Twinkie Town 2011 Top 50...Prospect #30!

…With Dozier off the board, I got down to Stuifbergen, Goodrum and Polanco. I know all the excitement about Goodrum’s athleticism. But I went with Polanco who hit .223/.299/.301 compared with Goodrum hitting .161/.219/.194 on the same GCL Twins team. Add to Polanco’s credit that he was playing in that league a few days after his 17th birthday, while Goodrum was about a year and a half older. Add to Polanco’s credit that he is considered one of the best defensive shortstops the Twins have gotten in a long time and in my opinion, he is the better pick.

I don’t really split hairs too much here, as I don’t see a for sure guy for this area of the list. I don’t really agree with Goodrum—to me he is Reggie Williams (did I get that name right?) Until he actually does something. I also agree with Roger’s comments about Polanco—I voted for him previously.

I just voted for Rams because I think he is deserving in this area of the list.

By the way, is Delbinson Romero still around? Just asking.

it’s actually 12 in the top 90, 10 in the top 60. i’ve been keeping a running chart of the draft order and updating it. Once the SD Qualls deal is official, the Rays will have:

Their own picks in the first 2 rounds.
2 picks from Balfour.
2 picks from Soriano.
2 picks from Crawford.
1 pick from Brad Hawpe
1 pick from Randy Choate
1 pick from Chad Qualls
1 pick from Joaquin Benoit

That’s 12. They’re going to DOMINATE this draft. Which is the best in a decade.

And ours isn’t better than his! But that is my opinion and I expect some will share your view that Seth’s is better.

Ours is different however, in that it is the result of many opinions with placement of players somewhat decided by comments and discussion amongst you in the comment section. Ours is also the only one that I know of that is established by a process such as we use. For me, that makes ours special!

With tremendous respect for Seth, all of these are in the eye’s of the maker. If a list is reasonable, no list is more accurate than another. After all, how many of the 50 guys we rank will make it to the major league’s for more than a few game callup?

As I pointed out on Seth’s site, I believe he had several good prospects rated to low. As you mentioned, one was Rene Tosoni who would have been a Top 10 prospect if he continued to hit like the first six weeks and wasn’t injured. An injury shouldn’t drop someone from Top 10 to 32nd, IMO. He had Bruce Pugh high, yet he had relatively poor numbers. He did that because of Pugh’s talent, disregarding the effect his injury had on his performance. Well, on those two I believe he wasn’t consistant. Another disagreement I have with Seth is Daniel Ortiz, who I cannot see being ranked higher than Tosoni. Seth does as he sees Ortiz as having a very, very high ceiling.

I tend to value relievers higher than Seth. If relievers don’t have value, why are we so concerned about the bullpen this spring? How many games are lost because of a blown save or meltdown in the 6th or 7th inning? As CMathewson has pointed out so often right here, we have to be careful however with relievers (Slama for example) as they can put up incredible numbers in the minors yet have some flaw in their game that will make success at the major league level very difficult.

My understanding is that NPB is at least as challenging as AAA, and if you just pretended Nishioka had been in AAA instead of NPB all this time, he’d be far higher on the list. At least top 5. We know some of the power won’t translate, but he still has a nicely balanced offensive attack for a middle infielder.

Did we have Benson as high (#4)? Benson’s ZIPs projection opened my eyes a little on him. (.232/.311/.406) If that’s about right, he’d be a decent outfield option this year if he was a plus corner or decent center field defender. And of course he has a decent amount of upside from there given his age and tools.