Cory Engelhardt

https://2080baseball.com/2017/04/mlb-draft-bites-week-ten/ Nice writeup with video on Hunter Greene, Royce Lewis, Alex Lange (LSU) and a few others.

Baseball America's podcast from last week about the draft said a few times that the "worst kept secret" in the draft is Greene wants to go either 1st or 3rd, and doesn't want to go the Reds at #2. If the Twins do take Greene, I don't know that I've seen or read anything saying he wouldn't sign with them. That said, if the Twins take Greene (or whoever) and can't sign that player, they would get the 2nd pick in the draft next year. They also would lose all of the slot amount for the #1 pick this year, which doesn't help. That said, I see no way that the Twins draft Greene, or any player, and can't get them signed. Does anyone else see anything different?

Jeremy, with the news of South Carolina's Clarke Schmidt having to have tommy john surgery, is there any thought that he could be available at 35 or 37 for the Twins? He seems like a guy that really could be a top of the line starter in 2019 when he is fully over his rehab. And now, with the injury, he may be more affordable come draft time, where it kind of looked like he could be a top 15 or 20 pick pre injury.

Heard this one today too. It's a good one. I'm following a chat with John Manuel today too. Here's one thing he said about Greene... J.P. (Springfield, IL): John, your tidbit about Greene has me curious, Is he seriously considering "tanking" by being strictly a hitter going into the draft in the hopes he'll fall to SD? I've heard of the notion of teams "tanking" in order to get a higher draft pick, but this is new. What happens when teams ask him to do pre-draft workouts - would they see him on the mound or no? John Manuel: I would not say he's tanking. I don't think that's what he's doing at all. It is a 17-year-old kid we're talking about here so we should be sensitive in how we address his situation. He did skip this week's Boras Classic on the mound; he did not skip it hitting. It is fair to say he probably has shown people all he needs to show them on the mound, and he has convinced people that he's a better prospect on the mound by having a solid but unspectacular spring as a hitter, while being spectacular on the mound at times. I know there are clubs with concerns about the breaking ball while others do not share those reservations. It's very possible that going out No. 1 overall means more to Greene than anything else; I do not pretend to know all the ins and outs of the entire situation. But (a) it's more complicated than, "He's the best player or one of the two and should go 1 or 2." And ( I wrote in the first mock last month that the industry believes his absolute floor is 3, and the rumors persist that he would prefer to go 1 or 3 but not 2 to Cincinnati. Those are rumors, but they are persistent rumors, enough so that I felt comfortable reporting it, because it comes from so many different sources. So if Greene would prefer to go 1 to the Twins or 3 to the Padres, doesn't that mean he would be ok being drafted by the Twins? That's a good thing (if you are a fan of Greene) right?

Knee surgery for Vielma? That's really too bad. Do we know what kind of surgery and what his timetable looks like?

Once again, Rooker steals the show with these numbers!

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2017/3/1/14766552/2017-mlb-draft-profile-hunter-greene-rhp-sherman-oaks-California Jim Callis wrote this about a month ago, with video and links to many other articles. Perfect Game used the term "generational player" and Callis linked to that writeup.

Keith Law answered my question in his chat today... Cory 2:13pm You are probably tired of this question (sorry if that is the case) but I'm hoping the Twins take Hunter Greene, but wouldn't be sad about Brendan McKay. Who would you choose if you were in charge of their draft? Keith Law 2:13pm Greene. Chance for a generational talent there. McKay is very solid, not likely they ever regret taking him, but Greene has the raw elements to develop into a superstar and you rarely get a crack at guys like that.

Curious, what are the Twins really losing if they lose Tonkin? I'd be ok moving on from him and keeping Breslow for the time being. Bringing up Vargas makes too much sense at this point to help balance the roster and give the bench a solid bat. Plus, Vargas has always murdered lefties (not literally, or at least I hadn't seen that) and a healthy Vargas would have helped the lineup yesterday more than Chris Giminez would have.

If he were 6'3" I don't think it would be a question.

I just hope they do a LOT of scouting and research (which it seems like they are doing from all reports) and take the guy they feel has the best chance to succeed in the majors. And, then obviously, HIT on that player. Here are some statistics of a college pitcher the Twins took VERY HIGH in the draft years ago... 2.72 era, 7-4 record, 119 1/3 innings, 166 k's, 84 hits, 28 walks, 6 complete games that year. Adam Johnson never did really make it to the majors though. So hopefully they don't pass on a superior player (Greene, or whoever they deem the best pick) and grab someone that never pans out.

So they add Park, Giminez and Breslow (not Vogelsong) to the 40 man. We all assume that May and Perkins (probably) could be added to the 60 day dl. Otherwise, who do you have coming off the 40 man? Danny Santana? Michael Tonkin?

No, you are right, it would have to be a one way opt out.

Most big time free agents LOVE opt out clauses now. The twins could be creative and offer HUGE money for 2 years with an opt out for a pitcher. Then if he were to be injured, the Twins are saved for 6 years of paying an injured player. On the flip side, if the pitcher does pitch well for 2 years, that is a good thing right? Of those listed, Tillman and Pineda interest me some, as well as maybe Darvish. Could be interesting to see what happens.

Thanks for these updates Seth. They are very much appreciated. Curious if you have any updates on Kohl Stewart? I have high hopes for him this year.

I've heard his games start this Saturday, March 11th

Tonight's Episode, as a reminder to everyone, will be from 8:30-10pm. Come and join us in the chat room and give it a listen. Should be a great time! From 8:30-8:40 pm we will have Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press. He is down in Fort Myers following the Twins in spring training, and we will ask him for some observations from camp so far. Then, from 9-9:30 pm, we will talk with Jeremy Nygaard from Twins Daily. That portion of show will focus heavily on the upcoming June amateur draft, for which the Twins have the #1 overall pick. We also plan on touching on some Gopher Basketball, and possibly any moves the Timberwolves make before the 2pm deadline today. Come and join us! It will be a great discussion!

Will do. I'll update this thread weekly before the next podcast with information on that week's show. Thank you for letting us share the information here. It's really appreciated.

Travis Aune and myself have started a podcast. I wanted to post the link here on twinsdaily in case anyone wants to give it a try. Travis is a podcast veteran, and me, well, I have done 3 episodes in my life, and all 3 are in the past 3 weeks with this podcast. We have had some fun guests lined up so far, and it has been a good experience getting to talk sports with some great people to think point, and I look forward to this podcast continuing for some time going forward. Most of our podcasts so far have been Minnesota Twins related, but we have some other guests and topics lined up into March and April already, which are exciting! We are typically at 9 pm (central) on Thursday evenings. I'll put the link in the description below. Week 1, We talked mostly Twins baseball, but we also touched on the newest signing day/recruiting class for the Gophers and P.J. Fleck. Seth Stohs of twinsdaily.com was our guest. Week 2, We talked mostly Twins baseball again. Our guest that week was none other than Brandon Warne from Cold Omaha. Week 3 (a couple of days ago) we had mlb.com's Rhett Bollinger on and talked mostly twins spring training, along with pitchers and catcher reporting. This upcoming week, we have two guests; Mike Berardino of the pioneer press, and later Jeremy Nygaard of twinsdaily.com This episode will be from 8:30-10pm to accommodate enough time for each guest, as well as Travis and myself. We are very excited to talk twins spring training with Mike, and potential draft picks with Jeremy. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/minnesotasportsweekly We aren't on ITunes yet, but we are working on getting that done. That said, each episode we have a chat room setup and people can also call in and ask questions if they so please. Our main goal of the podcast is to treat it like a conversation about local Minnesota sports (Twins, Gophers, Timberwolves, Vikings, Wild et al.) I will admit, our first few episodes have been very Twins heavy, but as we (me) learn to grow with the podcast, and people send us questions or thoughts they want to talk about, we are planning on moving forward and branching out in to the other teams in this market. If you are interested, please give us a listen. We would really appreciate it, and would love to share the podcast and any thoughts you have together. Have a great day! Cory and Travis

Bukauskas was great for UNC too. 6 innings, 3 hits, 10 k's 1 bb 1 hbp and 0 runs. I read from Michael Lananna that Bukauskus was up to 96 with the fastball and 87 with the slider.

Alex Faedo (Florida) Alex Lange (LSU) Brendan McKay (Louisville) and JB Bukauskus (North Carolina) all pitch today. It's fun to have baseball back, isn't it?

Great writeup! Thanks! And agreed, never bunt!

Thank you for the updates. I appreciate it.

Dumb question as I can't see the feed; is Kyle Wright pitching for Vanderbilt?