What used to be the old Gulf Coast League has a new title in 2021: The Florida Complex League.
It’s the wading pool in baseball’s preparatory depths, and the 2021 FCL has a home-run leader who wears a Tigers uniform.
It’s shortstop Manuel Sequera, 18, a 6-foot-1, 170-pound, right-hand hitter who in 39 games for the FCL Tigers East team has 11 home runs and an .832 OPS.
Sequera was signed two years ago, out of Barquisimeto, Venezuela. He was somewhat obscured by the nearly $2 million the Tigers paid that year to their more ballyhooed international star, Roberto Campos, an outfielder who had earlier defected from Cuba.
“Great athlete, with power, and with the ability to move the baseball around,” said Kenny Graham, who took over last week as the Tigers’ overall, interim player-development chief when Dave Littlefield became a special-assignment scout.
“And he does a nice job at short.”
Sequera is a bit hefty for a shortstop, but so far, no serious issues as the Tigers prefer to shoot high with a player who has the arm, and the hands, to stick at the infield’s prime-time position.
Sequera’s other stats aren’t quite as lofty as his home-run numbers: .243 batting average, .305 on-base, with 49 strikeouts and 11 walks in those 39 games.
“In that first pro season,” Graham said, “he’s learning and growing.”
Fall camp slated, but no games
There will be a Tigers Instructional League that begins in October on the various fields that make up the TigerTown complex in Lakeland, Florida.
But don’t count on any game reports that last autumn occasionally filtered from the back fields and from Marchant Stadium as Tigers minor-leaguers got some advanced tutoring and competition.
No games will be played.
“We’re making things a bit different,” Graham said. “It’s going to be more individualized for each player, whether pitchers or hitters.”
This, of course, is all a product of two years when COVID-19 made a hash of standard minor-league seasons and instruction.
Pitchers, in particular, have paid a price. Most of them missed either their college, high school, and/or minor-league seasons in 2020, which threw workloads out of kilter and has put a double emphasis on not taxing (read: ruining) arms in 2021.
Thus, not only will there be no games during Instructional League — none of July’s drafted players will be pitching in a single minor-league game at TigerTown or elsewhere.
That means no official professional debut for first-round prize Jackson Jobe, nor for the Tigers’ second draft pick in 2021, Ty Madden from Texas.
“We’re watching workloads,” Graham said, turning to the Tigers’ autumn plans. “We’ll definitely have guys working on pitches, doing bullpens, all the things you need to improve.”
But, he said, what’s been done “traditionally” isn’t relevant when a pandemic continues to leave its mark on a second professional baseball year.
Nice marks for Murr, Malgeri
Two outfielders who have shined since the Tigers drafted them in July: Austin Murr at Single-A West Michigan, and Ben Malgeri at Single-A Lakeland.
Murr was a sixth-round pick from North Carolina State and did so well in 13 games at Lakeland (.825 OPS) he was shipped to the high-A Whitecaps, where in 17 games he is batting .365, with one home run and an .851 OPS.
Murr is 22, and a bit advanced in that key category of age. He is 6-2, 218, and bats left-handed.
Malgeri, 21, was an 18th-round grab from Northeastern University. He is 6-foot, 215, swings right-handed and in 29 games for the Flying Tigers is batting .309 with an .811 OPS.
“Murr’s a kid who does a great job of controlling the strike zone,” said Graham, remarking about the 23 walks Murr has racked up in his 30 combined games at Lakeland and West Michigan.
“But both those guys — we were excited when they came here. And they’ve performed.”
Cabrera coping at Erie
It was somewhat of a surprise last week when Daniel Cabrera was handed a ticket to Double-A Erie following 99 games at West Michigan where he batted .242, with a .695 OPS.
But the Tigers liked his August work, which saw a left-handed batter swat three homers and boost his OPS to .720.
And that was of some reassurance to a Tigers club that last year made Cabrera the first pick in the MLB Draft’s second round as Cabrera wrapped up his junior season at Louisiana State.
Double-A pitching seems not to have intimidated him in the short week he has been adjusting to life at Erie. In his first five games with the SeaWolves, Cabrera had homered while batting .263, with a .721 OPS.
“This is a kid who is very driven,” Graham said. “Throughout the course of the year, he has gotten better.”
Short hops
Add a one-time Tigers farm pitcher to a list of those now trying to make it as a position player: Dane Myers, a sixth-round pick in 2017 from Rice who had physical issues and now is working as a third baseman, first baseman, and corner outfielder, much to the satisfaction of his bosses.
In 17 games at Erie, Myers is batting .279, with three home runs and an .815 OPS. He is 25, swings right-handed, and is 6-2, 205.
“He committed to hitting this year,” Graham said. “He’s done some special things. And he can move around and play different positions.”
… Beau Brieske’s big year continues, with even better numbers at Erie than he put together at Single A West Michigan.
Brieske, 23, and a 27th-round pick in 2019 from Colorado State-Pueblo, has a 3.03 ERA and 0.98 WHIP in six starts for the SeaWolves, with a .208 opposing batting average. He has eight walks and 31 strikeouts in 32.2 innings and could qualify as the biggest pitching surprise on the Tigers farm in 2021.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and former Detroit News sports reporter.