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This draft class was never strong but it has definitely gone to hell. Before the year I was excited by the chance to get one of the 3 LHPers (Aiken\Allard\Kirby) but....well you know. Nikorak and some of the college bats are starting to look pretty good right now.

I honestly clicked on this thinking it would be a joke thread..... You guys are a tough crowd to please. Small sample sizes anyone?

Use more than half your draft picks on college relief pitchers the last three years. Bring up a 28 year old relief pitcher when a spot opens. Twins logic.

This is why I don't pay attention to spring training. The twins will always end up with a very "twins like" veteran heavy team over actual talent.

The last few years once the Twins start their nose dive to the bottom of the standings after the all star break the topic of "is it OK to root for the Twins to lose" seems to always come up. Rooting for the Twins to lose isn't the same as rooting against the Twins. It is just hoping for a better draft spot. Does draft spot really matter? Well, 5 wins might have cost the Twins from having the top two prospects in baseball. 2012 standings: Twins: 66-69 Cubs: 61-101 The cubs selected Bryant at #2, who hit his 9th spring training HR today, while the Twins drafted Stewart at #4. Bryant and Buxton are considered by most the top two prospects in baseball and because of the 2011 tie breaker if the Twins would have tied the cubs record they would have had the #2 pick. If the Twins are as bad as many "experts" think just keep this in mind when this topic comes back up. Just food for thought.

Draft to the Show article on how far Aiken could fall: http://www.drafttotheshow.com/brady-aiken-img-academy-injury-2015-draft/

BA week 6 college draft prospect stats article is up and features notesvon potential top 10 picks in Happ and Kirby: http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/college-draft-prospects-stat-roundup-week-6-3/

Mother fu........... From Nathan rode: LHP Kolby Allard out 6 weeks with stress reaction in his back per his coach. John Manuel is hearing the same thing.

That's horrid that a fan base would be so classless. I understand not liking an athlete but this is a 19 year old amateur. As a twins fan who currently lives in Houston, at least for one more month, no one I talked to in person displayed any enjoyment of the injury. Most people I know blame the Astros front office, not Aiken for not signing.

Matuella's final line:6 1/3 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 5 K. According to Jesse Burkhart he showed top 5 stuff. Hit 97 in the 3rd. Last pitch in the 5th was 94. Kirby's final line: 6 IP, 6H, 2ER, 4BB, 11k. Michael Lananna noted his change up looked good but command was off. Kiley heard Tate was "doing Tate things". 93-94 in the first and hit 96. I believe law is there so might get an article tomorrow.

I feel horrid for Aiken. Went from being the #1 draft pick to this. Hopefully it isn't major.

BA writer J.J. Cooper wrote a top 25 HS draft prospect article back in February for Athlon which I don't believe was posted here: http://athlonsports.com/mlb/top-25-high-school-prospects-2015-mlb-draft

PG article on Bickford: http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=10996 Also a draft pack on several of the top HS players (behind pay wall but the starting part about Allard is available for free): http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=11009 Talking about Allard Law did a write up last week about him (insider). He said the following about Allard's first poor outing: "Allard wasn't at his best, struggling to locate his fastball most of the night, walking four hitters in four innings. He was 89-93 mph with some deception on the fastball, getting at least six swings and misses on the pitch by my count, and his curveball at 74-77 is one of the best in the draft from any pitcher, high school or college. The breaking ball has very tight rotation with true two-plane break, and he had more command of it on Thursday than he did of the fastball, using the pitch to get ahead or to try to get a swing and miss from right-handed hitters by throwing it at their back feet. He did flash a pair of changeups in the third inning, 82-83 with hard tumbling action. Allard doesn't have much effort to his delivery, with a loose, quick arm and great extension out front that helps the fastball play up while getting that bite on his curveball. He hasn't had an outing this erratic all spring, but it wasn't the kind of outing I was hoping to see -- it was an opponent he should have just overpowered with stuff, but to their credit they waited him out and ended up getting into a number of hitters' counts against him. I still see him as a top 10 pick, probably a top-five talent, assuming this outing was a blip and not a sign that throwing strikes will be an issue going forward." Full insider article here that also has info on draft prospects Herbert and Molnar: http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/keith-law/post/_/id/3676/top-prep-pitcher-struggles-to-find-rhythm

And down goes Aiken in his first start..... http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/brady-aiken-leaves-start-early/

BA's week 5 draft prospect stat round up: http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/college-draft-prospects-stat-roundup-week-5-4/ Questions from McDaniel's chat today: Thoughts on Kolby Allard. His seemingly effortless delivery and stuff have me very interested for the Phillies at 10. Do you think he will be in that range? Kiley McDaniel: I’ll see him a week for tomorrow in NC. He’s somewhere in the 5-15 area depending on his spring. Ian Happ – did you expect this much power from him? Already 5 HRs which is basically his high the last 2 seasons and 6 doubles Kiley McDaniel: Good college hitters with power do stuff like this when they’re better than everyone else. He’s a 55+ hitter with 55+ game power. Probably the best bat in the draft. Can Quantrill still challenge for 1.1 even after the injury? Kiley McDaniel: The 2016 draft class is crazy deep. Rankings on that coming soon. I wasn’t leading the Quantrill 1-1 bandwagon, he’s just one of the top 10 quality guys. Now he’ll be returning after the season starts in a crowded field. Hard to see him going top 3. Sorry if this has been answered already, can you give an update on Brady Aiken? Also, early draft question, if you had 2 first round picks that would be the time to go for high upside guys right? Just from a game theory perspective that makes sense. Kiley McDaniel: Depends on the specific player, can’t just dogmatically go for one type of player. Aiken should be pitching on Thursday, about 45 pitches or so for his first outing of the year. I’ll be down in Florida once he gets going full-speed to take a look. so I’m a student at Illinois, and I’m getting pretty hyped about Tyler Jay. Is there any chance he’s actually legit or am I delusional? 12:59 Kiley McDaniel: Very good chance to go in the 1st round

Draft questions from Law's chat today: Are you planning to do another draft prospects list soon? If so, where would Dillon Tate come in at this point? Klaw (1:12 PM) It's either next week or the week after. He's top 5 at the moment, which reflects both how good his stuff has been but also how bad the top of this class has been. Had Kyle Cody pitched himself into a top 10 pick yet? Klaw (1:31 PM) No. You can't really do that, not in most cases; if the stuff improves, or the body changes for the better, that's one thing, but even the most analytically-focused teams are still doing more than just drafting off performance. So....how did Allard look when you saw him? Still worthy of possibly going 1-1? Klaw (1:32 PM) I think I saw the worst outing he's had in two years. Stuff was good, delivery is great, body is great, didn't throw strikes.

If the Twins took Happ at #6 I think it would be exactly like the Schwarber signing last year. Grab a sure college bat under slot and spread the money around. One thing to note is the Twins don't have their second round pick. Obviously this hasn't been the Twins style the last 3 years but you never know. Happ interested me before the season and I'm definitely more interested now. He won't keep this pace up but he is definitely proving he is the best college bat. I haven't seen any comparisons to him but im wondering if he will end up being a Zobrist type player. Seem to have similar skill sets.

Stat update from PGs college draft eligible prospects: Draft Watch Here is how the players currently ranked among the top 50 of Perfect Game's top 250 draft-eligible prospects have fared so far this season. Hitters Rk. Player Pos. School Stats 6 Dansby Swanson SS Vanderbilt .354/.419/.538, 5 2B, 1 HR, 7 SB 16 Richie Martin SS Florida .283/.429/.415, 2 2B, 1 HR, 3 SB 17 Alex Bregman SS Louisiana State .338/.397/.554, 6 2B, 2 HR, 12 SB 20 Ian Happ OF Cincinnati .511/.623/.936, 5 2B, 5 HR, 3 SB 25 Christin Stewart OF Tennessee .316/.460/.605, 3 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR 26 D.J. Stewart OF Florida State .292/.528/.667, 3 2B, 5 HR, 2 SB 34 Chris Shaw OF Boston College .244/.375/.533, 1 2B, 4 HR, 19 RBI 40 Gio Brusa OF Pacific .217/.368/.435, 4 2B, 2 HR 44 Steven Duggar OF Clemson .255/.344/.294, 2 2B, 9 BB, 2 SB 47th-ranked prospect, Joe McCarthy, out with back injury Pitchers Rk. Player Pos. School Stats 3 Michael Matuella RHP Duke 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 10 IP, 9:4 4 Kyle Funkhouser RHP Louisville 1-2, 3.38 ERA, 24 IP, 28:10 5 Walker Buehler RHP Vanderbilt 0-0, 1.50 ERA, 6 IP, 7:3 8 Carson Fulmer RHP Vanderbilt 3-0, 0.81 ERA, 22.1 IP, 33:13 11 Cody Ponce RHP Cal Poly Pomona 1-0, 1.08 ERA, 8.1 IP, 11:2 14 Nathan Kirby LHP Virginia 3-1, 0.71 ERA, 25.1 IP, 37:10 18 Kyle Cody RHP Kentucky 2-1, 3.43 ERA, 21 IP, 26:3 19 Jake Lemoine RHP Houston 1-1, 3.63 ERA, 22.1 IP, 14:3 21 Riley Ferrell RHP Texas Christian 0-0, 1.17 ERA, 5 SV, 7.2 IP, 11:5 27 James Kaprelian RHP UCLA 3-1, 3.33 ERA, 24.1 IP, 29:3 29 Dillon Tate RHP UC Santa Barbara 3-1, 0.96 ERA, 28 IP, 35:11 31 Alex Young LHP Texas Christian 3-0, 1.29 ERA, 21 IP, 21:3 36 Brett Lilek LHP Arizona State 1-1, 4.91 ERA, 18.1 IP, 19:11 38 Tyler Ferguson RHP Vanderbilt 0-0, 24.30 ERA, 3.1 IP, 3:14 43 Marc Brakeman RHP Stanford 0-1, 3.71 ERA, 17 IP, 13:7 30th-ranked prospect, Jon Duplantier, out with arm soreness Link to full article also has a good write up on fulmer and Swanson. http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=10962

Notes on matuella, buehlet, and more: http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/3/10/8183427/2015-mlb-draft-michael-matuella-walker-buehler-injuries-scouting-report

I forgot about Cody. He definitely has some helium right now. Who doesn't love a fastball that can hit 97? Maybe rick Anderson...

Perfectgame.org or Twitter. I find twitter to be the most helpful if you dont want to pay for the premium site.

Twins do like bloodlines and toolsy OFers. He might have one of the highest ceilings, if not the highest, in the draft. If he can put together a good year he will definitely be in the discussion at 6.

I wouldn't say the draft class is crappy, more like vanilla. This year just doesn't have all the big names we are used to. It does have a ton of pitching depth and we all know you can never have to much pitching. I'm really interested in Aiken, Allard, Kirby, Rogers, Tate, Happ,and Cameron. Hopefully a few more players make the leap forward like Tate.

Draft notes from dodgertown classic including reports on swanson, fulmer, and buehler. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/3/9/8173999/scouting-the-draft-notes-from-the-dodgertown-classic

BA's college draft prospect week 4 stats are out. Kirby, fulmer, and Tate had all had good weekends. Happ as added another HR and is continuing to make a case that he is worthy of a top 10 pick. http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/college-draft-prospects-stat-roundup-week-4-2/