Puckett’s Pond Top 20 Minnesota Twins Prospect List: Prospects #16-20
By Nate Palmer
#16 Akil Baddoo
After a brief detour, we are back to a highly talented 18-year old in Akil Baddoo. Baddoo is an outfielder who the Twins drafted out of high school in the 2nd round of the 2016 Amateur Draft. He is spending 2017 in the Gulf Coast League where he is setting the table for guys like Royce Lewis. Baddoo is slashing .279/.372/.471 and has 1 home run, 4 doubles, and 3 triples in 78 plate appearances.
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Baddoo is raw and a project. Longenhagen mentions speed and a feel for hitting as Baddoo’s strengths. Those two tools give Baddoo high upside, but also a lot of volatility to what he may actually become. Best case scenario would be for the speedy outfielder to develop enough defensively to stay in center-field where his value would be the highest.
Maybe the best way for Twins fans to understand the type of talent Baddoo possesses is to know that he has drawn comparisons to Torii Hunter. While his body and skills have a long way to go before he resembles who Hunter was in a Twins’ uniform, he is part of an exciting GCL team for the Twins in the present. The team will work with him to see if Baddoo can become the next in a long line of successful high school center fielders to come through the Twins’ system.
Next: Magical Run of Bartolo Colon
That concludes numbers 16-20. How did we do so far? Come back to check out the rest of the list and see who Puckett’s Pond ranked at the top of the organization!