Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

Pitching wasn’t the Hens strong point.  Five pitchers threw more then 100 innings and their ERA’s ranged from 3.13 to 5.65. Here are some highlights.

Andrew Oliver – Oliver had a mixed bag season.  He was vaulted over by Jacob Turner as far as spot starts for the Tigers and while he threw 147 innings and struck out 143, he had a rough WHIP of 1.56.  His ERA was 4.71 and he walked 80 guys which isn’t going to cut it.  The potential is there, he just needs to find some control.

Duane Below – Below ended up with the Tigers for a nice chunk of the season but when he was with the Hens, he was probably their best pitcher.  He struck out 83 in 115 innings and he finished with a 3.13 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP.  His record was 9-4 and that win total was the best on the team.

With all of the back and forth, it’s hard to pick an “Offensive MVP” for the Hens.  Still, here were some of the better performances.

Ryan Strieby – Strieby showed some durability this year and he played in 130 games.  Nobody else played in more although Strieby’s prospect days appear to be behind him.  He had a team high 19 home runs and 76 RBIs and while his OPS was a decent .770, it was nothing to write home about.  Even worse, Strieby is effectively blocked and his outfield experiment came to end because he either played first base or DH’ed the entire season.

Will Rhymes – He hit .306 and he was second to Strieby amongst hitters in OPS who played more then 100 games for the Hens.  His .390 slugging is a problem though and he showed little to no power and he finished with just 24 RBIs in 405 at bats.   So the batting average was there, it was just pretty hollow.

Timo Perez – Speaking of hollow, Timo Perez led the team in hits but he actually had less of an OPS then Rhymes because he walked only 29 times.  Perez led the team with 32 doubles and he hit .304.