This is the second part of a recap of the West Michigan Whitecaps' 2011 season (part 1 here), and a continuation of a series in which I revisit the 2011 seasons of each of the Tigers' farm teams. In the first part, I looked at the team's overall record and how it was divided between the season's two halves. I started to look into what may have led to the team's distinct performance in the split season and looked at the players who were added from the draft. What follows are explorations into the rest of the team and how the players performed in each half, starting with the players who were on the team all season.

Brian Flynn may have offered an upgrade to the rotation, but before we chalk up the second half improvement to a rotation tweak, though, there were some key players on this team played for both "halves". Another possible explanation for the team's reversal of fortune could be improvement from this group. Of the guys who both opened and ended the 2011 season with the Whitecaps, how do their splits look?

Let's first identify who these players were. From the position players, you have James Robbins, Hernan Perez, Nick Castellanos, Dixon Machado, Jeff Rowland and Luis Castillo. On the pitching side, You had Kevin Eichhorn, Kyle Ryan, Josue Carreno, Michael Torrealba and Patrick Cooper. So obviously, a substantial portion of this team's contributions came from players who stuck out the entire season in West Michigan. This isn't uncommon. The Tigers are loathe to move players up from West Michigan and typically don't do so unless they aren't really prospects or are in their second season at this level.

So what answers lie in this group? Well, the players who improved in the second half were Nick Castellanos, Jeff Rowland and to a lesser degree, Dixon Machado. Castellanos didn't have so much of a rough first half as a rough April. He rebounded to finish the first half with a line of .291/.333/.422, which is more than acceptable for a teenager in the Midwest League. But he was fantastic in the second half, hitting .331/.398/.449 with 22 doubles and a vast improvement in his control of the strike zone. Rowland wasn't an everyday player in either half, but after hitting .228/.338/.325 in the season's first half he stepped up in the later months to hit .255/.371/.404 in the second half. This allowed him to make a valuable contribution from the top of the batting order when he was in the lineup.

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This is a continuation of the series in which I take a look at the 2011 seasons of each of the Tigers' farm squads. Please keep in mind these reviews are intended to look at the team results. Obviously, that can't be done without talking about individual performances, but the players' stats and standings as prospects are not the focus of these stories.

Like the Connecticut Tigers, the Whitecaps came about as close as possible to earning a spot in the postseason. In fact, their missing the Midwest League playoffs was the result of losing to Fort Wayne on the last game of the year in a "do or die" situation. The fact that they had a shot at the playoffs was surprising on a couple levels.

First, the playoffs weren't really even in the conversation for the first half of the season. The Whitecaps finished just 32-37 and were the sixth place team in an eight team division. Then in the second half, after a loss to South Bend on August 20th they were just 27-27 with less than three weeks left in the season. They only pushed for the playoffs on the strength of an 11-4 run that included a six-game win streak and a sweep of Lake County in the season's second to last series. That set them up for the shot at clinching in the Fort Wayne series, but they dropped two of three and couldn't seal the deal. Interestingly, their second half push also served to cancel out that terrible first half and allow the team to finish with a winning record (70-69) on the season. So what caused the discrepancy in their first and second half records?

Well the difference in their 32-37 first half and their 38-32 second half certainly doesn't show up in their run differential for the two halves. They scored four runs per game in the first half and 3.9 in the second half. On the run prevention side, they allowed 4.2 runs per game in the first half and 4.1 in the second. That left them with a run differential of -11 in 69 first half games and -13 in 70 second half games.

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With the Winter Meetings taking place, we know that at their close there is an event called the Rule 5 Draft. It's kind of funny that it gets so much attention considering it seems to be a rather big deal if even one player selected goes on to have a successful season. Be that as it may, everybody likes to think their team may find the next Johan Santana, Josh Hamilton or Dan Uggla. Of course, the most famous Rule 5 pick of all is Roberto Clemente.

So we make a big fuss over who the team should have selected, who they left exposed to the process or even who they lost. I know I have written harshly worded stories directed at the Tiger front office for their indifference to losing Randor Bierd and James Skelton in the Rule 5. In my defense as an analyst, I believe I was more upset that they protected players inferior to those two rather than believing either was going to be a successful big leaguer. Still, I rooted for both after they left the system so they could validate my stance on the matter. Instead, I learned I'm not going to get all that worked up about the Rule 5 Draft anymore.

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This is the second in a series of posts recapping each of the Tigers' six domestic minor league teams' seasons. I'm starting at the bottom and working my up, so the first post was about the GCL Tigers. I mentioned this in that first post, but I'd like to reiterate that these are intended to be team recaps. That means the players discussed the most will be those who were most essential to the team's season. They may not be top prospects or prospects at all. They just had to have played a pivotal part - good or bad - in how the team's season went.

The New York-Penn League is a short season league populated with a lot of college players fresh out of the draft. There are obviously plenty of players who are in different parts of their pro careers playing there, but that's a very broad stroke idea of a big part of the league's population.

It's not surprising, therefore, that the Connecticut Tigers were able to field a competent squad. The Tigers, after all, went with college picks for 30 of the 33 players signed in the 2011 draft. Not only that, the Tigers were fairly conservative with their picks this year and therefore had very few 2011 draftees play at a level higher than the NY-Penn. Knowing this, it's a little disconcerting their only player to pop up on Baseball America's Top 20 Prospects for this league was third round pick, Aaron Westlake (at no. 12). That goes double when you realize most of the prospects ranked ahead of Westlake are two and three years younger than him.

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Now that the baseball season is over, I decided people might be hungry enough for some baseball to read about the Tigers' minor league season recaps. And since I expect people are most interested in the higher levels of the minors, I'm going to start low and work my way up. For the next few weeks, I'm going to work my way up through the system, recapping how the 2011 season went for each of the Tigers' six domestic minor league teams. Please understand; these are team recaps. So while I will talk about the prospects and how they impacted the team, the teams and the players who were key to the team's season will be the focus.

A 23-year-old kid out of college in the Gulf Coast League may not have a long future in baseball, but he might have been the star of the team. Similarly, an early round pick may be the Tigers' future shortstop but if he had 20 at bats at this level, he's not going to get much of a mention. So, while Brandon Loy, James McCann, Aaron Westlake and Tyler Gibson all made appearances with this squad, they weren't integral parts of the team and further discussion of their parts in the Tiger system will come in a more appropriate post later in the offseason. Now, how about we get down to business?

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Last season I took a monthly look at prospect performance in the minor leagues, pointing out noteworthy statistical performances, whether they were positive or negative. The goal was to look at prospects that might be doing well on the surface and to delve deeper to see how well they were truly doing. It was a lot of fun, and I'd like to revisit it for a season retrospective on some Tigers minor leaguers. This performance review will be split into two posts: one examining players in the high minors and one examining some in the low minors. 

What might I mean by stars and scrubs, you may be asking? A star is a player that puts up eyepopping statistics in the minor leagues. His scouting report might not be so good, but his performance is incredible and deserves attention. A scrub is a player whose performance looks horrible on paper. In some cases, that isn't such a horrible thing (Nick Castellanos had a scrub-caliber April but is still a top prospect). Either way, the performance merits looking at- often times to deliver a reality check. 

So who are this edition's three stars and three scrubs? The best of the high minors and the worst of the 40 man roster? You can find out after the jump!

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In a comment under this fanshot, somebody asked who on the current roster has been to the Arizona Fall League. I thought this was an interesting question and did some research. All you have to do to find out is take the current 40-man and compare it to the list of Arizona Fall League alums here (A-K) and here (L-Z).

It turns out there are 17 current Tigers who played in the Arizona Fall League at some point and 25 who didn't. I decided it might be fun to make a roster of each to see how they compare, and at the same time learn a bit about who sees the Arizona Fall League and who doesn't.

AFL Roster

Pitchers

Doug Fister SP (Mariners 2008)
Max Scherzer SP (Diamondbacks 2007 and 2008)
Brad Penny SP (Marlins 1999)
Andrew Oliver SP (Tigers 2009)

Brad Thomas RP (Twins 2002)
Luis Marte RP (Tigers 2008)
David Pauley RP (Red Sox 2006)
Joaquin Benoit CL (Rangers 2000)

Position Players

Don Kelly C (Tigers 2003 and 2005)
Danny Worth 1B (Tigers 2011)
Will Rhymes 2B (Tigers 2008 and 2011)
Brandon Inge 3B (Tigers 2000)
Cale Iorg SS (Tigers 2009 and 2010)
Delmon Young LF (Devil Rays 2003 and 2004)
Austin Jackson CF (Yankees 2008)
Ryan Raburn RF (Tigers 2004)
Jhonny Peralta DH (Indians 2002)

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Each year, at the end of the season, I take a look at the four full season minor league teams and try to figure out who's going to win the Tigers' Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year. This year, I assume the winners of each award are going to be pretty obvious. However, we'll look at who I think of as the top candidates for each. Now understand, the way these awards have been given out isn't terribly complicated. Old school stats still reign from what I've been able to tell. These awards aren't a pronouncement of the top prospects. They're just recognition of a season well done. In that line, what follows isn't so much discussion of the players as prospects as much as a discussion of their seasons.

Player of the Year Candidates: 

Rob Brantly, C, West Michigan 
.303/.366/.440, 7 HR, 42 R, 44 RBI

These numbers are why I included him as a possible candidates. As the Tigers have found out this season, left-handed hitting catchers who can hit .300 with power and good defense are good to have around. Unfortunately, he has since gone to Lakeland and is hitting .228/243/.338 in 136 Hi A at bats.

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