Collier named pitcher of week

The American Association has named T-Bones right-handed pitcher Tommy Collier the league’s Pointstreak Pitcher of the Week for the week ending July 22.

Tommy Collier was superb in his one start last week for Kansas City, going 8.2 innings in a 1-0 no decision over the Texas Airhogs.

The Texas native gave up just two hits while striking out eight as the T-Bones walked off winners in the 11th inning on Saturday night.

The previous week on Sunday, July 15,, he helped KC avoid a sweep at the hands of the St. Paul Saints, tossing eight innings of four-hit ball in a 5-2 win over the Saints.

Collier struck out 10 that day and has struck out 41 in his last five starts, totaling 36.2 innings. For the season Collier is 5-3 with a 3.48 ERA in 80 innings with 79 strike outs.

Tommy Collier joined the T-Bones after spending 2011-2016 with the Detroit Tigers organization and reaching AA Erie in 2016, posting a career 41-37 record and a 3.88 ERA in 650 innings with Detroit.

The last two winters Collier has pitched in the Venezuela Winter League for La Guaira, pitching in 64 innings with a 4.22 ERA over the two combined seasons. Collier was the 22nd round pick of the Tigers in the 2011 MLB June Amateur Draft out of San Jacinto College in Houston, Texas.

He went 4-1 with a 1.85 ERA in his rookie season with Connecticut in the New York-Penn League in 2011. In 2012 he made the jump to low A West Michigan, going 9-8, and he led all the starters on the club with a 2.74 ERA in 24 starting nods.

In 2013, 2014 and 2015, Collier split time between High A Lakeland and AA Erie and spent 2013 in the prestigious Arizona Fall League with Mesa.

Collier combined for a 4.43 ERA in 2013 in 67 innings and in 2014, tossing 133 innings with a 5.75 ERA for Detroit. The right-hander went 7-8 in 2015 with a 3.70 ERA in 155.2 innings combined at both stops.

At AA Erie in 2016, the Houston, Texas, native won a career-high nine games in 25 starts with 130.2 innings with a 4.20 ERA. Collier led the SeaWolves in wins and innings pitched that season, adding 87 strike outs.

In 2008, Collier was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers out of high school in the 29th round of the MLB Draft from Cypress-Fairbanks High School in Cypress, Texas. He was then drafted in the 49th round by Toronto in 2009 while at San Jacinto College but did not sign

The T-Bones continue their nine-game home stand Tuesday night beginning a three-game series with the Lincoln Saltdogs. The first pitch is at 7:05 p.m. and the game can be heard on the T-Bones Broadcast Network on MixLR at http://mixlr.com/t-bones-baseball/ and seen on video stream on American Association.TV at https://www.americanassociationbaseball.

Individual tickets, season, group, mini-plans and nightly party suites are on sale and can be purchased by visiting the box office at T-Bones Stadium, calling the box office at 913-328-5618, or www.tbonesbaseball.com. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

– Story from T-Bones