Round Table: Minor League Player of the Year Discussion

With championship series taking place all across the minors, the season is coming to a close.  Many players have had good years, but it’s the cream of the crop that contend for end of year of honors.  Today starts a four part series where we discuss and vote on our Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year.  We lead the series with the candidates for Minor League Player of the Year.

Michael Herrick: For me, this is really a three horse race between Royals farmhand Wil Myers; Oscar Taveras, uber prospect of the Cardinals; and 19 year old phenom Jurickson Profar of the Rangers. That’s not a slight to Billy Hamilton or Daniel Straily, the players that round out my ballot.  Hamilton’s speed may end up being more of an asset in fantasy than anything else, but what a fun season to follow.  Straily leads the minors in strikeouts and took himself from interesting organizational arm to legit mid rotation prospect.  He deserves some recognition for that in my opinion.

That being said, the top three on my ballot are the three best hitting prospects in the minors and could conceivably rank 1-2-3 in some order when prospect lists start coming out next year. While Myers and Profar both had excellent seasons, they were both players I had rated highly coming into the season, so I’m not that surprised at the success they both had this year. Taveras is a bit different for me, he made my preseason Top 100 list but was ranked #85. In hindsight, that probably looks a good bit low, but Taveras had some things to prove as he made the jump from the Midwest League to Double A Springfield.

Taveras proved his performance in Low A wasn’t a fluke, as he hit .321/.380/.572 with a .415 wOBA, 10.5% K rate, 7.2% BB rate, and a .252 ISO. He proved that the advanced pitching many worried might eat him up a bit wasn’t an obstacle for his violent swing, due to the exceptional use of his hands. He started tapping into his raw power, translating it to in-game power and showing he could be that prototypical slugging right fielder, all while maintaining a high batting average. If there was a concern to point out it would be Taveras’ walk rate, but even as someone most might call a “walk fetishist”, I’m not worried. Hitters of his caliber see their walk rates rise at the major league level consistently, even with his aggressive approach I think he’ll settle in around the 8-10% range, not elite but good enough when combined with his contact ability and power.

With all due respect to the fine seasons posted by Mr. Myers and Mr. Profar, the way Oscar Taveras has solidified himself in their company and the excellent campaign he just completed makes him my Minor League Player of the Year.

Michael Herrick’s Ballot:

1. Oscar Taveras, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
2. Wil Myers, OF, Kansas City Royals
3. Jurickson Profar, SS, Texas Rangers
4. Billy Hamilton, SS, Cincinnati Reds
5. Daniel Straily, SP, Oakland Athletics

JD Sussman: Don’t misjudge my placement of Hamilton atop my ballot as support for his prospect status. He’s an extremely flawed player and easily the worst player I’ve listed. Still, I can’t recall a minor leaguer’s every move being followed like Hamilton’s was this year. His nightly prowess on the base-paths became, as Steve said, a national event.

JD Sussman’s Ballot:

1. Billy Hamilton, SS, Cincinnati Reds
2. Wil Myers, OF, Kansas City Royals
3. Oscar Taveras, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
4. Jurickson Profar, SS, Texas Rangers
5. Jose Fernandez, SP, Miami Marlins

Stephen Kuperman: When I’m trying to decide who the MiLB Player of the Year is, what I look for first and foremost is, who’s done something really unique and memorable? Who’s done something that will really define the year in question? With all due respect to the campaigns that Wil Myers and Oscar Taveras have had, young future corner outfielders busting up hitter-friendly environments aren’t especially unusual. Their respective bars were set high, so to both of them I say well done, but not quite. In the end, 2012 MiLB was dominated by two stories: the rapid ascent of Dylan Bundy, and Billy Hamilton’s chase for the pro baseball single season stolen base record. It was a hard choice, but in the end I decided to go with the bigger story rather than the better prospect, so here’s to you Billy Hamilton, my 2012 Minor League Baseball Player of the Year. Beyond setting a record that seems unlikely to be touched anytime soon, Hamilton had himself an excellent year, maturing into a genuine on-base threat with the potential to change games at the highest level. He’s an excellent prospect, but even if he turns out to be “only” an okay Major League player and Dylan Bundy makes a half-dozen All Star Games, Billy Hamilton made 2012 his own in a way that us prospect-watchers will remember for years, quite possibly decades, to come.

Stephen Kuperman’s Ballot:

1. Billy Hamilton, SS, Cincinnati Reds
2. Dylan Bundy, RHP, Baltimore Orioles
3. Wil Myers, OF, Kansas City Royals
4. Oscar Taveras, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
5. Jurickson Profar, SS, Texas Rangers

Conor Dowley: While a number of players certainly deserve consideration for MiLB player of the year, only one clearly deserves the title to me. While Dyland Bundy and Billy Hamilton did things that were truly remarkable this season, Wil Myers faced all comers and kicked them square in the teeth over and over and over again. Thirty-seven times, to be precise.  Of course, it’s more than home runs, but Myers showed that he can be a significant, important baseball player in the future.  We’ve known that it was possible for awhile now, but this year Myers took the baseball community, knocked it down, stepped on it’s throat, and said “Hey. It’s me. I’m your boss now. Deal with it.”

Conor Dowley’s Ballot:

1. Wil Myers, OF, Kansas City Royals
2. Dylan Bundy, RHP, Baltimore Orioles
3. Billy Hamilton, SS, Cincinnati Reds
4. Jurickson Profar, SS, Texas Rangers
5. Jedd Gyorko, 3B, San Diego Padres [He really deserves a bit more love than he's gotten for this year]

Mitch Colahan: I think this award is a combination of performance and status as a prospect. Is that neccessarily the right way to look at it, maybe not. There are players Darin Ruf, who hit 38 bombs in the Eastern League that might be considered for the award if it were pure performance but he is not a top notch prospect. One my list, you have an undeniable performance by Hamilton who proved he is the fastest man in baseball at any level. Then the two best hitting prospects who lived up to the hype, I put Taveras first because of Myers Ks. Profar may be the best SS prospect in 10 years and he had a great year. It was hard not to be him higher. Really nothing has to be said for Bundy. He is just Dylan Bundy.

Mitch Colahan‘s Ballot:

1. Billy Hamilton, SS, Cincinnati Reds
2. Oscar Taveras, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
3. Wil Myers, OF, Kansas City Royals
4. Jurickson Profar, SS, Texas Rangers
5. Dylan Bundy, RHP, Baltimore Orioles

Jeff Reese: I admittedly had a difficult time trying to find the best performance instead of the best prospect. Ultimately my list probably leans towards long term potential more than 2012 output; still, I did choose players who excelled throughout 2012. Dylan Bundy started the season with an historically great run through the Sally (I was lucky enough to catch him in late May at Hagerstown) before subsequent promotions to the Carolina & Eastern League. His numbers degraded slightly with each promotion, but we’re still talking about a prep pitcher who ascended to the AA level in his first professional season. He’s my player of the year.

Myers, Profar, and Taveras will be popular picks with everyone else in this discussion, so let’s turn towards Jose Fernandez. He is another 2011 prep arm who performed stunningly well this year. He generated serious buzz in the SAL and received a midseason promotion to the FSL. There he maintained up the same drum-line, finishing the year with a cumulative 1.75 ERA over 134 innings of work. Dylan Bundy was expected to be special; Jose Fernandez was the biggest riser of the class.

I was tempted to include Mike Zunino on this list as well, but ultimately acquiesced to the fact that 191 PAs precludes someone from being in the Minor League Player of the Year discussion. I was a big Zunino supporter coming into the draft (since watching him during his Sophomore year at Florida, really), but I never expected him to perform as well as he has during his month trial in AA. He showed a tendency to chase offspeed pitches out of the zone, and AA is the level where I expected that tendency to prove an obstacle. Zunino apparently had other ideas. I’m sorry for doubting you, Mike! I’ll just go back to enjoying the sight of you barreling every other pitch that crosses the plate.

Jeff Reese’s Ballot:

1. Dylan Bundy, RHP, Baltimore Orioles
2. Wil Myers, OF, Kansas City Royals
3. Jurickson Profar, SS, Texas Rangers
4. Oscar Taveras, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
5. Jose Fernandez, RHP, Miami Marlins

Al Skorupa: I think Wil Myers’ season stands above the rest. .314/.387/.600 playing CF (and some 3B) as a 21 year old in the upper minors. You rarely see this kind of consistent, fantastic line… but that’s largely because most GMs would call the kid up at some point! Profar was also incredibly impressive and he topped it off with a dynamite MLB debut. Taveras defied his doubters (myself included) and just absolutely raked even in the face of a very difficult assignment. Dylan Bundy impressed as much as any minor league pitcher and its only his many short outings that prevent him ranking higher for me. While I think Billy Hamilton’s season has perhaps given his prospect status a little too much attention, I do think it deserves some recognition. The next two that come to mind for me are Taijuan Walker and Delino DeShields. Walker lost his feel for his secondaries for awhile but the stuff always looked ridiculous. DeShields had a pretty similar season to Hamilton, all things considered.

Al Skorupa’s Ballot:

1. Wil Myers, OF, Kansas City Royals
2. Jurickson Profar, SS, Texas Rangers
3. Oscar Taveras, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
4. Dylan Bundy, RHP, Baltimore Orioles
5. Billy Hamilton, SS, Cincinnati Reds

5 Comments on "Round Table: Minor League Player of the Year Discussion"

1. 

   Don Olsen September 14, 2012 at 10:40 am -

   If you are talking strictly level of prospect fine, but player of the year also has to weigh seasons.
   How in the world can Adam Eaton and Travis d’Arnaud fail to get one vote in the top 5 is shocking?

   • 

     JD Sussman September 14, 2012 at 10:42 am -

     We weighted seasons, I think d’Arnaud’s season was marred by his ACL injury and Eaton, while prolific in his own right, doesn’t really compete with these guys outside of putting up gaudy numbers.

   • 

     Conor Dowley September 14, 2012 at 11:52 am -

     I did very strongly consider D’Arnaud over Gyorko, but his injury forced him off my list. If he hadn’t have gotten hurt, he probably could have been third or fourth for me.

   • 

     Jeff Reese September 17, 2012 at 7:22 pm -

     I struggled with trying to balance prospect status/performance. Travis d’Arnaud’s abbreviated season and the fact that he played in Las Vegas hurt him. On a pure prospect basis, I’m a very, very big fan.