Lynn Henning | Special to The Detroit News Lakeland, Fla. — Strolling through the quadrant of practice fields at TigerTown on Friday morning was Al Avila, who runs the Tigers as general manager and executive vice president of baseball operations, should you be into formal job titles. It was one of those late-February mornings the Michigan fandom dreams
LAKELAND, Fla. — Traffic on Lake Parker Drive gets busy around rush hour, but the two-lane road that runs by Tigertown’s back fields usually stays quiet in between. So maybe it’s a good thing that Tigers prospects like shortstop Gage Workman usually take batting practice in Minor League minicamp just after 9 a.m. ET. On
First and foremost, I want to thank Duane Pesice from our Chicago Cubs site, Cubbies Crib, for the headline idea. As the news broke that the owners and the MLBPA have made minimal progress in coming to an agreement, Detroit Tigers fans and front office staff watched the future Tigers down in Lakeland this past week.
LAKELAND, Fla. — Detroit Tigers prospect Dylan Smith wants to review his five-pitch performance against outfielder Eric De La Rosa. He opens the Twitter app on his iPhone and pulls up the video. The 21-year-old right-hander threw 15 pitches Friday morning, five each to Gage Workman, De La Rosa and Colt Keith. Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter watched
Lakeland, Fla. — It is not quite Newton’s third law of motion, but every action a club takes that impacts its roster invariably comes with an opposite, and sometimes negative, impact on other players. Say the club signs a two-time All-Star and Gold Glove-winning shortstop named Javier Baez to a six-year, $140 million contract. Great deal
Are you ready for the 20th season of Mud Hens baseball at Fifth Third Field? Well then – let’s PLAY BALL! This year, the Toledo Mud Hens will play 75 home games in the Glass City from April 5 through September 25. The Hens are Back in Full Swing for Are you ready for the
Do you remember new wave music? There might be a few too young to remember this push of music that occurred between the late 70s to around the mid-80s, depending on who you asked. The Detroit Tigers are getting a “new wave” of prospects that are getting attention from national baseball analysis.
When the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between Major League Baseball and its’ players ended on December 1, 2021, MLB immediately imposed a lockout of the players, even though no games were scheduled for another four months. They didn’t have to lock the players out. That was a choice, a tactic intended to put pressure on
LAKELAND, Fla. — You look at Colt Keith on a backfield at TigerTown and you think: “Dang, that kid just keeps growing. He is freakin’ huge.” The 20-year-old Detroit Tigers prospect went through a growth spurt in the offseason, adding an inch of heighth and 30 pounds of muscle. Now, he’s up to 6 feet
The 2022 college baseball season is now underway, which is an exciting time for prospectors everywhere. It means that draft boards will start to change, players will breakout and stocks will fall. Since the draft boards are not stable whatsoever, now is a good of time as any to start guessing at who the Detroit
LAKELAND, Fla. — Keider Montero looked up and smiled. He was thinking about the spin rate when he throws his curveball, one of his biggest strengths as a 21-year-old pitching prospect for the Detroit Tigers. The Venezuelan right-hander also boasts a strong arm and throws strikes. But the curveball, with 3,200 revolutions per minute, is his specialty.
LAKELAND, Fla. — You look at Colt Keith on a backfield at TigerTown and you think: “Dang, that kid just keeps growing. He is freakin’ huge.” The 20-year-old Detroit Tigers prospect went through a growth spurt in the offseason, adding an inch of heighth and 30 pounds of muscle. Now, he’s up to 6 feet
The word on Roberto Campos’ raw power is spreading, and you can add Dan Dickerson to the growing list of believers in the 18-year-old prospect. The radio play-by-play voice checks in with his observations, while teammate Parker Meadows simply asks, “What’s he eating?” Take a look for yourself at a player who is still finding
We can often get caught up in the hitting and counting stats of prospects to gauge their progress. But the truth is often a player’s defensive development can just as much determine how quickly he ascends toward the Majors. Put another way, plus (or better) fielding tools can give prospects just as high a floor
Lakeland, Fla. — This game can flat-out crush your spirit. One minute you are a hot-shot prospect, sharing the same outfield with the club’s shiny new first-round pick, and a couple years later you are still foundering in A-ball while that shiny new first-round pick is about to break into the big leagues. This is just
Last week Rogelio started trying to project the starting pitching rotations for each of the four full-season Detroit Tigers affiliates, and this week I’m taking at shot at predicting the lineups for each club.
LAKELAND, Fla. — If a “Prospect House” exists in Tigers Minor League minicamp, Parker Meadows is in it. The High-A West Michigan outfielder is rooming with former Whitecaps teammate Spencer Torkelson in a four-bedroom rental whose current residents include Riley Greene, Ryan Kreidler and Eric De La Rosa. That’s the good news for Meadows. The
LAKELAND, Fla. — Reese Olson is enjoying his first spring training in TigerTown. The 22-year-old pitching prospect joined the Detroit Tigers last July, when the Milwaukee Brewers traded him for a couple months of Daniel Norris. Olson took the mound Thursday for his first live batting practice session of minor-league minicamp. The Tigers paired Olson with Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene and Ryan
The evolution of a pitcher never stops. For anyone who is aiming to play in the major leagues, you seize every opportunity. The work to improve never stops For the Detroit Tigers left-hander Gabe Sequeira, the change in his mechanics gave him an opportunity to stand out in Lakeland in 2021.
One of our favorite points in the preseason calendar is the release of a new FanGraphs top 100 prospect list. There aren’t any big surprises in this year’s edition from a Detroit Tigers’ perspective, but it’s always instructive to read their commentary. In the larger scheme of things it’s also the perfect entrance point into