Tuesday June 8, 2004
TWINS DRAFT - DAY 1
Good morning! I did some scouting last night, so I will keep this short. I have some brief thoughts on the Twins draft picks yesterday. They made 22 picks in the first 18 rounds, including three first round picks and two supplemental first round picks. Twins fans have been discussing what the Twins should do with those picks for weeks now.
The Dickie Thon Fan Forum has a great string of thoughts on the Twins picks.
Twins Chatter did an excellent two-part look at what the Twins have done in the draft in recent years as well as which players may have been available for them with their picks.
Baseball America has so much information regarding the draft, prospects and more. But they have also been running an on-going blog of events and thoughts from the draft.
So, check out those sites for some great information. Below, I will show who the Twins took, and then some general thoughts on Day One of the Twins draft.
Oh, and later, you will see that Justin Morneau had a big game for Rochester last night! Quad Cities Alex Garcia also had a huge day!!
If you have any questions or comments on anything, please feel free to e-mail me. Have a great day!
TWINS TAKE 22 PLAYERS
The Twins had a much needed day off yesterday. But there was plenty of action occurring at the Metrodome. Terry Ryan, Mike Radcliffe, Jim Rantz and many others put together all of the notes they have generated on thousands of players around the country. Using that information, the Twins selected 22 players to their organization.
Here is who they took:
1 - 20th overall - Trevor Plouffe - Crespi Carmeste HS (Northridge, CA) - SS
1 - 22nd overall - Glen Perkins - U. of Minnesota - LHP
1 - 25th overall - Steven Waldrop - Farragut HS (Knoxville, TN) - RHP
1S - 35th overall - Matthew Fox - U. of Central Florida - RHP
1S - 39th overall - Jay Rainville - Bishop Hendrickson HS (Pawtucket, RI) - RHP
2 - 61st overall - Anthony Swarzak - Nova HS (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) - RHP
3 - 91st overall - Eduardo Morlan - Miami Coral Park HS - RHP
4 - 121st overall - Mark Robinson - Mountain View HS (El Monte, CA) - RF
5 - 151st overall - Jeffrey Schoenbachler - Reno HS - LHP
6 - 181st overall - Patrick Bryant - Pensacola Catholic HS (Gulf Breeze, FL) - RHP
7 - 211st overall - John Williams - Middle Tennessee St. - LHP
8 - 241st overall - John Sawatski - U of Arkansas - LHP
9 - 271st overall - Jonathon Martinez - U of New Orleans - RHP
10 - 301st overall - Jeremy Pickrel - Illinois St. - LF
11 - 331st overall - Kyle Aselton - Oregon St - LHP
12 - 361st overall - Shane Boyd - U of Kentucky - RHP
13 - 391st overall - Walter Patton - Lincoln Land (Ill) CC - RHP
14 - 421st overall - Javier Sanchez - Notre Dame - C
15 - 451st overall - Juan Portes - Malden, MA - SS
16 - 481st overall - Christopher Tolbert - U of Mississippi - SS
17 - 511st overall - Eammon Portice - Ft. Lauderdale HS - RHP
18 - 541st overall - Josh Rose - Mariner HS (Cape Coral, FL) - RHP
A number of you have written and asked my thoughts on the Twins draft, specifically some of the early picks. Here are just some random thoughts on these picks.
- The first thing I have to admit is that aside from seeing Glen Perkins pitch one game, I have not seen any of these players. I really have no analysis beyond what you are able to read at mlb.com or Baseball America.
- Going into the draft, it was readily agreed that the Twins system needs are in the middle infield and with pitching. However, those who would draft also said that they would take best available in many places because these guys could be traded in the future to fill needs at the big league level.
- Plouffe is a high school shortstop who was highly thought of. The fact that he comes from high school probably means the Twins won't see him for 3 or more seasons. That helps Jason Bartlett's chances of significant playing time next season.
- So, is Plouffe pronounced "PLOUF," "PLOW-F," or "PLOO-FAY"??? I don't know, but as Kirk Beller mentioned to me shortly after the pick was made, it will be interesting to see how Bob Casey would pronounce it.
- The Twins hoped Gophers lefty Glen Perkins would still be around, and he was. If he had performed better against Cal-State Fullerton, would he have been at 22? Maybe not. He's left-handed and could be very good. Worst case, he's still left-handed!
- Do you see any other patterns? There is one that I particularly like. RHP or LHP. Teams win with pitching, right? Sixteen of the Twins 22 picks were pitchers. Eight of the sixteen were high school pitchers, and eight were college pitchers.
- How many of these picks will the Twins be able to sign? That is a huge question. The Twins have continued to say that they have every intention of signing their top picks. I hope they can. They took a couple of more 'risky' picks early, but they should be able to free up the money to sign them. Then a number of their late picks were college pitchers, who maybe would be willing to sign for less.
- A big question every year is which high school players will sign, and which will go to college. A couple years ago, the Twins took a chance on Matt Macri, but he went to Notre Dame. Aaron Heilman went to college too. Jeff Clement went to USC. So, where have this year's Twins high school picks committed?
Plouffe - USC, Waldrop - Vanderbilt, Rainville - Tennessee, Swarzak - LSU, Morlan - Miami, Robinson - Cal St. - Northridge, Schoenbachler - Long Beach St, Bryant - Alabama, Portice - Highpoint University, Rose - Nichols State (for football).
- So, it will be tough to grade the draft until we know how many of these guys the Twins will be able to sign.
OTHER DRAFTY THOUGHTS
So,
Jered Weaver is believed to be the best
pitcher available, but he fell to 12th overall when the Anaheim Angels selected
him. His 'advisor' Scott Boras
scared many teams off, but not the Angels. Weaver is from So Cal, and
Arte Moreno has shown a willingness to
spend, so this pick makes sense.
A week ago, it was reported that the Padres would use
their #1 overall pick on JD Drew's
younger brother Stephen Drew.
Well, they went with a local high school shortstop instead, selecting
Matt Bush, who agreed to sign for a
$3.15 million bonus. Drew fell all the way to 15th overall, to the Arizona
Diamondbacks. Signability was an issue with him too.
There were a number of quality pitchers available. Old
Dominion's Justin Verlander
went 2nd overall to the Tigers. The Indians took lefty
Jeremy Sowers with the 6th pick. He had been taken
high 3 years ago by the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds picked 7th this year. It would
have been interesting to see if they would have taken Sowers again.
How good is the pitching in Houston? First, the Astros
have a rotation that includes Roger Clemens, Andy
Pettitte, Roy Oswalt, Wade Miller and
Tim Redding. But, the 2003 NCAA College World Series
champions from Rice University have quite a pitching staff too, as evidenced by
yesterday's draft. Philip Humber
was drafted third overall by the New York Mets.
Jeff Niemann was taken next (4th
overall) by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Baltimore Orioles selected
Wade Townsend with the 8th overall
pick. All three pitchers have fastballs that reach the mid-90s, but each has
second and even third pitches.
Those of you who, like me, read
Moneyball, are interested to see what the Oakland A's
did with their draft picks. According to the book, the A's do not want to draft
high school players. Because of lost free agents, the A's had extra picks early
in the draft. They started the draft by choosing seven college players before
taking Ryan Webb, a 6-6 pitcher from Clearwater, Florida. Then they took four
college players before taking a high school outfielder. Then they took four more
college players before taking a player from the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy
High School (Seriously??? I wonder what they learn there?). Then their final
four picks were college guys.
Well, that seems like enough for me. The other thing I noticed
right away yesterday afternoon was that the Chicago White Sox took
Raymond Liotta. You remember in the
movie Field of Dreams,
Ray Liotta played
Shoeless Joe Jackson. Does this pick mean anything?
Well, maybe we'll find out in four or five years!
Any thoughts on the Twins or other picks?? E-mail me.
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TWINS MINOR LEAGUE REPORTS
ROCHESTER REDWINGS
Redwings 13, Columbus 3 - Justin Morneau did it again. Yesterday, he went 2-5 with two home runs (he now has 12) and 6 RBI. Chris Heintz was 2-4 with a solo homer. Brian Simmons was 2-5 with a homer and 2 RBI. Terry Tiffee went 2-4 with a walk and two doubles. Todd Dunwoody went 2-5 with a triple and 3 RBI. Michael Restovich went 2-3 with two walks. Luis Rivas went 0-4 to drop his AAA batting average to .214. Joe Beimel struggled in the start. He gave up six hits and two walks in four innings. It accounted for 3 runs, although just two were earned. Jeromy Palki pitched two scoreless innings, with three strikeouts. Gary Glover made his first appearance and threw a 1-2-3 inning. Kevin Hodge pitched the final two innings, striking out two.
NEW BRITAIN ROCK CATS
Friday - Rockcats 4, Binghamton 2 - Boof Bonser has actually really improved of late. Last night, he pitched 6 1/3 innings and gave up six hits and a walk that led to 2 runs allowed. He also struck out 10 hitters. He improves to 3-5 with a 4.48 ERA. Jason Miller pitched a scoreless inning in relief and Bobby Korecky picked up his 9th save of the year with 1 2/3 scoreless innings. SS Tommy Watkins went 3-5 with a double. DH Billy Munoz went 3-5 with two doubles. Jake Mauer went 2-4. Rob Bowen hit a solo homer.
FORT MYERS MIRACLE
Miracle vs Sarasota - The Miracle's game was postponed. They will be playing a double-header today.
THE SWING OF THE QUAD CITIES
Game 1 - Swing 3, Wisconsin 2 - Errol Simonitsch went 5 1/3 innings and gave up two runs. He gave up six hits, walked three and struck out five. Eric Brandon, Jon Uhl and Kevin Culpepper three 3 2/3 innings of hitless baseball. SS Alex Garcia went 2-4. 1B Brock Peterson went 1-4 with his third homer of the year, a three-run shot that accounted for all the Swing's runs.
Game 2 - Swing 8, Wisconsin 0 - Chris Schutt was back in the rotation and pitched well. He gave up no runs on three hits and a walk in 7 innings. He struck out four. His performance moves him to 2-5 with an ERA of 3.95 for the year. Scott Tyler and Peter Tautor each pitched a scoreless inning. Alex Garcia continued a big day with his 5-6 effort. It included a double and two RBI. His average, after the 7 for 10 day, is up to .230. DH Brock Peterson went 3-5 with 3 RBI. Omar Burgos was 3-5 as well. 2B Paul Rutgers went 2-3 with two walks.
Any questions or comments on the Twins minor league system, e-mail me.
MUSICAL THOUGHTS
Just a couple of quick thoughts that I have had of late. I have XM Satellite radio in my car. I listen to a lot of the sports radio stations they have, but I listen to primarily 5 or 6 of the 100 stations. My favorite though is channel 20, Top 20 on 20. People can vote for the songs they would like to hear and depending on the votes, they take the top 20 and play them. While listening to it last week, I had a couple of thoughts.
First, Mario Winans sings the following lyrics:
I don't wanna know.
If you're playing me, keep it on the low,
Cuz my heart can't take it any more.
And if you're creepin', please don't let it show.
Oh, baby, I don't wanna know.
OK, I'm sorry, but isn't this information that a guy would want to know? I mean, why would he want to stick with her?
Secondly, I am a big fan of rap music, but I have never been a big Jay-Z fan, and the video is tough to watch. But 99 Problems is a GREAT song. It seems like so much of rap these days is to try to do something new and creative. Those are generally the songs I like, the ones that are a little different. 99 Problems has an incredible old school rap sound to it and I really love it!
Speaking of Old School rap, how about the comeback of The Beastie Boys!? You have to love them! If you haven't heard their new stuff, I would encourage you to Ch-Ch-Check It Out!
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**Please head over to The View from The Bleachers and vote in The World Series of Blogs! They have included SethSpeaks in the AL Central contenders.
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That is it for me for today. Have yourself a wonderful Tuesday!! As always, if you have any questions or comments on anything, please e-mail me.