Seth Stohs

He was an incredible defensive back in high school ,all-american type, but then he focused on baseball as a senior, after committing to Kentucky. Yes,, he also was a very good basketball player.

More on the voting... remember that the Top 30 rankings for Seth, Tom and Cody are in the prospect handbook whereas Nick provides a Top 20 list. The honorable mentions were others who received votes. For this, that includes those in the Top 30 for Tom,, Cody and I. Here are the votes for the players mentioned (in order mentioned in the article): Balazovic: Seth (29), Tom (28), Cody (25) Leach: Tom (27), Cody (28) Stewart: Seth (26), Nick (16), Tom (23), Cody (22) De Jong: Seth (27) Arraez: Seth (22), Tom (25), Cody (21) Blankenhorn: Seth (30), Tom (24) Maciel: Seth (23), Cody (18) Pearson: Cody (23) T Wells: Seth (20), Nick (20), Tom (22), Cody (27) Jax: Seth (25), Tom (26), Cody (29) Urbina: Seth (17), Cody (16) Raley: Seth (28), Tom (20)

I remember that... was 2015... But, he does have an option remaining and the spin rate (I assume).

Some Rankings: Celestino: Seth (13th), Nick (15th), Tom (19th), Cody (19th) Littell: Seth (18th), Nick (NR), Tom (11th), Cody (14th) Wade: Seth (21), Nick (17), Tom (21), Cody (20) Alcala: Seth (19), Nick (18), Tom (17), Cody (26) Miranda: Seth (16), Nick (NA), Tom (16), Cody (24) Note - Tom,, Cody and my Top 50s are in the Twins Prospect Handbook.

I'm' really high on Miranda. I think he's got tremendous power potential and 3B is his likely home.

I think that Sickels does his rankings a little bit different. He does them based on a grade and then puts the players into ranges on those grades. But that could certainly explain the variance for some players.

The Honorable Mentions were essentially an "Others Receiving Votes" thing... Vasquez wasn't in any of the Top 20 rankings, and as a lefty reliever,, he wouldn't' be. He was in the 40s somewhere for me. I had Schales at about 32-33 range. Poppen is in the 40s/50s for me. Helman can hit,, but sample size is still small and hes' not the high draft pedigree like Larnach/Jeffers. I had Keirsey at 32. De La Trinidad and Costello arent' Top 50 guys either, but if they keep putting up numbers,, they could move up. It's not a knock on them as much as they are more examples of the organizational depth.

Let''s hope... if nothing else, ,we know they've spent a ton of money on systems, tools and coaches/coordinators.

I like him. He's smart, but he's got pretty good stuff and makes adjustments pretty quickly. Walks pretty much no one. Decent K numbers. He may not be a Top 40 prospect type, but he could be a big leaguer too if opportunity arises.

For the first time in his career, he did play around the infield a little bit. I think range and arm are both question marks, but it's certainly worth trying it.

That first quote was from the Travis Blankenhorn bit. He was 9th at one point. He continues to move up the organizational ladder. He's had some struggles and his prospect ranking has fallen, but he's making progress and the organization clearly likes him a lot. Stewart has been as high as our #4 prospect, but that was several years ago.

Stats are just a piece of the Prospect Rankings equation...

Starting tomorrow, Twins Daily will begin unveiling our choices for the Minnesota Twins Top 20 prospects. Today, we wanted to discuss several other players that fell just outside the Top 20. Call them Honorable Mentions, if you will, but I think this group will help illustrate the depth of the Twins organization right now. In fact, you can all likely name another dozen Twins prospects beyond this list who have big-league potential. Be sure to stop by every day as we count down (or up) the Twins Daily Top 20 Minnesota Twins Prospect Rankings. Prospect rankings are far from an exact science. We encourage questions. We encourage respectful debate.In the 2019 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook, Tom Froemming penned an article about all of the different methods in which the Twins have added prospects over the past two years. There is the draft. There are international signings. There have been several players added via trade especially over the final days of July. In addition, there are waiver claims and minor league signings. Today’s list of “Others Receiving Votes” illustrate several of those methods. For your information, as several of the Twins Daily writers submitted their personal prospect rankings and the ensuing conversation about the rankings, there was a clear cutoff between our #20 prospect at the #21 prospect. Today, we won’t put rankings on these players, only discuss those who also received votes. There are 12 players we will mention, which does show some depth. What is important to also note is there are several more prospects in the system who did not receive votes that have a legitimate chance to play in the big leagues in the future. Let’s discuss the other players who received votes yet finished just outside of the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects. OH CANADA! Two hard-throwing right-handed pitchers were mentioned. Jordan Balazovic was the Twins sixth-round pick in 2016. Landon Leach was the team’s second-round pick in 2017. Both were selected out of secondary schools in the Toronto area. Leach remained in the GCL in 2018. He is a hard thrower who is still quite raw as a pitcher after growing up primarily catching. He’s a big kid. Balazovic split time between the GCL and extended spring training. He has added velocity since being drafted and really stepped forward in 2018, matching his pitchability with his improved stuff. If you missed it, Keith Law ranked Balazovic as his 102nd prospect in baseball, with Brusdar Graterol at number 108. ALREADY DEBUTED It was a bit surprising when the Twins called up Kohl Stewart in August last year, but the former first-round pick made a good impression during the final six weeks. He has good velocity and gets a lot of movement. Not a lot of swing-and-miss, but the talent is clear. It was that talent that had him as a top ten Twins prospect for several years, and it is what we saw in his debut in 2018. Chase De Jong had pitched in the big leagues for Seattle in 2017. He was acquired in the Zack Duke trade. He made four starts for the Twins in September and showed that he can be a back-end of the rotation starter. He’s got good command and a good curveball. His smooth delivery helps allow pitches to jump on hitters at times. HIT MACHINE Luis Arraez gets his own category. While he isn’t a great athlete, doesn’t have great speed or power and profiles as maybe a second baseman, Arraez can flat-out hit. He has hit at every level. Even after missing most of the 2017 season with a knee injury, he raked in Ft. Myers before moving up to the Chattanooga Lookouts. The organization clearly likes him as he was added to the 40-man roster following the season. ATHLETES There are several great athletes in the Twins organization. Obviously you have heard a lot about Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis.When you talk to people in the organization, or you watch him play, you will be told that Travis Blankenhorn is right up there with the best athletes in the organization. He’s got good speed and power, and a lot more power potential. He has ranked as high as #9 in previous Twins Daily Top Prospect rankings and he continues to rise up the ranks including a nice showing in the Arizona Fall League last year. Gabriel Maciel came to the Twins in July from the Diamondbacks in the Eduardo Escobar trade. The outfielder has tremendous speed and a really good swing. He ended the season with the Kernels, usually leading off. Jacob Pearson was acquired last offseason from the Angels in exchange for international money which was used to sign Shohei Ohtani. While he was expected to spend the season in Elizabethton, he was promoted to Cedar Rapids in late May and spent the rest of the year there and more than held his own. PITCHER OF THE YEAR What does a guy have to do to get into the Top 20 prospect rankings at Twins Daily? Tyler Wells was the Twins 15th round draft pick in 2016. He’s been really good since signing. He began 2018 in Ft. Myers before ending the season in Chattanooga. He was very good and was named the Twins Daily Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year. He was also the Harmon Killebrew Award winner for the Miracle. He’s big, tall, and has exhibited a great work ethic. More than a strikeout an inning is always good too. STORY OF THE YEAR When the Twins drafted Griffin Jax in the third round of the 2016 draft out of the Air Force Academy, the thought was that he would be able to pitch soon. That didn’t happen, but when baseball was named an Olympic sport again, Jax applied for the military’s World Class Athlete Program. That allows him to play baseball full time in preparation for Olympic tryouts. Details were figured out and by April he was in Ft. Myers preparing for a season. He pitched well for the Miracle and worked some more innings in the Arizona Fall League. He impressed people with his stuff as well. TOUGH TO RANK On July 2nd, the Twins officially signed outfielder Misael Urbina. It’s always difficult to know where to rank a player who won’t even make his professional debut until this summer in the Dominican Summer League. The Twins signed Urbina for $2.75 million which alone makes him intriguing to Twins fans. But he has all of the tools that you look for in a prospect, speed, baseball instincts, arm, defense and room to grow. He will be one to watch. A year from now, he could be a Top 10 Twins prospect. POWER POTENTIAL Luke Raley came to the Twins in the Brian Dozier trade with the Dodgers. He finished the season in Chattanooga and ended the year with 20 home runs in AA. He was recently announced as a non-roster invite to spring training. Raley, like Brent Rooker, has a ton of power potential. AND MORE… The Twins system is very deep right now. There are several outside our top 20 who could reach the big leagues, many more than even just these honorable mentions. As I mentioned above, I really like Edwar Colina who spent most of the 2018 season in Cedar Rapids. DaShawn Keirsey was the Twins fourth-round pick in 2018. He and other draft picks from just last June could move up this list in 2019. Relievers such as Tyler Jay and Jake Reed still have upside. And I bet you could list a few of your own choices as guys that we missed in our Top 20 (or in his list of honorable mentions). Feel free to discuss below and ask questions. Click here to view the article

That was pretty awesome, wasn't it?! I was just kind of awed. Just grabbed the deck of cards right out of his back pocket.

At the Diamond Awards on Thursday night, Bremer asked Thorpe about his son... He slipped him a $20 and told him to take his son out to eat when he goes back. It's funny, of course, though Thorpe did give the money back since, you know, Thorpe told me that he has been in Ft. Myers for about three week already and will be staying there right up until spring training.

Presumably each of them will get time in big league campm.

Me too... the defense is so good that any hitting would make him a big leaguer. To see the OPS over .600 is encouraging, a nice step.

Friday afternoon, Derek Falvey revealed the names of the internal Twins players who have received an invitation to Minnesota Twins big league spring training. The list includes top prospects Royce Lewis, Alex Kirilloff and Brent Rooker.We have seen some Twins minor league signings trickle in over the past month or more. Some of them may receive an invitation to big league camp. On Friday, Derek Falvey only announced the Twins internal players who will be invited to spring training. The list includes infielders Royce Lewis and Brent Rooker, outfielders Luke Raley and Alex Kirilloff, catchers Ben Rortvedt and Brian Navarreto, and pitchers Ryan Eades and Jake Reed. Regarding the invites, Derek Falvey noted, "I never look at invites, especially internal invites, as saying they're all competing to make the team. In fact, a lot of times I tell them at the front end that they're not because that last thing you want is somebody to go out in his first bullpen of the year and try to throw 100 mph. It's not good for anybody." Royce Lewis (19), the top overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft, put together a strong professional debut season with the Cedar Rapids Kernels. He ended the season with a month in Ft. Myers where he helped lead the Miracle to a Florida State League championship. He hit a combined .292 with an .803 OPS. He added 29 doubles, 14 homers and an organization-leading 28 stolen bases. Alex Kirilloff (21) also played in his first full minor league season. The 2016 first-round pick missed all of 2017 due to Tommy John surgery, but he came back in 2018 and was one of the best all-around hitters in all of baseball. The Sherry Robertson Award winner as the Twins Minor League Player of the Year evenly split his season between Cedar Rapids and Ft. Myers. He hit .348 with a .970 OPS in 2018. He led minor league baseball with 44 doubles and added 20 homers and 105 RBI. Falvey added, "It's about exposure. For some of our young guys, and I know a lot of attention will go to Royce and Alex, those are two young guys and you obviously know how we feel about them, and we're excited about the investment in them from a development standpoint. It's a chance to get them around Rocco and the major-league staff. We anticipate they'll get back on the minor league side to get their seasons rolling. That's a great taste in my mind, to get a major league feel before you take a run. "I think from a timeline standpoint, that's aggressive, clearly. But I've always said don't put limitations or ceilings on guys and I'm not going to put it on those two, and I think there's a number of others in that group at could find their ways to the big leagues at some point, certainly in the next couple of years." Here is more about those other guys. Brent Rooker (24) was the Twins supplemental first-round pick in 2017 after finishing the 2017 season as the Triple Crown award winner in the SEC. He spent 2018 in Double-A Chattanooga where he hit 32 doubles and 22 home runs. Luke Raley (24) joined the Twins organization at the trade deadline this year. He was acquired from the Dodgers organization in the Brian Dozier deal. Raley joined the Lookouts and ended the season with 20 combined home runs on the season. Ben Rortvedt (21) was the Twins second-round pick in 2016 out of high school in Wisconsin. He split 2018 between Cedar Rapids and Ft. Myers. He hit .262 with 16 doubles and five homers over 90 games in 2018 and plays strong defense. Brian Navarreto (24) will return for a second big league camp. The 2013 sixth round pick from high school in Florida spent the 2018 season Chattanooga. He hit .247 with 19 doubles and four homers. However, it is his defense that makes him a prospect. Jake Reed (26) also returns for another big league camp. The fifth round pick in 2014 out of Oregon was nearly unhittable over the final four months of the 2018 season at Rochester. Hopefully 2019 is the year he finally gets an opportunity. Ryan Eades (27) was the Twins second-round pick in 2013 out of LSU. He spent most of 2018 in Chattanooga though he ended the season strong with a month in Rochester as well. Click here to view the article

On Friday afternoon at Target Field, Twins president Dave St. Peter announced that there will be two new members to the Twins Hall of Fame in 2018. In the players ballot, former Twins closer (and Twins Daily Winter Meltdown guest) Joe Nathan was announced. In a non-players ballot, former Twins president Jerry Bell. They will be the 32nd and 33rd Twins Hall of Famers.The Twins will have pre-game ceremonies on the field before games on August 3rd and 4th, games against the Royals. "The Pohlad family and entire Minnesota Twins organization would like to offer congratulations to Joe Nathan and Jerry Bell on their well-deserved election to the Twins Hall of Fame." Joe Nathan became the Twins all-time leader in Saves with 260. He pitched for the Twins in 2004 through 2011, seven of his 16 MLB seasons. Over his time with the Twins, he went 24-13 with a 2.16 ERA in 463 1/3 innings. He struck out 561 in that time. Nathan came to the Twins in one of the most famous Twins trades. In 2004, Terry Ryan traded catcher AJ Pierzynski in exchange for Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser. Jerry Bell became the third president in Twins history in January of 1987. He kept that role for 16 seasons. He was key in work done to ensure Twins baseball remained in Minnesota long-term. He oversaw the development, design, construction and opening of Target Field. He also was very involved in the development of the Twins spring training facilities in Ft. Myers. The first 10,000 fans at Target Field on Saturday, August 3, will receive a Joe Nathan Hall of Fame bobblehead. On August 4th, the first 5,000 fans will receive Jerry Bell and Joe Nathan Hall of Fame pins. Notes St. Peter also announced that through the Diamond Awards, nearly $4 million has been raised to help the Bob Allison Ataxia foundation and the research of the University of Minnesota.This is the sixth year that Twins Fest has been at Target Field. Over 60 current, former and future Twins will be in attendance. There are still some tickets available. Proceeds from the event go to the Twins Community Fund.St. Peter noted that they hope that there will be approximately two million fans at Target Field in 2019, about the same as 2018. He said that about 80 to 90 percent of season ticket holders have renewed, a number that will be around 12,000.He pointed out that the Gophers will be playing Oklahoma at Target Field on April 20th.He again mentioned the NDSU football season opener will be at Target Field against Butler. Over 29,000 tickets have already been sold.He also said that there will be at least one concert at Target Field this summer. That information will be coming in the near future. Click here to view the article

On Thursday night at The Depot in Minneapolis, the 14th annual Diamond Awards celebrated baseball and philanthropy. Awards were handed out for outstanding performances by Twins players in 2018 as well as a lifetime achievement award. But a lot of funds were raised to help support the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center and the University of Minnesota Medical School were tremendous research is ongoing.The goal of the evening is to raise dollars to be used to fund research on neurological diseases that affect one in six people in America.These diseases include ALS, Ataxia, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease. Dick Bremer was the emcee for the event again and did a fantastic job. The first ‘bit’ of the night was a video of new Twins manager Rocco Baldelli braving the elements while singing “I did it Skyway” to the tune of the Frank Sinatra classic ‘My Way.’ He entered the room and did a quick interview with Bremer before the evening’s meal. Jake Cave was the first to receive his Diamond Award. He received the Bill Boni Award for Twins Outstanding Rookie. One note of interest was that Jake Cave was tied for the league lead in home runs by a rookie after the All Star break. He played well, showed great power and made some web gems. Derek Falvey was next to the stage, and he introduced the Jim Rantz Minor League Pitcher of the Year Lewis Thorpe. Bremer mentioned that Thorpe had been a color analyst for a couple of Brisbane Bandits games in the Australian Baseball League. The play-by-play guy for the Bandits this season, Erik Bremer. Thad Levine then introduced Alex Kirilloff, the 2018 recipient of the Sherry Robertson Award for Minor League Hitter of the Year. At one point, Kirilloff pointed out that while he wants to create his own approach and style at the plate, he did watch a lot of Joe Mauer at bats “when I was a kid.” Earlier in the day, the Twins had announced that Kyle Gibson would not be in attendance at Twins Fest this weekend due to contracting E. Coli while on a recent mission trip abroad. He had been named the Charles O. Johnson Award winner for Most Improved as well as the Mike Augustin Media Good Guy Award. He sent a message via video to the assembled crowd. He thanked everyone but pointed out also that he and his wife understand the importance of giving back to the community in the Twin Cities and hopes that he will be able to continue to do that for years to come. Max Kepler was awarded the Jim Kaat Award for Twins Defensive Player of the Year. He certainly deserved that honor. Bremer asked him to say something to the crowd in German, so he did. When he translated what he had said to the crowd, he said he was looking forward to the season and that the Twins should have a good, above-average upcoming season. Jose Berrios was brought up to the stage twice. The first time, he was handed the Carl R. Pohlad Award for Community Service. Jim Pohlad introduced him and raved about how he (and Eddie Rosario) are beloved in Puerto Rico, and even more so after having the opportunity to see them in action on the island. But he also talked about how much he does in the season too. Berrios also was awarded the Joseph W Haynes award for Twins Pitcher of the Year. He made his first all-star team in 2018 and the hope is that he will make many more. He talked with so much pride about his country and his family and being proud to be in the Twins organization. He hopes to keep getting better. Eddie Rosario was named the Calvin R. Griffith Award winner as the team’s Most Valuable Player. He was the easy choice after another strong season. The hope is clearly that he takes another leap in 2019 and reaches that All Star game. With two exceptions, which we will get to at the end, those were the 2018 Awards. There were a few other awards handed out too. Paul Karst is a Vietnam veteran and he has coached baseball at various levels for well over 40 years. He was the recipient of the Play Ball! Minnesota Terry Ryan Award for Friend of the Game. One of the highlights of the night came after LaTroy Hawkins introduced Corey Koskie as the winner of the Kirby Puckett Alumni Community Service winner. Koskie provided a speech for the crowd that was remarkably inspirational and encouraging, letting everyone in attendance know that they can help a person they don’t even know through doing little things. (Following the event, I chatted with Koskie for quite some time, and then Nick joined us. It was tremendous and eye opening as Koskie really has a goal and a hope to help change the world for the better. I would certainly encourage everyone to head to his Linklete site for some great content. Bookmark it and check back frequently. Tom Kelly introduced Jack Morris as the Herb Carneal Lifetime Achievement Award winner as well. The final awards of the evening were presented to Joe Mauer. He was named the Bob Allison Award for Twins Leadership and the Dick Siebert Upper Midwest Player of the Year. It was the sixth time he had been awarded the Siebert Award. Mauer joked that he was under the weather because his five-year-old girls brought something home from school besides art work. He has been playing some early-morning basketball. He said he did play catch a couple of weeks ago. Well, here is the Mauer portion, including a bunch of Cretin-Derham Hall kids signing the school song. You can watch the Joe Mauer section below in the twitter link. Overall, it was a tremendous night at The Depot. Twins Fest runs this weekend at Target Field. I’m told there are still some tickets remaining. The Twins Daily Winter Meltdown will be on Saturday night. Click here to view the article

Correct... Addison Reed had a much better track record of success when he signed with the Twins last year. A perfect example of bullpen spending via free agency.