A look at the internal candidates
posted in 2007 season, injuries, minors |Yesterday, Matt Wallace said that the most likely candidates to fill in during Joel Zumaya’s absence are Eulogio De La Cruz, Virgil Vasquez, Jair Jurrjens or Dallas Trahern. Here’s a closer look at the four. I spend most of the time looking at the top two prospects - in my opinion. You’ll notice I leave out Andrew Miller. I just think he needs more pro innings and I think the Tigers agree. Plus you probably know a thing or two about him already.
Transformed from a reliever to a starter, the 23-year-old righty from the Dominacin is the hard-throwing ace of the Erie rotation. While he is a strikeout artist — 20 in his last two games — the thing of interest about him is how he goes against the flamethrower prototype: He’s just 5-foot-11, 175 pounds.
But even when he’s not racking up Ks, he has been forcing batters to put the ball on the ground a lot (a ratio of 3:1 this year, 1.78:1 last). He gave up four homers in 107 innings last year. So, basically, this is exactly the guy you trust a lead with in late innings, and the kind of guy who can throw water on an opponent’s rally.
His WHIP is just more than 1, and Baseball America put him as the No. 6 prospect and ranked his fastball and curveball as the best in the Tigers minors. I’ve read his fastball is typically as high as 97, but also that he can throw 100.
Both Jason Beck and Lynn Henning wrote about him today as well.
Virgil Vasquez, 24, is the surprise strikeout artist atop the Toledo rotation. Like De La Cruz, he’s a starter. Unlike De La Cruz, he doesn’t rely on speed, he is a soft thrower with immaculate control. He may have turned the corner this fall in the Arizona Fall League, where he went most of the short season throwing shutout inning after shutout inning against some of baseball’s top prospects.
This year, he has 50 strikeouts in 40.2 innings, adding another nine Monday. He has walked 10. He doesn’t have the groundball ratio that De La Cruz does, nor the ability to keep the ball in the park.
Based on a glance at the splits for De La Cruz and Vasquez, it appears that Vasquez is a bit better with runners in scoring position, But of course, be warned that’s a small sample size.
I see him as more of a possible Chad Durbin replacement than a guy who’d take over for Zumaya, but I consider him a strong candidate if the Tigers fill Zumaya’s absence internally.
Jair Jurrjens, 21, is another top pitching prospect in Erie. He seems like he’s still warming up this season, with 19 strikeouts in 24 innings but a WHIP just over 1 and ERA of 3.65. His groundball rate is 1.85:1 currently, and was closer to 2:1 for the 2006 season, so it’s pretty consistent. But at his age, I think there’s no reason the Tigers will rush him.
Dallas Trahern is a lot like his Erie pitching mates. The 21-year-old brings a 1.88 ERA and a groundball ratio of 3.29:1 to the table. He doesn’t seem as good as keeping runners off the bases, but his WHIP of 1.20 isn’t too bad. But at this point, I think he’s a bit on the green side, so I wouldn’t too much thought into his being a Tiger anytime soon. Still, you never know.
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