Revering Revere
Ben Revere
has been given a lot of credit for the Twins run through June and early July.
He has been called an instigator, a leader, and many other superlatives. Revere
has been a polarizing prospect since the Twins used their 1st round
pick in the 2007 MLB Draft. At that time, he was known as the fastest high
school player available in that draft. However, “Experts” thought he would be
taken in the 2nd or 3rd round. So when the Twins used the
28th overall pick on Revere, many experts thought the Twins reached.
The Twins were accused of being cheap, especially when Revere agreed to sign
for “just” $750,000.
Since
signing, Revere has done his best to prove the Twins were right in showing such
high confidence in him. As a 19 year old in the GCL, he hit .325/.388/.461. He
flirted with .400 most of the 2008 season in Beloit and ended the season at
.379/.433/.497. In 2009 in Ft. Myers, he hit .311/.372/.369. Last year in New
Britain, he hit .305/.371/.363 and played in 13 games for the Twins in
September. In 32 games in Triple-A Rochester this year, he hit .303/.338/.364.
Revere
does a lot very well! As you can see, and we have all seen, he can hit for a
good batting average. He has incredible, game-changing speed. That is a
positive in getting a lot of his singles, in stealing bases, and scoring from
1B on a double. Defensively, he gives the Twins the kind of range in
centerfield that we haven’t seen since Carlos Gomez was sent to the Brewers.
There
is no question that Revere will be a big part of the Twins lineup for years to
come. But how good will he or can he be? That will likely depend upon how much
he can improve the areas of the game in which he is the weakest. Here are the
concerns with Revere:
·
His
throwing arm – Every report we heard about Revere in his minor league career
mentioned his weak arm. He have now seen plenty of the
arm and understand that it is weak. Can it be improved? Well, it will never be
a good arm, for sure, but if he can make minimal improvements and be accurate,
it should not hurt the team much. Also, in centerfield, his plus-plus range far
outweighs his lock of arm strength.
·
Power
– The Twins insisted when they drafted Revere and since then that they believe
that he will hit for some power as he develops. That sentiment has not been
voiced as much in recent years. Revere has a nice swing and will get his share
of doubles and triples, but he will never be a home run hitter. He will be a
top or bottom of the order hitter, so home run power is really not a necessity.
·
On-Base
Percentage – In 214 big league plate appearances, Revere has posted an on-base
percentage of just .297. That is not a good number for a ninth-place hitter
much less a leadoff hitter.
·
Isolated
Discipline – This is simply the On-Base Percentage minus the Batting Average.
It shows how much a player’s OBP is based on batting average, or if they walk a
lot and still get on base. Here are his IsoD’s since
that 2007 in the GCL, .063, .054, .061, .066, .035. In his time with the Twins,
he has an IsoD of .038. Ideally, he will be able to
bring his IsoD back up over .050 as it was through
AA. However, the .035 in Rochester and the .038 with the Twins can be alarming.
Why? Because if he maintains that, he will need to hit about .330 to approach Denard Span’s career on-base percentage of .367. If he hits
.260, he will struggle to post a .300 OBP.
What
is really exciting is that Revere has had a big impact on the Twins on the
field and seemingly has been a spark for the lineup without putting up strong
offensive numbers. That bodes well for when he does learn this game more, gets
more plate appearances and gets more comfortable.
Often
when people talk about a good comparison for Revere, the name Juan Pierre comes
up. That is generally mocked and ridiculed because of the horrific contract he
signed about five years ago (5 years, $50 million). I generally think that it
is a very good comparison for Revere, and hope that he can put up the types of
numbers that Pierre did his first five or six seasons in the big leagues,
primarily with Colorado and Florida. He had a big impact on the Marlins when he
was knocking out 200+ hits a season and stealing 50+ bases. That is the type of
player that Ben Revere can be. Like him or not, Pierre has been a big leaguer
now for 12 seasons.
How
similar are the two?
Here
is a look at their minor league stats:
Juan Pierre – 1452 plate appearances (parts of 4 seasons) -
.331/.379/.393 (.771) with 54 doubles, 12 triples, one home run and 151 SB in
192 attempts (78.6%)
Ben Revere – 1,654 plate appearances (parts of 5 seasons) -
.326/.385/.408 (.793) with 49 doubles, 29 triples, five home runs and 154 SB in
208 attempts (74.0%)
I would
say those are pretty similar numbers. Pierre made his debut with the Rockies
just before his 23rd birthday. Revere debuted with the Twins last
year as a 22 year old. I Pierre’s first season, 2000, he accumulated 219 plate
appearances in 51 games. Through the All-Star break, Revere has now accumulated
219 plate appearances in 63 games. Here are each of
their numbers through their first 219 Major League plate appearances:
Juan Pierre - .310/.353/.320 (.673) with two doubles, no
triples, no home runs. He was 7/13 in SB attempts (53.8%) and had 13 walks and
15 strikeouts.
Ben Revere -.262/.300/.291 (.591) with four doubles, one triple,
no home runs. He has been 11/17 in SB attempts (64.7%) and had ten walks and 21
strikeouts.
The
Twins have control of Ben Revere probably through the end of the 2016 season,
and he can be a very key component to the Twins success. That will put him to
the age of 28. At that point, the Twins will have an interesting decision.
Since Pierre turned 28, he has had just one season with an on-base percentage
above .341. Defensively, it would appear that although neither can throw,
Revere is a better defender.
Who
knows what the future holds for Ben Revere? Despite very poor offensive numbers
to this point, he has had a tremendous impact on the Twins since his return to
the big leagues in early June. There is no disputing that. His range and his speed
are incredible. He can flat-out hit singles. His exuberance is catchy. How good
can he become? The arm isn’t going to get much (if any better). The power
likely will not come in terms of home runs, but if he can knock 25-30 doubles a
year and maybe 8-12 triples, that would be wonderful.
When people compare him to Juan Pierre, it is generally
considered negative. In my mind, I think it should be considered a positive if
he is for the Twins what Pierre was for the Rockies and Marlins early in his
career.
Feel free to leave Comments
here or on the StarTribune.com
TwinsCentric blog.
Minor League Scoreboard
Rochester
beat Scranton/Wilkes Barred 3-1 on Sunday. Kevin Slowey
started and threw 4.2 shutout innings. He gave up four hits, walked one and struckout three. Cole DeVries
went the next 2.1 innings and gave up two hits and a walk, but no runs. Dusty
Hughes struck out two in a scoreless eighth frame. Jim Hoey
recorded his third save despite allowing an unearned run in the ninth. The Red
Wings won despite the offense producing just five hits. Delmon
Young went 1-2 with a two-run homer before leaving the game and being activated
by the Twins. Steve Singleton was 1-2 with a walk and his third home run.
New
Britain lost 9-4 to Binghampton. Brett Jacobson gave
up five runs on four hits and four walks in 4.1 innings. Blake Martin went the
next 3.2 innings and gave up just one run. Dakota Watts pitched the final
inning and gave up three runs (1 earned) on two hits and a walk. Chris Herrmann
and Michael Holliman were each 2-5.
Ft.
Myers and Brevard County were postponed by rain.
Beloit
topped Clinton 5-0. Manuel Soliman started and threw
seven shutout innings. He gave up seven hits, walked none and struckout four. Nelvin Fuentes
threw two perfect innings. Jairo Perez - who hit his
7th and 8th home runs in a month of Snappers games on
Saturday - was 2-3 with a walk on Sunday. Lance Ray added his eight home run.
Elizabethton
beat Greeneville 5-4. Tim Shibuya gave up three runs on six hits in six
innings. He walked two and struckout three. Steven
Gruver came in and gave up one run on four hits in 1.1 innings. Matt Summers
came in for the final five outs, and he struck out three of them, for his
second save. Nick Lockwood went 4-5 with his seventh double. Kennys Vargas went 2-4 with his third double. Jairo Rodriguez was 2-4 with his first double. Max Kepler went 2-4.
The
GCL Twins did not play on Sunday.
Also
in a bit of news that really surprised me when I heard it last night, the Twins
have released Andrey Lobanov.
The Russian left-hander was incredibly impressive in two previous minor league seasons.
Recall at the GCL level two years ago (2009), he walked just one and struck out
35 in 22 innings. Last year, he went from EST to the Miracle and pitched well
out of their bullpen, posting a 2-0 record with a 2.03 ERA in 26.2 innings
before going back to Elizabethton and then Beloit. With the Snappers last year,
he went 1-2 with a 3.44 ERA in 34 innings. He walked nine and struckout 30. He began the 2011 season in the Snappers
rotation and it has been a mess. He made seven starts before moving back to the
bullpen. All told, he is 0-7 with a 6.79 ERA in 53 innings. He has walked 17 and
struckout 42, but he has allowed 77 hits. I’m mainly
surprised by the news because of what he has done in the past and that he is
left-handed. He is just 21 years old and from Russia, we knew that the
development would be slow. That said, he did not throw hard and apparently some
writing was on the wall. I’ve chatted several times with Andrei and he is a
good, bright kid. I certainly wish him well with whatever his next step is.
·
Parker posted some Quick
Hits including discussing the demoted Demoted
Renes, and the Promoted Plouffe
and Young, Span and more.
·
Nick asked Can History Repeat? In it, he compares the 2011
Twins team to the 2003 Twins team.
·
Seth hosted the SethSpeaks.net
Sunday Night Twins podcast last night with guest Cody Christie (North
Dakota Twins Fan). They updated on the goings on at the Futures Game,
with the twins and their minor league affiliates, and then they did a Three Up,
Three Down segment in which each picked the top three good and the top three
bad things for the Twins in the season’s first half.
·
Tonight
at 10, Seth and Travis Aune (Travis Twins Talk) will
co-host Twins
Minor League Weekly and discuss the Twins affiliates, and which players
are hot and not, and much more. The two will be heading to Beloit, Wisconsin
this weekend for Snappers games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If anyone would
be interested in making that 5 ½ hour trek from the Twin Cities to Beloit for some
Snappers games this weekend, be sure to check out the Beloit
Snappers website and if you do order tickets, be sure to mention
SethSpeaks.net and Seth will donate
$5 to the charity of the Snappers choice.
·
Check
out NoDak Twins Fan’s Top 10 Twins Prospect report.
·
Here
is Roger’s
Weekly Minor League Report from Saturday.
·
The
Baseball Outsider
discusses The
Return of Trevor Plouffe.
·
Puckett’s Pond provides a Midterm
Report Card for the 2011 Twins.
·
Knuckleballs had an interesting Guest
Post by Kirsten on Twitter.
·
K-Bro discusses Things
Moving in the AL Central.
Please
feel free to leave
your comments on anything discussed today or any other Twins topics.