Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

After two straight losses, Virgil Vasquez bounced back with a fine outing against the Durham Bulls.  He gave up just three hits and a walk with nine strikeouts in five innings.

Brent Clevlen singled and drove in two runs in the 6-0 win.  Kevin Hooper went two for five with an RBI.

So far, Virgil Vazquez hasn’t adjusted to Triple A yet as he was hit hard in his second straight start.  This time he gave up six runs (four earned) on twelve hits and a walk with one strikeout in six innings of work.  Jason Karnuth threw two innings of relief and he gave up a run on one hit and two strikeouts.

Kevin Hooper had a nice day at the plate.  He went three for four with a double and two runs.  Ryan Rayburn doubled and drove in a run while Brent Clevelen had two hits.  Chris Shelton continued to hit well and he drove in two runs and singled and he’s hitting .375 so far this season.

I’m a huge Virgil Vazquez fan but man did he take it on the chin tonight.  He gave up four runs on four hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings.  He did redeem himself a bit with eight strikeouts but it doesn’t quite make for all of those runs.  Ron Chiavacci was also knocked around for four runs and he only threw a 1 and 1/3 innings.

To make it worse, the Hens managed just two hits.  Chris Shelton was the only player to reach base twice with a hit and a walk while David Espinosa had the other hit and he drove in a run.

Alright, the Tigers made some cuts today and none of them were big surprises.  Probably the most optimistic move was announcing that Kyle Sleeth will start at Double A.  After a solid spring, the former first round draft pick will get the promotion despite struggling last year in the minors.  Having Kyle Sleeth there will make keeping track of Erie a little more interesting.

2006 first round draft pick Andrew Miller will head to Lakeland as expected.  Virgil Vazquez and Jordan Tata were both bumped to Triple A   Jair Jurrjens, Gabe Johnson and Dusty Ryan will all report to minor league camp and their status in the Tigers’ system is still uncertain.