Pulse Check

Soooooooooooooooo, mournful Tiger fans, how are you feeling three days removed from crushing disappointment? To be honest, I’m a little slow to shake this one off. Rogo of DesigNate Robertson was laughing at my pain yesterday. One good turn deserves another, so here are some funnies about his beloved Fighting Irish.

Sunday is the day I should have been attending a playoff game at Comerica Park. Hmmm. THAT’s gonna be a good day--more depression, another round of anger management classes, numerous tears to be shed. Sigh.

Arizona Fall League, I hope you’re full of interesting story lines this year. We’re going to need a distraction.

Prospects and Problems

You may have heard by now that the Mesa Solar Sox lost 10-4 in the AFL Championship to the Phoenix Desert Dogs, who garnered their fifth straight title.  Our Tiger prospects performed well, however.  Jeff Larish hit a two-run homer, and Casper Wells had an RBI double.

The Detroit Free Press has nice pieces on both Larish and Wells in today's paper.  

My resolution to remain unflappable in the face of troubling hot stove rumors has been tested early on.  Ian over at Bless You Boys reports that the Pirates may be trying to obtain catcher Matt Treanor from the Marlins and then package him with Jack Wilson in trade to the Tigers.

Um, why are we continually linked to players that do not fit the needs we have?

Lugo, Wilson?  Are the Tigers going to buy me a wig when I pull all my hair out?

I've posted this comment before, and I'll repeat it here.  I'm stating the obvious here, but apparently these facts are not crystallized in our management's mind.  WE NEED DEFENSE AND SPEED.  Since DD and Leyland are mysteriously hung up on Santiago's durability and refuse to give him a go, then in my mind, we should pursue someone like Cesar Izturis, who would be in our price range, and is stellar defensively and is speedy on the base paths.  I know his offense isn't much, but we aren't going after top tier SS free agents.

That's all I'm going to say on this subject, for fear of breaking my vow not to be caught in the malevolent rumor maelstrom.

AFL Finale

The Mesa Solar Sox are playing in the AFL Championship game tomorrow at 2:30 pm Eastern.  The game is being shown on MLB.TV.  The lineup, which features three of our Tigers prospects, was voted on by the players. 

Jeff Larish is playing 1B and batting cleanup, Casper Wells is out in right and batting 7th, and Will Rhymes rounds out Tiger representation at 2B, batting 9th.  It's possible that Casey Fien would make a relief appearance in the game.  He last pitched Nov. 18, and allowed no runs, no hits over one inning, with 2 strikeouts.

The Sox are playing the Phoenix Desert Dogs, which are attempting to secure their fifth straight AFL championship.

The starting pitcher for the Sox is Braves youngster Tommy Hanson, who boasts a sick 5-0 record, with a 0.63 ERA, 1.05 opponent batting average, and 49 strikeouts over 28 2/3 innings.  

AFL Player of the Week: Casper Wells

Detroit prospect and outfielder Casper Wells has been named Week 6 POTW for the Arizona Fall League.   He's also seen some time (5 games) at first in the AFL, although that isn't very relevant for the Tigers, since we've got a certain young slugger entrenched there already, along with an abundance of other first base "types," not the least of which is Jeff Larish, another prospect and AFL Solar Sox teammate of Wells.  Nice run-on sentence, and notice how I refer to the Tigers and myself as "we," as if the club consults me often on matters of great importance.

MLB.com reports that:

"The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Tiger prospect belted five home runs last week and drove in 12 runs while hitting .350 with seven extra-base hits and a 1.200 slugging percentage."

Wells average over 19 AFL games is .318, and he's got 7 HRs and 21 RBI.  Casper bats righty, by the way, so no lefty help for the big club there.

As for base-running, Wells swiped 25 bases last year (total between A West MI and AA Erie) and was caught 8 times.   In the AFL, he's got 4 steals, but has also been caught stealing 4 times.

Our Solar Sox prospects are shining.  Now if only we could charter a fan bus to Mesa for a fall league game.

More Arizona Fall League

Some stats from our AFL players, playing for the Mesa Solar Sox.  Jeff Larish hit the spotlight in a piece on Tigers.com, trying to improve versatility so he can land on the 2009 big-league roster.

In his AFL blog, Zach Simons reports that Casper Wells must lead the league in HBP.  He also says that Jeff Larish has the hot stick after a bit of a slow start.   He now has 3 HR, and leads the league in RBIs.  Zach himself had 5 scoreless innings after his (not so great) first outing.

Hitting:

Jeff Larish:  playing 1B & 3B, 19 G, 81 AB, 21 RBI, 10 BB, 15 SO, .309 AVG, .494 SLG, .376 OBP, .870 OPS

Will Rhymes:  2B, 16 G, 71 AB, 7 RBI, 4 BB, 9 SO, .296 AVG, .310 SLG, .329 OBP, .639 OPS

Casper Wells:  CF, 13 G, 42 AB, 9 RBI, 6 BB, 13 SO, .286 AVG, .452 SLG, .455 OBP, .907 OPS

Pitching

Luis Marte, 2-1, 6.00 ERA, 4 G, 12.0 IP, 4 BB, 16 SO, 1.83 WHIP

Casey Fien, 2-0, 0.84 ERA, 8 G, 10.2 IP, 0 BB, 11 SO, 0.75 WHIP--no walks, he might deserve a shot based on that alone!

Zach Simons, 0-1, 3.86 ERA, 8 G, 9.1 IP, 5 BB, 4 SO, 1.50 WHIP

Rudy Darrow, 1-0, 2.89 ERA, 8 G, 9.1 IP, 4 BB, 13 SO, 1.29 WHIP

Again, it's difficult, because this remains a small sample size, and the season ends Nov. 20, and these numbers aren't put up against current big league talent, but it's still fun to check in on these youngsters.

Arizona Fall League

OK.  I know I said that I didn't count the Arizona Fall League, because you can't watch it except in person (as far as  I know).  However, it's important to keep up on Tigers' prospects, right?  Anyway, I needed a little education on the AFL anyway, so I did a little digging.

The Tigers have seven players in the AFL playing for the Mesa Solar Sox.  They are pitchers Zach Simons, Casey Fien, Rudy Darrow and Louis Marte, and three position players, Jeff Larish, Casper Wells and Will Rhymes.

You've probably already heard about how Casey Fien is tearing up the AFL.  He's now boasting a 0.00 ERA over 4 games, 6.2 innings.  He's got two wins, no losses and 8 strikeouts.  Last year he played for Erie and Toledo, and was 5-3 with a 2.82 ERA over 52 games, 60.2 innings, and a .231 average against.

I'm going to do some more stat work, but it's early in the season, which started October 7, and runs through November 20.  The Solar Sox are currently 7-5.

If you're interested in the AFL, or in checking in on Tigers prospects, here is MLB's AFL web site:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/winterleagues/?league=afl

Pitching prospect Zach Simons is blogging for MLB/the Tigers during the AFL season.  Not only do you get an inside look at the AFL, you get to know a young prospect, and Casper Wells has already done a guest blog piece.  Zach's blog can be found at:

http://afltigers.mlblogs.com

This is a veritable gold-mine of information that will keep me afloat during the dark, Tiger-less days of fall & winter.