Baseball America released a new pre-season feature today - top prospects by position. It's only available to subscribers but I'll give you a brief summary. Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya were both among the top five right-handed starters and Cameron Maybin was among the top five center fielders. Tony Giarratano and Audi Ciriaco were not ranked but were mentioned as shortstops to consider. In all, 80 players were ranked at various positions and 60 others got mentions. I think these rankings tell us that Verlander, Zumaya and Maybin will all be ranked very high (all probably in the Top 50) on the famous Baseball America Top 100 to be released in a couple of weeks. I doubt any other Tigers will make that list.
The most obvious omission for the Tigers was Brent Clevlen. However, that was not a complete surprise because, although he had a very good year, he was repeating the Florida State League. His stock will rise markedly if he has a good year for AA Erie this year.
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I have to say, I'm f-ing dying for Maybin's debut. I almost look forward to the minor league season as much as the major leagues these days.
ReplyDeleteI definitely get as excited about the minor leagues as the majors now. I also think it's a lot of fun following a player all the way up the ladder and seeing him have success with the Tigers. For example, I have followed Granderson closely since he played for Oneonta and I'm really pulling for him now.
ReplyDelete(I'm the anonymous guy above too.)
ReplyDeleteDitto.
But it makes it all the more disappointing when someone you've followed since the GCL turns into, say, Ramon Santiago.
Not that I think that'll be Maybin's fate.
God, it's so weird seeing Tigers prospects of any sort showing up on these lists.
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