Fearless Freshmen Arrive in Detroit
ALSO: TOP NL CLUBS COULD PLACE 3 PITCHERS EACH ON 2024 ALL-STAR ROSTER
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
The folly of the fan voting for All-Star lineups is the farce from Philadelphia, where fans stuffed the ballot box and elected SEVEN finalists for the NL lineup. As in 1957, when ballot-stuffing skewed the vote in Cincinnati, baseball desperately needs its Commissioner to exercise his “best interests of baseball” powers and veto several of these ill-advised selections (that means you, Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos) . . .
Yankees lefty Nestor Cortes is the only active pitcher to wear a light-green glove . . .
After a disastrous start at Yankee Stadium last Saturday, 40-year-old Braves righty Charlie Morton had a first-inning ERA of 7.71 . . .
Another graybeard, former Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel, may help Milwaukee during the second half if he regains his erstwhile mastery as a groundball specialist . . .
With first baseman Anthony Rizzo out with a broken arm, the Yankees needed and received a solid veteran replacement in J.D. Davis, a one-time Met acquired from the Athletics . . .
Speaking of the Yankees, Aaron Judge is ahead of his 62-homer pace from 2022 . . .
Just after he righted his ship and regained his job as Mets closer, Edwin Diaz was ejected from a game in Chicago before throwing a pitch after umpires discovered sticky substances on his pitching hand (10-game suspension followed) . . .
Another closer, Kyle Finnegan of the Nationals, made his ninth pitch-clock violation — four more than any other pitcher — in the ninth inning of a tie game with the bases loaded, nobody out, and a full count on the hitter, forcing in the winning run in an 8-7 Colorado victory at Coors Field last weekend. It was the first game to end on a pitch-clock violation since the rule was introduced for the 2023 season.
Leading Off
How Rookie Tigers are Faring
By Joe Underhill
The Detroit Tigers opened the 2024 season with just two rookies in their opening day lineup: second baseman Colt Keith and center-fielder Parker Meadows.
Since Opening Day, the team has had four more rookies crack the lineup with three of them making their major-league debuts.
Outfielder Wenceel Perez, outfielder/designated hitter Justyn-Henry Malloy, shortstop Ryan Kreidler, and pitcher Keider Montero are the new freshman quartet.
This year was always supposed to be about the young guys getting experience, so the front office could figure out who would be a part of future teams that would be expected to compete for a spot in the playoffs. How the six rookies have fared — much like the Tigers season — has been a mixed bag.
Keith signed the largest contract in Tigers’ history for a player who had not yet made his major-league debut and the Tigers said they would give him time to adjust to the majors.
Of course, Keith not only needed to make the adjustment offensively, but also at a relatively new position, second base.
He struggled to start the year, hitting just .154 with virtually no power in his first 26 games. However, with the calendar turning to May, Keith heated up significantly, slashing .343/.388/.493 in 24 games.
He has cooled in June but is not looking over-matched at the plate.
Defensively he has also been a work in progress but is continuing to improve. He regularly makes above-average plays, leading to hope that he can be at least an average defender once he has the reps under his belt.
Parker Meadows was the other rookie to open the season on the 26-man roster. However, despite playing well-above-average defense in center, his bat didn’t even qualify as below-average.
In 85 plate appearances Meadows hit a painful .096 with a strikeout rate of 37.6%.
Since being sent down to AAA, he has fared much better offensively, lowering his strikeout rate to 21.1% while hitting .285 with eight home runs. Meadows will be back in Detroit before too long.
Wenceel Perez was a little bit of a surprise call-up when Andy Ibanez went on the IL.
Perez had been moved to the outfield due to throwing issues and was only hitting .212 when called up. However, since his major-league debut, he has hit .268 with a healthy .728 OPS+. Perez is a switch-hitter and he established himself as a valuable part of manager AJ Hinch’s bench.
Keider Montero is the only rookie pitcher so far to debut this season. He has made two appearances now for the Tigers, covering 8.1 innings.
In those innings, he has posted a K/9 rate of 11.42 but has given up nine earned runs and walked four. The ERA is high at 9.35 but Montero has shown some promise and if he can refine his command, he could leverage his strikeout ability in the bullpen (especially if the Tigers decide to trade a bullpen arm).
Justyn-Henry Malloy was the call-up when the Tigers determined that first baseman Spencer Torkelson needed some retooling at AAA. So far, Malloy has shown good plate discipline but has struggled with a low BABIP (.214) and, as a result, a batting average that will probably have him back in AAA when the Tigers decide either Meadows or Torkelson are ready to return to the show.
Malloy still should be able to be an above-average hitter and he needs the bat to be above-average, because his defense is still a struggle, albeit with a small sample size.
Kriedler was called up when Javier Baez needed a stint on the IL. One of the best defenders in the Tigers system, Kriedler has struggled with his offense amidst his own health issues. Kriedler will be back to the minors when Baez is healthy, but he is worth keeping an eye on as the Tigers decide what to do with Baez in the coming off-season(s).
Overall, the Tigers have seen some positives from their rookies and each has teased his potential. Much like the big-league team overall, there is significant work to be done to turn talent into results.
Joe Underhill is a high school administrator and diehard baseball fan and fan of the city ofDetroit. Follow Joe on Twitter @TransplantedDet and @transplanteddet.bsky.social or write joe.underhill@auburn.org.
Cleaning Up
Braves, Phils Should Dominate NL All-Star Staff
By Dan Schlossberg
Teams seldom place a pair of pitchers on an All-Star roster.
This year, however, two teams seem poised to place three.
Both the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, the top title contenders in the National League East, have passed the midway mark in the season with a troika of likely All-Stars in their rotations.
Atlanta newcomers Chris Sale and Reynaldo Lopez, plus holdover Max Fried, are all among the best pitchers in the Senior Circuit so far.
And Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Ranger Suarez should be named too.
National League manager Torey Lovullo, whose upstart Diamondbacks won the last NL pennant, will have the obligation to pick his pitchers. Anyone who works the Sunday before the All-Star Game might be eliminated because he wouldn’t work again in the Tuesday night contest at Globe Life Field.
Of the six candidates, Sale has the most All-Star experience. He’s made the team seven times — all in the American League — and has even started three times in a row, tying a record shared by Lefty Gomez and Robin Roberts.
In his first year with the Braves, Sale has silenced critics who contend he’s too old and too injury-prone to perform well. He and Suarez are the first Senior Circuit pitchers to reach 10 wins.
Bear in mind that none of this group has ever won 20 times in a season, with Sale, Fried and Nola the single-season leaders at 17 each — a level Sale reached three times.
Then comes Wheeler, whose personal peak, set last season, is 16 (13 in the regular season plus three in the post-season).
Suarez has already tied his previous peak of 10, which is also the most games Lopez ever won in a single season. But that’s because he spent much of his career in the bullpen.
Last year, only one pitcher in the majors won 20 games, a figure Spencer Strider hit on the nose with a win on the final day. He’s out with elbow problems this time around, leaving Sale and Suarez to contend for the Cy Young trophy predicted for him by pre-season prognosticators.
Starting pitchers used to go three innings in All-Star play but lately have only worked an inning or two (All-Star managers hate to overwork anyone else’s stars).
The betting here is that Sale will get the start because of his experience. If he works on the final weekend before the July 16 game, however, all bets are off.
If Lovullo wants a lefty to open the game, he’ll have three solid choices in Sale, Suarez, and Fried. None has won a Cy Young Award but all should contend this fall.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories and Dreams, and Here’s The Pitch. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Money Matters
The $331,292,555 payroll of the New York Mets, who lead the 30 teams in that department, is three times more than six different franchises combined and $245 million more than the Oakland Athletics pay their players . . .
Hank Aaron made more money from winning the original Home Run Derby on TV than he did in his first two years with the Milwaukee Braves . . .
There were no minimum salaries until 1947, when the bottom line was established at $5,000 . . .
That minimum rose to $7,000 in 1957, $109,000 by 1992, $200,000 by the end of the 20th century, $555,000 by 2020, and $740,000 this season . . .
Nolan Ryan was the first man to earn $1 million a year (1980) but Kevin Brown earned 15 times more via free agency 20 years later . . .
The 1995 Yankees were the first team to have an average player salary of more than $2 million a year. Two years later, the average salary in the major leagues was $1,385,548.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.