Akil Baddoo felt like he'd lived this moment before.
When the Minnesota Twins decided Baddoo wasn't worth protecting on their 40-man roster and the Detroit Tigers quietly took the outfielder in the Rule 5 draft in December, his mom, Akilah, made a point of it.
"Do you remember them questioning you?" she asked her son. "Do you remember that feeling in high school when they didn't trust you and they had you batting eighth or ninth? Doesn't this feel like deja vu?"
"Yep," her son responded.
"What did you do?