Prospect Profile: Ben Revere

Ben Revere

Profile: OF - 5'9" - 180lbs -BT:L - TH:R - 2011 Age: 23

Tools:

• Hit: 60-70
• Power: 25-30
• Eye: 40-50
• Range:  55-65
• Hands: 55-60
• Arm: 30-35
• Run: 70-75

Background:

The Twins turned heads around baseball when they made Revere their first round pick (28th overall) in the 2007 draft. At the time the consensus was that the Twins had taken Revere - who was a 3rd-4th round talent on most board - to save money. Revere would, in fact, sign for just $750,000, one of the smallest signing bonuses of any 1st round pick this decade. Still, the Twins insisted that they took him because he was the highest rated player on their draft board and not to be stingy.

For his part, Revere has done everything possible to prove them right, racking up awards and flirting with a .400 average for much of his 2008 season. He even made his MLB debut last year after he made an amazing quick recovery after being hit in the face by a pitch in AA. He lacks the full talent sets that many top prospects do, but he does a few things very well, and those things make him a valuable talent. 

On offense Revere combines good hands and a balanced swing that allows him to consistently barrel balls and he'll spray line drives and ground balls all over the field. His swing is compact and clean and when he turns his hips into a pitch, he can drive the gaps. For the most part however, he's more of a slap-and-run hitter. He has a good eye for pitches, though he's an aggressive hitter who likes to put the ball in play and wont take many walks. Once the ball is in play, he can use his plus-plus speed to turn balls in the gap into doubles and triples and beat out otherwise routine infield grounders for hits.

Defensively he doesn't have the range you'd generally expect from someone with his speed. He doesn't seem to get great reads and he hurts himself with his route running. Both of those areas are improvable of course but he's been playing the outfield for long enough now that I'm actually a tad surprised by his lack of polish in this regard. He can make up for a lot of that and still have very good range simply because he's fast enough to outrun so many of his mistakes. His big weakness defensively is his arm, which is very poor, and along with his power, his weakest skill. He's got a center fielders range, but his arm will likely limit him to left field.


Performance Analysis:

Year	Age	Level	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	wOBA	ISO	BABIP	LD%	BB%	K%
2007	19	RK	216	.325	.384	.461	.845	.369	.136	.363	11%	6.0%	10.5%
2008	20	A	373	.378	.429	.496	.925	.403	.118	.414	15%	7.2%	9.1%
2009	21	A+	517	.311	.371	.369	.740	.336	.058	.333	16%	7.7%	7.3%
2010	22	AA	405	.305	.370	.363	.733	.332	.058	.342	17%	7.9%	11.4%
2010	22	MLB	30	.179	.233	.179	.412	.198	.000	.217	9%	6.7%	17.9%

Revere's greatest strength is his ability to hit for average and turn then create havoc on the bases. Still, his line drive rates are lower than I'd like to see for someone who will need to sustain a high BABIP in order to carry his MiLB production over to the Major Leagues. Either way, Revere won't produce impressive OPS or wOBA marks and will need to rely on his base stealing ability and defense to help bolster his overall value.


Projection:

A lot of people compare Revere to Juan Pierre and there is a lot of good reason for that comparison. As players, their performance has been nearly identical. Not certain they'll translate exactly the same - Pierre hits quite a few more line drives. I do have some fear that he's more Tony Gwynn Jr. than Pierre.

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Corey Ettinger is a Senior Writer for Baseball Digest as well as a proud contributor to both 612Sports.net, 312Sports.com, and 313sports.com. He also provides extensive analysis of the American League Central Division at his own blog, AL Central In Focus. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @Coreyettinger for the latest updates, random thoughts and general tomfoolery.