2024 Tigers Minor Leagues

All Activity MLB
101

Short hops on several players throughout

:arrow_forward: The marvelous stuff continues for Jaden Hamm at West Michigan: five innings, two hits, no runs, one walk, six strikeouts Saturday against Fort Wayne. On the season, last July’s fifth-round pick from Middle Tennessee State has an 0.94 ERA in seven starts, with a 0.94 WHIP. A right-handed starter, Hamm, 21, has struck out 43 and walked four in 28.2 innings. Staggering stuff from a pitcher 6-1, 190.

:arrow_forward: The FCL schedule also has brought on three young pitchers from last year’s MLB Draft the Tigers have been aching to unleash: Paul Wilson, a left-handed starter and third-rounder from Lake Oswego, Oregon; Blake Dickerson, also a left-handed starter, 6-6, 210, and a 12th-round pick in 2023 whom the Tigers got from the Padres in a February trade that sent international bonus money to San Diego; and Andrew Dunford, a right-handed starter, 6-7, 235, who was headed to Mercer University until he was nabbed by the Tigers in last July’s 12th round.

:arrow_forward: Better times for West Michigan outfielder Roberto Campos: 12-for-35 in eight games ahead of Sunday, with some scorching 100-plus exit velocities. Campos, 20, is an outfielder, 6-3, 200, who five years ago was a $2.8 million investment by the Tigers.

:arrow_forward: Excellent bullpen work at Toledo, should the Tigers be in need of reinforcements: Mason Englert (right-handed), 2.61 and 1.11 in 15 games, with velocity returning to the mid-90s; Trey Wingenter (right-handed), last four games, six innings, two hits, no runs, two walks, eight strikeouts; and Beau Brieske (right-handed) 2.95 in 13 games, with 22 strikeouts in 21.1 innings.

:arrow_forward: On balance, all is well at Single-A Lakeland, especially with newly returned first-full-year shortstop Kevin McGonigle (.318/.400/.432/.832 in 12 games). McGonigle, a left-handed stick, was last July’s second Tigers draft pick (37th overall).

:arrow_forward: Also: Josue Briceno, the 19-year-old catcher who is 6-5, 200, is ripping the exit-velocity gun at Lakeland and batting .302/.398/.406/.804.

:arrow_forward: It’s Miller Time for a pair of Flying Tigers pitchers. Joe Miller, a left-handed starter/reliever and 11th-rounder in 2023 from the University of Pennsylvania, has a 1.23 ERA and 0.73 WHIP in six games and 22 innings, with three walks and 29 strikeouts. Jake Miller, a left-handed reliever and eighth-round snag by the Tigers in 2022, has not allowed a run in seven games. His totals: 15.1 innings, 10 hits, four walks, 24 strikeouts.

:arrow_forward: Luke Gold, now playing outfield more exclusively, remains hot at West Michigan: .295 in 29 games, with a .952 OPS. Gold, who bats right-handed, has six homers, eight doubles, and a triple. He was a fifth-round pick in 2022 from Boston College.

1 Like
102

I just noticed that Jobe jumped up to #10 on MLB Pipelines’ top prospect list.

3 Likes
103

https://x.com/wmwhitecaps/status/1790834419500015899

104

https://x.com/MLBPipeline/status/1792237850093600953

105

His batting average is a respectable. 270 as well this year.

He’s getting closer.

106

Going to see Mudhens play the ICubs in June. Don’t know shit about the team, just my yearly trek to see them play.

2 Likes
107

Kevin McGonigle’s Top 100 status matches the Tigers’ visions
full article at link.

MLB Pipeline, had a new addition Saturday to its Top 100 Prospects list.

It was Kevin McGonigle, last year’s second Tigers draft pick, who has been playing shortstop and second base at Single-A Lakeland and doing also what he did best when the Tigers snagged him with last July’s 37th overall turn:
He hits
McGonigle owns handsome 18-game testimonies to a 19-year-old, left-handed hitter: .303 batting average, .390 on-base, .424 slugging (.814 OPS).

Toss in a walk-rate (13.5%) higher than his strikeout tendency (10.8%) and the MLB Pipeline status simply confirms what the Tigers have known since they drafted him out of Monsignor Bonner High in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

____________________________________________________________-
It’s a year later and all the scouting notes look legit.

But what McGonigle also knows first-hand is that professional pitching is just that. It’s on a level he never came close to seeing ahead of the Tigers plucking him.

“I feel like there’s a difference with every pitcher,” McGonigle said. “Some guys mix very well; some rely on their fastball. Back in high school, I didn’t really see cutters or splitters. I’m pretty much seeing those pitches three times a week now.

“I feel like I’ve pretty well adjusted to it. I know I can’t miss the fastball. And, if it requires a two-strike approach, I try to hit something soft, if necessary, and keep it in play.”

He got his first home run in Wednesday’s game at Lakeland, popping a pitch over the right-field fence at Marchant Stadium/Publix Field.

“It was my count, I was sitting fastball, and he threw a slider and I pulled the trigger thinking it was a fastball,” McGonigle said. “I got the bat head out front and hit the ball over the fence.”

Can he stick at SS?
So far, so good. When the Flying Tigers and manager Andrew Graham, in keeping with Tigers organizational dictates, are keeping lots of folks busy at assorted infield positions, McGonigle is fine with splitting shifts at short, second, and even at designated hitter.

“There were a lot of things I worked on during the offseason to improve, and I feel like some things have paid off,” McGonigle said, offering a big thumbs-up to teammate Jim Jarvis, a shortstop drafted last year out of the University of Alabama, who has been giving his teen teammate pointers.

“He’s really helped me out, helped me in gaining my confidence there. Sometimes you can lose confidence after a bad play. But after bad plays this year, I’ve been locked in on every pitch.”

Those “bad” plays aren’t showing up on the stats sheets. McGonigle has zero errors in 45 chances spanning 99 innings.

1 Like
108

From the Det News: Parker Meadows udpate

Meadows showing some muscle

Good start to Parker Meadows’ restorative work at Toledo: The Tigers center fielder, who couldn’t get his bat unlocked in Detroit, is playing regularly and swinging solidly for the Mud Hens: .324 in 10 games, with a pair of homers, as well as .447 and .622 on-base/slugging percentages that compute to a 1.069 OPS.

“I think it’s just the reps,” Federowicz said, meaning Meadows’ everyday shifts at Toledo have been nice tonic when Meadows was obliged some days to sit as struggles mounted and he found himself sometimes boxed out by pitching matchups.

Meadows also has had in those 10 games since joining the Mud Hens a triple and three doubles.

1 Like
109

https://x.com/MLBPipeline/status/1793051022459351302

110

https://x.com/tigersMLreport/status/1793079419722231925

111

Wow his bat speed is unreal

1 Like
112

3 Detroit Tigers prospects among ESPN’s MLB top 50, including newcomer Kevin McGonigle

Third baseman Jace Jung, the 2022 first-rounder currently with Triple-A Toledo, was one of the position players listed under “just missed” for the top 50.

1 Like
113

How Detroit Tigers view top hitting prospects in Triple-A Toledo, including Jace Jung

Outfielder Justice Bigbie, catcher Dillon Dingler and infielder Jace Jung were drafted by the Tigers within the past four years, but outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy was acquired nearly one-and-a-half years ago in a trade.

They’re all ranked in the top 12 on MLB Pipeline’s list of the Tigers top 30 prospects, led by Jung at No. 3, Malloy at No. 6, Bigbie at No. 11 and Dingler at No. 12.

Jung ranks as the No. 47 prospect in baseball on MLB Pipeline’s top-100 list. He was selected No. 12 overall in the 2022 draft; his older bother, Josh, plays for the Texas Rangers.

Ryan Garko, the Tigers’ vice president of player development, talked to the Free Press on a recent episode of the “Days of Roar” podcast about the development of Bigbie, Dingler, Jung and Malloy in Toledo.

1 Like
114

Small section on justice Bigbie:

Bats/throws: Right/right.

Career Triple-A plate appearances: 227.

The buzz: Bigbie is hitting .250 with one home run, 18 walks (10.7% walk rate) and 32 strikeouts (18.9% strikeout rate) in 41 games, spanning 169 plate appearances. He has a .70
What Garko said: “Bigbie flew through the minor leagues last year. Defensively, still working every day. He moved from first base to corner outfield. He is the one guy, the top line numbers didn’t start off great in April. All of his underlying numbers, the process and outcomes, his underlying numbers are really good, and you’re starting to see his top line numbers get better. He was pretty unlucky that first three weeks. Bigbie, it went so fast. I think now he’s starting to realize, you go from the fun story of shooting through the system out of nowhere to an established Triple-A/major-league option. He’s got to start to believe that, and the consistency of the performance and the consistency of the at-bat need to equal enough for us to really be like, ‘OK, we think we can get this out of him at the next level.’”

1 Like
115

Wow, Mcgonigle is skyrocketing up the prospect boards.

1 Like
116

He is my favorite and was since we drafted him.

Even better is that he and Clark played together on amateur teams so they are good friends as opposite as they are personality wise. Which I do think helps guys as they go through the milb ladder.

2 Likes
117

I loved the pick when we drafted him, but I really started to pay more attention after you started posting about him.

We have some things to look forward to with this team. If we can get the young guys that are already on the big league roster turned around we could become a juggernaut.

I really love what I see with our pitching. I can see Skubal and Jobe being a one/two punch on par with what we had with Verlander and Scherzer.

2 Likes
118

I think the challenge now is timing etc of guys moving up the ladder.
The jump from AAA to MLB has always been big, yet, recent articles have implied the jump is even larger than before due to better pitching across the board. This hasn’t just been comments from the Tigers but from other teams and MLB writers as well.

While DD was one who pushed prospects up, at times too fast if not most times, Harris seems to have definitive benchmarks for each prospect to hit before moving them. On paper, theory, it sounds better and you would think more success but then you hear how big the jump is from AA to AAA now and how much bigger it is to MLB than before and who knows.

There’s a reason MLB’s hit rate in the first round is so low compared to other pro leagues.

119

https://x.com/tigersMLreport/status/1793753478315249764

120

:arrow_forward: Big week for West Michigan outfielder Roberto Campos , who in his last five games heading into Sunday was batting .526/.550/1.053, with a home run, two triples, and three doubles. Campos, 20, on the season is hitting .278/.339/.408/.730, with three homers.

1 Like