Several Detroit Tigers pitching prospects were promoted and a former Minor League Player of the year was added in this week’s TMLR recap.
Detroit Tigers fans got good news this week that top prospect Riley Greene passed his test to return to baseball activities. He played in an inter-squad game as reported by Lynn Henning on Saturday. However, there was some bad news, as Akil Baddoo has an oblique injury and is on the IL list. Detroit addressed the outfield depth by signing Trayce Thompson and Brendon Davis this week. Both players were assigned to Toledo and headed to Indianapolis to play the Indians. Here’s a quick player profile of each player.
Trayce Thompson
Originally drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 2nd round of the 2009 draft out of high school, he has spent time in the majors with the Cubs and White Sox, Oakland, the Dodgers and more recently, in San Diego. He is the son of former NBA center Mychal Thompson and the brother of Klay Thompson. The scouting report on him per Bernie Pleskoff of MLB.com back from 2015Â that his speed is his best tool.
He was in the starting lineup this weekend and showed off his defense.
https://twitter.com/MudHens/status/1528147306507382790?s=20&t=y7bBMbH7Gvnf_hFDYW2qog
Brendon Davis
Davis was with the LA Angels when Detroit quickly scoop up the utility player. He hit .290/.362/.561 with 30 home runs across three teams last season. That earned him the Angels Minor League Player of the Year award.
He can play every position in the infield and both corner spots in the outfield. His tools include good power numbers he had last season, (ISO of over .200 last year) good speed and the ability to draw walks in the minors. He made his debut on Sunday down in Indianapolis and went 2-for-4.
If there is one player that could get a call up to Detroit soon, it could be Davis based on his profile. We shall see how that unfolds.
Brendon Davis, the @Angels’ No. 22 prospect, crushed his first homer of 2022 in a big day for the @SaltLakeBees: https://t.co/PwsppUApem pic.twitter.com/i6wNIbwDg1
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 18, 2022
TMLR standouts for Week 7
Here are our “TMLR Standouts” across the Detroit Tigers Minor League system for Week 7:
Toledo (2-4 at Indianapolis) 21-19 overall
IF Kody Clemens 9-for-24 2 2B, 2 3B, HR, 8 RBI .375/.423/.750
IF/OF Dane Myers 6-for-21 2B 4RBI .286/.348/.381
The “call him up” chants for Clemens continues as he had another impressive week. He’s knocking harder than an old engine on its last legs.
Pitching wise, Garrett Hill made his Triple-A debut on Sunday and pitched 5 innings, allowing 3 runs, two were earned, walking four and struck out five. He has been impressive so far this season. In seven starts for Erie, 32 innings pitched, struck out 52 and posted an ERA of 2.25.
A look at some top 10 performers in the system
Hits
1 Kody Clemens (50)
2 Colt Keith (46)
3 Kerry Carpenter (40)
4 Wenceel Perez (39)
5 Manuel Sequera (35)
5 Chris Meyers (35)
7 Zack Short (34)
8 Izaac Pacheco (33)
9 Andre Lipcius (32)
9 Dillon Dingler (32)
9 Roberto Campos (32)— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) May 24, 2022
Garrett Hill’s first Triple-A inning looked a lot like most of his Double-A innings: 9 pitches, 2 strikeouts, and a ground out pic.twitter.com/EnJp2g8MMx
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) May 22, 2022
Erie SeaWolves (4-2 vs New Hampshire) 21-18
OF Kerry Carpenter 10-for-20 42B, 3HR, 7RBI, .450/.520/1.100
INF Andre Lipcius 9-for-20 4 2B 2 HR 10RBI .450/.500/.950
While Kerry Carpenter’s Friday night was one of the biggest ones on the season, Andre Lipcius has been quietly putting together a pretty good last few weeks. He is hitting .302 in May (19-for-63) and one of the few positional players in the system that has more walks than strikeouts.
The starting rotation has been solid all season but got a boost when Wilmer Flores got the call up from West Michigan. His Double-A debut was impressive. 5IP, 1H 1BB 7SO. Austin Bergner also had a strong outing, 5.2IP 2H 1BB 7SO.
Tom Reisenweber of GoErie.com did a nice article highlighting the rotation as he noted they lead the Eastern League in ERA with 2.99.
Andre Lipcius got tired of doubling to the opposite field so he pulls this one to left. It’s his 3rd double of the day and 9th of the season. @Greg_Gania has the call. pic.twitter.com/jVJFnyLxwT
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) May 21, 2022
West Michigan Whitecaps (4-2 at Fort Wayne) 18-21
1B Jake Holton 5HR 10RBI .333/.556/1.167
C Josh Crouch 8-for-16 .500/.619/.563
That home run stat above by Holton is no typo. He homered in the last four games of the Fort Wayne series and is just one away from tying the amount of home runs he hit last season.
Crouch has been with West Michigan since the beginning of May and continues to get more comfortable at the plate, hitting .366/.426/.488 in a Whitecaps uniform.
https://twitter.com/tigersMLreport/status/1528443678037094406?s=20&t=yZutXbBSwzmy3Zfwjuz2XA
Lakeland Flying Tigers (4-2 at Jupiter) 17-21
SS Manuel Sequera 10-for-24 .417/.417/.792 2HR 8RBI
3B Izaac Pacheco 8-for-21 .381/.409/.524 1HR 3RBI
RHP Garrett Burhenn 6IP 5H 1ER 9SO
Sequera had such a good week, he was named Player of the Week in the Florida State League.
#Tigers No. 13 prospect Manuel Sequera led the Florida State League in batting, home runs and RBIs for @LKDFlyingTigers. pic.twitter.com/HF835iglsW
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) May 23, 2022