Detroit Tigers Minor League Report: Week 4

Lakeland Flying Tigers

The Flying Tigers went 3-3 for the week, bringing their season mark to 12-15. They are currently five games out of first place in the Florida State League North Division.

Each week, we’ve been chronicling the starts of last year’s Detroit Tigers first round pick, Alex Faedo. Faedo was solid again this week, although he did have his first bit of trouble with walks.

Faedo walked three, having walked just one total in his first four outings. There doesn’t seem to be much cause for concern however, as the righty still threw more than two-thirds of his 94 pitches for strikes.

He also surrendered just three hits and one earned run over six innings, while striking out four. Through five starts, Faedo now owns a 2.48 ERA, 0.76 WHIP, and .175 opponents’ batting average.

Blaine Hardy wasn’t the only Detroit Tigers farmhand to record double-digit strikeouts in the last week. Lefty Austin Sodders struck out 10 in five innings on Tuesday against Clearwater (Philadelphia).

Sodders was a seventh round pick of the Tigers in 2016 out of UC Riverside. The southpaw entered 2018 with a 1.92 ERA over the course of his first two minor league seasons. It’s been an up-and-down start to the campaign for Sodders, but a 10-strikeout performance shows he’s more than capable of making some noise in the system.

The Offense

After a little bit of a slow start, Daz Cameron’s bat has started to heat up. Cameron has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games, raising his average to .283. Cameron has also shown a good power stroke with eight doubles thus far, one shy of the Florida State League lead.

When the Detroit Tigers acquired the toolsy outfielder, they knew what they were getting in terms of defense and speed. It’s good to see the improvement in power he showed last year has stuck around, too.