Tigers Minor League Wrap 5-19-08

Toledo 10 Columbus 0
The homer barrage continues with Mike Hollimon hitting 2 (10 in the last 8 games) and Timo Perez and Nick Trzesniak joining him with a pair apiece and Freddy Guzman hit one. So today the Mud Hens hit as many homers as the Tigers have since May 3rd. Casey Fossum fanned 10 in 7 shut out innings.

Erie 10 Binghamton 5

Max St. Pierre homered, walked, and added 2 singles. Wil Rhymes had a 3 hit day and Wilkin Ramirez had 2 hits and a walk. Danny Christensen allowed 5 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings.

Palm Beach 0 Lakeland 4
Jonah Nickerson allowed 1 hit and 1 walk while fanning 8 in 7 shut out innings. Brennan Boesch had 3 hits. Jeramy Laster homered, singled, and walked.

West Michigan 4 Lansing 2

Jon Kibler pitched a complete game allowing only 2 hits. He walked 1 and fanned 8. Casper Wells walked twice and singled. Jordan Newton tripled and drove in two runs.

7 thoughts on “Tigers Minor League Wrap 5-19-08”

  1. Jonah Nickerson has to be just about hitting the wall at Single A, no? Either move up or retire.

  2. Can we just send down the entire regular Tiger lineup to Toledo and replace them with the Mud Hen lineup? I seriously think that they will do much better.

  3. Time to start thinking about future trades before the deadline, when teams who are in contention are more likely to deal good prospects (like catcher position). Also, should bring up Hessman and/or Larish to see what they can do at the major league level. Some of the SP in minor leagues look to be within a year away of challenging for the rotation. Like it’s a challenge now???

  4. David G. – Is this an ironic remark in response to some common sentiment about Nickerson? If it is, fine. If it isn’t, I don’t see where it’s coming from.

    Why would you say he’s hitting a wall at Single A? His near no-hitter was great, but his performance thus far certainly doesn’t scream for a promotion. That’s fine, too.

    He’s on a pretty standard progression through the minors, and considering his repertoire I don’t understand the impatience for him to contribute. He’s what, eight starts into the season? That’s still very early in the season and there’s no need to hurry a guy who has been an injury concern ever since he was drafted.

  5. But isn’t he like 24 years old? And isn’t that considered on the older side to be at that level? I was being quite serious with my comment, I like the guy, just wondering why he’s not moving up the chain at this point, cause he’s not getting any younger.

  6. Well, he hasn’t really pitched that well save for two exceptional starts this year. As Matt has already said, he’s been on the normal path and hasn’t exactly demonstrated the need to stray from that path. He’s been very mediocre so far.

  7. Okay, the tone of that second comment was quite a bit different from the first post. The extremity of “move up or retire” was what made me wonder if it was a parody.

    Also, don’t get caught up too much in age relative to league. It’s important to consider in tempering excitment/disappointment with prospects, but so is considering guys’ individual cases.

    Nickerson was shelved for a while to let him recover from a tired arm, and when he came back he pitched pretty well. He started slowly again this year, and hopefully is now taking a step in the right direction. It certainly doesn’t hurt him or the Tigers to wait and see if he’s putting it together or just had a couple good starts.

    His age will probably keep people skeptical until he makes a successful jump to AA and AAA, but there is not some magical level to where if you haven’t succeeded at x level by x age, you should either be released or retire.

    Look at Eddie Bonine. The Tigers got him in the minor league Rule 5, and now he’s probably 7th or 8th on the Tigers’ starting pitching depth chart.

Comments are closed.