers didn’t dip too much after the promotion. In T-Town, he hit .308/.378/.473 with 8 more homers, 31 extra base hits, 29 walks and 49 strikeouts. He also stole 14 bases in 15 tries.

That gave him a 2009 total line of .308/.384/.500 with 17 homers, 61 extra base hits, 64 walks, 90 strikeouts and 21 stolen bases in 25 attempts. It’s pretty clear that is better offensive production than what Avila put up in Erie, but it’s a lot closer when you consider what Avila has done with the Tigers.

This is, however, a minor league award and I think that will end up tipping the scale in Sizemore’s favor. He played a full season in the minors and put up great numbers that showed well-rounded talent. I have a feeling the people in charge of giving out this honor probably think Avila has already received his reward for a great 2009 season. That reward, big league playing time, is one Sizemore will be gunning for next season.

Tigers’ Farm Weekly Recap – 8/31 through 9/7

mattintoledo — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 11:52:39 +0000

Sorry for dragging my feet on this week’s recap, but there isn’t as much urgency when it’s the last week of the regular season.

Toledo (73-70, 2nd place, 11.5 GB)

August 31, Toledo 3, Indianapolis 2

September 1, Toledo 0, Indianapolis 3

September 2, Toledo 2, Indianapolis 1

September 3, Columbus 2, Toledo 4

September 4, Columbus 12, Toledo 11

September 5, Toledo 4, Columbus 3

September 6, Toledo 2, Columbus 7

September 7, Toledo 3, Columbus 0

Record from 8/31 through 9/7: 5-3 The Hens finished the season strong, and it’s impressive that they made a playoff push seem at least possible.

Notes: Will Rhymes was 3 for 4 with a triple on 9/7. Don Kelly was 7 for 19 with a couple doubles before being called up. Mike Hessman hit two home runs in the final week (perhaps of his Mud Hen career?) and played all nine positions on 9/4. Jeff Frazier closed a strong season by going 13 for 32 with two doubles. Brent Clevlen homered and drew four walks on 9/4. Audy Ciriaco was called up to fill in but had just four singles. Keith Hernandez was called up, too, and went 3 for 5 with two doubles on 9/4. Mike Gosse came up for four games and had a hit in everyone, going 5 for 16 with a homer. Mike Rockett was another late fill-in for the Hens. Lester Oliveros earned a late callup and struck out 3 in 2 innings. Ruddy Lugo earned a win after throwing 7 innings and striking out 6 while giving up 2 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks. Freddy Dolsi had a nice week, going out 3 times for 3 saves and giving up just a hit and a walk in 5 innings while picking up a couple Ks.

Player of the Week: Scott Sizemore, 11 for 32 (.344), 2 2b, HR, 6 R, 5 RBI, BB, 3 K, 1/1 SB. Sizemore finished with five multi-hit games in the week’s final season, and ended up with a .308 batting average on the season.

Pitcher of the Week: Ryan Ketchner, 2-0, 0.00, 16 IP, 11 H, 2 BB, 6 K. Ketchner didn’t have the best start of the week, but gets the POW nod for picking up two wins with two very good starts while filling a spot for the Hens.

Erie (71-70, 4th place, 17.5 GB)

August 31, Erie 7, Harrisburg 8

September 1, Erie 3, Harrisburg 2

September 2, Erie 5, Harrisburg 1

September 3, Erie 3, Harrisburg 4

September 4, Erie 1, Akron 5

September 5, Erie 4, Akron 5

September 6, Erie 3, Akron 4

September 7, Erie 3, Akron 9

Record from 8/31 through 9/7: 2-6 What was supposed to be a playoff push resulted in a playoff fade that left the last couple games as meaningless.

Notes: Brennan Boesch finished like gangbusters, going 10 for 34 with 2 doubles and 2 homers and 10 Ks. Casper Wells had two 3-hit games and homered in each of them. He was a double shy of the cycle on 9/2. Mike Bertram was 3 for 5 with a homer on 9/6 and also homered on 9/5. Danny Worth finished strong, going 11 for 28 with a couple doubles. Alfredo Figaro came back in time to make 2 appearances, getting a win and a loss as he gave up 6 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings while striking out 4. He wasn’t lights out but it was good to see Luis Marte pick up some Erie innings for the first time since late July. He struck out 3 in 3 innings, but also gave up 3 hits, 2 walks and a couple runs. Jon Kibler finished up with a nice start, going 6 innings, striking out 5 while giving up 6 hits, a walk and 3 runs.

Player of the Week: Santo De Leon, 9 for 29 (.310), 2b, 2 HR, 7 K. He’s not going to be taken for a prospect, but it was a good week for the third baseman.

Pitcher of the Week: L.J. Gagnier, 1-0, 2.03, 13.1 IP, 12 H, 3 BB, 11 K. Gagnier got the late callup and made the most of it, earning one of the team’s wins in this span and pitching well enough to give the team a chance in the other.

Lakeland (26-39, Last place, 20.5 GB)

August 31, Day off.

September 1, Suspended due to rain

September 2, Game 1, Daytona 2, Lakeland 3

September 2, Game 2, Postponed by rain

September 3, Game 1, Daytona 3, Lakeland 4

September 3, Game 2, Daytona 10, Lakeland 7

September 4, Dunedin 9, Lakeland 2

September 5, Dunedin 1, Lakeland 4

September 6, Dunedin 8, Lakeland 1

September 7, Season Over

Record from 8/31 through 9/7: 3-2

Notes: Hernan Perez was 2 for 3 with a triple on 9/5. Francisco Martinez was called up for the final week and went 3 for 18. Luis Grullon was called up as well and was 2 for 3 with a double on 9/3. Mark Sorensen was tagged in the final game of the season but had a nice game (6 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 6 K) on 9/2. Chad Linder took the mound twice and struck out 4 in 4 innings without giving up a run.

Player of the Week: Devin Thomas, 8 for 20 (.400), 2 2b, 2 3b, 3 R, 6 RBI, 2 BB, 4 K. Thomas was 3 for 4 with two doubles and 5 RBI on 9/3. He stepped in for Lakeland and did a pretty nice job as their first baseman.

Pitcher of the Week: Andrew Hess, 1-0, 1.25, 8 IP, 5 H, BB, 5 K. Hess ended the season on a high note, and nobody should be fooled by his 7-11 record. He had a fine season.

West Michigan (38-32, 3rd place, 11 GB)

August 31, Fort Wayne 8, West Michigan 2

September 1, Day off

September 2, West Michigan 10, Lansing 2

September 3, West Michigan 5, Lansing 3

September 4, West Michigan 3, Lansing 4

September 5, Fort Wayne 7, West Michigan 1

September 6, Fort Wayne 6, West Michigan 0

September 7, Fort Wayne 3, West Michigan 1

Record from 8/31 through 9/7: 2-5 Tough last week, but I don’t think the outcomes had any effect on who their playoff opponent would be and they probably knew that.

Notes: Gustavo Nunez was 8 for 26 on the week with a pair of doubles and triples. Ben Guez was 2 for 6 with a triple on 9/2 and had a double and two triples on the week. Billy Nowlin was 3 for 4 on 8/31. Jordan Lennerton was 3 for 4 with a homer on 9/2. Brandon Douglas was 3 for 4 with a double on 9/7. Angel Flores was 3 for 4 on 9/2. Ronnie Bourquin was 3 for 6 with 4 runs batted in on 9/2. Avisail Garcia was 2 for 3 with a triple and a walk on 9/3. Tyler Conn got into two games, threw 4.2 innings and struck out 4 while giving up 3 hits.

Player of the Week: Gustavo Nunez, 8 for 26 (.308), 2 2b, 2 3b, 5 R, 2 RBI, 7 K, 1/2 SB. Nunez had a nice season and a good close to the season, but he needs to develop a better sense of when to steal a bag and drawing more walks will give him a much better shot at elevating his standing as a prospect.

Pitcher of the Week: Anthony Shawler, 1-1, 1.29, 14 IP, 9 H, 3 BB, 13 K. Shawler put up two strong starts to wrap up the season. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s made his case to get starter innings next year. I doubt it, but he held his own in both roles this year.

Oneonta (35-39, 2nd place, 9.5 GB)

August 31, Hudson Valley 1, Oneonta 3

September 1, Hudson Valley 0, Oneonta 10

September 2, Game 1, Lowell 13, Oneonta 0

September 2, Game 2, Lowell 6, Oneonta 2

September 3, Lowell 9, Oneonta 5

September 4, Oneonta 1, Hudson Valley 3

September 5, Oneonta 2, Hudson Valley 3

September 6, Oneonta 2, Hudson Valley 0

September 7, Season Over

Record from 8/31 through 9/7: 3-5 Oneonta faded late and didn’t have much of a shot at the playoffs heading into this week.

Notes: Jimmy Gulliver was 3 for 6 with a double and a triple on 9/3. Clemente Mendoza was knocked around on 9/1, but threw seven scoreless innings (7 IP, 6 H, 4 K) on 9/6. Jose Ortega gave up just 2 hits and no runs in 2 outings that lasted 5 innings and he walked 3 and struck out 5. Mike Morrison struck out 9 in just 5.1 innings covering 2 appearances and gave up no runs, 3 hits and 2 walks.

Player of the Week: Jamie Johnson, 8 for 25 (.320), 2b, 2 3b, HR, 4 BB, 3 K, 2 R, RBI, 0/2 SB. Johnson was one of the few Tiger hitters to close out the season on a high note.

Pitcher of the Week: Mike Morrison, 0-0, 0.00, 5.1 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 9 K. Morrison had a couple of nice relief outings in which he struck out 4 in 2 innings on 9/1 and 5 in 3.1 innings on 9/3.

GCL Tigers (29-30, 4th place, 3.5 GB)

August 31, Tigers 1, Phillies 2

September 1, Season Over

Record from 8/31 through 9/7: 0-1 The Tigers had this final shot to finish the season over .500 and lost despite Gary Perinar having one of his few good starts of 2009.