The International League manager of the year, Larry Parrish, is going to return to Toledo to manage the Mud Hens again. Parrish led Toledo to it’s first International League championship since 1967. To manage a AAA team has to be tough, because at any given time, you could see that team’s hottest player simply disappear in a call up.

Both Jeff Jones and Leon Durham will also return to be on Parrish’s coaching staff.

I really got into Minor League Baseball last year. MinorLeagueBaseball.com now has live radio feeds (and in some cases, video feeds) of just about all of the minor league games, so I found myself with the Tigers’ game on mute while I listened to either the Mud Hens or the SeaWolves on the computer. They had Arizona Fall League games as well, but they were always on during the day so I never got a chance to listen in.

None of the Tigers really shined this year. While Chris Shelton won player of the year last year, no Tiger hit .300 this year. Don Kelly led all Tigers with a .294 average and Kody Kirkland was just behind them at .293. Humbarto Sanchez was solid on the mound. He was 1-0 in six starts and struck out 29 in 29 1/3 innings.

John Sickels did a brief run down of the AFL and is planning on doing something more detailed soon. He also had a nice thread about the Tigers farm system. John runs a great blog and his book is now up for presale.

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