Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

Jordan Tata comes in as the sixth best prospect using my highly scientific algorithm.  Remember he was actually tied with Brent Clevlen but he finished sixth on both the Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus lists but John Sickels only had him at ninth, which probably cost him one or two spots in the order. 

Tata was the Tigers sixteenth round pick back in 2003 and he’s a bit older then most prospects although he moved up the minor league ladder pretty quickly.  He put together solid season at West Michigan in 2004 and Lakeland in 2005 but he was a touch older then most of the prospects playing there.  Then in 2006, he pitched for the Tigers after Todd Jones started the season on the DL where he got hit pretty hard.  He then went down to Triple A Toledo and put together a good but not great season.  In 21 starts, he finished 10-6 with a 3.84 ERA and 86 strikeouts in 122 innings.  He then played in the Arizona Fall League where he was solid in six starts. Tata keeps the ball down and while he won’t normally strike out a ton of guys, he won’t give up a bunch of long balls either.

Tata is one of those guys who you’d be more excited about if the Tigers weren’t so deep in pitching.  As it is, even with Humberto Sanchez being traded, Tata has a bunch of pitchers in front of him before he’ll find time on the big league club, especially as a starter.  So Tata will probably find his way back in Toledo without much to prove there as a 26 year old.