Alex Faedo, Beau Burrows turn in dominant outings

West Michigan Whitecaps

West Michigan endured a tough week, losing five of six. The Whitecaps sit in a tie for sixth place in the Midwest League Eastern Division’s second half standings with a 12-15 record. Their overall mark also dropped below .500 this week to 48-49.

Myers Rebounds

Following the worst start of his young professional career, Dane Myers bounced back in a big way Monday. After giving up six runs on five hits and two walks in two-thirds of an inning the week prior, Myers fired six shutout frames to get back on track.

The 2017 sixth rounder out of Rice sports a 3.58 ERA in 11 starts for West Michigan this season. He’s allowed one earned run or fewer in seven of the 11, and yielded more than three earned runs twice. After posting a 2.33 ERA in 46.1 innings with Connecticut last year, Myers may be turning into an under-the-radar prospect for the Tigers.

Clemens, Deatherage Continue Strong Debuts

Kody Clemens and Brock Deatherage have both impressed in the first month since they were selected in the draft. The Detroit Tigers third round pick, Clemens owns a .246/.367/.369 slash line. The average doesn’t jump off the page at you, but after going hitless in his first two games, he’s hit safely in 13 of his last 16, and had an eight-game hitting streak snapped Wednesday.

The more impressive number is the on-base percentage. Through 18 games, Clemens has drawn 12 walks, and struck out 11 times. Walking more than you strike out at any level is impressive, but doing it while seeing professional pitching for the first time is incredible.

Drafted in the 10th round, Deatherage quickly became a favorite of ours here at Motor City Bengals thanks to the scorching hot start to his pro career. He quickly earned a promotion to West Michigan, and continued to rake.

Deatherage collected three more multi-hit games this week, and owns a .308 average in 24 games with the Whitecaps. For the first month or so of his pro career, he slashed .330/.404/.600.

Lescher Key Piece in ‘Pen

Righty Billy Lescher began his season with a scoreless inning for West Michigan on April 7. A few days later, he landed on the disabled list and missed the next two months.

Lescher returned to action when Connecticut began their season last month. He made three appearances for the Tigers, allowing just two hits in seven innings, before being sent back to the Whitecaps.

Since his return, Lescher has continued to roll. Through nine outings and 17.1 total innings this season, he has yet to allow an earned run. His most recent appearance came on Monday. Lescher tossed three scoreless frames, allowed one hit and fanned three. A 17th round pick a year ago, he owns a 1.54 career ERA, and a strikeout rate of 10.1/9.