Two weeks ago, the Tigers drafted a passel of players, 19 to be exact, and signed them.
Now they have to figure out what to do with these plebes, all of them college players, all of them now playing professional baseball.
Send them immediately to Single A? That’s one option after two weeks of initiation at Lakeland, Florida.
Take it easy on them, especially if they’re pitchers, especially when the Tigers are to be forgiven for some paranoia after losing so many arms in 2022 at the big-league level and below? You bet. Innings and workloads and specific quotas are being watched like a bank vault.
Or, just give them the summer at those back lots at TigerTown, as happened last year with the pitchers they signed?
Uh, that’s not going to happen. Virtually everyone will play or pitch in some game, at some level in the Tigers’ farm chain, before the season wraps up in September. Same with hitters. All of the seven hitters drafted from July 17-19 are expected to play in games as early as the coming weekend, said Ryan Garko, who supervises player development for the Tigers.
“It’s an easy answer with the pitchers,” Garko said during a Saturday phone conversation. “These are going to be individual decisions based on how much they threw the last couple of years, and what they’ve been doing since their last game appearance.
“But our goal is, even if it’s the FCL (Florida Complex League) or Lakeland (Single A), we would like them to have the experience of facing professional hitters.”
Garko repeated that this will be an individual and customized plan. He mentioned Troy Melton, the Tigers’ fourth-round pick from San Diego State.
“He was a weekend starter, but only threw 65 innings,” Garko said. “Cole Patten (17th round, Villanova) and Chris Williams (18th, William Carey University), they were in the 90s, so we’ll be more careful with them.”
The basis for wanting pitchers to get at least a smidgen of game experience in 2022 is a product of 2021’s bubble-wrap. Everyone from Jackson Jobe (drafted third overall) and Ty Madden (No. 32 overall) was basically forbidden to throw in games.
“We felt that was a little bit of a disservice to them to never have faced hitters and never to have been on a field from, say, May of 2021, to March of 2022,” Garko said. “We’re being really conservative. But we should be able to get everybody on a mound, in a game, with a plan that’s very conservative.”
Garko mentioned another reason pitchers were babied last summer. It’s an issue that continued this year.
“A lot of people have voiced displeasure with the July draft,” he said, mentioning a change that beginning in 2021 moved the draft from June to All-Star Week in July. “You end up really missing a whole year of player development.”
Hitters are a different matter. They essentially can be freed from the corral. As early, perhaps, as Friday, in games with the Single-A Flying Tigers, or in the rookie Florida Complex League hatchery.
“We’ll get them out,” Garko said of the seven hitters the Tigers plucked. “They’re all college hitters, a more mature group from bigger conferences.
“Will they go out and play every day? No. But even twice a week, maybe three times a week? We’re not going to over-expose anybody, but we’ve got to give them some work.
“We just want to start gathering data, put things on tape, get some information on them. We want to put them through a game day, have them get on a bus, go through some travel, and experience the professional baseball day.”
As for top prize, Jace Jung, the Texas Tech second baseman the Tigers got with the draft’s 12th overall pick? There has been no buyer’s remorse. Jung swings left-handed and was the guy at 12 the Tigers were hoping would be untouched.
“Obviously, he’s got an advanced bat,” Garko said. “You can tell the ball has a different sound when it comes off his bat.
“And I think he’s going to be good at second base. He knows how important defense is.”
Jung has an against-the-grain swing, with his bat flatter rather than inverted at takeoff.
“It’s a little different at set-up,” Garko said. “But once he gets that front foot down, he’s in pretty good position. We’re going to let him hit. He has a ton of experience and success with his approach.
“We want him to get 100 at-bats or so — get some data and video.”
As quickly as July’s drafted players signed, they began showing up in Lakeland for rooms, orientation, a crash course in what their new lives as pro baseball players would involve.
“They’re all in a dorm,” Garko said. “Kevin (Guthrie, Tigers minor-league complex coordinator) takes them through their whole day: how and when they eat, stretch — it’s all planned out.
“We’ve had this ready for a month. Obviously, things you worry about now are baserunning strains, or maybe an oblique. But they’ve all been hitting and lifting. They’re all college guys. They understand their bodies. It’s a mature group.
“We just want to make sure they’ve got their legs under them. Get them ground balls, work on their lateral movement, the kinds of things you can’t do at home.
“But it’s been fun. We’re really not changing anything. We’re not even necessarily coaching. We’re just watching, observing.
“It’s been good.”
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.