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Detroit Tigers Minor League Notes

Possible #1 Draft Pick for the Tigers in the 2018 Amatuer Draft.
Not bad, Casey Mize, against a Texas A&M team that will send a few guys to the big leagues: 7 1/3 innings, five hits, one run, 13 Ks, no walks, 98 pitches -- 72 for strikes. Mize, the Auburn ace, on the season: 51 Ks, 3 walks.
 
I?m always intrigued by under-the-radar prospects who put up big numbers, and that?s a fitting description for Zac Houston. Detroit?s pick in the 11th round of the 2016 draft dominated opposing hitters last year. In 32 relief appearances between low-A West Michigan and high-A Lakeland, the Mississippi State product fanned 91, and allowed just 27 hits, in 58 innings.

Houston is a two-pitch pitcher. His secondary offering is a slider ? ?kind of a slurve, depending on the day? ? while his primary weapon is a four-seam fastball that sits 92-94 and occasionally ticks up to 97. Augmenting that asset is a delivery that helps it play up.

?I?ve got good extension on my fastball and it gets on hitters pretty well,? Houston explained to me during his stint in the Arizona Fall League. ?I?ve had people say I almost jump towards the hitter. Everybody who watches me says my delivery is a little different. I guess there are just a lot of moving parts.?

Digging in against the 6-foot-5, 250-lb. right-hander can be dangerous. He plunked 11 batters last summer.

?I?m not afraid to go in on hitters,? shrugged Houston. ?If I hit a guy, I hit a guy. That?s not the end of the world. I?m never trying to ? that?s never the goal ? but I am going to establish the inside part of the plate. If that means hitting a few guys, so be it.?

Houston didn?t drill anyone in the AFL, but he certainly made opposing hitters uncomfortable. Following up on his regular-season success, he tossed 11-and-a-third scoreless innings, with 18 punch outs. Counting his numbers in the desert, the 23-year-old right-hander has a 1.36 ERA and a 14.4 K/9 in 99 professional innings. Why did he last until the 325th pick in his draft year?

?I thought I was going to go earlier,? Houston told me. ?I had phone calls around the fourth and fifth rounds, asking if I?d take under slot, if I?d take this amount or that amount. You either say yes or no, and even then they still have a decision to make. Just because you say, ?I?ll take X amount? doesn?t mean they?re going to take you. It was frustrating experience, but I?m definitely happy with I ended up.?
It?s safe to say that the Tigers feel the same way.

Fangraphs
 
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