Meet Detroit's best pitching prospect not named Jobe

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck's Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

DETROIT -- Jaden Hamm entered the season as a relatively unknown unranked pitcher in the Tigers' farm system -- a fifth-round Draft pick last year out of Middle Tennessee State with a big curveball, a fastball with good ride, some sporadic control issues and a thirst to learn about pitching.

Hamm wrapped up his first full pro season last week as the Tigers’ No. 7 prospect per MLB Pipeline, the top pitching prospect in the organization not named Jackson Jobe and potentially the next man behind Jobe to join the pitching pipeline to Detroit.

For a pitcher who talks about vertical movement on his pitches with ease, Hamm's career is on the rise. Nobody in the organization did more for his stock this season.

“It’s been awesome,” Hamm said last month between starts at High-A West Michigan. “Everything that I worked this offseason and after getting a little short stint after getting drafted last year, you want to put yourself in the position that I put myself into this year.”

As much as the Tigers have invested in high-end pitching prospects over the years, underrated hurlers like Hamm are where the organization makes its mark. He had a 5.31 ERA and 4.2 walks per nine innings in his junior season at Middle Tennessee and wasn’t even the highest-drafted pitcher from his program last year; right-hander Eriq Swan went to the Dodgers a round earlier.

The Tigers brought Hamm into their system and made a quick adjustment, getting him to throw more high fastballs.

“I’ve always been taught to throw fastball at the knees,” Hamm said. “Well, when I was throwing fastballs at the knees in college, it was riding belt high. So now being able to work at the top of the zone with the heater and then get back down, it has been a huge gain for me.

“First time I really put it to use was with the [Single-A Lakeland] Flying Tigers after getting drafted, just try to work up in the zone. I started missing bats with the fastball and I was like, ‘Oh wow, I’m throwing it where the hitter wants it, but it has that extra little bit at the top where they can’t get on top of it.’”

The other adjustment, with help from pitching coordinator Stephanos Stroop, was to add a slider to his arsenal of fastball, curveball and changeup. The slider has more horizontal movement than vertical, darting in on left-handed hitters and away from righties. Hamm picked it up quickly midway through Spring Training and worked it into his arsenal early.

Hamm dominated at High-A early in the season with a simple plan: Pound the top of the zone with fastballs to get ahead, change speeds, then set up the slider and curveball. He allowed just four runs over 37 2/3 innings in his first 10 starts, a 0.96 ERA with a .188 opponents' batting average. He then had to adjust in the second half as hitters became more aggressive.

“A lot of my success late in the season has come after throwing a first-pitch curveball for a strike and then throwing maybe a changeup off of it, so they’re now 0-2 without seeing a fastball and then the cards are in my hand,” Hamm said. “Just trying to reverse the roles on them now instead of just giving them heaters like I did at the beginning of the year has really helped me stay successful, stay true to myself.”

Hamm's goal for the offseason is to further hone those secondary pitches.

“Right now, if I was to write a scouting report against myself, I’m going to be the north-south guy and then I’m occasionally going to throw a changeup,” Hamm said. “So if I have a changeup and a slider, then I have four pitches and they’re all going in different directions. The slider’s definitely going to be something, especially going into this offseason where I can really hone in on making it more of a pitch that I can throw at any time.”

MINOR LEAGUE UPDATE

? Triple-A Toledo: The Mud Hens go to Omaha for their final road series of the season after a 2-4 homestand against Indianapolis. No. 23 prospect Justice Bigbie went 8-for-19 with five RBIs for the series, including a 4-for-4 performance on Friday. Eddys Leonard went 8-for-23 with three solo homers and two doubles.

? Double-A Erie: The SeaWolves close out their regular season with a six-game homestand against Bowie beginning Tuesday night. They enter with a four-game winning streak, having taken a road series at Reading. No. 2 prospect Jackson Jobe backed up his standing as baseball’s top pitching prospect by tossing a career-high seven innings of one-run ball on three hits with two walks and eight strikeouts on Thursday in what turned out to be his Double-A finale, earning a promotion to Toledo. Gage Workman went 11-for-23 with two doubles, a home run, six RBIs and two stolen bases last week.

? High-A West Michigan: The Whitecaps finished their season with a 68-63 record by going 5-1 against Lansing at LMCU Ballpark. Top prospect Max Clark went 6-for-21 for the series to finish his first full pro season batting .279/.372/.421 with 21 doubles, six triples, nine home runs, 75 RBIs and 29 stolen bases in 33 attempts. No. 27 prospect Roberto Campos went 6-for-22 with four RBIs for the series and hit a home run on the final day to complete his first double-digit-homer campaign.

? Single-A Lakeland: The Flying Tigers begin their best-of-three Florida State League Division Series against Clearwater on Tuesday night at Joker Marchant Stadium after clinching a postseason berth last week with a 4-2 series against Fort Myers. No. 10 prospect Josue Brice?o went 5-for-18 with a double and five RBIs. Jack Penney, the Tigers’ fifth-round Draft pick this summer out of Notre Dame, went 5-for-14 with three doubles and four RBIs.