Twins Daily 2022 Draft Coverage, March 24

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Major League Baseball officially announced details for this summer’s Draft late last week. The draft, for the second year, will coincide with MLB’s All-Star Week. While the All-Star Game festivities and draft will take place July 17-19 in Los Angeles, the Draft Combine will be in San Diego’s Petco Park from June 14-20.
 

The Draft will consist of 20 rounds completed across three days. 

• Sunday, July 17: Rounds 1 and 2, compensatory and competitive balance rounds.
• Monday, July 18: Round 3 through 10.
• Tuesday, July 19: Rounds 11 through 20.

MLB recently announced recipients of picks in the Competitive Balance rounds. The Twins received the second pick in Round B (following the second round). These picks are awarded based on a secret formula that includes revenue and winning percentage and market size. The fifteen picks that are awarded remain the only draft picks that can be traded.

The Twins, however, are likely to lose that pick as a result of signing Carlos Correa. With some dust still to settle, the Twins are currently slotted to pick 8th and 48th.

The lack of high-quality college pitching has been a thing all spring, but so has Ben Joyce’s fastball. Joyce is pumping 103 mph for the Tennessee Volunteers. Jamie Cameron also mentions Joyce in his College Notebook this week, so not to beat a dead horse since it's already been posted about here... but a fastball like that - anywhere - requires attention.

Maria Torres of The Athletic goes in-depth on Joyce, who probably isn’t a Day One pick at this point, but - except under extreme conditions - helium is a gas and Joyce may have plenty of both by the time July comes.

Speaking of helium, Torres also did a nice write-up of prep lefty Brandon Barriera. Barriera is not prototypically sized (6-1, 170), but is an analytics darling: the spin rate of his curveball is nearly elite compared to pitchers in the MLB. 

Barriera is ranked 15th by Baseball America and 21st by MLB.com but he doesn’t crack the Top 30 at The Athletic due to Law’s concerns about his ability to throw strikes.

Jeremy's Top 10 MLB Draft Prospects 

I’m going to switch my Top 8 to a Top 10. There’s been some movement within it as well.

1.) Druw Jones, OF, Georgia prep (Vanderbilt commit)

2.) Termarr Johnson, 2B, Georgia prep

3.) Elijah Green, OF, Florida prep (Miami commit) (Baseball America breaks down his game.)

    There’s just too many already-legendary tales that you hear about these three to have anyone else included.

4.) Brooks Lee, SS, Cal Poly

     Lee dropped, but he continues to rake (batting .438) and will be an easy pick for a team looking to add a ready-soon shortstop to their system.

5.) Jacob Berry, 3B, LSU

     There may be some questions about where he fits defensively, but the switch-hitter can hit and hit for power. The Twins love that. 

6.) Jace Jung, 3B, Texas Tech

7.) Dylan Lesko, SP, Georgia prep (Vanderbilt commit)

8.) Kevin Parada, C, Georgia Tech

9.) Chase DeLauter, cOF, James Madison

10.) Robert Moore, 2B, Arkansas

MOCK DRAFTS / PROSPECT BOARDS

• Baseball America - v1.0 (2/10/22) / Top 200 (3/14/22)
• MLB.com - Callis - Top 10 (12/15/21), Mayo - Top 20 (7/20/21) / Top 100
• The Athletic - Law Top 30 (3/10/22)
• ESPN - Early Draft Rankings (7/26/21) ($$$ - ESPN+) / McDaniel’s Draft Rankings (2/24/22)
• Fangraphs - The Board / 2022 MLB Draft Rankings and Offseason List Primer (11/30/21) 
• Just Baseball v1.0 (2/10/22)
• Prospects Live v1.0 (1/24/22)
• My MLB Draft (1/18/22)

 

 

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[Dman]

I really, really like Brandon Barriera. If there isn't a really good hitter at number 8 I would love to see him as the Twins pick.  Still I think the Twins will go with a bat although they have been doing the unexpected recently.

[DocBauer]

Between now and draft day, there are going to be a lot of changes I'm sure. But I am really holding out for a top, easily projectable college catcher just sitting there when it's the Twins turn.

[roger]

Twins pick 8th, you have a college catcher #8, what else do we need to know?

[tony&rodney]

Brooks Lee falls to the Twins.

[DocBauer]

5 hours ago, roger said:

Twins pick 8th, you have a college catcher #8, what else do we need to know?

Wouldn't it just be Twins/Minnesota luck that a HS pitcher picked at 27 would defy the odds and turn out to be a stud? But I still applaud the trade. It just makes sense. 

And the MLB draft is ABSOLUTELY about taking the best player available above all professional sports because you aren't loking for immediate help, you're looking at future potential. And sometimes you hit, and sometimes you don't, and sometimes you reach. Witness Cavaco and HOPE you get it right, even if it takes a few years for fruition.

The Twins have a handful of catchers they have drafted, signed, traded for, and converted over the last couple seasons. And there a couple of guys from AA down that have at least flashed some potential. And there is the potential for a couple surprises from that group: 

But man, despite drafting a couple catchers last year, best thing they could do now is NOT ignore BPA, but make sure they look HARD at the draft board and bring in a couple interesting/quality catcher options for the good of the system.

[roger]

8 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Wouldn't it just be Twins/Minnesota luck that a HS pitcher picked at 27 would defy the odds and turn out to be a stud? But I still applaud the trade. It just makes sense. 

And the MLB draft is ABSOLUTELY about taking the best player available above all professional sports because you aren't loking for immediate help, you're looking at future potential. And sometimes you hit, and sometimes you don't, and sometimes you reach. Witness Cavaco and HOPE you get it right, even if it takes a few years for fruition.

The Twins have a handful of catchers they have drafted, signed, traded for, and converted over the last couple seasons. And there a couple of guys from AA down that have at least flashed some potential. And there is the potential for a couple surprises from that group: 

But man, despite drafting a couple catchers last year, best thing they could do now is NOT ignore BPA, but make sure they look HARD at the draft board and bring in a couple interesting/quality catcher options for the good of the system.

Totally agree, Doc.  But we don’t have any top, exciting prospects who are catchers.  Wouldn’t it be great that we found that guy at #8 this year?

[Mike Sixel]

Please don't take a bat first corner guy early. Please. 

[ashbury]

On 3/25/2022 at 5:29 AM, roger said:

Totally agree, Doc.  But we don’t have any top, exciting prospects who are catchers.  Wouldn’t it be great that we found that guy at #8 this year?

I don't want a stud at catcher.

Oh, sure, I'd take one if he dropped into our laps.  But at the expense of passing up a stud at a different position?  Nope.  Joe Mauer cured me of that.  And I think Joe's a Hall of Famer.   But a catcher doesn't play enough games compared to other position players, and nobody has the impact on a given game that a pitcher does.  Moreover, if your catcher is really that much of a stud, then you will want him as DH on the days you rest his legs, and that puts pressure on your roster.

A stud at catcher is a rich team's luxury, in the sense that they probably also can afford a stud DH, meaning that you pay the stud catcher the big bucks to sit, on his days off, like any normal catcher should.

I like catchers taken in the 2nd round, don't get me wrong.  Rortvedt was an ideal bet.