2010 Projected Roster: Lakeland Flying Tigers (A+)

Each day this week (through Thursday), I will post my 2010 projected rosters for the Detroit Tigers and their full-season minor league affiliates, along with some commentary.  Of course, this is all mere speculation on my part; it is mostly an exercise intended to enhance my knowledge (and hopefully the reader's) of the Tigers' prospects and farm system.  In doing this, I have been heavily reliant on both baseball-reference and Matt Wallace's Take 75 North (which you should subscribe to, if you don't already), as well as demondeaconsbaseball's previous depth chart posts.

Oops!  I meant to post this yesterday and forgot.  It will probably be more abbreviated than usual, as I am leaving for Spring Training in half an hour.  I'll be at the Tigers/Braves game tomorrow and the Tigers/Yankees game on Saturday.

C           Jordan Newton

1B         Chris Carlson

2B         Brandon Douglas

3B         Bryan Pounds

SS         Gustavo Nunez

RF         Kyle Peter

CF         Ben Guez

LF          Christopher White

DH        Devin Thomas

C            Joseph Bowen

IF            Justin Henry

IF            Mike Gosse

OF          Jeramy Laster

OF          Joseph Tucker

SP         Casey Crosby

SP         Andy Oliver

SP         Brayan Villareal

SP         Adam Wilk

SP         Matt Hoffman

SP/RP   Victor Larez

SP/RP   Mark Sorensen

RP         Tyler Conn

RP         Tyler Stohr

RP         Robert Waite

RP         Anthony Shawler

RP         Nolan Cain

RP         Trevor Feeney

Commentary after the jump:

The Lineup: C+

There are a couple of good hitters here in Jordan Newton and Bryan Pounds, and some decent prospects in Gustavo Nunez, Brandon Douglas, and Ben Guez, but its not a really intimidating lineup.

The Bench: C

Typical minor league bench.

The Rotation: A

This should be the most exciting rotation in the Tigers' minor league system, including many of their top prospects in Crosby, Oliver, Villareal, and Wilk.  I will be especially interested to see if Oliver can rediscover a breaking pitch and if Wilk's success at West Michigan was just the usual soft-tossing lefty illusion.  Still, Wilk's 10:1 K to BB ratio across two levels is too good to ignore (0.9 BB/9 and 8.2 K/9 at Oneonta and West Michigan).  Hopefully he can continue that success.

The Bullpen: B-

A couple of interesting guys, particularly Tyler Stohr, but most of the best bullpen depth now resides in the upper levels of the system.

Conclusion:

I can't wait to see what this rotation does.  Even though the rest of the team seems pretty mediocre, Crosby and Co. should make the Flying Tigers' season very interesting.