- 50. James Beresford SS/2b (1/19/89) 20
2009 team: Beloit Snappers
- James Beresford had an outstanding season for the Snappers as he hit for a good average all year hitting near .300 pretty much all year. He missed some time due to injury, but offensively had a very solid year. He doesn't hit for any power as he had 130 hits and only 11 of them were for extra bases. So if you are looking for power you are looking at the wrong guy as he is a singles hitter that will have alot of them. On the negative side James really needs to work on his defense as he committed over 20 errors for the 2nd consecutive year. When you do not hit for a lot of power the team really needs you to play great defense at shortstop. The thing though that is working for him though is he is only 20 years old and has already proven that he can hit the ball and I truly believe the defense will come in time. He has alreay played in some high profile games as he played in the WBC and also in the World Cup for his home country of Australia. I look for that to help out alot in his development as an infielder and I truly believe the future is bright for him as I believe he will get his errors down and if he could hit for a little bit more power the Twins might have something in him.
- 2010 projection: play shortstop again for Beloit and possibly midseason promotion to Fort Myers.
- Estimated Time of Arrival: 2013
- 49. Esterlin De Los Santos SS (1/20/87) 22
2009 Team: Fort Myers Miracle
- Esterlin De Los Santos has everything you are looking for in a shortstop. His only problem is for some reason he can not stay healthy. De Los Santos only played in 68 games in 2009 because of knee problems. If you look at his history that is the problem as the 68 games he played in this year were a career high and really that is only half a season. If he can't find a way to stay healthy all the promise that he posseses will be for naught. On the field there might not be a better shortstop offensively and defensively in the organization. He is a speedy guy that is capable to stealing 30-40 bases a year if he could stay on the field. Offensively, he hit the ball this year when he was in there to hit a career .290 at the plate. Defensively, he is very smooth, but makes some careless mistakes that creates errors. He missed half the season and still led the team in errors which is saying something. The bottom line is he is so smooth that if he stayed healthy for a whole year you would see his errors plummet and his batting average rise along with his stolen bases. The bottom line is if De Los Santos can stay healthy his career will rise and if he can't his career will fall.
- 2010 projection: Start season playing shortstop at Fort Myers and get midseason promotion to New Britain.
- Estimated Tim of Arrival: 2012
- 48. Cole Devries SP (2/12/1985) 24
2009 team: New Britain Rockcats
- Cole really got off to a fast start for the Rockcats and really carried them through the first half of the season. He had a 3.53 in the first half, however as he got tired from the innings and teams started to figure him out he got hit pretty bad in the second half to a tune of a 7.43 era in 9 second half starts. The positives with Cole is he gives the team a chance to win just about every time out there. Honestly, as a undrafted free agent he has no business getting as far as he has for the Twins so what he has already done has to be looked at as a success. However, going forward I think it is going to be hard for Devries to continue to get guys out. I really hope I am wrong because Cole Devries is a great story for the Twins in that he has worked his butt off and has gradually rised through the organization and done a good job everywhere he has been. The thing about it is he doesn't throw hard enough and doesn't really have an out pitch and the better quality hitters he faces the more that will be exposed. I don't see alot of upside in Cole, but like I said what he has done his whole career is prove guys like me wrong and hopefully he can continue to do it again.
- 2010 projection: Work out of the bullpen for New Britain
- Estimated Time of Arrival: 2012
- 47. Juan Portes OF (11/26/1985) 24
2009 stats: .297 avg with 6 homeruns and 40 rbi's in 100 games and 327 at bats. He also had 21 doubles and 3 triples. He walked 34 times while striking out only 45 times. He had a .366/.434/.800 splits.
2009 teams: New Britain Rockcats
- Juan Portes really had a breakout year in 2009 for the Rockcats after toiling for 2 years in Fort Myers there was a general feeling that he was at the end of the line. They decided to move him up to New Britain even though his numbers at Fort Myers in 2007 and 2008 did not speak promotion. He rewarded the organization for the faith in him with his best season of his career. I will admit freely that I did not see this coming as I saw Juan Portes as a 4th outfielder who can play some third base. With the glut of outfielders in the Twins organization I really thought he would not be with the organization in 2010. Boy did he prove me wrong as he put up his finest season as a professional. He showed the great plate discipline we are used to seeing out of him, but added some extra base power with 30 extra base hits and a very good average. He showed his versatility by playing some at 3rd base when the injury bug hit the Rockcats and proved to be a very valuable member of the Rockcats playoff team. Going forward Juan does not have very much power as his 6 homeruns would attest to, however if he can get on base as much as he did in 2009 he will continue to hang around. I forsee him as a 4th or 5th outfielder and if he continues to improve that could be with the Twins in the future.
- 2010 projection: Start in left field for New Britain
- Estimated Time of Arrival: 2013
- 46. Evan Bigley OF (3/9/1987) 22
2009 stats: Beloit- .307 avg, 2hr 22 rbi along with 6 doubles and a triple in 25 games and 101 at bats. With a .340/.446/.785 splits.
Fort Myers- .280 avg, 5hr 46 rbi along with 22 doubles and 2 triples in 95 games and 328 at bats. With a .336/.405/.742 splits.
2009 teams: Beloit Snappers and Fort Myers Miracle
- Evan Bigley had a pretty decent 2nd year with the Twins as he combined to hit .294 with 7 homeruns and 68 rbi's along with 28 doubles and 3 triples. Evan will not bring a lot of power to the plate, but he finds a way to get on base and do all the little things that every team needs. Without much power he needs to keep his on base percentage high so he needs to keep taking walks and working the count. He is a decent defensive outfielder with a good arm. Evan is one of those guys that just quietly goes about his business and then all of a sudden you see him in AAA with a chance to make it to the big leagues. The thing that he really needs to work on is not striking out so much. In 429 at bats in 2009 Evan struck out 90 times which is approximately 25% of the time he comes up which is obviously way too much. If he doesn't take care of that problem he will struggle because he doesn't hit a lot of homeruns so you can't look past the strikeouts. If he can cut those strikeouts in half Evan Bigley will have an outstanding 2010 season and continue his path to the big leagues.
- 2010 projection: Play left field in Fort Myers
- Estimated Time of Arrival
Those are my 50-46 picks and i will be back tommorrow with 45-41 and another 5 every day until I get to number 1. Hope you all enjoy and I welcome you to leave your comments and questions either in the comment box or by emailing me at travis_aune@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading.
