Down on the Pond: Prospect Challenge Recap
By Paul Pleiss
For the last two years my brother and I have been playing a game we call the prospect challenge. Each spring we select, from amongst the Twins prospects, players we think will make their MLB debut within the next three seasons. We choose a player for each position and three right handed pitchers and three left handed pitchers. We’re two years into the first prospect challenge, and with the season over I thought it would be a good time to look back and see how things have gone.
Twins related news and notes from the minor leagues
From my picks from 2011 and 2012 have both been a success and a failure. In 2011 neither my brother or I really had any idea what we were doing, and our picks show that; we both picked Miguel Sano to make his debut by the end of 2013. We learned a lot that first year, and I think we made better choices in 2012, but we also added a wrinkle to the game, as of 2012, no player who has played above AA is eligible for selection in the game.
2011 Prospect Selections:
@BaseballPirate | @ERolfPleiss | |
C | Alexander Soto | Danny Rams |
1B | Chris Parmelee | Chris Parmelee |
2B | Steve Singleton | Steve Singleton |
3B | Miguel Sano | James Beresford |
SS | Brian Dozier | Miguel Sano |
OF | Rene Tosoni | Brian Dinkelman |
OF | Joe Benson | Aaron Hicks |
OF | Angel Morales | Joe Benson |
RHP | Kyle Gibson | Kyle Gibson |
RHP | Tom Stuifbergen | Kyle Waldrop |
RHP | Liam Hendriks | Carlos Gutierrez |
LHP | Scott Diamond | Martire Garcia |
LHP | Dan Osterbrock | Dan Osterbrock |
LHP | Pat Dean | Tony Davis |
2012 Prospect Selections:
@BaseballPirate | @ERolfPleiss | |
C | Chris Herrmann | Dan Rohlfing |
1B | Michael Gonzales | Danny Rams* |
2B | Daniel Santana | Yangervis Solarte |
3B | Travis Harrison | James Beresford* |
SS | Brian Dozier* | Brian Dozier |
OF | Oswaldo Arcia | Chris Herrmann |
OF | Aaron Hicks | Aaron Hicks* |
OF | Angel Morales* | Mark Dolenc |
RHP | Adrian Salcedo | B.J. Hermsen |
RHP | Alex Wimmers | Alex Wimmers |
RHP | Bobby Lanigan | Bobby Lanigan |
LHP | Andrew Albers | Andrew Albers |
LHP | Logan Darnell | Dan Osterbrock* |
LHP | Pat Dean* | Pat Dean |
From the 2011 list Eric has 4 points (Parmelee, Dinkelman, Benson, Waldrop) and I have 6 (Benson, Tosoni, Parmelee, Hendriks, Diamond, Dozier). We both snagged 4 points from 2011 call-ups, but I was able to add 2 more in 2012. The call-ups in 2013 will decide the winner of the inaugural Pleiss brother prospect challenge.
From the 2012 list the scores are much lower, as we imposed the AA rule and the Twins didn’t have many call ups from guys who played at AA or below last season. Eric and I both have 2 points(Dozier, Herrmann) for our 2012 lists, but with 2 more seasons to go before this list closes out, we’ll surely have some separation as things go forward into 2014.
This spring, towards the end of Spring Training, Eric and I will again sit down and mash our our lists for 2013. I’ll put up a post on the site and you are welcome and invited to leave your lists in the comments so we can all look back a year from now to see how things went.