Interesting that Meadows isn’t in the lineup today.
Long is looking good in his start so far, through 4innings
They must be trading him.
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Manning is warming up in the pen for Toledo, coming in now as Long is done after 53pitches in top of the sixth with one out.
Long: 5 1/3IP 53 pitches
one run
one hit
0 BB’s
5 K’s
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Figures, I decide to watch Lakeland and Toledo and not WMI
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Wow he crushed that.
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Well not a bad night for Mr Briceno.
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He also stole home, for good measure. It’s a night no player has put together at the major-league level since at least 1901, and at the minor-league level since at least 2005, with the trio of homers and stealing home, according to MiLB.com.
Briceño had a chance to become the first player in Whitecaps history to belt four homers in the game, but was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth. According to Dan Hasty, the Whitecaps’ radio play-by-play broadcaster and head of media relations, Briceño is working through an injury progression. That left the catcher/first baseman with a final line of 4-for-4, with three home runs, four runs scored, five RBIs, a stolen base, and 14 total bases to power a 16-hit West Michigan attack.
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DetNews on Briceno:
His spring at West Michigan has been Briceño-grade as he sits in the No. 3 slot of Cappuccilli’s lineup. He is batting .268, with a .383 on-base average, and Herculean .610 slugging percentage as part of his .993 OPS. His walk and strikeout rates per-nine innings (16.1 and 19.5) are equally pleasing in the eyes of Detroit’s player-development cast.
“I didn’t really get a chance to see him much last year, having had the knee, but everybody heard what he did in the Fall League, and then I saw some highlight videos,” Cappuccill said. “He’s really a lot of fun to watch. He’s everything that was advertised: the power, the numbers, everything.”
Of course, with more history perhaps in the script Thursday, the skipper pulled Briceño from the game in the eighth inning.
Cappuccilli explained his seeming managerial felony: Briceño hurt his leg earlier this month and spent a week on the injured list. The Tigers are taking it easy with his progression.
He’s the guy I hope we don’t trade.
I don’t want us to trade Clark or McGonigle, but I really don’t want us to trade him.
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It will be interesting to say the least, he plays first base, Tork seems to have found himself, well, to this point.
To start the 2027 season Briceno, if he keeps it up, or Tork if he keeps it up? Good dilemna to have, however, big IF’s for both.
3 dingers…and his double flew just under 400 feet before landing just short of the wall.
Heck of a night at the dish….
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Rainer should also be on the no trade list.
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Complicates things a bit that he is a lefty. Overlap of Carp and Keith at DH.
2027
C-Dingler, Liranzo
1b-Tork
2b-Keith
SS-McGonigle
3B-Baez
DH- Briceño
LF Greene
CF- Clark
RF-Carpenter
Bench- Meadows Vierling Lee
Rainier close, Campos ready, Jung ??
Baez’s last season
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If 2027 roster is even close to that would be pretty crazy with amount of home grown talent. Added LH or RH to each as I hadn’t even looked at it from that perspective.
Edit: so one or two of those LH bats will be gone. McGonigle or Keith for IF . Carpenter potential OF trade candidate at that point, relies on guys coming up hitting well and all are better fielders than Carp.
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A bat like that you find room. Nice problem to have.
# Double-A Erie draws closer for three hot-shot Tigers prospects
Full article at Link
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Heading into Sunday’s game at Dayton, Briceño was batting: .268/.383/.622/1.005.
Clark, like Briceño only 20 years old, was playing a deft center field and hitting: .268/.426/.382/.808.
And then there’s McGonigle, also 20, who missed some weeks with a sprained ankle, but who returned last month to do what this shortstop does naturally: hit well-pitched baseballs. He was 4-for-5 on Friday, including a homer. Saturday night, 2-for-4. Entering Sunday, through nine 2025 games with the Whitecaps: .469/.585/.781/1.367. Small sample, but any McGonigle sample is always high-voltage.
So, when do they get their Erie orders?
An easy guess is sometime within the next six weeks, probably before, or even during, the mid-July All-Star break.
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Clark, McGonigle, and Briceño could be making their way to Comerica Park as early as next season — one, two, maybe all three of them. And in those three talents and hitters you have, conceivably, one-third of what could be a high-horsepower lineup AJ Hinch will be happy to accommodate, however various personnel moves shake out in the next two or three seasons.
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All three are hitting good high-A pitching, are strong on the strike zone, and are making gains on defense.
Two things to consider:
1. The Tigers under front-office boss Scott Harris prefer to be deliberate rather than hurried in their promotions. It’s the old Paul Masson wine adage: Don’t uncork wine (or elevate farm players) before their time.
2. Harris likes his players to feel part of a team as they rise through the minor-league rungs. This is more of a metaphysical thing. But if you’re into the team ethos concept — one for all, all for one, next-man-up, all that feel-good stuff that in fact has its payoff — there is something to be appreciated about players feeling wedded to each other and to a particular baseball entity, which is the team for which they play.
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A few notes on other prospects.
Word from a Dominican Summer League scout where a roster of entry-levels Tigers prospects are working out: Cris Rodriguez, who in January signed for more money than the Tigers ever have offered an international teen ($3.19 million) has been showing skills in harmony with what the Tigers envisioned from a 17-year-old, right-handed batter who is 6-4, 205.
Also, another scouting prize from the Tigers’ steadily more upbeat international sphere, Steven Madero, 18, and a left-handed-hitting catcher, 6-2, 175, has been displaying bat-to-ball skills that are a cut above what typically is seen in the DSL, which on Monday begins its 2025 schedule.
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For @Bols, when McGonigle goes up a level, Rainer does the same. Kid is 19
Much the same story at low-A Lakeland where, if in any Flying Tigers game shortstop Bryce Rainer hasn’t tattooed at least a couple of pitches at 100-plus EV, it means he hasn’t had any at-bats. Rainer, 19, after 34 games is batting .293/.388/.455/.843. Assuming he will enjoy a Michigan summer, his ticket to Comstock Park isn’t far off.
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Troy Melton, 24, right-handed, 6-foot-4, 210, fourth-round pick (San Diego State, 2022), 3.23 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 10 starts: “We all know he has great stuff,” Graham said of a pitcher whose fastball runs anywhere from 93-98, and who also flips a cutter, curveball, and change-up. “He does a great job of getting to 0-and-2. And I don’t want to say he lacks concentration, but that maybe he hunts punch-outs, and then it’s 2-and-2. He needs to put them away. He was really good (May 17 against Richmond, five strikeouts through three innings). Then he took a line drive off the knee and had to leave. But he’s been fine since.”
From the News
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If McGonigle keeps raking at the next level I think he has a chance to get a cup of coffee with the big club in sept.
The guy is hitting .415 for christ sakes. I dont care what level you are playing…that’s something.
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Question on him is more about his body holding up, he has these injuries, not career threatening, just stupid freak injuries. Those three coming up together is like the Whitaker/Trammell/Parrish group in the late 70’s
And remember, that is a really, REALLY, small sample size.
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Where do you watch the minor league teams?