Wednesday, February 6, 2019

MLB Draft Deep Dive: Detroit Tigers

In order to satisfy my innate curiosity as it pertains to the MLB Draft, I have taken a comprehensive look at the 2018 draft for each of the 30 MLB organizations. But I also wanted to get an idea of what each of the teams had done for the 20 years prior so that is included as a prelude to the 2018 information. I'll be looking first at each team in each division, starting with the National League East, and then I'll follow up with a an overall look at both the historical draft results to date and the early 2018 results.

My goal is to get a better idea of the big picture as to how the systems compare in terms of draft results, as well as how a good or bad draft class affects a system, the overall impact of the draft on the baseball talent pool and the circuitous ways in which draft picks are used to bolster a system for which they may never even play. This project is just a first step. I intend to expand on this information over time (including a later revisit of the 2018 class and the addition of the 2019 class next offseason) and I will share my findings as I do so.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL

DETROIT TIGERS

Historical Draft Results from 1998 through 2017 (TO DATE)
Drafted 912 | Signed 623 | Pitchers Signed 320 | Position Players Signed 303
Total WAR 303.4
Total Players to MLB 92

Note: The following players are listed at the position at which they were originally drafted.

1998 | 5 to MLB | WAR 41.4 | High WAR 19.2, C Brandon Inge, 2nd rd
1999 | 4 to MLB | WAR 22.0 | High WAR 13.6, OF Cody Ross, 4th rd
2000 | 2 to MLB | WAR 3.2 | High WAR 3.0, SS Nook Logan, 3rd rd
2001 | 5 to MLB | WAR 9.4 | High WAR 6.5, 3B Jack Hannahan, 3rd rd
2002 | 6 to MLB | WAR 53.4 | High WAR 47.7, OF Curtis Granderson, 3rd rd
2003 | 6 to MLB | WAR (2.3) | High WAR 0.1, C Dusty Ryan, 48th rd
2004 | 4 to MLB | WAR 63.4 | High WAR 63.4, RHP Justin Verlander, 1st rd
2005 | 11 to MLB | WAR 35.1 | High WAR 14.0, OF Matthew Joyce, 12th rd
2006 | 6 to MLB | WAR 11.6 | High WAR 8.5, LHP Andrew Miller, 1st rd
2007 | 5 to MLB | WAR 19.6 | High WAR 18.8, RHP Rick Porcello, 1st rd
2008 | 5 to MLB | WAR 17.5 | High WAR 14.5, C Alex Avila, 5th rd
2009 | 5 to MLB | WAR (4.2) | High WAR 0.2, LHP Giovanni Soto, 21st rd
2010 | 7 to MLB | WAR 13.4 | High WAR 9.6, LHP Drew Smyly, 2nd rd
2011 | 6 to MLB | WAR 5.4 | High WAR 2.9, C Curt Casali, 10th rd
2012 | 3 to MLB | WAR 7.7 | High WAR 6.5, 2B Devon Travis, 13th rd
2013 | 5 to MLB | WAR 7.9 | High WAR 5.1, RHP Chad Green, 11th rd
2014 | 4 to MLB | WAR (0.9) | High WAR 0.0, C Grayson Greiner, 3rd rd
2015 | 3 to MLB | WAR (0.2) | High WAR 0.5, RHP Drew Smith, 3rd rd
2016 | 0 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR N/A
2017 | 0 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR N/A

The highest WAR to date, both total and individual, is from 2004. Although there were three other players from this Tigers draft class who made it to the big leagues, those three combined for 0.0 WAR so RHP Justin Verlander (1st round, 63.4 WAR) is pretty much the whole story when it comes to this group. In his 13 seasons with the Tigers (55.3 WAR), he was American League Rookie of the Year in 2006, AL MVP and Cy Young winner in 2011 and a six time All-Star. Since being traded to the Astros in August 2017, Verlander has one additional All-Star appearance and a World Series ring to add to his collection.

2018 DRAFT
40 Drafted | 38 Signed | 16 Pitchers | 22 Position Players
32 College | 32 Signed | 15 Pitchers | 17 Position Players
3 JC/CC | 3 Signed | 1 Pitcher | 2 Position Players
5 HS/NS | 3 Signed | 0 Pitchers | 3 Position Players

Notable: The Tigers signed ALL of their top 37 picks and 38 of 40 with the lone holdouts being 38th round HS RHP Cole Henry (AL) and 39th round HS 2B Cory Acton (FL).

PITCHERS
All but one of the 16 pitchers signed (11 RHP, 5 LHP) logged at least some playing time. Four of these pitchers were promoted beyond the Short Season A* level, two to Full Season A and two to Advanced A. One of them debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Tigers as a Top 10 prospect.

Top Prospects

🔟 RHP Casey Mize, 1st round, Auburn University, A+
13.2 IP | 5 G / 5 GS | 3.95 ERA | 1.171 WHIP | 3 BB : 14 K

🔟 Top 10 Prospect

Noteworthy Debut

RHP Ethan DeCaster, 18th round, Duke University, A+
32 IP | 18 G / 0 GS | 0.84 ERA | 0.781 WHIP | 6 BB : 39 K

In total, the Detroit 2018 Draft pitchers combined for a 3.11 ERA and a 1.219 WHIP over 498 innings as compared to the 3.67 ERA and 1.299 WHIP (average of 376.2 innings per affiliate) compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

POSITION PLAYERS
All of the 22 position players signed (3 1B, 2 2B, 2 3B, 2 SS, 11 OF, 2 C) logged at least some playing time. Nine players were promoted beyond the Short Season A* level, four to Full Season A and five to Advanced A. Three players debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Tigers, one as a Top 10 prospect.

Top Prospects

🔟 OF Parker Meadows (L/R), 2nd round, Grayson HS (GA), SSA
28 G | .290/.377/.473/.850 | 10 BB : 31 K

2B Kody Clemens (L/R), 3rd round, University of Texas at Austin, A+
52 G | .288/.365/.450/.816 | 23 BB : 39 K

OF Kingston Liniak (R/R), 4th round, Mission Hills HS (CA), SSA
48 G | .235/.272/.290/.562 | 8 BB : 63 K

🔟 Top 10 Prospect

Noteworthy Debut

OF Brock Deatherage (L/L), 10th round, North Carolina State University, A+
60 G | .326/.385/.504/.890 | 21 BB : 64 K

In total, the Tigers 2018 Draft position players combined to hit .248/.331/.376/.707 as compared to .261/.349/.386/.735 batting line compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

*Notes on players include the highest level achieved for the 2018 season using the following abbreviations:
Rk = Rookie
SSA = Short Season A
A = Full Season A
A+ = Full Season A Advanced

GENERAL NOTES: Information was obtained from Baseball-Reference and the MLB Draft History site. The occasional discrepancy in historical information was resolved to the best of my ability by delving into the player information available on B-R. On the historical information, the player position in the totals reflects the position at which the player was drafted (and not any subsequent change of position). On the 2018 information, the player position reflects the primary position played in 2018 for all players who were signed and the position at which the player was drafted for those who did not sign. Prospect listings on MLB Pipeline were as of early January and may not reflect any subsequent changes to that site.

PREVIOUSLY

NL EAST
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals
NL East 2018 Draft Summary

NL CENTRAL
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
NL Central 2018 Draft Summary

NL WEST
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
NL West 2018 Draft Summary

AL EAST
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
AL East 2018 Draft Summary

AL CENTRAL
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians

COMING NEXT
Kansas City Royals

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