Detroit Tigers News: Tigers are flying like an eagle

You may find these Wednesday links fowl, and that is quacktastic. We all lay an egg once in a while — after all, we’re only human (?) — but come mid-week, sometimes it is good to get loosey-goosey for the downhill slope leading into the weekend. With this in mind, today’s bird-brained entries will all be of the avian variety.

Casey Mize is soaring high in Lakeland

Casey Mize is trying his best to fly north for the summer, with a series of stellar performances down in Florida thus far. For starters, Mize was anointed Florida State League player of the week for his dominating performance last Wednesday against the High-A Palm Beach Cardinals. He followed up with an utter destruction of the St. Lucie Mets on Tuesday; even MLB Pipeline has gotten in on the hype train.

Hopefully we will see this success continue when he inevitably steps up to Double-A Erie and faces tougher competition. When that occurs is yet to be determined, as the weather in northern Pennsylvania still has not embraced the spring season.

Note for the stats below: the only hit was a bunt single.

Matthew Boyd is still ruffling feathers

After a solid performance Tuesday in the top half of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox, Matthew Boyd has continued on his meteoric trajectory that everyone keeps waiting for him fall from — but his waxy wings just refuse to melt. Coming into the game, Boyd had been putting up top numbers on the leaderboards among major league pitchers so far this season, and there are no signs of him relenting, as he kept the Sox at bay for seven hard-fought innings to earn the win in Boston.

Josh Harrison moves down the pecking order

Josh Harrison has had a tough season at the plate so far. A very tough season. Yet manager Ron Gardenhire has persisted in penning him in at the top of the order, which has not worked out well for the veteran second baseman.

However, there is hope! It is very possible that the leadoff position just does not favor Harrison’s offensive skill set, and the numbers appear to support this — they suggest Jeimer Candelario as a much better candidate for the leadoff role.

It appears that the lineup adjustment did some good for Harrison on Tuesday, as he was dropped from the top spot to the seven-hole in the first game of the doubleheader, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs in the winning effort. In the second match of the twin-billing, he managed to go 2-for-4 again, this time with adding a double, in the same batting position. Extremely small sample size aside, it looks like the change has worked well so far for the struggling second baseman.

Empty nest at Comerica Park

Attendance at Comerica Park has been down in recent years, which should come as no surprise to any member of the fanbase. After a decade-long stretch of almost unprecedented success by the Detroit baseball club, the rebuild has been a very tough pill to swallow, and nowhere is that more evident than at the turnstiles. In the first month of the 2019 season, the Tigers drew the fewest spectators for their games since April 2003. While team attendance typically warms up with the weather, the numbers are already pretty bleak in comparison to previous years. The Tigers currently sit ranked 23rd among major league teams in home attendance so far.

Duck, Duck, Goose

Tigers catcher Grayson Greiner went yard in Tuesday’s game off of Red Sox ace Chris Sale, and this one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

Ronny Rodriguez, who has been en fuego since his recent call-up, decided he wanted in on the action with this soaring eagle of a home run.

Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Manning and his arm-side swallow.

Circling overhead

How the documentary on the Tigers’ last successful World Series run Roar of ‘84 came to life. Castellanos has a new agent in Scott Boras, and his future with the Tigers looks grim. Here is the latest scouting report on Tigers prospect pitcher Tarik Skubal, and the news is good. Injuries have decimated Miguel Cabrera’s value precipitously. Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2018 Rule 5 draft pick Nick Burdi is bitten by the injury bug again. Toronto Blue Jays prospect Bo Bichette breaks finger getting hit on the hand by a pitch. Christian Yelich continues to build upon his 2018 MVP season, and simply refuses to plateau. Major League Baseball’s television deal with FOX is much richer than you probably think. Apparently the Tampa Bay Rays are cool... in a hipster sort of way. Meet Rob Friedman, aka The Pitching Ninja, in this one-on-one interview with Twitter’s revolutionary pitching guru. FanGraphs releases their first mock draft top-10 list.