Twins Top 10 Prospects #7: Alex Wimmers

Alex Wimmers is a pitcher in the Minnesota Twins Organization.  He stands 6’2″ and weighs 195 lbs.  He bats left and throws right-handed.  Wimmers was drafted with the 21st overall pick in the 2010 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Ohio State University.

During his time with Ohio State; Wimmers was a two-time Big Ten Pitcher of the Year.  Wimmers had 18 wins in both his sophomore and junior season with the Buckeyes.  He decided to forgo his senior season to sign with the Twins.  The Twins gave him a $1.332 million signing bonus to help solidify that decision.

Wimmers signed just in time for him to join the organization and make 4 starts for the Ft. Myers Miracle.  Wimmers went 2-0 with a 0.57 ERA, a 0.70 WHIP in 15.2 IP.  He had 23 strikeouts and only 5 walks.  These numbers show why the Twins were so high on Wimmers.  During the draft, many experts said he was the most “Major League ready” of any of the pitchers in the draft.  With that said, the Twins will not need to rush him to the big leagues.

With six quality starters already and one waiting in the minor leagues in Kyle Gibson; the Twins can take their time letting Wimmers ready himself for the Major Leagues.  Wimmers is a prototypical Twins pitching prospect.  His fastball is thrown in the 88-92 MPH range with good movement.  He has an extremely good change-up and has a decent curveball.  With the time he has to develop in the Minor Leagues, I feel the Twins will work on helping him develop one more pitch.  Perhaps a cutter or slider to compliment his other pitches.

Wimmers keeps the ball low and in the strike zone.  This is one of the reasons scouts said he was the most Major League ready of all the prospects in the draft.  As any Twins fans know, this is exactly what the Twins front office is looking for out of their pitchers.  Having such an excellent change-up will help him out greatly.  Wimmers stuff will compare mostly to former Twins pitcher Brad Radke.  He will have the ability to miss bats while still getting plenty of ground ball outs.

I predict Wimmers will move through the Twins minor league system quickly, much like Matt Garza and Scott Baker did.  Even though he was just drafted, he is has three years of College Baseball under his belt.  Expect Wimmers to be up in AAA possibly by the end of this year if not by the beginning of next year.

He could be called on to come out of the bullpen when he reaches the Major Leagues and may have to work his way into the rotation the way Brian Duensing did.  All signs point to Wimmers being a very serviceable and “Twins type” of pitcher.  I know most keep saying the Twins need to worry about getting an “ace who can miss bats”.  Wimmers will miss bats and provide the Twins with a lot of solid innings in the future.  It is only a matter of time before we get the chance to see what last year’s first round draft pick can do against Major League hitting.

 

 

 

Twins Top 10 Prospects #8: Angel Morales

Angel Morales (born November 24th, 1989) is an outfielder in the Minnesota Twins organization.  Standing 6’1″ tall and weighing 180 lbs.  Morales was drafted in the third round of the 2007 draft out of the Puerto Rican Baseball Academy in Gurabo, Puerto Rico.

When he was drafted, it was thought Morales would be a good prospect with excellent speed, great range and the ability to get on base.  He quickly started to evolve into one of the Twins best power prospects.  In 2008 he hit 15 home runs in 218 at bats at Elizabethton.  In 2009 he hit 13 home runs in 418 at bats in Beloit.  The lesser home run totals were to be expected as he moved up but in 2010 he only hit 5 home runs while splitting time between Beloit and Ft. Myers.

Morales has always had a very patient approach which is usually something that has to be learned as a prospect moves through the minor leagues.  He is said to make very good contact on pitches and can hit to all fields.  Morales is only 21 years old so he still has plenty of time to grow into his body.  It is a very good sign that he has such a patient approach at such a young age, the power will come in time.

Morales also has great speed and can play any of the outfield positions.  He has more than enough range to play centerfield which helps him out quite a bit.  His arm is also incredibly strong and accurate.  At his current age: Morales has all the necessary tools to develop into a very solid Major League player.  As I said earlier, fans should not worry about the power number but focus on his on base percentage.  As long as that stays high, I don’t see why he can’t continue to work his way up in the Twins system.

With a glut of outfielders in the minor leagues, it helps a lot that Morales has the ability to play all outfield positions.  His ability to make contact and run around on the bases makes him a great fit with the Twins. Morales will not be making an appearance in the big leagues this year and most likely not even next year.  Expect Morales to be ready sometime in the next three years.  The Twins have plenty of time to wait with the 21-year-old.

They will have to make the decision after this season if they want to add him to the 40 man roster or risk losing him in the next Rule 5 draft.  It is still so early in his career that no one can truly say how Morales will turn out, he has all the tools and just needs to keep improving.  There is no reason to think he will not be given a opportunity to succeed at the major league level in the future, whether it’s with the Twins or another ball club.

Top 10 Twins prospects #9: Carlos Gutierrez

Carlos Rafael Gutierrez (born September 22, 1986) is a Puerto Rican-American minor league pitcher for the Minnesota Twins organization. Standing 6’3″ and weighing 205 lbs, the right-hander was selected by the Twins in the first round (27th overall) of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft.  He was the Twins’ second first round pick that year, a pick that was received from the Angels when Torii Hunter signed with them.

He was a starter at the University of Miami as a freshman and then underwent Tommy John Surgery in 2007.  He came back as the team’s closer and guided the Hurricanes to the 2008 College World Series.

He spent the first half of the 2009 season in high A ball where he went 2-3 with a 1.32 ERA in 10 starts (one relief appearance) and earned a Florida State League All star selection.  He did not participate due to his promotion to AA.  He appeared in 32 games with New Britain with 122 innings pitched and went 5-8 with a 4.57 ERA before he was promoted to AAA in 2010.  He went 5-8 with a 4.50 ERA and a 1.53 WHIP in 126 innings pitched.

Gutierrez is a rarity in the Twins farm system.  He has a fastball that tops out at 97 MPH and is said to get excellent sinking action when his fastball is thrown in the mid 90s.  With that sinking action, he is also a ground ball machine.  During his time in the minors, he has been working on a change-up to compliment his great fastball and above average slider.

He will no doubt be a reliever in the major leagues.  He has spent a lot of time starting in the minor leagues as most reliever do to work on his pitches.  Gutierrez will most likely start out in the bullpen at AAA in 2011.  He very well could be expected to come up to the big leagues and help the Twins out this season.  With his incredible stuff, all he needs to do his work on his mound presence and he could be an extremely effective reliever.

He is one reason I feel the Twins did not mind letting relievers walk this season as he is so close to being major league ready.  If he comes up and impresses this year, with Joe Nathan’s contract expiring at the end of the season….there is a very high chance that Gutierrez could be in the Twins long-term plans as the team’s next closer.

 

Top 10 Twins prospects: #10 Chris Parmelee

Christopher Matthew Parmelee (born February 24, 1988 in Long Beach, California) is a minor league baseball first baseman/outfielder in the Minnesota Twins.  He stands 6’1″ and weighs 223 pounds, he bats and throws left-handed.  The Twins selected Parmelee with their first round (20th overall) pick in the 2006 Major League Baseball Draft after he hit .407 with 11 home runs and 26 runs batted in as a senior at Chino Hills High School in California. Once the Twins signed Parmelee, he right away became one of the organizations top power hitting prospects.

Parmelee has put up decent power numbers throughout his five years in the Twins organization.  Going into the 2010 season, he had hit 53 him runs in 376 minor league at bats.  Parmelee also has been known as a strikeout machine as most power hitters are.  The thought on Parmelee was that he was going to become more of an Adam Dunn type player in the major leagues.  If he is able to put up Dunn like power numbers, I wouldn’t necessarily classify that as a terrible thing.

Even with the power numbers and high strike out totals, Parmelee’s does have pretty decent on base skills.  His career on base percentage is .352, helped out a lot by his 247 career walks.  Parmelee’s power numbers did drop off in 2010 as he only hit 8 home runs.  This seemed to worry some as he was drafted a lot for his raw power coming out of high school.  Most who know minor league players and their natural progression, are not so worried.  Focusing more on purely hitting the ball and not launching it, Parmelee posted his highest career single season batting at .285 (high A and AA ball).

I expect Parmelee’s power numbers to begin to creep back up this season.  He set a career high of 15 home runs in 2007 and it is reasonable to think he can do that again this year.  Combining it with a decent average and on base percentage is what you will want to watch for.  Parmelee should also continue to get better defensively.  Parmelee is listed as a OF/1B but is somewhat limited to what outfield positions he can play.  I definitely do not see him ever being a CF, possibly not even a LF.

If Parmelee does have a very strong offensive year this year and at some point is promoted to AAA, he could get a shot next year in RF.  This is an extremely low chance this happens though.  Michael Cuddyer’s contract is set to expire at the end of 2011.  Anyone who knows the Twins front office knows that they will do anything in their power to bring him back.  If for some reason Cuddyer is not in a Twins uniform, that leaves an opening in RF.  The Twins always have the option of moving Delmon Young back to RF, but it is also unlikely that happens.  The Twins have a massive glut of talented outfielders in their farm system.  Parmelee would have to put up quite a year to even be considered for a spot out there.

Another possibility to think of is him having to fill in for Justin Morneau at some point in the next year or two.  Morneau has not played a full season in 2 years.  If Morneau goes down at some point, Parmelee could be called on to fill in for him.  Most likely not this year as the Twins probably wouldn’t entertain the option if he has not had some time at AAA under his belt.  If Parmelee has a strong 2011 and shows the return of his power and the ability to get on base that he did last year, we could be hearing his name within the next year as someone who can come up and help the big league club.

Thoughts: Luke Hughes making his case

After the signing of Jim Thome, many thought the Twins bench was set going into the season.  With the departure of Nick Punto, many thought it would be Matt Tolbert taking over at the utility spot.  I was one of those included, all though I did not agree with it.  I have always thought of Tolbert as Nick Punto’s younger twin.  Someone who can play all over the field, play great defense and not offer much at the plate.  With Drew Butera and Jason Repko also on the bench, Thome is the only one who can truly be used as a late inning pinch hitting option.  Then came Spring Training, and Luke Hughes.

Hughes burst onto the scene last year by homering in his first big league at bat with the Twins against the Tigers in Detroit on April 28th (my birthday).  Hughes went 2-7 in two games that he played for the Twins during his call-up but that only lasted one week. His season came to an end two weeks after he returned to AAA Rochester.  He was injured with a sports hernia and other groin injuries, ending his year.

Speaking to Kelly Theiser of twinsbaseball.com, Ron Gardenhire said of Hughes: “If he’d been healthy, he would have spent probably considerable time in the big leagues, because he was swinging it really good when he was down there, but it didn’t work out for him, so if he can stay healthy, he can be a force. He’s a pretty good player. He’s got some tools.”

Even with the impact he made with the big club last year, many thought it would take an injury this year for him to get another shot.  That was before he came into camp, he has been tearing the cover off the ball. Hughes his hitting .370 with a .400 OBP and a .778 SLG in 27 at bats.  Hughes also has 3 home runs and 2 doubles this spring.

The knock on Hughes is his defense and that he does not have much experience at shortstop like Tolbert.  Hughes has mostly played 3B, 2B and occasionally some 1B.  This you would think would give Gardy all the reason he needed to say there isn’t a contest.  Tolbert would be with the big league club as the utility man come Opening Day.  That was why I was surprised to hear Gardy say this the other day about Hughes: “He’s swinging good, playing good. Good for him. Keep doing it. That’s what you come to spring training to do open eyes and make a ballclub, and he’s swinging.”

Hughes has obviously caught Gardy and the rest of the Twins coaching staff’s eye this Spring Training.  Gardy has pretty much said that there is a battle for the utility spot.  Gardy also added: “I’m not afraid to put him in there. I’m not afraid to put him at first, outfield, anywhere. This is the time to do it, if you’re going to do it.”

For Twins fans this is great to hear.  If Hughes can continue his Spring Training tear and carry it into the season, it will be a huge boost to the club.  The Twins do not have any late inning right-handed pinch-hitting options on the bench.  Hughes will definitely give them one.  There really is no need for a late inning defensive replacement in the infield as that should be okay with Morneau, Nishioka, Casilla and Valencia.  It makes perfect sense to bring Hughes north to Toronto for opening day instead of Tolbert.  I really, really think this would be a huge move for the Twins.  It would be nice to have a solid right-handed bat on the bench instead of another “gritty baseball player” as Gardy calls the likes of Tolbert and Punto.

Lets hope Hughes can keep it up.  It would be best for the Twins for him to make the club.  The lineup is solid and the Twins won’t have any trouble scoring runs.  But it does not hurt to have some depth on the bench and extra batsto turn to if needed.

Thoughts: Blue Jays looking at Slowey

Buster Olney of ESPN reported on Sunday that the Twins are “very much willing” to discuss trading Slowey with other teams.  According to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Twitter link) the Blue Jays like Kevin Slowey. Christensen tweeted that the Blue Jays have relievers to give up and had scouts watching Slowey pitch against the Pittsburg Pirates in yesterday’s ‘B’ game (the same game Morneau made his return). Slowey pitched three innings with no hits or runs. He struck out three batters

The Blue Jays have plenty of starting pitching right now; Jo-Jo Reyes, Jesse Litsch, Marc Rzepczynski and Kyle Drabek are battling for two rotation spots and Zach Stewart, Brad Mills and Scott Richmond are also fighting for jobs, most likely in the bullpen.  Of course as Twins fans learned last year, having depth in your rotation is not a bad thing.

That is what puzzles me about the Twins looking at a deal for Slowey now.  it just doesn’t make sense.  In my mind, he should be the pitcher delegated to the bullpen to start the season.  I do not see what good it would do to trade him now.  I think they eventually should and will trade him because of Twins 2009 first round pick and top prospect Kyle Gibson.  The only problem is, Gibson will not be up with the big club right away.   Expect to see Gibson promoted sometime in mid July (has to do with  financials) barring injuries to most of the starting staff. 

 The problem with trading Slowey now is you lose that depth in the starting rotation that may be  needed in the first couple of months.  If the Twins do need relief help, trading an experienced starting pitcher is not the way to get it.  Bill Smith has shown over the past couple of years that he can go out and get relief help when needed near the trade deadline.  I think the Twins should go into the season with what they have got and figure it out from there. 

Of course, there is the risk that Slowey injures himself and loses his value.  That is a risk worth taking.  It is too early to be talking about trading a starting pitcher, doing it for a relief pitcher or two is just pure insanity.  Someone in this rotation will be traded this year, someone has to be.  Gibson is ready and needs to be up with the big club.  Gibson is a lot like Slowey and possibly better, is much younger and much cheaper.  I can’t wait to watch him pitch in the big leagues this year.  When he gets called up, that’s when Slowey should be traded.  Not now and not for relief pitchers.

VIDEO: Morneau’s first two at-bats this spring

Courtesy of 1500ESPN in the Twin Cities, below is a video of Justin Morneau’s two at-bats in this morning’s ‘B’ game against the Pittsburg Pirates.

Justin Morneau starts at 1B in ‘B’ Game

Justin Morneau jus took the field in today’s ‘B’ squad game against the Pittsburg Pirates.  He will be starting at 1B and will be batting fourth in the line up.  There was nothing said by the Twins before the game, multiple reports started coming out when Morneau took the field for warm ups and was dressed in uniform.  This will be the first baseball game that Morneau has played in since recieving his concussion on July 7th of last year in Toronto.  At the time, Morneau was on pace for a MVP season.  He was batting .345 with 18 HR and 56 RBI in 81 games (348 PA). 

This is GREAT news for Twins fans.  Morneau’s health is a major key in the AL Central race this year.  It would greatly benifit the Twins chances to win their third straight AL Central Championship if a healthy Morneau can return to his 2010 pre concussion form.  It appears Morneau is on target to be in the starting line up on Opening Day.  Some where starting to wonder (including myself) if it would be possible for him to play Opening Day without having much at bats in Spring Training.  That appears to not be an issue now as Morneau should get plenty of time to get into “baseball shape” in time for the April 1st opener at Toronto (ironically, where he was injured last year)

Twins outfielder Delmon Young is the DH and batting third today in a ‘B’ game. It will be Young’s first action during Spring Training since coming to camp with turf toe.

Time to call Glaus?

Today on a special two-hour edition of Baseball Tonight; Buster Olney listed the #5 biggest topic in the American League.  He said that it is the health of Justin Morneau.  I agreed with Olney’s assessment.  He said that with the improvements the Tigers and White Sox made this offseason, the race will be greatly impacted by Morneau’s health.  All though the Twins are still saying Morneau is on pace to be at 1B on Opening Day, I am not as convinced anymore.

Morneau still has not been cleared to play in games.  He is participating in hitting and fielding drills but still is not completely symptom free.  It is unknown when Morneau will be able to start playing in games, I am not holding my breath anymore.  I think it is a little more serious than we are being told by the Twins front office.  Last year, Jim Thome provided the Twins with much-needed production in the lineup allowing Michael Cuddyer to move to 1B and Jason Kubel to RF.  I don’t think the Twins should be relying so heavily on that this season.  It will be tough for Thome at age 40 to duplicate last season’s production even with a reasonable amount of at bats.  Even if he can, it can’t hurt to have a plan C.

When I say having a “Plan C”, I am talking about 1B/3B Troy Glaus.  Currently, Glaus is unemployed.  We haven’t heard much about him this offseason and there has been no reports of the Twins being interested.  I am simply saying I don’t think it would hurt if Morneau doesn’t get cleared to play in games within the next week or two.  Glaus had a decent season last year with the Atlanta Braves.  He batted .240 with 16 home runs and 71 RBI in 412 at bats.

The Twins are strong from the left side when it comes to the lineup, Glaus would provide a little bit of balance lower in the lineup.  He obviously would not come close to replacing Morneau for however long he is out.  But he would help the Twins more than most people think.  Glaus only made $1.75 million last year and would come much cheaper this year.  Glaus could be this year’s Jim Thome like signing if Morneau is not able to go.  Glaus has been an offensive force in the not so distant past, he would be able to mentor young players like Danny Valencia along with Thome.

I believe Bill Smith should have called Glaus months ago, with the news (or no news) regarding Morneau recently I am starting to think they have to call soon.  If not now, for sure within a couple of week’s if Justin has not been given the green light.  It would not be the worst thing in the world if Morneau did not start the season with the Twins.  They need to make sure he is 100% recovered from his concussion or risk greater damage which could alter the rest of his life if he is not carefull.  Lets not forget, Joe Mauer won the 2009 AL MVP award and only played a little under 5 months that season.

The Twins have a back up plan and it worked great last year in moving Cuddyer to first.  It may work again this year but why risk it?  In my mind, there is very little risk in signing Glaus.  He would provide insurance at 1B, could DH on some days and would be a great RH option off the bench late in games.  I feel it is time, Bill Smith needs to make the call soon.

Video: MLB 11 The Show AL Central Stadiums

Courtesy of Operation Sports, below is a video showing the AL Central Stadiums in the upcoming video game MLB 11 The Show: