Thrylos

Two words: Kirby Puckett. He was actually under 160 lbs when he broke in. "Never" is way too fatalistic a word

Part of the reasons for that were because a. they were renting Lee for 2 months b. a single pitcher would had not make them WS contenders and c. Lee is a first class $@&%8$& If they traded their top 2 OF prospects for the top 2 SP prospects of another organization, it would be a totally different story.

I think that you can look at this another way: Three out of your top 7 prospects are outfielders, a forth (the Twins' second best prospect) is being converted to 2B from the OF, and the fifth, the top prospect, might as well end up at the OF. Given than, at least as far as prospects go, the Twins do have indeed a lot of OF depth and are top-heavy in OFs. This does not mean that it is bad, because they can always trade some to fill a need...

Third base

Diamond could be a decent #4-5 guy in a contending team. Not missing too many bats, not walking too many, getting a few double plays. That's it. And this is better than what the Twins have been having in those spots the last few years. (Blackburn/Perkins/Marquis et al.)

As of right now (about 5:30 EDT Sunday), it is almost official that the Astros are selecting Mark Appel. The Twins are on the clock...

Quick note (And I know that those scores are hard to find) : The DSL Twins in their opening day (at home) blanked the DSL Orioles 5-0. Lots of return players and some really good first timers. That would be a great team to follow.

The thing is that there were no, absolutely no evidence that Nick Blackburn and Glen Perkins could turn into more than 4/5 starters. The other 4 could, but they all had injury issues. Also I am not sure that part of the reason the other 4 "did not turn into good starters" is the Gardy/Andy factor. I know it is somewhat of a circular argument and ex post facto , but you got to consider it. Matter of fact there is good evidence that Slowey's, Baker's, and Bonzer's issues were misstreated by the Twins and there is good evidence that Anderson and Gardenhire tried to mess up with at least Slowey and Liriano. Perkins had a grievance against the team as well. Way too much smoke for not to be a fire...

Good stuff! The bridge back drop is incredible. Would love to see that ballpark. Good win for Beloit as well.

It has been slowley (pun intended) building... I think the first years of Gardenire were good. Then favoritism and cronyism and doghousing players started (or became more obvious), trying to make every one a cookie cutter player started (or became more obvious) , accentuated with one series in the post-season and out. Got even worse with throwing young players under the bus and not accepting personal responsibility as a leader, add trading players who did not subscribe to their points of view. Add the press loving them and giving them teflon and being open to only certain mouthpiece players, and you have a very disfunctional organization that is mediocre on the field and the press does not check them... Now that they have been performing below mediocre, the ones who were happy when they were mediocre (i.e. three and out occasionally) are starting to complain and look at it as well. Plus you have that staleness in the organization. All those people have been around 20 some years. No new opinions, no out of the box way of thinking. The box has been shirinking and stifling the Twins... And they just don't see it. So I do not hate the guy. Gee I don't know him. I just don't like what he has done with my Twins And also I dislike his people management skills and I think that they are adverse to producing good results. Game management sucks as well. So, guess I like his commercials. Does this answer your question?

Not exactly. There are 2 halves in play and the first half champion is playing the second half. Miracle is out of it for the first half but everyone is tied for the second half. Tosoni-Hicks-Bigley-Dolenc-Benson (DL) is the OF at New Britain so they'd probably have to release Dolenc to get Arcia up there...

Honestly... The one who messed this whole thing up was Gardenhire: He did not Garza in his team because Garza would not listen to Andy about throwing 2 seamers and pitching to contact. That has been documented and is out there. Then Young comes and Gardy plays him in a position he never played before (LF) instead of the position he has been an above average fielder in Tampa (check out his UZR), RF. Then the Twins started to throw Young under the bus when he did not like to listen to Vavra and wanted to pull the ball. And the kid carried the Twins in his back in 2010. And nobody gives him any credit for that. Gardy initiated that mess of a trade and he has been in my doghouse for a while...

Wonder if any of the Thompsons had an opt out by June 1st clause. Brad Thompson was on the DL at Rochester for a while and then he was assigned to New Britain. I saw him pitch an inning in an intersquad game between Roc and NB last Spring and nothing seemed to be much wrong with him, other than his velocity being down. He is 30 or 31. I don't think that Darryl Thompson will be missed much. Couldn't get many out.

Looks like the use of position players as pitchers is speading like a virus in the Twins' minors

Steve Carlton, Walter Johnson, Bert Blyleven, Early Wynn among others would argue against that statement. They are all in the Hall of Fame, and I suspect that Johan will not make it...

No. Buxton might become number 3 or 4, the others lower. The pitchers would be sloting where Gibson slots pretty much, and Correa maybe a tad higher. But it is all subjective This is just not a draft with crazy good talent.

I think that the Twins value him more than other teams. He does not really look much more than a 3-4 round guy to me. He has a FB and a cutter, that's about it at this point. Major work in progress, who will likely end up as a reliever, unless he develops both a breaking ball and an change, thus the 3-4 round designation.

Yes! Congrats Johan And all 3 no-nos this season had Twins' connotations: Johan and Humber were former Twins (and were traded for each other) Weaver's (unfortunately) was against you know who....

I think that every single mock from the "Big Boys" out there has Appel going to Houston and Buxton to the Twins. Meanwhile, Carlos Corea is leaving on a jet plane to MN to have a second private workout with the Twins this weekend. Read to that whatever you want... My take is that if he is able to sign for somethink like $5-5.5 instead of the alloted $6.2M, the Twins have a huge win, spending the extra in later picks

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?605-Profiles-of-the-Top-22-Pitchers-for-the-2012-MLB-Draft-(Bonus)-Mitch-Brown

Yes and the GCL the season before. For some reason looks like he will repeat Elizabethton or get to Beloit after the promotions clear space. Just too many SS ahead of him right now (Michael, Grimes) so there is no playing time for him in pro ball yet this season.

Michael Bowden was DFA'd again by the Cubs. I am convinced that his issues are coming from the pen. Boston (and how Chicago) have been trying to convert him to a reliever. We are talking for a guy who has a career: 3.27 ERA, 1.155 WHIP, 7.1 K/9 and 2.38 K/BB in 3 AAA seasons. That K/9 would put him on the top 3 in the Twins' organization. He is just 25. Has been on the top 100 BA prospect list 3 times. He just started 2 games in the majors before Boston gave up. He is out of options Here is what I am thinking: with the Twins' rotation in 2013 up for grabs, why not look at the future, sign Bowden, DFA Gray, and have him be in the pen the rest of the season, converting him into a starter in 2013. Cannot harm anything. Just not many 2013 options there

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- It has been pretty much a tradition at The Tenth Inning Stretch to live blog the MLB rule 4 Draft from the Twins' perspective. I will cover every single pick all 3 days of the draft I will follow what I did in 2010, which is: Live draft coverage on each day of the draft, both with live blogging and on twitter. I will tweet each pick as happens, then I will blog details about the player including scouting reports, projections, videos etc, in this space. You can follow me on twitter @thrylos98, or you can come here and refresh the page often. My tweets will appear on the left hand side of the page, as always. I will do a single post with the details of each draftee. At the end of the draft, I will have the reactions of the players drafted, about being drafted by the Twins and also have more detailed profiles of the new Twins, as they sign. These profiles would be very similar to my top 22 pitcher profiles I did before the draft. To see the individual profiles in 2010 (and the reactions piece on top) so you have an idea of what the coverage will be like, they are all at this link. All the 2012 MLB Draft picks, profiles and related posts (including this one) will be at this link . Not that I will be blogging much else during the draft, but that link is 2012 Draft exclusive content. A reminder about what this draft includes: The Rule 4 Draft, or the First-Year Player Draft (all those 3 things are synonyms), includes players who are residents of the U.S., Canada and U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and Minor Outlying Islands. Residents of other countries are not subject to the Rule 4 Draft, but are signed as free agents either when they are young (the majority of Latin American, European, African and Australian players) or when are established (the majority of Japanese players.) Free agents have the ability to negotiate with each team and actually, depending on the perceived value of a player, induce a bidding war for their services. Thus, a lot of Cuban refugees do not take residence in the U.S. or a territory, so they will not be subjected to the amateur draft, but take residence in a Latin American country like Bolivia or Mexico. The minor league draft is a way for organizations to restock their systems. With the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, each pick in the draft hasa bonus ceiling. The sum of those bonus ceilings is the maximum a team can spend in the draft (bonus allotment). There are severe penalties for surpassing their bonus allotment, including fines and losses of future 1st round draft picks. So most teams will stay tight within their allotment. However, a team like the Twins can sign their first round pick to a $5.7 million bonus instead of the allotted $6.2 and have an extra $500K to spend in another pick. Because of all the supplemental picks and the fact that are picking second in every round (but the second where they are picking third because of the Willingham signing), the Twins have the highest bonus allotment in the draft with $12,368,200. Another housekeeping item: I have been re-posting a lot of the content here at the Twins Dailysite also, a great site, btw, make sure you join and participate. A can't miss for every Twins' fan. Because of the time urgency (and because I do not want to clutter their site with 25 posts a day), I will be live blogging the Twins 2012 MLB Draft only at The Tenth Inning Stretch. Might post some summary posts there after all is settled later next week.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- It has been pretty much a tradition at The Tenth Inning Stretch to live blog the MLB rule 4 Draft from the Twins' perspective. I will cover every single pick all 3 days of the draft I will follow what I did in 2010, which is: Live draft coverage on each day of the draft, both with live blogging and on twitter. I will tweet each pick as happens, then I will blog details about the player including scouting reports, projections, videos etc, in this space. You can follow me on twitter @thrylos98, or you can come here and refresh the page often. My tweets will appear on the left hand side of the page, as always. I will do a single post with the details of each draftee. At the end of the draft, I will have the reactions of the players drafted, about being drafted by the Twins and also have more detailed profiles of the new Twins, as they sign. These profiles would be very similar to my top 22 pitcher profiles I did before the draft. To see the individual profiles in 2010 (and the reactions piece on top) so you have an idea of what the coverage will be like, they are all at this link. All the 2012 MLB Draft picks, profiles and related posts (including this one) will be at this link . Not that I will be blogging much else during the draft, but that link is 2012 Draft exclusive content. A reminder about what this draft includes: The Rule 4 Draft, or the First-Year Player Draft (all those 3 things are synonyms), includes players who are residents of the U.S., Canada and U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and Minor Outlying Islands. Residents of other countries are not subject to the Rule 4 Draft, but are signed as free agents either when they are young (the majority of Latin American, European, African and Australian players) or when are established (the majority of Japanese players.) Free agents have the ability to negotiate with each team and actually, depending on the perceived value of a player, induce a bidding war for their services. Thus, a lot of Cuban refugees do not take residence in the U.S. or a territory, so they will not be subjected to the amateur draft, but take residence in a Latin American country like Bolivia or Mexico. The minor league draft is a way for organizations to restock their systems. With the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, each pick in the draft hasa bonus ceiling. The sum of those bonus ceilings is the maximum a team can spend in the draft (bonus allotment). There are severe penalties for surpassing their bonus allotment, including fines and losses of future 1st round draft picks. So most teams will stay tight within their allotment. However, a team like the Twins can sign their first round pick to a $5.7 million bonus instead of the allotted $6.2 and have an extra $500K to spend in another pick. Because of all the supplemental picks and the fact that are picking second in every round (but the second where they are picking third because of the Willingham signing), the Twins have the highest bonus allotment in the draft with $12,368,200. Another housekeeping item: I have been re-posting a lot of the content here at the Twins Dailysite also, a great site, btw, make sure you join and participate. A can't miss for every Twins' fan. Because of the time urgency (and because I do not want to clutter their site with 25 posts a day), I will be live blogging the Twins 2012 MLB Draft only at The Tenth Inning Stretch. Might post some summary posts there after all is settled later next week.