Twinkie Town 2010 Top 50...Voting for Prospect Number 18!

by roger13 on Dec 20, 2009 4:34 PM EST Comment 14 comments

With 98 votes cast for our seventeenth best prospect, Alex Burnett was a clear winner with 38 votes (38%). Jeff Manship was second with 22 votes, while B. J. Hermsen was only a vote behind Manship in third place. Congratulations to Alex Burnett who made remarkable progress in his first season as a short reliever.

Steven Tolleson, Wander Guillen and Michael McCardell didn't receive five per cent of the votes cast. The four players added to the voting for Prospect #18 will include two players who have not appeared in this voting prior to this round, Matt Bashore and Brian Dinkelman. Re-appearing in this round will be former first round pick Trevor Plouffe and lefty starter, Tyler Robertson.

I will be driving back to the Twins Cities tomorrow from Denver and will be unable to post the next round, thus, voting for prospect number 18 will remain open until 3pm, Tuesday, December 22nd.

We are now reaching the part of this process where there could be many equally qualified candidates to add to each round. Thus, your suggestions of who you would like to see added is more important than ever, Thanks!

The top seventeen prospects in the Twinkie Town Top 50 are: 1) Miguel Jean; 2) Aaron Hicks; 3) Wilson Ramos; 4) Kyle Gibson; 5) Ben Revere; 6) Danny Valencia; 7) Angel Morales; 8) David Bromberg; 9) Rene Tosoni; 10) Deolis Guerra; 11) Chris Parmelee; 12) Anthony Slama; 13) Max Kepler-Rozycki; 14-tie) Carlos Gutierrez and Adrian Salcedo; 16) Joe Benson; and 17) Alex Burnett.

Poll

Who is the EIGHTEENTH best prospect in the Twins system?

Matt Bashore

8 votes

Rob Delaney

14 votes

Brian Dinkelman

4 votes

B. J. Hermsen

62 votes

Luke Hughes

7 votes

Jeff Manship

61 votes

Trevor Plouffe

10 votes

Tyler Robertson

28 votes

194 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 14 comments |

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Comments

Pretty good sign

If your 18th best prospect looks like a major leaguer

by DJL44 on Dec 20, 2009 9:40 PM EST reply actions

Manship

How tough is this system if Manship can perform well at AAA, get a promotion to the majors and drop on our list from14-18?

I think Fox and Hirschfeld are probably viable in the mid 20s and McCardell needs to come back by round 20.

by DJL44 on Dec 21, 2009 10:21 AM EST up reply actions

I went with Manship

I think he’s falling because he’s more of a known quantity now, we have a better idea of his upside, which is probably #4-5 starter at this point. Others (Hermsen, Robertson, etc) probably have higher ceilings, but at some point I had to go with the guy who will be in the mix for the #5 spot in the rotation this year.

by Adam Peterson on Dec 21, 2009 11:14 AM EST up reply actions

I actually voted for Manship here too

but the reason he’s regressed a little in my mental list is because he really stopped missing bats last year, both in AA and AAA.

by Eric in Madison on Dec 21, 2009 11:36 AM EST up reply actions

That's not just Manship

Pretty much every prospect shows a drop in effectiveness from A ball to AA/AAA. They’ll see another dropoff from AA/AAA to the majors.

by DJL44 on Dec 21, 2009 11:37 AM EST up reply actions

That may explain the drop when Manship reached higher levels

but his regression started to begin the season in AA. Strikeout rates at each level the last two seasons:

2008: 7.21 SO/9 over 78.2 innings in A+, 7.28 SO/9 over 76.2 innings in AA
2009: 5.35 SO/9 over 75.2 innings in AA, 5.36 SO/9 over 50.1 innings in AAA, 5.97 SO/9 over 31.2 innings in MLB.

The real question for me is, why did Manship’s strikeout rates fall by nearly 2 per nine innings his second go around AA, then remain in the 5’s for the remainder of the year? Fluke, did he have somewhat of a “dead arm”, or was he a bit demotivated by not starting the season in Rochester (similar to Swarzak a couple years ago)?

by Adam Peterson on Dec 21, 2009 3:21 PM EST up reply actions

Went with Robertson.

I like his ceiling.

by Jesse on Dec 21, 2009 6:03 AM EST reply actions

Tootle?

Have we seen him yet?

by DJL44 on Dec 21, 2009 10:12 AM EST reply actions

I'm not sold on Fox

in the mid 20s he will be turning 27 soon.

I do like McCardell though right around #20-22…..

Rene Tosoni is good.

by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Dec 21, 2009 3:17 PM EST reply actions

Voting

Hermsen has really closed in on the 2nd day. If we just used the tally as of yesterday there’s no need for a runoff. I hope nobody’s voting twice.

by DJL44 on Dec 22, 2009 1:43 PM EST reply actions

I've yet to see any remarks

on Hermsen, good or bad. He’s the same age as Hicks, and had a good year at GCL. Salcedo,Weller,Lobanov all had good years at GCL and are younger.

by b1 on Dec 22, 2009 4:12 PM EST up reply actions

He's really good, I think

Big kid, like 6’6" 230ish, and he’s pretty polished, especially for a kid coming out of HS

by fetch9 on Dec 22, 2009 4:43 PM EST up reply actions

Hermsen was projected as a number 1 pick by BA and others

He set his price really high going into the draft and slipped to the sixth round. The Twins didn’t sign him until towards the end of the summer, so last year was his first year of major experience, where he led the organization in several categories.

John Manuel ranked him in the low teens in the organization last year based on his high school scouting alone. After the year he had in the GCL, his BA ranking should go up.

He’s a big, projectable kid (6-6, 235) who already has a lot of polish. Right now, he has higher upside than Manship. If he can add an MPH or two to his fastball as he fills out more, he could be a number 1 or 2 starter down the road.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Dec 22, 2009 4:44 PM EST reply actions