January 17, 2010

Top 50 Twins Prospects 2010: #34 Max Kepler-Rozycki

2010 Top 50 Twins Prospects | #34 | Max Kepler-Rozycki

Position | Outfield

Bats/Throws | Left/Left

Born
| February 10, 1993 (Stuttgart, Germany)

School | South Fort Myers High School

Height
| 6'4''

Weight
| 200 lbs.

2009 Ranking| Not Ranked





Breakdown
The Twins signed Max Kepler-Rozycki on July 3rd, 2009 out of Germany for $775,000. At just 16-years-old, Kepler-Rozycki is widely considered the best prospect to ever come out of Europe. Last summer, one scout said that Kepler was, "the toolsiest kid we've ever had in Europe, no question." Last week, Baseball America released its annual Top 10 Prospects for the Minnesota Twins organization. The list included Kepler-Rozycki as the 10th best prospect. In fact, he ranked higher than outfielders Rene Tosoni, Joe Benson and Chris Parmelee. I have no problem with that rank, however given the amount of information that we (I) have on Kepler-Rozycki and the fact that we have little to base it on, I can't justify ranking him higher. He certainly has a lot of potential, but Europe isn't a hotbed for baseball talent and I don't have a strong enough sense of how his numbers could transfer to the U.S. When dealing with prospects, say from the Dominican Republic or South America, it's easier to get a grasp on those players being as those regions produce a lot more baseball players. Nonetheless, Kepler-Rozycki has all five tools: hitting, running, power, throwing and fielding. He's drawn comparisons to former Major League outfielder Shawn Green for his smooth swing and skill set. He'll spend the entire 2010 season and perhaps the 2011 season in Ft. Myers. Don't forget, he'll be 17-years-old in February and still hasn't graduated High School. Although a lot of attention will be on Kepler-Rozycki this season. We'll see how he handles his first season of professional baseball in the states. He has a lot of potential and could fly up the prospect rankings next season.

2009 Statistics
          Level      G     PA     AVG     OBP     SLG     XBH    HR    FLD%
          Germany   29    121    .444    .512    .646      15     1    .980

2010 Outlook

Kepler-Rozycki will begin the 2010 season in Extended Spring Training before latching on with the Gulf Coast League Twins in June. He'll spend the entire season there.

Video

Estimated Time of Arrival
2016

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Today Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune tweets this:

"Best looking position player prospect I've seen in Florida? Max Kepler, the 17-yr-old German OF with the Twins. Looks like a young Mantle."

High praise indeed.