Spencer Torkelson And Riley Greene Shine In The MLB Futures Game

It was a rough weekend for my Tigers. They got swept in a 4 game series against the Minnesota Twins, a team that has struggled to find their footing all season. Detroit had leads in all 4 games and their bullpen decided to spit it up. I had a whole blog criticizing the bullpen and talking about Joe Jimenez, who, and this is a fact, has been the worst relief pitcher in baseball over the last three calendar years. But I figured I’d subvert expectations a little bit and talk about the good, because there was a little bit of good last weekend, and it came from the Tigers minor-league system.

The MLB Futures Game was yesterday. You may have missed it because Major-League Baseball decided to air in at 3 PM in the middle of the baseball Sunday. I streamed it, and it was a fun game to watch, mainly because it featured the Tigers 2 hottest up-and-coming stars in outfielder Riley Greene and 2020 #1 overall pick Spencer Torkelson. The American League got throttled 8-3, but the Tigers young stars still came to play. The 2 future Tigers went 3-5 with a walk and 2 runs scored, proving once again why they have earned their spot as 2 of baseball’s hottest young prospects.

Spencer Torkelson is where I expected him to be. This is a guy that many people believed was one of the best college bats to come out of the draft in a long time. His OPS is close to 1.000 in AA right now. What he’s doing is not surprising. There are still some questions about his defense, but I actually do think that will sort itself out. Tork is a good athlete and even if he’s not a great third baseman, you can always move him back to first. Riley Greene is ahead of schedule at this point. He was projected to be an elite bat coming into the 2019 draft, but there were questions about his defensive capabilities. Some thought he may end up at first base.

Does that look like a first baseman to you? I don’t think so. That’s the one thing about Riley Greene’s development that I think him and the Detroit Tigers organization deserve a lot of credit for. I think he’s exceeded expectations defensively. Did I mention he’s only 20 years old?

I try to pay attention to the mental makeup a player. I think that’s something that may go overlooked in this age of analytics and SABRmetrics. If you want to be a great baseball player, you got to have your head on straight, and I really like the approach that these guys have to the game of baseball. They never seem to get too high and they never seem to get too low. They are extremely confident, but they’re also incredibly hungry.

I had the opportunity to ask Ben Verlander what it is about these two that are going to make them perfect for Detroit. He said “I think they both represent a change in the culture in Detroit. They are winners. They provide the city of Detroit with hope.” I like hope, you can never have enough hope. I’m counting down the days until we get to see these guys in the bigs.