Twins Daily College Baseball Notebook: Week 3

[Jamie Cameron]

It was an action packed weekend full of upsets in college baseball, as Twins fans started to see more glimpses of players the organization might select at number eight in June. Here's a round up of the week in college baseball.

This was a great weekend in college baseball. As usual, there were upsets, standout performances, and an increasing wave of the incredible talent that is finally getting the attention it deserves in the midst of the MLB lockout. Let’s dig into the highlights and all the action from a great weekend.

Weekly Recap

Friday night was full of upsets in the top 25.

The number one team in the country finally lost. UCLA beat Texas in the Shriners College Classic behind an outstanding performance from their pitching staff. UCLA also managed a win over Oklahoma, 15-3, before falling narrowly to Baylor in their last game of the weekend. Texas fell to 11-1 on the season and remain the best team in the country in the early going.

After the Longhorns' loss, there are five remaining undefeated teams in college baseball, the B1G 10s Purdue among them. Minnesota played at US Bank Stadium in a tournament field that included the number three team in the country, Notre Dame. The Gophers currently have a 4-9 record due to a poor first week of the season in Fort Myers. Minnesota played well over the weekend, falling narrowly to Notre Dame 3-1, and number 25 West Virginia 5-4, despite a solid effort from starting pitcher Sam Ireland.

At the end of the third weekend of the young season, here is where Baseball America has the top 25 teams.

Notable Performances

Outstanding Mississippi State right-handed pitcher Landon Sims had to leave his start this weekend with elbow soreness. Sims ad struck out ten of eleven hitters faced through that portion of the game. There has been no official update/diagnosis on his injury.

Here’s a name to watch, Ben Joyce. The Tennessee right-hander throws a sinker up to 103 mph. He has been lighting up the radar gun and garnering the attention of anyone who pays attention to college baseball in the first few weeks of the season.

Moment of the Week

There’s only one winner this week. Druw Jones (son of Andruw) and a strong contender for the number one overall pick in June, headed to the plate in a game on Friday to chants of ‘overrated’ from opposition fans. He proceeded to deposit a high fastball at 92 mph over the wall in straight away centerfield. Awesome.

Potential #8 Pick Performances

Here’s a first look at a potential pick for the Twins in June. Dylan Lesko is a right-handed pitcher out of Georgia committed to Vanderbilt. He offers a mid-90s fastball and a devastating change that ESPN’s prospect guru Kiley McDaniel compares to that of Grayson Rodriguez, one of the top pitching prospects in minor league baseball.

According to Darren Wolfson, the Twins had a solid scouting presence to watch LSU’s Jacob Berry this weekend.

Additionally, Cal Poly SS Brooks Lee had a nice weekend, hitting his second home run of the season and striking out for only the first time in 50 plate appearances.

Here are updates from the top eight of Baseball America’s 2022 draft board. I’ll work on adding more players to this pool as the weeks go by, the prep season gets up and running, and big-boards get adjusted.

• Brooks Lee, SS, Cal Poly, 20-42 (.476), 2 HR, 16 RBI, 12 BB, 1 K
• Jacob Berry, CI, LSU, 17-50 (.340), 5 HR, 14 RBI, 5 BB, 4 K
• Jace Jung, 2B, Texas Tech, 16-42 (.381), 2 HR, 11 RBI, 16 BB, 8 K
• Chase DeLauter, OF, James Madison 17-37 (.459), 3 HR, 18 RBI, 7 BB, 10 K

What was your favorite college baseball moment of the week? Which prospects or team are you most excited about watching? Join the discussion in the comments.

 

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[RJA]

It was not a college highlight, but the Druw Jones homerun during the chants was SOOO cool!  I had seen it on another site, but the sound didn't work so I missed out on hearing the chant.  It is great hearing the chant followed by the clink of the aluminum bat and everybody oohing and aahing while the pitcher puts both hands on his head in frustration.  Classic moment.  I am mostly watching to see how the college bats do as I think that is the most likely route the Twins will take.  Lesko looks like a winner, but I don't think the Twins will take another high school righthander in the first round.  You have put me on to this Joyce kid so I will definitely follow him.  A 101 mph slider at the knees should be illegal!  Thanks for the updates and the work you put in on them.

[Jamie Cameron]

14 hours ago, RJA said:

It was not a college highlight, but the Druw Jones homerun during the chants was SOOO cool!  I had seen it on another site, but the sound didn't work so I missed out on hearing the chant.  It is great hearing the chant followed by the clink of the aluminum bat and everybody oohing and aahing while the pitcher puts both hands on his head in frustration.  Classic moment.  I am mostly watching to see how the college bats do as I think that is the most likely route the Twins will take.  Lesko looks like a winner, but I don't think the Twins will take another high school righthander in the first round.  You have put me on to this Joyce kid so I will definitely follow him.  A 101 mph slider at the knees should be illegal!  Thanks for the updates and the work you put in on them.

Thanks so much for the kind words, they are truly appreciated.

Agree on the Druw Jones moment, absolutely amazing! Agree that a college bat is most likely at the moment, but a long way to go. Thanks for reading!

[MN_ExPat]

On 3/8/2022 at 9:35 PM, RJA said:

It was not a college highlight, but the Druw Jones homerun during the chants was SOOO cool!  I had seen it on another site, but the sound didn't work so I missed out on hearing the chant.  It is great hearing the chant followed by the clink of the aluminum bat and everybody oohing and aahing while the pitcher puts both hands on his head in frustration.  Classic moment.  I am mostly watching to see how the college bats do as I think that is the most likely route the Twins will take.  Lesko looks like a winner, but I don't think the Twins will take another high school righthander in the first round.  You have put me on to this Joyce kid so I will definitely follow him.  A 101 mph slider at the knees should be illegal!  Thanks for the updates and the work you put in on them.

Folks who know or know of Lesko (down here in GA)... haven't painted a positive aspect of him (at least personality wise).  Not saying the kid doesn't have huge talent and upside (he does), but he doesn't appear to be well liked or respected as a person.

On a side note... his HS is almost universally hated by the entire state of Georgia (they're a charter school who are routinely accused of breaking or bending/sidestepping rules regarding placement or recruitment of athletes).

[RJA]

2 minutes ago, MN_ExPat said:

Folks who know or know of Lesko (down here in GA)... haven't painted a positive aspect of him (at least personality wise).  Not saying the kid doesn't have huge talent and upside (he does), but he doesn't appear to be well liked or respected as a person.

On a side note... his HS is almost universally hated by the entire state of Georgia (they're a charter school who are routinely accused of breaking or bending/sidestepping rules regarding placement or recruitment of athletes).

Thanks for the info.  If he has character issues, it will be interesting to see where he ends up in the draft.  

[MN_ExPat]

1 hour ago, RJA said:

Thanks for the info.  If he has character issues, it will be interesting to see where he ends up in the draft.  

One major caveat to that though, is it's all second hand information. 

As we all know there are three sides to every story... Person A, Person B, and the truth.

If my son's team continues to play the way they have been (they're 10-1 and ranked #4 in the State), there is a potential chance we could see Buford in the playoffs.  A more detailed analysis would follow at that point .