Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

Coming in at number ten in my highly scientific method for rating Tiger prospects is third baseman Ron Bourquin with five prospect points.  Just missing the cut was right handed pitcher Dallas Trahern.  Trahern showed up on more lists then Bourquin did, but Bourquin was the fifth best prospect on Kevin Goldstein’s list so that pushed him one point ahead of Trahern.  Both have C+ ratings from John Sickels and he rated him 14th on his top 20 list.

Bourquin was the Tigers second round pick in 2006.  He sports a lefty bat but he fields the ball right handed.  Bourquin will turn 22 in late April and he was a graduate from Ohio State University.  He led the Big Ten in hitting, OPS and RBIs and Sickels says he’s solid fielding third baseman.

Most impressive about Bourquin is his patience at the plate.  He was signed early enough to get him into Oneonta, where he put together a solid season. He only hit .266, but he had a .391 OBP and he had just as many strikeouts (46) as he did walks.  The primary concern is that his power didn’t show up once he got to the minors.  He only hit two homeruns and his slugging came out at a mediocre .349.

It’ll be interesting to see where Bourquin starts in 2007.  Goldstein says he might skip West Michigan and go right to High A in Lakeland.  Regardless, Bourquin is one of those guys who bears watching in 2007 to see if he can make some strides at the plate, especially in the power department.