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Twins Prospect Watch Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 6, 2007 8:05 pm
by horaceworthy
Just thought it would be nice to have a thread where we could keep an eye on how some of the better prospects in the system are doing (along with Toby Gardenhire) . I'll try to keep the stats updated as best I can (hopefully about once a week or so). There aren't really many to go on right now, as a lot of the affiliates haven't started their seasons yet.

We've got a lot of pitching that's major league ready, or close to it, in the high minors. Most of our higher ceiling position prospects (Parmalee, Benson) are recently drafted and still quite far from helping the major league club. If somebody isn't listed that you'd like to see, feel free to say so. If someone not listed breaks out, then I'll add them. I'll do my best to keep up with promotions/demotions as well.

Position players numbers given in AVG/OBP/SLG form.

Rochester Red Wings(AAA)

Pitchers (W-L, IP, ERA, WHIP)

Matt Garza -RHP- 0-1, 19.0, 2.84, 1.58, 18K, 10BB

Glen Perkins -LHP- 0-0, 6.0, 1.50, 0.50, 2K, 1BB *Called up*

Kevin Slowey -RHP- 3-0, 25.2, 1.05, 0.62, 28K, 2BB

Scott Baker -RHP- 2-0, 23.0, 1.57, 0.78, 23K, 3BB *1SV

Position Players (AVG/OBP/SLG, OPS)

Garrett Jones -1B- .333/.363/.542 (.905)

Alexi Casilla -2B/SS- .125/.222/.125 (.357) *Called up*

Matt Moses -3B- .203/.213/.339 (.552)

Denard Span -CF- .243/.300/.338 (.638)

Trent Oeltjen -OF- .318/.375/.409 (.784)

Doug Deeds -OF- .195/.250/.195 (.445)


New Britain Rock Cats(AA)

Pitchers

Jose Mijares -LHP- 1-0, 10.2, 1.69, 0.84, 10K, 4BB, *3SV

Anthony Swarzak -RHP- 0-2, 5.2, 11.12, 2.47, 7K, 5BB*Serving 50 game suspension for drug use--drug of abuse, not a performance enhancer*

Position Players

David Winfree -3B/1B- .333/.382/.533 (.953)

Trevor Plouffe -SS- .323/.391/.525 (.916)

Brock Peterson -1B- .240/.316/.380 (.696)

Brandon Roberts -CF-(the guy we got for Castro) .156/.206/.156 (.362)

Garrett Guzman -OF- .250/.274/.397 (.671)

Fort Myers Miracle(High A)

Pitchers

Jay Rainville -RHP- 2-3, 24.0, 2.63, 1.38, 15K, 7BB

Alexander Smit -LHP- 0-1, 23.1, 5.40, 1.54, 20K, 11BB

Oswaldo Sosa -RHP- 0-2, 19.1, 5.59, 1.86, 22K, 7BB

Yohan Pino -RHP- 0-1, 12.0, 2.25, 1.17, 15K, 4BB

Kyle Waldrop -RHP- 3-0, 26.1, 3.08, 0.99, 25K, 4BB

Eduardo Morlan -RHP- 1-1, 12.0, 3.75, 0.92, 10K, 3BB

Zach Ward -RHP-(the guy we got for Lohse) 0-2, 12.0, 4.50, 1.08, 12K, 4BB

Position Players

Whit Robbins -3B/1B- .633/.404/.329 (.733)

Jeff Christy -C- .216/.310/.270 (.580)

Toby Gardenhire -SS- .190/.227/.206 (.433)

Edward Ovalle -CF- .200/.282/.329 (.611)

Erik Lis -1B- .303/.392/.483 (.875)

Beloit Snappers

Pitchers

Not real sure about who to put here now, I'll wait to see how it shakes out, or take suggestions as to who I should put here.

Jeffrey Manship -RHP- 2-0, 32.0, 0.84, 0.59, 36K, 3BB


Position Players

Garrett Olson -3B- .288/.366/.329 (.695)

Joe Benson -CF- .164/.240/.194 (.434)

Chris Parmalee -OF/1B- .215/.282/.400 (.682)

Daniel Valencia -3B- .300/.380/.571 (.951)

Posted: Sat Apr 7, 2007 1:20 am
by dunkonu21
If you actually keep this updated that would be spectacular

Posted: Sat Apr 7, 2007 2:54 am
by revprodeji
Question is if any of these guys can play DH

Tyner and the fat kid dont do anything for me.

Posted: Sat Apr 7, 2007 6:52 am
by TheFranchise21
Lol, who the hell is the fat kid?

Posted: Sat Apr 7, 2007 3:04 pm
by Klomp
Kubel?

Posted: Sat Apr 7, 2007 3:08 pm
by slinky
are you talking lew or lecroy and i suppose kubel is a little chubby?? i guess fat kid is relative. :D


i dont mind tyner, he is the type of player that we need as a fourth outfielder(if lew comes back and takes his spot i will be mad). He plays all three positions, he works the count, he is fast, a good baserunner, capable of bunting. But i wouldnt want to see him play regularly at DH. But he is a good situational player.

Garret Jones might be a possibility, that is of course if we need another left handed hitter. Especially if we need one in the mold of a immensely-powerful- strikeout-prone, if its not a homerun, i am walking back to the dugout 1B/OF. The twins thought enough of him to give him the 2nd or 3rd most at bats this spring. BUt i dont think he should be an option early.

FYI
--Fort Myers
Waldrop--5IP 0H 0R 0BB 7K's (2HBP)
Sosa--4.1IP 4H 1R(0ER) 1BB 2K's

Posted: Sat Apr 7, 2007 3:44 pm
by slinky
Horace what are we calling prospects?? Players of the future or players that might help the twins?

I was excited to see that venafro accepted his assignment. This will alllow us to leave perkins in a starting role for as long as possible, because i think that venafro can come in and perform well if someone in the bullpen gets hurt.

Ken Harvey, might be an interesting option for the twins, he is probably always goin to be hurt though...i am not saying he should be an option but rather if in fact we do need a Dh for whatever reason(possibly fatness rev) he might be considered(although he is pretty large and in charge as well)...cirillo is old and already hurtin a little, so we might need a right handed DH.

Henry Sanchez is another guy to look at...i understand you arent doin Rookie ball guys, cause they are just to hard to tell right now. But Sanchez was drafted out of high school, and according to my former augsburg coach, who coached in the san diego area while sanchez was playing, he guarantees(for what thats worth) that Sanchez has as much power as anyone in the Minor leagues, but he is not real patient and will strikeout ALOT. **Just someone for people to keep an eye on when they are checking through minor league stats.

Anyone surprised at the number of "prospects" we have that bat left-handed?? span, moses, oeltjen, deeds, robbins, parmalee, jones, roberts

its not a huge deal, some are sseveral years away, but you put 3 or 4 of them with morneau, mauer, and kubel, it might a little unbalanced. Do the twins draft more LH hitters or do they have some quirk where they develop or scout lefties more effectively than righties? Or is it a coincidence?

Posted: Sat Apr 7, 2007 5:25 pm
by john2jer
Didn't they for the longest time have trouble putting a decent number of LH bats in the line-up, though? Maybe they made a note to get more lefites, and forgot to change the note? :-)

Posted: Sat Apr 7, 2007 6:28 pm
by horaceworthy
slinky wrote:Horace what are we calling prospects?? Players of the future or players that might help the twins?

Henry Sanchez is another guy to look at...i understand you arent doin Rookie ball guys, cause they are just to hard to tell right now. But Sanchez was drafted out of high school, and according to my former augsburg coach, who coached in the san diego area while sanchez was playing, he guarantees(for what thats worth) that Sanchez has as much power as anyone in the Minor leagues, but he is not real patient and will strikeout ALOT. **Just someone for people to keep an eye on when they are checking through minor league stats.


I used a pretty loose definition of prospect, mostly based on my opinion of who has a reasonable chance of helping the big league team either now or down the road. I also abided by the traditional prospect rules, so guys like Venafro and Harvey, who have used up their rookie eligibility, weren't considered (if Garza had gotten one more out in the majors then he wouldn't have been considered a "prospect" by definition, but I would have made an exception) . Basically anybody who hit or pitched fairly well and is 24 or under on the AAA (Deeds is the exception I believe, mostly because he lost most of a year to a wrist injury a year or two ago, and he's hit pretty much all the way through the system) , 23 or under on AA, and so on. This is why a guy like Erik Lis is excluded, since he was quite old for his level, even though he did very well last year. If he has success at a level more in line with his age, then I'll put him on the list. A guy like Garrett Jones was left off because he's 26 now, and in 2 years at AAA he hasn't managed to get his OBP above .302. Toby Gardenhire's on there out of nepotism, and Zach Ward's there because we recently traded for him.

Leaving Rookie ball off of this wasn't intentional, I just couldn't find rosters at the two sites I looked at for this info. I like Sanchez, the guy's absolutely massive, and more power never hurts, but I just couldn't find rosters for the GCL and Elizabethton, and minorleaguebaseball.com doesn't keep their stats, so they'd be more difficult to track.

Who I listed was very subjective, and the names on it will likely see a decent amount of change before the year's through, especially at the lower levels.

Posted: Sat Apr 7, 2007 6:45 pm
by kg2005
A prospect is pretty much anyone who hasn't lost his rookie eligibility. How good of a prospect you are is different.


Tyner- I swear to God if he gets more than 20 at-bats as a DH this year, I'm going to kill Ron Gardenhire.

Posted: Mon Apr 9, 2007 4:44 am
by slinky
First Rochester(AAA) game

Garza--3.1 2H 3 R(0ER) 5BB 3K's

venafro got destroyed...moses had two errors...sounds like a an ugly very cold game...but we hit the ball nicely

http://www.redwingsbaseball.com/pressbox/gamecap.htm

(i wont do this often, i just happened to be wasting time, and decided to see what was up with garza's first game.)

Posted: Mon Apr 9, 2007 5:09 pm
by revprodeji
kubal is the fat kid. Couldnt remember his name. Im new to the striped pj game

Posted: Mon Apr 9, 2007 7:48 pm
by kg2005
slinky wrote:First Rochester(AAA) game

Garza--3.1 2H 3 R(0ER) 5BB 3K's

venafro got destroyed...moses had two errors...sounds like a an ugly very cold game...but we hit the ball nicely

http://www.redwingsbaseball.com/pressbox/gamecap.htm

(i wont do this often, i just happened to be wasting time, and decided to see what was up with garza's first game.)




The first 9 runs in that game were unearned. Ugly.

Posted: Mon Apr 9, 2007 10:40 pm
by TheFranchise21
Kubel is far from fat, that was a poor nickname. Three years ago Kubel was one of the best hitting prospects, a guy who could hit for average and a little bit of power. Then he blew out his knee and was hurt most of last year.

I expect a decent year from him this year. I expect him to be manning left field opening day next year.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:50 am
by revprodeji
it wasnt a nickname. I couldnt remember his name, just that he looked kinda hefty. Not really my type, maybe yours?

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:27 pm
by slinky
after last nights game, i hope he improves his defense. Rondell white may have an arm like a 3 yr old, but he doesnt turn his back twice on the way to catch a warning track fly. Obviously he doesnt play there much in the dome, but this will be his third year dealing with it. Its time he starts. (the same thing happened a few times last year)

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:20 pm
by Klomp
Casilla was called up today along with Rabe to replace White and Cirillo.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:27 pm
by kg2005
Not a huge fan of the Casilla decision, but its not the worst move ever.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:16 pm
by slinky
yeah i am not sure about casilla either. According to the Twins, Rabe is getting the start tonight in LF. I wouldnt be surprised to see tyner get regular starts in LF though. Kubel might have shelved his OF playing for a while with last nights miscue.

If tyner starts than casilla will most likely be used in the Tyner role, as a pinch runner/late game bunter. Thats why they claim Kubel started in left over Tyner, cause they liked his versatility off the bench.

FYI

Perkins pitched very well his first game in AAA

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:17 pm
by kg2005
He really did. I hope that doesn't make the Twins take him over Garza the first time necessary.