Minnesota Twins Top 10 Prospects' April Report Cards

If you were to tell me at the beginning of the season that the Minnesota Twins would enter into May around .500 (now at .500 after be victorious against the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday afternoon), I definitely would have taken it.

If you would have told me that Kevin Correia was going to be the ace of the staff…well, I would have said I told you so. Seriously, I did. Click this.

That was, of course, after I ripped Correia in an earlier article, so take it as you may. Hopefully I just saw the future.

Speaking of the future, it is bright for the Minnesota Twins. The minor league clubs are a combined 63-38 so far this year with most help coming from the high Class-A Fort Myers Miracle who are 21-4 and low Class-A Cedar Rapids Kernels who are 18-6 on the year.

Plenty of prospects are going to be moving up soon, so let’s grade the top 10 Twins prospects and see how they have done one month into the baseball season.

The top 10 Twins prospects are based on MLB.com’s list of the top 20 prospects per team. I have exempted three of MLB.com’s 10: Aaron Hicks since he has played all season at the major league level and outfielder Max Kepler and reliever J.T. Chargois are exempt since their rookie-ball season has not yet begun.

Stats are all from the players respective player pages at MILB.com.

Miguel Sano: A+

If you pull up the batting leaders for the Florida State League, you will find Miguel Sano at the top of the list more times than not. Sano leads the Florida State League in batting average (.368), slugging (.747), on-base plus slugging or OPS (1.83), home runs (nine) and total bases (71).

He’s also second in RBI with 24, just one behind the league leader, and tied for second in hits with 35, trailing his teammate Eddie Rosario by one hit.

It’s simple to see that Sano is currently a beast and that he should be a beast every step along the way. There is no way that Sano will be in Class-A ball for much longer; there’s a good chance he’ll be in Triple-A by the end of the summer.

Also it wouldn’t be a shock if Sano is the Twins starting third baseman come Opening Day 2014.

Byron Buxton: A

It’s hard to look good after you follow Sano, but don’t take any of Byron Buxton’s stats too lightly because he has also torn it up so far this season.

Buxton is also on top of the leaderboards in his own league, the Midwest League. The Cedar Rapids Kernel tops the leaderboard in runs (25), slugging percentage (.684) and OPS (1.194).

He’s around the top in everything else. Buxton is sporting a .392 batting average, 21 RBI, 19 walks, four home runs and a trio of triples.

Buxton will be a part of the Twins outfield future for a long time, but not anywhere this year. Look for him to be moved up a couple of rungs this year, probably Double-A by the end and Twins fans will possibly get a look at him during September of 2014.

Just as a side note that has nothing to do with Buxton: alongside Buxton in the league leaders is a first baseman in the Chicago Cubs organization named Rock Shoulders. I just stumbled across this name, and I needed to share it.

Alex Meyer: A-

I think we are finding out fast that I’m one of those teachers who grades on a curve, because Alex Meyer has also had a fantastic start to the year in New Britain.

In five games started so far this season, Meyer has a 2-1 record with a 2.57 ERA. He has 34 strikeouts or 6.8 a game. The real stats to look at for Meyer, though, are his runs allowed and walks. So far this season, he has allowed eight runs and 11 walks in only five starts.

That is quite the stat line. He isn’t on the top of the leaderboards in his league, but he is on the upper half.

Look for Meyer to be promoted to Triple-A Rochester before the season concludes.

Kyle Gibson: B+

Kyle Gibson deserves a better grade, but the Rochester Red Wings are not giving him any run support, and I can’t allow myself to give a man with a 1-3 record an A.

Gibson has toed the rubber five times this year and has given up 10 runs, so on average two runs a game.

That’s right, he has a 1-3 record on only 10 runs scored. Gibson has an ERA of 3.33 in 27 innings of work. He has struck out 26 batters and has only given up one home run and nine walks.

With each start, he progresses toward the major leagues—which may come sooner than later. Looking at you, Mike Pelfrey.

With Gibson building up and finding his control after Tommy John surgery, it may be a month or two before we see him with the Twins, but I would be shocked—or something went horrible wrong—if he doesn’t sport a Twins uniform before the end of the season.

Oswaldo Arcia: B+

Oswaldo Arcia is in an interesting situation on the grading scale. He was doing very good in Triple-A early this year and now is starting to adjust to the major league level.

Between the two levels, Arcia has a batting average of .307, which is bumped up drastically by a .394 average in Triple-A. In the majors, Arcia has two home runs and seven RBI; he has one more of each in two more games played with the Red Wings.

The main difference between Arcia’s stats between Triple-A and the major leagues is his slugging percentage. He was slugging .726 with the Red Wings and now is only slugging .390 with the Twins.

Arcia is starting to hit better with the Twins, which will make it interesting when Darin Mastroianni is ready to come off the DL with center fielder Aaron Hicks also starting to heat up.

Arcia may be bouncing back and forth between Triple-A and Target Field for a good portion of the summer, unless the injury bug bites the Twins again. Then he may not see another pitch at Triple-A.

Trevor May: B-

If you want a really good grade as a pitcher, you need to have a really good ERA, Trevor May doesn’t have that at the moment. Through five starts and a 1-1 record, May sports a 4.62 ERA.

4.62 isn’t a great ERA, but we all have seen worse. In 25.1 innings this season over five games, May has given up 13 runs, 16 walks and only three home runs with 24 strikeouts.

In two starts this year, he only pitched four innings, with his longest outing being seven.

It appears so far that May has a little bit of work to do in the minors. If things go well, he will probably pitch some at Triple-A. If all heck breaks out with the Twins, he may even be summoned to duty since he has a spot on the coveted 40-man roster.

Eddie Rosario: A

If Sano doesn’t lead the Florida State League in it, Eddie Rosario does! For the most part anyway, and it really sounds cooler that way.

Basically the two major hitting categories that Sano didn’t have the lead in were runs and hits; those are the two categories Rosario leads with 23 runs and 36 hits.

Throw in a .346 average and an OPS of .924, and Rosario makes a pretty productive second baseman. Expect him to shoot through the minors alongside his teammate, Sano.

Rosario’s situation as an MLB call-up is a tad trickier since Brian Dozier has been playing much better comparatively to Trevor Plouffe, but soon enough the second base job will belong to Rosario.

I’d expect a move up to Double-A for sure with a good chance at some Triple-A appearances as well for Rosario in 2013.

Jose Berrios: B-

Every pitcher in the Twins' top 10 has made five starts, but Jose Berrios has only made two, which lowers his grade down to a B-.

In two starts, he has a record of 2-0 with an ERA of 2.31. In 11.2 innings of work, he’s only given up three runs on 11 hits and two walks. Thirteen strikeouts over two games is nothing to sneeze at either.

The real thing for Berrios this season is to see how he does going forward since he’s so young.

It scares me that he’s young only because he is two months younger than me. Berrios will not turn 19 until the 27th of this month.

Slow and steady progression for the youngster.

Danny Santana: C-

On April 22, Danny Santana was hitting .250, and now only a week and a half later he is hitting .225. That’s not the way you want to be going as a ballplayer.

Over the last 10 games, Santana has been held hitless five times; he has an on-base percentage of .190 over that same span.

In 23 games, Santana has struck out eight times as much as he has walked, with 16 strikeouts and only two walks.

He has to step it up if he wants to join the moving and shaking many of the Twins minor leaguers will be doing this season. If he doesn’t, Santana may be left in the dust by some very hot prospects.

Joe Benson: D+

I’m feeling generous to good, old William Joseph Benson; he is starting to heat up. In fact, Benson has a nice little seven-game hitting streak going for him, which has raised his season batting average to .217.

Just a week and a half ago it was sitting at an average of .170.

His other main stats so far for the season include one home run, three RBI and four stolen bases. Not ideal for Benson.

He had a very cold spring training and a cold start to the Triple-A season, but it appears as if he may, like the weather, be heating up.

Benson could find himself at the major league level sometime this season if injuries occur or if his hot streak becomes too hot to handle in Rochester. Otherwise, expect him to spend most of his summer in Rochester with a possible appearance or two in the majors.