Detroit Tigers Weekly Minor League Recap: Dominant Dingler

Detroit Tigers Minor League Recap – Week 2

Lakeland Flying Tigers, 5-7, 5th (4.0 GB) in the Low-A Southeast, West Division

Down in Lakeland the Flying Tigers hosted the Tampa Tarpons for six games, but they couldn’t keep their bats going with any consistency and went 2-4 on the week. Lakeland managed just three hits in Tuesday’s 5-1 loss, but they bounced back in a huge way on Wednesday, scoring ten times in the first two innings on the way to a 15-4 drubbing. The bottom of the order did most of the damage, with Jimmy Kerr, Dane Myers, and Eric De La Rosa combining to go 6-for-13 with 9 RBIs. On Thursday it was the running game and pitching staff helping the Flying Tigers to a 3-2 victory, with the team going 8-for-8 on stolen base attempts, and Michael Bienlien, Isrrael De La Cruz, and Bryce Tassin combining to strike out 8 over 5.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Unfortunately that was the last win of the week for the Flygers. The Tarpons took Friday’s game 7-4, holding Lakeland to just four hits and spoiling another strong start from Joseph Salazar (4IP, H, 0ER, BB, 5K). The Flying Tigers managed just five hits on both Saturday and Sunday, falling 8-2 and 4-1. Sunday’s game was particularly frustrating, as Tampa only recorded two hits, and starter Gio Arriera (5IP, 0H, 0ER, 4BB, 7K) was solid. Both hits came in a four-run 9th inning that also included four walks and two steals, and that was enough for the Tarpons to secure the win.

• Among the 25 players with at least nine innings pitched in the league this year, Salazar ranks first in WHIP (0.44) and Batting Average Against (.069), and he’s one of three who haven’t allowed a run, joining his teammate Bienlien.
• Lakeland owns the worst team OPS in the league at .630, but they are toward the middle of the pack in runs scored (60) thanks in part to 25 stolen bases, which ranks second.
• The site Minor League Splits offers a convenient place to look at the Statcast data generated by teams in the Low-A Southeast league, and there we can see Kerr (111.8), Workman (110.1), and Jose De La Cruz (109.3) have all posted excellent max exit velocities already.