Minor League Report...September 26, 2009

The final games of the World Cup will be played this weekend.  With Pool play completed, the USA won Pool 2 with a 7-0 record including a 5-3 win over Cuba on Thursday.  Trevor Plouffe was 1-4 with a walk, run scored and his third error in the tournament.  Canada is second in Pool 2 (4-3), Australia third (2-5) and Chinese Taipei is fourth (1-6).  Cuba won Pool 1 with a 5-2 record.  Puerto Rico is second (4-3), the Netherlands is third (3-4) and Venezuela is last (2-5).   

Tom Stuifbergen had a big start in the Netherlands 5-2 win over Australia on Wednesday, pitching 5.0 shutout innings with 2 hits and 2K/2BB.  Closer Matt Williams appeared in three games this week for Australia, allowing 4 hits and 2 runs in 2.1 innings.  Rene Tosoni was 6-21 this week with 6 walks, 6 RBI, 6 runs scored, one double and a triple.  Trevor Plouffe was 8-29 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI.  Luke Hughes was 11-26 with 3 doubles, a home run and 6 RBI.  Nelvin Fuentes pitched 1.2 shutout innings with 1 hit in Puerto Rico's big 3-0 win over Canada.

With pool play completed, Venezuela will play Chinese Taipei today for seventh place.  The Netherlands will play Australia for fifth place and Puerto Rico will play Canada for third place.  On Sunday, the USA and Cuba will have a rematch for the World Cup Championship. 

Today I will begin my series of looking at the top ten players in the organization at each position.  I will begin with the catchers, then review another position each week.  I have completed my preliminary ratings of all players in the organization and will include each players 2009 ranking.  It is important to note that these rankings are based on each players play within the organization during the 2009 season.  Although there is a correlation between their performance on the field and future performance and progression through the organization, these rankings are not intended to be a prospect ranking.  Also note that position players and pitchers are ranked separately.

The tenth ranked catcher in the organization this season was Beloit's Jeff Lanning.  Lanning was a 2008 eighth round pick out of the University of New Orleans.  Lanning began his professional career at Elizabethton where he hit .255/.345/.441 in 102 at bats to rank him at Number 61 in my year end rankings.  Lanning moved up to Beloit this season where he had another solid season, hitting .250/.308/.354 in 164 at bats which ranks him at #68. 

When the Twins lost R.A. Dickey to Seattle in the 2007 Rule V draft, they received catcher Jair Fernandez from Seattle the following spring when Seattle wanted to keep Dickey but not on their major league roster.  Fernandez was having a solid season at Beloit last year, hitting .283/.333/.370 in 127 at bats before going down with a season ending injury.  That performance earned Fernandez my #51 ranking which was lower as a result of his having a short season.  This season Fernandez moved up a level to Ft. Myers where he hit .224/.301/.325 in 255 at bats to drop ten spots in this years ranking at #61.

The eighth ranked catcher is Alexander Soto who is a Dominican Republic native who signed on February 23, 2005.  Soto played two seasons in the DSL before moving up to the GCL Twins in 2007.  In 2008, Soto had an excellent season at Elizabethton where he hit .276/.344/.621 in 116 at bats with 10 home runs.  There is always a question about numbers from the Appy League, however, his performance earned Soto my #34 ranking.  Soto hit .240/.326/.377 in 154 at bats at Beloit this spring with 5 home runs before earning a promotion to Ft. Myers.  By hitting only .212/.264/.271 in 85 at bats at Ft. Myers, Soto's 2009 ranking sunk to #60.

The seventh ranked catcher is often referred to as the best defensive catcher in the organization.  Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reporter Jim Mandelaro may dispute this as he talked about the high number of past balls allowed by Rochester catchers this season.  Drew Butera, who was obtained by the Twins in the Luis Casillo trade, was my 56th ranked player last season after hitting .219/.308/.354 in 302 at bats for New Britain.  This season Butera moved up to AAA Rochester where he had several spurts where he hit well before again finishing with a disappointing .211/.268/.292 in 298 at bats to rank #58.

It seems like our sixth ranked catcher has been in the organization forever, yet, Allan de San Miguel is only 21 years old.  de San Miguel, who is from Perth Australia, signed as a free agent in August, 2004 before beginning his professional career with the GCL Twins a few months after his seventeenth birthday in 2005.  Allan has excellent speed for a catcher and has always been considered one of the organization's best defensive catchers.  de San Miguel spent most of last season at Beloit, hitting a career best .269/.396/.362 in 130 at bats, however, hit only .123/.224/.215 in 65 at bats at Ft. Myers to rank #74.  Allan led the organization in air travel rewards points this season as he was the player that frequently moved around the country to fill in as the back up catcher making him the first Twin that I recall to play at least one game for all four full season teams in the same season.  Because he was often sitting on the bench in Rochester or New Britain, de San Miguel had only 157 at bats and clearly wasn't ready for AA pitching as he hit only .196/.387/.304 in 56 at bats for New Britain.  He spent more time at Ft. Myers than any other stop, hitting .231/.383/.286 in 91 at bats to move up 28 spots in this year's ranking to #46.               

The fifth ranked catcher is the Twins 2009 fifth round pick, Tobias Streich.  Streich hit .222/.287/.450 in 189 at bats for Elizabethton.  Streich appears to have excellent power as his 10 home runs were tied for second best in the Appy League while his 37 RBI were tied for ninth best.  Although power numbers coming out of Elizabethton don't always correlate to power higher in the organization, his numbers were good enough to earn a ranking as the organization's 43rd best player this season.

Danny Rams was the Twins second round pick in 2007 out of Forida's Gulliver Prep High School.  Considered one of the better high school power hitters in the draft, Rams struggled his first two seasons in the organization by hitting .258/.311/.361 in 97 at bats for the GCL Twins in 2007 and .228/.301/.423 in 149 at bats for Elizabethton last year.  Rams returned to Elizabethton this spring where he was a different player.  After hitting a torrid .355/.444/.790 in 62 at bats, Rams earned a promotion to Beloit where he hit .229/.308/.429 with 14 doubles and a Snapper's second best 7 home runs in 175 at bats.  Rams demonstration of power enabled him to move up 23 spots in this season's rankings to #36 and puts him on the Twins radar as someone who just might someday play for the big league club.

Josmir Pinto is a native of Venezuela who signed with the Twins on Valentines Day, 2006.  Pinto moved up to the GCL Twins last season where he was one of the best hitters on the team at .326/.383/.535 in 86 at bats.  Pinto's excellent season earned him my #49 ranking last year and a promotion to Elizabethton.  Pinto's bat continued to be hot throughout this season as he hit .332/.387/.610 in 205 at bats.  With both Pinto and Streich on the roster, Pinto saw a lot of time at DH which enabled him to lead the league with 13 home runs while driving in a league second best 55 runs earning a #25 ranking this season.  After two tremendous seasons with the Twins, it will be interesting to watch this young man next season to see if he our third ranked catcher can continue to hit as he has in a full season league.

We are all familiar with our second ranked catcher who has spent much of this season on the Twins roster.  Jose Morales is a native of Rio Pedras, Puerto Rico who was an infielder drafted by the Twins in the third round of the 2001 draft.  Morales moved to catcher in 2003 and missed most of 2005 with a back injury with injuries causing him to also miss parts of several other seasons.  A severe ankle injury in his first big league game in September, 2007 caused Morales to miss much of last season at Rocheseter, however, hit an excellent .315/.348/.426 in 197 at bats when healthy.  He was ranked #7 last year and would have been higher had he played the entire season.  Morales shuttled back and forth between Minnesota and Rochester this year, hitting an excellent .336/.413/.436 at Rochester to earn my #9 ranking that would have been top three had he not spent many weeks sitting on the Twins bench.  More important, Morales hit .340/.402/.400 in 100 at bats for the Twins and all indications are that Morales will be the Twins back up catcher next season who will also get some at bats at DH.

Our top ranked catcher has given strong indications that he will be a future star in the major leagues.  Wilson Ramos is a Venezuela native who was signed as a free agent on July 7, 2004.  Ramos began his play in the U.S. with the GCL Twins in 2006, jumping a level to Beloit in 2007 where he led the team in hitting, .291/.345/.438 in 292 at bats, following Danny Valencia's promotion to Ft. Myers.  Last year Ramos moved up another level to Ft. Myers where he continued to hit like a future star at .288/.346/.434 in 452 at bats with 13 home runs and ranked amongst league leaders with 78 RBI.  Ramos returned home last winter to lead the Aragua Tigres to the Caribbean championship where he won the championship series MVP award.  Ramos had a great spring training this year where he was in the hunt for a spot with the Twins when Joe Mauer missed the first month of the season.  The Twins are a team that does not vary from their development plan however, and Ramos was assigned to New Britain for the start of the season.  I was fortunate to see Ramos play a few times this spring and saw firsthand in a game against the Yankees that his arm as as good as any player in the organization, including the Twins.  Ramos' season was interrupted with two injuries this year, a broken finger early in the season followed by a pulled hamstring shortly after his return to active duty.  When he did return he played as well as any player on the Rock Cats down the stretch as they earned their first playoff spot in several years.  Ramos finished the season as my sixth ranked player and had he not missed half the season, would have been in the hunt for my #1 spot as he led the Rock Cats in hitting at .317/.341/.454 in 205 at bats with 16 doubles, 4 home runs and 29 RBI. 

The Twins organization has the best catcher in the game and a solid backup in Jose Morales, a catcher who can do more than just sit on the bench and play every fourth or fifth game.  They also have a future star in waiting, Wilson Ramos, who can do it all at one of the most important positions on the team.  With several other young catchers with some promise in the lower levels of the organization, the Twins should be solid at the catcher position for the next decade or longer.