Alex Kirilloff

[joethastud]

Kinda surprised nobody has started a thread about him.

 

Out of all the position players drafted ahead of him, I believe only Nick Senzel has better all around stats.  Looks like Alex is killing high rookie ball when other rookies for the most part are in the GCL.  K:BB is less than desirable, but there is obviously time to improve that!

 

 

[goulik]

Kinda surprised nobody has started a thread about him.

 

Out of all the position players drafted ahead of him, I believe only Nick Senzel has better all around stats.  Looks like Alex is killing high rookie ball when other rookies for the most part are in the GCL.  K:BB is less than desirable, but there is obviously time to improve that!

Thanks for the post/update. I say Go ahead and Adopt him in the Adopt a Prospect forum and keep us updated...

Lord knows I have already adopted my share!

[Primetime82]

I was about to start a thread on this kid. He's absolutely killing it right now. He's 3 for 3 in tonight's game so far and hitting .387.

[joethastud]

 

I was about to start a thread on this kid. He's absolutely killing it right now. He's 3 for 3 in tonight's game so far and hitting. 387. 

 

Threw out a guy at 3B too!

[Thrylos]

Alex Kirilloff is the fourth best hitter in that team after Jaylin Davis, Lewin Diaz, and Brandon Lopez.  Blackenhorn is neck to neck with him as well.

 

So he is not the best player in that team by any means.

 

2 walks in 22 games is concerning any way you cut it.

 

Kirilloff has the hitting tools. The issues with him have been: a. whether or not he is coachable and will listen to the Twins' coaches vs his dad and b. whether he can make it in a pluralistic environment outside his sheltered (home to church to baseball practice with dad to his foster High School games) life, as a professional baseball player at 18.

 

The jury is still out on the latter, but there is a lot of risk out there...

[Primetime82]

 

Alex Kirilloff is the fourth best hitter in that team after Jaylin Davis, Lewin Diaz, and Brandon Lopez.  Blackenhorn is neck to neck with him as well.

 

So he is not the best player in that team by any means.

 

2 walks in 22 games is concerning any way you cut it.

 

Kirilloff has the hitting tools. The issues with him have been: a. whether or not he is coachable and will listen to the Twins' coaches vs his dad and b. whether he can make it in a pluralistic environment outside his sheltered (home to church to baseball practice with dad to his foster High School games) life, as a professional baseball player at 18.

 

The jury is still out on the latter, but there is a lot of risk out there...

Hmmm

 

Who say's hes the 4th best hitter on the team, you? 2 walks in 22 games but he's only stuck out 11 times and is younger than most in the league.

 

Also, the whole issues with him being coachable vs dad blah blah. I don't buy none of it. 

[Thrylos]

 

Hmmm

 

Who say's hes the 4th best hitter on the team, you?

 

 

The numbers:

 

Jaylin Davis .277/.346/.745
Lewin Diaz .338/.366/.701
Brandon Lopez .362/.513(!!!)/.448
Alex Kirilloff .367/.368/.567
Andre Jernigan .289/.386/.526
Travis Blackenhorn .304/.356/.554

 

HR (PA):
Davis 7 (52)
Blakenhorn 6 (101)
Diaz 5 (82)
Minier 4 (78)
Kirilloff 4 (95)

 

2B (PA):
Dias 11 (77)
Carrier 8 (82)
Kirilloff 6 (95)

 

 

[diehardtwinsfan]

Yeah, just b/c dad is around the game doesn't somehow mean that Kirilloff is suddenly going to ignore coaches for dad's advice (and given how well coaches are liked at TD...). And heaven forbid that he's come from a somewhat sheltered Christian background. I think some of that criticism just gets ridiculous. It might cause some adjustment depending on how sheltered he was, but given that his name has been on the national stage for quite some time, a lot of that likely went away while he was in HS. I'm sure he did travel teams and talent showcases. I'm sure he had plenty of teammates into drugs, women, and alcohol. I'm fairly certain that his father, who is in the game, has told him about that stuff. That taste of freedom is something that needs to be thought through with any 18 year old, whether in college or playing professional baseball. In that aspect, Kirilloff is no more a risk than Rortvedt, Cabbage, Blankenhorn, Buxton, etc.

 

I think my bigger concern is that due to his dad's work as a scout, he's picked up on some of the nuances of the game that allow him to inflate his stats against weaker competition.  Yes, I do agree he needs to walk more, but he seems to have no problems punishing pitching in the strike zone. I'd like to see him against more advanced talent to see how he handles that. He was a first round pick for a reason, and the Twins pushed him a bit too starting him in Etown instead of the GCL. So far, he's responded.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

The numbers:

 

Jaylin Davis .277/.346/.745
Lewin Diaz .338/.366/.701
Brandon Lopez .362/.513(!!!)/.448
Alex Kirilloff .367/.368/.567
Andre Jernigan .289/.386/.526
Travis Blackenhorn .304/.356/.554

 

HR (PA):
Davis 7 (52)
Blakenhorn 6 (101)
Diaz 5 (82)
Minier 4 (78)
Kirilloff 4 (95)

 

2B (PA):
Dias 11 (77)
Carrier 8 (82)
Kirilloff 6 (95)

 

BTW, Kirilloff is also younger than all of these guys.  Diaz and Blankenhorn are 19 and this is their second go around in Elizabethon. Neither did that well there last year. Davis just turned 22 a few weeks ago.

[Seth Stohs]

Jaylin Davis has been in Cedar Rapids for weeks. I dont' care if he's the #1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 best hitter on the team. Doesn't matter. He's easily the top prospect on the team. Diaz's status as a prospect certainly goes up with what he's doing. 

[twinssouth]

Alex Kirilloff is the fourth best hitter in that team after Jaylin Davis, Lewin Diaz, and Brandon Lopez.  Blackenhorn is neck to neck with him as well.

 

So he is not the best player in that team by any means.

 

2 walks in 22 games is concerning any way you cut it.

 

Kirilloff has the hitting tools. The issues with him have been: a. whether or not he is coachable and will listen to the Twins' coaches vs his dad and b. whether he can make it in a pluralistic environment outside his sheltered (home to church to baseball practice with dad to his foster High School games) life, as a professional baseball player at 18.

 

 

 

Seems like a strange analogy

 

The jury is still out on the latter, but there is a lot of risk out there...

[DJSim22]

All these kids need to make adjustments to pro baseball and the life that goes with it.  Another part of baseball that the metrics can't measure. 

[Major League Ready]

His BA is 2nd to Nash Knight who is 5 years older.  He leads the player with the 3rd highest average by 29 points.  There is a lot of risk with any prospect, especially one straight out of high school but how can you not be excited about the way this young man has started his professional career.

[alarp33]

 

Alex Kirilloff is the fourth best hitter in that team after Jaylin Davis, Lewin Diaz, and Brandon Lopez.  Blackenhorn is neck to neck with him as well.

 

So he is not the best player in that team by any means.

 

2 walks in 22 games is concerning any way you cut it.

 

 

 

Jaylin Davis is 4 years older than him, and had a 22/4 K/BB rate in Elizabethton.  

 

Odd comparison

[gunnarthor]

I'm pretty sure that Kiriloff isn't the first ball player whose father was a big help in him learning to hit.  I believe most have obtained top end coaching before even being drafted.  I'm also pretty sure that the Twins looked into his background and aren't worried about his coachability.

 

As for the knock on his religion, I don't see it.  The Twins have plenty of players who are pretty open about their faith - Gibson, Dozier.  I don't see how his will negatively affect him.

 

Lastly, there seems to be some confusion between what stats show and what best player means.  While it's nice that a 22 year old 10th round pick is crushing A ball, it's not really relevant.  Kiriloff has a long way to go but he's looking good so far.

[Mike Sixel]

All I know......KLAW is a very big fan, and others in the online scouting community are also. 

 

No reason at all not to be excited about him, or to throw cold water on that excitement.

[DJL44]

 

I think my bigger concern is that due to his dad's work as a scout, he's picked up on some of the nuances of the game that allow him to inflate his stats against weaker competition.

 

100% agree here. He comes in very advanced as a hitter and I worry about ceiling and defense more than I do about his ability to hit at this level. Compare to Delmon Young who didn't have any trouble hitting but also never really improved after age 22.

[twinssouth]

Alex Kirilloff is the fourth best hitter in that team after Jaylin Davis, Lewin Diaz, and Brandon Lopez.  Blackenhorn is neck to neck with him as well.

 

So he is not the best player in that team by any means.

 

2 walks in 22 games is concerning any way you cut it.

 

Kirilloff has the hitting tools. The issues with him have been: a. whether or not he is coachable and will listen to the Twins' coaches vs his dad and b. whether he can make it in a pluralistic environment outside his sheltered (home to church to baseball practice with dad to his foster High School games) life, as a professional baseball player at 18.

 

The jury is still out on the latter, but there is a lot of risk out there...

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems to me, when this kid was drafted, a scout offered his opinion that Kiriloff was home schooled, sheltered, coming from a Christian environment. Like this is a knock on him.

 

So Thrylos must have taken this person's opinion and accepted it as a knock on the kids ability to be a legitimate hi upside prospect. You know, tie the correlation together of a sheltered, home schooled, Christian environment to the ability to adjust and be mentally tough to the rigors of professional ball. The end result being of course, once the kid fails, he will be mentally crushed, loose his confidence, go home and forever hang up his spikes.

 

 

This is a perfect example of accepting perceptions of people that you find deviates from the norm and seems quite harsh to label on a 18 year old kid. It strays from objectivity and lacks critical thinking.

 

The bottom line is, he's 18, batting over 300 and skipped GCL to be in a more advance rookie league. I say that's a good start.

[big dog]

I would think that a 17-yr-old from Latin America would probably have at least as big an adjustment to make, and some of them manage to pull it off.  I'm not at all worried about his background, just excited about his potential future.

[BK432]

It's hard to quantify the subjective stuff, so let's focus on what we actually know from the numbers:

 

1. Hitting well in rookie ball at a young age

2. Some troubling signs early in K to BB

 

Hard to draw too much excitement or dread from this. I guess it's probably better than if he were hitting poorly, and probably worse than if he were walking more.

 

Let's see how it plays out.

[bird]

 

Alex Kirilloff is the fourth best hitter in that team after Jaylin Davis, Lewin Diaz, and Brandon Lopez.  Blackenhorn is neck to neck with him as well.

 

So he is not the best player in that team by any means.

 

2 walks in 22 games is concerning any way you cut it.

 

Kirilloff has the hitting tools. The issues with him have been: a. whether or not he is coachable and will listen to the Twins' coaches vs his dad and b. whether he can make it in a pluralistic environment outside his sheltered (home to church to baseball practice with dad to his foster High School games) life, as a professional baseball player at 18.

 

The jury is still out on the latter, but there is a lot of risk out there...

 

 

And you're basing your opinion on looking at a handful of statistics? This lacks credibility.

 

And you're supplementing that with wild and irresponsible conjecture that sheds no true light on Kirilloff, but does shed light on your own prejudices, thrylos.

 

Those two things aside, I would bet that every single manager and coach in the Appy League who has seen Kirilloff play would consider him to be the best hitting prospect and overall position prospect on that E-Town team, by all means. I'll wait for reports from expert observers who have actually seen them play, but yes, these other four players are also looking pretty good, statistically speaking.

[Trov]

I have not heard much about fear of him not being coach-able from anyone other than the one guy on here now.  He is hitting well at a league he is considered young for, and will be at Cedar Rapids next year I would bet.  That will be more telling on if his bat will continue to carry over.  I am not worried about his lack of walks because his K's are down too.  The ratio is important not so much the number of them.  I have not seen him but my guess is he is a good fastball hitter and swings early in counts, judging from his bb/k ratio being both numbers are low would suggest he does not swing and miss often, but also does not take a lot of pitches either.  Also, rookie ball there is not a lot of good breaking balls thrown there.  So when he starts to see more off-speed stuff out of a zone will he take them that will be the question.  So far impressed with his numbers but still a very short sample size in a rookie league where many of them will not be in baseball in a few years.

[Seth Stohs]

I just researched and posted the following on Twitter:

 

 

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There are a lot of other terrific streaks by other players in the system... Click here for more. http://www.twitter.com/sethtweets

[clutterheart]

Not to go off topic but Brandon Lopez highlights everything wrong with Twins player development and one of the many reasons why Mike Radcliff deserves to be fired. 18 games in E-town absurd OB% and clearly too advanced at age 22.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Not to go off topic but Brandon Lopez highlights everything wrong with Twins player development and one of the many reasons why Mike Radcliff deserves to be fired. 18 games in E-town absurd OB% and clearly too advanced at age 22.

 

Amen on this.*

 

* as a rule, I guess he could be recovering from an injury, or took 3 years off to be in the military or something.....

[jimmer]

 

Amen on this.*

 

* as a rule, I guess he could be recovering from an injury, or took 3 years off to be in the military or something.....

He was just drafted out of college.

[Mike Sixel]

He was just drafted out of college.

Ya, I know. Was commenting that this should be the rule....not doing what the twins do with college draftees.

[jimmer]

 

Ya, I know. Was commenting that this should be the rule....not doing what the twins do with college draftees.

I don't think he stays where he is for long.

[Seth Stohs]

Weird place for a conversation on Brandon Lopez... Could just start another thread.

 

But, he signed late because Miami was in the College World Series. Had to start him somewhere.

 

I guess you could release Sean Miller, Nelson Molina, Luis Arraez or Jermaine Palacios from the Cedar Rapids roster to make room for the 10th round pick. (Note - Miller actually spent most of his summer last year in Cedar Rapids after a very brief stint in E-Town).

 

Or, they could have him just jump right up to Ft. Myers where he could take over for Nick Gordon?

 

Also, not sure what Mike Radcliff has to do with this. 

 

And... let's find some examples of other organizations that put their mid-to-late round college draft picks into the Midwest League or higher (and I'm not talking about high picks)... The Twins had Tom Hackimer, a 4th round pick from this year, start his career in Cedar Rapids. Nick Burdi started in Cedar Rapids and spent about 3 weeks there before moving up to Ft. Myers. Jake Reed made about 3 appearances in E-Town before moving up to Cedar Rapids. LaMonte Wade (9th) and Chris Paul (6th) ended last season in Cedar Rapids and played for them in the playoffs. In 2012, Taylor Rogers, DJ Baxendale and Tyler Duffey all moved up to Cedar Rapids. 

 

I guess I see nothing wrong with letting the college guys start in E-Town and see how they adjust to wood bats, etc., before moving them up to Cedar Rapids. 

 

So this theme that the Twins start guys too low or don't move them up quick enough is just silly at this point and there is plenty of backing for that.

 

[Mike Sixel]

Except that former front office people disagree, Seth. They don't generally like college guys in the entry levels.....I just saw another post on it today, not about the twins, but another team.