How good would the Twins' farm system be if they added Sano?

by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Aug 18, 2009 9:39 PM EDT

To word it another way, where would the Twins' system stack up with the rest of the league?
I have to say other than the clear-cut #1 going into 2010 Cleveland Indians farm system

there isn't exactly anybody else out there who would be far and away better than our system.

Oakland, Florida, Tampa Bay are all pretty good systems, I like what Pittsburgh and San Diego have done to re-up their respective systems they are both much stronger than they were this time a year ago.

this year's Easy #1 Texas Rangers have Andrus and Holland in the major leagues along with a cup of coffee with OF Julio Borbon and nasty P Neftali Feliz. So they won't be quite as strong going into this off-season....

Possible would be top-prospects include:

1. Aaron Hicks

2. Kyle Gibson

3. Miguel Angel Sano

4. Ben Revere

5. Danny Valencia

6. Chris Parmelee (best hitter -IMO- in FSL this year)

7. Wilson Ramos ( I question the bat, but defense is un-real)

8. David Bromberg

9. Joe Benson

10. Rene Tosoni

11. Deolis Guerra

12. Carlos Gutierrez

13. Tyler Robertson

14. B.J. Hermson

15. Matt Bashore

16. Anthony Slama

17. Angel Morales (wow - what a second half he is having so far :) )

18. Daniel Rams

19. Steven Tolleson (a good- great future #5,6 infielder, something we don't have right now)

20. Jeff Manship / Plouffe/ Salcedo/ Bullock/ Burnett/ McCardell/ Delaney/ Lobanov/ Weller/ Mulvey

Maybe this is just in my opinion, but, that would have to be (I would think) a top 10 or so system in all of the game today. The thing is we'd probably be paying Sano at least 3 times as much as Gibson (bonus), 4 times as much as Hicks, and 5 times as much as Revere...... or so it would seem - and that wouldn't sit particularly well with me.

Thus in 2011 or surely 2012 we could compete with Cleveland for the AL central Title.

(assuming we somehow re-sign Mr. Joe Mauer)

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Comments

Disagree

I imagine Sano would fall somewhere as a top 50-100 prospect in MiLB immediately after signing (if he’s really 16), but I think that would still put us right around middle-of-the-pack in organizational prospect rankings.

We have a somewhat deep system, but no top prospects at the moment. There’s just a lot of guys who have too many concerns/will likely only provide marginal value in the majors.

Valencia – Close to MLB-ready but with limited upside (not really a “prospect” per se- potential AAAA guy)
Hicks – great tools, but a long way to go, little improvement this year
Revere – see Hicks above, but doesn’t project to have any power
Gibson – top-10 talent from this year’s draft (potential injury risk?) – possibly a top 100 prospect right now
Parmelee – decent numbers and power potential, but the total package is somewhat unimpressive (4th year of pro ball and only in high A, corner outfielder, high SO%)

No one else strikes me as a top-100 prospect (maybe Guerra?).

At the present moment, I think it’s one of the weaker minor league systems in baseball, probably ranking in the low-mid 20’s of all the organizations’ systems.

Anyways, I’m enjoying all the prospect talk and info, especially with the way the season’s gone lately. I’m curious to hear others’ opinions.

by Mike I on Aug 19, 2009 1:35 AM EDT reply actions

The Twins have four players in the BA top 100 right now

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

by cmathewson on Aug 19, 2009 9:15 AM EDT up reply actions

Revere, Parmelee, HIcks and Guerra

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

by cmathewson on Aug 19, 2009 9:17 AM EDT reply actions

Sano would be the Twin's top prospcet

Gibson second, then probably Hicks.

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

by cmathewson on Aug 19, 2009 9:18 AM EDT reply actions

I wouldn't argue that.....

and I think the Twins would have all of

Hicks, Sano, Gibson, Revere, Parmelee, Guerra and maybe just maybe Valencia in the top 150 from BA.

Wow

by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Aug 19, 2009 5:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Also I know that

A prospect is a prospect, is a prospect is a prospect

Its still a crap-shoot, half of the guys named just above might not even ever make it to the Major-Leagues (with the Twins at-least)

BTW, how ’bout Trent Oltjetin, Garrett Jones, Alex Romero and some of those guys?

by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Aug 19, 2009 9:15 PM EDT reply actions

someone I may be overlookings ...

2B Steven Singleton of New Britian…

at least for me he has had a very quietly productive year.

by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Aug 23, 2009 7:08 PM EDT reply actions

He's a decent hitter and a good second baseman

The problem is, he doesn’t have the arm strength to play on the left side of the diamond, so he’ll have to make it as a second baseman. That means he has to put up Dinkelman-like numbers for me to get too excited about him.

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

by cmathewson on Aug 24, 2009 12:22 PM EDT up reply actions

hey cmathewson

what do you make of these prospects ?

Oswaldo Arcia ( young OF in GCL)
P.M. Klingsburg (1B who I have no Idea about)
Winston Marquez (I know the Twins just promoted him to Beloit, but I wish it was Ft. Myers)
Edgar Ibarra (I think Roger Dehrig is noticing/ pointing out how good of a young arm he is)
and finally Zach See and Peter Kennelly (2 RP’s)

I don’t know how we even put a lot of those guys into our org. -undrafted FA’s I presume…

by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Aug 25, 2009 12:42 AM EDT reply actions

Internationals

The Twins have signed more guys out of Taiwan, the Dominican and Europe the last few years. Most of them go to the GCL. Jake Mauer has his hands full trying to get this United Nations team in shape. And he appears to be doing a good job, because not only are the GCL Twins leading their division (I think), but a lot of these undrafted kids make it up the ladder. As to your names, I have the same information on them that you do. Perhaps I would interpret it differently, though. I usually don’t pay too much attention to kids until they get to the Appy League because the GCL numbers are a bit skewed. They don’t follow the rules strictly in some cases if they want to get a kid extra work, for example.

Arcia: Has good numbers for that league. 5 homers in that league is impressive. ANd he’s young for that league.
Marquez: Excellent strikeout numbers. At those levels, it could mean he has a big arm or a really good change-up. (See Pino, Yohan).
Ibarra: Solid numbers. At that level, nothing to scream about.
See: Good numbers, but about what you would hope for in a 21 year old among 18 year olds in an extreme pitchers’ league.

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

by cmathewson on Aug 25, 2009 9:26 AM EDT up reply actions