For Tigers scouts, the ideal scenario is for a superstar prep or college player to look next spring like something Cooperstown’s gods delivered. A few weeks later he will be knighted as First Overall Pick in the June, 2018, big-league draft.
Sometimes you get a franchise talent — Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones, or Carlos Correa. You find in certain years a player so special he can spur a team’s reconstruction and maybe 25 years later win a Hall of Fame plaque.
A fair question in the view of fans, if not the Tigers, is whether their scouts will get it right in 2018, especially if a position player is the pick rather than a pitcher, where Detroit has tended to have better luck.