Writer: Gage O'Leary
Twitter: @Gage_Sports
3 Detroit Tigers prospects make top 100 list:
On Thursday, the brand new 2023 MLB pipeline top 100 prospect rankings were released. Three Detroit Tigers made the list, two pitching prospects, and one prospect who is expected to be Jonathan Schoop's long-term replacement down the road. Today we're going to take a deep look at 2nd baseman Jace Jung, but first I can't just skip through without talking about right-handed pitchers Jackson Jobe & Wilmer Flores.
Jobe was taken by Detroit at 3rd overall in the summer of 2021 during the MLB draft. He is from Irving, Texas and lands at 63 on MLB pipelines top 100 prospects. In the minor league's in 2022 he had a 4-5 record, an ERA of 3.84, struck out 81 batters and walked 30 in 77.1 innings pitched. He spent time with both the Lakeland Flying-Tigers and the West Michigan Whitecaps. It'll be interesting to see how big of a leap Jobe takes in 2023 as he enters year 2 of professional baseball. He certainly has a high ceiling and Detroit is hoping he reaches his full potential although his estimated time of arrival for the majors is 2025 according to the MLB app.
Wilmer Flores earned the 2022 Detroit Tigers minor league pitcher of the year award and proved that he has a lot of potential. He played 25 games in the 22' season and finished with a record of 7-4. He had an ERA of 2.97, he struck out 130 and walked only 23 in 103.1 innings pitched. He spent most of his 2022 campaign with the Erie SeaWolves, the Detroit Tigers Double-A affiliate. Only six of his 25 games were played with the Lakeland Flying-Tigers. It's worth noting that Flores is the younger brother of veteran MLB infielder Wilmer Flores... Yes, they have the same first and last name. His older brother has played 10 seasons in the MLB, and has played for 3 organization's, the Mets, Diamondbacks, and Giants. Now back to the Tigers young emerging right-hander. If he has a good camp in spring training and gets to a good start off the bat in the minors he could find himself with the Toledo Mudhens rather quickly and if things play out just right for him he could make his MLB debut this upcoming season.
But let's go ahead and dive into Jace Jung who is the top headline for this article.
Jace Jung carries the power Detroit is lacking:
The Tigers came into the 2022 MLB draft knowing they desperately needed to bring some power hitters into the fold. They were able to accomplish that with the 12th overall pick as they chose 2B Jace Jung. The Tigers outfield looks pretty good with Riley Greene, Austin Meadows, Akil Baddoo and Kerri Carpenter not to mention they have versatile players like Eric Haase, Matt Vierling and Nick Maton who can all play outfield as well. Second & Third base was a bit of a question mark at that point in 2022. Obviously now Jeimer Candelario is gone and Jonathan Schoop only has a handful of years left where he'll be good enough to be on an MLB roster. I think Jung was a great choice for Detroit and I'm extremely excited to see what the future holds with him. Hitting is something that runs in the Jung family as Jace's older brother Josh Jung is currently in the Texas Rangers organization and has a great chance to play a lot games in the Majors this season. Like his older brother, Jace played college ball at Texas Tech. There he hit 39 Homeruns, recorded 147 RBI's, had 74 extra base hits and walked 126 times in just 3 seasons. He played 30 games with the West Michigan Whitecaps in 2022, there he hit just one Homerun but keep in mind it's a difficult jump from college to pro, especially in the same season. He also hit 14 Homeruns at Texas Tech in 2022. With West Michigan he had 8 extra base hits, 13 RBI's and walked 25 times, which is very respectable for your first 30 professional games. Just like Jackson Jobe, it'll be interesting to watch Jace's progress in 2023 but I have a great feeling it's gonna be a great year for him.
Reason to be even more excited about Jace Jung's potential than before:
As if I wasn't already extremely excited about the Tigers drafting Jung, I am really fired up thinking about how the Comerica Park changes could make him even more dangerous once he reaches the big league level. Jace is a pull hitter and lowering the fences in center, right-center and right field could not only make him more dangerous but way more valuable than once expected to be. I love the changes to Comerica Park for a couple reasons, one thing is I think it'll bring more fans to the park on a regular basis with it not being a park heavily in the favor of pitchers. Fans love offense, and with Detroit already lacking power, it certainly didn't help having center field 420 feet from home plate or having a 13 foot wall in right center. Thankfully that is changing and more offense should be displayed for the Tigers in 2023. Another reason I love it is I think it'll help with the development of our young hitters like for example Riley Greene, I think he'll benefit greatly from the changes to the ballpark. It should help Spencer Torkelson as well, Detroit really needs him to get closer to his ceiling this season. Akil Baddoo could be another guy who develops faster because of the changes. I know he's struggled but the potential is certainly there and I'm not ready to give up on him just yet. Anyway, I think you get my point, and I think one guy who could benefit the most off of this down the road is Jace.
My comparison for Jace Jung:
I've seen a couple very interesting comparison's for Jace Jung. Harold Reynolds compared him to former Detroit Tiger Mickey Tettleton, TCU Baseball manager Kirk Saarloos, who faced Jung in college, compared him to an all-time great in Rod Carew who is an MLB Hall of Famer. Those two players were way before my time but somebody I think who has a lot of similarities with Jung is Jason Kipnis who I got to watch play the Tigers a lot growing up. Kipnis and Jung both play the same position and both play it well. They're batting stance is pretty similar and both have a very similar swing. Jace Jung is only an inch taller than Kipnis but does have a decent sized weight advantage on him. Don't get me wrong, I would love for Jung to have Rod Carew potential but I'm certainly not gonna push it. I wouldn't complain if he's closer to Jason Kipnis but I think Jace can be even better as I believe he has more power than Kipnis. The reason I wouldn't be upset is Kipnis was a pretty impactful player for Cleveland being an All-Star in 2013 & 2015. He's hit 126 Homeruns in his career, has a career batting average of .260, he's drove in 545 runs in his career, he's walked 467 times, has a career OBP of .333, a career slugging percentage of .404, an OPS of .744, and he's stole 136 bases. He last played for Cleveland in 2019, he recently played for the Chicago Cubs and now is a member of the Atlanta Braves organization. If you watch highlights from both Jung and Kipnis I think you'll see the same similarities I do.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed. Go Tigers!
Comments