Let’s Hear From (and About) Six Tigers Pitchers

The Detroit Tigers have a number of promising young pitchers, as well as a handful of veteran arms who retain upside. The bulk of them will have to thrive if the club hopes to compete in the AL Central anytime soon. But while there’s little doubt that Detroit’s rebuild is moving steadily in the right direction, the franchise’s fortunes will largely be determined by how soon and to what extent the pitching staff blossoms. Now under the watchful eye of Chris Fetter, Tigers pitchers head into the 2021 season with a plethora of potential, but also no shortage of question marks.

Here are conversational snapshots from, and about, six Detroit hurlers.

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Tyler Alexander has the most-varied mix on the Tigers’ staff. The 26-year-old left-hander has five pitches in his arsenal, and last season he threw each of them between 103 and 140 times (per Statcast). His second-most-frequent offering was a slider that yielded middling-at-best results. Despite an improved movement profile and a 31% whiff rate, opposing hitters logged a .333 batting average and a .606 slugging percentage when they put the pitch in play.

I mentioned that lack of success to Alexander, pointing out that he got, on average, nine more inches of drop, and slightly more horizontal, compared to the previous year. Why the lack of results?

“Well, I throw good sliders and I throw bad sliders,” was his reasoned response. “And I would assume the bad ones got hit. You know, I’ve worked a lot on that pitch. I’ve worked really hard on on finding the consistency with it. For instance, I thought I was really good yesterday. The outing before that, I thought it was terrible. It’s a feel pitch for me, and I’m slowly starting to get there. I’ve had issues getting it down in the zone; I’ve had issues getting it backdoor. In every interview I’ve ever had, I’ve said, ‘I’m working on my slider, I’m working on my slider.’ I’m always going to be working on it. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.”

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A.J. Hinch announced on Monday that Matthew Boyd would be getting the ball on Opening Day. Last week, Detroit’s new manager weighed in the 30-year-old southpaw’s consistency issues, which in his opinion are compounded by an overactive mind.

“For him, it’s a repeat of his delivery to be able to execute his breaking ball,” Hinch told reporters. “That’s really key. Where he throws his fastball is also key. I think one of the challenges Matt has is that he’s got an analytical mind. He’s always thinking out there. He’s always trying to create advantages for himself with angles and pitches and attack plans. I think he can get a little too enamored with information. The more we can simplify it, the better.”

Hinch went on to say that Boyd needs a more aggressive approach that centers around his four-seamer. It’s far from an elite pitch — velocity-wise it hovers around 92 mph — but as is the case for most pitchers, establishing the fastball early is a recipe for success.

“Even though the sport is going toward more secondary pitches, he needs to have a fastball-attack mentality,” Hinch said. “He can then work off of that, based on what the hitter is doing against him. Get into those leverage counts. It’s not as simple as throwing the ball right down the middle — they’ll put it into play — but to me, the shape of his breaking ball, and getting into leverage counts, are two premium areas for him.”

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Buck Farmer threw his changeup a career-high 32.6% of the time last year, but unlike in 2019, it wasn’t an effective pitch. On a heels of a season where opposing hitters batted .195 with a .260 slugging percentage against that changeup, they punished it in 2020, hitting .346 and slugging .462. On the surface, the downturn was difficult to fathom. In terms of both movement and velocity, Farmer’s change-of-pace was much the same as it had been when hitters were having trouble squaring it up. So I asked the 30-year-old reliever if he had an explanation.

“I’ve talked to [pitching coach] Chris Fetter about this a lot,” Farmer said. “And I’ve talked to guys that we’ve acquired, and they say that’s what the book on me is. They go look at the numbers and it’s like, ‘This is a fastball/changeup guy and he has a slider in his back pocket that he rarely throws.’ I think that’s why it got hit.”

Farmer recalled Francisco Lindor and Willson Contreras taking him deep on changeups last year, and in each case it was on a well-thrown pitch. The problem wasn’t execution, but rather a simple case of predictability.

“If a guy is up there sitting on one pitch, it’s pretty tough to get it by him,” he said. “That’s where I kind of fell into a bad spot last year. I was a two-pitch person when I have three pitches to throw.”

Farmer went on to say that he throws a two-seam changeup and a four-seam fastball, and it’s possible that some hitters may have been recognizing the spin. Adding a second changeup to his arsenal — a four-seam to go along with his two — is something he’s currently exploring.

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The Tigers have a number of promising young pitchers. Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal reached the big leagues last summer, and Matt Manning is poised to debut in the not-too-distant future. Hinch is well-positioned to help nurture their development, and one of the reasons goes back to his playing days.

In 2003, Hinch caught a Detroit staff that included a 20-year-old former first-round pick who went to have a handful of solid seasons before injuries derailed his career. A few weeks ago, I asked him which of his team’s young arms most reminds him of Jeremy Bonderman.

“That’s a great question,” he said. “Bonderman was super young, and what I see in young pitchers — nobody in particular — are the same adjustments that Jeremy needed to make: execution, and execution in the strike zone. We didn’t talk nearly as much sequencing back then as we do now — the technology is a ton better than it was back then — but the break into the big leagues is very similar. I have all this stuff, I have all these ingredients, how do I use it?”

Youth and inexperience aside, Mize, Manning, and Skubal aren’t ideal comps for Bonderman, in Hinch’s opinion. But he does think that a 28-year-old right-hander who debuted with the Tigers in 2018 is similar, at least in terms of weapons.

“[Spencer] Turnbull has the closest stuff to Bonderman, in terms of style, with sinker/slider,” he said. “Velocity is pretty good… Turnbull versus Bonderman would be an interesting analysis.”

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Daniel Norris was asked about Skubal in a recent Zoom session, and not surprisingly, the 27-year-old is bullish on the fellow southpaw’s talent. Moreover, he loves his dedication to his craft.

“He’s fun to watch,” Norris said of the Tigers’ No. 3 prospect. “I think that’s the biggest compliment in baseball… He’s got the big fastball. He’s got great off-speed stuff. What stands out the most, other than his stuff, is his attention to detail. He really works hard [and] is focused… He’s not, ‘Oh yeah, I throw hard. I’ll be fine, no matter what.’ He’s really working to get better. The reason he came to Driveline with me and Boyd [over the offseason] was to get better.”

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Manning admitted to me a few years ago that he’d yet to transform fully from a thrower to a pitcher. I recently asked him: Has that gap been bridged, and if so, when?

“I think I dabbled with it a little bit when I was in [Double-A] Erie,” said the 23-year-old right-hander, who is No. 2 on our 2021 Tigers Top Prospects list. “I really learned my changeup in 2019. That’s when I became a pitcher. I was able to throw different pitches in different counts, different situations. [Then-manager] Mike Rabelo helped me a lot with that. So did [pitching coach Mark Johnson]. I think it was then that I became a pitcher.“