With 48 of the 168 votes (28%), Cesar Ciurcina has been selected as the Forty-Seventh prospect in this year's poll. Shooter Hunt finished six votes behind with Ben Tootle, Spencer Steedley and Steve Liddle all getting fourteen or more votes. The other five players will be dropped from the next round.
Added to the Fourty-Eighth round will be Jose Gonzalez, Matt Schuld, Matt Hauser, Wander Guillen, Anderson Hidalgo and Daniel Santana. Gonzalez had a wonderful year at Ft. Myers and Elizabethton, including a 1.17 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 10 strikeouts and only 1 walk in 15.1 innings at Hi-A Ft. Myers. Eliminating the discounting for level of play, I had Gonazalez as having the fourth best year of any pitcher in the organization this year. Matt Schuld was signed as a free agent this past spring out of St. Thomas University. Schuld appeared in eleven games with a 2-0 record and 2.17 ERA in 21.0 innings for the GCL Twins. He moved up to Ft. Myers, where he appeared in six games with a 3.78 ERA in 16.2 innings. Matt Hauser was the Twins seventh round pick last June out of San Diego University. Hauser appeared in eight games for Elizabethton where he had a 1.00 ERA in 9.0 innings with three saves. He moved up to Beloit where he made four appearances without allowing a run in 6.2 innings.
Anderson Hidalgo was Beloit's top hitter and would have been the second best hitter in the Midwest League had he not been injured. In 282 at bats, Hidalgo hit .316/.375/.443 with 25 doubles which were only three less than the team leader who had 125 more at bats. Daniel Santana may be the top young shortstop in the organization. Moving up to Beloit after an excellent start in Elizabethton, the nineteen year old Santana hit .238/.289/.315 in 130 at bats with 10 stolen bases. A year ago Wander Guillen was coming off a season in which he was the DSL Twins top hitter with a .336 average. Guillen moved up to the GCL Twins this year and struggled, hitting only .172/.229/.202. Yet, Guillen was seventeen years old for most of the season and needs to be given time to adjust to a league in which nearly all players were several years older and much more experienced.
This round will remain open though 3pm, Saturday, February 12th. The last seven rounds went to: 41) Bobby Lanigan; 42) Evan Bigley; 43) Nate Roberts; 44) Matt Bashore; 45) Tony Davis; 46) Pedro Guerra; and 47) Cesar Ciurcina.