Detroit Tigers: Jake Rogers and Eric Hasse need to stay

Last night, we witness the Detroit Tigers play one of their better games of the season in their first win in Seattle in three years.  A key aspect of the Tigers’ victory was the play of Jake Rogers and Casey Mize as it was a simpatico relationship in motion for a second consecutive start.

Since Jake Rogers has been called up, he has made the most of his second chance, with a home run and providing solid defense behind the plate.  Manager A.J Hinch said this recently about Jake Rogers’s recent call-up to the beat writers:

“This is probably the least amount of pressure anyone could be under in the sense that we’re going to take any positive performance we can get,” Hinch said. “He’s not a young kid anymore. He’s maturing and he should be able to handle this.

He knows who is behind him in prospects Dillon Dingler and Cooper Johnson. I thought he had a chance to make the team as a backup out of spring training but did not hit enough. He took it in stride when he headed back to Toledo.  Since then, Rogers has played a mentor’s role among the younger prospects there and in spring training. This is a perfect opportunity for Rogers to shore up the team’s defense behind the plate, which is 28th overall in fWAR at minus 0.7.

Detroit Tigers Manager A.J Hinch likes versatility.

As far as Eric Haase goes, one of our contributors Kellen compared Eric Haase to former Houston Astro and Atlanta Brave outfielder and catcher, Even Gattis aka “El Oso Blanco” and I am here for that.

Since spring training and watching Haase hit at the Toledo alt-site a few times, Haase has hit the ball well, showed he could play left field in addition to first base, which serves the Detroit Tigers at the right opportunity.

With Willi Castro sitting out a second night in a row, having Schoop play his natural position at second and splitting first base duties with Miguel Cabrera with the power he possesses makes sense should they decide that Castro needs to be set down to Toledo.

The team looks better with Schoop at second, where he made a nice play last night and his bat seems to be heating up again.  (8-for-24, .333/.360/.542 with an OPS of .902 in his last six games)

While the sample size for Haase is small and teams in time will adjust, it is worth noting the positional versatility that is provided along with the power when he does run into one may help the Tigers, who are 26th in home runs with 39.

After a rough April, the Tigers are 7-7 and with Rogers in the lineup, they are 4-1. Why mess with something that seems to be working?