Wednesday, February 28, 2007
SethSpeaks Pre-Season
Top 50 Twins Prospects
Good morning everyone! Well, I flew down to the cities yesterday afternoon, so today, I am going to present my pre-season Top 50 Twins Prospects. The last time I updated my prospect list was in September, right after the minor league season ended. So, what has changed? Very little really. So why are there some changes since then? Well, a couple of reasons. First, there has been Winter Leagues. Second, other events or stories have come up, a couple of players are no longer with the organization. Finally, sometimes it is best to just admit your mistakes and correct them. There are a couple of examples of that. Also, I am not going to re-write what I wrote before, so be sure to check out the player's more in-depth summaries in the September entries here. I will post their September ranking in parentheses. I may add a brief comment after some of the names, particularly if there was a big change.
So... let's get to the list! I am going to break it up by ten players at a time and write just a couple of comments on the selections. Please leave some comments down at the bottom to let me know what you think. If you have a Top 50 list of your own (or Top 10, 20, etc.), please feel free to e-mail your list to me.
SethSpeaks Top 50 Twins Prospects
1.) Matt Garza (1)
2.) Kevin Slowey (2)
3.) Alexi Casilla (3)
4.) Anthony Swarzak (4)
5.) Glen Perkins (5)
6.) Chris Parmalee (11)
7.) Eduardo Morlan (6)
8.) David Winfree (7)
9.) Alexander Smit (8)
10.) Trent Oeltjen (9)
Top 10 Summary
There is some question regarding the Rookie eligibility of Matt Garza. He finished last season with exactly 50 innings pitched. I have read and heard both arguments, that the cut-off is 50 innings or 'over' 50 innings. Well, if there is any doubt, I am going to include Garza. Not really much change at the top. I did move Chris Parmalee up a bit. By definition, talking about a 'prospect' is talking about a player's potential ceiling. Well, Parmalee's ceiling is as high as anyone's! In my previous Top 50, Alex Romero ranked as my choice for #10. He was taken off of the Twins 40 man roster when they signed Ramon Ortiz. He was claimed by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
11.) Denard Span (12)
12.) Oswaldo Sosa (26)
13.) Brandon Roberts (14)
14.) Brian Duensing (13)
15.) Matt Moses (16)
16.) Joe Benson (20)
17.) Kyle Waldrop (16)
18.) Erik Lis (27)
19.) Brock Peterson (17)
20.) Jay Rainville (18)
11-20 Summary
If there was one big mistake that I made in my last Top 50 list, it was regarding Oswaldo Sosa. The righty was added to the Twins 40 man roster in December, since then I have had a chance to read about how incredible he was at getting groundballs. He definitely has a high ceiling and he showed more of his stuff in Venezuela this winter. Like Parmalee, Joe Benson is all about upside! Another fairly large error I made was with Erik Lis. I had him too low. I think that the reason I had him low was because he was so good at Beloit (a level that he was old for), but the Twins did not move him up, and I didn't understand why. In reality, it was likely just because of the Twins depth at 1B at the levels above him.
21.) Garrett Guzman (21)
22.) Yohan Pino (28)
23.) Trevor Plouffe (19)
24.) Paul Kelly (23)
25.) Whitney Robbins (22)
26.) Eli Tintor (25)
27.) Danny Valencia (24)
28.) Danny Santiesteban (29)
29.) Doug Deeds (30)
30.) Matt Tolbert (38)
21-30 Summary
The big move in this section is Yohan Pino. I may have had him a little too low last September. However, from what I have heard, he may not even touch 88 on a radar gun, and he is a little guy. So, he is not a typical pitching prospect. Another reason he stayed low was because he really did not start very much at Beloit, he pitched out of the bullpen. But he has been so good as a pro and was again very impressive in Venezuela, and you would have to assume that at some point, he will be given a more consistent role. I still am not sure what that role will be. Secondly, Matt Tolbert's return to New Britain following a demotion to Ft. Myers was very impressive. He continued to impress with a very nice showing in the Arizona Fall League.
31.) Andrew Thompson (31)
32.) Alex Burnett (32)
33.) Brian Kirwan (34)
34.) Garrett Olson (33)
35.) Brian Dinkleman (35)
36.) Garrett Jones (36)
37.) Steve Singleton (45)
38.) Zach Ward (40)
39.) Greg Yersich (37)
40.) Juan Portes (43)
31-40 Summary
When I ran this in September, a couple of people asked me why I had Garrett Olson and Brian Dinkleman (both 2006 draft picks) ranked in the low 30s and Steve Singleton (another 2006 draft pick, the same age, who put up terrific numbers at E-Town as well) was in the mid-40s. A very fair questions and a very fair point. Singleton deserved to be higher. Will Garrett Jones's move to the outfield make him a better prospect? Will he get as much playing time?
41.) Errol Simonitsch (39)
42.) Felix Molina (41)
43.) Jose Mijares (NR)
44.) Tristan Crawford (44)
45.) Tyler Robertson (46)
46.) Adam Hawes (47)
47.) Deibinson Romero (NR)
48.) Caleb Moore (48)
49.) Loek Van Mil (42)
50.) Dan Leatherman (50)/Danny Powers (NR)
41-50 Summary
Justin Jones had come in at #43 in September. In December, he was lost in the minor league portion of the Rule V draft. I basically replaced him with Jose Mijares, who in all honesty, I just missed in September. That said, he had a disappointing, almost incomplete, season in 2006. 2007 is a big year for him, and he had to leave Twins camp on Saturday to be with his family after the horrible loss of his brother. Deibinson Romero is a new entry. He was close to making the list in September, but I left him off. He spent 2006 playing with the GCL Twins playing 3B and hitting well. Loek Van Mil fell a little. The main reason is that, despite his height, he is already quite old for his level. Of course, tall pitchers generally do take a long time to develop. So, maybe he is right in line. He is another guy for whom 2007 is pretty important. And finally, I added Danny Powers as a tie with Dan Leatherman at #50. You may think it is because he has been kind enough to do two Q&As for this site for me. In part, that may be right especially since it has given me the opportunity to check out just how great Powers was last year... a couple of levels past where Leatherman was pitching.
Well, since
today is really just a big list primarily, and I am away from my home
computer, I am just going to rank the American Idol performers from last
night.
1.) Blake Lewis -
2.) Sundance Head -
3.) Chris Richardson -
4.) Phil Stacey -
5.) AJ Tabaldo -
6.) Chris Sligh -
7.) Nick Pedro
8.) Brandon Rogers
9.) Sanjaya Malakar
10.) Jared Cotter
SUMMARY - I thought Jared was
pretty poor. Decent on the higher notes, just weak on the other stuff.
Speaking of weak, Sanjaya remained very weak (yet very good) vocally.
Just doesn't compare to the rest. Brandon could be in trouble as he did
little to improve his standing and unfortunately, it looks like Sanjaya
has quite the following. Blake was the best yet again. I thought he
picked a strange song, but he was great and he brought back the beat box
perfectly. Chris Richardson was excellent as well again, although he
sounded about the same as the previous week. Then Sundance came out and
did something that he hadn't done for awhile... sang great! Chris Sligh...
You sly dog!! Nice work!
Any thoughts on last night's show, please let me know!
IF you have any ideas for topics, any questions for me, or comments, please e-mail me. So, be sure to check back from time to time.. Please leave Comments or follow-up questions that I can take back to Kyle for response. Thank you, and enjoy your day and your weekend!!
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