2017 Twins Prospect Handbook Available Wednesday (at 8 a.m.)

This year’s Twins Prospect Handbook is comprised of over 130 pages of Twins minor league content. If you can believe it, this is the ninth annual Twins Prospect Handbook.

When the minor league season ended, we handed out our minor league awards. We’ve got some in-depth, get-to-know-’em stories on the Twins Daily Hitter of the Year (Daniel Palka), Starting Pitcher of the Year (Stephen Gonsalves), and Relief Pitcher of the Year (Trevor Hildenberger).

Some Twins Daily contributing writers also contributed to the book. Steve Buhr, Ted Schwerzler and Tom Froemming each wrote an article that was included in the book.

Of course, the proverbial meat and potatoes of the Prospect Handbook… the profiles. This year, we profiled over 160 Minnesota Twins minor leaguers from Rochester to the GCL. If they have prospect status, they’re profiled.

Jeremy took care of the format again this year, and it looks great. He put together the information on each player such as how they were acquired, 2016 stats, when they are Rule 5 eligible and when they can become a minor league free agent.

Cody covered the 2016 Recap, taking a deep dive into the statistics of the players’ seasons. He goes beyond the basic stats.

Finally, background and scouting reports are covered by me, Seth. They come from talking to a lot of people as well as personal observation from Ft. Myers during spring training and Cedar Rapids from May. It’s really a lot of information on each player.

All of that leads to our individual Top 30s. Not to give away too much, but Cody, Jeremy and I all have different #1 Twins prospects heading into the season. It also shows our historic Top 30s. Yes, we don’t mind admitting when we’re wrong, though we prefer to note when we were right.

Back for a second straight year is a fun discussion between the three of us, using all of the information from before (and a crystal ball) to guess who might be the Twins #1 prospect at this time next year.

We also are very excited that this book has many, many more pictures than last year. There aren’t even a handful of players that do not have profile pictures. The articles have images.

Speaking of images, we need to thank Linwood Ferguson who take a lot of pictures of Ft. Myers Miracle games.

It’s a labor of love. Jeremy, Cody and I don’t make much money on this, but we still believe that the Twins minor leaguers deserve recognition for the work they do. That’s been a staple of all nine handbooks and will continue to be going forward.

We certainly want to thank all of you for your support of this project which is the culmination of all of the minor league coverage you get throughout the year here at Twins Daily!

(Note - if you follow Seth, Jeremy and Cody on Twitter, there may be some information available before official release about ordering your paperback copies a little early.)

Interested in learning more about the Minnesota Twins' top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!