Tom Froemming

The thing I find interesting about some of these catchers is the possibility they may be useful even if they don't stick behind the plate. Most amateur catchers either have to stay at the position or find a new profession. The Twins scooped up a bunch of guys who can hit and also just so happen to also be catchers. It's an interesting strategy, though obviously all of these guys face crazy long odds of making it.

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If I'm the Marlins, any Realmuto trade talks have to start with a top 50 prospect in all of baseball.

I really hope they promote Edgar Corcino to Rochester soon, he deserves it.

Gonsalves needs to start pounding the zone. He's only giving up 6.1 hits per nine with the Red Wings and opponents are hitting .190 off him, but he's walking 5.5 batters per nine. That's the third worst BB/9 rate among IL pitchers with at least 30 innings.

The highest pick the Twins were unable to sign last year was 11th rounder Gabriel Rodriguez. out of Puerto Rico. He went to Miami-Dade College instead, a JUCO, and hit .317/.420/.460 as a freshman. The next highest guy who didn't sign was 14th round pitcher Cade Smith, a Canadian who went and pitched for Hawaii instead. He had a 4.62 ERA and zero regrets, I'm sure

The White Sox held an advantage over the Twins for nearly the entirety of their doubleheader Tuesday, but a massive four-run eighth inning in the first game allowed the Twins to earn a split on the day. That big inning was all thanks to a two-out rally that was capped off by an Eduardo Escobar three-run homer.Game 1 Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Fernando Romero: 54 Game Score, 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 K, 0 BB, 60.2% strikes Bullpen: 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 K, 0 BB Lineup: 2-for-6 w/RISP, 4 LOB Top three per WPA: Escobar .562, Sano .086, Rodney .081 Download attachment: WinEx65G1.png The Twins couldn’t get anything going through the first seven innings. They entered the eighth with just one hit and trailed 2-0. It appeared they were going to go down quietly that frame as well, with the first two batters getting out, but the lineup turned over and sparked a rally. Brian Dozier singled, Eddie Rosario drew a walk, then Miguel Sano ripped a single. For a moment, it appeared the Twins would have a chance to tie it up, but Chicago left fielder Charlie Tilson made a great play to keep Rosario at third base. Maybe they should have just let him score. I suppose there’s no way we can really know if this mattered or not, but Rosie was dancing all over the place off third base, reminiscent of the run-scoring balk he drew against Milwaukee last season. Nate Jones left a fastball right in the middle of the plate and Eduardo Escobar didn’t miss it. There was a beautiful moment of suspense as that ball traveled off Escobar’s bat. He hit it hard to dead center. There was enough air under it for the center fielder to get to the wall, then just when you thought it may fall just short, suddenly … plop. The ball dropped on that little stretch of grass in front of the batter’s eye for a go-ahead three-run home run. Fernando Romero held the White Sox to two runs on seven hits over six innings pitched. He had four strikeouts and did not walk a batter for the first time in his major league career. Tyler Duffey came up big, pitching two scoreless innings, and Fernando Rodney pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 13th save. Game 2 Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Zack Littell: 15 Game Score, 3.0 IP, 6 ER, 1 K, 4 BB, 54.7% strikes Bullpen: 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 7 K, 5 BB Lineup: 3-for-12 w/RISP, 8 LOB Top three per WPA: Escobar .217, Grossman .076, Rosario .056 Download attachment: WinEx65G2.png Zack Littell’s major league debut didn’t go well. He struck out the first batter he faced though, so he’ll always be able to tell that story, but maybe he’ll leave out the parts about what happened the rest of that inning. The White Sox scored four runs on five hits, four of which went for extra bases, in that first frame. Littell got through the second inning, then he worked a scoreless third despite walking the first two batters he faced. He walked the first two batters again in the fourth and Paul Molitor had seen enough. Those two runners came around to score while Matt Magill was on the mound, meaning Littell was charged with six earned runs over three innings. He’ll have better days ahead. The bats put together a better overall performance than they did in Game 1, but they scored one fewer run. Baseball’s a funny game. Eduard Escobar was a beast once again, going 3-for-4 with two doubles and the only two RBIs credited to the Twins in this game. Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler had two hits each and Robbie Grossman, who hit leadoff, was 1-for-3 with two walks and scored a pair of runs. Magill allowed those two inherited runners to score, but he also only give up one hit over three innings without giving up an earned run. Trevor Hildenberger, Taylor Rogers and Zach Duke each pitched a scoreless inning in what was an excellent day for the bullpen. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen65.png AL Central Standings CLE 31-28 DET 29-33 (-3.5) MIN 26-31 (-4.0) KC 21-39 (-10.5) CHW 19-39 (-11.5) Next Three Games Wed vs. CHW, 7:10 pm CT Thu vs. CHW, 12:10 pm CT Fri vs. LAA, 7:10 pm CT Last Three Games MIN 7, CLE 5: EDDIE! EDDIE! EDDIE! MIN 7, CLE 1: Twins Battle Their Way to Another Victory MIN 7, CLE 4: Escobar é o Fogo More From Twins Daily Three Potential Catcher Upgrades on the Trade Market Twins Select Trevor Larnach in the First Round of the 2018 Draft Twins Select Ryan Jeffers in the Second Round of the 2018 Draft Click here to view the article

Now Mack may be the guy where signability comes into play. He's committed to Clemson.

Sands' repertoire certainly sounds enticing. Safe to assume the last two picks had their stock hurt to some extent due to injuries. Maybe not a bad strategy to scoop those guys up and hope they blossom. Worst case scenario is Sands has an injury that'll cause him to miss time, but I mean pretty much every pitcher gets a major injury at some point. But, I would also assume the Twins have done a lot of legwork in finding out just how serious Sands' injury really is.

I don't have any inside info, but I can't imagine that'll be an issue. Even if he went back and had a great year, he'll be a year older and would have zero leverage as a college senior. Was the No. 124 overall pick, there's a lot more opportunity to slide down from there than there is to climb up.

Surprised they took another college hitter, but it sounds like DaShawn Keirsey will be able to stay in center and he may be a fun gamble. Sounds like that hip injury hurt his stock, could he regain some explosiveness as he gets further away from that recovery?

The third round is complete. Just four total high school players were taken, one of which was a pitcher, Kloffenstein.

I think the hunch from the outside looking in is the Twins will be targeting high school pitchers today. Here are the top 15 who are still available per MLB.com with their overall rank listed: 19. Cole Wilcox, RHP Nope, scratch that. Just minutes ago on Twitter he announced he was headed to Georgia for college. 23. Kumar Rocker, RHP out of GA He hasn't made any kind of announcement, but is committed to Vanderbilt, so it seems he'll likely be college bound unless some team goes way over slot. 43. Adam Kloffenstein, RHP out of TX 63. Slade Cecconi, RHP out of FL 78. Jaden Hill, RHP out of AR 81. Nicholas Northcut, RHP out of OH 92. Dominic Pipkin, RHP out of CA 94. Brett Hansen, LHP out of CA 95. Austin Becker, RHP out of OH 96. Garrett McDaniels, LHP out of SC 100. Garrett Wade, LHP out of AL 114. Mason Englert, RHP out of TX 115. Jonathan Childress, LHP out of TX 117. Landon Marceaux, RHP out of LA 119. Owen Sharts, RHP out of CA Of course, this isn't the Twins list, and maybe they don't go for a high school pitcher right away in the fourth round, but I would suspect the Twins will go pitching heavy today.

Can always trade an OF for a P, I guess? Not sure that's the best business model, but maybe this front office is more confident in their ability to evaluate pitching and thinks they can find some hidden gems here on Day 2? Question marks intentional, I'm just throwing out theories here.

Garver has looked rough around the edges at times, but the team is also 12-13 in games he's started and pitchers have a 3.51 ERA pitching to him. When someone else has been behind the plate, Twins pitchers have a 4.86 ERA and are 13-17. That has to count for something, right?

This pick only makes sense to me -- slot savings or otherwise -- if they're convinced they can keep his guy behind the plate. It's entirely possible his caught stealing rates were down because his pitchers were bad at holding on runners or maybe there are some minor mechanical tweaks the Twins think they've identified that would clean things up in a jiffy. I'm sure they'll talk up his character, which is particularly important for a catcher, but maybe they also see some things in Jeffers that make them believe he is/can be a plus pitch framer, blocker and manager of a pitching staff. Who knows? Above-average power is nice, but I have to imagine there were plenty of other 55 raw power guys still available at that pick if they were simply looking for a bat.

It seemed like a lot of folks wanted the Twins to draft a college catcher. Well, here you go

My knee-jerk perception is the Twins went with a safe bet, a player who may lack the upside of some of the other guys who were still available, but who they feel confident will develop into a nice piece. I'm not so sure that's the route I'd have taken, but it's probably the smart play considering the Twins only have two picks in the first three rounds. It would really hurt to swing and miss on either of these picks tonight.

Fair way to look at it. I'd always prefer what I'd consider a "skill position" player -- a SS, CF or a C -- but the thing that's most likely to carry any player to the major leagues is their bat. Hit enough and they'll find a place for you.

Ditto to Brady Singer.

I think it's only natural that there's a bit of luster lost after having the No. 1 pick last year, and obviously whoever the Twins get isn't going to have Royce Lewis-type upside, but it's becoming more and more clear that the Twins are going to be able to add a very talented player at 20.

The MLB Glossary entry for this is pretty solid. I believe that 31st pick originally belonged to the Pirates. There is a series of competitive balance picks after both the first and second rounds. The order in which they are awarded is somewhat complicated. It depends on how much the departing player signed for and whether or not the team collects revenue sharing. Here's another article that has some info on the qualifying offer rules.

Here's hoping Casey Mize has a long and healthy career ... after he gets trade out of the division First two picks have been Mize and Joey Bart, as expected.

Bisphenol A? I don't really think that's true. I think your third point, about signability, is a bigger factor than you're giving credit. The top player on the Twins' board when they pick may not be the guy they draft because, as Andrew laid out, the draft bonus pools add an extra element of strategy. Maybe your top guy requires an over slot deal to keep him from going to college and you can get the third guy on your board for an under-slot deal and there's no signability concerns. Maybe the difference in your perception of their overall future value is a smaller margin than that gap in expected signing bonus. Allowing you to take the cheaper guy at 20 would then open up doors to potentially land a player at 59 who most teams were avoiding due to signability concerns. The Twins didn't pay Blayne Enlow, the 76th pick last year, the 33d highest signing bonus just for fun. But, comparing last year's options to this year's for the Twins is like comparing apples to dinosaurs. There's just not much they can do with such a shallow bonus pool.