Seth Stohs

Twins first-round draft picks highlight tonight's podcast. Seth will be joined by 2016 top pick Alex Kirilloff, and 2017 first-round picks Royce Lewis and Brent Rooker. Also, Aaron Slegers will discuss his major league debut, and Gophers senior Toby Hanson will talk about their upcoming season. The Minnesota Gophers have their first practice of the 2018 season today. Toby Hanson is a senior on the University of Minnesota baseball team. He went to high school at Delano. As a junior in 2017, he hit .319/.350/.477 (.827) with 14 doubles, four triples and five home runs. Aaron Slegers made his Major League debut with a strong game against Cleveland. The lanky right-handed pitcher has moved up one level each season since being drafted. He'll join the show and we'll talk about his debut, being in the Twins clubhouse down the stretch, and look forward to 2018. Alex Kirilloff was the Twins first-round pick in 2016. He debuted in Elizabethton where he hit .306 with seven homers in 55 games. Unfortunately, he missed the 2017 season after having Tommy John surgery in March. We'll discuss the injury, rehab and his hopes and goals for 2018. Brent Rooker was the Twins 38th round pick in 2016, but he returned to Mississippi State where he won the SEC's Triple Crown in 2017. The Twins selected him again in 2017, but this time as a Comp pick after the first round. He split his pro debut between Elizabethton and Ft. Myers and hit a combined 18 HRs. We'll discuss his debut and his goals for 2018. Royce Lewis was the first overall pick in the 2017 draft out of high school. He debuted in thet GCL but moved up to Cedar Rapids. He's the top Twins prospect and we'll find out what that means to him. We'll look back at the draft and his debut season, but we'll also look to 2018 and beyond. Tune in live tonight at 8:00 central time to listen. You can also listen to it later. Also, search "Minnesota Sports Weekly" on iTunes and you'll be able to listen to it there too. Subscribe to it!

The Twins had seven arbitration-eligible players following the 2017. However, they non-tendered catcher Chris Gimenez shortly after the season. So, Friday was a big day for six Twins players. Here is the breakdown: EDUARDO ESCOBAR The Twins utility player turned every day player (almost every season) put up his best year to date in 2017. This is his final season before becoming a free agent. He made $2.6 million in 2017. Twins Daily projected he would make $5.0 million in 2018 while MLB Trade Rumors predicted $4.9 million. The two sides reached an agreement on Thursday night at $4.85 million. ROBBIE GROSSMAN Grossman spent most of the 2017 as the Twins primary DH and he had another good season. This is his first chance to make some serious money through arbitration. Twins Daily projected a 2018 pay day at $2.0 million. MLB Trade Rumors projected $2.4 million. The two sides agreed at $2.0 million, avoiding arbitration. RYAN PRESSLY While 2017 was another year full of ups and downs (including time in AAA) for Pressly, he ended the year quite strong. In 2017, he made $1.175 million in his first arbitration season. Twins Daily predicted $2.0 million for Pressly, and MLB Trade Rumors projected $1.6 million. He agreed at $1.6 million. EHIRE ADRIANZA The Twins acquired Adrianza last offseason and he became a solid contributor in a utility role, playing around the infield and even getting time in left field. Twins Daily and MLB Trade Rumors both predicted that he would make $1.0 million in 2018, and that is the number that the two sides agreed upon. TREVOR MAY May missed the entire 2017 season due to Tommy John surgery. He will return to the Twins sometime in 2018, hopefully fairly early. His role has not yet been established. Will he get another chance to start, or will he return to the bullpen? And which role would be best for him? Twins Daily predicted he would get a bump to $1.0 million in 2018. MLB Trade Rumors predicted he would receive $600,000. The two sides agreed at $650,000. KYLE GIBSON In general, 2017 was a tough season for Kyle Gibson. In fact, he was twice sent down to AAA Rochester. However, when he came back, he was much better. In fact, he was arguably their most consistent (maybe even best) starter down the stretch. In his final 12 Twins starts of 2017, he went 7-2 with a 3.57 ERA (and the Twins went 10-2 in those games) Twins Daily predicted he would make $5.5 million in 2018. MLB Trade Rumors projected a $5.3 million salary for Gibson. According to Jon Heyman, the Twins offer to Kyle Gibson is $4.2 million and the Gibson side is asking for $4.55 million. The $350,000 difference would seems to be small enough that the sides should be able to meet somewhere in the middle, maybe even through some incentives. NOTE - We should soon hear the exchanged dollar figures between Gibson and the Twins. This will be updated at that time.

I assume many know the history of Kirby Puckett. He's a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest players in Minnesota Twins history. His legend grew as the leader of the 1987 and 1991 World Series championship teams. For someone in my age group, we know all about the Kirby Puckett story. However, consider that he has been retired since spring training of 1996. Anyone born after September 28, 1995. never had the chance to watch him play in an MLB game. That means that no one under the age of around 27 or 28 would have memories of watching him during his playing career. Puckett was born and raised in the projects on the South Side of Chicago, some of the roughest neighborhoods in the country. Following his high school playing days, he received no scholarship offers. He went to work on the assembly line at a Ford Motors plant. He was given an opportunity to play at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, but after one year, he went to Triton Community College. That's where the Jim Rantz legend was born. Rantz went to Triton one day to watch his son play, but in the process, he also got to see Kirby Puckett play. He was so impressed that he recommended the Twins continue to send scouts to watch him. Then 37 years ago today, they used the third overall pick to to select the outfielder. As a 22-year-old, Puckett went to Elizabethton where he hit .382/.438/.491 with 15 doubles, three triples, three home runs and 35 RBI. It may surprise some, but he also stole 43 bases (in 47 attempts) during the short-season. In 1983, he moved up to Visalia where he hit .314/.366/.442 with 29 doubles, seven triples, nine home runs and 97 RBI. He stole 48 bases in 59 attempts. Let me make a brief side note here. Puckett was putting up monstrous numbers in A-Ball, but he was already 23 years old, so I imagine had prospect rankings been done by more at that time, he may have been dropped a few spots because he was "too old for the level." (of course, it did come out shortly after his playing career that he was born on March 14, 1960. He had been listed as being born March 14, 1961, throughout his career, although he never hid that information from the Twins.) In 1984, he jumped all the way up to AAA Toledo. 21 games into the season, he was hitting just .263/.294/.325 with two doubles and a home run. He was also 8 for 10 in stolen base attempts. The Twins were tired of their centerfield situation that included the likes of Bobby Mitchell and Darrell Brown, and they decided to promote Puckett. On May 8, Puckett debuted with four hits against the Angels. During his 12-year career, he played in 10 All Star games and won six Gold Glove awards and six Silver Slugger Awards. He finished in the Top 3 in MVP voting three times. He won the batting title when he hit .339 in 1989, but the year before, he hit .356 and finished second to Wade Boggs (.366). Overall, he hit .318/.360/.477 with 414 doubles, 57 triples, 207 home runs, 1,085 RBI and 1,071 runs scored. He also stole 134 bases. Obviously his career ended way too soon when, in the spring of 1996, he was diagnosed with glaucoma and could never play again. He became a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2001. How many of you make that trip to Cooperstown for Puckett's induction? (Me!!) In 2002, a lot of information came out that destroyed the great-guy persona that Puckett had throughout his playing career. There's no getting around that or excusing that, but those of us who were eight years old when Puckett debuted and remember all the great catches, the home runs, the All Star games, the World Series titles, choose (right or wrong) to remember those things and what Kirby Puckett meant to fans around the Upper Midwest. Puckett had a massive stroke in March of 2006 and passed away the following day. I had to leave work. 36 years ago today, the Twins drafted Kirby Puckett. He became the Minnesota Twins to so many. I wish I could have met him.