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Fans of the Detroit Tigers’ Double-A affiliate, the Erie SeaWolves, will get their first look at Beau Burrows on Tuesday night. The Tigers’ third ranked prospect, Burrows was promoted from Advanced-A ball over the weekend after dominating the Florida State League for two solid months. He’ll take on the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in his introduction to Eastern League play. The Fisher Cats are the Toronto Blue Jays affiliate, based in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Burrows posted a 1.23 ERA across 58 2⁄3 innings for the Lakeland Flying Tigers this season. Hitters batted just .221 against Burrows, and his low walk rate combined with that average to allow Burrows to compile a WHIP of just 0.95. He struck out 62 batters and was named to the Florida State League All-Star team before his promotion.
Burrows has continued to display a lively mid-90’s fastball in his second full season of pro ball. The Weatherford, Texas product came out of high school featuring an advanced curveball for his age, but has developed a slider that some scouts are projecting to eventually become his best pitch. When the next edition of MLB Pipeline’s prospect list emerges beyond next week’s MLB draft, don’t be surprised to see Burrows moved up to one of the top two spots on the Tigers’ farm system rankings.
Update: Tuesday night’s game against the Fisher Cats has been cancelled due to rain. Presumably, Burrows will instead make his first start on Wednesday instead.
Joe Jimenez making progress in rehab work
There had been little to report on reliever and fifth ranked Tigers’ prospect Joe Jimenez. After straining his back in early May, Jimenez was put on the 7-day disabled list on May 9th, made retroactive to May 5th. Now, BYB alum and prospect reporter for 2080 Baseball, Emily Waldon, reports that Jimenez is expected to begin throwing bullpens again next week.
Source: #Tigers Joe Jimenez expected to begin throwing bullpen next week, after which #Tigers will evaluate timeline for his return. #MiLB
— Emily Waldon (@emilywaldon2080) June 6, 2017
Toledo Mud Hens 5, Indianapolis Indians 4 (F/12) (box)
Matt Boyd struggled with his control again in his first start for the Mud Hens. He struck out six, but walked four along the way in 6 1⁄3 innings of work. Four straight hard hit balls greeted him in the seventh and Dustin Molleken stemmed the bleeding, allowing just one of Boyd’s runners to score. Bruce Rondon put together a clean inning of relief in this one, but Edward Mujica blew the save, sending this to extras. Navarro and Jason Krizan drove in four of the Mud Hens five runs, while Michael Almanzar doubled twice in the contest. This one hinged in the end on Matt den Dekker and Efren Navarro’s work in the bottom of the 12th. Den Dekker singled, stole second base and raced home on an Efren Navarro RBI single to walkoff the Indians.
Krizan: 2-4, 2 RBI, 2B
Boyd: 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 6 SO
Coming Up Next: Chad Bell (1-3, 2.10 ERA) gets the start on Tuesday night.
12 , 12
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 5, 2017
4 perfect relief frames put #Tigers No. 19 prospect Jairo Labourt (@erie_seawolves) on Team of the Week: https://t.co/xgoU9GtRSB pic.twitter.com/SmRhPn1E25
The Mud Hens contest was the only action from the Tigers’ farm system on Monday night. After their Monday double-header was completely washed out by inclement weather, the Lakeland Flying Tigers and Bradenton Marauders will attempt to play two on Tuesday. Matt Hall (3-5, 4.75 ERA) gets the start for Lakeland in game one. Starters have not yet been announced for game two.