Baseball America Releases Detroit Tigers Top 10 Prospect List

March 2, 2013; Tampa, FL, USA; Detroit Tigers outfielder Nick Castellanos (79) against the New York Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Baseball America, one of the foremost leaders in amateur baseball and minor league prospects, released their organizational Top 10 prospect list for the Detroit Tigers today. I’ll copy the list here, but head on over to their site to read the full write up as well as their “best tools” list.

"1. Nick Castellanos, 3b/of2. Devon Travis, 2b3. Bruce Rondon, rhp4. Robbie Ray, lhp5. Jake Thompson, rhp6. Jonathon Crawford, rhp7. Corey Knebel, rhp8. Eugenio Suarez, ss/2b9. Domingo Leyba, ss/2b10. Hernan Perez, 2b/ss"

A few big surprises here. Devon Travis had a great year split between West Michigan and Lakeland – and isn’t necessarily a surprise in the Top 10 – but he is a surprise all the way up at #2.

The Robbie Ray, Jake Thompson, Jonathon Crawford trio comes out as expected. I’m not going to sit here and say exactly what order they should be in, but they’re all probably close and right in that 2-6 range.

Domingo Leyba is also a big surprise. I know almost nothing about him except that he played in the Dominican Summer League last year as a 17 year old, spending most of his time at second base and shortstop. I’m not sure if he’s coming stateside in 2014 as an 18 year old, but if so, he’s apparently a guy to watch.