Ex-Salpointe star Dan Slania opens season with impressive start

On Thursday, 42 players with ties to Southern Arizona began the proverbial minor-league bus tour in the hope that it leads them to “The Show,” too.

And a handful of them seem to be on the right track to reach the bigs, according to MLB.com’s team-by-team prospect rankings. Sahuaro High School alum Alex Verdugo (third, Dodgers); Salpointe Catholic High grads Dan Slania (21st, Giants) and Donny Sands (27th, Yankees); and former Arizona Wildcats standouts Kevin Newman (fourth, Pirates), Bobby Dalbec (fifth, Red Sox), Willie Calhoun (fifth, Dodgers) and Scott Kingery (11th, Phillies) are all ranked among the best prospects in their organizations.

The season is only a few games old, but all 42 Tucson-area ballplayers share the same mission: leave the minors as soon as possible.

Here’s a glance at how some of them have begun the year:

The San Francisco Giants’ decision to move Dan Slania into the starting rotation for Double-A Richmond last May continues to look brilliant. The once-struggling reliever followed up a limited but impressive spring training with an opening-night win for Richmond. He struck out eight and allowed one run in six innings Thursday. Last year he went 11-8 with a 2.93 ERA at three different stops.

Fresh off strong performances in spring training and for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic, Alex Verdugo continues to knock on the big-league door. The 20-year-old outfielder had five hits — including two doubles and a triple — in his first 12 at-bats for the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers, good for a 1.212 OPS entering Sunday.

Injuries have shortened Alex Mejia’s last two seasons in the St. Louis organization, but the UA’s 2012 Pac-12 Player of the Year didn’t show any ill effects last week. The shortstop went 3 for 5 with three RBIs on opening day for the Double-A Springfield Cardinals, then drove in three more runs and hit three doubles over the next two nights. He’s hitting .462 for the year and slugging .692.

Two games, four hits, two stolen bases. It would’ve been unwise to expect anything less than big-time production from ex-Wildcat Zach Gibbons, who’s off to a stellar start with Class A Inland Empire in the Angels farm system. Gibbons led the NCAA in base hits last year and then batted .351 in rookie ball over 50 games. Read more.