Twins Daily 2019 Top Prospects: #4 Trevor Larnach

Great prospect with awesome first couple months in the organization.  Thinking, would I have Javier ahead of him?  Javier has missed so much time, but could be as good as almost anyone, anywhere.  He could, couldn't he?  For that reason I would probably flip Javier and Larnach.  One has missed so much time, the other has only been around for a short time.  

We all talk about the Top 3, but these two could be their equal.  The only drawback is that only one of the five is a pitcher...or is it?  Nothing wrong with having four studs at shortstop, shortstop, corner outfielder, corner outfielder.  

Fortunately, we should know a lot more six months from now.  Lets hope they all do well, very well, so the Twins are looking at a young core in a couple years, a young core that comes up and gets it done!

He made John Sickels fantasy orientated prospect list today at #100: "could advance more rapidly than many players with more press".

I might have Javier ahead of him, just because of position and having more experience (that might change after this year).

Starting him at Ft. Myers seems right to me.  If he can move through Ft. Myers and do well in AA, then Twins are looking at the great position of being able to move a controlable starting outfielder with a prospect or two for a front line starter, or maybe a catcher if needed. 

My favorite comp for Larnach is Geoff Jenkins. 1st round pick from a PAC school, College World Series star, All-American. Power lefthanded bat who could play in the field but wasn’t a favorite to win a gold glove.

 

“I’ve been working my tail off since high school,” Larnach said.

Gardy woulda loved this guy.

Any surprises on who the top three will be?

First off, thanks to the crew putting these reads together.

Whew - at least this one sounds encouraging.

The last few synposes, Rooker especially,made me want to give up all hope once the downside portions were related.

We've been tantalized for years about the Bux-Sano-Berrios axis, with a couple sweet supporting players, and that hasn't panned out so well so far...

But, like the eternal Twinkie fan, I try to be more hopeful than fearful.

Just love everything I've read about this kid.  Big part of the "next wave" if the current one (Sano, Kepler, Buxton, etc.) don't pop this year.

He's off to a very nice start. I would be aggressive with him and start him in Ft. Myers. Not sure there's much to be gained by having him beat up on low-A pitching for a month or so, and he needs to continue to show that he can hit against competition that's in his own development band. he's turning 22 at the end of the month and he needs to be playing against guys his own age or older, not knocking around guys still in their early stages of development. And if he performs in high-A, get him to AA for the second half. Going slow on Larnach in the low minors probably isn't going to help his development.

I'll be very interested to see what happens with his BA, and whether or not some of that starts to fall off as he faces more advanced pitchers. I'm starting to think batting average is becoming an underrated skill again and it would be nice to have some higher contact guys in the pipeline. Larnach could be one of those guys that controls the strike zone, hits for power, but doesn't just wave at everything else he swings at...

Seems too high for a guy who's 22 years old and really only has one season since he left high school that would distinguish him. How much are our perceptions influenced by the fact that that season was basically broadcast live by ESPN?

Then again, I don't know who I'd have ahead of him. Maybe Javier. Javier represents an interesting contrast. Also has a shiny but thin (to date) resume...but is nearly a full two years younger, with presumably a higher ceiling as a shortstop, but presumably further from the show.

Isn't it our turn to have a college bat-first guy arrive and rake inside of two years? Seems it happens all the time for other teams (even though I know it doesn't).

Larnach snuck into the top 100 at Fangraphs.  They've consistently been a bit higher on him than most others.  Here's what they have to say:

 

Larnach hit several balls in excess of 110 mph during Oregon State’s opening weekend of the season and he ended up slugging .652 that year. We were all-in despite scout concerns about his lack of range in the outfield and fear that he might just be a DH. The gap between where we had Larnach on our pre-draft board (12) and where he went (20) was large enough that we wondered if we were too high. Then Larnach hit .303/.390/.500 in pro ball during the rest of the summer, and we could sleep again. He has huge raw power and doesn’t swing with violence or effort to generate it; it’s just there. We’re very optimistic about him hitting enough to profile in an outfield corner.

I know he's put up good numbers so far, but I'm still not sold on Larnach as a top prospect. But maybe it's just because I have this bizarre lack of confidence in players named Trevor.