Prospect Handbook Interview Preview

After months of writing, editing and revising, we sent the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook to the printer. It's available here.

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I wanted to take this opportunity to give you a little preview of an interview I was able to do with Twins scout Jack Powell.

Powell is the Twins main scout in Georgia and Alabama, so their selection of Byron Buxton with the #2 overall pick in the 2012 draft came much at his recommendation.

There was debate here about whether or not the Twins should have considered taking Mark Appel after the Astros passed on him. The Twins have always had an affinity when it came to drafting "toolsy" prep outfielders, so by the sounds of it, Buxton was #1 on their draft board.

It all came together last summer at the East Coast Pro Showcase in Lakeland, Fla. All the top high school players from the eastern half of the US are invited there by pro scouts for four days of instruction and games. He stood head and shoulders above everyone there.

In addition to discussing a handful of recent addition to the Twins systems, I also asked Mr. Powell about his two most famous finds: Jose Bautista and Matt Moore.

I assure you and the Twins fans, every scout in the Twins organization are out there every day looking for another Jose Bautista and Matt Moore, be it the scouts who cover the high schools and colleges to our pro staff looking to find that player we can make a trade for.

Mr. Powell goes into much more depth about Buxton and some of this other recent finds: Niko Goodrum and Luke Bard. He also answers questions about scouting and his scouting career. You may have heard about him playing himself in the movie Trouble With the Curve, so he dished on that too.

All in all, Mr. Powell helped us writing the Handbook do what we are striving to do - give the readers as much information as possible about tomorrow's potential Twins.

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