Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Last week I reported on the origins of the Pleiss brothers’ Twins prospect challenge. A year into the process, a year that saw eight Twins make their MLB debuts, Eric and I decided to make a change to the prospect challenge.  A quick review of the rules for the prospect challenge, in case any of you here on the Pond want to join: Each person gets to select a position player for each position, three RHP and three LHP. Any player chosen who debuts in MLB within three years of selection will earn one point.  The person with the most points each year is declared the winner.  Last year I picked Scott Diamond as one of my selections, and as a Rule-5 draft pick, he was virtually guaranteed to get called up to the Twins for his MLB debut when theyheaded north out of Ft Myers. To prevent easy pickings like this, and to put more emphasis on projections and predictions we made a very simple, and yet very challenging rule change. Going forward, no prospect who has played above AA is elligible for selection in the prospect challenge.  In addition to the rule change, a year of following prospects and REALLY following the Twins from the top of the organization on down, I learned a lot that I’ll be putting to use for this year’s prospect challenge.   (more…)

Back in January, I wrote about Hollimon as part of the Twins non-roster invitee series. The conclusion I drew from my research on him was that the was a talented switch-hitting middle infielder with power, but that some bad breaks had slowed his trip through the minors. Recently, I received a little more information to fill in the gaps. If anything, the new information makes me more likely to root for Mike Hollimon and watch his performance with interest this spring.

In the original article, I mentioned that Hollimon had suffered a shoulder injury back in 2008. That injury was actually just one of many that have plagued his career. The injuries started back in 2002, when he was a freshman for the University of Texas team that won the College World Series. Hollimon tore the labrum in his hip joint and had surgery that fall. The hip problems would probably explain the slip in his numbers during his sophomore year. After being drafted by the Tigers he got a callup to the Big Leagues in 2008, but he was diagnosed with a torn labrum in his left shoulder after the season was over. He got back to health in time for the 2009 season, only to tear the labrum in his right shoulder after just 29 games. In total, Hollimon has suffered three torn labrum injuries – which is one more labrum than I even knew the human body had! Still, he has kept battling to get back to the Major Leagues.

If that doesn’t make you root for Hollimon, perhaps his Minnesota connection will. He may not appear to be a local boy at first glance, since he was born in and went to college in Texas, but his family hails from Minnesota. Both of his parents, as well as one of his uncles, attended St. Olaf College. Another uncle went to the U of M, and many of his family members still live in the Twin Cities (so they’d be rooting for the Twins even if Mike was not on the team).

Mike Hollimon (shown here with the Tigers in a 2008 photo) hit a three run home run today against New York. Photo by Michael Sackett-US PRESSWIRE

Perhaps its his hearty Minnesota constitution that has allowed him to rebound from so many injuries that would have ended the career of a lesser player. Whatever the explanation, today’s massive home run proves that Holliimon still has some power and promise. If he keeps that up, we might see Hollimon in the Major Leagues at some point this year.

Danny Rams joins the vast army of Twins' Non-Roster Invitees. Photo Source

Spring Training is fast becoming a free for all for the Twins. Earlier this week they invited catcher Danny Rams to Fort Myers. Rams is the 27th non-roster invitee in camp this season. There is good reason to think he might be the last. First, Spring Training has already begun, and any other invitees would be crashing the party pretty late. Second, Rams took the last unoccupied locker stall in the Hammond Stadium clubhouse. If the Twins feel the need to bring someone else in, they’d better hope he packs light!

To say that Rams is unlikely to win a spot with the Twins would be a massive understatement. He is an intriguing prospect, but he yet to spend a full season above Class A ball (he did make a cameo at AA in 2010, but it lasted only 14 plate appearances). Rams is in camp primarily to help ensure that the abundance of pitchers (33 of them) has enough catchers to catch their pitches. Rams is the ninth catcher in camp with the Twins, joining Major Leaguers Joe Mauer, Drew Butera, and Ryan Doumit and non-roster invitees Chris Herrmann, Danny Lehmann, Rene Rivera, Daniel Rohlfing, and JR Towles.

The Twins website does not list Rams’s jersey number yet. He wore number 35 with the Ft. Myers Miracle last year, but for some reason I do not think Ron Gardenhire might not let him wear that one with the Twins.

The 23 year old Rams can hit for power. That is probably why the Twins felt confident spending a second round draft pick on him in 2007. In 2009 he began putting up solid homer numbers with 13 in 250 at bats. The next season he socked 16 homers in 421 at bats. His power dropped this season to just eight homers in 309 at bats, but we can probably forgive him that, because he was playing in the Florida State League all year, and it’s tough to hit one out of that league’s spacious stadiums.

But Rams’s tendency to whiff is as disturbing as his power is encouraging. In 2008 at Elizabethton, he struck out in 42.8% of his plate appearances! Since then, he’s reached triple digits in strikeouts every year: 102 in 2009, 154 in 2010, and 100 last year. Getting on base is a problem, too. Rams has a career OBP of just .310. The good news is that his strikeout rates have steadily declined since that 2008 campaign. From 2009 through 2011, his rates were 36.3%, 33.2%, and 29.2%. It’s doubtful that Rams will ever be a disciplined hitter, but if he can continue to drop those rates for the next couple of seasons, he could start rising up the Twins’ top prospect lists.

Since Rams is a catcher, it’s okay to forgive some shortcomings. Strong hitting catchers are incredibly rare, so a catcher with one hitting tool (in Rams’s case, power) can be a Major League asset. If Rams gets a shot at New Britain this season, he may have more of a chance to display that power than he did in 2011. In the meantime, I hope the Twins manage to get Rams a couple of Spring Training at bats. If he can run into one and hit a long home run, that kind of image will make a big impression down the road.

This was the 27th piece in a 25 part series on the Twins’ non-roster invitees. If the Twins defy logic and invite someone else, you can expect Puckett’s Pond to do number 28 soon afterward. Bring it on! If you would like to read the first 26 articles in this series, you can find them here.