8:15pm: The Tigers announced Alexander as the starter for tomorrow’s second game. A 40-man roster move will be announced tomorrow.
8:11pm: Tonight’s game between the Tigers and White Sox has been postponed due to rain, which could impact the team’s decision with Alexander, McCosky tweets.
7:58pm: The Tigers will select the contract of lefty Tyler Alexander tomorrow, reports Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. He’ll be the 26th man of tomorrow’s doubleheader against the White Sox and start Game 2 of that twin bill.
Alexander, 24, was a second-round pick out of Texas Christian University back in 2015. He’s had a rough start to the season due largely to troubles with the long ball, as evidenced by an unsightly 6.23 ERA. Alexander, however, has a pristine 87-to-18 K/BB ratio in 73 2/3 innings (10.6 K/9, 2.2 BB/9) and has a 3.67 ERA through 34 1/3 innings over the course of his past six starts. He’ll get the nod over many of the club’s more heralded pitching prospects, but because he’ll serve as the 26th man, his promotion will be a one-off appearance anyhow. His addition to the 40-man roster should put Alexander in line to make some additional appearances for an injury-depleted Tigers pitching staff later in the season.
Alexander’s standing within the Tigers’ prospect rankings has slipped as the team’s system has improved over the course of its rebuild. He was once considered to be among the organization’s more promising overall prospects but has taken a bit of a backseat with the arrival of new arms and some diminished results of his own in recent seasons. Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs mentioned him in their overview of Detroit’s system heading into the season, writing that Alexander “throws strikes and eats innings and is a good bet to at least be a sixth starter type of depth arm.”
I know this probably shouldn’t surprise me, but there are two left handed pitchers named Tyler Alexander? The A’s have a LHP Tyler Alexander pitching for Triple A Las Vegas too.
Maybe not. Tonight’s game was PPD, and the Tigers are listing Boyd and Norris for the games tomorrow on their website. Which stinks because Boyd was then scheduled to pitch against the Red Sox on Sunday, a game I have tickets to. Now it won’t likely be him.
They changed it on the site. He’s starting game 2, Norris game 1 and Boyd on Thursday. Friday is Soto. I’m guessing Sunday is Zimmermann. I believe I heard they plan on calling someone up again or going with a bullpen game on Saturday but that was before the rainout.
Just saw the current pitching matchups for the Red Sox series…Zimmermann is pitching on Saturday and TBA Sunday.
And yet they changed it again…..looks like my original speculation is correct.
Oh, I give up. They’ve changed it again. Soto tonight followed by TBDs tomorrow and Sunday. It’s anybody’s guess now, including apparently the Tigers.
And the winner of Friday night’s start is…….Ryan Carpenter.