Twins prospect named MVP of Futures Game
Posted on July 12th, 2009 – 7:41 PMBy Joe Christensen
ST. LOUIS — Twins outfield prospect Rene Tosoni was named MVP of the All-Star Futures Game tonight, after delivering a pinch-hit, RBI double today to give the World Team the lead in the seventh inning of the All-Star Futures Game.
Tosoni came around to score, and the World Team held on for a 7-5 victory, shortened to seven innings because of a long rain delay.
Tosoni, 22, is batting .278 with 10 home runs and 51 RBI (.387 OPP, .480 SLG) for Class AA New Britain. Baseball America ranked him as the Twins’ 18th best prospect coming into the season, but his stock is on the rise.
Born in Toronto, Tosoni now lives in Port Coquitlam, B.C. That’s Morneau Country. After waiting through a 4-hour, 9-minute rain delay, I just appreciate Tosoni giving me something to write.
15 Responses to "Twins prospect named MVP of Futures Game"
He was the MVP of the game as well…
use him as trade bait…i know we have alot of nice prospects we can afford to give up if we want to trade for a sanchez or some other major league talent that will help us win this thing…..
use him as trade bait?
you must not be very familiar with Rene Tosoni. Let me give you a quick heads up about him.
Tosoni is the best left handed hitting prospect in the Twins minor league organization. He has been compared to Jason Kubel (the kind of player Kubel was in the minors) Tosoni destroys right handed pitching. His one major weakness at this time is that he can’t hit lefties. But he is young and does not have much experience due to signing difficulties and injuries.
The Twins are typically slow to move players up a level. But not with Tosoni. Tosoni has not had a lot of minor league experience. He made the jump to AA and struggled quite a bit in his first 30 at bats. Since then, in his last 240 at bats, he has batted around .300 with an OPS well over .900
He is a good outfielder (not Gomez or Span like, but pretty solid). He has an ok arm. He simply needs more seasoning and you are looking at a prospect that may be better than Hicks, Morales or anybody else we have in the minors. Get to know Tosoni. You will like what you see.
If you are talking about freddy sanchez only person that should be moved is Casllia and other prospects and plus i think tosoni will be in Twins uniform before the other big outfield prospects like parmelee,Hicks,Revere
Sanchez is needed..but it’s not enough..Halladay as well..anything less is more proof (as if any was needed)that there is no committment to winning by this joke of a FO.
Allow me to get the Mauer HR Derby discussion started…
Although I think the HR Derby is way too long and overhyped, I do enjoy the exhibition. Everyone will be talking about Josh Hamilton’s 28 HRs in Round One last year…but I doubt it will even be mentioned that he hit just 2 HRs in Round 3. That’s why he lost.
So I’ll admit I’m excited to see Mauer take part in this event. Jim Souhan, who somehow has become the definitive Mauer expert with his nice Sunday piece, in spite of the fact that on May 1 he wrote that Mauer isn’t, nor will he ever be, a power hitter, went on the record again last night on Rosen Sports Sunday claiming that in his mind the HR Derby is a bad idea for Mauer. His point was ever since Mauer started working on his HR swing in BP, he’s been 0-for-9 with 5 strikeouts.
In the end, Mauer will be fine. Let the critics say what they want, but heck, maybe the HR derby will get him back in HR mode. We can only hope no one will call him Justin tonight.
The Derby lineup is a lot of new faces this time around. I’m sure going into it Pujols is the favorite. But I could see him pulling a Hamilton and having a huge start and fading towards the end (though I think some of Hamilton’s failures was the fact he wore out his thrower’s arm)
Hopefully this year we can have a Derby free of Pat Riley (or whoever it was last year) rambling on about racism and all that other garbage while the guys were just sitting back and clubbing balls around.
Here’s my (biased) prediction:
Mauer wins the Home Run Derby with about 20 total homers, 18 or which just clear the left-field wall.
Upon being presented the trophy, Erin Andrews actually pukes in her mouth as the Century 21 spokesman refers to him as “Joe Morneau”.
ESPN spends the All-Star Break discussing how Pujols should’ve been crowned the winner because 10 of his 15 first round bombs went 500+ feet.
Josh Hamilton is neither seen nor heard.
Sanchez is needed..but it’s not enough..Halladay as well..anything less is more proof (as if any was needed)that there is no committment to winning by this joke of a FO.
While Sanchez could be doable if the Twins take a hit in the farm system, Halladay has a full NTC and according to reports has a VERY long list of teams he does not want to go to.
If you’re going to demand unreasonable proof, might as well demand that they grab Pujols from the Cardinals to replace Kubes at DH.
I’ll be watching the derby tonight and cheering for every “out” Joe makes. The sooner he’s done, the better.
OB: Why? When it comes to the ASG festivities, my concern is always more about the game itself.
I can’t be the only person who held their breath when Morneau rounded 3rd and headed for the play at the plate last year.
come on, OB, live a little.
I hope Joe wins the thing…I haven’t gushed over Mauer Mania like most of you over the years, but this is cool. This is an opportunity for Mauer to break out of his Minnesota shell and actually assume the national spotlight. From that standpoint, something like this may help him in playoff games down the line…
Don’t get me wrong, I would appreciate Joe winning it all. Josh Hamilton’s drop off last year following the derby troubles me though. Success for the Twins drives my opinion.
Jason: I know we have disagreed on this in the past, but I think Mauer’s already a hit at the national level. He and Morneau share the spotlight in teasers for national games.
He’s now a two-time All-Star (I can’t remember if he started last year or not), he’s a two-time batting champ, and he’s on pace to be in the hunt for a third.
Not to mention he’s a pretty clean-cut guy with a good track record. Sure he can’t cut a decent promo to save his life…but I think he’s already a national star (heck, you KNOW you’re a star when you can beat out the Yankees and Red Sox catchers in the All-Star Vote) 
I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the reason Morneau stepped back this year was because Mauer wanted to do it. I don’t know if Mauer gets in if Morneau decides to defend his title.
But just because a few talking heads on ESPN only talk about Joe Mauer when they want to talk about future Yankees doesn’t mean the MLB fanbase in general doesn’t recognize his accomplishments.
Mauer is well-known nationally, yes.
But has he performed in the national spotlight? That’s what I’m excited to see.
As for Morneau, they called him by the wrong name at the awards ceremony last year. That in and by itself is reason enough to give them the “no thanks” this year.
But has he performed in the national spotlight? That’s what I’m excited to see.
I’d have to check his stats in national broadcasts. But I agree it will be cool to see what Mauer can do when it’s “his” moment up there at the plate.
I seriously want him to win it with a bunch of left-field “bloops”.
Busch:
Left Field — 336 feet
Left Center Field — 375 feet
Dome:
Left Field: - 343 ft
Left-Center: - 385 ft
So if he usually just barely puts them over LF at the dome, he’s got about 10 ft more to work with over there.
