Fangraphs Ranks Tigers Top 15 Prospects

Being a prospect ranker myself, I am always a little bit intrigued to see what other sites and people have for the Tigers. A few days ago, Fangraphs, who is known more for it’s quantitative analysis, took its shot at the Tigers top 15, and I have to say it isn’t all that bad.

Mark Hulet, who does the prospect rankings for the advanced metric site, covered the typical bases for the top 5 Tigers prospects. In some shape or form, most rankings services include Jacob Turner, Nick Castellanos, Drew Smyly, Casey Crosby, and Andy Oliver as the Tigers top 5. We stepped out of that box here at MCB, putting Andy Oliver at #10, because of the complete inability to command the baseball. On top of that Oliver still hasn’t developed a secondary offering we can call big league average.

As for the next five, I can’t say that I agree with the McCann and Westlake rankings at 7 and 9 respectively, as both guys have questions if they are going to hit enough to be viable big leaguers. However, I can give him a pass on it, as they are outrageously out of place there. Westlake is going to have to move fast given his age, and the Tigers just signed Prince Fielder, so even if he does well, he is likely to be moved at some point anyway.

A third member from the Tigers 2011 draft class made Hulet’s top 15 and that was SS Brandon Loy at #13. Loy in my opinion is ranked way too high here. I think he is a stretch to make anyone else’s Tigers top 20 list, despite the above average defensive ability. Hulet kept a guy like Tyler Collinsoff the list in favor of a guy like Loy, and this is where I have my biggest beef with his list.

I chose to link Fangraphs top 15, because it might give a little bit of a contrast to our own top 15 guys. We did focus a little more on some upside, and I didn’t expect a site that puts an emphasis on BB rates, and power, to be in love with high ceiling guys like Danry Vazquez and Avisail Garcia. Those two did make the list at 10 and 15 respectively however, so I will give Hulet some credit for recognizing the tools aspect of prospect ranking.

*As for our top 50 list, hang with us. We are currently working on updating the site a little bit, and we are going to consolidate this information for you soon.

Also, feel free to send any prospect related questions to me at mcbjohnverburg@gmail.com. Or if you just have a comment or article idea that you would like to see us tackle.