Top 15 Prospects: #3
By Fetch
Who: Ben Revere
Position: OF
How Acquired: 2007 Draft, 1st round (28 overall)
Highest level reached in 09: High A
When Revere was drafted in the 1st round, a lot of people were puzzled. He was rumored to be outside the top 100 on some people’s draft boards. But the Twins took him anyway, and they have been rewarded. Revere hasn’t had a below average year with the bat yet, as the toolsy outfielder has posted wOBAs of .398, .436 and .354. Revere puts a lot of balls in play (7.7% walk rate, 7.3% strikeout rate last year), so he of course will depend on his footspeed (which is excellent) and opposing defenses (which are getting better) to maintain his good numbers.
His BABIP dropped from .416 to .330 last year, and as defenses get better that, as well as his other numbers, figures to drop a bit. However, Revere has been compared to Ichiro, and while I’m not saying that he will be as good as Ichiro, Ichiro has a career .357 BABIP. There’s no reason why, with Revere’s footspeed, he can’t be close to that and end up being 80% of Ichiro offensively.
Defensively, Revere is amazingly fast, but has a weak arm (usually profiled as a 30 on the 20-80 scouting scale) so he will probably be playing left field in the majors. Revere probably has 2 more years of minor league seasoning before he is in the majors, but Revere is probably my favorite player in the system, so I can’t wait to see him.