Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch

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With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft.

I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them. I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer. Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos.

Profile 8: Kevin Gausman

Profile/Stats:

Kevin John Gausman is a draft-eligible sophomore at Louisiana State University. He throws right handed. He was born on January 6th, 1991. He is from Centennial, CO and went to Grandview High School. He is listed at 6'4" and 185 lbs. In his senior season in High School he went 9-2 with a 3.12 ERA and 14 walks and 88 strike outs. In his College Freshman season he went 5-4 in 14 GS (89.2 IP) allowing 23 walks and 85 strike outs with a 3.51 ERA. He made 2 starts for the US Collegiate National team in 2011, pitching for 8.2 innings, allowing 2 runs with 3 walks and 9 strikeouts. In the current season, Gausman is 8-1 in 13 GS. He pitched 91.2 innings, allowing 81 hits and 34 runs, 21 bases on balls and 112 strikeouts, for a 2.95 ERA and a .235 opponent's batting average. He also had 11 wild pitches. Here is an interview of Kevin Gausman by Jeremy Nygaard of ManCenter.com. Gausmann was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the sixth round of the 2010

draft.

Mini Scouting Report:

Gausman has four pitches: a fastball, a curve, a slider and a change up. The fastball is a plus pitch, sometimes a dominating pitch, and is surely his best pitch. It sits in the mid 90s with occasionally hitting 98-99 especially early in games. He has good control and command and he has been throwing it with various arm angles. His slider is better than his curve, with a tight hard break and it may become his primary breaking ball. His curve is a slow 12-6 curve that needs a bit of work. His changeup is a borderine plus pitch and it is his best secondary offering. He needs better consistency with his mechanics to be able to command his pitches a bit better.

Videos/Photos:

Due to the difficulties in embedding videos here, please go to the original post to see 4 videos of Kevin Gausman pitching, including one in which he reveals one of his obsessions when he is pitching.

http://media.nola.com/lsu_impact/photo/9299519-small.jpg