Twins Tools, or Skills
When
scouts talk about prospects, high school kids, college kids or minor leaguers,
we hear about their tools. There have always been five known tools:
1.)
Hit
(for average)
2.)
Hit
(for power)
3.)
Run/Speed
4.)
Fielding
5.)
Arm
In the
last decade many have added a sixth tool, that being Plate Discipline or
Patience.
I
always look at the tools of minor leaguers. It helps determine how good a
player COULD be. For instance, let’s take a look at Ft. Myers outfielder Aaron
Hicks, one of the organization’s top prospect. If I
were to rank him on his Tools, here is what I would say (Note – I will use a
scale of 1-10. Typically scouts discuss players these on a 20-80 scale:
1.)
Hit
(for average) – 8 – if he develops as I think he can, he could hit .280-.300
2.)
Hit
(for power) – 6 – if he develops as I think he can, he could hit as many as 18-22
home runs a year.
3.)
Run/Speed
– 9 – Hicks is very fast.
4.)
Fielding
– 9 – he has the range and his instincts continue to get better.
5.)
Arm
– 10 – The guy throws 97 mph. That’s a pretty strong arm.
6.)
Plate
Discipline – 9 – he has always had a very good Isolated Discipline.
Hicks is
21 years old, playing in Ft. Myers. He is three promotions (and likely 2-3
years) from being in the big leagues. The goal would be that through player
development, those tools would turn into skills. Do I expect that Aaron Hicks
will be a 6-tool player in the big leagues? Very few are. But what if he has
four of those skills at the big league level? That makes him a very good big
leaguer. Very few players in the major leagues would rank as average or better
in more than two or three skill sets.
So, I
wanted to take a look and subjectively allocate a point total for each player
for each tool. Obviously many of these players are new to the big leagues, I’m still looking at their tool set, to some
degree. But for the players that have been around for a couple of years, we are
really looking at their skills.
The
data/numbers are subjective, however I tried to put
something to it. In the Hit for Average category, I thought that a .330 or
better average would be a 10. I put .300 or better at 8. .270 is a 6. .240 is a
4. .210 is a 2. Obviously there is room in between.
In the
Hit for Power, I put 40 or more homers as a 10. 32 home runs
at 8. 24 or more home runs scores a 6. 16 or
more home runs at 4. 8 or more home runs scores a 2. 0
home run potential, 0 points.
Three
through five are really subjective, based on visuals and times and such. Basically,
in my mind, a 5 is average.
|
Hit/Avg |
Hit/Pwr |
Run |
Fldg |
Arm |
Patience |
Total |
||
|
Catchers |
Joe Mauer |
10 |
4 |
4 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
41 |
|
Drew Butera |
1 |
1 |
4 |
8 |
7 |
3 |
24 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Infielders |
Justin Morneau |
7 |
8 |
3 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
34 |
|
Tsuyoshi Nishioka |
7 |
2 |
8 |
7 |
5 |
7 |
36 |
|
|
Luke Hughes |
5 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
6 |
6 |
29 |
|
|
Alexi Casilla |
4 |
1 |
8 |
4 |
6 |
4 |
27 |
|
|
Danny Valencia |
7 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
7 |
4 |
35 |
|
|
Matt Tolbert |
4 |
1 |
8 |
6 |
5 |
6 |
30 |
|
|
Trevor Plouffe |
4 |
5 |
6 |
5 |
6 |
4 |
30 |
|
|
Jim Thome |
5 |
7 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
22 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Outfielders |
Delmon
Young |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
8 |
2 |
36 |
|
Denard Span |
8 |
3 |
9 |
7 |
5 |
8 |
40 |
|
|
Michael Cuddyer |
6 |
6 |
4 |
4 |
8 |
5 |
33 |
|
|
Jason Kubel |
7 |
8 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
5 |
34 |
|
|
Jason Repko |
3 |
2 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
4 |
33 |
|
|
Ben Revere |
8 |
1 |
10 |
7 |
2 |
4 |
32 |
|
|
Rene Tosoni |
7 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
7 |
37 |
Red is
for 9 and 10. Green is for 7 and 8.
I added
the Total column. I don’t think that it carries much meaning, but I wanted to
add it for you to use if you would like. In other words, just because I score
Danny Valencia at 35 and Jason Kubel at 34 doesn’t
necessarily mean that Valencia is better than Kubel.
Valencia has pretty solid numbers across the board while the speed of Kubel brings down his overall score.
So,
what do you think/ I hope that a chart like this makes you think a little. Your
numbers may be different than mine, but hopefully this creates some discussion.
Denard Span was drafted as a toolsy
high school outfielder. By my count, he has four of the six tools (or 3 of the
5, depending on how you want to think about it). That’s pretty good. Jason Repko can’t hit, but he can run, field and throw, which
makes him a terrific off-the-bench option as a pinch runner. Guys like Revere, Nishioka, Plouffe and Tosoni have very little big league time, too little to
determine where their final “skill” numbers will be, so they might be a little
bit higher than others because their numbers are at least partially still a
measure of tools.
Please
feel free to
comment (and hopefully more than the standard four or five will
comment. I want to hear everyone’s opinion!).
Minor League Notes
The
Twins had Thursday off. The news from the Twins was that they chose to purchase
the contract of Rene Rivera from the Rochester Red Wings. That puts the Twins
at 40 on their 40 man roster. Tonight, they will start a four-game series in
Boston against the Red Sox.
As
mentioned yesterday, there were several minor league transactions. Are there
any more to come? For that information and more, check out last
night’s Twins Minor League Weekly podcast. The show is on every Monday and
Thursday night at 10:00 central time. The show can be heard live until 10:30,
and then there are 15 minutes that can only be heard by clicking
here.
Thursday SethSpeaks.net Minor League Hitter of the Day– James
Beresford, Ft. Myers Miracle
Thursday SethSpeaks.net Minor League Pitcher of the
Day – Steve Hirschfeld, New Britain Rock Cats
Red Wings Ramblings
Thursday
– Red Wings 3, Gwinnett 2 – Anthony Swarzak started out well. He threw five shutout innings
before giving up two runs and recording one out in the sixth inning. Kyle
Waldrop stranded two runners that inning and pitched a scoreless 7th
frame. Chuck James had a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Anthony Slama
struck out two in the ninth and recorded the win. Toby Gardenhire
hit his second home run of the season. Brian Dinkelman
was 2-4 with a walk. Steve Singleton was 1-3 with a walk in his first AAA game.
Ray Chang also played in his first AAA game. He went 2-4 with a walk, a double,
and a game-winning, walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th.
Rock Cats Report
Thursday
Game 1 – Rock Cats 2, Richmond 1 – Steve
Hirschfeld started and won his second game. In six
innings, he gave up one run on three hits. Cole DeVries
recorded his sixth save with a scoreless ninth inning. Evan Bigley
went 2-3 with his fifth double and sixth triple Joe Benson hit his 9th
double.
Thursday
Game 2 – Rock Cats 4, Richmond 7 (10 innings) – Liam Hendriks posted another good start.
He gave up two runs on four hits and two walks in six innings. He struck out
eight. Jake Stevens came in to finish the game in the 7th, but he
gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in the inning to send it to extra
innings. Tyler Robertson threw 2.2 innings. He was charged with the three runs
in the 10th inning to take the loss. Santos Arias got the final out.
Evan Bigley hit his sixth double and third triple Yangervis Solarte and Deibinson Romero each went 2-4. Romero walked and hit his
fourth double, as well.
Miracle Matters
Thursday
– Miracle 6, Palm Beach 5 – Edgar
Ibarra got a spot start and gave up five runs on six hits (including 3 home
runs) and a walk. Brad Tippett came in for his first
appearance of the year, and he threw two scoreless innings. He gave up three
hits and struck out two. Jhon Garcia struck out four in
two scoreless innings. Dakota Watts picked up the Win with a perfect ninth. Jhonathan Goncalves went 2-4 with a
double. Reggie Williams was also 2-4. Josmil Pinto
went 2-3 with a walk in his first Miracle game. He added an RBI double in the
bottom of the 8th inning to tie the game. With the score tied at
nine going into the bottom of the 9th, Goncalves
led off with a single. Aaron Hicks walked. After a double-steal, James
Beresford singled in the game-winning run. Beresford was 3-4 in the game and is
now hitting .344.
Snappers Bites
Thursday
– Snappers 10, Wisconsin 5 – The
Snappers needed an offensive outburst like this. All season, it has been Danny
Ortiz, Oswaldo Arcia and
Question Mark. In this game, they had seven players with two hits. Andy Leer
was 2-4 with a walk, his first homer and three RBI. Tobias Streich
was 2-5 with his first home run and two RBI. Jamaal Hawkins went 2-4 with a
walk and his second double. He also stole his second base. Nate Roberts went
2-3 with a walk and his second double. Danny Ortiz went 2-4 with his 11th
double. Gunner Glad went 2-4 with his third double. Wang-Wei Lin was 2-5.Andrei
Lobanov started and gave up two runs on six hits and
two walks in 4.1 innings. Blayne Weller came in and
gave up his first earned run of the year, on two hits and a walk in 1.2
innings. He recorded the win and improved to 3-0. Martire
Garcia gave up two unearned runs on two hits and a walk in his inning. Jose Gonzalex threw two scoreless innings, striking out two.
As
always, if you have any questions
or comments, please feel free to leave them below.
\