Minnesota Twins Prospect #2 (Poll)

I originally rated the lower level guys the highest, but with the ascendency of Valencia, I’m giving first and second year players an automatic downgrade. So for me it was between Mijares and Swarzak. Small sample size with Mijares but it almost seems like cheating to even call him a prospect. If you were an old time prospector, you’d already know you’d struck gold with him.

I’d love to hear the real story with Swarzak—why he underperformed at New Britain. Mostly I’ve heard attitude problems. Could it be that he was working on secondary pitches? Bored with the competition, so rather than blow them away with his best stuff, me around with novel ways of getting outs? And then, with the promotion, the realization that he better stop messing around?

Anyway, I am the one vote for Swarzak at this point.

…I again voted for Morales, who I believe has the highest upside of anyone in the organization. On the other hand Revere was the second ranked position player in the organization by me this year…behind only Denard Span. Playing low A ball and overcoming the discounting that I do says an awful lot for Revere. I guess my only reason for ranking Morales higher is his age and that unlike Revere, he is supposed to be very good defensively. Certainly understand Revere being either Number 1 or 2 however.

I like him, but how did he vault up to number 1? I’d rate Tolleson higher simply b/c he has put up stellar numbers as a 2b instead of a 3b. I voted Mijares for #2, in that we have seen some very good results with him… I’m all over that.

Valencia was one of four Twins prospects that I personally considered strongly for #1… and he ranked fourth in my opinion. I think he’s a tremendous prospect, so I have no problem with him finishing #1 if that’s what this community believes.

I like Tolleson too, but I had him in the late teens.

Of course, I had Mijares at 22 because in my mind, his ceiling is pitching up to 60-70 innings in a season. I downgrade relievers arguably too much. I just personally can’t rank a reliever this high. But I know many seem to like him based on the eight or nine outings with the Twins.

Just out of curious, how many people would amend their ranking of Valencia if Joe Mauer or Justin Morneau were third baseman?

It seems to me, that a vote for Valencia is in consideration of the Twins’ need, not in consideration of his level of play relative to the other players on this list. Do you think that most potential trade partners would prefer to receive Valencia in a trade?