5 Players who have been pleasant surprises so far

Today I thought it would be kind of fun to do a little countdown on 5 players that have been pleasant surprises so far this season.

• 5. Rene Leveret- I am pleasantly surprised with the start that Leveret has gotton off too. I was really not expecting much out of him going into the season. I thought he would have trouble getting plate appearances with a talented Fort Myers team. Honestly, though he has been the most consistant and best hitter so far. He is hitting an awesome .368 with a homer and 10rbi's. He also has contributed 11 walks and only 13 strikeouts in only 68 at bats. The most impressive stat to me was his .482 obp. His .982 ops is not too bad at all. He has been battling a quad injury, but should be back this weekend. I look for big things for Rene this season.

• 4. Anthony Swarzak- I knew that Swarzak had talent, but the promotion from New Britain has really turned his career around. This season he has 3-3 record. His 3 losses are more to do with lack of run support early in the season than anything else. The most impressive thing was his 1.70era with the Red Wings. In 37 innings of work he has only walked 9 batters and struck out 28. I really have high hopes for Swarzak and like I have said I would like to see him get the call if something happens to a Twins pitcher this summer.

• 3. Evan Bigley- Evan Bigley was the best hitter for Beloit thus far. I really did not know much about him coming into the season with the seasons last year by Morales and Waltenbury at E-town he kind of got lost in the shuffle. This season with Morales and Waltenbury struggling Bigley really took off. So much so that when Joe Benson was injured, Bigley got the call. Evan Bigley was a 10th round pick last year out of Dallas Baptist and has been very impressive. This year at Beloit he hit .307 with 2 homeruns and 22 rbis. I really look for Bigley to continue his hot streak at Fort Myers and at the end of the season we will be talking about him as a top prospect.

• 2. Carlos Gutierrez- I was not surprised that Gutierrez has been good so far. The thing that really surprised me is how good he has been. Carlos in many minds would be ready for the Twins right now. He has been lights out with Fort Myers going 2-1 with a 1.25era with the Miracle. In 36 innings he has walked 9 batters and struck out 22. The stat that impresses me the most is hitters are only hitting .158 against him. He is a ground ball machine who in my opinion is a better version of Carlos Silva. I really believe that we could be seeing him in September with the Twins much like we did out of Jose Mijeras last year.

• 1. Dustin Martin- I really did not see this coming at all. I saw him as a middling prospect at New Britain, a borderline starter for New Britain. With his promotion to Rochester I was not expecting too much out of him. He had a very solid Arizona Fall League with a very good spring training. Then when he got to Rochester he took off. He is hitting a very impressive .311 with the Red Wings with a homer and 13 rbi's along with 10 stolen Bases. My whole opinion of him has changed 360 degrees. I really think he is a very solid prospect and someone I think that could play for the Twins as early as this summer. If they decided to send Carlos Gomez to AAA I would bring up Martin up and platoon with Delmon Young in left field and see how he does. But he is someone that I have high hopes for and someone we should all keep our eye on.

Tommorrow I will have the top 5 dissapointments for the Twins organization. I decided to do the top 5 surprises first because wanted to start this on a good note. Hope you all enjoy