Five years is quite a long time in baseball terms. It’s difficult to reconcile the seemingly endless decline of the Detroit Tigers with the realization that way back in 2015, they were just a year removed from their last postseason appearance. Those now classic teams had grown overripe, but we certainly didn’t think we were beginning a half decade as the worst organization in baseball.
With the club still in win-now mode, the selection of prep right-hander Beau Burrows with the 22nd overall pick in the 2015 wasn’t particularly heralded. Still, after years of focusing on college talent in closer proximity to helping the major league club achieve it’s goals, the first round selections of teenagers Derek Hill in 2014, and Burrows in 2015, felt like hints that some emphasis on the long game was now in order.