More league prospects lists

Eddie Rosario: Can he stick at second?

Last week, as Baseball America began to roll out online its league-by-league top prospects lists, I posted about the Twins minor leaguers on two of those lists.

Today BA's website features its Top 20 for the Midwest League. Miguel Sano is No. 2, and Eddie Rosario is No. 12. Those two are the only Twins on the list.

Jim Callis wrote the MWL reports, and he's the same BA staffer who suggested in a recent online chat that Rosario did not take well enough to second base to stick there. So it should be no surprise that that evaluation is aired in the (subscriber-only) scouting report on Rosario:

While he worked diligently on his defense, scouts don't think his hands, range or throwing are good enough for second base. His average speed may not bode well for a long-term fit in center field either.

We'll learn soon enough, I suppose, if the Twins organization agrees with that assessment.

BA/Callis also suggest that Sano may become an outfielder.

Meanwhile ... the print edition arrived today, and it includes the Top 20 for all the minor leagues, and the scouting reports for the Top 10s.

Other Twins who make lists:

• 1B/OF Chris Parmelee is No. 5 in the International League (Triple A)
• OF Oswaldo Arcia is No. 6 in the Eastern League (Double A) and No. 7 in the Florida State League (High A)
• OF Aaron Hicks is No. 8 in the Eastern League

And, as noted in the previous posts, OF Byron Buxton was No.1 in both the Appy League and the Gulf Coast League, and OF Max Kepler was No. 7 in the Appy League.

Seven unique players, two of them (Buxton and Arcia) on two lists. No pitchers, and its possible (but I think unlikely) that all seven will wind up as outfielders. The lack of sure-thing infielders is discouraging.

One note on the Parmelee ranking: The IL is described as unusually weak in true prospects:

The talent craters quickly after the trio of Matt Harvey, Sterling Marte and Chris Archer at the top. For a Triple-A league, there's a glaring lack of future starting major league position players. ... Most of the hitters on this list profile as complementary players or even reserves.

The actual report on Parmelee is quite positive, however.