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Graduating Prospects Besides Guerrero Jr., other top ranked prospects like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Eloy Jimenez have been on their big league squads since the season started. Both of these top prospects have taken different routes to baseball’s highest level. That being said, both will be graduating from prospect lists early this season. Jimenez signed a unique contact with the division rival White Sox this off-season. A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the possibility of the Twins approaching Royce Lewis and/or Alex Kirilloff with a similar deal. With a deal like this, there was no reason to keep Jimenez in the minors. He was under contract and the team could let him play at the big league level. Tatis Jr. was a surprise to make the Padres roster out of spring training. Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer took out Padres ownership to convince them to let the young prospect make the team. It was a smart move as the shortstop has been carrying their squad this season. Entering play on Monday, he’s batting .300 with a .910 OPS and 12 extra-base hits in 27 games. Lewis’s Competition Lewis is off to a slow start this season so there are plenty of other prospects challenging him for the top spot. Names like Alex Kirilloff, Wander Franco, and Nick Senzel have resumes that warrant consideration for baseball’s top prospect. Twins fans are very familiar with Kirilloff and what he was able to do last season. At Twins Daily, he was named the Minor League Hitter of the Year. MiLB.com also awarded Kirilloff with the Breakout Prospect of the Year. His 71 extra-base hits and 296 total bases ranked as best in the minors. Unfortunately, he has missed time at the beginning of this season with a wrist injury. Franco is 18-years old and he might be on pace to be a better prospect than Guerrero. He’s shown an advanced bat and he has all the makings of a five-tool superstar. Like Kirilloff, Senzel started the season battling an injury. He is starting the year at Triple-A, but he is close to big league ready. Senzel has been ranked as a top-10 prospect by multiple entities for the last three seasons. Slow Start Lewis hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire to start the season. Entering play on Monday, he has gone 17-for-87 (.195 BA) with three extra-base hits. His .538 OPS is 265 points lower than the OPS he compiled last season at Low- and High-A. He’s 20-years old which still makes his 2.4 years younger than the competition in the Florida State League. The slow start shouldn’t be anything to be concerned about. He still has elite speed to go along with strong hitting acumen. Also, his defense seems like it might be string enough to stick at shortstop which would be a very positive thing. Do you think Lewis is baseball’s best prospect? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

Other AL Previews AL West: Houston, We Don’t Have a Problem Boston Red Sox Boston has a legitimate shot to be the first repeat World Series champion since the Yankees won three-straight from 1998-2000. Mookie Betts is coming off an MVP performance and JD Martinez is one of the best hitters in the game. Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr. join Betts as arguably the best outfield in baseball. Just don’t tell the Yankees. Realistically, the line-up doesn’t really have a hole from top to bottom and their bench adds depth as well. On the mound, Chris Sale needs to be back to his healthy self. David Price looked great in the postseason, but will that transition to the regular season? The bullpen might be the one thing preventing a Boston repeat. Craig Kimbrel and Joe Kelly are gone, and Steven Wright was suspended for 80-games. Matt Barnes will take over closer duties and he has a career 4.14 ERA. A strong line-up will keep the Red Sox in the division, but the pitching staff has some questions. New York Yankees While Boston’s bullpen is cloudy, New York’s bullpen might be one of the best in baseball history. Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino, and Chad Green make it seem like the late-innings are all but locked down in the Bronx. In the rotation, Masahiro Tanaka hasn’t exactly been a work-horse, as he has never pitched 200 innings in a season. Luis Severino’s shoulder is a question mark. This means James Paxton is going to need to acclimate to New York in a hurry. New York’s line-up is anchored by power hitters Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Former Twin Aaron Hicks rounds out a terrific trio of outfielders. Gleyber Torres, Gary Sanchez, and Miguel Andujar add depth to the line-up. Troy Tulowitzki is trying to fill in for Didi Gregorius. Could the former Rockies star provide some magic before Gregorius returns? New York’s offense and bullpen should separate them from the pack, and they should win the division for the first time since 2012. Tampa Bay Rays Tampa Bay is coming off a 90-win season, and it could be tough to run with the big dogs ahead of them in the AL East. Cy Young winner Blake Snell is joined at the top of the rotation by Charlie Morton and Tyler Glasnow. All three of these pitchers will be relied on heavily if the club is going to make any kind of run at a playoff spot. The Rays official depth chart only lists three players in the rotation and then a bunch of arms in the bullpen. Tampa created the opener strategy last season and it seems likely for the club to use this strategy again in 2019. Mike Zunino will take over behind the plate after years in Seattle. He joins a young core that includes the likes of Willy Adames, Austin Meadows, Yandy Diaz, and Avisail Garcia. Younger players can be a fickle bunch. Sometimes they can come together, find some magic, and put together some great performances on the field. Other times, they can get into prolonged slumps. Tampa can’t afford a slump in a top-heavy AL East. Toronto Blue Jays Toronto’s biggest excitement this season will come when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. makes his much-anticipated debut. The team will keep him in the minor leagues until they can pick up an extra year of service time because the Blue Jays don’t have much of a shot to compete this year. Bo Bichette, another top prospect, will also make his debut in 2019. For now, the likes of Justin Smoak, Kevin Pillar, and Kendrys Morales will hold down the fort. Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez will lead the rotation. Stroman is looking to bounce back after pitching to a 5.54 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP. He also failed to reach 200 innings pitched for the first time since 2015. Sanchez has pitched fewer than 150 innings the last two seasons combined. Toronto hopes the 2016 version (192 IP and a 3.00 ERA) of Sanchez shows up again. Toronto has a great farm system, but the players are just starting to emerge this season. Baltimore Orioles If you think things got bad in Minnesota in recent years, think about the Orioles losing 115 games last season. That’s a whole lot of nothing happening at Camden Yards. Manny Machado was dealt away and found his way to San Diego this off-season. Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo can hit for some power, but Davis is coming off a horrific season at the plate. Dylan Bundy, Andrew Cashner, and Alex Cobb are at the top of the rotation. Those three arms might be able to keep Baltimore in some close games. However, it seems more likely for this team to be on its way to another 100 losses. What do you think about the AL East? Can the Yankees beat out the Red Sox? Does Tampa have enough for a Wild Card spot? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

Age: 21 (DOB: 11/9/1997) 2018 Stats (Low-A/High-A): .348/.392/.578, 44 2B, 20 HR, 7 3B, 4-for-7 in stolen base attempts ETA: 2020 2018 Ranking: 5 National Top 100 Rankings BA: 31 |MLB: 9 | ESPN: 11 |BP: 39 What’s To Like Kirilloff can hit. That might be the understatement of the century. He might be the best hitting prospect in the minor leagues not named Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He’s been hitting for his entire life, as his dad runs baseball camps and clinics. He could have shown some rust last season, but he quickly made it known that he would be a force to be reckoned with. He started the season in Cedar Rapids and hit .333/.391/.607 with 38 extra-base hits in 65 games. Among Midwest League hitters with at least 280 at-bats, his .999 OPS was the highest. Once he was promoted Fort Myers, he continued to hit. In 65 games in the Florida State League, he hit .362/.393/.550 with 33 extra-base hits. He led the Twins system in hits, doubles, and RBI. His 71 total extra-base hits and 296 total bases each led the minor leagues. At season’s end, the accolades came rolling in. The Twins named him the Twins Minor League Player of the Year and Twins Daily named him the Minor League Hitter of the Year. MiLB.com named him as the Breakout Prospect of the Year. He represented the Twins in MLB’s Futures Game during All-Star Weekend. He was also a midseason and post-season All-Star in the Midwest League. Kirilloff can spray the ball all over the field. His spray chart from last season is a thing of beauty (see below). Even with a left-handed swing, he has power to the opposite field. In fact, he had more doubles and more home runs to the opposite field than from pulling the ball. https://twitter.com/MLBPipeline/status/1092798484443480070 What’s Left To Work On Kirilloff destroyed the ball last season so there was really no reason for him to try to draw a ton of walks. He is very aggressive at the plate and so his OBP was only slightly higher than his batting average. As he gets closer to the big leagues, hitting against more advanced pitchers could mean that he will need to be more patient. He knows the strike zone well and he will need to continue to prove that at Double- and Triple-A. His year off following Tommy John surgery might have been a blessing in disguise. For months, he wasn’t able to work on his swing, so he was able to develop his core and the lower half of his body. “It was total body strength,” he told MiLB.com. “I wanted to get all-around stronger. When they make you come in and work out every day, you don’t really have much choice. You’re going to get stronger. Everything happens for a reason, and maybe that was what I needed.” On the defensive side of the ball, he played some center field in high school, so he has plenty of athletic ability. As he has bulked up in the minors, he has moved to a corner outfield spot. At some point, he might need to move to first base, but he has a good arm and should be able to stick in right field. What’s Next Target Field… OK, that might be a stretch, but his bat could carry him to Minnesota by season’s end. Minnesota could decide to keep him at Fort Myers to start the year, but it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if he started the year in Pensacola. Prospects of his caliber don’t necessarily need time at Triple-A so he could be called up directly from Double-A. Minnesota’s outfield is full at the moment with Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, and Eddie Rosario. However, an injury or poor play by one of these players could expedite Kirilloff’s timeline. Right now, I think his bat could hold its own at the big league level. Twins Daily 2019 Top 20 Prospects Honorable Mentions 20. Jose Miranda, 2B/3B 19. Jorge Alcala, RHP 18. LaMonte Wade, OF 17. Zack Littell, RHP 16. Gilberto Celestino, OF 15. Yunior Severino, 2B 14. Ben Rortvedt, C 13. Ryan Jeffers, C 12. Stephen Gonsalves, LHP 11. Nick Gordon, SS 10. Akil Baddoo, OF 9. Blayne Enlow, RHP 8. Lewis Thorpe, LHP 7. Jhoan Duran, RHP 6. Brent Rooker, 1B/LF 5. Wander Javier, SS 4. Trevor Larnach, OF 3. Brusdar Graterol, RHP 2. Alex Kirilloff, OF TD Top Prospects: #1- COMING TOMORROW Get to know more about Larnach and many more minor league players in the 2019 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook. ORDER NOW: 2019 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook (paperback, $17.99) ORDER NOW: 2019 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook (eBook, $12.99) The 2019 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook goes in-depth and provides player bios, scouting reports, statistics and much more on almost 160 Twins minor leaguers.

Seth Stohs I have no idea, but it needs to. When diehards like myself have a hard time getting through nine innings anymore, something might be wrong. So many pitching changes. Shifting not only on every batter, but dependent on count. So many swings and misses. I know it is no longer cool to say it, but I miss the old game. The crisp pitching, batters not being so passive. There's a reason I tweet "Have I mentioned how much I love watching Eddie Rosario play baseball? That said, I don't think they can or should eliminate shifts. I definitely don't think Jim Kaat's seven-inning game idea is a good idea. Analytics and over-thinking everything are now part of the game and that isn't going away. So I think we're just going to have to grin and bear it. Strikeout. Walks. Home Runs. More bullpen usage. It's all here to stay, and there are some that like that, and it can be fun at times... But it will be hard to grow this game in the States with this pace of play situation as it is and getting worse. My hope is that this great game will continue to evolve, as it has for 140-150 years to make itself better. No one wants to get rid of tradition, but something needs to happen. Tom Froemming In terms of the on-field product, a lot of what may happen will depend upon what happens to the actual baseball itself, in my opinion. If MLB tries to "deaden" the ball, teams will start to value hitters who put the ball in play more often. Otherwise, things will keep escalating in the direction they're going and soon defense will become a relative afterthought due to the lack of balls put in play. The MLB's current labor agreement with the umpires ends after next season. I think we'll see some of the framework for an automated strike zone in their next agreement. While "robo umps" would be a welcome sight, they'd also tie into the devaluation of defense. Catcher framing goes extinct if that ever happens. What else? Expansion, probably. Universal DH, probably. Players continue to fight pace of play changes, resulting in games becoming even longer. The 2028 NL Manager of the Year award goes to a 23-year-old rookie skipper who is a recent computer science grad from MIT. Bartolo Colon leads the league in innings that season. Cody Christie The year is 2028… Separated by two votes in the final tally, Royce Lewis narrowly takes home the American League MVP Award after beating out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Mike Trout could have won his record setting eighth MVP but he finished a distant third. The Twins have been in three straight ALCS but the 2028 season saw the club finally break-through and win the club’s fourth AL Pennant. The World Series came back to Minnesota. While this utopian idea of the year 2028 sounds great to Twins fans, things need to change with the game. Here are some of the things I foresee happening over the next decade. 20 second pitch clock Universal designated hitter Relievers must face multiple batters Shifts will continued to be allowed Replay will be quicker and used more frequently Expansion will also add two teams to Montreal, Canada and Portland, Oregon. As I wrote about last October, expansion would mean a shift in the divisions and the removal of two leagues. I also think the number of games will be dropped to around 156. This would also allow for the playoffs to expand to 12 teams with four division winners (first round byes) and four wild card games. SD Buhr I'll let the others dwell on MLB, though I do believe we will have 32 teams and a 154 game schedule. But since the question just said "baseball," I'm going to mention the changes I see coming for minor league ball. The current agreement between MLB and MiLB expires in 2020 and therefore no affiliation agreements have been extended beyond that year. I believe there will be some significant changes, most notably a reduction in the number of affiliations, perhaps even elimination of 1-2 entire classes of minor league ball. Baseball currently has 3 levels of short-season ball, though few teams field teams at all 3 levels. Add 4 full-season levels and that makes 7 minor league levels in the US (plus those in Latin America). I'll predict that one level of short-season will be eliminated and it's POSSIBLE that there will no longer be two levels of Class A ball. MLB was threatening minor league teams with contraction to get them to shore up Congressional support during the debate over minor league pay. But now that they won that battle, there's no reason to think MLB wouldn't contract anyway. Bottom line is that I believe there will be fewer minor league teams and that means roster spots for fewer minor league players. I suspect that means a worldwide draft and/or fewer rounds in the US draft. Ted Schwerzler Given the consistent cries for the pace of play to be addressed, baseball is going to need to change one way or another. I don’t believe the issues are dire, but Rob Manfred seems set on changing the game. I do believe we’ll see electronic strike zones sooner rather than later, and that’s a good thing. Specialization has become a large portion of the game and I don’t foresee that going away. I’m not sure what other on-field changes are in store, but a decade from now it will be fun to see Mike Trout having overtaken the last few of Babe Ruth’s numbers. Steve Lein What will happen and what I’d like to see happen are probably two different things. On the latter side, I think there needs to be a shift in the type of game they try to promote, with the recent All-Star Game being a great example of the problem I see. A new record was set for both the number of home runs (10), and strikeouts (25) by both teams (as would have the 23 K’s in nine-innings). We’re seeing a historically low amount of balls-in-play as home runs and strikeouts have been on the rise. To keep future fans into the game, this trend needs to go in the other direction in my opinion. Nobody likes seeing as much “nothing” happening in a game as there is now. Dingers are sweet, but also alter the pacing of a game negatively. As for the former, I think the juiced ball will get fixed. I also think rules relating to shifting are going to be implemented. I do love the strategy of it on defense, while also thinking hitters should just take the damn base when it’s given to them. But for the prior reasons mentioned above, this just isn’t the game promoted or taught anymore. While this won't increase balls-in-play, it would allow more action to occur during a game instead of groundouts into the outfield. If you missed any of the most recent roundtable discussions, here are the links: Floundered Second Half Star Sell, Sell, Sell? Fixing the Offense Romero’s Rotation Spot