Article: Minnesota Twins Day 2 Draft Picks (Rounds 3-10)

[drivlikejehu]

While I'm not excited or more so a bit confused by this draft it's pretty hard to call a team with the best farm system in baseball poorly run. Yes it's been a few rough years overall but we're seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Now if over the next 2-3 years our great farm system hasn't brought us above being a .500 team like the royals great farm system then I will agree.

 

They only have Buxton and Stewart because they lost so much. Even now the team is leaving wins on the table thanks to running Correia out there, constructing the roster poorly, and so on.

[rickyriolo]

Burdi was lights-out last night. TV had his fastball at 96-99. Twins had scouts there and had him 96-100. His slider was 88 and filthy. He throws it for strikes.

 

I have additional scouting notes on Cutura and LeBlanc to add later this morning and, as I've added already, the Twins and Murphy appear to have reached a deal already.

 

 

i also watched the Louisville game last night and came away feeling much better after watching Burdi throw. This kid is the real deal and will be pitching in the majors next year

[jokin]

While I'm not excited or more so a bit confused by this draft it's pretty hard to call a team with the best farm system in baseball poorly run. Yes it's been a few rough years overall but we're seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Now if over the next 2-3 years our great farm system hasn't brought us above being a .500 team like the royals great farm system then I will agree.

 

There are a few clubs who can challenge this notion, in particular, the Red Sox appear to have the nod as the #1 farm system in many publications. And resting on the laurels of picking high in the draft for 3 straight years and discovering gold with Sano will only take you so far.

 

Most pertinent to this thread, the onus is on the Twins to demonstrate that they can develop their home-grown picks, exploit their experimental "strategies" like this year and 2012 and hit pay-dirt with their highly touted international signings.... quickly, efficiently, and to their full potentials.

[Monkeypaws]

Reading Johnson's quote in the Star Trib this morning explained it somewhat, basically most the guys they wanted were gone by round 4. If a few of these guys pan out, a surplus of power arms is a nice problem to have.

[jokin]

i also watched the Louisville game last night and came away feeling much better after watching Burdi throw. This kid is the real deal and will be pitching in the majors next year

 

Yup....when the term "electric stuff" was invented, it was with a guy like Burdi in mind. Hopefully, he'll get another chance to pitch tonight.

[Mike Sixel]

Is a bummer everyone they liked was gone, but you still need to field teams. Where could all these arms pitch? We know they will start out throwing against high schoolers, and look great, then what?

[Monkeypaws]

If they pan out, you can flip them for other needs. Surplus pitching >> surplus RF DH 1b types.

[jokin]

If they pan out, you can flip them for other needs. Surplus pitching >> surplus RF DH 1b types.

 

And given the Twins' track record in this department, when they don't pan out? Then what?

[Major League Ready]

It takes a substantial skill set and a great deal of experience to be qualified to conclude the FO is incompetent. Hey, this is the internet and everyone is welcome to an opinion but the insistence that such opinion is fact gets pretty old. I have interviewed hundreds of people who were not qualified to run an organization who thought they could do a better job of those in charge. It has been a rarity when the problem was not that they either did not have the requisite information or the required skill set to understand why certain decisions were made.

[gunnarthor]

They only have Buxton and Stewart because they lost so much. Even now the team is leaving wins on the table thanks to running Correia out there, constructing the roster poorly, and so on.

 

If you only think they have Buxton and Stewart, you haven't been paying attention.

[jokin]

It takes a substantial skill set and a great deal of experience to be qualified to conclude the FO is incompetent. Hey, this is the internet and everyone is welcome to an opinion but the insistence that such opinion is fact gets pretty old. I have interviewed hundreds of people who were not qualified to run an organization who thought they could do a better job of those in charge. It has been a rarity when the problem was not that they either did not have the requisite information or the required skill set to understand why certain decisions were made.

 

There have been clearly more qualified people available in recent years (LaRussa most recently), the Twins didn't need to interview hundreds of unqualified people who think they can do better, just the ones who have proven they can do better.

[twinsfanstreif]

After Jeremy's 10 round mock I said "not enough relief pitcher" I was clearly joking based on the Twins drafts in the past. Apparently the Twins read the boards and listened to me......I'm really sorry everyone, I accept full responsibility

[gunnarthor]

If they pan out, you can flip them for other needs. Surplus pitching >> surplus RF DH 1b types.

 

Yeah, I didn't get the complaints about drafting too many pitchers. It's how it played out. Big whoop. They had an excessive number of CFers a few years back and traded them. They traded a excessive number of pitchers in 08 - Smith might not have made the best trades there, but they have the track record. And, bluntly, they have a decent foundation already in place:

Dozier and Mauer will be FA in 2019, Arcia, Gibson and Hicks are under team control until at least 2020. Buxton, Sano, Pinto, Meyer et al even longer. We have a good foundation of position players in place.

[Kwak]

The Twins FO are spin-meisters. They have been downplaying this draft forever. It is a tactic that any successful draftees was due to superior insight on their part, but failures have already been dismissed by claiming that "it is a weak draft."

 

The claim that "everybody we wanted was gone by the 4th round" is hollow--it is to be expected that the top 150 will be gone by the 4th round. What I find amazing that none of the ten selected are hitters, that given their "large body", might "pan-out" and become a power hitter. Most of this season's wins include HRs and doubles that have been big run-producers. Guys like Willingham (or Collabello) aren't worth a top a top 50 selection, but one would certainly expect to see a couple drafted (a bit later) "just in case". Power hitters have great value--especially those who were "diamonds from the rough" and don't carry a high price of investment.

[jokin]

Yeah, I didn't get the complaints about drafting too many pitchers. It's how it played out. Big whoop. They had an excessive number of CFers a few years back and traded them. They traded a excessive number of pitchers in 08 - Smith might not have made the best trades there, but they have the track record. And, bluntly, they have a decent foundation already in place:

Dozier and Mauer will be FA in 2019, Arcia, Gibson and Hicks are under team control until at least 2020. Buxton, Sano, Pinto, Meyer et al even longer. We have a good foundation of position players in place.

 

And what's the track record for a club drafting 8 college relief pitchers in the first 10 rounds? Nearly by built-in definition, "Relief" Pitchers come to the table flawed in some way and are the most fungible baseball talent commodity. It is a big whoop if there were better players available who end up being impact players somewhere else.

[Shane Wahl]

One word of caution about the general pessimism: if the players drafted in 2012 weren't battling injuries left and right (Chargois, Bard, Z. Jones) we might be less hateful of this year's draft at the moment. Tyler Duffey and Mason Melotakis might still stick as starters (not sure if Melotakis will move back there or not).

[gunnarthor]

It hasn't been said to me directly, but I had heard previously that the Twins were less than impressed with this draft class. I can only assume that meant they weren't thrilled with the quality of players that were on the board and instead went with quick-sign guys. That might have been why they were on the top of the board. Let's get them in and see what we have.

 

There's probably more to it than that, but I hope the point is clear.

 

Yeah, Crawford mentioned that on his last chat on draft day -

[TABLE]

[TD=class: chat_time]4:08[/TD]

[TD=class: chat_desc] Comment From John Quincy Adams

Did last years draft have better overall 1st round talent?

[/TD]

[/TABLE]

[TABLE]

[TD=class: chat_time]4:08[/TD]

[TD=class: chat_desc] Chris Crawford: The pitching is better in 2014, the hitting — sadly (again) — is much better in 2013. I give a slight edge to 2013, which is really disappointing.

 

[/TD]

[/TABLE]

 

And someone at BA said something similar.

[jokin]

One word of caution about the general pessimism: if the players drafted in 2012 weren't battling injuries left and right (Chargois, Bard, Z. Jones) we might be less hateful of this year's draft at the moment. Tyler Duffey and Mason Melotakis might still stick as starters (not sure if Melotakis will move back there or not).

 

The health issue is also part of the dynamic on why they were relief pitchers in the first place.

[Shane Wahl]

Can't wait for all these college guys to go play against high schoolers. ....

 

When I ever mention the slowness of movement in the Twins system, the root of it is often in this tendency to Rookie ball almost everyone. I don't really like that so much for college players. Get college players to Cedar Rapids pronto!

[ShouldaCouldaWoulda]

Just watched Curtis. His fastball was pretty ordinary and I didn't see a single swing and miss. Nice breaking ball, but the FB sat 91-93 and looked very straight, and hitters had no problem making contact vs it. Was not impressed.

[jokin]

When I ever mention the slowness of movement in the Twins system, the root of it is often in this tendency to Rookie ball almost everyone. I don't really like that so much for college players. Get college players to Cedar Rapids pronto!

 

Radcliff was pushed on this issue by Tom Kelly last night, and he grudgingly allowed for the chance that of all the picks, Burdi might get a Cedar Rapids nod, but noted that no final assessment can be made until his NCAA season is completed.

[Shane Wahl]

I do really like the first three picks, and it will be very good if Cederoth becomes a starter. Curtiss is another good pick. Cutura and Murphy might be as well.

[Dman]

I do really like the first three picks, and it will be very good if Cederoth becomes a starter. Curtiss is another good pick. Cutura and Murphy might be as well.

 

Yeah I tend to agree with you. Like most I am not overly excited about all the relief pitchers as 2012 doesn't look like it worked to me. Granted these are different guys but this seems to be a dangerous strategy.

 

The first two rounds were supposed to be filled with high upside starters and we took a SS and RP. Definitely went against the strength of the draft with there picks. Not surprised they couldn't really find what they were looking for after the Cederoth pick.

 

We, or at least I always complain about them picking too safe and looking for higher upside. It looks like they did that so far going for high velocity arms and guys with upside coming off tommy john etc. Time will tell but I am trying to come around to the possibilities of this draft.

[Willihammer]

Echo above. I'm excited by the first 3 picks. Ecstatic actually (OK, bonkers). But I'd have mixed in a few high school pitchers in 4-10. Maybe we'll find there were signability issues or something. I do hope they put some of these RPs on the fast track and not try to convert all of them to starters.

[smokey780]

Sam Clay...led Georgia Tech in strikeouts, saves, and era...gave up 1 extra base hit all year (1 double)...consistently above 92 and hits 96mph...10 scoreless post season innings in acc powerhouse league

[golfboy1]

I do really like the first three picks, and it will be very good if Cederoth becomes a starter. Curtiss is another good pick. Cutura and Murphy might be as well.

 

 

I agree, the first 3 picks are really exciting. Burdi & Cederoth were both talked about as 1st round guys & most experts thought the Tigers would take Burdi in the 1st round. Burdi coud be a light out guy at the end of the game.

 

It looks like they plan on giving Cederoth a chance to start , otherwise he is another power arm in the pen.

 

After that, it's hard to tell but I'm willing to give the Twins the benefit of the doubt. Here's Johnson's quote..

 

"The starters we really liked were gone by the third round. We'd rather take a Michael Cederoth and his fastball that can reach 100 than some guy who profiles as a fifth starter. That's just our belief."

 

That doesn't seem like a bad idea. Plus, they plan on giving many of them a chance to start. It's hard to teach 97mph. If they start with that, they have a chance to be dominate.

[Major League Ready]

I think you missed the point. Those people like many here feel they were qualified to judge competence of those doing a job they are not qualified to hold. Anyone who has not run 100M+ firms or played both MiLB and MLB are presuming to be qualified to do something they have not proven competent to actually perform. Like I said, its the internet and everyone, qualified or not, gets to express their opinion. My opinion is that if the average guy making 50 or even 100K/yr had this level of competence, they would have a senior management position not just talking about it.

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Jeremy, have you heard definitively whether we want burdi in the pen or a a starter?

 

Jeremy: Try Burdi as a starter?

Response: No. Reliever.

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Added some more notes on Cutura and LeBlanc.

[Shane Wahl]

Cutura is my sleeper pick to impress as a starter. He has three pitches and isn't truly a meatballer.