Twins Tools

also available at www.SethSpeaks.net

When scouts talk about prospects, high school kids, college kids or minor leaguers, we hear about their tools. There have always been five known tools:

1.)     Hit (for average)

2.)     Hit (for power)

3.)     Run/Speed

4.)     Fielding

5.)     Arm

In the last decade many have added a sixth tool, that being Plate Discipline or Patience.

I always look at the tools of minor leaguers. It helps determine how good a player COULD be. For instance, let’s take a look at Ft. Myers outfielder Aaron Hicks, one of the organization’s top prospect. If I were to rank him on his Tools, here is what I would say (Note – I will use a scale of 1-10. Typically scouts discuss players these on a 20-80 scale:

1.)     Hit (for average) – 8 – if he develops as I think he can, he could hit .280-.300

2.)     Hit (for power) – 6 – if he develops as I think he can, he could hit as many as 18-22 home runs a year.

3.)     Run/Speed – 9 – Hicks is very fast.

4.)     Fielding – 9 – he has the range and his instincts continue to get better.

5.)     Arm – 10 – The guy throws 97 mph. That’s a pretty strong arm.

6.)     Plate Discipline – 9 – he has always had a very good Isolated Discipline.

Hicks is 21 years old, playing in Ft. Myers. He is three promotions (and likely 2-3 years) from being in the big leagues. The goal would be that through player development, those tools would turn into skills. Do I expect that Aaron Hicks will be a 6-tool player in the big leagues? Very few are. But what if he has four of those skills at the big league level? That makes him a very good big leaguer. Very few players in the major leagues would rank as average or better in more than two or three skill sets.

So, I wanted to take a look and subjectively allocate a point total for each player for each tool. Obviously many of these players are new to the big leagues, I’m still looking at their tool set, to some degree. But for the players that have been around for a couple of years, we are really looking at their skills.

The data/numbers are subjective, however I tried to put something to it. In the Hit for Average category, I thought that a .330 or better average would be a 10. I put .300 or better at 8. .270 is a 6. .240 is a 4. .210 is a 2. Obviously there is room in between.

In the Hit for Power, I put 40 or more homers as a 10. 32 home runs at 8. 24 or more home runs scores a 6. 16 or more home runs at 4. 8 or more home runs scores a 2. 0 home run potential, 0 points.

Three through five are really subjective, based on visuals and times and such. Basically, in my mind, a 5 is average. (To see all columns, click here)

		Hit/Avg	Hit/Pwr	Run	Fldg	Arm	Patience	Total
Catchers	Joe Mauer	10	4	4	7	8	8	41
	Drew Butera	1	1	4	8	7	3	24
Infielders	Justin Morneau	7	8	3	6	5	5	34
	Tsuyoshi Nishioka	7	2	8	7	5	7	36
	Luke Hughes	5	4	5	3	6	6	29
	Alexi Casilla	4	1	8	4	6	4	27
	Danny Valencia	7	5	6	6	7	4	35
	Matt Tolbert	4	1	8	6	5	6	30
	Trevor Plouffe	4	5	6	5	6	4	30
	Jim Thome	5	7	1	0	0	9	22
Outfielders	Delmon Young	8	7	6	5	8	2	36
	Denard Span	8	3	9	7	5	8	40
	Michael Cuddyer	6	6	4	4	8	5	33
	Jason Kubel	7	8	2	4	8	5	34
	Jason Repko	3	2	8	8	8	4	33
	Ben Revere	8	1	10	7	2	4	32
	Rene Tosoni	7	5	6	6	6	7	37

Red is for 9 and 10. Green is for 7 and 8.

I added the Total column. I don’t think that it carries much meaning, but I wanted to add it for you to use if you would like. In other words, just because I score Danny Valencia at 35 and Jason Kubel at 34 doesn’t necessarily mean that Valencia is better than Kubel. Valencia has pretty solid numbers across the  board while the speed of Kubel brings down his overall score.

So, what do you think/ I hope that a chart like this makes you think a little. Your numbers may be different than mine, but hopefully this creates some discussion. Denard Span was drafted as a toolsy high school outfielder. By my count, he has four of the six tools (or 3 of the 5, depending on how you want to think about it). That’s pretty good. Jason Repko can’t hit, but he can run, field and throw, which makes him a terrific off-the-bench option as a pinch runner. Guys like Revere, Nishioka, Plouffe and Tosoni have very little big league time, too little to determine where their final “skill” numbers will be, so they might be a little bit higher than others because their numbers are at least partially still a measure of tools.

Please feel free to comment (and hopefully more than the standard four or five will comment. I want to hear everyone’s opinion!).

Minor League Notes

The Twins had Thursday off. The news from the Twins was that they chose to purchase the contract of Rene Rivera from the Rochester Red Wings. That puts the Twins at 40 on their 40 man roster. Tonight, they will start a four-game series in Boston against the Red Sox.

As mentioned yesterday, there were several minor league transactions. Are there any more to come? For that information and more, check out last night’s Twins Minor League Weekly podcast. The show is on every Monday and Thursday night at 10:00 central time. The show can be heard live until 10:30, and then there are 15 minutes that can only be heard by clicking here.

Thursday SethSpeaks.net Minor League Hitter of the Day– James Beresford, Ft. Myers Miracle 

Thursday SethSpeaks.net Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Steve Hirschfeld, New Britain Rock Cats

Red Wings Ramblings

Thursday – Red Wings 3, Gwinnett 2 – Anthony Swarzak started out well. He threw five shutout innings before giving up two runs and recording one out in the sixth inning. Kyle Waldrop stranded two runners that inning and pitched a scoreless 7^th frame. Chuck James had a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Anthony Slama struck out two in the ninth and recorded the win. Toby Gardenhire hit his second home run of the season. Brian Dinkelman was 2-4 with a walk. Steve Singleton was 1-3 with a walk in his first AAA game. Ray Chang also played in his first AAA game. He went 2-4 with a walk, a double, and a game-winning, walk-off single in the bottom of the 9^th.  

Rock Cats Report

Thursday Game 1 – Rock Cats 2, Richmond 1 – Steve Hirschfeld started and won his second game. In six innings, he gave up one run on three hits. Cole DeVries recorded his sixth save with a scoreless ninth inning. Evan Bigley went 2-3 with his fifth double and sixth triple Joe Benson hit his 9^th double.

Thursday Game 2 – Rock Cats 4, Richmond 7 (10 innings) – Liam Hendriks posted another good start. He gave up two runs on four hits and two walks in six innings. He struck out eight. Jake Stevens came in to finish the game in the 7^th, but he gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in the inning to send it to extra innings. Tyler Robertson threw 2.2 innings. He was charged with the three runs in the 10^th inning to take the loss. Santos Arias got the final out. Evan Bigley hit his sixth double and third triple Yangervis Solarte and Deibinson Romero each went 2-4. Romero walked and hit his fourth double, as well.  

Miracle Matters

Thursday – Miracle 6, Palm Beach 5 – Edgar Ibarra got a spot start and gave up five runs on six hits (including 3 home runs) and a walk. Brad Tippett came in for his first appearance of the year, and he threw two scoreless innings. He gave up three hits and struck out two. Jhon Garcia struck out four in two scoreless innings. Dakota Watts picked up the Win with a perfect ninth. Jhonathan Goncalves  went 2-4 with a double. Reggie Williams was also 2-4. Josmil Pinto went 2-3 with a walk in his first Miracle game. He added an RBI double in the bottom of the 8^th inning to tie the game. With the score tied at nine going into the bottom of the 9^th, Goncalves led off with a single. Aaron Hicks walked. After a double-steal, James Beresford singled in the game-winning run. Beresford was 3-4 in the game and is now hitting .344.  

Snappers Bites

Thursday – Snappers 10, Wisconsin 5 – The Snappers needed an offensive outburst like this. All season, it has been Danny Ortiz, Oswaldo Arcia and Question Mark. In this game, they had seven players with two hits. Andy Leer was 2-4 with a walk, his first homer and three RBI. Tobias Streich was 2-5 with his first home run and two RBI. Jamaal Hawkins went 2-4 with a walk and his second double. He also stole his second base. Nate Roberts went 2-3 with a walk and his second double. Danny Ortiz went 2-4 with his 11^th double. Gunner Glad went 2-4 with his third double. Wang-Wei Lin was 2-5.Andrei Lobanov started and gave up two runs on six hits and two walks in 4.1 innings. Blayne Weller came in and gave up his first earned run of the year, on two hits and a walk in 1.2 innings. He recorded the win and improved to 3-0. Martire Garcia gave up two unearned runs on two hits and a walk in his inning. Jose Gonzalex threw two scoreless innings, striking out two.   

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below.