Oliver On Pace to Take 5th Spot in Tiger's Rotation

And down the stretch they come...

After our last post, we noted that Andy Oliver had taken the early lead in the race for the 5th spot in the Detroit Tiger's starting rotation. After his last appearance on Monday, he has built on that lead. After a spotty third inning in his first appearance, Oliver shifted gears and pitched a near perfect stretch of four innings against the Mets on Monday. This outing has placed him in the lead, over Jacob Turner, who has been miserable this spring and Drew Smyly, who has pitched better than Turner, but not as well as Oliver. If Oliver can continue to hit his spots with his fastball and get his slider over the plate, it will be hard for anyone to catch him.

There are two pieces of good news behind all of this action between these three hurlers that form the core of depth in the Tiger's minor league pitching program. Firstly, if a starter gets injured this year, there will be plenty of options to replace him. Secondly, this core could also function as trade bait later this summer when the Tiger's look to upgrade at either 2B or middle relief. All in all good news for people of the D.