The best ideas are often taken from somewhere else and modified to fit our needs. Power rankings aren’t new, but this concept is something I saw from a friend of mine who used to work for the Colorado Rockies named Paul Swydan, who wrote up the 25-man roster for the Boston Red Sox, ranking them based on how they were playing.
So in other words, we’re power ranking players instead of teams. The methodology is still up in the air, but it’s some combination of “how is this player doing overall” with a little more weight put into “OK, but how is he playing lately?”
With that, here’s the first edition of the 2018 Minnesota Twins player power rankings — something we’ll try to do monthly here at Zone Coverage. For a little #analysis, we’ll also add our view of the player in 10 words or fewer. Feel free to leave your rankings or arguments in the comments!
Good? Good. Let’s go:
- Max Kepler – RF/CF
Breakout time. He’s hitting lefties. Star potential.
- Eduardo Escobar – SS/3B
El Caballo! Making Twins forget Jorge Polanco — sort of.
- Joe Mauer – 1B
Rihanna’s set to re-release “Work” as “Walk” for Joe.
- Jose Berrios – SP
Flagging of late, but great overall.
- Kyle Gibson – SP
Progress! Overall good, needs more length.
- Brian Dozier – 2B
Blazing hot to start, cooled of late. Keep the faith.
- Ryan Pressly – RP
Texan. Bad ass. Fighting Addison Reed as best Twins RP.
- Addison Reed – RP
Wrote “How to be bad ass while throwing 91.”
- Eddie Rosario – LF
Game lacks polish but few Twins more exciting.
- Mitch Garver – C
Has proved he belongs. Now to sort out playing time.
- Jake Odorizzi – SP
Results OK, peripherals less so. Progress coming.
- Zach Duke – RP
Improving. Will throw big innings this year. Not a LOOGY.
- Trevor Hildenberger – RP
Moving in the right direction. Funky.
- Robbie Grossman – RF/DH
Best eye on the team, non-Mauer division. Defense?
- Ryan LaMarre – OF
Versatile. Elite facial hair game. Great in the clubhouse.
- Ehire Adrianza – SS
Stretched as starter, but elite defensive SS. Best used late.
- Matt Magill – RP
Good soldier to this point. Watch the velo.
- Fernando Romero – SP
Most exciting debut since Berrios/Liriano. Command?
- Gregorio Petit – IF
Minor-league lifer. Grinder. Good clubhouse guy.
- Taylor Rogers – RP
Usage patterns make analysis difficult. Needs to retire LHH consistently.
- Fernando Rodney – RP
Valleyfair’s newest attraction. Still has velo, need more changeup.
- Jason Castro – C
Really slow start with bat. Good defense.
- Phil Hughes – RP
In the bullpen to work out kinks. Watch his velo.
- Logan Morrison – 1B
Rough start. Not quite time to worry — yet.
- Lance Lynn – SP
See Mo, Lo. Velo good, location a work in progress.
Listen to Brandon on Midwest Swing & Locked On Twins
