Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Monday, February 2, 2015 ➢ Buxton reigns as No. 1 overall on Top Prospect list. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 1 ➢ MLB.com names Byron Buxton as baseball’s top prospect for second straight year. NBC Sports (Short) p. 2 ➢ This Week In Twins links: Wrapping up TwinsFest and glancing at 2015. 1500espn.com (Wetmore) p. 2 ➢ After season defined by injuries, Twins farm system appears strong. 1500espn.com (Wetmore) p. 4 ➢ Twins 2015 outlook: Will Glen Perkins return to lights-out form? 1500espn.com (Wetmore) p. 5 ➢ Minnesota Twins’ A.J. Achter Prepared For Bigger Role In 2015. Baseball Essential (Crawford) p. 6 Buxton reigns as No. 1 overall on Top Prospect list. Rhett Bollinger | MLB.com | January 30, 2015 MINNEAPOLIS -- Despite an injury-plagued 2014 campaign, Byron Buxton remains MLB.com's No. 1 overall prospect, and he is joined by five other Twins prospects on MLB.com's Top 100 Prospects list, released Friday night. Buxton, 21, played in only 31 games in the Minor Leagues last year due to a left wrist injury and a concussion sustained in his first career game at Double-A in mid-August before suffering a broken finger that required surgery while he was playing in the Arizona Fall League. But the center fielder still emerged in front of Cubs prospect Kris Bryant to be ranked as the game's No. 1 overall prospect for the second straight year. The fellow Twins prospects joining Buxton are third baseman Miguel Sano (No. 11), right-hander Alex Meyer (No. 29), right-hander Jose Berrios (No. 32), shortstop Nick Gordon (No. 33) and right-hander Kohl Stewart (No. 36) on the Top 100 list. Only the Pirates had more prospects ranked with seven, while the Cubs were tied with the Twins with six prospects making the cut. The annual ranking of baseball's Top 100 Prospects is assembled by MLBPipeline.com Draft and prospect experts Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis, who compile input from industry sources, including scouts and scouting directors. It is based on analysis of players' skill sets, upsides, proximity to the Majors and potential immediate impact to their teams. The list, which is one of several prospect rankings on MLBPipeline.com's Prospect Watch, only includes players with rookie status in 2015. Team-by-team Top 30 Prospects lists for 2015 will be unveiled in March. Mayo: Breaking down the Top 100 | Callis: Best tools in the Top 100 Buxton entered last year as the No. 1 overall prospect, but he struggled to stay healthy, hitting .240/.313/.405 with four homers, four doubles and 16 RBIs in 30 games at Class A Advanced Fort Myers before sustaining his concussion in an outfield collision in his first game at Double-A. Buxton is now healthy and is expected to start the year at Double-A Chattanooga. Sano, 21, also missed time due to injury last year, as he underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in March. But Sano will also enter Spring Training healthy and, like Buxton, is expected to start the year at Double-A. But Twins general manager Terry Ryan hasn't ruled out Buxton and Sano making their Major League debuts this season. "That would be a realistic point of view from my vantage point," Ryan said. "They're both very talented, and if they have the type of years that you would hope with their type of skill set, there's no reason not to say, 'Oh, they have a chance this year.' So yeah, they do." Meyer, 25, had a solid year at Triple-A Rochester, posting a 3.52 ERA with 153 strikeouts in 130 1/3 innings. He's a strong candidate to make his big league debut this year, but he is likely to start out at Rochester again. Gordon, the club's first-round pick in last year's First-Year Player Draft, hit .294/.333/.366 with 11 stolen bases in 57 games at Rookie-level Elizabethton. The 19-year-old son of former closer Tom Gordon is expected to start the year with Class A Cedar Rapids. Stewart, 20, had a 2.59 ERA with 62 strikeouts in 87 innings at Cedar Rapids. The 2013 first-round Draft pick said at TwinsFest he's hopeful to start the year at Class A Advanced Fort Myers. MLB.com names Byron Buxton as baseball’s top prospect for second straight year DJ Short | NBC Sports | January 31, 2015 For the second straight year, MLB.com has ranked Twins center field prospect Byron Buxton as the No. 1 prospect in the game. Buxton got top honors despite appearing in just 31 games in the minors last season due to a left wrist injury and a concussion. The 21-year-old then suffered a small fracture in his left middle finger during the Arizona Fall League and required surgery. However, the injuries aren’t considered a long-term concern and the tools remain. When he’s healthy and on the field, he can do it all. Rounding out MLB.com’s top five, Buxton was followed by Kris Bryant of the Cubs, Carlos Correa of the Astros, Francisco Lindor of the Indians, and Addison Russell of the Cubs. You can see the full top 100 here, complete with write-ups and video. This Week In Twins links: Wrapping up TwinsFest and glancing at 2015 Derek Wetmore | 1500 ESPN | January 31, 2015 Twins pitchers and catchers report to Fort Myers, Fla., in 23 days. We're ramping up our Twins coverage in advance of spring training, and with TwinsFest this past weekend, there's plenty to talk about. If you missed any important Twins news in the past week, let's get you caught up. 2 -- --Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano likely won't break camp with the Twins in April. But they could be in the Majors by the end of the season, Twins general manager Terry Ryan said. -- --The Twins agreed to a one-year deal with left-handed reliever Brian Duensing. -- --We've begun our Twins' 2015 outlook series. Here are the first four players in our series: Is Tommy Milone worthy of a rotation spot? Will Kennys Vargas back up his debut? Can Ricky Nolasco rebound from a bad 2014 season? Will Casey Fien lock down the8th inning role? Certainly more to come in this series between now and spring training. -- Former Twins player Chris Parmelee latched on with the Orioles on a minor league deal. -- --New Commissioner Rob Manfred made a few waves in an interview with ESPN's Karl Ravech, when Manfred brought up the possibility of eliminating defensive shifts in baseball. I'm willing to listen to any and all proposals that could make baseball better, and I'm glad Manfred is willing to talk change. Banning shifts sounds to me, though, a little bit like banning card counters from casinos for being too good at blackjack. 5 thoughts. -- --Terry Ryan knows Mauer was an ordinary Joe in 2014, writes Judd Zulgad. -- --Torii Hunter impressed during TwinsFest. His intangibles will make him worth the investment, Judd Zulgad writes. -- --Keith Law of ESPN is rolling out his must-read prospect series this week. The Twins have the second-best farm system in all of baseball, according to Law. -- 3 --Byron Buxton is still among baseball's best prospects (No. 2 overall, according to Law), despite missing most of 2014 with a variety of injuries. -- --Is it possible Joe Mauer never bounces back? Phil Mackey wonders. After season defined by injuries, Twins farm system appears strong Derek Wetmore | 1500 ESPN | January 31, 2015 While the Twins have trotted out a lousy overall product the past four seasons, the minor league system has slowly become robust. The minor league system is stocked with top prospects at multiple positions, who should eventually make their way to Target Field. Not all of them will pan out. Baseball's minor league ladder sees plenty of attrition every year. But based on the number of high-quality prospects in the Twins organization, probability dictates a few of them will make an impact with the Twins. We talked to Brad Steil, the Twins farm director, over the weekend at TwinsFest. The organization finished sixth in baseball in cumulative win percentage, combining the records of each of the minor league affiliates. That's relatively good news. But 2014 also marked a year in which the Twins' top minor league talent was wrecked by injury. Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, it seemed, were just the start of the Twins injury woes a season ago. "It seemed at times like we were a little snakebitten," Steil said. "Not only Byron and Miguel, but even Nick Gordon broke his finger in the playoffs. We lost Kohl Stewart and Lewis Thorpe in the playoffs, Mitch Garber in the playoffs in Cedar Rapids. So we had our fair share of injuries last year. Hopefully we'll have that regression to the mean this season and have a little better luck with our health." In other words, maybe that bad injury luck will even out over time. "To our guys' credit in the minor leagues, they didn't use that as an excuse," Steil said. "We did win our fair share of games last year." Keith Law, a former baseball executive and current prospect evaluator for ESPN, published a three-part series this week. The news is likely encouraging for Twins fans, even if they're tired of waiting around for the future to just hurry up and get here.