With all of the excitement with first getting Renteria and then Willis and Cabrera, it seems that some of the up and coming Tigers that we actually kept are getting ignored a bit.

Although we traded away quite a few of our youngsters, we still have some quality guys. Sticking with non-pitchers, who do you think will or would you like to have stay with in the majors:

Ryan Rayburn - I like this guy a lot. He's got a .275 career ba while hitting a very nice .304 in 49 games last season. He's only 26 and had some nice clutch hits.

Ramon Santiago - Another infielder, he hit .284 last season but has a career ba of only .231 in 300+ games.

Mike Hessman - Hit .235 with 4 HRs in 17 games. Was a beast in the minors but is 29 years old.

Brent Cleveland - This outfielder was only 1 for 10 last season in very limited action but hit .282 in 31 games a year ago. At only 24, he still has plenty on time.

Two guys to keep an eye on are Larish and Hollimon. They don't have a place on this year's team, barring injuries, but they should both make 2009 roster. Bazardo could also turn out to be nice suprise.

And Clevlen will never amount to anything in the majors.

Good point Mick. We still have some youngsters that can contribute. H1 Bazardo is going to a prime time player, imo.

I agree, Clevlen isn't really a "prospect" anymore, he was putrid in AAA last year, and even though he's a solid glove, he will never be anything more than a 4th outfielder in the MLB...and even that shouldn't be assumed a given

Unless we trade Thames, Hessman will almost surely begin the season in AAA...

Next Years Bench: Santiago, Raburn, Wilson & Thames


Minor Leaguers who will probably see time on the Tigers roster next year

Jordan Tata
Yorman Bazardo
Mike Hessman
Clay Rapada
Macay McBride

perhaps Brent Clevlen in September, and Michael Hollimon if we need a middle infielder, Virgil Vasquez could get a spot start at some point as well, although i'd rather Tata & Bazardo spot start over Virgil

I'm going to hijack this into a new prospects/Farm thread.

From http://minorleagueball.com/

Commentary here:
http://minorleagueball.com/story/2007/12/10/134646/64#commenttop



Detroit Tigers Top 20 Prospects for 2008
By John Sickels (http://minorleagueball.com/user/John%20Sickels)
Posted on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 12:46:46 PM CDT
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Detroit Tigers Top 20 Prospects
All grades are EXTREMELY PRELIMINARY and subject to change.

Rick Porcello, RHP, Grade B+ (I am hesitant to give out a Grade A- or Grade A without seeing some pro numbers first. This grade should not be interpreted as a negative comment on Porcello).
2.Jeff Larish, 1B, Grade B- (generous grade, could lower to C+)
3.Danny Worth, SS, Grade B- (I like him a lot)
4.Yorman Bazardo, RHP, Grade C+
5.Michael Hollimon, INF, Grade C+
6.Charlie Furbush, LHP, Grade C+
7.Brandon Hamilton, RHP, Grade C+
8.Duane Below, LHP, Grade C+
9.James Skelton, C, Grade C+
10.Casey Crosby, LHP, Grade C+
11.Diek Scram, OF, Grade C+
12.Scott Sizemore, 2B, Grade C+
13.Francisco Cruceta, RHP, Grade C
14.Jordan Tata, RHP, Grade C
15.Clay Rapada, LHP, Grade C
16.Cale Iorg, SS, Grade C (suspect Baseball America will rank him higher but I want to see some data and two years of rust worries me)
17.Brett Jensen, RHP, Grade C (could be a C+ I suppose, but old for level)
18.Clete Thomas, OF, Grade C
19.Brent Clevlen, OF, Grade C (almost ready to give up) 20.Noah Krol, RHP, Grade CThere are several other grade C guys who are interchangeable with the ones on this list...Boesch, Castro, Henry, Joyce, Kaiser, M. Hernandez, M. Hoffman, Nickerson, Putkonen, Rhymes, Strieby, Vasquez, Zell. You can stick any of them on there if you like.
This system has been utterly gutted by trades. How quickly can it recover? Of course, full statistics and reports on over 1,000 other players will be in the 2008 Baseball Prospect Book (http://www.johnsickels.com/), now available for pre-order. Ships the first Monday in February!

I am a big fan of Larish but he shouldn't be a Top 2 prospect in any system. Just goes to show how empty our farm system is.

It would seem as though the organization wants Bazardo to take over for Kenny in 09 and Porcello replace Robertson in 10.

I'm surprised Bazardo is actually viewed as a "prospect" he was designated for assignment by Seattle in spring training of last year, so for him to be viewed that way, means that we could've gotten a gem of a steal...

it only cost us Jeff Frazier, who will probably never have a big league at bat, and Bazardo already had 2 quality starts last year...

What happened to all of the "players to be named later"? Didn't we have 3 or 4 of those? Did we get anyone worth a shit???

One of Bazardo's starts was exceptional.

Did we get anyone worth a shit???
No.

What happened to all of the "players to be named later"? Didn't we have 3 or 4 of those? Did we get anyone worth a shit???


Chris Lambert (Mike Maroth trade)- will be in AAA, and probably never make the majors

Clay Rapada- (Craig Monroe trade)- decent lefty, pitched like 2 innings last year in the bigs, but got shelled, a longshot to make the team, will probably spend all of the year in AAA


and thats all the PTBNL's we got


those usually never amount to much

Chris Lambert (Mike Maroth trade)- will be in AAA, and probably never make the majors

Clay Rapada- (Craig Monroe trade)- decent lefty, pitched like 2 innings last year in the bigs, but got shelled, a longshot to make the team, will probably spend all of the year in AAA


and thats all the PTBNL's we got


those usually never amount to much

You forgot one!

We got Double-A left-hander Danny Christensen from the Royals as the ptbnl in the Colon trade. He sucks and had to clear waivers meaning that he might not even be a Tiger anymore.

They USUALLY don't amount to much, but remember Bondo was a PTBNL for us.

You forgot one!

We got Double-A left-hander Danny Christensen from the Royals as the ptbnl in the Colon trade. He sucks and had to clear waivers meaning that he might not even be a Tiger anymore.


Yeah, I forgot him, he was designated for assignment upon coming here...

He could end up in AAA, but we'll never get anything out of him...