With the 36th Overall Pick the Twins Select SS Noah Miller, Ozaukee HS (WI)

[Jamie Cameron]

With the 36th overall pick, the Minnesota Twins select SS Noah Miller, Ozaukee HS (WI).

With the 36th overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, the Minnesota Twins Selected Noah Miller, SS, Ozaukee HS (WI).

The Twins selected New Jersey RHP Chase Petty with the 26th overall pick. You can read more on the high risk, high reward, high school pitcher with the electric fastball from Andrew Thares here. With their compensatory first round pick, the Twins selected Wisconsin prep SS Noah Miller.

HT: 6’0 WT: 180 B/T: B-R

Commitment: Alabama

Age: 18

Overall Grade: 50

Hit: 45 Power: 40 Run: 50 Field: 60 Arm: 55

The Twins significantly broke from their draft tendencies in the Falvey Levine era, drafting two high school prospects with their first two picks. It’s also notable that they addressed their two biggest deficits with their first two picks, drafting a starting pitcher and a middle infielder.

In addition to adding Chase Petty with the 26th overall pick, the Twins elected WI prep SS Noah Miller with the 36th overall pick. Noah Miller is a switch hitting shortstop whose brother recently made his MLB debut in the Cleveland organization. The 18 year old is an impressive athlete and outstanding defensive SS with a strong sense of anticipation and reading of the game.

Despite his defense being his most impressive tool, Miller also shows strong offensive skills. Miller is the top ranked prospect from Wisconsin and showcases a short, simple swing with effective bat to ball skills. Miller shows gap to gap line drive power from the left side but better pull power from the right hand side of the plate. Despite facing limited competition, Miller has dealt with opposing pitching successfully, consistently showcasing the ability to drive the ball the other way. While Miller doesn’t have any one truly stand out tool, he has a high offensive and defensive floor which should allow him to stick at SS and be an impactful hitter at the MLB level.

 

 

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[mikelink45]

Glad we have Seth to sort these out.  I have no clue where any of these players should rank, but I do wonder how many will automatically make our top prospect list this off season.

[Lucas Seehafer PT]

35 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Glad we have Seth to sort these out.  I have no clue where any of these players should rank, but I do wonder how many will automatically make our top prospect list this off season.

I think Petty will slot somewhere 5-10. There's a legit argument for him to be considered the Twins top pitching prospect based solely.on raw stuff, age, and the ever nebulous "projectability." Untill we see them in game action to prove otherwise, I'd assume that Miller lines up closely with Cavaco.

 

 

 

[Linus]

Should allow him to stick at shortstop. If I had a dollar for every time that gets tagged to a prospect I could buy the Twins. Players that can play legit SS in the big leagues are few and far between. 

[Seth Stohs]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Glad we have Seth to sort these out.  I have no clue where any of these players should rank, but I do wonder how many will automatically make our top prospect list this off season.

I guarantee both of these do! 

Admittedly without giving it much thought yet, I think that Petty would rank no lower than 5th, and Miller may be in that 6-7 range. 

[Seth Stohs]

2 hours ago, Lucas Seehafer PT said:

I think Petty will slot somewhere 5-10. There's a legit argument for him to be considered the Twins top pitching prospect based solely.on raw stuff, age, and the ever nebulous "projectability." Untill we see them in game action to prove otherwise, I'd assume that Miller lines up closely with Cavaco.

 

 

 

Miller's "tools" aren't quite up there with Cavaco's, but they clearly really like the make up of both of them. So yeah, I think Cavaco may start out just a little higher, but that could change fairly quickly. 

[twinstalker]

3 hours ago, Lucas Seehafer PT said:

I think Petty will slot somewhere 5-10. There's a legit argument for him to be considered the Twins top pitching prospect based solely.on raw stuff, age, and the ever nebulous "projectability." Untill we see them in game action to prove otherwise, I'd assume that Miller lines up closely with Cavaco.

 

 

 

You have an incredibly optimistic viewpoint.  First, there are a lot of high upside arms in the Twins system.  Guys who've already shown they can progress through the system.  I wouldn't put a guy whose resume is "big high school arm" anywhere near them.

And Noah Miller is the 36th player taken, seemingly a reach.  He ranked about where the Twins 2nd rounder did last year, and you can probably expect him to be placed about the same spot in Twins rankings.  Dig into where Owen Miller ranked on the Cleveland farm system his first couple of years.  That's what we're talking.

Overall, I'm not thrilled with the night, but of course if they happened to pick a stud pitcher, that's great.  Miller's ceiling is low, so you really, really hope for a Tyler Freeman type, but that seems unlikely.  The problem, as I see it, is big HS arms are like the kids who are the kings and queens of their high school.  It doesn't take long to realize that it's probably the best they're ever going to be.  Meanwhile, the not so popular kids go to college, their arms get stronger, and they understand maybe what it's like to fail so that they've learned to grow from it.  And they're the one who become successful adults.

Chase Petty is to me the ultimate lottery ticket in that I really don't expect it to work out.  I'm not even sure what the upside is.  It's not like he'll be throwing 100 mph in the big leagues if he's a starter.  I suspect the Twins like his slider.  It's awfully early to like someone's slider, especially if control/command is lacking.  It would seem this is a young Fernando Romero.

Well, that's about as devil's advocate as I can be.  ?

[roger]

Really like this pick, but then he is another Wisconsin kid.  Will he turn into another Ben Rortvedt success?  

Seems to be solid to good at all aspects of the game.  On the clip I saw, was smooth defensively with good range and arm.  Runs well and solid bat from both sides of the plate.  
 

Would I have been happier with two college pitchers who were considered Top 10 falling to the Twins?  Sure, but this appears to me to be a better draft at the top than the last. Couple years.

[jorgenswest]

36th pick trivia…

The last an only player to be drafted as a HS shortstop in this spot and make it to the majors was Leo Foster by the Braves. It took him 5 years to arrive.

Ryan Mountcastle was selected in this spot as a HS SS in 2015 arriving in 2020. He is now a 1B/LF/DH but they kept him at SS through 2017.

Johnny Bench was the best HS player drafted 36th. It didn’t take him long to arrive. The other Hall of Famer from this spot is Randy Johnson. There is a big drop off to Erik Hanson and Stephen Piscotty after those two.

A few players had significant impact though their major league careers were not stellar. Jarrod Saltalamacchia was the top prospect in the Mark Texiera trade. The Yankees used Tim Birtsas as part of the trade to get Rickey Henderson. Developing into a top 100 prospect and trade is probably the quickest route to impact.

The reality is very few players at pick 36 make any impact. The Twins have a talent here and it is on them to develop that talent into an asset.

[Jeremy Nygaard]

2 hours ago, roger said:

Really like this pick, but then he is another Wisconsin kid.

What's wrong with being from Wisconsin, a recent hotbed of baseball talent!? 

[Dman]

Seems like a reach pick but they didn't want to take the chance he wouldn't be there in the second round.  I wish he ran a little bit faster other than that I don't mind the pick.  I doubt he stays at Short at the MLB level but we'll see.  Bat seems promising and hopefully his eye is good.  Nice to have a switch hitter that hits well from both sides and have to believe that is why they took him a little early.

[roger]

46 minutes ago, Jeremy Nygaard said:

What's wrong with being from Wisconsin, a recent hotbed of baseball talent!? 

Nothing is wrong, Jeremy.  Was saying one of the reasons I like him is because he is a fellow Badger!

[bighat]

At first I didn't like the pick - 6'0", 185? A high school player from Wisconsin? At shortstop? None of it made a whole lot of sense until...."his brother recently made his MLB debut with Cleveland".

Ah okay, so there's some pedigree. This article's worth a read.

Also, MLB.com had him listed as the #62 prospect, so it wasn't tooooo much of a stretch. So a bit of a gamble here from the Twins, and why not? Good luck Noah!

[4twinsJA]

2 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

he reality is very few players at pick 36 make any impact. The Twins have a talent here and it is on them to develop that talent into an asset.

So your saying might as well punt the rest of the draft if can't even draft a player that will make an impact at 36.

[jorgenswest]

1 hour ago, 4twinsJA said:

So your saying might as well punt the rest of the draft if can't even draft a player that will make an impact at 36.

No. That isn't what I said. 

[4twinsJA]

Sorry, my response came off a little blunt. As Seth has stated multiple times, very hard to become MLB player. Equally hard to predict how an 17-18 yr. old will develop. Long list of players pick in top 10 of draft over the years that never made it to MLB. FOs and scouting departments need to do a better job of identifying traits of later round picks that ended up making impact in MLB and using those traits to determine draftable players. 

[Trov]

I read so many people saying they are happy or not when it comes to drafted players.  I am sure some of the commenters do a full deep dive and look into these things, but most of us have no clue anything about them other than what we read.  In baseball, it takes years to know if a player will pan out or not.  Some players people are super high on and they flop terrible, and others people scoff at as terrible picks only to find they work out just fine. 

Look at any draft and players drafted high never make majors, and players drafted later rounds become all-stars.  We never know how they will turn out.