Tigers Add Hitting Support

No, its not what you think.  The Tigers didn’t go out and sign a Free Agent or trade for a hitter.  Instead, according to Chris Iott at MLive, Minor League Hitting Coordinator Toby Harrah will be joining Lloyd McClendon for the rest of the season at the MLB level to work with several of the slumping hitters (see – Brennan Boesch).  While the Tigers are 5th in batting average and 6th in runs scored, they only rank 8th in slugging.

One has to think that rank in SLG will be a focus for Harrah (or perhaps McClendon, with Harrah focusing on maintaining the contact rates).  The Tigers have several hitters that they were counting on to produce big numbers this year.  While the (re)emergence of Austin Jackson and the partial season from Andy Dirks and Quintin Berry have helped out, the Tigers still need strong second halves from a few of Boesch, Jhonny Peralta, Alex Avila, Delmon Young and fan favorite Ryan Raburn.