Focus for a moment on Gage Workman’s first week at Double-A Erie and the power of self-persuasion is all but leaping from his batting numbers:
Eight games, .300 batting average, two triples, two home runs, and, stunningly, seven walks to match a comparatively puny seven strikeouts.
Seven whiffs from a batter who last year struck out 206 times in 475 at-bats — a 43% clip, some 20% beyond what a big-league team believes it can tolerate from even a good hitter.
This was a product of what might be called Operation Contact — an offseason batting plan designed to help a superb athlete and often-lethal switch-hitter from being another “K” on the scorecard.
“He really made a conscious effort to try and control the strike zone, to draw more walks and make more contact,” said Gabe Alvarez, Erie’s manager, as he talked Sunday morning about Workman’s early April display.
“He has a two-strike approach now that’s better than it has been in the past — and it’s not an accident. He’s worked hard at it. It’s something he practices, even when he takes batting practice.
“He makes sure he’s not swinging at balls outside the zone. And that’s easy to do, when you’re just trying to keep the flow of BP going. But he’s taking this very seriously.”
Workman has been, almost exclusively, a different grade of minor-league project since he joined the Tigers in 2020, fresh out of Arizona State, where he had been a third baseman on the infield’s opposite side from Sun Devils teammate Spencer Torkelson.
Workman is a switch-hitter, 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, and an extraordinarily gifted athlete. His hands at third base, or shortstop, or second base, are supple; his arm is artillery-caliber.
He can also hit the ball a long, long way — when he’s making contact.
Note those 14 homers, 30 doubles, and nine triples a season ago at Erie — all with that 43% punch-out rate.
Workman had — absolutely had — to make adjustments and make contact. Or, clearly, it would be a short matter of time until a man found himself working at something other than professional baseball.
He got busy, arduously so, during the offseason. Mind, more than body, needed retooling.
“Mechanically, things are very similar,” Alvarez said of Workman’s swing. “He’s just shortened up more. A lot of it is simply bearing down with two strikes, being a tough out, fouling off tough pitches, keeping the at-bat alive.
“You almost will yourself to not strike out.”
Workman has spent five of eight games (heading into Sunday’s series finale against Altoona) at shortstop, while otherwise working at second base.
His defensive versatility is of no question to the Tigers. His bat remains the whole story, with a 23-year-old’s most recent chapter hinting at some potential, perhaps dramatic, progress.
One and done
Ty Madden had a terrific Saturday outing against the Altoona Curve.
Madden struck out the side in the first inning.
Great start for a Double-A Erie pitcher who had fanned 10 batters in four innings in his first start of the season, a week earlier.
Then, after Saturday’s opening act, Madden was pulled.
Seems it wasn’t as great as the three punch-outs might have implied for the SeaWolves’ supposed rotation ace. He threw a whopping 36 pitches in that first inning.
Not only did it suggest Madden wasn’t finding the strike zone (confirmed by only 18 of his pitches rated strikes), Madden ran afoul of the organization’s farm-system rules on pitch-counts.
Once a pitcher reaches 30 or more tosses in a single inning, he’s gone
“He’s fine,” Alvarez said Sunday. “Just a rough inning, too often coming from behind in the count.”
Flying Tigers fanning ’em
Nice strikeout numbers Single-A Lakeland’s bullpen gang is racking up:
Marco Jimenez, the right-hander who is finally sturdy after Tommy John surgery in 2021, has 10 in 4.2 innings for the Flying Tigers. Jimenez, 23, has also walked four. But this 5-11, 239-pound fireballer owns one of the best relief arms in the Tigers system.
Trevin Michael, a 10th-round pick last summer from the University of Oklahoma, has 11 in three games and 4.2 innings. Michael, who is 6-2, 200 and likewise is a righty, has walked but one batter and has allowed one hit.
Short hops
Chalk up Alvarez as among those delighted second baseman Wenceel Perez is back with the SeaWolves after some spring-camp back issues. Perez, 23, and a switch-hitter, hit .381 in a five-game rehab start at Lakeland before rejoining Erie during the weekend. Perez had a .914 OPS in 39 games last season at Erie.
… Manuel Sequera, the 20-year-old who supposedly was exclusively an infielder, has broadened his portfolio during the early days at Lakeland.
Sequera played four of his first seven games in left field, working twice at second base, and once at designated hitter.
Sequera is a right-handed batter, 6-1, 170, who has a tall assignment in 2023: cutting down on swings at pitches outside the strike zone. He walked 20 times in 116 games and 491 plate-appearances in 2022.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and retired Detroit News sports reporter.