gunnarthor

In fairness to the Twins, Callis/Mayo has Nola the #6 draft prospect. And Johnson has drafted ceilings fairly consistently, even with risks about control or injuries (Gibson, Hunt, Bullock etc). In fact, I think Wimmers might be the only real "safe" pick he made and that was a pretty late first round pick.

Right now I can't see Aiken, Rodon or Kolek falling to us. I'd love one of Hoffman/Jackson so long as both are healthy but if Hoffman is hurt and Jackson is gone ... ugh. After that, according to mlbpipeline it's guys like Nola, Gordon, Beede. They have Zimmer at #10. If Jackson's gone and Hoffman's hurt, I think the Twins could take a guy like Gordon but I'm not really excited about that.

He did have an appendectomy in the offseason and may not have fully healed when he came back and started pushing. Sort of Mauer's leg surgery fiasco.

No, Jonathan Gray was picked in 2013. Third player taken overall. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=gray--001jon

Last year's #1 overall pick has had a tough time adjusting to A ball and a pro pitcher's 5 day schedule. So the Astros sent him back to EST hoping to get him right. http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2014/4/25/5654422/astros-send-top-prospect-appel-to-extended-spring-training The 22 year old was at the Astros high A team (equivalent to the Twins Ft Myers team where the 20 year old Berrios is our best pitching prospect). Astros have had some interesting drafts these last few years, passing on Buxton, Gausman, Zunino, Gray and Bryant (among others) to nab Correa and Appel. Correa is also at A+ and holding his own.

mlbpipeline supposedly released a new top 100 for the draft but I can't find it. Here's the video discussing it: http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/26271672/v32450975/draft-prospects-list-expanded-from-50-to-100-players/?c_id=mlb Mentions a really strong pitching class - 12 of the first 15 could be pitchers. Hoffman and Rodon haven't been as impressive as expected but a bunch of others have stepped up - Aiken, Kolek, Nola, Freeland, Finnigan etc.

The funny thing about this whole thread is that no one ever threw a baseball at Gomez. He did throw a helmet at someone but reading Levi's posts you'd think that Gomez was an innocent victim of some headhunters.

Bummer for Nats fans. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10853575/bryce-harper-washington-nationals-torn-thumb-ligament

Good catch, Twerp

Anti-Rushmore? Well, this skews toward the current but Delmon Young, Liriano, Tommy Herr and Kevin Slowey (my least favorite Twin ever).

Yeah, I keep thinking of Philip Humber with Rodon now.

If Blyleven played most of his career here, then I'd say him. And if we had a better connection to our Senators past, I'd say Walter Johnson. But we don't. Still, Kaat, Santana, Radke and Blyleven could all be considered for that fourth spot but I'd put Mauer ahead of them.

Don't really want to continue this discussion at this point, BUT the Astros keep mucking up the rules. I find it hilarious. http://thebaseballcodes.com/2014/04/25/throw-at-me-once/ Off topic, I think these Astros might actual be worse than last years team. I can't figure out how they won 7 games.

Killer, Carew, Puck should all be locks. Fourth spot is open for some debate but I'd pick Mauer.

A team full of Joe Mauers wouldn't have any home runs therefore your title is completely wrong. But it sure has been fun to watch this.

Apparently violence in football is ok so long as their was an actual rulebook violation.

You don't usually have those kind of realistic upsides in the 2nd round.

Realistically, I'm hoping for one of Hoffman or Jackson. Hoffman's injury is really concerning but the Twins did take Gibson (although he fell a long way).

http://deadspin.com/oldest-living-mlb-player-dies-at-102-1566693022 Connie Marrero played for the Twins former team, the Washington Senators. Interesting tidbit about him, after he retired, he moved back to Cuba where he didn't get his baseball pension until about 4 years ago b/c it was Cuba. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/appears-mlb-finally-pay-connie-marrero-pension-owed-article-1.948722

Glad we don't have to make the decision on him.

I understand your point but I think you are being purposefully difficult on this. First, most of those fights certainly started with perceived disrespect coming from one party - it's just harder to read lips in the NFL. The NBA clip was better at that. But at a certain point, this becomes a little over the top. Now it's "assaulted"? And the problem isn't that there's an assault but it's an assault for something that didn't break an "actual rule?" Do we forgive the hockey players hitting each other with sticks b/c there was an actual rule broken, so it's not an "assault" anymore? You see how this is getting insane, right? At the end of the day, you don't like unwritten rules that enforce a certain code of conduct. That's fine. That's how you feel. But that's not the reality of MLB (and all the other sports). And you are ok with an unwritten code of conduct that enforces certain ACTUAL violations. ("I'm generally in agreement, however, I'd rather the team only retaliate for ACTUAL rule violations.") So that's a different code but it is a code. Also, these hypothetical you're throwing our aren't really accurate. First, players aren't getting beaned at all. Second, players aren't upset b/c of a stolen base or a bat flip or whatever. What is upsetting them is an obvious disrespect by the opponent in the form of a bat flip or stolen base. Some call it taunting, others say "not respecting the game." But it means the same thing and some version of it is alive in all sports. And, as an aside, what actual rules can baseball players break? This isn't football where you have holding or clipping etc. There aren't really penalties in baseball.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=37d_1397843688 Deputy shoots himself when he over reacts to a cute little doggy. Happily, animal services didn't do anything to the dog. (Although I'd be worried about something happening eventually).

I think this discussion got off the rails a bit. So here's my thoughts - in the Gomez/Cole instance, Cole clearly thought Gomez was showboating and cursed at him. Cole isn't a mind reader so it's possible that Gomez wasn't trying to do that but pretty much everyone who saw the video disagrees. As for why that would bother Cole, my guess is that athletes in the middle of competition aren't the clear thinkers you or I are when we are driving around and some kid flips us the bird - read all the Richard Sherman articles after the NFC championship game for more on that. Back to the incident - Gomez escalated it and a fight started. No one threw a baseball at anyone. As for the idea of throwing balls at hitters, it's part of the codes because, while it hurts, it very rarely injures. Usually, the people hurt by HBP weren't hit intentionally. Pitchers are taught to aim at the meat of the player (usually the back or a thigh). I cannot remember any instance of player being hurt by a retaliatory HBP.

It's a gesture that has a real meaning behind it that the players understand. Most gestures, if you just ignored it or didn't know what it meant, mean nothing. A bat flip might not mean anything to you but it sure has meaning to the players on the field.

Again, that's not true. Fights happen in every sport for many different reasons but showing up an opponent (disrespecting an opponent in some form) is common in all. Baseball has one advantage (disadvantage?) in that they play 162 games in a season and maybe a team will have one real fight a year and maybe 3 things where the benches empty and nothing happens. This little clip on youtube shows a few fights from last season in the NFL and the Giants were involved in at least two in only a 16 game schedule. Ditto with the NBA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au5B5v4qBDY