Could Lucas French be our Zach Miner circa 2006?

by Scottwood on Jul 4, 2009 12:41 PM EDT

During our pennant run in 2006 we featured a great top 4 of the rotation of Kenny Rogers, Justin Verlander, Nate Robertson and Jeremy Bonderman. Once Mike Maroth went down with an injury, we needed someone else to come in and shore up our pitching staff. Enter Zach Miner. Before his final two disastrous starts, Miner had a 4.27 ERA in 14 starts, 11 starts where he went at least 5 innings and he did not walk more than 3 batters in any of those starts. Miner's ability to add that stability at the back end of the rotation for two and a half months helped pave the way for the Tigers to earn a playoff spot that season. The question now becomes: can Lucas French provide that same type of stability at the back end of rotation? Lets make some comparisons by looking at the numbers...

In 2006, Miner was 6-0 and had a 2.82 ERA with a 3.38 FIP and 1.25 WHIP in Toledo. This season in Toledo, French is 4-4 with a 2.98 ERA, 3.16 FIP and 1.11 WHIP. Those are fairly comparable numbers and one could argue that French has superior numbers. But, the comparisons should not stop there, and French's numbers will continue to look better.

Player K/9 BB/9 K/BB HR/9 .AVG BABIP LOB %
French 7.93 2.20 3.60 0.66 .236 .291 71.8
Miner 5.71 3.10 1.84 1.06 .230 .283 75.2%

So, when looking at their minor league stats for that year, French had superior numbers except for batting average against and LOB %. His superior K/9, BB/9, K/BB, HR/9 rate, WHIP and FIP is certainly more than encouraging as he makes his case for the rotation.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Bless You Boys writing staff.

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not to mention french adds a lefty arm, something we need in our rotation.

he really changes the pace between guys like verlander and jackson too, sort of like kenny rogers and nate robertson did with verlander and bondo.

The time for reckoning has come, and we already have the answer

by Vreeland2 on Jul 4, 2009 12:56 PM EDT reply actions

Eh...it's only one start

Don’t think I’ll compare him to anyone yet.

I’m sure some people said the same thing about Figaro after his 1st start.

by Tagne13 on Jul 4, 2009 1:10 PM EDT reply actions

Hard to say

Jimmy pulled him from the mound so fast last night, who could tell. ( Luke must have had some smokes in his pocket and the Skip needed one).

Welcome to Detroit>>Where the weak are killed and eaten.

by Detroitchik on Jul 4, 2009 9:32 PM EDT reply actions

Dunno...

But there’s a chance he’s turned a corner- Christina Kahrl of Baseball Prospectus wrote up a pretty good blurb about him this morning- said he gained a slider that’s a legitimate strikeout pitch. That bodes well for his future- if he’s got another league average or plus pitch, he may have made a legitimate breakthrough.

by David Tokarz on Jul 5, 2009 12:43 AM EDT reply actions

I would have liked to see Zach Miner

be Zach Miner, to be honest.

I will reserve judgement on French until after his next start. Like Leyland said, he was coming off 10 days off, so I think it’s fair to say he could be a bit rusty. I’m not wowed by his stuff, but if he knows how to use it well that’s what matters.

So, as to that, we’ll see.

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on Jul 5, 2009 1:20 AM EDT reply actions