Twins Select Royce Lewis First Overall

Rooker - yes!! As a fellow Mississippi State Bulldog I love the pick!! Now let's get some pitching.

I've disagreed with Twins' management many times, when publicly available information allowed me to do so.

 

Posters here simply lack the information needed to make fine distinctions between similar draft picks. I've criticized one draft pick ever - Nick Burdi - because I didn't think his profile fit with where he was taken, and understated the volatility of relievers.

Yeah, that's why they are called opinions and not facts.

There is plenty of publically available info on these draft prospects. Not as much as the teams have, no doubt, but more than enough to form an opinion on.

 

The Twins have big plans for 35 and 37. Sent LEN3's tweet to one in the draft room and he text back.

 

"Boom. Just wait."

 

They've got something lined up and I have some pretty high hopes. 

 

Baz is my first choice. DL Hall and Carlson are 2A and 2B. I'd love Jennings, Rogers, and others as well.

 

Let's not judge the Lewis pick til all the dust settles.

Can we judge now?  We finally are stocked with SS prospects in our system, so we draft…. A SS…. We have a dearth of starting pitching with probably our single 1.1 pick this decade and next and we….pass on any potential ACE…. I know the front office has forgotten more about baseball than I know, but boy, if they thought this was the ‘safe’ play for this draft….I beg to differ. Based on their choices, this will actually turn out to be a VERY high risk draft for their careers.  (It may play out well, but if not…..yikes…)

So far, if I had to guess, they outsmarted themselves (which is indeed a common ailment for brash and over-confidant youth……)

Just watched a couple videos of McKenzie Gore. Whoa...that kid might just cruise through the minors in about two years. 

 

Why draft a SS when a championship team needs ace pitching? Twins already have Polanco, Adrianza, Gordon, Vielma, and Palacios. Three of those guys are good hitters. How many ace pitchers do the Twins have? One, and he might not be around for the middle of the Sano era. 

 

I can understand that a fantastic SS prospect is hard to pass up, but the hardest thing to get is talented young pitchers. Four of them were available, depending how you wanted to take your risks. Wright could be up by September. McKay would be starting within a year. Gore could be up in two years, and Greene might be the most talented of them all, but with a longer time in the minors. 

Initial reaction: Meltdown

 

Several hours later: A mixture or rage and resignation that nothing has changed.

Only obvious reasoning is that the twins are going to soon be trading prospects for top end proven arms.

 

Good bye Nick Gordon, boy if we only had the biased media like the spankmees to drive up the value on prospects.

I have no problem taking all hitters in the draft. The Twins need pitchers in near future and even the college pitchers might not be as close as people think (in this org or other orgs). Wright up in September and McKay up next year? It is possible but unlikely imo. 

 

The faster path to acquiring good MLB pitchers is to have some top prospects to trade and be willing to trade them.

 

The problem with this draft is that it seems as though the Twins could have taken many different combinations of prospects at 1/35/37 that would be more valuable than their choices. But maybe this group goes the Correa/McCullers/Ruiz route and the Twins look like geniuses in a year or two and pull off a big trade.

Can we judge now? We finally are stocked with SS prospects in our system, so we draft…. A SS…. We have a dearth of starting pitching with probably our single 1.1 pick this decade and next and we….pass on any potential ACE…. I know the front office has forgotten more about baseball than I know, but boy, if they thought this was the ‘safe’ play for this draft….I beg to differ. Based on their choices, this will actually turn out to be a VERY high risk draft for their careers. (It may play out well, but if not…..yikes…)

So far, if I had to guess, they outsmarted themselves (which is indeed a common ailment for brash and over-confidant youth……)

Lewis isn't going to be a SS in MLB though, so I wouldn't look at our SS depth.

I'm not sure why the Twins are saying he can stay at SS, perhaps he likes it and they promised to give it a shot, but I think it's pretty much unanimous every where else that he has no chance to stick at SS.

Well there have been only 2 #1 picks not make it to the bigs. Brien Taylor '91 and Steve Chilcott '66 prior to 2013 draft.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Twodogs

IMO you never, ever, ever "draft for need" in the first round of the MLB draft. It's not the NFL or NBA. Nobody knows what their "need" will be in 3-5 years with enough certainty to do that. You take the best player on your board, based on your projections of his talent.

 

I would have preferred Greene, but I see no reason not to give the FO the benefit of the doubt at this point. It's their first draft.

 

I also don't think this FO is so averse to dealing with Boras, and vice versa. If I were Boras, I'd be looking for an opportunity to establish a positive relationship with Falvine. Just broadens the realistic potential markets for all of his clients going forward.

Completely disagree. Overused cliche. As has been proven the last couple of games against the Indians and all of last season the Twins DESPERATELY need pitching, pitching AND MORE PITCHING. Drafting Lewis does nothing for this organization for the next 4 to 5 years and by then Sano, Kepler, Buxton, Berrios, etc. are all hitting free agency and knowing this organization they are not going to keep this core together. Sorry, I just can't agree. Should have gone with a college arm with the #1 pick and supplementary pick as well. I could have accepted rolling the dice on Greene because of the potential upside too. Edited June 18, 2017 by laloesch

 

Completely disagree. Overused cliche. As has been proven the last couple of games against the Indians and all of last season the Twins DESPERATELY need pitching, pitching AND MORE PITCHING. Drafting Lewis does nothing for this organization for the next 4 to 5 years and by then Sano, Kepler, Buxton, Berrios, etc. are all hitting free agency and knowing this organization they are not going to keep this core together. Sorry, I just can't agree. Should have gone with a college arm with the #1 pick and supplementary pick as well. I could have accepted rolling the dice on Greene because of the potential upside too.

 

A different way of looking at the draft in general is that it's a way to build a sustainable pool of talent, rather than a way to complement the existing roster. The assumption that many seem to hold is that the Twins are on the cusp of competitiveness, which apparently won't/can't last long. The underlying argument is that they should inflate the bubble, burst it, and eventually rebuild again. I'd rather they stockpile as many talented youngsters as possible, regardless of position, so they can plug them into a fully functioning lineup as needed.

For those wondering, "Rolls" Royce Lewis is already in Fort Myers getting ready for the GCL season that starts in a week.

 

A different way of looking at the draft in general is that it's a way to build a sustainable pool of talent, rather than a way to complement the existing roster. The assumption that many seem to hold is that the Twins are on the cusp of competitiveness, which apparently won't/can't last long. The underlying argument is that they should inflate the bubble, burst it, and eventually rebuild again. I'd rather they stockpile as many talented youngsters as possible, regardless of position, so they can plug them into a fully functioning lineup as needed.

 

I get what you are saying, but when an organization is so deficient in one area at all levels you SHOULD have that at the top of your wish list of drafting priorities.  I'm not saying every pick should be a college level starting pitcher, but it should have been the first couple of picks in my opinion in this years draft because there were plenty of good options available worthy of top 5 picks. No amount of spin can make Lewis a consensus 1:1 pick (which he's not).  

 

Edited June 20, 2017 by laloesch

Didn't post in here, but I was fine with Lewis. 

 

My rankings for the top 5 were:

 

1. Kyle Wright

2. Royce Lewis

3. Hunter Greene

4. MacKenzie Gore

5. Brendan McKay

I know I wanted Gore or Wright and didn't think Lewis had enough bat. Still wouldn't mind having Gore, but can't complain about Lewis.