Following Tiger prospects as AFL kicks off
The good news today for us prospect watchers is the Arizona Fall League started. The better news is it would appear the stadium where the Tigers' reps are playing their home games, for the Peoria Javelinas, has been outfitted with the equipment necessary to track pitch f/x.  Why is this good news? Well, by the end of the season we should have a pretty thorough idea of what all four of the Tigers' pitchers who are in the Arizona Fall League throw. Four pitchers? Yes. In addition to Robbie Weinhardt, Andy Oliver and Thad Weber, the Tigers decided to send Scot Drucker.  I'm not sure of the reasoning. The 27-year old minor league vet wo

What did the Tigers get from the 2009 draft?
Sitting at the computer, trying to think of how I wanted to attack recapping the season, I realized I haven't really taken a look at the players the Tigers took in the 2009 draft. This was a relief because to be honest, I'm not really sure how I want to look back at this past season. It seems like every grouping idea I come up (by team, by position) with has its shortcomings. That's a problem for another day, though. Today, I'm going to start digging into the players added to the system via the draft and their first seasons as pros. Let's start by taking a wide-angle look at what the Tigers did in the 2009 draft.  Most people are aware t

What did the Tigers get from the 2009 draft?
Sitting at the computer, trying to think of how I wanted to attack recapping the season, I realized I haven't really taken a look at the players the Tigers took in the 2009 draft. This was a relief because to be honest, I'm not really sure how I want to look back at this past season. It seems like every grouping idea I come up (by team, by position) with has its shortcomings. That's a problem for another day, though. Today, I'm going to start digging into the players added to the system via the draft and their first seasons as pros. Let's start by taking a wide-angle look at what the Tigers did in the 2009 draft.  Most people are aware t

Tigers will strive to help prospects with plate discipline
In his press conference that wasn't a press conference on Thursday, Dave Dombrowski is reported to have said there is going to be a system-wide effort to improve plate discipline with the batters.  You don't have to look too hard through the system to understand why he feels such an effort is necessary. I perused each of the domestic teams and time after time you find players who are said to be very talented and promising who - going by the stats - struggle with their plate discipline.  Now, I know walks and strikeouts aren't necessarily the pe

No Top Prospects in FSL for Tigers
Baseball America marched on through the Florida State League in their League Top 20 series, and to nobody's surprise they didn't name any Tigers as top prospects. Some good Tiger fan did sneak in the standard "any Tigers?" question for the chat (sub. req'd) about the league's prospects.J.J. Cooper, who assembled the list and ran the chat, singled out Robbie Weinhardt. He liked both Weinhardt's fastball and slider. That sounds to me like a pretty