Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

The Tigers supplemental first round pick in 2007, Brandon Hamilton, made his minor league debut with the White Caps and he definitely showed some promise.  While he walked four, he didn’t give up a single hit and he struck out six in four innings.  Santo Mieses gave up three runs in two innings and he fell to 1-3 on the season.

Audy Ciriaco was the hitting star in the loss.  He went three for four with a homerun and two RBIs.  Cory Middleton belted a solo homer, drew a walk and scored twice.

Kevin Goldstein recently put out his list of who he things the Tigers top eleven prospects are.  It’s an interesting list because like last year, you have two top players then a steep drop off.  Cameron Maybin checks in at number one for the second straight season and that’s not a surprise.  Yeah Maybin fell flat last year once he made it to the bigs but his minor league advancement was very solid.  He’s still considered a future star and the Tigers felt good enough about him to trade away Gorkys Hernandez, another top outfield prospect.

The Tigers 2007 first round draft pick, Rick Porcello, checks in at number two and like Maybin, he was given a five star tag.  Porcello signed too late to play in the Tiger’s system but he should start out with the White Caps.  I doubt if he’ll stay there long and I expect to see some pretty high strikeout numbers while he’s there.

After that, things thin out.  Casey Crosby, the Tigers fifth round pick in 2007, is the the third best prospect.  Like Porcello, Crosby fell further down because of signability issues and he was a big reason many though the Tigers had one of the best drafts this year. 

Cale Iorg and Brandon Hamilton (another first round, 2007 draft pick) round out the top five. Jeff Larish is sixth after a solid season at Double A last year and you also have a pair of pitchers in Yorman Bazardo and Eulogio De La Cruz who made the list despite having stints in the big leagues last year.

Brandon Hamilton fell to 1-1 on the season in a rough start in the GCL Tigers 5-1 loss to the GCL Blue Jays.  He gave up four runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings.

The lone run came off the bat of Joseph Bowen.  He belted a solo homerun in the third inning.

Brandon Hamilton improved to 1-0 on the season with a nice start in the GCL Tigers 4-2 win over the GCL Blue Jays.  He gave up one run on two hits and a walk with six strikeouts in five innings.

Joaquin Guzman was the hitting star in the win.  He went two for four with a homerun, two RBIs and two runs.