Sunday marked the start of the 2022 MLB draft, though we’ll excuse you if you didn’t stick around for all 80 picks of Day 1. (Central Michigan pitcher Andrew Taylor went to the Astros to wrap up the night at roughly 12:30 a.m.)
Or make the jump from ESPN to MLB Network for the second round. Or Competitive Balance Round A. Or the Round 1 Compensatory picks. Or the Double Secret Salary Probation Leveling Round. (OK, we made that one up.)
Or check in for the Detroit Tigers’ second-round pick — No. 51 overall — at approximately 11:15 p.m. (Oklahoma shortstop Peyton Graham, if you were wondering, four hours after the draft started.)
Or, well, slog through the first 11 picks to find out who the Tigers led their class of 2022 with at 8:29 p.m. (That would be Texas Tech second baseman Jace Jung.)
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In short — because something about the MLB draft should be — there were a lot of hoops to jump through to meet a couple of potential Tigers whom we won’t be able to accurately judge for at least another couple years.
But in the absence of incontrovertible evidence of star power — at this point, a section of the Tigers fanbase wouldn’t trust an Al Avila pick if his name was Cobb Trammell Kaline — we offer the most time-saving portion of the draft: Comparables!
Jung? Well, he might be the next Lou Whitaker. Or maybe the next Kirk Gibson. (At least, that’s according to the Freep’s Jeff Seidel.) Or the next Mike Moustakas. (That comparison to the ex-Royals slugger, who mashed 38 homers in 2017, comes via the Freep’s Evan Petzold.)
Or maybe he’s the next Josh Jung, as the Freep’s Chandler Englebrecht detailed. Who? Y’know, Jace Jung’s brother, a fellow Texas Tech alumnus who posted a .990 OPS — no, really, OPS can go past .800, despite what this year’s Tigers would suggest — last year with the Texas Rangers’ Double- and Triple-A clubs before suffering a shoulder injury in February.
And Graham? He might be the next Christian Yelich, or at least that’s the comparison his, ahem, wiry frame — he measured in at 6 feet 4 and 174 pounds to open this season with the Sooners before losing an inch and adding 10 pounds for the draft — drew in the College World Series. Or he might be the next Alan Trammell, a perfect combo of speed and power, after Graham put up 20 homers and 34 steals in 67 games this year. He’s probably not the next Barry Bonds, though, as Our Man Engelbrecht noted here, he had some college performances in common with the ex-Giants slugger.
Jung joined a small club Sunday night, even smaller than that of MLB draft pick; he’s just the 18th collegiate second baseman to be drafted in the first round. (Though the ranks have swelled lately; this was the fifth draft in six years with a first-round second-sacker out of college.)
As such, it’s a little hard to draw an exact comparable from that group. Three of them — Michael Busch (2019), Justin Foscue (2020) and Tyler Black (2021) — are still prospects, working their way toward the majors from Triple-, Double- and High-A ball, respectively. (Though all three have a career OPS above .800 in the minors, which bodes well for Jung.)
2017’s top collegiate second baseman, Keston Hiura, cracked the majors by 2019, and hit 19 homers in 84 games that year. But he’s yet to lock down a starting job; in need of a roster spot, the Brewers sent him to Triple-A this week, which is probably not the example we’re hoping for in the wake of Sunday’s demotion of Spencer Torkelson. (More on him a little later.)
A little farther back, and we get Kolten Wong, snapped up by St. Louis in 2011. He also debuted in less than two years, and he’s in the middle of his ninth full year in the majors. That’s with a career .724 OPS, two Gold Gloves and a third-place finish in 2014’s NL Rookie of the Year voting. The Tigers could do worse (and frequently have, which is how we got to 2022’s mess in the first place).
The big success? That would be 2000 pick Chase Utley, who went from No. 15 overall out of UCLA to a career solid enough to start a fight in Philly (and maybe LA) by saying he’s merely in the “Hall of Very Good.” (A six-time All-Star who never finished better than seventh in MVP voting; the Silver Fox contained multitudes.)
The nightmare? That would be the Tigers’ first-rounder in 2001, Michael Woods, who spent five seasons in the minors with a career .674 OPS.
And somewhere in between we have the Weeks Bros.: Rickie, the Brewers’ No. 2 pick in 2003, played 1,324 games in the majors, while Jemile, the Athletics’ No. 12 pick (uh-oh, Tigers) in 2008 played just 260. (And 215 of those were in his first two seasons.)
But here’s what all the comparables and comparisons come down to.
A total of 16 players have spent time at second base for the Tigers since the start of the 2018 season, ranging from Zack Short for two games to Jonathan Schoop for 169.
But really, Tigers fans are just hoping Jung isn’t not comparable to Dawel Lugo. Or Niko Goodrum. Or Dixon Machado. Y’know, all the guys who’ve manned second base since the Tigers shipped Ian Kinsler to San Diego after 2017.
(By the way, Kinsler was a 17th-round pick in 2003, his third time in the MLB draft. Sometimes the draft is worth the wait, we guess.)
Brock on!
Speaking of waiting, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s star Brock Porter (and, by extension, Clemson’s new coach and former U-M boss Erik Bakich, who is hoping to get Porter for three seasons if he passes on the pros) had an extended evening Sunday as the Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year was skipped over in the first two rounds. The Freep’s Tony Garcia detailed why here.
Tork down!
A different kind of waiting ended Sunday afternoon as the Tigers announced the demotion of rookie first baseman Spencer Torkelson — the No. 1 overall pick in 2020 and the subject of a few comparables himself — back to Triple-A to find his swing. Torkelson’s first big-league stint ends at 83 games with a .197 average overall and just 12 extra-base hits since the end of April. What will Torkelson be working on with Toledo? As Our Man Petzold reports, the former Arizona State star never figured out how to hit the most important pitch of all. Find out what that is here.
Digging in the late rounds
The MLB draft stretches all the way to Tuesday; hopefully it’ll wrap up before the first pitch of the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium that night (though we’re not placing any bets on it). Even at a shortened 20 rounds — we used to do this for 40 rounds, unbelievably — the push to the end can be numbing and counterproductive to the efforts of finding players who can contribute. But recently, the Tigers have changed things up to stay fresh in the later rounds. Our Man Seidel detailed here how it’s paying off.
(This week marks Al Avila’s seventh draft as Tigers GM. Here’s how his hauls compare to those of the rest of the league over that time.)
Deal, or no deal?
And so we get to the big question: It’s been seven years of some sort of rebuild — why aren’t the Tigers better? The major reason, the Freep’s Shawn Windsor argues, is rolling around again on Aug. 2: The MLB trade deadline, and Avila’s poor returns in dealing away some of baseball’s biggest stars. Relive the greatest swings-and-misses here — J.D. Martinez for who? — if you dare…
3 to watch
It’s not all draft picks and demotions this week. Here are three players to watch on the field:
MATT MANNING: Avila’s first pick as GM is back on the rehab path to the majors with the Mud Hens this week.
IZAAC PACHECO: The 2021 second-rounder is thriving with Low-A Lakeland at just 19.
Mark your calendar
The Tigers’ All-Star break started a little early, with Sunday’s rainout, but then again, it ends a little early, too — they head to Oakland for a doubleheader Thursday (finishing the makeup of April’s postponed series), then get a day off, then a two-game visit from the Twins at Comerica Park on Saturday and Sunday. To sum up: Four games in four days, with a lot of travel mixed in. (And the series against the Twins kicks off a stretch of 16 games in 16 days before the Tigers’ next day off, on Aug. 8. Whew.) Of course, not all the Tigers get Monday-Wednesday off this week. Miguel Cabrera and Gregory Soto are headed to LA for Tuesday’s <cue Fox announcer voice> 92nd annual Midsummer Classic (8 p.m., Fox). But was Soto the most deserving Tigers reliever? Our Man Petzold checked in with the rest of the bullpen about that here.
Happy birthday, KB
Kimera Bartee only played six seasons in the majors, including four with the Tigers, but he left a lasting legacy, especially in his return to the franchise as first-base coach last season. Thursday would have been his 50th birthday, but he died suddenly in late December 2021. The Tigers are wearing patches in his honor this season; click here to look back at the team’s tribute to Bartee on Opening Day from Our Man Seidel.
Other Tigers birthdays this week: Eugenio Suarez (31 on Monday), Torii Hunter (47 on Monday), Phil Coke (40 on Tuesday), Mickey Stanley (80 on Wednesday), Heinie Manush (would have been 121 on Wednesday; died in 1971).
TL;DR
Slightly more collegiate shortstops have gone in the second round — 55 in all, with 29 making the majors. We won’t run through all the highlights — old friend Danny Worth! — but the best was actually the first: With the 30th overall pick in 1971, the Phillies selected Ohio shortstop Mike Schmidt. 548 homers later, we’d say that pick worked out OK.
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.