cmb0252

While I still don't think he will make it back to the Twins at 43 he has a significantly higher chance than he use to. Not only has the injury slowed him down but the whole living in Minnesota hasn't helped. His season just started while other HS prospects have finished up. When a HS season starts doesn't hurt a draft prospects ability, it does limit how much you get to see of them before the draft which might scare some teams off. He would be a steal at 43!

I saw this earlier and it was a pretty fun to read some of the scouting reports.

BA put out a nice article about this years draft class which they talk to the Astros new scouting director Mike Elias. Elias mentions that the group they are considering for the #1 pick is down to seven (doesn't give names) and talks about the pressure that comes with this high of pick. “It’s a little easier in one sense because there’s less guesswork as to who’s getting to you, so you can basically get as much information as you want on the players that you’re targeting,” Elias said. “The negative end of it is that it’s very time-consuming scouting those guys. Especially this year with there being several Friday night starters basically in contention for the spot, you’re using a lot of Fridays on those guys and it makes it difficult to scout and see the rest of the Friday night guys across the country. That’s one negative—and then yeah, it’s the No. 1 pick, so expectations are obviously very high. It’s good because you’re going to get a good player no matter what, but it’s a big decision, clearly, so there’s certainly a lot of pressure to deliver on it.” Link for the full article below: Sizing Up The Draft Class Of 2013 - BaseballAmerica.com

Your not wrong at all about him being pumped to go there. He loves A&M, loves football, and has family members there. I just find it hard to believe that the Twins would take a guy in the top 5 with out knowing if they could sign them. Especially the way the draft is set up now. While Stewart has stated many times how he wants to go to A&M he hasn't told teams not to draft him like kids have done in the past.

Added a second mock from bleacher report which has the Twins taking Meadows.

If the Twins were to take Stewart at 4 you would figure they would know his "number" before pulling the trigger. From what is out there, still too early to be hearing about signability, but most experts see Stewart signing if he goes high enough.

John Sickels from minorleagueball.com is in Iowa to see Cedar Rapids play Quad City.

While I would love to steal Anderson in the second round, which a month ago would have been impossible, but I can't get behind Manaea unless he shows some real improvements over the next three weeks. Kid just isn't the same player he was in the Cape.

During the Cape Cod league Manaea showed a 65-70 grade fastball, a 65-70 slider, and a 50 change up that had potential to be better. That's ace quality grades. Since the Cape Cod league Manaea has shown nothing to makes me feel he is a top 5 talent. His fastball has been sitting in the low 90s, was in the 80s last week, while his secondary stuff has been inconsistent at best. While he has been injured which might account for the quality of his stuff do you really want to take a guy at 4 with injury concerns? As for Shipley, while he has potential to be a front line starter, I'm just not a fan of his stuff. He is still very raw because he hasn't been pitching that long and is a risky pick that high IMO. Like most I prefer Bryant or Stewart to Frazier but that doesn't mean Frazier isn't a hell of a talent. Law mentioned that Frazier easily has the best bat speed in this draft and maybe the best bat speed he has seen. While bat speed doesn't guarantee success it is a good indicator.

Thanks for the link! Updated now. And yeah, Meadows is the toolsy one while Frazier profiles as a power hitting COF. I would actually be OK with taking Frazier. Players with his kind of bat speed dont show up often.

Thanks for the link! Updated now.

Wow that is a development. While I personally prefer Frazier to Meadows, nothing in Johnson's draft history would lead me to believe they do. McDaniels is very creditable so I have no reason to doubt him.

Appel was considered a lock to go number 1 or 2 last years and he fell. The draft can be a funny thing. Minorleagueball did a community mock last year and plan to do one again this year. Kind of neat getting a ton of fans of different teams together and see what happens.

Added Crawfish Boxes (Astros equivalent to TwinkieTown) first mock. While this was not done by experts but fans its validity could be in question. The reason I added it was because as stated above these are for fun, they actually did a really good job, but mostly because of the user comments. It was interesting to read how Astro fan view the draft. While most want Appel/Gray there are plenty that prefer other players.

Added the Bleacher Report mock. It has two picks so that's why there are two names!

As Jeremy stated above Baxendale is an advanced college pitcher who should be expected to dominate "lesser" competition. AA will definitely be the level wHere we can actually start to judge his performance. His relief pitching numbers from instructional league mean nothing. As I say this there is reason to like Baxendale (especially if he has gained a tick on his fastball). He was expected to go a lot higher than the 10th round last year and I believe Law said he was a steal in the 10th round. Also, for those of you who follow Sickels would know he picked Baxendale as one of his sleeper prospects this year. He is a prospect. It just depends what you expect from him. He is a back of the rotation starter at best but that's a steal in the 10th round.

Let's get one thing straight, mocks are for the fans. No matter how much analysis there is there is no way anyone is going to get things 100% right. Heck, if you get things 20% right you have done a pretty good job. Look at the Astros last year. They had the #1 pick and had months to figure out who they wanted but didn't decide till the last day who they were taking. Not only did most mocks have them taking Appel but even on draft day there were reports, obviously false ones, that said Appel and the Astros had reached agreement. Why do we care about them then? Obviously because we are fans and they are fun! OK, other than just being fun they gives at least a little in site into what might happen. While specific picks might be different usually the area where the player is chosen is pretty close and this is especially true in high picks. Which by now you should know the Twins have. Oh and did I mention they are fun? With a month to go there are going to be a ton of mocks coming out and I figured its better to keep them in one place than flood the forums. I will keep the latest mocks and links up to date. Also, I will only be posting mocks that have been posted in May seeing anything else is already out of date. Without further a do the mocks: Christopher Crawford: May 29th mock: Pick Stewart http://mlbdraftinsider.com/2013/05/the-mock-volume-vi-2/ Bleacher Report May 26th mock: Rosebaum Pick Stewart. Wells Pick Stewart http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1645725-2013-mlb-mock-draft-bleacher-reports-first-round-projection-battle Another one from Bleacher Report: May 28th: Pick Stewart http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1653351-2013-mlb-mock-draft-landing-spots-for-top-pitchers-in-first-round Crawfish Boxes: May 27th mock: Pick Stewart http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2013/5/27/4366154/tcb-2013-mlb-mock-draft-v2-0 Scout.com: May 27th: pick Stewart http://sbb.scout.com/2/1294726.html Baseball America: May 24th: Pick Stewart http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/jim-callis-2013-mock-draft-2-0/ Sports illustrated: May 30th: Pick Frazier http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20130530/mlb-mock-draft-2-0-kris-bryant-jonathan-gray-mark-appel-dave-perkin/ John Sickels: May 16th: Stewart http://www.minorleagueball.com/2013/5/16/4335316/2013-mlb-mock-draft-version-two-john-sickels-may-16 Law: May 30th: Stewart http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9322119/houston-astros-take-colin-moran-mark-appel-second-mock-draft-2013-mlb-draft Mayo: May 30th: Stewart http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130530&content_id=48991342&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb (Also, if you find a credible one I haven't post please post it and I will add it)

Haha, I almost completely missed this article because it got pushed down pretty quick. Good read and I'm excited to see your next list with pitchers on it.

Bryant definitely has the arm and athletic ability to play RF but what do you do with Arcia? Move him to left? I actually think with Morny most likely leaving this year you can draft Bryant and have him up early in 2014 playing 1B.

After putting together several good starts in a row Stanek threw a very mediocre game last weekend. 5.1 innings, 7 H, 3 ER, 4/2 K/BB with reports that his stuff was really inconsistent during the outing. He is way too inconsistent to be a top 5 pick IMO. Shipley had a great game this past weekend but threw a clunker the week before. Like Zimmer last year, both converted position players, there is room to dream about them turning into aces but a ton of question marks. Also, I believe Jeremy has reported that the Twins aren't high on him.

The Twins are in a hard spot at #4. The year started with 3 elite pitchers in Appel, Stanek, and Manaea before the emergence of Gray. Due to inconsistency Stanek has most likely fallen out of the top ten while Manaea has been a mess himself. This leaves the draft with two top pitching prospects, which will most likely go 1-2, for the top four teams who all need pitching. Bryant, Frazier, and Meadows are great prospects, would be welcome additions to our minors, but they don't exactly fill any major need. We have the deepest group of young outfielders in the game and a bunch of fringe 3B. Clearly you don't draft for need but every Twins fan in the world was hoping for a college ace at 4. Then there is one of my personal favorites, Kohl Stewart. He is a pitcher with ace potential but is a HS arm with several big question marks. Add in the fact Johnson has only drafted 2 HS pitchers in his 33 top 5 round picks and I'm not sure I see the Twins pulling the trigger. Where does that leave the Twins? Some might suggest take a lesser player at 4 at a discount and spend the savings later but I'm not a fan. While we might not need one of the bats above there is a huge drop off of talent after the top 6 and I want a star if I'm drafting in the top 5. I also don't see punting the pick this year to get the #5 pick next year in what is currently considered a deeper class. Drafts are fluid and things change. There is no way to know if a better prospect will be there at 5. There isn't a ton of time left, college pitchers only get 3 more starts, before the draft. While everyone wants a college arm at 4 don't be surprised if it doesn't happen.

Baseball America has a weekly article called Ask BA which answers three reader questions a week. This week they had a very interesting draft question, also a question about the Twins own Adam Walker, but here is the draft question: The consensus is that 2013 is a relatively weak draft for top-end position players, especially from the college ranks. To put things in perspective, where would you have ranked San Diego third baseman Kris Bryant and Georgia high school outfielders Clint Frazier and Austin Meadows in the 2011 and 2012 drafts? What BA has to say is an interesting read and way too long to repaste here but here is the break down. In the 2012 draft Bryant, Meadows, and Frazier would be behind Buxton, Correa, and Zunio but in the same group as Almora which would put them in the 8-11 range overall. In the 2011 draft they would be behind Rendon and Starling (even though Starling's star has dimmed since the draft) but in the same group as Lindor which would put them in the 7-10 range in one of the deepest drafts ever. These placements focus on how the players were viewed before the draft and not what they have done since. For the full explanation of the question above or to reads the Adam Walker question click the link below: Ask BA: How Do Draft's Top Bats Stack Up? - BaseballAmerica.com

From BA's weekly Ask BA article on walker: The Twins have the minors’ best power prospect in third baseman Miguel Sano, who led the low Class A Midwest League with 28 homers last year and already has slugged 10 this year in 29 games in high Class A. He might not be the best overall prospect in their system, however. That honor may belong to Buxton, BA’s top-rated player in the 2012 draft. While Buxton should have at least plus power, he doesn’t have as much raw juice as Walker, Minnesota’s third-round pick last June. In fact, Twins scouts thought Walker had the best raw power in the entire 2012 draft. He helped back that belief by smashing 14 homers at Rookie-level Elizabethton in his pro debut last summer. Walker has hit six more longballs in the MWL, where he’s batting .288/.351/.558. He might have been a first-round pick if not for his tendency to pile up strikeouts, but he has cut down his whiffs from one every three at-bats last year to one every four in 2013. He has solid speed and a fringy arm, though ultimately it’s his bat that will determine his future. Link below: Ask BA: How Do Draft's Top Bats Stack Up? - BaseballAmerica.com

Article from Mayo at mlb.com, Who's No. 1? Six leading candidate s for the first draft pick. Article below: Who's No. 1? Six leading candidates for the first pick in 2013 First-Year Player Draft | MLB.com: News Two things surprise me. 1) He has Manaea in the conversation for #1. 2) He doesn't have Stewart in the mix even though some people have link the Astros to them. While I still think the Astros will take Appel or Gray it is an interesting read.

To be even considered in the 3-8 range Boras is going to have to answer some of the medical questions around Manaea you would think. I was working on my draft board today and after the top 6 guys I was having a ton of problems filling out the back end of the top 10. Manaea is such an enigma for me.