Minnesota Twins 2009 Pre-Season Prospects List in Review

This list was originally published October 19th, 2008. This is a REVIEW of the PRE-SEASON list for 2009, not a revision of that list. This is a REVIEW of the old list. The first grade listed is the OLD GRADE.

1) Ben Revere, OF, Grade B+: Hitting .307/.368/.375 with 36 steals for Class A Fort Myers. Contact rate is outstanding, still needs to improve stolen base success rate. Overall it's hard to complain here.

2) Aaron Hicks, OF, Grade B+: Hitting .241/.351/.361 for Class A Beloit. Controlling the strike zone well, but not showing a lot of pop at this point. I'm not overly concerned given the 42-game sample size and his youth.

3) Wilson Ramos, C, Grade B: Hit .308/.326/.444 in 36 games for Double-A New Britain before going down with hamstring injury.

4) Shooter Hunt, RHP, Grade B (changed to B- in the book): Completely fell apart with Steve Blass Disease, 10.19 ERA with 26/58 K/BB in 33 innings between Beloit and GCL..

5) Danny Valencia, 3B, Grade B-: Hitting .288/.350/.478 between Double-A and Triple-A. Should get a shot at the third base job in 2010. Main concern is mediocre plate discipline.

6) Jose Mijares, LHP, Grade B-: 2.58 ERA with 33/18 K/BB in 38 innings in the majors. Excellent stuff, still looking for some command consistency but overall a very successful debut.

7) Kevin Mulvey, RHP, Grade B-: 4.15 ERA with 102/48 K/BB in 121 innings in Triple-A. Got clobbered in brief major league action but will get more chances. Still looks like an inning-eating possibility.

8) Carlos Gutierrez, RHP, Grade B-: Did well in Class A (1.32 ERA) but hammered in Double-A (7.11, 26/23 K/BB in 44 innings, 56 hits). Gets tons of grounders (3.46 GO/AO) but low strikeout rate is problematic.

9) Rob Delaney, RHP, Grade B-: 2.56 ERA with 69/17 K/BB in 70 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. Should help in bullpen soon. This was an aggressive grade and ranking.

10) Chris Parmalee, OF, Grade C+: .265/.355/.458 for Fort Myers, very good power for the Florida State League.

11) Angel Morales, OF, Grade C+: Hitting .254/.313/.448 with 12 steals for Beloit. Weak strike zone judgment remains a question, but power and speed are notable.

12) David Bromberg, RHP, Grade C+: 11-1, 2.44 with a 113/50 K/BB in 125 innings for Fort Myers. Nothing left to prove in A-ball, but will have to see how Double-A adjustment goes next year.

13) Tyler Robertson, LHP, Grade C+: 3.47 ERA, 82/42 K/BB in 119 innings for Fort Myers, 121 hits allowed. Healthy and holding his own, but like Bromberg the Double-A transition will tell us a lot.

14) Anthony Slama, RHP, Grade C+: 2.48 ERA, 93/32 K/BB in 65 innings in Double-A, just 46 hits allowed, 25 saves. Exceptionally good K/IP and H/IP marks. Walk rate is too high, but like Delaney he could help in the pen next year.

15) Luke Hughes, 3B, Grade C+: .263/.352/.459 between Double-A, Triple-A, and GCL rehab assignment. Has some pop in the bat, should get a major league trial soon, but more of a reserve guy than a future regular I'd say.

16) Anthony Swarzak, RHP, Grade C+: 5.44 ERA with 28/17 K/BB in 50 innings for the Twins, 60 hits allowed. Looks great at times, not-so-great at other times, typical for a rookie pitcher. Given the general inconsistency of his career it is hard to know what to expect from him.

17) Steve Tolleson, INF, Grade C+: .301/.372/.435 in 64 games in Triple-A. Like Hughes, another guy who could be a good reserve in my view.

18) Jeff Manship, RHP, Grade C+: 3.22 ERA with 30/17 K/BB in 50 innings since being promoted to Triple-A. Like Mulvey, he could be an inning-eater type if all goes well.

19) Jason Pridie, OF, Grade C+: .253/.283/.365 with 21 steals for Rochester. Continues to tease with speed and flashes of power, but bad plate discipline keeps his overall production down.

20) Charles Nolte, RHP, Grade C+: Traded to Yankees and has been awful, 5.72 ERA with 38/24 K/BB in 68 innings, 88 hits allowed between Class A Tampa and Class A Charleston. Still getting grounders, but all other numbers are way off from last year.

21) Bobby Lanigan, RHP, Grade C+: 4.44 ERA with 95/27 K/BB in 118 innings, 125 hits allowed for Beloit. Not great, but indicates some potential with the K/BB ratio and will get more chances.

I've gone back and forth on whether I like Revere or Hicks better...Hicks clearly has more power potential to go with the speed and athleticism, but is less polished. Brian Duensing has spent some time in the majors, but I had him as a Grade C entering the season and didn't even put him in the book this year. Even with the revised Grade B- in the book, Hunt has been a massive disappointment due to his total control failure.