Detroit Tigers Minor League Report: Week 7

Erie SeaWolves

The SeaWolves went 3-4 for the week, bringing their season record to 18-27. That mark has them in the basement in the Eastern League Western Division.

A Dominant Bullpen

Primarily in this space, we’ve focused on the glut of prospects in the Erie rotation. However, the recent run by the SeaWolves bullpen deserves mentioning. Since last Friday, Erie’s bullpen has surrendered just one run. Their dominant week included a stretch of a combined 23.0 innings without allowing a run.

Most teams use their top pitching prospects as starters in the minors, giving them more experience and innings to develop. As a result, minor league bullpens generally don’t have many guys considered to be on track to reach the majors.

The same is true of the current Erie bullpen. Only hard-throwing righty Gerson Moreno is featured on MLB Pipeline’s most recent top 30 list of Detroit Tigers prospects. Moreno has struggled with control at times, but has struck out 11 over his last three appearances. For the year, he owns a 4.41 ERA, with 20 strikeouts and 11 walks in 16.1 innings.

Righties Mark Ecker and John Schreiber have been solid all year. A 2016 fifth round pick, Ecker boasts a 2.96 ERA and has struck out more than a batter per inning. A native Michigander, Schreiber has gone four straight appearances without allowing a run. For the season, he sports a 3.20 ERA and leads Erie with four saves.

Since starting the season on the disabled list, righty Zac Houston has been very impressive. The 2016 11th rounder has fanned 20 in 14 innings, and yielded just six hits. A pair of recent additions from Lakeland have been chipping in, too. Right-hander Joe Navilhon and local lefty Trent Szkutnik have combined to toss four scoreless appearances since their promotion.

Sedio Joins the Offense

One of our favorites at the Minor League Report recently has been Chad Sedio. Sedio was hitting .319 in 37 games for Lakeland before earning his promotion to Erie this week. In his first game on Wednesday, he went 2-for-4.

Another player who started his season with the Flying Tigers is outfielder Danny Woodrow. Woodrow went 8-for-21 (.381) in five games for Lakeland before his promotion. He’s stayed hot since joining the SeaWolves lineup, hitting .324 through 10 games.

Lakeland Flying Tigers

In a week that featured a few rainouts, the Flying Tigers went 3-2 to climb to within a game of the .500 mark. Lakeland sits in third place in the Florida State League North Division at 21-22.

Faedo Bounces Back

Last week, we wondered how Alex Faedo would bounce back from his first rough start as a pro. He responded emphatically, blanking Tampa (N.Y. Yankees) on two hits over seven innings. Faedo earned the win for his effort, the first as a pro for last year’s first rounder.

Faedo’s outing also earned him the Florida State League Pitcher of the Week award. That makes it four straight weeks a Detroit Tigers minor leaguer has won a Pitcher of the Week award. A Tigers pitcher has now won a weekly award at each level this season, with Blaine Hardy (International League – AAA), Beau Burrows and Spencer Turnbull (Eastern League – AA), Alex Faedo (Florida State League – A+) and Eudis Idrogo (Midwest League – A) all being honored.

Elsewhere in the Lakeland rotation, lefty Gregory Soto continues to pile up the strikeouts and walks. After an 11-day layoff following a five-walk outing, Soto pitched well on Monday. The southpaw struck out seven in seven innings, and issued two walks.

Soto has posted high strikeout and walk rates throughout his minor league career. He’s fanning batters at a rate of 10.1/9 this year, right in line with his career rate of 10.0. However, his walk rate has jumped to 8.0/9, the highest since the 8.7 he put up as an 18-year old in 2013.

Pitching dominates any Detroit Tigers prospect list you’ll find, but the vast majority of them are righties. Soto is the most well-regarded of the lefties, but could become the next Jairo Labourt, if he doesn’t improve his control.

Power Surge

A big reason for the Flying Tigers recent improvement has been an improved offense. Daz Cameron is riding a nine-game hitting streak, and has boosted his average to .293. One of Detroit’s top outfield prospects, Cameron displayed some of the power he’s been missing since joining the organization, launching a pair of homers Wednesday night.

Cameron wasn’t the only Flying Tiger to go deep twice this week. First baseman Dylan Burdeaux homered twice on Tuesday, and drove in a career-high five. A 20th round pick last year, Burdeaux has been garnering the majority of the playing time at first for Lakeland since Blaise Salter was promoted to Erie.

West Michigan Whitecaps

The Whitecaps had a great week, winning six straight before a loss Thursday night. West Michigan stands at 26-20 for the year, three and a half games out of first place.

Manning Delivers Strong Outing

Matt Manning was dominant in his lone outing of the week. The Detroit Tigers 2016 first round pick dealt six scoreless frames, gave up three hits, one walk, and fanned nine. As has been the case all year, Manning’s strikeout rate continues to boggle the mind. The right-hander is up to 43 in 26.2 innings, for a rate of 14.4 per nine.

As we’ve noted before, Manning has had a tendency to struggle with control at times in his young professional career. It’s encouraging that the righty has walked just one in two of his last three starts.

An even better sign is the percentage of strikes he’s thrown. Since throwing a measly 54.7 percent strikes in his second start of the year, his strike percentage has increased with each outing. On Tuesday, he threw 66.7 percent of his pitches for strikes, a season-high.

Dynamic Duo Promoted

Throughout the season, we’ve documented the dominance of Venezuelan righties Eudis Idrogo and Wladimir Pinto. Both of them earned well-deserved promotions to Lakeland this week.

Idrogo posted a 0.49 ERA in six starts for the Whitecaps and made his debut for the Flying Tigers on Tuesday. Coming on in relief, he gave up three hits and three runs in two-thirds of an inning.

Pinto had been even more dominant as West Michigan’s closer. Prior to his promotion, the 20-year old had not allowed a run in 16.2 innings. His strikeout rate was 16.2/9, and opponents hit .077 against him. Like Idrogo, he didn’t have the Lakeland debut he was hoping for. Pinto gave up two runs on three hits in an inning of relief work on Wednesday, although he did earn the win.

2017 Draft Picks Heating Up

Last year’s second rounder Rey Rivera and 22nd rounder Colby Bortles had good weeks at the plate to supplement the strong Whitecaps pitching. Rivera went 8-for-23 (.348) for the week and drove in seven. The hot week raised his average to .273, and his 20 RBIs are fourth on the team, despite missing the first few weeks due to injury.

Bortles went 8-for20 (.400) to boost his season average .257. While .257 isn’t great, it’s a lot better than the .216 mark he was at a month ago. He also added seven RBIs in his five games to take over the team lead with 23.

Next: What can the Tigers expect from the No. 1 pick?

That wraps up another week of the Detroit Tigers Minor League Report. Make sure to check back each Friday for the latest news and updates from around the system.