September 17, 2007

Top 50 Prospects

  1. Anthony Swarzak, RHP
  2. Danny Valencia, 3B
  3. Jeff Manship, RHP
  4. Chirs Parmelee, OF/1B
  5. Eduardo Morlan, RHP
  6. Trevor Plouffe, SS
  7. Nick Blackburn, RHP
  8. Jay Rainville, RHP
  9. Brian Duensing, LHP
  10. Ben Revere, OF
  11. Tyler Robertson, LHP
  12. Erik Lis, OF/1B
  13. Joe Benson, OF
  14. Alex Burnett, RHP
  15. David Winfree, 3B
  16. Rob Delaney, RHP
  17. Oswaldo Sosa, RHP
  18. Brock Peterson, 1B/DH
  19. Kyle Waldrop, RHP
  20. Ryan Mullins, LHP
  21. Brandon Roberts, OF
  22. Ozzie Lewis, OF
  23. Denard Span, OF
  24. D.J. Romero, 3B
  25. Garrett Guzman, OF
  26. Yohan Pino, RHP
  27. Dustin Martin, OF
  28. Trent Oeltjen, OF
  29. Danny Rams, C/DH
  30. Angel Morales, OF
  31. Rene Tosoni, OF
  32. Jose Morales, C
  33. Cole DeVries, RHP
  34. Juan Portes, IF/OF
  35. Brian Dinkelman, 2B
  36. Rene Leveret, 1B
  37. Matt Tolbert, INF
  38. David Bromberg, RHP
  39. Matt Moses, 3B
  40. Michael McCardell, RHP
  41. Wilson Ramos, C
  42. Paul Kelly, SS
  43. Danny Santiesteban, OF
  44. Eli Tintor, OF
  45. Jose Mijares, LHP
  46. Whit Robbins, 1B/3B
  47. Matthew Fox, RHP
  48. Johnny Woodard, 1B
  49. Henry Reyes, LHP
  50. Drew Thompson, INF
Short Explanation: I put a lot of emphasis in the age of the player which is why a guy like Julio DePaula or Armando Gabino didn't make the list, even though they are more then likely a top 50 prospect. I think that the top ten is fairly close, with Valencia being the only question mark. But after that, it's pretty hard to sort out the players. Garrett Guzman could also be moved up on most list's, but at 25 or so next year, I gave him a lower ranking. Any other question's just ask.

Here are other guys I considered (In no particular order): Anthony Slama, Juan Richardson, Andrew Schmiesing Matt Macri, Danny Rondon, Daniel Berlind, Bradley Tippett, Zach Ward, Henry Sanches, Armando Gabino, Greg Yersich, Spencer Steedley, Estarlin De Los Santos, Garrett Olson, Julio DePaula, Felix Molina, Luke Hughes, Liam Hendricks.

Obviously, it’s pretty hard to sort out the guys after the top 5-10 or so. We don’t really have many “Top Prospects” but we have a good group of “2nd tier” prospects which made this a very tough list to make. Anyone could make a case for a guy like Rene Leveret to be a top 20 pick, but because of the talent we have he’s down in the mid-30’s.

I wasn't going to make a top-50 list, but I was interested in what some of your opinions are on some of our young talent. Sorry for no explanations, if you would like to know why I put someone too high/low just ask me.

Twins swept

Can't say I am surprised by the way the Twins played against the Tigers young pitchers over the weekend. We've had some serious funks this season against some "no-namers" who have pitched against us as if they were Cy Young himself.

Twins/Rangers Game 1:

Kevin Slowey (3-0, 5.44) will take the mound for the Twins in game 1. He will be facing Edison Valquez (2-1, 4.24) of the Rangers.

Snappers lose game 5, 11-5.
The Beloit Snappers battled from a 2 game to zero deficit to lose the 5th game of the Midwest League Championship. Alex Burnett started and gave up 3 runs (2 earned) in 3 innings of work. Danny Leatherman came on and gave up 3 unearned runs to receive the loss. Julio Lugo gave up 4 runs (3 earned) in the 5th inning. In that inning, the Snappers commited 5 errors as a team. Danny Vais, Anthony Slama and Jesus Carneveles combined for 4.1 innings of relief, 1 unearned run and 6 strikeouts. Joe Benson went 1-5 with a triple. DJ Romero went 1-4 with an RBI. Greg Yersich went 1-4 with a 3-run triple. Danny Santiesteban went 2-4 with an RBI.

The West Michigan White Caps have now won the Midwest League Championship for two consecutive years.

13 comments:

Maxisagod said...

Cool list, some surprises Valencia at 2 and Ward just missed the list. A lot of middle ground, but your right, very few "A" guys.

Anonymous said...

Delaney over Oswaldo Sosa is a crime. I also question rainville over duensing/robertson. Robertson is a stud and will be a top 5 prospect for the twins next year

Anonymous said...

Devries isn't a lefty.

Josh Johnson said...

I can justify puting Robertson in the top 5/10, he did dominate Lo-A at just 19 years old. But with Sosa, he doesn't bring out the "dominance factor" that Delaney gives me. Both are great pitchers though. He also transitioned to High-A better than Sosa transitioned to Double-A. Sosa almost gave up as many runs in AA then he did in High-A and he only had 9 starts with New Britain compared to 19 in Fort Myers.

Both will be in AA next year and I think that Delaney is the 2nd best reliever in the system compared to Sosa being in the 5-10 range for starters.

Josh Johnson said...

"Devries isn't a lefty."

You're right, my mistake. I must have been thinking of Tyler Robertson at the time.

Nick N. said...

Good list. I'd like to see Brock Peterson higher; I realize he's not young but he had a very good offensive year and looks like he could be an impact hitter for the Twins soon.

Josh Johnson said...

I like him a lot too, Nick. (BTW, fantastic blog).

I am hoping that 2008 proves to be a strong season for Peterson because I personally suspect for him to be the Twins (at least short term answer) at DH.

Anonymous said...

I like your list, Valencia seems a bit high but I agree he should be top 10-15.

I agree with having Rainville up there. I might not have had him that high, but he was great two years ago and it looks like he is regaining his form after surgery.

Delaney is a difficult one to evaluate. I thought it was mentioned that he does not throw hard, which greatly limits his upside. However, his strikeout ratio is outstanding so he must do something well.

Anonymous said...

Rather than argue about who should be ranked where, I took a statistical approach. For each position, I show the number of players listed and their average rank. Finally, I give points to each player, based on subtracting your Rank from 51, and add them up to see how their assets are divided up. Here are the results. (Where you listed multiple positions, I used the first one. Since there was only one 2B listed, I lumped him in with the INF's.)

Pos.--No.-Avg-Pts.
RHP--14--20--440
OF----14--24--381
3B-----4--20--124
LHP---5--27--121
1B-----4--37--56
SS-----2--24--54
C------3--34--51
INF----4--39--48

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that they are extremely strong in RHP with 14 prospects, including 5 of the Top 8 and 9 of the Top 20.

What did comes as a surprise (at least to me) is that they are just as strong in the outfield, in quantity if not in quality.

They are also looking good at 3B, with 3 of the 4 ranked in the Top 25. (Look out Matt Moses!)

I was expecting bigger numbers in the LHP department. But with 3 out of 5 in the Top 20, I'm sure we're the envy of most other organizations.

What I find shocking is the almost total absence of Top 25 prospects anywhere else: Plouffe #6 at SS (if only it were true) and Peterson #18 at 1B. That's it. End of story.

They could make first base look a lot better by moving Lis and Parmalee there full time. But catcher and middle infield look terrible. It's hard to imagine how a reputedly successful organization could be so weak at the 3 most critical defensive positions while having such a surplus of outfielders and corner infielders.

Josh Johnson said...

That's some great stuff, James. Thank you for sharing that.

We really do have quite a few outfielders throughout the system. Ozzie Lewis, Chris Parmelee, Joe Benson, Ben Revere, Angel Morales and Rene Tosoni are all going to be in High-A or Low-A in 2008 and they all will probably be ready to go come 2011-2012. It's going to pose an interesting question if all do continue to progress through the minors. Do we trade one or two? Who? Do we move Joe Benson (hopefully not) back to Catcher and move Joe Mauer to another position? Does one of them take over at DH? Do we move one of them to 1st and move Morneau to DH? Do we try and convert one of them to a different position of need? etc. etc. etc.

It's a good "problem" to have, if you ask me. But I agree that the Twins are fairly weak in middle-infielders and at catcher. I am really excited to see the Twins have some hitters through the system. Both the GCL Twins and E-Town Twins have a great group of hitters and pitchers that should be in Beloit/Ft. Myers next year.

Anonymous said...

Great stuff Josh, and I enjoy the comments. I think the purpose of such lists is just that, to create discussion. I know that my Top 10 list will be appearing on my site on Wednesday morning, and it will look a little (or in some cases a lot) different. The beauty of prospects lists, is that we really can't judge them for 5-10 years, so nobody is wrong.

As I've said before, the other reason that I like these lists is because these guys all deserve some attention. They're not making much money and they don't have the fame yet of the big leaguers, but in many cases, they're working just as hard, and that should be noticed.

Great work on the list Josh. It's not as easy as you'd think, is it? I think you'll argue with some of mine, and I could argue with some of yours. But it's all fun!

SethSpeaks.net

Josh Johnson said...

Thanks, Seth.

This year was definitely the hardest to come up with a list. In years past, there were guys like Garza, Liriano, and Kubel to take the top spot with a good supporting cast in the top 5-10. This year, there really isn't a clear-cut #1 prospect, although I think that Swarzak is as close as it may come as of right now.

Can't wait to see your list on Wednesday. I like looking at prospect lists and thinking about our future of the team. It's always something that's been fun to do.

Anonymous said...

Teaser Alert - Swarzak will not be my #1...