More on Baseball America's Twins prospects list

Byron Buxton is No. 2 on Baseball America's list
of Twins prospects.

Tuesday wasn't just the day the Twins moved eight minor leaguers to the 40-man roster. It was also the day Baseball America posted its Twins prospect material online.

Plenty of places offer opinions on minor leaguers. Baseball America's advantage is that it has a well-deserved reputation for reflecting the conventional wisdom in the sport. If BA says Daniel Santana is the best shortstop prospect in the Twins system, it's quite likely that the Twins see it that way also.

This Twins list was compiled by John Manuel, BA co-editor. Some highlights from his chat Tuesday (password protected):

• Manuel is clearly taken by Byron Buxton's talent: Byron Buxton is a total stud. It's hard not to get really, really excited about him. ... Wow was Buxton fun to watch.;
• Miguel Sano and Buxton might be the best pair of position prospects in the minors;
• J.O. Berrios, the Twins supplemental rounder, may force his way up the ladder at a faster pace than the Twins would prefer. Manuel:  I think his combination of stuff and polish at his age is pretty exciting.;
• Manuel says the odds are that Eddie Rosario will wind up back in the outfield. The key, oddly, is how well Rosario hits; the better the bat, the more willing the Twins will be to live with a subpar glove at second.
• He expects the Twins to be focused on pitchers with the fourth pick in next summer's draft. Buxton was just too good to pass over, he says, but there are no Buxtons in the coming class.

The last of the originals

Jim Rantz, with Tony Oliva by his side, turns in the Twins
first-round draft pick in 2008.

Jim Rantz, who has run the Twins farm system since 1986, announced his retirement Monday as the Twins began their organizational meetings in Fort Myers, Fla.

Rantz has been part of the Twins organization from the moment Calvin Griffith moved the franchise to the Twin Cities from Washington -- minor league pitcher, minor league manager, public relations, scouting, farm system. Fifty-two years in professional baseball, all with one team -- and his hometown team at that (he's from St. Paul).

His biggest claim to fame: He's the guy who found Kirby Puckett while watching his son play college ball in Illinois.

Rantz is 75, so this may very well be purely his choice, and he told the Star Tribune that he had told general manager Terry Ryan a year ago that 2012 would be his last year.

Still, in the wake of the coaching staff shakeup, some may have figured that Ryan wanted to make some changes in that part of the organization as well. That thought certainly crossed my mind. But judging from Ryan's comments, that's not the case. Brad Steil, Rantz's assistant, was named interim farm director Monday, and I've seen immediate speculation that the interim tag will be fairly quickly removed.

Either way, there's an opening, and it will be interesting to see if Ryan promotes from within or looks outside the organization for a farm director. My guess is that he'll stay in-house.

Considering the prospects

A fresh issue of Baseball America arrived Thursday, and this one features Top 20 prospects for each league in organized ball.

The Twins prospects aren't particularly prominent on these lists, which perhaps figures. They've spent most of the past decade drafting in the bottom half, and until this year haven't been particularly active in pursuing the top level talent in the Caribbean basin.

Here, league by league, are the Twins ranked prospects:

International League (Triple A): None

Eastern League (Double A): Wilson Ramos, C, 8. Missed half the season with injuries but performed well. Two other EL catchers are ranked ahead of him, but one (Jesus Montero, Yankees, No. 5) may not make it to the majors as a catcher.

Florida State League (High A): Ben Revere, OF, 8; Carlos Gutierrez, RHP, 11; David Bromberg, RHP, 15; Chris Parmelee, 1B/OF, 17.

Easily the best collection for the Twins, which perhaps figures; Revere, Gutierrez and Parmelee were all first-round picks (Bromberg went in the 32nd round). Revere (above) had just 19 extra base hits, which renews the red flag about his size (5-9, 166 pounds). But it's a pitchers league — kids playing at low altitude on fields built to house major league spring training. Which makes Parmelee's 16 homers and 44 extra base hits a bit more impressive.

Of this bunch, Gutierrez is the best bet to be the first to the majors.

Midwest League (Low A) : Aaron Hicks, OF, 1. It's not that he tore up the MWL; he didn't. But he demonstrated the athletic ability the scouts saw in high school — and a rare sense of plate discipline.

BA quotes a National League scout: "He's the most dynamic, projectable position player I saw. He can play a premium position and he has a chance to be a five-tool guy."

He's just 19, and it will be awhile. But he is going to be something special.

Appalachian League (High Rookie): Tyler Ladendorf, SS, 12. And he's out of the system, traded to Oakland for Orlando Cabrera.

Elizabethton, the Twins affiliate, had a big year, but apparently didn't impress the scouts much.

Gulf Coast League (Low Rookie): Adrian Salcedo, RHP, 6; B.J Hermsen, RHP, 11. Salcedo's stats are off the charts. Three walks and 58 strikeouts? A good example of why stats on levels that low aren't necessarily meaningful. For that matter, Hermsen had 4 walks, 42 Ks.

How much can you harvest?

Jim Souhan of the Star Tribune this week provided a lengthy critique of the Twins scouting and player development operations. As he sees it, the farm system is at the root of the major league team's current plight:

Their numerous call-ups haven't helped, and scouts from other organizations have privately said the Twins would have been hard-pressed to make a deal at the trading deadline because they don't have much big-league ready, front-line talent in the minors.

True enough. But he understates an underlying truth behind that sentence:

The Twins' top-line talent was already in the major leagues.

The problem isn't that the system has failed to produce major league talent — it's that the talent that has had some major league success regressed. Alexi Casilla. Francisco Liriano. Jesse Crain. Or it got hurt. Pat Neshek. Boof Bonser.

The problem isn't that when they needed a 10th starter it was Armando Gabino. It's that they needed a 10th starter, period.

The problem isn't that Kevin Slowey (drafted in 2005) and Glen Perkins ('04)— weren't in Rochester to be called up when injuries and ineffectiveness crippled the starting rotation. The problem is that Slowey was one of the injured and Perkins one of the ineffective.

Yes, there have been failed draft picks. Everybody has 'em. The Twins took Matt Moses in the first round in 2003, and wish now they hadn't. They also took Scott Baker in the second round that year. There are a lot of teams that wish they'd taken him earlier.

The Bill James Handbook annually ranks organizations by the amount of young major league talent. It's a formula that weights age and accomplishment; Joe Mauer is accomplished but not all that young anymore. The Twins this spring ranked No. 1 in young talent. From James' essay:

The Twins have not a single player in the top 25, but they have six players in the top 50, eight in the top 120, and 10 in the op 150. The average team has five in the top 150; the Twins have 10 ... the Twins rank seven in the majors in young pitching talent, and first in non-pitching talent.

I expect the Twins to fall off in that ranking next winter. The young talent is a bit older, and a lot of it looks less impressive now.

But that's not the farm system's fault.