BA names top 10 Tigers prospects
posted in 2006-07 offseason, Random, minors |Baseball America named its listing of the top 10 Tigers prospects today based on long-term potential. The selections were based on discussions with the club to get a feel of what the personnel director and scouts thought. The Freep’s Jon Paul Morosi wrote the accompanying article. I’m not sure if he did the listing but I assume. Without further adieu:
1. Cameron Maybin, of
2. Andrew Miller, lhp
3. Brent Clevlen, of
4. Jair Jurrjens, rhp
5. Jordan Tata, rhp
6. Eulogio de la Cruz, rhp
7. Gorkys Hernandez, of
8. Dallas Trahern, rhp
9. Jeff Larish, 1b
10. Scott Sizemore, ss/2b
The top is no surprise. Maybin, Miller, Clevlen, Jurrjens, Tata, Euliogio de la Cruz, they should all be familiar names. I am not sure if I would rank them exactly in that order. I’m not even sure if I’d choose Maybin over Miller, and I’d probably rank Clevlen lower due to his struggles at the plate. But it doesn’t really matter.
Whether Virgil Vasquez should crack the list is a good question. I think he probably should after the showing in Arizona.
But one thing we see is this is still an organization rich in pitching, even after trading Humberto Sanchez and two low-level minor leaguers to New York. But we also see how the pitching drafts have left Detroit low in quality positional players. Maybin is great. Clevlen did crack the majors and plays good defense, but still seems raw. And then it drops all the way down to A ball before you get another player (Larish) on the top 10.
Larish, we’re all familiar with. A nice hitter. But I wouldn’t say anything great at this point. Scott Sizemore — no relation to Grady — looks like a solid infielder. He spent his summer at short-season Oneanta. Hernandez is a 19-year old gulf coast leaguer.
So there’s definitely trouble on the horizon that Dave Dombrowski must keep his eye out for. The organization is not overflowing with high-quality prospects, that’s for sure. That’s also why Lynn Henning keeps talking about stocking up the minor leagues. I’m all for a trade or two to do so, but not Jeremy Bonderman, that’s nuts.
Bilfer weighed in at DTW. I’ll update as other bloggers wade in, too.
In any case, agree with the top 10? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.
Sphere It
I was surprised to see Trahern on the list. I’m not sure who I expected in his place but he wasn’t on my top ten radar. I thought Larish would be a little higher and Clevlen a little lower but I suppose 3-10 is really a crapshoot anyway.
Lee
I love the projected 2010 lineup on BA’s website. They put Inge back at catcher. But, that does bring up a good point. What is the future at catcher? That seems to be a big hole, I really hope DD starts to address. Good catchers are hard to find, I would not be opposed to trading pitching prospects for catching prosepcts to see how this turns out.
On another note, is anyone as excited about the Cameron Maybin era as I am? I can’t wait for that kid to get to Detroit.
C. Carlson still remains under the radar. It will very interesting to see if he can leap Ryan Strieby for the 1st basemen’s slot at Western Michigan this year.
Carlson playing last year for GC Tigers in his rookie year had the highest OPS of any hitter in the Tiger Organization with more than 150 ABs
The knock against him is that he is raw and will be 23 in Jan put he also put up awesome numbers playing for the New Mexico Lobos when he was in college.
http://golobos.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/carlson_chris00.html
I certainly don’t know if anyone will ever find this post, but if they do, here’s his splits:
http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/pl/502/502073.html
Looks like a solid player but too old at that level to really be called a prospect, I’d think. Depends how fast he can advance.