1957 SPRING TRAINING
-No big news this spring training. We got some positive feedback on a lot of our young players and most of our old guys maintained. Really no serious ups or downs on anyone that I can tell at the moment.
POST SPRING TRAINING TRADE
-We've sent Bud Ulrich to Baltimore for a nice SP prospect Bill Lovely and an interesting 3B/2B Larry Long. Bill will start the season at Buffalo-AAA and Larry will start at 3B at LittleRock-AA.
Bill Lovely looks to be a pitcher who relies on his excellent control. At 24, he already rivals that of Roy Wolfe and John Nolting in that ability. He should also be a decent strike out pitcher if he develops into the player we for see in him. I just worry about the lack of movement on his fastball. He's going to give up some dingers when he pitches in Tiger Stadium. But hopefully most of them will just be solo shots as he should be very good at not loading the bases up with walks.
Larry Long reminds me of a young Luther Ormistion. Only with more speed, but less eye for drawing walks. Larry is decent defensively at 3B and can cover 2B in a pinch. He's got a strong arm. He may not be starter material right away, but he should be at the very least a competent backup and a scary PH to bring in with runners on base as he has excellent GAP and HR hitting potential.
DEPTH CHART
C - 30yo Gale Adams should get the majority of starts for now. He hit .209 last year with 10 HR in 187 at bats but we hope to see him improve on those number quite a bit if given consistent at bats. He didn't get much PT as we really relied on Dirtbag Degal to carry our offense last year especially with two-thirds of our OF out for a good chunk of the year. Gale was been a consistent hitter in AAA the last several years. In '55 he hit .329, 40HR, 116RBI.
C - 28yo Lonnie Jolly is pretty much on our active roster because we don't have a better option right now. He's a decent defensive catcher who had a nice arm for throwing out runners. He'll get most of his at bats against LHP. But if we get another 3B or C, Jolly will be the first guy sent down. Our 18 y/o 2nd round pick Will Hundley could pass Jolly talent wise in a year or two if all goes well.
C - 18yo Will Hundley (starting for Augusta-A) was our 2nd round pick of this year and looks to be a all around decent hitter. Like Lonnie and Gale, he's also very competent behind the plate with a good throwing arm. He shows some serious leadership skills which I think is very important behind the plate. The biggest knocks on him are that he's been injury prone and has little base running speed.
1B - 33yo Jim Coleman takes over for a retired Kitterman at 1B. Jim is a solid hitter with nice power to the gaps and also has some HR pop. He started for us at 3B last year but did so with very little range. Jim is much more solid at 1B defensively. He hit .301, 23HR, 106RBI last year in 145 games. Hopefully he'll stay healthy and help Kress get on the career leaderboard in runs.
1B - 32yo George "The Instigator" Young has returned to backup 1B. He's not much of a hitter as injuries and lack of starting time in the majors have seriously eroded his skills. But he's very solid defensively and does hit with power when he does hit.
1B - 21yo Rye Allen honestly should be backing up 1B instead of Young when you look at their current skill level. We picked him up in the Degal trade this year and sent him to LittleRock-AA to work on be his contact. Rye is solid defensively and has excellent power hitting potential. We really don't want to rush him as he needs at bats to grow as a hitter and there is little chance of him unseating Coleman quite yet.
2B - 34yo Matt "The Whale" Perly returns to his preferred position. He spent a good part of last season at RF due to injuries to our OF. Last year was not good for Perly as he hit a dismal .259 and only managed 29HR in 144 games. Hopefully, he'll be more comfortable back at 2B and has a solid rebound year left in him. Matt is on the Career Leaderboards in HR (#11) & RBI (#24).
2B - 26yo Mark Shirley will be backing up 2B, SS, & 3B until Nasty Camacho or Luke Logan are ready for call up. Shirley can also cover CF and RF. Mark hit .196, 29R, 13SB last year. He's always a threat to steal when on base but isn't a good enough hitter to stay in the majors very long as anything other than a versatile glove and PR type.
2B - 21yo Luke Logan (starting 2B at Buffalo-AAA) was another Degal trade pickup. He's has excellent range at 2B and good speed. He looks to be a decent contact hitter, but his bread and butter will be drawing walks and stealing bases. He has no HR potential and can't bunt to save his life. But we see him as our future at 2B hitting lead off when Perly looks like he's ready to leave the starting lineup.
SS - 35yo Dave Castaneda is still very good at drawing walks and a decent contact hitter. Other than maybe Kress, Dave is pretty much our only decent leadoff option after trading away Mike Kreitenberg. We hope he can hold down the fort for a couple more season as we have no rock solid SS prospects in our minor leagues at the moment. Dave had a solid year at the plate last year hitting .301 in 137 games but his other numbers were down a bit after being displaced as our leadoff hitter by Kreitenberg. Now that he's back to lead off we hope to see him reach triple digits in walks again this year.
SS - 34yo Joe Starling is pretty much a defensive replacement as Shirly is getting most of the backup minutes right now. Joe is slow, injury prone and not a very good hitter. But he's a better defensive option than Shirley when we need to close out an inning late in a game.
SS - 32yo Elroy Lundberg (starting SS at Buffalo-AAA) continues to tease with half way decent contact hitting potential and a good eye, but doesn't ever seem to want to reach his full potential. He's a decent hitter to the gaps on a good day. He's slow and isn't all that hot defensively, but would be called up to start SS if Castaneda went down with a long term injury. We really need to focus on getting a good SS in the next draft or two.
3B - 33yo Ben Lutske is starting at 3B for now. He's very solid there defensively with a strong arm. He's hits to the gap well and has equal HR talent. He hit .259 for Boston last year. He also hit 17HR which was near a career high for him. But we hope to see him destroy that career high of 19 hitting playing in Tiger stadium and getting the extra at bats he'll get playing 3B. He would slide back to a starting C spot if Nasty Camacho prove that he deserves to start at 3B.
3B - 19yo Nestor "Nasty" Camacho (starting 3B at Buffalo) is next in line at 3B. He was the 11th overall pick in this last draft. Nasty should be a consistent contact hitter with decent gap and HR power. He's a half way decent 3B defensively and can cover SS & 2B in a pinch. He's very well developed for his age and will hopefully earn a spot on our active roster fairly soon.
3B - 24yo Larry Long (starting 3B at LittleRock-AA) was picked up in the Ulrich trade at the end of spring training. He is faster than Nestor and has more power hitting potential, but doesn't look to be nearly as developed or have as much contact hitting potential. He should be a scary PH option when we have guys on base and should be able to backup both 3B & 2B.
LF - 37yo Ray "The Boss" Kress missed half of last year with a broken ankle returning only for the very last game of the season. He's an awesome contact hitter with excellent power when pitchers actually throw him something hittable. Unfortunately he's spent much of the last couple of seasons drawing a ton of walks. We worked with him in spring training to focus on being more active at the plate, but who knows if he will get back to the 40+ HR potential. With Degal gone we need Kress' heavy bat to pick up the slack. Last year's .281 in 80 games was an extreme low point of his career thus far. He's a career .334, .466OBP hitter. On the Career Leaderboards, he's #22 in AVG, #2 in HR, #5 in walks. He's also knocking on the door in runs and RBIs. But we need the old Kress back for him to accomplish those.
LF - 33yo Pete Short only hit .189 in 93 games last year, but is really on our club for his gold glove quality defense at all OF spots.
LF - 24yo Kurt "Knuckles" Knox (starting LF at Augusta-A) is a decent contact hitting lefty with nice HR power potential. He's got a decent glove in LF and RF. He seems to be progressing slowly but surely. Hopefully he'll earn a promotion to AA soon.
CF - 35yo Rollin Fish hit .253, 23HR, 80RBI. That's a fairly normal season for him offensively. He's got good speed and is a very good OF defensively anywhere in the OF. He's consistent and at times clutch. He's been start in CF since '49 and it doesn't look like he'll be displace anytime real soon.
CF - Pete Short, see above
CF - 22yo Lester Finley (starting CF at Augusta-A) looks to be similar in talent as Fish on offense... basically just a decent all around hitter with a little bit of foot speed. He's not as versatile or have anywhere near Fish's range. Lester isn't exactly my ideal CF, but is the best we've got in the minors right now. He could cover RF in a pinch as well.
RF - 33yo Isaac Mitchell is a straight up contact hitter. He'll occasionally surprise you with an HR, but is really a singles and doubles hitter. He's an aggressive swinger - doesn't draw a lot of walks. He's got a solid glove but not much range defensively. He hit .337 last year but only managed 110 games due to injury. He's a .300 career hitter who has no threat of losing his job this year.
RF - Pete Short, see above
RF 22yo Jack "Big Brother" Caufield (starting RF at LittleRock-AA) is another key piece to the Degal trade. He has the potential to be a much better OBP guy than Mitchell due to having a bit more patience at the plate and he has a ton more HR power potential. He's got an error free glove in RF, an excellent arm and decent range. I'm hoping he earns a promotion to AAA before the end of the year.
SP - 35yo John "Notch" Nolting looks to be our ace this year. Good stuff, excellent control and movement, 96mph fastball, good at holding runners. He didn't look comfortable in his Tiger uniform last year and missed some starts with an injury. We are hoping for a rebound year out of him. Otherwise, he'll quickly become trade bait.
SP - 36yo Hal Andrew has taken a few talent dings recently. He finished last year 20-11, 3.60. He's #18 on the Career Leaderboard in strikeouts. He uses his slow fastball, change up, and slider well enough to consistently make it into the top 10 in Ks each year. He's gone from ace to our #2.
SP - 35yo Roy Wolfe relies on his good control and strikeout ability to keep him self out of trouble. Like Hal, he doesn't throw very hard. He's a high endurance pitcher who finished last year 18-14, 3.69. Off pace from his last two seasons, but still a solid #3 pitcher.
SP - 37yo Sonny Faulkner replaces Ulrich as our #4 starter. He's like Wolfe in that he's a control pitcher with decent stuff. A little less endurance but a much harder thrower. The movement on his pitches has really dropped making him a big threat to give up HRs. But really not a bad guy to roll out there as your #4.
SP - 35you Walter Pond is next in line. He won't strike folks out much, but he's still got some of that consistency, control, and movement on his pitches that make him a decent #4 option if anything were to happen to anyone in my current rotation.
CL - 23yo John Patterson also missed a lot of games last year due to injury. He has phenomenal control, throws hard, is excellent at holding runners and has a lot of movement on his pitches. He's consistent and clutch. He has just about everything you can ask for in a closer. Not bad for someone so young. Oh yea and he's a MI native giving the home fans extra incentive to see him sprint out from the BP.
SP - 23yo Randy "Can't Faze" Bazer (SP for Buffalo-AAA) was the 5th pick in the last draft. He's a hard thrower. Excellent stuff with good control and movement. He has no defensive range so any line drive up the middle is sure to go through. But otherwise a very good pitching prospect.
SP - 24yo Bill Lovely is the key piece of the Ulrich trade. He's one of the top 3 rated SP prospects. He's a decent all around pitcher with awesome control. His control exceed even Wolfe and Nolting at the moment. He's starting for Buffalo-AAA. But I could see him being called up and inserted into the rotation this year if we decide we need to trade another vet. Like Wolfe and Faulkner we worry about him giving up dingers in Tiger stadium due to less than stellar movement on his pitches, but hopefully his excellent control and good stuff will keep runners off base and thus limit the inevitable HRs to solo shots.