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Minor League Prospect Notes, June 23, 2012

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**New York Yankees outfield prospect Ravel Santana drew raves last season in the Gulf Coast League, hitting .296/.361/.568 with 10 steals in 41 games, drawing positive comment for his power/speed combination. His season ended early due to a broken ankle, but the good news is that he's back on the field and playing center field for the Staten Island Yankees in the New York-Penn League. The bad news is that he's 0-for-11 thus far with eight strikeouts and zero walks. Pitch recognition issues and problems with breaking balls mark his scouting reports, but his physical upside is quite high and he's just 20 years old. Santana signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2008 for $150,000, another example of how you don't have to spend gazillions of dollars to find intriguing prospects in Latin America.

**Tampa Bay Rays outfield prospect Mikie Mahtook has had a somewhat disappointing season for High-A Charlotte, but has been heating up lately, hitting .326/.408/.535 in his last 10 games, including a 8-for-13 run with two doubles and two triples and a walk in his last three contests. His overall line has been creeping up and now stands at .290/.347/.402 with 14 steals in 19 attempts. He has a .749 OPS, not spectacular but safely better than the league average of .697, and the trends are in the right direction for him.

**All-or-nothing so far for Seattle Mariners shortstop prospect Nick Franklin, following his promotion to Triple-A Tacoma. In his first two games, he's fanned five times in eight plate appearances, but has also drawn a walk and hit a double and a single. After splitting his playing time between shortstop and second base during his tenure at Double-A Jackson, he's playing second for the Rainiers. I don't think his overall Jackson line (.322/.394/.502, 24 walks, 38 strikeouts in 205 at-bats) is flukey, and I think the promotion was justified.

**Minnesota Twins prospect Travis Harrison, a supplemental first round pick in the 2011 draft from high school in Tustin, California, hit his first professional home run yesterday for Elizabethton in the Appalachian League. He's 1-for-11 thus far with the homer, with two walks and two strikeouts in his first three games. He's also committed three errors at third base in those three games, and most scouts anticipate that he'll move to first base in the medium run. He has enough power for either corner, but unfortunately doesn't run well enough to work well in the outfield. Harrison is actually six months older than Miguel Sano, which is no knock on the 19-year-old Harrison but shows you exactly how young Sano really is.