So who and what does your team need?

Twins have five picks before the third, and the most money to spend in their draft pool under the collective bargaining agreement. And they need every penny of it. The temptation to go with NCAA pitching will be pretty tremendous given the organizational imbalance toward the low minors and towards hitting, but I'm hoping they stick to conventional wisdom and go with best player available. Hopefully the external pressures to do that will be pretty sufficient. Jim Bowden claimed yesterday that the Astros had settled on Mark Appel, and most of the mock drafts have the Twins on either Buxton or Appel. And there's a local(ish) HS pitcher who's projected in the late first or early sandwich round. They might not turn to their usual security blanket, college pitching, until their third choice.

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"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/2012/06/mock-draft-v3-0-list-only/

1. Astros: Mark Appel, rhp, Stanford

2. Twins: Byron Buxton, of, Appling County HS, Baxley, Ga.

3. Mariners: Mike Zunino, c, Florida

4. Orioles: Kevin Gausman, rhp, Louisiana State

5. Royals: Kyle Zimmer, rhp, San Francisco

6. Cubs: Albert Almora, of, Mater Academy, Hialeah Gardens, Fla.

7. Padres: Carlos Correa, ss, Puerto Rico Baseball Academy, Gurabo, P.R.

8. Pirates: Max Fried, lhp, Harvard-Westlake HS, Studio City, Calif.

9. Marlins: Andrew Heaney, lhp, Oklahoma State

10. Rockies: Courtney Hawkins, of, Carroll HS, Corpus Christi, Texas

11. Athletics: Lance McCullers Jr., rhp, Jesuit HS, Tampa

12. Mets: David Dahl, of, Oak Mountain HS, Birmingham

13. White Sox: Michael Wacha, rhp, Texas A&M

14. Reds: Chris Stratton, rhp, Mississippi State

15. Indians: Richie Shaffer, 3b, Clemson

16. Nationals: Deven Marrero, ss, Arizona State

17. Blue Jays: D.J. Davis, of, Stone HS, Wiggins, Miss.

18. Dodgers: Ty Hensley, rhp, Santa Fe HS, Edmond, Okla.

19. Cardinals: Addison Russell, ss, Pace (Fla.) HS

20. Giants: Nick Travieso, rhp, Archbishop McCarthy HS, Southwest Ranches, Fla.

21. Braves: Tanner Rahier, ss, Palm Desert (Calif.) HS

22. Blue Jays: Gavin Cecchini, ss, Barbe HS, Lake Charles, La.

23. Cardinals: Stephen Piscotty, of/3b, Stanford

24. Red Sox: Marcus Stroman, rhp, Duke

25. Rays: Joey Gallo, 3b/rhp, Bishop Gorman HS, Las Vegas

26. Diamondbacks: Stryker Trahan, of/c, Acadiana HS, Lafayette, La.

27. Brewers: Clint Coulter, c, Union HS, Camas, Wash.

28. Brewers: Tyler Naquin, of, Texas A&M

29. Rangers: Matt Smoral, lhp, Solon (Ohio) HS

30. Yankees: Zach Eflin, rhp, Hagerty HS, Oviedo, Fla.

31. Red Sox: Walker Weickel, rhp, Olympia HS, Orlando

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"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

I don't know enough about the amateur draft outside of the top players, but when will it be clear to stop drafting pitchers for us?
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This draft has been knocked for being pretty far below average, but some of the prep talent has started to look kind of interesting. But the real weakness is NCAA hitters. People aren't seeing high impact position players in college and they aren't seeing even a depth of future regulars.

So if you're a team that can't hit (like the Pirates) with a farm system suffering from an imbalance on the pitching side (like the Pirates) this isn't a great year for you.

The one name they've been linked to quite a bit, though, is Deven Marrero. He's the shortstop at Arizona State University that was considered a candidate for first overall heading into this year until his bat didn't cooperate as much as folks hoped. He's an honest-to-God shortstop, though, with good defense who has shown the ability to hit with wood bats.

Here's BA on Marrero:

"As a junior in high school, Marrero played on a loaded American Heritage High (Plantation, Fla.) team that included third baseman Nick Castellanos, now with the Tigers, and first baseman Eric Hosmer, now with the Royals. Like Hosmer, Marrero committed to Arizona State, and after he slipped to the 17th round of the 2009 draft he headed to campus. Marrero has always been able to flash the leather, and he is this year's surest bet to stay at shortstop, with great range, easy actions and above-average arm strength. He shows promise with the bat, but he has been inconsistent this year and was batting .276/.335/.414 over his first 174 at-bats."

Anyhow, the Pirates have been rumored to be on him all year until the most recent mock drafts came out. Another hitter who could move fast enough to help Pittsburgh is University of Florida catcher Mike Zunino. If he gets past Seattle at #3, I've seen some mock drafts where he fell all the way to Pittsburgh.

I think the frequency of Fried-to-Pirates has more to do with Fried being seen as a top ten talent than any necessary interest by the Pirates. He's probably the top lefty in the draft, and scouts have seen a lot of him since he pitched at the same school as a (now kind of injured) possible candidate for first overall.

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"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

BA Mock was correct

<-textbook blocking fundamentals

we'll never see or hear about again anytime soon. I just randomly pulled up the draft from 5 years ago, you got David Price, Wieters and Hayward, the rest of those guys are like "who?" The Cardinals drafted some shortstop named Peter Kozma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Major_League_Baseball_Draft

I went back 10 years and found a lot more All-Stars and familiar names...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Major_League_Baseball_Draft

<<<<<<<TALK TO THE HAND, BITCHES!!!

... of the NFL and NBA drafts. I remember watching this at work about five or six years ago and it was just a streaming video on MLB's site of Jimmy Solomon walking out to a podium in front of a green screen, reading a name and then leaving for a few minutes before returning and doing it again. I think they saw MLB Network as an opportunity to try and get people interested in it, so it's now on during a primetime slot and they've got guests and whatnot.

My favorite article about the draft this year was the triumphant press release about amateur players who would be attending the actual draft this year.

There are five of them. Five.

Relatedly, we talked briefly about Kolten Wong about a month ago. He's hitting .313/.379/.448 in AA right now. This doesn't contradict your larger point even a little bit, but I wouldn't be shocked if you saw him this September unless the Cardinals' 40-man is just packed to the gills.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

I see he's been moved to second, right now it seems like the organization really wants Tyler Green to step up and grab that second base job but while he's shown flashes of his talent he's been very inconsistent. Not sure what his contract situation is. I think Green is a natural ss but we have Furcal signed fir 2 years and he's playing well.

<<<<<<<TALK TO THE HAND, BITCHES!!!

Interesting is the right word. If Furcal is healthy enough to play every day through the end of his contract and the Cardinals think that Greene* and Wong are MLB regulars sometime early next season then you have what people call the good kind of problem.

*I saw him play in Nashville against the Sounds a couple seasons ago. It was like the day after September call-ups so both rosters were pretty ugly. He was kind of the only guy on the field who looked like a major leaguer.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

shit or get off the pot stage in his career

<<<<<<<TALK TO THE HAND, BITCHES!!!

Made it past single A ball. But he got a nice $2 million plus bonus to sign.

most of those guys had about two cups of coffee in the league

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a no no against the Rangers.

Actually, Bumgarner, Moustakas and Parker will be all-stars in their careers, which makes 5 out of the top 10 in that draft all-stars.

Prob not the best draft to make your point, but I get what you mean.

\m/

Because acquiring players without talent is usually pretty easy.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

I refuse to regard the MLB draft as anything but a crapshoot, worthy of only cursory fan attention, despite what some marketing suits want me to believe.

This issue actually makes me angry.

\m/

Fat or lean years, it's always meant quite a bit to the Twins. I think the flipside of the push to make it a bigger deal, though, is that the whole thing takes more time. I think they're just doing the first and supplementary rounds today? That's not worth a few extra articles guessing whether Byron Buxton is going to hit for power or not. If there's going to be 40 new future Twins, I'd rather meet them all at once.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

\m/

I want to see what types of strategies teams use with the new hard slotting requirements in a prep-heavy draft. There are already some rumors that the A's are looking to reach pretty heavily with the 11th pick with idea being they could sign someone well below slot to get extra flexibility with their supplemental picks.

I'm not very invested in it. Nationals got extremely fortunate the last three drafts -- now, it's more like "take a guess and hope he makes it through the farm in a couple years".

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Buxton next to Minnesota. I would have preferred Appel, since he was available, but the Twins were ripe to get abused by Boras on the draft bonus thing. The slot for #2 is like 6+mm, but the Twins have 12+mm to spend.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

Six down. We can't really say that Boras overplayed his hand until Appel signs in July. But this is probably sub-optimal for him.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

Wow. If any Pirates fans wants to wishcast on Appel, Cole, Taillon, and Heredia making up the best rotation in the NL in a few years then today is the day to do it.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

Refused to do an interview with the local pirates station after being picked.

This isn't a good start, but yes our potential rotation is pretty ridiculous. A lot of 2-1 games in our future
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It's kind of fitting that Scott Boras' first crack at blowing up the new slotting system is with Frank Coonelly's team.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

I read some wildly varying takes on Appel's projection

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I don't remember seeing anything below four. And the teams that passed on him that were known as interested in NCAA pitching like Baltimore and Kansas City?

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

not unlike some of the reservations about Gerrit Cole (who both sorta profile the same, from size to repertoire and now team).

I never saw him pitch, but just wonder if teams saw him in a lot different light than the public evaluators.

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Interesting choice. He's probably got the Gerrit Cole trajectory in mind, but if they have four million burning a hole in their pocket then why not?

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

excellent. keep stacking young power arms and hope for the best.

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people say he has the best stuff as far as pitchers go right now

Going all high school hitters with their three picks. Haven't drafted a prep position player in the first round since Eric Chavez.

looks pretty stupid to me. the signing bonus penalties will apply to next year's draft as well, except he has even less leverage (unless he wants to play in an independent league or overseas). eight teams thought he wasn't worth the trouble this season; I doubt he goes any higher next summer (especially after confirming he's hard to sign). and oh yeah, 21-year-old pitching "prospects" have the most volatile value in sports -- you don't turn down $4 million as an amateur.

it's possible he wanted to return to the college experience, but if a degree in four years and national title were so important, why did he declare (and sign with Boras) in the first place? exactly.

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No other question or reasoning behind it.

He refused to do any interviews with local media on draft night and people made excuses as to why to avoid the obvious.

Fuck him
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<---- At least we have this