John Bonnes

Updated 5/24 - While all the previous mocks had the Minnesota Twins selecting shortstop Nick Gordon with the 5th overall pick in the MLB Draft, neither of the two released on Friday did. And the second hinted that the Twins could have some tough (but fruitful) decisions ahead. First, John Manuel released his 3rd mock draft and took things a step farther than he had in Mock 2, when he had high school pitcher Tyler Kolek falling to the Twins but the Twins passing on him to stick with Gordon. This time, they didn't pass: Then MLB.com released another mock draft, but this one was by Jim Callis, who is known as one of the more plugged-in writers in Major League Baseball. He also had the Twins selecting Tyler Kolek, but there really was no decision to be made - Nick Gordon had been selected by the Cubs the pick before. He also hinted that if things break right, the Twins could have their choice between Kolek, Gordon and prep catcher Alex Jackson depending on how the Cubs and Marlins feel about high school players. Photo courtesy of Rinaldi Photos Updated 5/20 - Who will the Twins choose as the fifth overall pick in the upcoming MLB draft? Oddly enough, in their latest mock drafts, Keith Law (ESPN.com), Jonathan Mayo (MLB.com), John Manuel (Baseball America) and Kiley McDaniel (Scout.com) all have the Twins picking the same guy. But how each gets to that point is very different. Overview This year’s draft features three high-upside pitchers that are at or near the top of almost everyone’s list. (There were four, by the way, but one needed Tommy John surgery.) Carlos Rodon – College left-hander from North Carolina State that everyone expected at the beginning of the year to be the #1 pick. He’s been good enough to still be, but others have also risen. Brady Aiken – A very polished high school left-hander from San Diego that has risen sharply to be one of the top pitching prospects. Tyler Kolek – A 250-pound high school right-hander with 101 mph fastball who will need to work on his command. Then there are some position players that are perhaps a half step lower, including Nick Gordon – a high school shortstop, Bradley Zimmer – a college center fielder and Alex Jackson – a high school catcher/outfielder. Arms First Two of the mock drafts have those three high–upside pitchers going first, second and third and in the same order. Both MLB.com and Scout.com have Rodon going first to the Astros, Kolek going second to the Marlins and Aiken going third to the White Sox. They vary in their fourth pick. Jonathan Mayo has the Cubs choosing Jackson, who many feel is the best all-around hitter in the class (and some feel might not stay at catcher because teams will want to promote his bat quickly). But Kiley McDaniel has the Cubs going with what many consider the safest pitcher in the draft – Aaron Nola, a right-hander out of Louisiana State. Nola is also a pitcher in whom the Twins reportedly have some interest. But both agree that the Twins would then choose Nick Gordon, who should be able to stay at shortstop throughout his career and has added strength. There have been lots of reports about the Twins zeroing in on him. One question raised by McDaniel is what the Twins do if he's not available – if he’s sniped by one of the teams in front of the Twins, particularly, the Cubs. Another question not raised is whether the Twins might take Jackson over Gordon as in McDaniel’s draft. Close But Not Quite Keith Law jumbles the picks a bit and has Jackson sneaking into the second spot, nabbed by the Marlins. In his scenario, the Astros grab Aiken, the catcher Jackson is grabbed by the Marlins and the White Sox grab the hefty Kolek. That gives the Cubs a shot at one of the three big pitchers – Rodon, oddly enough – and they snap him up. So by the time the Twins draft, the same names are on the board as they were for the MLB.com draft. The Twins still take Gordon in his scenario. An Arm Falls John Manuel, however, sees a scenario in which one of the bigger arms falls to the Twins and they need to make a decision. In his scenario, Rodon goes first, as he has in three of these four mock drafts. The Marlins grab the catcher/outfielder Jackson. Interestingly, Manuel mentions that he thinks the White Sox, who pick next, covet Jackson if he gets past the Marlins. In this scenario, he’s gone, so they take the left-handed prep pitcher Aiken. When the Cubs choose at fourth, Manuel has them passing on Kolek because a 250-pound high schooler officially qualifies as an “outlier,” especially for an organization that prefer’s college pitchers. So they go with Kyle Freeland, a college left-hander who is moving up the boards fast and provides the right mix of upside and risk. (The other drafts have Freeland being taken soon after the Twins, in the seventh or eighth pick.) That leaves the Twins with a big decision. They certainly haven’t shied away from prep pitchers like Kolek. But they have also spent a lot of time scouting Gordon. Manuel lays out the decision: “The Twins have done their due diligence on the top prep arms, and their emphasis on finding velocity in recent drafts could lead them to Kolek. But they’ve also done a lot of work on Gordon, whose middle-of-the-diamond athleticism is too much to turn down.” The Twins once again end up with the athletic high school shortstop, but I don’t think this will be the last time we’ll talk about a tough decision regarding Kolek and Gordon. We’ll update this story as more mock drafts are released. You can also check out the 46-page(!) MLB Draft thread on Twins Daily with several other mock drafts being noted throughout. Finally, you’ll find daily draft coverage on Twins Daily through the 2014 MLB Draft on June 5-7. Previous coverage included: Twins Daily’s scouting insider Jeremy Nygaard gave his Mock Draft v 1.0.

Aaron and John talk about the Twins' surprisingly decent first quarter of the season, management calling out Aaron Hicks through the media, Brian Dozier being one of the league's best players, Oswaldo Arcia going back to the minors, Chris Colabello turning back into a pumpkin, Kurt Suzuki proving to be a fine investment, and whether the Twins have something in Eduardo Escobar. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com.

Sponsored by Ticket King It's no secret: the hot ticket for this weekend's Mariners' series is Sunday’s afternoon game. Let’s see why:Series Preview Seattle isn't terrible. They enter this series a .500 team, which puts them in the middle of the AL West and the midst of a very large pack of teams that are somewhat viable Wild Card teams (which includes the Twins, by the way.) They’re also on pace for the 81.5 games that Vegas expected them to win this year. That’s a lot better than they did last year when they won 71 games. It’s easy to say the difference it the offseason signing of Robinson Cano. Cano, however, has been disappointing. He is still hitting for average (.301) and getting on base (.356), but his power has disappeared. The regular season is one-fourth complete and Cano has one home run. Joe Mauer has more home runs than Cano. Kurt Suzuki is out-slugging him. You'll likely get to see Cano no matter which game you go to. He's played in every game this year for Seattle and has played second base in all but two of them. Pitching Matchups However, you'll only get to "King" Felix Hernandez on Sunday, which is the first reason Sunday’s game is the hot ticket this weekend. Hernandez has not been disappointing. He's been Hernandez: three-ish ERA, among the league leaders in strikeouts and on pace for 230 or so innings. That’s been his profile now for 10 years - and he's just 28 years old. He'll be facing Twins pitcher Ricky Nolasco, who is pitching better than his 5.51 ERA suggests, but that's damning with faint praise. Nolasco has a 3.86 ERA since May rolled around, and his hit rate (11.4 H/9) suggests he's been a little unlucky. Seattle isn’t a bad bet to assist his turnaround; the Mariners are twelfth in the AL in runs scored. But if you can’t see Felix, at least you won’t have to watch Kevin Correia take the hill. Mercifully, Twins fans won’t see him starting at Target Field until the next homestand – if he’s still in the rotation. On Friday, Kyle Gibson (who has also been struggling lately) faces a rejuvenated Chris Young. On Saturday night, bring some extra cash for an extra round of beers, because Samuel Deduno faces Roenis Elias, a left-hander from Cuba that looks like he’s every bit as wild as Deduno. Weather But the best reason that Sunday is the hot ticket is because it’s going to be relatively hot, especially in the seats down the Target Field third base line. The forecast is for sunny and 70 degrees, which would be only the fourth time this year it’s reached 70 degrees. Hopefully, this is the game that turns around the weather for the better this year. Don’t you want to be a part of that? Friday night is going to be on the cool side, but there are lot of tickets available, including some in Row 8 of Section 3 if you want a closeup view of Cano at second base. Tickets are quite a bit scarcer for the first Saturday night game of the year. And tickets are scarcer still for Sunday, though I see a pair just above the Mariners dugout that would be nice. All are an even better deal if you use the promo code DAILYDOUBLE, which will get you 10% off and supports Twins Daily. Whatever your needs, your local ticket supplier,Ticket King, can help.

Aaron and John unpack the MLB/iTunes fiasco, reflect on a jumbled Twins roster, examine Phil Hughes turnaround, play a lot of GATG intros, cast a skeptical eye towards Danny Santana and Chris Parmelee, ignore their mothers and debate the size of Aaron's ego. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. The Twins took the series against the Tigers with a 4-3 win on Sunday, so on Monday you can take 50% off a large or extra-large pizza from PapaJohns.com by using the promo code 'twinswin'.

Sponsored by Switch My Trip Phil Hughes Big Switch pitching performance on Friday night successfully stared down a three-game losing streak and Justin Verlander. It was also his fourth straight quality start, suggesting that Hughes is in the midst of his own Big Switch. That switch is half of what we thought it would be, but half unforeseen, though maybe we should have expected it.When the Twins signed Phil Hughes this offseason to a 3-year, $24 million contract, reactions to the deal were split, with very little middle ground. The agreement was an easy target for criticism. Hughes record last year was just 4-14 with a 5.19 ERA. In what world did those numbers justify a three-year deal, let alone $24 million guaranteed? The Twins are looking to switch things around this year. Every week, Metro Transit recognizes a Twins player who successfully switched the outcome of a game for the better.The alternate view boiled down to one hope: like Snake Plissken, Hughes just needed to Escape from New York. Part of that argument was subjective. Hughes was once the top pitching prospect in the minors, the guy that Yankees wouldn’t trade for Johan Santana. He was called up as a 20-year-old, and even now is just 27 and approaching his prime. By all accounts his stuff has been better than his performance. He had faced the brightest of spotlights on the biggest of stages with the highest of expectations as one of the league’s youngest players. All of which could overwhelm anyone. But the other reason to get him out of New York was more objective: Hughes has always been hurt by his home ballpark. In particular, his tendency to give up long fly balls was hurt by Yankees Stadium’s smaller dimensions, especially in right field. For instance, last year Hughes gave up seventeen home runs in Yankee Stadium and just seven on the road. His ERA at home was 6.32, but 3.88 on the road. His record was 1-10 in the Rebuilt House that Ruth Built, but 3-4 everywhere else. Perhaps Hughes just wasn’t made to pitch in the Bronx Bandbox. So far, the home run theory is holding water. Hughes home run rate has dropped 40% to .9 HR/9 from 1.5 HR/9 last year. This year’s rate, by the way, matches his home run rate on the road last year. His 3.92 ERA also almost matches what he had on the road last year. Maybe this success isn’t such a surprise. But there is another change, too. Hughes walk rate (1.3 BB/9) is half of what it was last year (2.6 BB/9) and over his entire Yankees’ career (2.8 BB/9). This is probably also something we might have anticipated, though maybe not to this degree. Pretty consistently, when pitchers have come to the Twins and pitching coach Rick Anderson, we have seen a decline in walk rate. Of course, we’ve also see a decline in strikeout rate, which we’re also seeing with Hughes, from 7.5 K/9 down to 7.0. Still, that’s a trade worth making. Taken all together, there are some reasons to believe that this offseason’s best case scenario is coming true, and we’re watching a Big Switch in a player’s career. If so, instead of being foolish, the three-year deal the Twins signed would be brilliant. Hughes would be locked into a relatively affordable $8M contract through his 30-year-old season. It could work out well for Hughes too – that’s a good age to look for his next big deal, whether it is from the Twins or some other team. The contract, widely derided nationally, is paying off for both sides in the early going. Why fight traffic and parking? Say Switch My Trip for the next Twins game. Metro Transit can provide you and your whole family a train ride to the game. Planning your trip is as easy as clicking on this link.