Top 20 Midwest League Prospects

[Seth Stohs]

This morning, Baseball America posted its 2015 Top 20 Midwest League Prospects. 

 

Two Twins showed up on the list:

 

#4 Nick Gordon

#18 Stephen Gonsalves

[Dman]

Not too surprised by those two being on the list.  I kind of thought Felix Jorge would be on there though. I guess he lost some steam toward the end of the season but he had a pretty darn good year IMO.  He and Gonsalves were neck and neck for K's early in the year as they were both dominant to start the year.

 

I bet Vavra would have made the list as well if he hadn't gotten hurt.  Oh well still nice to have a couple of guys mentioned.

 

NIck had a good year and I hope he does as well or better at High A next year.  If he keeps improving the bat he is gonna make it because the defense looks good from what I can tell. I would guess more power for him is still a few years away.

[DJL44]

I've said it before but kudos to Mauer for finding a way to win without a whole lot of top prospects.

[blairpaul715]

I know a little off topic, but when Vavra got hurt, it originally sounded like it was only going to be a couple weeks max, what changed or what did they find?...........and what was Cederoths injury and it must have been serious , as he was out rest of yr?

[jokin]

 

 

"Quad Cities did it with a revolving cast of players, for more than 60 different players wore a Bandits uniform in 2015. By the end of the year, a number of Astros’ prospects who started the season playing within sight of the Mississippi River had been promoted to high Class A Lancaster or Double-A Corpus Christi.

 

But Quad Cities just kept winning. It didn’t hurt that the reinforcements were often just as talented as the players who had moved on. Scouts who saw the River Bandits all year said that the team had nearly 20 legitimate prospects. Two made this league Top 20 Prospects ranking, while many others didn’t stick around long enough to qualify, including 2015 first-round shortstop Alex Bregman.

Bregman was one of a large number of noteworthy shortstop prospects in the MWL."

 

 

The situation was a lot different for the Astros' MWL club than Cedar Rapids.  Wow! Even more kudos to pass Mauer's way.  

 

It appears that there were 3 better SS in the league, the other two besides #27 propsect, Bregman (age 21), are only 18 and 17 years old (Torres [#29] and Giron [unraknkef]), so Gordon (#77) is apparently only the 4th best SS prospect in the ML- that's quite a talented group, indeed.  Hopefully that ranking keeps him motivated to keep working hard and take nothing for granted.

[Bob Sacamento]

 

I know a little off topic, but when Vavra got hurt, it originally sounded like it was only going to be a couple weeks max, what changed or what did they find?...........and what was Cederoths injury and it must have been serious , as he was out rest of yr?

Cederoth aka "Cedar" is in the Instructional League and throwing, not sure what his injury was but I'll ask tomorrow if I I see him. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

I know a little off topic, but when Vavra got hurt, it originally sounded like it was only going to be a couple weeks max, what changed or what did they find?...........and what was Cederoths injury and it must have been serious , as he was out rest of yr?

 

 

Vavra ended up with a broken bone in his ankle that wasn't found for quite some time. When I talked to him in early August, he was pretty frustrated that it hadn't been found earlier. He had surgery, I believe in early July. I talked to his dad in the clubhouse quite a while on Saturday morning. Said that he's feeling better now, getting in some swings and doing some running. It'll just take time and repetition. It'll be good for him to go to Australia and play.

 

As for Cederoth, little - or nothing - has been said about his injury, which was listed as "illness." No one knows, and I frankly won't ask. It's good that he's in Instructs and throwing hard. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

Not too surprised by those two being on the list.  I kind of thought Felix Jorge would be on there though. I guess he lost some steam toward the end of the season but he had a pretty darn good year IMO.  He and Gonsalves were neck and neck for K's early in the year as they were both dominant to start the year.

 

I bet Vavra would have made the list as well if he hadn't gotten hurt.  Oh well still nice to have a couple of guys mentioned.

 

NIck had a good year and I hope he does as well or better at High A next year.  If he keeps improving the bat he is gonna make it because the defense looks good from what I can tell. I would guess more power for him is still a few years away.

 

Jorge could be on the list. I'm sure he was considered. He was remarkably consistent the full year.

 

Trey Vavra may have put up some huge numbers had he stayed with the Kernels. In fact, when he was hurt in late May, he led the team in homers. At the end of the season, he lead the Kernels in homers. But, he wouldn't have made the prospect list. 

[Dman]

 

Jorge could be on the list. I'm sure he was considered. He was remarkably consistent the full year.

 

Trey Vavra may have put up some huge numbers had he stayed with the Kernels. In fact, when he was hurt in late May, he led the team in homers. At the end of the season, he lead the Kernels in homers. But, he wouldn't have made the prospect list. 

 

So he was too old for that league to be considered or too old to really be a prospect at all?

[Seth Stohs]

 

So he was too old for that league to be considered or too old to really be a prospect at all?

 

I mean, people know how I feel about the whole "Too Old for the League" thing when it comes to possible big league future. But when it does come to prospect lists, it does come into play. Also, when you look at the tools, he doesn't have any that stand out. 

 

Trey, and Tanner, and "Ballplayers." I've talked to both of them, and they understand that they're not "prospects." Talking to Joe on Saturday, he knows it too. They're all honest about it. The odds of them being big league starters is probably real low. But, what I always come back to is that if they keep putting up numbers that they did this year and move up and put up similar numbers, the Twins value their versatility and they're knowledge of the game, and who knows, they could end up being utility types or get a cup of coffee, stuff like that. 

 

I say that not to limit them. You never know if or when a player will bust out. Trey put up terrific numbers through 6-7 weeks. Had he carried that through for the full season, you just never know.

[diehardtwinsfan]

Those types of guys make good coaches too.  Seems to me that some of the best coaches out there are the ones who didn't have all the natural talent, but instead had to use their head to maximize their skillset. 

[Dman]

 

I mean, people know how I feel about the whole "Too Old for the League" thing when it comes to possible big league future. But when it does come to prospect lists, it does come into play. Also, when you look at the tools, he doesn't have any that stand out. 

 

Trey, and Tanner, and "Ballplayers." I've talked to both of them, and they understand that they're not "prospects." Talking to Joe on Saturday, he knows it too. They're all honest about it. The odds of them being big league starters is probably real low. But, what I always come back to is that if they keep putting up numbers that they did this year and move up and put up similar numbers, the Twins value their versatility and they're knowledge of the game, and who knows, they could end up being utility types or get a cup of coffee, stuff like that. 

 

I say that not to limit them. You never know if or when a player will bust out. Trey put up terrific numbers through 6-7 weeks. Had he carried that through for the full season, you just never know.

 

Thanks for the extra info. I appreciate the honesty of your response. I am not a real talent evaluator and rely mostly on box scores and second hand information.  For not having a standout tool he sure dominated the league.  I guess I assumed his hit tool was a stand out tool although it was with a SSS.  

 

He remains someone to watch for me and he has me as a believer in his talent to hit the ball prospect or not.. 

[ashbury]

At that level of talent and accomplishment, there is always the chance that a non-prospect is one "aha!" moment of understanding away from turning that corner, and becoming good enough. A coach says something, or an opposing player does something, or the player himself looks at something a different way - and suddenly one particular kind of breaking pitch in the dirt is readable, or whatever.

 

Odds are against, but since the player doesn't know what he doesn't know, necessarily, the hope is there, and if you love the game anyway, you hang on for another year.