Baseball Bat Top 100 Prospects Pre 2017 Winter Meetings

[Baseball Bat]

As some of you may remember, back in August I began an exercise where I would periodically try and rank the top 100 Twins Prospects. Those rankings and the discussion that followed can be found by clicking on the below link. 

 

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/27220-top-100-prospects/

 

I received very useful feedback that I have taken into consideration this time around. Thank you to everyone who went through the list as I am sure you have better things to do than pay attention to who I believe is the 74th best prospect in the Twins system at the moment. 

 

One thing I emphasized last time and I will again is that I am still in the beginning / learning phase of how to evaluate and quantify an entire system of prospects. I have not seen everyone play, so I rely a lot on research, scouting reports, and an evaluation of there recent statistics and overall body of work. 

 

I feel more confident this time in my rankings and know a lot more about all these guys than I did 4 months ago. For example, I knew next to nothing about Akil Baddoo. I had him 30th in my last rankings really due to a lack of knowledge and research on him. As you will discover below, I am now very high on Baddoo and his potential. A lot of that comes from additional research and becoming more familiar with him as a player (He also continued to play very well). 

 

The next list will come out probably in late March or so once all the off-season moves have occurred. I anticipate 1 to 2 guys to be lost via rule 5 draft, and at least a couple to depart via some sort of trade. The Twins also could add via International Free Agency. So some shakeup in anticipated in the next couple of weeks.

 

I really appreciated the feedback last time and if there is anyone that you feel I am completely missing or just wrong on let me know. It is a great starting point to do additional research and learn more.

 

*Age is as of Opening Day 2018

 

Top 100

1 SS Royce Lewis 18
2 SS Nick Gordon 22
3 LHP Stephen Gonsalves 23
4 RHP Fernando Romero 23
5 OF Akil Baddoo 19
6 OF Brent Rooker 23
7 OF Alex Kirilloff 20
8 RHP Blayne Enlow 19
9 SS Wander Javier 19
10 RHP Brusdar Graterol 19
11 LHP Lewis Thorpe 22
12 RHP Zack Littell 22
13 LHP Tyler Jay 23
14 1B Lewin Diaz 21
15 RHP Felix Jorge 24
16 C Mitch Garver 27
17 2B Jose Miranda 19
18 3B Travis Blankenhorn 21
19 OF Jacob Pearson 19
20 RHP John Curtiss 24
21 OF LaMonte Wade 24
22 RHP Kohl Stewart 23
23 2B Yunior Severino 18
24 OF Zack Granite 25
25 LHP Tyler Watson 20
26 RHP Nick Burdi 25
27 C Ben Rortvedt 20
28 RHP Landon Leach 18
29 C David Banuelos 21
30 SS Jermaine Palacios 21
31 3B Andrew Bechtold 21
32 RHP Tyler Wells 23
33 RHP Jake Reed 25
34 RHP J.T. Chargois 27
35 SS Ricardo De La Torre 18
36 LHP Gabriel Moya 23
37 2B Luis Arraez 20
38 LHP Charlie Barnes 22
39 OF Aaron Whitefield 21
40 RHP Luke Bard 27
41 LHP Lachlan Wells 21
42 RHP Griffin Jax 23
43 OF Jaylin Davis 23
44 RHP Tom Hackimer 23
45 LHP Jovani  Moran 20
46 RHP Aaron Slegers 25
47 LHP Ryley Widell 20
48 LHP Dietrich Enns 26
49 LHP Andrew Vasquez 24
50 2B Emmanuel Morel 20
51 3B Trey Cabbage 20
52 RHP Tyler Benninghoff 20
53 OF Jean Carlos Arias 20
54 LHP Mason Melotakis 26
55 RHP Clark Beeker 25
56 3B Chris Paul 25
57 LHP Alex Robinson 23
58 LHP Bryan Sammons 22
59 OF Edgar Corcino 25
60 1B Zander Wiel 25
61 RHP Sean Poppen 24
62 RHP Hector Lujan 23
63 RHP Eduardo Del Rosario 22
64 RHP Derek Molina 20
65 RHP Jordan Balazovic 19
66 2B Estamy Urena 18
67 OF Shane Carrier 21
68 3B Nelson Molina 22
69 RHP Cody Stashek 23
70 RHP Edwar Colina 20
71 OF Tanner English 25
72 3B Wander Valdez 18
73 RHP Michael Montero 18
74 3B T.J. White 26
75 SS Brandon Lopez 24
76 C Mitchell Kranson 24
77 2B Carson Crites 23
78 RHP Nick Anderson 27
79 LHP Sam Clay 24
80 OF Matt Albanese 22
81 RHP Calvin Faucher 22
82 RHP Zack Jones 27
83 RHP Williams Ramirez 25
84 RHP Colton Davis 24
85 LHP Michael Theofanopoulos 25
86 OF Carlos Aguiar 16
87 LHP Taylor Clemensia 21
88 C Rainis Silva 22
89 RHP Bailey Ober 22
90 RHP Ryan Eades 26
91 RHP D.J. Baxendale 27
92 OF Max Murphy 25
93 RHP Ryan Mason 23
94 3B Victor Tademo 18
95 OF Colton Burns 22
96 RHP Carlos Suniaga 20
97 RHP Patrick McGuff 24
98 C Brian Navarreto 23
99 OF Alberoni Nunez 19
100 SS Jordan Gore 23

 

Removed From Last Rankings

Waived / Released / Minor League Free Agent / Contract Voided
OF Daniel Palka (23)
SS Jelfry Marte (27)
LHP Randy Rosario (38)
SS Engelb Vielma (46)
1B Amaurys Minier (52)
3B Niko Goodrum (71)
RHP Dereck Rodriguez (73)
2B Levi Michael (76)
OF Travis Harrison (79)
LHP David Hurlbut (93)

 

No Longer in Top 100
RHP Pedro Garcia (83)
OF Humberto Maldonado (83)
RHP Alex Schick (85)
OF Roni Tapia (86)
RHP Johan Quezada (87)
SS Sean Miller (92)
RHP Todd Van Steensel (97)

 

Graduations
RHP Trevor Hildenberger (28)
RHP Alan Busenitz (49)

 

Also Considered                                                                                        
OF Humberto Maldonado
OF Roni Tapia
RHP Johan Quezada
2B Alex Perez
LHP Anthony Marzi
1B Kolton Kendrick
RHP Alex Muren
OF Alex Robles
OF Lean Marrero
3B Ariel Montesino
RHP Randy Dobnak
C Caleb Hamilton
RHP Jared Finkel
RHP Nick Brown
1B Ben Rodriguez
C Willians Astudillo
RHP Alex Schick
1B J.J. Robinson                                                                                          
SS Sean Miller

RHP Pedro Garcia                                                                                                            
RHP Todd Van Steensel
RHP Donny Breek
RHP Niklas Rimmel
OF Mark Contreras
3B Yeltsin Encarnacion
LHP Anthony McIver

[ashbury]

I tried to find an excuse to tout for inclusion my Adopt-A-Prospect, and final 2017 Twins draft pick, Austin Bizzle, who did well in limited duty in Elizabethton, but your top 100 seems sound enough that I gave up.

 

I'm curious if you're willing to tackle a question I wind up asking in some form of anyone with a prospect ranking: what does it all mean? If Prospect A is ranked ahead of Prospect B, it's because (fill in the blank) you think he ____X_____ because he _____Y____ .

 

For instance, you might have for X, "would have the greater value as part of some trade package", versus "has the higher ceiling", versus "has the higher floor", versus "stands to rack up the greater career WAR", etc.

 

Or for Y, "was young for his league", or "had a lot of strikeouts per 9 innings", or "I saw him play and his tools are legit", etc.

 

Probably you don't have a cut-and-dried answer to this, but your thoughts about it might be interesting.

[AZTwin]

Love the list! Very good job. Maybe a couple nitpicks here and there (I might have the international guys - Valdez/aguiar -higher) but well done