Tigers Top Ten Prospects

Baseball America released their top 10 Tigers prospects today. Not surprisingly, prized pitching prospects Jacob Turner and Casey Crosby made the top two spots. Turner was the the first pick in last year's First Year Player Draft and has not yet thrown a pitch as a professional. He will probably pitch at low class A West Michigan in 2010. The left-handed Crosby came back from Tommy John surgery to post a 2.41 ERA with 117 strikeouts in 105 innings for West Michigan in 2009. The 2007 fifth round pick will probably pitch for class A Lakeland in 2010.

The Tigers strengthened their system this off-season with the acqusitions of center fielder Austin Jackson from the Yankees and left-haded reliever Daniel Schlereth from the Diamondbacks. Jackson finished third on the Baseball America list and Schlereth was 5th. Bost have a good chance to start the season with the Tigers.

The biggest surprise to me was that Scott Sizemore finished only tenth. I was expecting the Tigers 2010 starting second baseman to make the top five. Shortstop Gustavo Nunez finished a little higher than expected at seventh. The 21 year old Nunez batted .315/.360/.425 for West Michigan last year and is a strong fielder.

The complete top ten is listed below:

1. Jacob Turner, rhp
2. Casey Crosby, lhp
3. Austin Jackson, of
4. Andy Oliver, lhp
5. Daniel Schlereth, lhp
6. Alex Avila, c
7. Gustavo Nunez, ss
8. Wilkin Ramirez, of
9. Daniel Fields, ss
10. Scott Sizemore, 2b