Bowman Chrome Hits

My other box that I had waiting for me when I got home from work on Saturday was Bowman Chrome. With Bowman Chrome you are guaranteed three autograph cards in the box. The series focuses on more younger players with their rookie cards. It is a good set to get familiar with young guys who are still in the minors. Out of the three autograph cards I pulled, I only had heard of one of the three.

Joes De Leon is a right handed pitcher in the Dodgers organization. He was drafted in the 24th round in 2013. He is ranked number 7 in the Dodgers organization in top prospects according to mlb.com. He is a strikeout pitcher who broke Clayton Kershaw's Great Lakes single game strikeout record with 14.

Alex Reyes is a top 3 prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals farm system. He is another strikeout pitcher with a fastball that can reach mid 90s and even touch triple digits. He even made baseball's top 100 prospect list. The card is #/499.

Brandon Finnegan was the one player that I knew. I did pretty well with pulling Royals cards this weekend (the other being Venture in Gypsy Queen). I heard of Finnegan last year when he was drafted 17th overall to the Royals and then made his major league debut later on that year. He would earn a win in the 2014 ALDS and throw perfect 10th and 11th innings in the AL Wild Card game also.

Add another starter??

This off-season the Tigers let Max Scherzer walk, which worked out on both sides. The Tigers will be receiving a compensation pick from the Nationals and they won't have to overpay for Scherzer like the Nationals did. As it stands right now the Tigers starting rotation will look like this: David Price, Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez, Shane Greene, and Alfredo Simon. I like the first four in the rotation, but I am still not sold 100% on Simon. He would be a good swing man for them, if they can add another arm.

With the rumors going around the Tigers have been linked to James Shields. Shields has put together some good seasons with both the Rays and as of late the Royals. He is a guy who can eat up a lot of innings and goes late into games. Over his nine year career he has averaged 227 innings a seasons with a 3.72 ERA. He has 22 complete games to his name. This is huge for the Tigers, because of our unknown bullpen. The downside of Shields is the fact he does not live up to his nickname "Big Game James" in the post season, when it really matters. With an ERA of 5.46 and a WHIP of 1.534 he doesn't cut it during the playoffs. On the Tigers he doesn't need to be the ace. He could pitched third or fourth in the rotation and take pressure off of himself during the playoffs.

Now if the Tigers are not able to sign Shields, Kyle Lobstein is in our farm system who pitched well for the Tigers in a 6 games started and made on appearance out of the pen. He would add another left handed arm to the rotation. This would allow Simon to pitch out of the bullpen and make the occasional start when need. Lobstein is a young guy who looked the best out of the young arms that came up and pitched last year for the Tigers. I don't expect him to be a star pitcher, but a solid back of the rotation guy.

All in all I doubt the Tigers will sign Shields and Simon will stay in the rotation. I'm not giving up completely on Simon without really seeing him pitch. I hope for the best out of him this season. If the Tigers can swing a Shields signing I would go no more then 4 years in $70-$80 million range.