Top 50 Twins Prospects: #2 Aaron Hicks

2. Aaron Hicks

Outfielder

Bats: Switch

ETA: 2013

Potential: Superstar OF, middle-of-the-order bat, gold glove

2010 outlook: Fort Myers outfield

Aaron Hicks was the Twins first round pick in the 2008 draft. He had a great year at rookie ball in ’08. In 173 at-bats he had 10 doubles, 4 triples, and 4 homers, to go along with 12 stolen bases and a .318/.409/.491 triple slash line. He had 28 walks compared to 32 strikeouts.

He spend some time in extended spring training this year, and then he joined class low A Beloit. He struggled a little, but he hit .251/.353/.382, with 4 homers, 3 triples, and 15 doubles. He did steal 10 bases, and he walked 40 times compared to 55 strikeouts. But he is still a little raw.

Hicks will be a 5-tool player. He plays great defense due to his considerable speed, and his powerful arm. It should be noted that teams wanted to draft Hicks to be a pitcher because of his high-90’s fastball. He is already showing considerable patience and a good batting eye at the plate. His power isn’t bad either, and will only get better.

Hicks should be in the Twins outfield in 3 or 4 years, and when he gets there, he should be batting in the middle of the order with 30-35 homer power to go along with lots of stolen bases, a great batting eye, and gold glove defense.

Top 20 Twins Prospects

Seth over at SethSpeaks.net has posted his updated top 50 Twins prospects. It was a very enjoyable read (as always). Seth is a Twins blogger who I've been reading daily since his first week of blogging in June 2003. His blog is top notch, especially his knowledge on the Twins minor league system. Anyways it was a good read for me since I have been working on my top 20 Twins prospects list this week as well. No commentary on the prospects this time, but after the season ends I'll update the list with commentary. Anyways, here it goes:

1. Aaron Hicks, CF, Beloit

2. David Bromberg, SP, Fort Myers

3. Angel Morales, OF, Beloit

4. Danny Valencia, 3B, Rochester

5. Ben Revere, OF, Fort Myers

6. Danny Rams, C/1B, Beloit

7. Wilson Ramos, C, New Britain

8. Rene Tosoni, OF, New Britain

9. Joe Benson, CF, Fort Myers

10. Carlos Gutierrez, SP, New Britain

11. Adrian Salcedo, SP, GCL Twins

12. Tyler Robertson, SP, Fort Myers

13. Chris Parmalee, OF/1B, Fort Myers

14. Deolis Guerra, SP, New Britain

15. BJ Hermsen P, GCL Twins

16. Jeff Manship SP, Minnesota Twins

17. Anthony Slama, RP, Rochester

18. Luke Hughes, UT, New Britain

19. Rob Delaney, RP, Rochester

20. Mike McCardell, SP, New Britain

Twins acquire SS Orlando Cabrera in exchange for SS Tyler Ladendorf

Oakland GM Billy Beane must have read my last post on Tyler Ladendorf because he was the guy he got in return for Orlando Cabrera. Am I happy with the trade? Yes. But that doesn't mean the Twins gave up nothing to get Cabrera Lets dig a little deeper into the trade. Here are the positives:

-The move shows to Mauer and Morneau that the team is trying to win. Morneau has been saying that Mauer won't resign in 2010 with the Twins if they don't acquire other quality players.

-Mauer and Morneau wanted Cabrera on the team. Cabrera told reporters that last week that every time Mauer and Morneau were on the bases they told Cabrera that they were trying to get him on the team, that they wanted him on the Twins.

-The Twins have has a dreadful middle infield this year, worst in the majors. Cabrera is average, but just average is a huge upgrade from what we had before.

-A new guy will provide a mental boost, a la Shannon Stewart in 2003.

If you read my previous post, you find out that Tyler Ladendorf is a guy with some high upside. He is the best SS prospect we had. But he is no guarantee either and is 3-4 years away. And he's been struggling at the new level he's been called up to. The trade could come back to haunt us, but I wouldn't be too worried about it. I'm just glad we didn't trade away our two top prospects Danny Valencia and Aaron Hicks.

Now here is where this trade could go from being good to great. The Twins were reluctant to part with Ladendorf. In a now related story, the Twins have been one of the leading candidates to sign top Dominican prospect Miguel Angel Sano who also plays shortstop. If the Twins signed Sano to make up for the loss of Ladendorf then I would be extremely happy. Sano has an extremely high ceiling, much higher than Ladendorf's.

Even if that doesn't happen, if this move goes a long ways towards being able to keep Mauer here forever, then it was a grand slam of a trade, regardless of what other consequences come of the trade.