Twins Power Outage

The Twins slow start is among the more surprising storylines to the start of the season. This is a club that has won the AL Central six times in the last ten years and never finished lower than third place (2005 and 2007) during that same period. To put it mildly, the Twins have been about as wildly successful as any club can be (excluding the post season). However, the Twins find themselves in an unusual position, last place.

It is still very early in the season, so normally I would feel it is too early to panic. On the other hand, everything seems to be going wrong for the club. Franchise player, superstar catcher Joe Mauer is on the disabled list with “leg weakness”, an absolutely terrifying “condition” given he had knee surgery in the offseason and is signed to a hefty 184 million dollar deal that runs until 2018. Francisco Liriano is having a completely perplexing year pitching with 18 strike outs to 18 walks, 4 home runs and a downright awful ERA of 9.13. Finally Justin Morneau has started very slowly in April after having serious problems with a concussion last season. It just seems like a year where everything that can go wrong will go wrong for this organization.

What to Expect From Danny Valencia In 2011

Ever since the departure of Corey Koskie following the 2004 season, the Twins have been a team trying to find an answer at the hot corner. Over the past six seasons the team has run out a carousel of under talented Minor Leaguers or well-part-their-prime veterans. Then, over the past couple seasons Danny Valencia began to emerge. He made his way onto prospect lists following a strong 2008 season, and moved up again after another solid campaign in 2009.

Up and Coming Third Basemen: Part 2

We kicked off our examination of the AL Central's phenomenally impressive corps of talented young third basemen already with a look into Tigers top prospect Nick Castellanos, who MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo had listed as his 10th best third base prospect in all of baseball. Moving on in our countdown we'll be looking at the next prospect on his list;

Miguel Sano

Examining Brent Morel

With the 2010 season on ice after being swept at home by the Twins to put them nine games out of first, the White Sox have turned to playing their youngsters. One of those players is third baseman Brent Morel. Earlier in the season the Sox gave Dayan Viciedo a shot but his inability to make consistent contact combined with poor defense at third made that a short-lived experiment. There certainly is no guarantee that the Morel experience will last any longer or be any more effective, but with 2010's regular third baseman Omar Vizquel, who worked himself into the role more by happenstance, not getting any younger the Sox are doing their due diligence by getting the youngsters some at-bats.

Morel split his 2010 season between AA and AAA posting an OPS of .806 at the first stop and .851 at the second. He still strikes out a bit more than you'd like and his walk rates are pretty anemic, but at 23 he's still young for his level and there is plenty of reason to hope that he'll improve on those numbers some more. Defensively he's solid but unspectacular, though he's already made a couple minor gaffs. Undoubtedly the White Sox are going to want to see him iron out his game some more in AAA again next year.

In his short tenure with the big club he's already clubbed a pair of homeruns in just 12 at-bats. That power wont last - he's hit just 32 home runs in 1,207 minor league at-bats - but his 10 home runs between AA and AAA at just 23 suggest he has 15-20 homerun pop as his offensive game develops. His .320 average in the minors this year is largely the result of a huge .372 BABIP but he looks like a guy who can hit .270-.280 over his career.

Actually, he reminds me a little bit of the Twins Danny Valencia and I think their offensive games project similarly. Like Valencia last year, there were questions about his defense, and Morel will need to answers those questions for the better, but overall, the complete package looks like a guy who will be a solid if unspectacular Major Leaguer for quite a few years to come.

At just 21 years old, Viciedo is the more interesting prospect, especially with his huge power, but he's got tons of holes in his game. He strikes out far too much, doesn't walk nearly enough, and wont hit for enough average as is. To say nothing of his defense, which could generously be described as awful. Of course it's extremely important to remember that he's just 21 and spent this year splitting time between AAA and the Majors. He's got plenty of time to figure his game out. But in terms of projectability, you have to like Morel.