Adam Wilk
pitched on Sunday, going 7 1/3 IP, giving up 5 hits, 4 runs (3 earned), 1 walk
and striking out 4. He made 1 mistake, a
grand slam. On the season in Toledo, he
has a stat line of 3.40 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 6.62 K/9, 1.79 BB/9, 3.88 FIP in 50 1/3
innings. When it was time to replace
Doug Fister again, the Tigers turned to Casey Crosby (4.26 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 10.13
K/9, 4.62 BB/9, 3.52 FIP) instead of giving Adam Wilk another chance.
Now, I’m not
saying that they made the wrong choice.
It’s not always about the stats when it comes to the development of
prospects. They had already tried Adam
Wilk once this year and it didn’t go so well (11 IP, 8.81 ERA, 2.18 WHIP, 5.73
K/9, 2.45 BB/9, 7.29 FIP). Trying
someone else to see if they can catch lightning in a bottle sometimes works
(look at Quintin Berry).
Casey Crosby’s
walk-a-thon of a start didn’t go exactly as the Tigers had hoped, but they are
giving him another start. Fair enough,
they gave Adam Wilk 3 starts. However,
Adam Wilk is making it very hard for people (well me) to forget about him.
Wilk could be
getting a little lucky, as his BABIP is a very low .226 while giving up 20.8%
LD. He doesn’t have a high GB%, 35.1%,
but his SIERA is a respectable 3.86. Opponents
are only hitting .210/.246/.360 against him.
What’s really impressive is that he’s getting right-handed batters out
(.191/.222/.303 batting against). That
combined with the fact that he’s averaging over 6 innings/start shows that he
could stay as a starter.
Wilk’s best
asset is that he limits the amount of walks; he’s never allowed more than 2
walks per nine innings in the minors. He’s
not going to wow you with his strikeouts, only striking out about 6.5 batters
per nine innings. He works almost the
exact opposite way of Casey Crosby, who has a great strikeout rate but a below
average walk rate. Wilk throws an 87 MPH
fastball, a cutter, a curveball and a changeup.
He doesn’t throw fast and doesn’t strike guys out; these type of
pitchers don’t typically last long in the Tigers organization.
When Fister
is healthy and Duane Below doing well in the bullpen (2.63 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 7.13
IP, 1.13 BB/9, 2.89 FIP) there’s seemingly no room for Wilk, especially seeing
that Crosby and possibly Jacob Turner later this year are higher on the depth chart. My prediction is that the Tigers are going to
use Wilk as trade bait when the deadline approaches. They could call him up and “showcase” him to
other teams at the ML level, maybe even giving him a start or 2 (similar to
Charlie Furbush last year).
The Tigers
don’t have much in trade bait in the minors and it looks like they are going to
have to make a move or 2 at the deadline.
Adam Wilk continuing to do well could be one of the best things to
happen to the Tigers this year.
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