On the day after ace Justin Verlander notched his 20th win of the season, the Tigers released their list of probably starters for the upcoming week. On Thursday’s series finale against Kansas City (where Verlander was likely to land his next start) the pitcher is listed as TBA meaning that Verlander is going to be pushed back a day.
The move isn’t surprising considering manager Jim Leyland mentioned Friday that the team would need an extra starter which would give Leyland the opportunity to start Verlander on the series opener against Chicago on Friday.
Thursday also marks the day that teams can expand their rosters.
Now as far as who gets that start is somewhat still up in the air. One option is Duane Below, whose been pretty effective out of the pen for the team. With that said, Chris Iott of Mlive.com believes that the spot start on Thursday is probably going to go Detroit’s top pitching prospect Jacob Turner.
Turner looked very impressive in his debut with the Tigers last month in a loss to the Angels. He also looked impressive in his last start with Triple-A Toledo on Friday allowing four hits and one walk while throwing six shutout innings in a 1-0 victory over Buffalo. He struck out six.
Turner is 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA in three starts for the Mud Hens. He has struck out 20 and walked just three in 17 1-3 innings.
Source: Mlive.com