Probables: Friday — TBA vs. RHP Jackson Jobe (1-0, 0.00); Saturday — LHP Anthony Kay (9-5, 3.96) vs. RHP Troy Melton (7-1, 1.46); Sunday — RHP Sean Burke (7-6, 2.99) vs. RHP Drew Anderson (4-4, 3.91)
TBA, White Sox: The White Sox have not announced their starting pitcher.
Jobe, Tigers: He certainly announced his return with authority Saturday in San Francisco, allowing just one hit over five scoreless innings with four strikeouts in his first start in 14 months after recovering from Tommy John surgery. He mixed and commanded all five of his pitches, with his four-seamer sitting at 98 mph and touching 100. He had 2,400-rpm ride on his four-seamer and got five whiffs on 17 swings.
Outman stayed in the game but concussion symptoms presented themselves later in the night and on Thursday.
Switch-hitting utility man Trei Cruz was called up from Triple-A Toledo, who had been slashing .359/.400/.434 with a .834 OPS in his last 13 games (60 plate appearances) in Triple-A. He went hitless in five at-bats in a brief stint with the Tigers earlier this season.
The only thing I can think of for no Max, well, two things but no idea if accurate or not.
His defense is still an issue and they have good defenders at 2nd and better defenders at 3rd than what Max offers. When you look at who the Tigers brought up starting in June the focus shifted to strong defensive players as the team defense was poor. Max is avg at third and ok at 2nd.
His inability to consistently hit high velocity in AAA is a real concern to the development guys. The velocity is better in the Majors and more importantly the command of those pitches is better in the Majors than in AAA.
They prefer Trei’s defense and he plays multiple positions but SS being the key in my opinion. This gives AJ more options for Javy to play in the OF etc having Trei, KM, and Zach for ss.
Bench spots next year are gonna be a real battle..assumjng Valencia and Baez are in, that leaves 3 for….Anderson, Vierling, McKinstry, Cruz, Meadows, Malgieri, Wenceel?, with Hope Briceño and Liranzo knocking on the door.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a trade or two in the offseason, possibly an 18month offseason ughh, with some of these guys moved.
Thinking Anderson and or Lee are gone for certain and I do wonder what they do with the Valencia / Briceno pair. I am not saying to trade Briceno but I do wonder what they do with Valencia.
Catcher going forward with some good options coming up behind Dingler, at least on paper.
Dingler
Valencia
Briceno
Liranzo in 28
And Tork is on the periphery of this discussion as well.
I think Meadows is here for another season as Baez contract runs out soon, while I think he signs for less just not sure it will be in Detroit. While not playing up to his contract, things I ignore at this point as it is what it is, he has contributed a lot to this team a few timely hits and very good defense everywhere. Meadows is a CF only and doesn’t bring much as a PH either.
Series: Three games at Comerica Park, Detroit
