The Detroit Tigers’ big league club has been struggling mightily, but their Single-A, Double-A, and Triple-A teams each have winning records. Lynn Henning of the Detroit News’ piece mentions Virgil Vasquez as a possible call-up to the show to help the Tigers’ struggling pitching staff. Vasquez has pitched 10 2/3 innings in 2 starts for the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens, putting up a 2.53 ERA with 14 Ks.

A few notes of interest from ESPN legend Peter Gammons latest chat:

• From the sound of things, Gammons thinks Clayton Kershaw is certain to be a factor for the Dodgers this year.  Their main concern is limiting his inning early so he finishes in the 150-160 IP range.
• Tigers manager Jim Leyland thinks Detroit’s first pick in the 2007 Draft, Rick Porcello, will be with the big league club some time this season.
• Gammons also notes that players like Porcello, the Yankees Austin Jackson, Andrew Brackman, and Ian Kennedy, the Red Sox Lars Anderson, Ryan Kalish, Anthony Rizzo, David Mailman, and Will Middlebrooks, will have a serious impact on this year’s draft.  Of course these players are all now top prospects who were drafted way above slot in later rounds.
• Picking player comparables is always tricky business, but Gammons thinks the best comparable he’s heard for Yankees SP Ian Kennedy is the Blue Jays SP Shaun Marcum.

Earlier this week we listed the top prospects getting cut from the Rays, Indians, Pirates, Nationals, Rockies, Rangers, Red Sox, Twins, Angels, and Orioles.  We’ve listed below a handful of prospects who have been cut since then.

• Beau Mills, 3B/1B, Indians
• Trevor Crowe, OF, Indians
• Matt LaPorta, OF, Brewers
• Phillipe Aumont, RHP, Mariners
• Robinzon Diaz, C, Blue Jays
• Charlie Morton, RHP, Braves
• Tyler Flowers, C/1B, Braves
• Brett Sinkbeil, RHP, Marlins
• Lance Broadway, RHP, White Sox
• Rick Porcello, RHP, Tigers
• Dexter Fowler, OF, Rockies
• Chris Nelson, SS, Rockies
• Jeff Samardzija, RHP, Cubs
• John Bowker, OF, Giants

• The Rockies 3B prospect, Ian Stewart, continues to struggle a bit with the transition to 2B. He’ll need to figure this transition out if he plans to make it in Denver any time soon; Atkins has 3B nailed down for the foreseeable future, as does Tulo at SS.
• Great article in the Rocky Mountain News about Dexter Fowler, an early round talent who dropped to the Rox in the 14th round due to signability concerns. He continues to have a great Spring.
• Max Scherzer, The DBacks top draft pick in 2007, pitched two innings today and gave up a monster bomb to Joe Crede. But, it was the only hit he gave up.
• In discussing Rick Porcello’s successful outing yesterday, BA’s John Manuel mentioned that of Porcello, Andrew Brackman, and David Price, the Yankees’ Brackman has the best stuff. Of course Brackman is out this year recovering from TJ surgery.
• The Pirates were impressed with their top prospect’s performance in today’s game. Andrew McCutchen went 2 for 4 with an RBI double and 2 runs scored.
• Mariners’ OF prospect Wladimir Balentien had quite a game today. He hit 2 HR with 3 RBI. In the same game, Padres 3B/OF prospect Chase Headley hit a 2-run HR with 4 RBI.

As Lynn Henning of The Detroit News notes, Tigers’ top prospect Rick Porcello is making the adjustment from high school phenom to life as a Detroit Tiger.  Henning reports that everyone at camp already loves what they see.  It seems he’s living up to his status as the organization’s top prospect, according to both BaseballAmerica and ESPN’s Keith Law (22nd top prospect overall).

Even though the Tigers invited Porcello to the big league camp, this is more a function of the major league contract Scott Boras demanded for Porcello than it was an indication of how soon they plan to promote Porcello to the bigs.  Jon Matlack, their minor league pitching coach, assures Detroit fans that they plan to bring the organization’s top prospect through the ranks slowly.  So no need to consider Porcello in this year’s fantasy draft.