Minor League Leaders: Mike Hessman

by wrigleyrocker12 on May 15, 2008 10:47 PM EDT

I figured I'd do some reports on some of the guys who have been tearing up the minors. A guy who catches my eye is Mike Hessman, the Toledo Mudhens (Detroits AAA facility) star third basemen, who leads all of AAA with 18 homeruns. He also carries a .307 batting average along with him. With a well above average third basemen in Carlos Guillen, the Tigers are set at that spot for about five years. But with aging and below average designated hitters like Gary Sheffield, I'm looking for Hessmen to get a call pretty soon. Unless Brandon Inge can step it up. The problem, Hessmen's thirty years old. They can trade him for some pitching help. That's always an option. Well, that concludes my report on the 30 year old Hessmen. If I were the Tigers, I'd try to put him at DH. He can't be much worse than Sheffield.

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Bah

Hessman’s a 30 year old journeyman slugger who has pop in his bat. He also has a crappy OBP and hit something like .185 last year. Tigers should flip him.

by demondeaconsbaseball on May 15, 2008 11:23 PM EDT 0 recs

Hessman

He’s a journeyman/AAAA guy, but he deserves a look with the way he has killed the ball.

by SBcaptain2 on May 15, 2008 11:41 PM EDT up 0 recs

I think he deserves in the sense that

you like to see guys rewarded but as far as deserving it bc he is likely to be a useful MLBer, no.

30 year old, high K, AAA HR champs don’t seem to ever make contact in MLB.
Graham Koonce fizzled out and Kevin Witt kills AAA but looked lost in MLB, first two examples I could think of

by nms on May 16, 2008 3:05 AM EDT up 0 recs

flip him?

for who?

Even a team needing a 1b/3b/ph fill-in wouldn’t give you more than some other no-future kind of guy. Like a 25 year old AA reliever or whoever they picked in round 20 last year or some guy they were about to cut on one of their minor league teams

by nms on May 16, 2008 3:03 AM EDT up 0 recs

AAAA player

Dalton

by jparks77 on May 15, 2008 11:24 PM EDT 0 recs

Hessman is what is he is

No team should be altering MLB plans for him but hes a nice guy to have available to call up.

He will strike out tons, look really bad on O and D sometimes but sometimes kill the ball.
He is the AAA Dave Kingman.
Don’t let that .307 average fool you, he is a low average hitter even in AAA.
He went .165/.269/.406 with 24 HR and 129 K 345 AB in AAA just two years ago with .214 and .254 years before and after that.

As clumsy a baseball player as he is I gotta love him though for coming up as a Braves minor leaguer putting in 7 or 8 long years before he made the show working on all his flaws and knowing no one in the org had him as any important part of future MLB plans – and hitting some homers while he was at it – and then in the first September that he got a cup of coffee he goes 6-for-21 with 2 doubles, 2 homers and 5 walks.
Good for him. I wish him all the success he can find, I always root for the fringe guys.

For a guy with nothing more than a home-run bat and a strong arm hes made himself a decent career. 280 career homers. Hell, he has even struck out 2 batters in 1.2 career IP!

by nms on May 16, 2008 3:01 AM EDT 0 recs

Larish

Is also making a case to help out the team. His K’s are probably too high, but he is left handed, has power, and the ability to draw a walk, three things the Tigers need. He doesn’t have the ability to play anywhere other than first base or DH, but he is younger than Hessman. Leyland can be stubborn at times with his lineup, but if Sheff doesn’t pick it up, I don’t know that he can stick much longer. At least one of Hessman or Larish will probably get a shot this year next time they need another non-OF bat.

Clevlen is actually having a pretty good year too.

by mcq fesijiba on May 16, 2008 10:01 AM EDT 0 recs