After an error by Mariner’s first baseman Josh Naylor, Spencer Torkelson shoots a line drive just inside the rightfield line to drive in both runners, and the Tigers and Seattle at tied at two once again. The Tigers have three hits on the game, and they made that last one count.
Spencer Torkelson disappointed in his first three seasons with the Tigers, hitting just .221/.300/.392. The walks and power were okay, but he collected hits so infrequently that he over finished below average in all the percentage categories.
In 2025, Torkelson’s first in his prime years, he got off to a good start. He went two for three with a home run and a sacrifice fly on Saturday to help beat the Twins 4-0. He’s now batting .314/.419/.647 on the season, with nine of his sixteen hits going for extra bases. The Tigers have to hope that the real Torkelson finally emerged.
Ronald Acuna Jr.of the Braves makes it back into the top five of the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings with a two for five night, both hits home runs. That puts him in fifth place as the Braves defeat the Cardinals 8-5.
Mookie Betts of the Dodgers remains in first place after a one for two night with two walks in a 10-0 beating of the Marlins. Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners posted an 0 for 4 in a 1-0 win over the Rays, and remains in second place.
The Astros had the night off, leaving Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez in third and fourth place respectively.
The best game score of the night belonged to Spencer Torkelson of the Tigers, a 76. He went two for four with a walk, both hits home runs. Torkelson, in his second season, still does not hit much for average, but he raised both his OBP and slugging percentage enough this season so that he is a very useful player. Fifty eight of his 121 hits went for extra bases, and he drew 63 walks. At seasonal age 23, he still has time to develop into a dangerous hitter.
The top five of the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings gets shuffled a bit after Thursday’s games, but Shohei Ohtani of the Angels stays at the top of the list. He homered for the 29th time and walked twice in a 9-7 White Sox win. Jose Ramirez of the Guardians singled and walked in a 4-3, ten inning Royals win. Although it doesn’t count toward batting, he stole home in the top of the tenth inning to give Cleveland a brief lead. Ronald Acuna Jr.and the Braves did not play, and Acuna sits in third place.
Juan Soto of the Padres posted a one for three with two walks in a 5-4 Pirates win for fourth place. Luis Arraez saw his hit streak end as he drew a walk in four PA in a 2-0 win over the Red Sox. Arraez ranks fifth as his batting average drops to .392.
The best game score of the day goes to Spencer Torkelson of the Tigers, an 82. He posted a two for three day with two walks, both hits home runs as Detroit downs Texas 8-5. Torkelson, at seasonal age 23, has yet to reach his potential. He currently owns a .223/.304/.392 slash line. It’s an improvement over his rookie season. He’s making uneven progress this year. He hit poorly in April, but did a great job getting on base in May. His BA and OBP regressed in June, but this power came to the forefront. Now he needs to combine the May on base and the June power to become a fine hitter.
David Laurila’s weekly note column contains a conversation with Mickey Tettleton about Tigers prospect Spencer Torkelson:
I asked Templeton if Torkelson — already the consensus top hitting prospect in the Tigers system — reminds him of anybody he played with.
“Power-wise, I’d have to go back to Dean Palmer,” responded Tettleton. “I don’t know if you’ve been to Chatham, but you’d watch [Torkelson] take batting practice, and you’d think, ‘Man, this is a fly ball,’ and it would end up three quarters of the way up in the trees. He’s just got tremendous raw power. He’s a very intelligent college hitter [Arizona State] that just happens to have a world of talent swinging the bat.”
The Palmer comp is even more eye-opening when you consider an opinion Tettleton had shared with me a few minutes earlier. When I suggested that Cecil Fielder must have had the most-impressive power among his former teammates, Tettleton said it actually wasn’t. It was Palmer.
FanGraphs.com
Palmer owned a career isolated power of .221, and I will note that his career pretty much spanned the PED era. As we have seen in recent years, the players of the 1990s could have done the same thing with better launch angles. Fielder’s isolated power stood at .227, so I am with Laurila on being the more impressive power hitter.
Laurila also mentions the idea of the Calvinball loss. It’s another reason that wins and losses should be attributed just to teams, not to pitchers.
The Tigers sign overall first draft pick Spencer Torkelson to a record bonus of $8.4 million. Imagine how much he would have received if he were a free agent able to negotiate with all 30 teams. Eliminate the draft!
The Tigers take college power hitter Spencer Torkleson as the number one pick in the 2020 amateur draft:
Those numbers are no mirage. Scouts claim that Torkelson is one of the most complete hitters to come through the draft in years. He is lauded by everyone, as evaluators claim that his “double plus power comes easy” and he “controls at-bats extremely well.” FanGraphs really lays it on thick, opining that he has “sublime hitter’s timing, plus bat speed, and above-average barrel control and ball/strike recognition.”
BlessYouBoys.com
The Tigers could certainly use a young slugger, and a number of other players. Interestingly, they drafted him as a third baseman despite his playing first base in college. An early move to first base is often a sign of poor defense, but the Tigers believe he can play third base.