A Couple Minor League Notes
Posted on March 16th, 2008 – 10:04 AMBy La Velle
Christopher Parmalee was selected with the 20th overall pick in the 2006 draft and touted as a top power prospect.
Through 184 minor league games and 623 at-bats, Parmalee is batting .249 with 23 homers and 137 RBI. He also has a .330 on base percentage.
Last year at Beloit he was .239-15-70 in 128 games and 447 at-bats.
He just turned 20 but has completed a full minor league season. But instead of moving him up to Class A Fort Myers this year, he has been told that he will open the year at Beloit. In fact, the Twins will do the same with five-tool prospect Joe Benson.
The Twins feel that instead of the risk of putting them over their heads at high-A Fort Myers they’ll give them a better chance to get off to a good start before promoting them. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but neither Parmalee nor Benson lit it up last year.
Anyway, here’s the reason for writing this note: Parmalee has four homers over the past three spring games for Beloit.
The Twins have been very pleased with the catch-and-throw ability of Drew Butera, who was part of the Luis Castillo trade.
Butera has no shot of making the club (which is why I’m writing this as a minor league note) but could be an emergency option during the season. He finished last season at Class AA New Britain.
“I think we all believe that if we had a real issue and (Jose) Morales wasn’t ready or hurt, Butera could come up here and play and do fine and handle it fine,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Offensively he is not ready but, definitely, he can catch and throw right now.”
Morales, by the way, homered off the batter’s eye Saturday in a minor league spring game.
Righthander Zach Day, an early cut from camp, has been placed on a shoulder strengthening program at the minor league complex and will begin the season in Fort Myers at extended spring training.
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