Wednesday, April 9th

I will be continuing my series on the Twins position by position look into the Twins organization. Today i will be moving onto the Shortstop position hope everyone enjoys it and let the comments continue.

Twins

• Matt Tolbert- I know Adam Everett is starting right now, but i think he is a stopgap and i look for Tolbert to take over the job by midseason so i am going to write about Matt. In all honesty, Matt Tolbert is an overacheiver who at every level has proven people wrong and thats no different than with the Twins. He went into Spring Training being told he had no shot to make the team, but he proved people wrong again. Don't get the wrong idea Matt Tolbert is very talented, but people didn't think he was talented enough to make it to the majors. I love watching Matt play because he personifies everything that i think being a Minnesota Twin should be. He hustles on every play, he is a team first player, and most important he will give up his own stats to make the team better. Matt was a 16th round pick by the Twins in '04 and last season at Rochester he hit .293 with 6 hr and 53 rbi's. I really like Matt and i think he will be starting at short next season as long as he can keep imporving on defense.

Rochester

• Alexi Casilla- I'm not as high on Casilla as some other people are. What we need out of him is speed and defense and his defense has really stunk thats part of the reason he didnt make the team out of spring training. However, he is very fast and has a good swing at the plate. If he can improve on his defense there is no reason to think he wont be up next year and possibly starting becuase he is the most talented SS we have in the system.

New Britain

• Trevor Plouffe- I am very high on this kid i believe the sky is the limit for Trevor. The Twins drafted Trevor with a first round pick in '04 draft and appeared like he was going to be the next in a long line of quality Twins shortstops. However, he struggled last year for the Rock Cats on defense and offense. He struck out 89 times in 121 games so he needs to work on his plate discipline and his defense. I think '08 is a pivotal year for Trevor's development. If he can put last year behind him, which i think he will he will be outstanding. My gut feeling tells me Trevor Plouffe will be the starting shortstop for the Twins when they open their new ballpark in '10.

Fort Myers

• Yancarlos Ortiz- He is another Twins shortstop that is great with the glove, but terrible with the bat. He only hit .212 with Beloit last year and got the promotion to Fort Myers. Defensively he is very solid, but the key for him to keep advancing is learing how to hit as a professional. But with his glove he is worth having around and someone you should keep your eye on.

Beloit

• Ramon Santana- So far this year the Snappers have been splitting up the SS duties so i thought i would write about Santana because he is an interesting player. Ramon signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent in 2004. So far in his career he has really struggled with the bat, but has been outstanding with the glove. If he is going to move up though he needs to hit better because you have to hit a little to keep moving up. However, lets not take anything away from him he is excellent defensively and if he can improve the bat he will be worth keeping an eye on.

The Twins SS position depth has a lot to do with how Alexi Casilla and Trevor Plouffe continue to develop if they are able to keep developing we should be fine there, but if not we might have to look outside the organization. But in my opinion we are sitting ok at SS and is not a position we need to worry about.