Expectations are high

Over the past few of years the Detroit Tigers have pretty much traded their farm system away to get proven MLB talent. It has worked out pretty well for the Tigers. Doug Fister came over from Mariners and was everything and more then what the Tigers have wanted. The biggest trade was the Miguel Cabrera trade. We all know how great of a deal that was for the Tigers and how much of a flop it was for the Marlins. With this common scenario the Tigers' farm system was ranked near the bottom every year.

Nick Castellanos was Detroit's one prospect that was pretty much untouchable. Nick was drafted in 2010 out of High School by the Tigers. He was given a hefty signing bonus to keep him with the Tigers and not go to college. Every stop in the minors he proved he could hit. The big question was his defense at third. Once the Tigers would sign Prince Fielder and move Miggy over to third, the Tigers would try Nick out in left field. Once Prince would be traded away Nick found himself right back at third. Last year he would win the everyday job at third for the Tigers. Offensively he had a decent year hitting .259/.305/.390 with 11 home runs and 66 RBIs. Defensively he was one of the worst third basemen in the game if not the worst.

Coming into spring training Nick has a lot of work to do to continue to build Tigers fan's trust. The way I look at Nick is he will only get better. Offensively he proved he can hit at every level in the minors and I think it is a big jump from AAA Toledo to the majors. He is also only going to be 23 years old this season. He is still pretty young. Defensively will still be the biggest hurdle for him, but with the help of Omar Vizquel and Alan Trammell, two great gold glove winning shortstops working with him and Iglesias coming back to play along side him at short should help out.