Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

Rick Porcello lost his first game of the season for the Hens in a tough start.  He gave up five runs on ten hits and three walks with three strikeouts in six innings.  Ryan Perry also had a rough outing in the 7-3 loss.  He gave up an unearned run on one hit and two walks with a strikeout in 1 2/3 innings.

Will Rhymes had another nice game and he went three for five with a triple and two runs.  Brent Dlugach went two for four with a double.

Alright, John Sickels released his top 20 Tigers prospects and he has an interesting take on the state (or lack there of) of the Tigers minor league system.  There’s little argument as to numbers one (Rick Porcello) and two (Ryan Perry), but I thought Brett Jacobson was an interesting number three.  Still, after that, we’re already in the C+ so you could make an argument as to any of those guys moving up or down. 

One guy who doesn’t get enough love is Ryan Strieby.  He didn’t even make the top 20, yet he had a very nice season last year.  Baseball America’s list is somewhat different, although my favorite list is Kevin Goldstein’s so I’m interesting to see what he puts out there.

Rick Porcello threw the first five innings of a seven inning no hitters as Lakeland topped St. Lucie 4-1. Porcello gave up just two walks and he was actually nailed for a run with a strikeout. Porcello continues to shine at Lakeland and he’s now evened his record at 6-6. His strikeout numbers aren’t nothing amazing, but he’s walked just 28 while keeping the ball on the ground. The end result is a 2.91 ERA and that was after a rough outing in his last start.

Ryan Strieby accounted for the bulk of the Flying Tigers offense. He homered for the nineteenth time this season and he drove in three of the Tigers four runs.

While you wouldn’t know it from his now 3-6 record, Rick Porcello has had a very solid season.  First, as a 19 year old, he should be over his head but in twelve starts, he still has a 2.87 ERA.  He’s kept the ball on the ground and while opponents have hit .255 against him and his 36 strikeouts in 62 2/3 innings isn’t all that special, he’s given up just four homers and seventeen walks.  Today was probably his toughest start so far though.  He gave up four runs on nine hits and three walks with a strikeout in 4 2/3 innings.  It was his shortest start of the season since he threw four innings in Lakeland’s opener.

Jeramy Laster was the hitting star.  He went two for three with a double and a walk.

Lakeland and Palm Beach needed eleven innings to finsh a game that saw a combined 23 runs and 33 hits.  Rick Porcello had one of his worst starts of the season and he gave up four runs in five innings while Zach Simons picked up the win with a shutout eleventh inning.

Santo De Leon went three for six with a homerun, three RBIs and two runs.  Jeramy Laster blasted a three run homer in the ninth to tie the game up (the Flying Tigers came back from a seven run deficit).

Rick Porcello didn’t get the win, but he had another nice start in Lakeland’s 4-1 win over Dunedin.  He gave up just one run on five hits and a walk with five strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.  Zach Simons got the final batter out in the sixth and he got the win while Guillermo Moscoso had an impressive outing.  He struck out five of the six batters he faced over two perfect innings.

Jeramy Laster and Brandon Timm both hit solo shots.  Brennan Boesch went three for four with a double and a run.

Rick Porcello improved to 2-4 on the season in Lakeland’s 9-2 win over St. Lucie.  He gave up three hits and three walks with two strikeouts in six innings.

Cale Iorg singled, homered and drove in three runs in the win.  Santo De Leon went two for five with a run and an RBI.

Jeramy Laster had a heck of a game.  He belted a solo homer in the third inning to put the Flying Tigers on the board and then he hit a two run shot in the top of the ninth to tie the game at 5-5.  Unfortunately, that even score was short lived Angel Castro gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth as Lakeland lost it to Dunedin.

Rick Porcello had a decent start in the no decision.  He gave up two runs on five hits and three walks in five innings.  Suprisingly, no strikeouts.

Cale Iorg had a pair of singles and unfortunately, that was a third of the Flying Tigers offense in a 5-0 loss to Clearwater.  Jeffrey Kunkel had the only extra base hit of the game with a double.

Rick Porcello dropped to 1-2 on the season but his ERA is still a microscopic 0.64.  He gave up two runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts in four innings.  If he keeps this up and as soon as the weather warms up, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Porcello in Erie.

It’s hard to blame this one on Rick Porcello.  He was crusing along but a pair of errors in the fourth inning resulted in four unearned runs and the end result was the young right hander took his first loss.  Still, he gave up just four hits without a walk and he struck out four in five innings in the 7-3 loss.

Louis Ott had two hits and he drove in two of Lakeland’s three runs.  Cale Iorg had a team high three hits including a double.

The Rick Porcello era has begun.  Last year’s first round draft pick gave up just one hit and two walks with three strikeouts in five shutout innings in the Flying Tigers 4-1 win.  Freddy Dolsi struck out the side, but he gave up the lone run of the game to Tampa.

Brennan Boesch doubled and drove in two runs in the win.  Louis Ott singled, drew a walk and scored twice.

Kevin Goldstein recently put out his list of who he things the Tigers top eleven prospects are.  It’s an interesting list because like last year, you have two top players then a steep drop off.  Cameron Maybin checks in at number one for the second straight season and that’s not a surprise.  Yeah Maybin fell flat last year once he made it to the bigs but his minor league advancement was very solid.  He’s still considered a future star and the Tigers felt good enough about him to trade away Gorkys Hernandez, another top outfield prospect.

The Tigers 2007 first round draft pick, Rick Porcello, checks in at number two and like Maybin, he was given a five star tag.  Porcello signed too late to play in the Tiger’s system but he should start out with the White Caps.  I doubt if he’ll stay there long and I expect to see some pretty high strikeout numbers while he’s there.

After that, things thin out.  Casey Crosby, the Tigers fifth round pick in 2007, is the the third best prospect.  Like Porcello, Crosby fell further down because of signability issues and he was a big reason many though the Tigers had one of the best drafts this year. 

Cale Iorg and Brandon Hamilton (another first round, 2007 draft pick) round out the top five. Jeff Larish is sixth after a solid season at Double A last year and you also have a pair of pitchers in Yorman Bazardo and Eulogio De La Cruz who made the list despite having stints in the big leagues last year.

The Tigers took high school pitcher Rick Porcello in the first round of the 2007 draft.  Brian has the lowdown on Porcello so check it out.