Monday,
November 8, 2010
Preliminary Twins Top 30 Prospects
Happy Monday! Monday marks Day 3 of a three day
weekend, so today’s blog will be shorter, and yet, hopefully it will create a
ton of discussion. With the TwinsCentric Offseason
GM Handbook now available, my attention is turning quickly to my
third annual Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook. If you’re interested in the 2009
version or the 2010 version,
they are still available! In fact, if you would like to buy a copy of the 2009
version, I have about ten of them at home, ready to send out. If you’re
interested, e-mail me for
details.
Anyway, one of the big parts of SethSpeaks.net has
been a Top 50 Prospect List. Last year, I came out with my top 50, and then did
a ton of research for the book, and in the book, my top 30 looks a little bit
different. When I write the book, I do find it fun to make a projected Top 30
prospect list to see what I think based on following box scores daily, reading
some reports on players and general knowledge. Then as you would hope, I learn
a ton more about each player while researching and writing the book, so it shouldn’t
look identical.
So today, I am going to share with you my current Top
30 Twins Prospect list. Please remember that it is a preliminary list, but what
I would love would be for you to post your thoughts in the Comments section.
Who is ranked too high? Too low? Why? And of course, I
would love for you to post your top 10 list as well.
SethSpeaks.net
Twins Preliminary Top 30 Prospects
1.
Kyle Gibson
2.
Aaron Hicks
3.
Miguel Sano
4.
Joe Benson
5.
Alex Wimmers
6.
Angel Morales
7.
Ben Revere
8.
David Bromberg
9.
Oswaldo Arcia
10.
Liam Hendriks
11.
Adrian Salcedo
12.
Chris Parmelee
13.
Eddie Rosario
14.
Max Kepler
15.
Manuel Soliman
16.
Danny Ortiz
17.
BJ Hermsen
18.
Trevor Plouffe
19.
Niko Goodrum
20.
Carlos Gutierrez
21.
Martire Garcia
22.
Pat Dean
23.
Rene Tosoni
24.
Billy Bullock
25.
Tom Stuifbergen
26.
Bruce Pugh
27.
Miguel Munoz
28.
Steve Singleton
29.
Danny Rams
30.
Michael Tonkin
General Thoughts:
·
The #1 spot is
still up in the air for me. Do you take the guy who could be a very good #2
starter as early as the middle of next season, or do you want the guy in Low A
ball with no fewer than six great tools, several of which have not developed
into skills yet. Or, do you take the 17 year old Dominican infielder for whom
the sky is the limit?
·
Ben Revere is a
tough one for me too. The guy can flat out hit singles. He’s incredibly fast.
He is improving defensively in CF, but he has no arm. He has shown know extra
base power at all, but his short, compact, strong swing tells me that he should
be able to hit a lot of doubles and triples, and how many of his singles can be
turned into doubles thanks to a stolen base?
·
And while we’re
talking about outfielders, we know that Joe Benson put up serious power numbers
in 2010, but how do we evaluate the monster Appy
League season of Oswaldo Arcia
and try to determine what it means going forward? How about the impressive
return to the field for Danny Ortiz after missing all of 2009 with a knee
injury? What about the 2010 debut in the GCL for OF Eddie Rosario? And, the guy
that gets forgotten way too often is Angel Morales, who despite a lack of home
runs, showed steady improvement in areas he needed to.
·
I don’t rank
relief pitchers terribly high traditionally, but that doesn’t mean I don’t
respect the importance of a bullpen to a team. I have two relievers here in the
top 30 that I believe can be very good for the Twins. But that isn’t to take
anything away from Anthony Slama, Rob Delaney, Kyle
Waldrop, Dakota Watts or other relief pitchers.
·
Rene Tosoni is one that should probably be ranked higher. He was
right around nine or ten last year at this time in my rankings. He returned to
AA New Britain and was putting up similar offensive numbers despite playing
with a bad shoulder that finally had to be operated on. He’ll be 24 through
most of the 2010 season, and he has a chance to be very good.
·
It is also always
interesting to see how I end up ranking upside versus likelihood of
contributing to the Twins. For instance, if Max Kepler
meets his potential, he could be a perennial All-Star. David Bromberg’s
big-league upside is likely a #4 starter. But I believe that Bromberg will soon
make the big leagues and get that opportunity
after holding his own for a couple of months in Rochester. Meanwhile, Kepler has to be promoted six times to reach the big
leagues.
So, what do you think? Help me choose. Give me any
stats or notes that you may have to help me make the right choices. Finally,
feel free to post your Top 10 Twins Prospects as well. You can e-mail me if you
would like,, or you can leave
Comments here.