2026 Minnesota Twins MLB Draft Day 2 Thread

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

7 minutes ago, Danchat said:

Uh, is this a serious quote? It's the first time they've ever went BPA? Wouldn't they argue they went BPA at #3?

I think he was saying the first time they have pick catcher in their first two rounds. In either case they stuck to the board and picked Tinney in the second rather than pick another position.  The Twins have picked multiple catchers usually deeper in the drafts. 

[Mike Sixel]

Lots of pitching. Big fan.

[TheLeviathan]

18 minutes ago, Danchat said:

Uh, is this a serious quote? It's the first time they've ever went BPA? Wouldn't they argue they went BPA at #3?

I'll take "Things your scouting director shouldn't say out loud" for $500 Alex.

[bjorks]

9 straight college arms through Rd. 10. Seems the theme are power arms with reliever risk and no control. What about LH'ed, OF bats?

[TheLeviathan]

A look at the column for height and weight makes me wonder if the Vikings offensive line coaches are secretly collaborating.

[Major League Ready]

53 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Glancing only at the first round, the 2022 draft is shaping up as one of the weaker crops recently.  Both the 2023 and 2024 drafts have a greater number of players already contributing at least 0.5 WAR cumulative career-wise than 2022.  2021 and especially 2020 are already far stronger too - maybe the 1 and 2 additional years accounts for that, but I don't think so.

A deeper analysis would require more effort than I care to spend, but it might be appropriate to grade on the curve when looking at what the Twins accomplished so far with that draft.

That just far too reasonable.  We may have to suspend your posting privileges if you insist on looking at the whole picture before reaching a conclusion.

[ashbury]

3 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

That just far too reasonable.  We may have to suspend your posting privileges if you insist on looking at the whole picture before reaching a conclusion.

Humor is such a difficult concept for me. 

[Old Twins Hat]

Used to be that baseball was a sport where size didn't matter.  Little guys could make it, big guys could too.  Never forget Killebrew was 5' 10".   

I remember going to Target Field for the first time and seeing Dustin Pedroia standing at first base next to Morneau, two MVPs, two great players, two very different frames.

Well, not so much anymore.  Twins have ten picks, not one under 6' 2", nor less than 210 lbs.

Times have changed.

 

 

[ashbury]

30 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Lots of pitching. Big fan.

You must have been beside yourself with passion for the Angels' 2021 draft.  😁

[ashbury]

4 minutes ago, Old Twins Hat said:

Used to be that baseball was a sport where size didn't matter.  Little guys could make it, big guys could too.  Never forget Killebrew was 5' 10".   

I remember going to Target Field for the first time and seeing Dustin Pedroia standing at first base next to Morneau, two MVPs, two great players, two very different frames.

Well, not so much anymore.  Twins have ten picks, not one under 6' 2", nor less than 210 lbs.

Times have changed.

You can have fun rooting for Drew Burress, drafted #8 by the Athletics.  I've seen it mentioned that his listed height of 5'9" might be, uh, "generous."

[gil4]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

That just far too reasonable.  We may have to suspend your posting privileges if you insist on looking at the whole picture before reaching a conclusion.

No kidding.  He actually did research - makes those of us who just read half the article before posting look bad.

[DataNerd]

3 Straight college hitters rounds 11 through 13.  Pretty clear that they don't think they have much extra bonus money, otherwise would have seen someone more interesting in the 11th.

[DataNerd]

1 hour ago, Old Twins Hat said:

Used to be that baseball was a sport where size didn't matter.  Little guys could make it, big guys could too.  Never forget Killebrew was 5' 10".   

I remember going to Target Field for the first time and seeing Dustin Pedroia standing at first base next to Morneau, two MVPs, two great players, two very different frames.

Well, not so much anymore.  Twins have ten picks, not one under 6' 2", nor less than 210 lbs.

Times have changed.

 

 

You still see that in hitting, but pitching is more of a size game, and the Twins love projectible college starters.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

You must have been beside yourself with passion for the Angels' 2021 draft.  😁

It's all about execution of the strategy. 

[TopGunn#22]

Interesting draft.  We got Lackey.  I consider that a big win with the impending trade of Ryan Jeffers and the emergence of Marek Houston as a legit Major League SS candidate (as well as having Culpepper).  I won't criticize the 2nd pick of another Catcher.  In today's power hitting game it could work out.  With catching being at such a premium, a team can always leverage a fine catching prospect for future assets.

And then we reel off pitching candidates for 8 or 9 straight picks before selecting an OF, SS & 2B.  I cannot argue with this.  The team needs to replenish arms throughout their minor league system.  They selected 2 high profile offensive pieces #1 & #2 and then have strenuously endeavored to stockpile ARMS.  They all seem to be fairly BIG, rawboned guys with velocity and secondary pitches.

Every single arm they selected will have to sharpen his command.  They are all being drafted as imperfect, unfinished products, but with potential.  It will be up to the Twins minor league coaches to improve this crop of arms at every level.  

Of all the major sports and their drafts, Baseball is the biggest crapshoot.  And Pitching remains the biggest crap shoot.  Good Luck to the Twins 2026 Draft Class.   

[Major League Ready]

1 hour ago, TopGunn#22 said:

Interesting draft.  We got Lackey.  I consider that a big win with the impending trade of Ryan Jeffers and the emergence of Marek Houston as a legit Major League SS candidate (as well as having Culpepper).  I won't criticize the 2nd pick of another Catcher.  In today's power hitting game it could work out.  With catching being at such a premium, a team can always leverage a fine catching prospect for future assets.

I questioned the Tinney pick at first.  However, they might be thinking about utilizing Lackey 's athleticism at another position given his bat.  They could also be thinking the way to keep him healthy is to play him 1/2 time at catcher and 1/2 time at another position.   Tinney playing C/1B could allow them to coexist nicely.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

I questioned the Tinney pick at first.  However, they might be thinking about utilizing Lackey 's athleticism at another position given his bat.  They could also be thinking the way to keep him healthy is to play him 1/2 time at catcher and 1/2 time at another position.   Tinney playing C/1B could allow them to coexist nicely.

I don't know. Can you find any evaluator who thinks he can stick at catcher. They lost the guy that taught Jeffers......  I'm hoping everyone else is wrong and they are right...

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

37 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I don't know. Can you find any evaluator who thinks he can stick at catcher. They lost the guy that taught Jeffers......  I'm hoping everyone what is wrong and they are right...

Anyone can know what needs to be taught, the issue is can the player understand it, put in the effort to get better and then translate it into performance.  Both Lackey and Tinney have been labeled as having incredibly work ethics and drive.  I even like the catcher they got late in the draft. 
 

Now we were discussing what changes would happen in the draft without Falvey and the Twins took a lot more hitters 10-20 rounds.  It had always been stated you have a better chance with pitchers later in the draft.  The other was a focus on catching prospects a position we had largely punted with high picks other than Jeffers and Diaw.  

[Fatbat]

We have seen the Dodgers, Angels and other teams go heavy in a particular draft with pitching, Its never seemed to hurt their organization’s by doing it. I believe that it is a great strategy! Get athletes that have talent and the personality traits to work hard to be the best. 
No drafting the type that will tip pitches so they can get to the off season a day faster cause they are tired of playing A GAME while getting PAID.  
I applaud this draft! 👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

 

[Major League Ready]

3 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I don't know. Can you find any evaluator who thinks he can stick at catcher. They lost the guy that taught Jeffers......  I'm hoping everyone else is wrong and they are right...

I guess that would be another explanation.  They don't believe Tinney is a catcher which I guess would mean they believe in the power enough to make him into a 1B.  I am not saying I like it.  My preference would have been a SS or CF given the number of picks that went toward pitching.  Just looking for possible explanations. 

[nicksaviking]

Well you certainly can't accuse the Twins of scouting the stat line of these pitchers, holy cow, some of those NCAA ERAs!

But not a criticism, obviously it's not hugely translatable stat. I would say that I am concerned that most of these guys seem to have trouble throwing strikes. For a good while the Twins they were picking command guys they could add velocity to. Not sure about trying to fix control to this degree. Historically that hasn't been a very easy task to accomplish.