Kevin Goldstein recently released his list of the top eleven prospects in the Tigers system and I was generally pleased.  There’s a few of these lists that I check out and out of all of them, I respect Goldstein’s the most and he doesn’t disappoint.  I recently had to pen a top ten prospect list (long story, which you’ll eventually hear about) and as Goldstein talks about, the Tigers are a tough nut to crack. You namely have the top guy, then a crap shoot from there.

There’s no surprise that Rick Porcello tops the list.  After that, Goldstein says that any of the the three star guys are interchangable from Cale Iorg at number two to Ryan Strieby (a personal favorite) at number eight.  Ryan Perry has been the de facto number two guy on most lists so I like the fact that Goldstein changes gears with Iorg. 

Ryan Strieby has been apsent from a lot of lists and I had him at number ten on mine.  Goldstein gave him the last three star spot but Strieby is going to be severely hampered by his ability to just play first base.  Miguel Cabrera isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but maybe Strieby will make some interesting trade bait.

I was surprised he had Alfredo Figaro just missing, yet his teammate with the White Caps, Jon Kibler, didn’t even get a nod.  Luis Marte is another guy who bears watching.  He actually outpitched Rick Porcello earlier in the season last year with Lakeland.

Of course, you never know with any of these guys.  There was a time when Bruce Fields and Chris Pittaro were can’t miss prospects.  Casper Wells came out of nowhere last year (ten on the list) and he could easily go back to no where.  Hopefully not, but the fun part is seeing how these guys all do in the Tigers system.

If you want to learn more about Cale Iorg, Jonathan Mayo talked about in a recent column.  It’s definitely worth checking out.

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