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Posted

The Twins added four players on Sunday night and will add eight more on Monday. This article will be updated with each Twins pick, so check back often.

Today's portion of the draft, which will include rounds 3 through 10, will begin at 1 p.m. CT.

Keep up to date with the Twins Draft Tracker.

A quick recap from yesterday:

1 (21) - Kaelen Culpepper, SS, Kansas State
21 years old. 6-0, 195. #35 on the Consensus Big Board
Draft Article / Draft Tracker

1C (33) - Kyle DeBarge, SS, Louisiana-Lafayette
21 years old. 5-9, 175. #50 on the Consensus Big Board
Draft Article / Draft Tracker

2 (60) - Billy Amick, 3B, Tennessee
21 years old. 6-1, 220. #40 on the Consensus Big Board
Draft Article / Draft Tracker

2C (69) - Dasan Hill, LHP, Grapevine (TX) HS
18 years old. 6-5, 165. #58 on the Consensus Big Board
Draft Article / Draft Tracker 


3 (96) - Khadim Diaw, C, Loyola Marymount
20 years old. 6-1, 215.

Diaw played his high school ball at Notre Dame High School in Southern California, the same program that produced Giancarlo Stanton and Hunter Greene. He stayed close to home to go to Loyola Marymount for college but had all but eight games of his freshman year wiped out because of a back fracture. After redshirting, he had a solid first full year in 2023 for the Lions, finishing with an OPS of .896. He missed time this year with a broken left thumb from a foul tip but returned in mid-April swinging a hot bat, then suffered a sprained wrist at the end of the year, though that wasn't expected to keep him from being seen my more scouts in the Cape Cod League this summer ahead of the Draft. A right-handed hitter, Diaw has the chance to be a solid offensive performer. He rarely swings and misses with an aggressive, early-count approach. His swing can be a little slow to start with a lengthy path, but he's pretty efficient through the zone once he gets his bat going. It's more of a hit-over-power approach, but he has the chance to hit a lot of doubles with a swing geared to drive the ball to right-center field in the future. He can run into some home runs, especially to his pull side, and some scouts think there's more raw pop to tap into. Diaw is athletic and runs well, showing some defensive versatility that intrigues evaluators. He hasn't been behind the dish a ton, but he is agile and has plus arm strength that could play there. He's seen time in all three outfield positions, and while he's best suited for a corner, he's capable in center. With the injuries behind him, Diaw could draw a lot of Day 2 interest thanks to his positional flexibility and potential with the bat. - MLB.com

4 (126) - Jaime Ferrer, OF, Florida State
21 years old. 6-1, 218. #321 on the Consensus Big Board

5 (159) - Caden Kendle, OF, UC-Irvine
22 years old. 5-11, 200. (Senior)

6 (188) - Derek Bender, C, Coastal Carolina
21 years old. 6-1, 185. #172 on the Consensus Big Board

Bender is a tweener catcher profile who probably doesn't project to stay there defensively but has enough bat to play first base or even an corner outfield position. Bender had a loud 2023 season for Coastal Carolina and has wood bat performance on the Cape to back it up. In 2023, he hit .341/.399/.635 with 19 home runs, although the offensive profile isn't without its warts. Bender chased frequently, didn't walk out much, and struck out plenty, leaving some evaluators wondering how the bat would play against better pitching. In 2024 he's refined his approach, walking more and striking out less, but it's come at the expense of some of his pull side power. Bender is an average athlete with fringy foot speed but an average arm. It's the bat you're buying here, and Bender has shown enough adjustments to his previously aggressive approach that he could have a 5 hit/5 power combo when it's all said and done.  - Consensus Big Board

7 (218) - Eli Jones, RHP, South Carolina
21 years old. 6-1, 200. 

8 (248) - Jakob Hall, RHP, Oral Roberts
21 years old. 6-2, 195. 

9 (278) - Jason Doktorczyk, RHP, Nevada
21 years old. 6-6, 230. 

10 (308) - Peyton Carr, 1B, High Point
22 years old. 6-3, 195. (Senior) 


Bonus Pool Situation

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In the meantime, what did you think about what happened Sunday night? What are you looking forward to on Monday?


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Posted

This morning I've been catching up on Fangraphs' coverage of the draft on day 1. They (or their main prospect writer Eric Longenhagen) liked Dasan Hill a lot - on their board, he was something like the 4th or 5th ranked high-school pitcher and the highest-ranked of the 4 players the Twins picked yesterday.

"I have mixed-positive feeling about the Twins first day because I’m lukewarm on Kaelen Culpepper due to his chase tendencies and am mostly out on Billy Amick, who I don’t think will hit. But I think Culpepper (the Twins now have two Culpeppers in their system, C.J. is the other) has such thunder in his hands and is such a grindy athlete that he’s going to find a way to be something, and I like Kyle DeBarge and Dasan Hill quite a bit. DeBarge is tiny, but he’s a great athlete who makes a lot of contact. Hill is one of the lankier, more projectable arms in the class."

Posted

I was a little surprised Culpepper was still on the board at 21. I expect him to move thru the minors quickly. Maybe not quite as fast as Brooks Lee but he isn't going to stay in Iowa very long.  I would expect 6 pitchers and a catcher today being picked. 
 

I like the bats we got yesterday but I would have went with Brody Brecht with our 2nd pick.  Could have done a straight up comparison to Chase Petty for the next decade. 

Posted

Call it draft envy, but I think that Cleveland, KC and to some degree Chicago had higher upside drafts IMO.  The Guards with Bazana, Doughty and Cozart.  All three are really good gets and I doubt they have spent their savings from pick 1 so I suspect a big move on day 2 for them.

KC with with major power bat in Cags and then a pitcher I really, really like in Shields.  They got better with their two picks and they pick early in round 3.

Chicago getting Smith is just criminal.  They are going to have one tough pitching staff in a couple of years.  I assume they will try to land position players in the trades they make.  Starting to look like another fast rebuild for Chicago

Detroit appears to be following the Orioles approach going with young talent playing the long game until they are busting at the seems with talent.  Not sure I love their draft more than the Twins as high school players are so hard to predict, but they took high upside players with star potential

The Twins did well but I don't see a lot of star power.  Maybe Culpepper and Hill.  I like Hill's projection as much or more than Doughty and Shields.  DeBarge should be a good on base guy but will that be enough or can he tap into more power?  I hope the Twins picked the right guys. Time will tell.

Posted

The issue with Oakie is he really wants to be a Hawkeye.  So the only way this works is a large overpay.  I don't see us likely having enough money to pull this off.  I agree if we were able to get Oakie this would likely be a slam dunk draft,  3 solid hitters, and 2 high upside high school pitchers.  I just don't see this coming to fruition.  The real question is how much bonus money do the Twins have remaining for overslot players in the remaining rounds.  I do think we will take 1-2 catchers in this draft.  The Twins have historically punted this position so I will be curious if they spend any capital on this position that is one of the few positions that was considered deep in this draft class.   Otherwise yes, I do agree this will likely be a heavy pitching next 2 days in the draft.   The Twins still have 2 opportunities to draft players fror the Hawkeyes, they would be Marcus Morgan and Cade Obermueller.  They both have above average stuff and would be very similar to Langenberg.  Would both likely be overpays as they likely may be willing to come back to try to improve their draft stock.  

Posted
9 minutes ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

The issue with Oakie is he really wants to be a Hawkeye.  So the only way this works is a large overpay.  I don't see us likely having enough money to pull this off.  I agree if we were able to get Oakie this would likely be a slam dunk draft,  3 solid hitters, and 2 high upside high school pitchers.  I just don't see this coming to fruition.  The real question is how much bonus money do the Twins have remaining for overslot players in the remaining rounds.  I do think we will take 1-2 catchers in this draft.  The Twins have historically punted this position so I will be curious if they spend any capital on this position that is one of the few positions that was considered deep in this draft class.   Otherwise yes, I do agree this will likely be a heavy pitching next 2 days in the draft.   The Twins still have 2 opportunities to draft players fror the Hawkeyes, they would be Marcus Morgan and Cade Obermueller.  They both have above average stuff and would be very similar to Langenberg.  Would both likely be overpays as they likely may be willing to come back to try to improve their draft stock.  

I have relatives who live in Ankeny. They seem to think the Hawkeyes are just leverage. I tend to agree.

Posted
3 minutes ago, Roaddog said:

I have relatives who live in Ankeny. They seem to think the Hawkeyes are just leverage. I tend to agree.

This issue was he was not picked in the first 2 rounds.  So if it was leverage,  he would need a massive overpay.  I hope this is true and the Twins have a deal in place with him or another team.  Otherwise he would likely have no leverage at this point due to the decreased bonus allotment for each pick.  

Posted
3 minutes ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

This issue was he was not picked in the first 2 rounds.  So if it was leverage,  he would need a massive overpay.  I hope this is true and the Twins have a deal in place with him or another team.  Otherwise he would likely have no leverage at this point due to the decreased bonus allotment for each pick.  

I'd watch for Milwaukee or Cleveland to have money to sign a big name high schooler. They should have good under slot money left. I don't think anyone else has the money it would take to grab them.

 

Posted

There's virtually no plus bats left after the second round except maybe four sort of flawed guys and a tougher high school sign in Rigdon.  Gotta believe the Twins will go arm heavy the rest of the way.  In fact I would go arms with the next 7 picks unless maybe they have some JC guy they really like at some point.  Hoping they have room in the budget for another HS arm or two or three or four.

Posted
6 minutes ago, Dman said:

There's virtually no plus bats left after the second round except maybe four sort of flawed guys and a tougher high school sign in Rigdon.  Gotta believe the Twins will go arm heavy the rest of the way.  In fact I would go arms with the next 7 picks unless maybe they have some JC guy they really like at some point.  Hoping they have room in the budget for another HS arm or two or three or four.

That's likely why they picked a hitter at 60..... There just aren't many this year. 

Posted
25 minutes ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

This issue was he was not picked in the first 2 rounds.  So if it was leverage,  he would need a massive overpay.  I hope this is true and the Twins have a deal in place with him or another team.  Otherwise he would likely have no leverage at this point due to the decreased bonus allotment for each pick.  

Last year Travis Sykora wasn't picked Day 1, and then was picked 1st on Day 2 and signed for 2.6M.  I wouldn't be surprised if he had a team meet his demand but are just waiting for Round 3 to do it.

Posted
12 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

That's likely why they picked a hitter at 60..... There just aren't many this year. 

There are still some power over hit guys out there, but since they took Amick I think they got their guy there.  Their intel might not agree with other boards as well, but I do think the smart play or best value will be the fairly early higher upside arms in the 3 to 6 range and then just continue from there.

Posted
1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

That's likely why they picked a hitter at 60..... There just aren't many this year. 

The batting quality falls off a cliff after the top 60 prospects,  not that you can't find someone to succeed but will be lower probabilities than normal.  I am still expecting 1 to 2 more high contact hitters,  similar to Harry like player taken last year.  Also a catcher prospect or 2 at some point as they took none last year.  

Posted

Of course I'm hoping the Twins have cut a deal with Oakie. I'm betting a lot of fan bases are hoping for the same.

I'm really hoping for a pair of quality college LHP early similar to Hajjar and Povich. The system could really use more legitimate LH SP options to work with.

I wonder about Ryan Prager from Texas A&M. His growth might be tapped out, but he's a PITCHER with control and good secondary offerings. Could the Twins find a couple more mph in his fastball?

I find myself wondering if there might be a true 1B with power and hit ability in the mid rounds worth grabbing. You don't select 1B unless they appear special. But they don't have much there in the minors. I'd consider one in the mid rounds if the potential is there.

Posted
9 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

I find myself wondering if there might be a true 1B with power and hit ability in the mid rounds worth grabbing. You don't select 1B unless they appear special. But they don't have much there in the minors. I'd consider one in the mid rounds if the potential is there.

I really like Gage Miller.  He's more positionless than a 1B, but he could end up there, and might be more 20 HR vs 30 HR power, but I think he's probably the best bat left.

Posted
1 hour ago, Dman said:

I'd watch for Milwaukee or Cleveland to have money to sign a big name high schooler. They should have good under slot money left. I don't think anyone else has the money it would take to grab them.

 

Cleveland just did exactly that.

 

Posted
7 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

I really like Gage Miller.  He's more positionless than a 1B, but he could end up there, and might be more 20 HR vs 30 HR power, but I think he's probably the best bat left.

Interesting. 

I had my eye a bit on Derek Bender from Coastal Carolina who also does some catching. Might not have tremendous power. More of a balance of hit tool and power. Did well in the Cape Cod league.

Posted
30 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

Of course I'm hoping the Twins have cut a deal with Oakie. I'm betting a lot of fan bases are hoping for the same.

I'm really hoping for a pair of quality college LHP early similar to Hajjar and Povich. The system could really use more legitimate LH SP options to work with.

I wonder about Ryan Prager from Texas A&M. His growth might be tapped out, but he's a PITCHER with control and good secondary offerings. Could the Twins find a couple more mph in his fastball?

I find myself wondering if there might be a true 1B with power and hit ability in the mid rounds worth grabbing. You don't select 1B unless they appear special. But they don't have much there in the minors. I'd consider one in the mid rounds if the potential is there.

Cleveland drafted Oakie.

Posted
Just now, Dman said:

I like the pick!

Positional flex is touted! Can he DH like Vasquez hmm. All seriousness it fits a need and he's well regarded among the writers I've looked at so far

Posted
Just now, Patzky said:

Positional flex is touted! Can he DH like Vasquez hmm. All seriousness it fits a need and he's well regarded among the writers I've looked at so far

Looking further he isn't that experienced at catcher.  Might have to slow my role there.  i still like it because he is versatile and good contact skills.

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