Gerritt Cole is expected to not return to the Yankees. I think he’d be a decent fit as a starting pitcher, but we’ll only get about five good innings out of him. Skubal would be a good influence on him, encouraging Cole to work through challenges and build his confidence when an inning gets tough. Just my opinion.

Anyone know that some credit the Tigers with inventing the rally cap in the 1940s. Anyone else hear this or hav any stories from back in the day?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rally_cap

FWIW: Stoned Pads fan who has gone down a rabbit hole and curious about learning more about it.

Gonna be a long shot still but how awesome would it be to have this guy hit right after Riley?!

I followed the draft and the Tigers' minor league system a lot more closely this year than I have in the past. Figured I'd write about a few under-the-radar guys I noticed. They're either fringe prospects or not really considered prospects at all, but I think they're worth keeping an eye on.

Starting from AA and working down (keeping in mind that success in AA is reasonably likely to correlate to MLB success, whereas success in the DSL has much less predictive power):

Patrick Lee: Probably the coolest story in the whole org. He was old for his year, played for a NAIA school (i.e., equivalent to NCAA D2 or D3), didn't hit much until his junior year, and didn't get drafted last year. Went to the Frontier League to start this season, absolutely mashed (better than even his senior year in college), got signed by the Tigers, raked in A ball, got called up to high A, and played well enough to get bumped to AA late in the season. So he jumped up three leagues in his first pro season; even for a 24-year-old, that's remarkable. He's insanely fast: He stole 45 bases in 49 attempts across just 79 games (many of which he didn't start). Decent power, good walk rate; strikeouts have gone up and up each level but aren't completely out of control. Could be a real weapon. (According to the Whitecaps' broadcasters and my own eyeball test, he's a great defensive outfielder too.)

Seth Stephenson: Seventh-round pick from 2022. Slightly older than average for high A, but trending in the right direction: keeps cutting his K rate, walks a decent amount, hits well enough to have had above-average wRC+ two seasons in a row now. Absurd speed, even better then Lee; he had 60 steals both years (in about 100 games each season). ZiPS figures he could steal 50 or 60 in a full MLB season, and he hits enough to be a useful bench piece already. He is getting a little attention; Tigers Minor League Report wrote about him last month.

Carlos Marcano: Got some scouting attention a couple years ago when he jumped from the DSL to A ball at age 18, but has kind of been forgotten since. Only became a full-time starter last year, and was decent, but this year, one level higher, he was great. Strikeouts are up, walks and homers are down. His ERA was slightly inflated by bad LOB% and BABIP luck, but still a respectable 3.86, and his FIP was an excellent 3.36 (and having just turned 21 in July, he's very young for high A).

John Peck: Seventh-round pick last year. Just turned 22, so he's also on the young side for high A. This was his first full pro season, and he got bumped from the FCL to A and then to high A. Solid numbers at every level; not much power yet but great speed (25 steals in 49 games for Lakeland) and decent BB/K numbers overall (struggled a bit with strikeouts in West Michigan).

Nomar Fana: Didn't do much for a couple years in the DSL, but blew up in rookie ball this year and made the jump to A ball, where he kept mashing and is right on target age-wise. Strikes out a lot but walks plenty too, and has serious power.

Javier Osorio, Ronald Ramirez, Maikol Orozco, and Jose Dickson: A bunch of teenagers tearing up the DSL, all middle infielders. Osorio was a legit prospect (signed for $2.2m) who didn't do much in his first couple seasons but broke out this year. Walks way up, strikeouts way down, good power, good speed. Ramirez was only 17 this year; he posted a 145 wRC+ in his first pro season. Orozco put up similar numbers but is a year older. Dickson is the youngest of the bunch; numbers weren't quite as good as the others but still very strong, and he got BABIPed a bit compared to them.

Horrific game by him unfortunately but LA still won. Has LA won the trade with Detroit made earlier this season? Guess so.

Time to sign Soto.

Go Tigers.

Voting ends tomorrow and we’ll fill out the whole grid if the mods are fine with it

I used all my expert design and painting skills. Happy Halloween!

Next Tigers Game: Sat, Feb 22, 03:33 AM EST vs. Phillies (116 days)

^^^Posted: ^^^10/28/2024 ^^^05:00:00 ^^^AM ^^^EDT

Streaming the game on the web and hmmm the play by play guy sounds familiar.

Of the Tigers top 10 prospects, only 3 were at AA or above in 2024 (so might contribute in 2025) and those are Jobe, Jung and Lee. Jung and Lee are blocked by Keith at 2B. What do you all think should be done to clear the log jam? Is it still worth trying the Jung 3B experiment, or is it already clear that he can only be the worst 3B in the league? Would it be worth trying to move Keith to another position? Should one or another of these guys be traded? To whom? For whom?

Fox switched us to the USC game after Game 1 of the World Series and it’s Jason Benetti doing the play by play. Makes me miss hearing him call our Tigers game. How long until Opening Day? 😂