sftwinsfan

List could be a little depressing next year, guessing #1 will be either Gordon or Jay. Hoping it won't be Polanco, he's a solid prospect but not anybody that looks like he's going to be a star by any means. Would be great to see some of the younger guys like Lewin Diaz take a big step forward or one of the injured guys like Lewis Thorpe.

Rather than move everyone around I'd leave Rosario alone in left. With Buxton's speed you can maybe shade him a little more over toward covering right-center to account for Sano being out there. As long as Sano drops some weight and is willing to put in the work it really shouldn't be a big defensive downgrade over Hunter. Eventually Sano moves to 3rd or 1st but a couple years down the road the Twins will have time to know what they have or don't have with guys like Park,Kepler, Walker, etc and Mauer will be on his way out. Trading Plouffe now in my opinion is too much of a risk unless they acquired a proven bat as well. He's unspectacular but solid and in their lineup one of the only guys who isn't a major question mark. I hope Park turns out to be a steal but if there was a consensus among scouts that he could be a middle of the order hitter in MLB it would have taken more than $12.85M to win a bid for the guy. At this point he is nothing more than a lotto ticket.

The Twins were, as usual, in kind of a bad spot when their pick came up. There probably weren't a lot of good options here. Unless they took a chance on on injured guy like Allard or Aiken it was probably between Jay and Fullmer. That's also assuming since Cameron has not been drafted yet by pick #28 that his asking price was not reasonable. Plus we all know how the Twins brain trust starts drooling when they get the chance to draft a college relief pitcher. While I think he has the chance to be solid, I don't see a ceiling as an ace or get the comps to Chris Sale other than being left-handed. Sale is about 6'6" vs Jay at about 6'1". Sale was a starter in college, Jay was a reliever. I suppose there's always that outside chance he becomes an ace, because you never really know-but I see him more as a mid-rotation starter if things work out. Floor is obviously not even reaching the majors but realistically would probably be a set-up man in the bullpen. (I think Nick Burdi has proven you can't just write dominant relief pitcher next to a guys name in pen without him having actually pitched in the minor leagues yet). One of the reasons I'll take a wait and see approach before getting too excited is the level of competition Jay faced. I love the Big 10, but for college baseball the conference is an afterthought. So his stats, while awesome, have to be taken with a grain of salt. Also he was a reliever at Illinois and its an unknown how his velocity and command will hold up making multiple starts. Will his fastball play more at 90-93 if he has to make 30 starts rather than 94-97? Can he adjust to being a starter and the workload without his arm blowing up before he gets close to even reaching the MLB level? How does he adjust the 3rd time through a line-up? A lot of questions, I guess we'll see.

I'm more open to Allard at this point than Aiken. Especially knowing they haven't gotten Aiken's medicals. If the medicals check out and you get permission to talk to the surgeon and everything seems ok I would be overjoyed to get Aiken, assuming he would sign as well. That's a lot of ifs, so I doubt it will happen.

I'd be ok with him being the pick at #6. All the Twins need to do to get him to fill out is have Sano and Vargas mentor him. He'll be 6'4" 240 lbs by the time he hits AA ball.

I know he'll go high, but I don't want anything to do with Bregman. Picking at #6, even in a weak draft, I'd rather whiff on a guy with a high ceiling than pick a guy that high that could be the next Jed Lowrie if everything works out. Plus with Nick Gordon, Jorge Polanco, possibly Wander Javier-they've invested a lot at the SS position. Would rather go after a possible impact bat or high-ceiling starting pitcher. I've never liked the whole draft a SS argument, seems like a lot of no-hit infielders drafted high because they could play SS.