John Sickels' Tiger Prospect Grades

I just received my copy of the Baseball Prospect Book 2006 by John Sickels. Compared to Baseball America, Sickels goes more by performance and less by tools so we get a different perspective here. He gives grades to most of the important prospects on every team, usually 30-35 players per team. At the end of the book, he gives lists of his top 50 position players and top 50 pitching prospects in all of baseball. You’ll have to buy the book (see link above) to get the details but here is a sneak preview of the Tigers with the highest grades:

Table: John Sickels's Tiger Prospect Grades

Player	Grade
Justin Verlander	A
Joel Zumaya	B+
Brent Clevlen	B
Cameron Maybin	B
Jordan Tata	B-
Eulogio De La Cruz	C+
P.J. Finigan	C+
Jeff Frazier	C+
Tony Giarratano	C+
Michael Holliman	C+
Matt Joyce	C+
Jair Jurrjens	C+
Jeff Larish	C+
Chris Robinson	C+
Clete Thomas	C+
Kevin Whelan	C+

The number of Tigers he ranks as C+ or above (Sickels considers this high praise) has increased from 12 in 2005 to 16 this year. He lists 15 other Tigers as grade C. You can see the difference between the Baseball America and John Sickels philosophies. Whereas Baseball America has Wilken Ramirez and Humberto Sanchez (two players with great tools but so so performance last year) in its top 6, Sickels does not even have them in his top 16. Sickels lists 3 Tigers on his top 50 lists. On the pitching list, Verlander was #1 and Zumaya #12. Clevlen was #48 on the position player list.