Bullpen Banter Releases Their Tigers Top 15 Prospects

For some reason, the guys over at Bullpen Banter seem to get lost in the mix in the world of baseball prospects. For my money, Al Skorupa and the guys do a fantastic job analyzing prospects, and their rankings usually show a good balance of upside and present ability. The difference between the Bullpen Banter guys and say Fangraphs is that there is some reliability with BB because a couple live in the New York Penn League area, where the Connecticut Tigers play baseball. So they have seen a bunch of the Tigers prospects. Very recently, they released their 2013 version of the Tigers top 15 prospects, so I thought I would link it all for you to check out.

The Bullpen Banter list and my personal list match on prospects one through six. Nick Castellanos, Avisail Garcia, Bruce Rondon, Danry Vasquez, Jake Thompson, and Casey Crosby comprise the top six on both of our lists.

Seven through eleven there are minor differences. We actually have the same players, but in a different order; Steven Moya, Eugenio Suarez, Austin Schotts, Tyler Collins, and Harold Castro are those guys. At number 12, we both even have Brenny Paulino.

It really isn’t until 13-15 that we differ, and even at that, the difference is slight. I had Andy Oliver at 13, who of course got traded this off-season. Bullpen Banter has Drew Verhagen at 13, who came in at 17 on my list. Joe Rogers and Montreal Robertson make out the rest of the Tigers top 15 from Bullpen Banter. I have two upside arms in Endrys Briceno and Edgar De La Rosa.

In the explanation that follows their list, Bullpen Banter contributor Al Skorupa mentions these two arms prominently, and points out that Briceno and De La Rosa would’ve been on his personal top 15.

Obviously there is quite a bit of agreement between the two lists, at least much more so than the Fangraphs list, which I found to be a little bit ridiculous in spots.

Anyway, do check out Bullpen Banter for prospect stuff in general. I consider them right on par with sites like Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus.