The Detroit Tigers got right-hander Michael Fulmer from the Mets in the Yoenis Cespedes trade last summer. That was a great return for a two-month rental of a player the Tigers weren't likely to re-sign anyway. Fulmer was a breakout prospect for the Mets last year after missing chunks of 2013 and 2014 due to various injuries, and on Sunday, he was even better than advertised in an intrasquad game on one of Joker Marchant's back fields. The Tigers have to be giddy about what they have in him.

Fulmer, the Tigers' best prospect coming into the season, showed 92-95 mph and mixed in four- and two-seamers across roughly six innings of work. (Minor league spring training games are somewhat nebulous things, with innings lasting anywhere from one to five outs.) It was Fulmer's slider that truly stood out. A curveball guy in high school, Fulmer switched to a slider last year before the trade, and his pitch is disgustingly good: 86-89 with very tight, hard tilt that seems to happen at the last possible second. He was working on his changeup; he threw some that were above-average to barely plus with good downward fading action and others that stayed up a little and got too much plate. At 85-87, his changeup needs that action to be effective because that's not a huge separation from the curveball.

There's still a little effort in Fulmer's delivery, as he's so strong up top that he muscles the ball a little, and that, added to his great arm speed, is producing the velocity. He had no trouble holding the fastball there throughout his outing and showed good control, albeit not quite good command.

I see a strong starter ceiling here. Given where his changeup is now, it doesn't seem likely he'll be less than a No. 4, assuming he stays healthy.

More Tigers scouting notes

• I had right-hander Beau Burrows, Detroit's first pick in the 2015 draft, as the team's No. 4 prospect coming into 2016, but that was wrong. I should have had him second in their system. Burrows was 93-95 mph pitching on another field during these intrasquad games, with plus-plus life to his arm side. He doesn't have much command of the pitch yet, but it's absolutely beautiful, and when he got the pitch even a little bit down, he was getting ground balls and breaking bats. His curveball was a little softer than I remembered, at 80-82 mph. Some showed depth, but all showed less spin than a good power curveball needs. Burrows didn't throw many changeups; they were mostly 86-87, and a couple had big-time tailing action. He comes from a three-quarters slot but really gets on top of the ball well, so given time and reps, he should be able to work in the lower third of the zone with the fastball, and he has the right slot for a curveball (but perhaps not the looseness in the wrist).

He's clearly ahead of Steven Moya, the slugger with poor pitch recognition who I had third in the Tigers' system, and I'd probably slide him just above …

• … center fielder Derek Hill, the team's first pick in the 2014 draft and a top 100 prospect for me going into 2015, a season that was wrecked by a quad strain that just would not heal. I still like Hill, but he's further off than he should be right now for his age (20).

Hill is a plus-plus runner with a loose, athletic body and a good bat path, but he tends to cheat over his front side and didn't make any quality contact Saturday. (He tried to bunt for a hit in one at-bat, something I absolutely hate seeing young hitters do when they need to work on learning to hit; if he's doing this on his own, the Tigers should tell him to knock it off.) His hands are quick, and he moves well in center. He just has to stay back better and start to hit with some authority if he's going to have any success this year in Class A ball.

• The Tigers had a slew of hard-throwing relievers on display over the two days I spent on their back fields, as you might expect. One standout was right-hander Sandy Baez, who has a very quick arm and sits 93-96 from a low three-quarters slot that gives the fastball some life without being so low that he can't get on top of the ball. He throws what I'd call a curveball at 76-78 mph that has a chance to be an average weapon for him.

• Gerson Moreno, a 19-year-old right-hander, was 95-96 with very little effort. He threw a long, low-80s slider with big tilt that carried it out of the zone a little too often. His fastball is surprisingly soft for its velocity, and I'd bet it doesn't have much spin.

• Adam Ravenelle was outstanding in his relief work on Saturday, 93-97 with a short, very tight slider at 85-86. The Tigers' fourth-round pick in 2014 out of Vanderbilt spent all of the past season in low-A at age 22. He missed the first two months of the season to a severe viral infection that took a lot of strength out of him.

• Joe Jimenez, meanwhile, was a big letdown in his inning of work. His is a high-effort delivery with a hook in back and a low slot that puts him on the side of the ball, but he has been in the upper-90s in the past, which forgives many sins. He was 91-93 on Saturday and touched 94 once, and if that's where he's pitching in April, he's merely an organizational arm.

• Right-hander Daniel Gonzalez pitched in the Venezuelan Summer League last year and posted good numbers … but who the heck knows about stats from those leagues, especially with the VSL down to four teams last year? Gonzalez has a good arm and a funky, weird delivery -- 92-93 from a very high slot that gives some artificial depth to his curveball. I think he'll be very hard for hitters to pick up, but from that slot, he's going to have a hard time turning over any kind of changeup. He'd be a candidate for some delivery tweaking, as he crouches when coming forward, so he doesn't take advantage of his 6-foot-3 frame and ends up coming a bit uphill.

Braves scouting notes

• Braves center fielder Ronald Acuna (No. 13 in their system) was the best hitting prospect on either field Saturday, and he couldn't have looked any better in his at-bats against Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez, who was a little old to be facing a Class A lineup and made most of the hitters look pretty bad. Acuna more than held his own with great bat speed and some indication that he was recognizing pitches, though his massive stride -- I don't understand how he stays on his feet after his swing -- probably makes it hard for him to adjust if he picks up a pitch late.

He's an above-average runner and seemed more than average in center. In three at-bats versus Sanchez, he hit two balls hard, one for a single to right-center, and then struck out looking later against Joe Jimenez on a 3-2 fastball.

• Third baseman Austin Riley, the team's third pick (41st overall) in 2015, couldn't have looked any worse. The team's No. 12 prospect showed slider bat speed that had him behind average fastballs from Sanchez, and he also struck out on a slider well below the zone. He showed 20-grade speed (on the 20-80 scouting scale) running out a double play that he should have beaten, and he fell down on a ground ball hit right at him at third base because he couldn't move his feet enough to allow him to handle the ball cleanly. Instead, he tried at the last second to backhand it and fell down. He has a 70 arm and is clearly very strong, enough to run into some power, but this was not a great look for his hit or glove tools.