Draft Whispers

*Consensus (at least as far as I can reach) suggests all of A.J. Puk (1), Riley Pint (2), Jason Groome (3), Kyle Lewis (4), Nick Senzel (5), Corey Ray (6), Delvin Perez (7) and Mickey Moniak (8) will be gone before the Twins pick at #15. Those rankings are according to Baseball America and the list was compiled before I checked their rankings… so it might be safe to consider those players in their own tier.

*If you’re interested in what is going on locally, Nick Hanson, a big right-handed pitcher from Prior Lake, is the prep player in the state garnering the most attention. Hanson, who isn’t listed among Baseball America’s Top 200 prospects, but checks in at #44 on Perfect Game, is committed to Kentucky.

*Dalton Sawyer (LHP, Sr) leads the charge for the surprising Gophers. Sawyer passed up signing with the Twins after being drafted in the 27th round last year. He had a tough junior season but he’s definitely taken a step back in the right direction with a bounce-back year. Senior-signs are hot commodities in the first 10 rounds, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Sawyer go before the end of Day 2.

*Other Gophers to keep an eye on are C Austin Athmann and P/OF Matt Fiedler. It’s unclear at which position the Twins prefer Fiedler.

*Zack Collins (15) can be a "catcher", though it’s doubtful he’ll ever be an average defender. The Twins do like Collins, “an offensive force,” but appear to targeting a different batch of players.

*Speaking of catchers - and everybody and their brother has an issue with their catching depth - the Twins will take a catcher in the Top 10 rounds. They always do. But they won’t take one in the first round just because they don’t have a high-profile prospect. They won’t take one that high because no one is deserving. There is plenty of depth and it’s not beyond the realm of possibility to see the Twins take a high-ceiling, long-term project like Mario Feliciano in round 3 or 4 and then take a lower-ceiling, college catcher like Jeremy Martinez later on Day 2. Regardless of the who or when, though, this draft isn’t producing an answer at Target Field before 2021… or later.

*Nolan Jones (18) has been skyrocketing up draft charts this spring, but doesn’t seem to be of any interest to the Twins. Or vice versa.

*In Baseball America’s most recent mock draft, Hudson Belinsky has the Twins taking Dakota Hudson, a right-hander from Mississippi State.

*Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com released his first full mock draft of May 12th, a day before BA, and also had the Twins taking Hudson.

*The Twins have been connected to Matt Manning, a prep power right-hander from Sacramento and in Keith Law’s first mock, released Tuesday, he paired the two. Manning is committed to Loyola Marymount and though you may seen some questions about his signability, you’re reading here that there isn’t. Interestingly, Belinsky has Matt Manning going before the Twins, while Mayo has him dropping to #21.

*Perfect Game released their first mock draft on May 11 and guessed the Twins would take Connor Jones, RHP, Virginia, passing on Hudson and Manning. They will be releasing their next - and hopefully better - guesses in a week. Perfect Game, in my opinion, has taken a big step down after losing some of their best assets and doesn’t get ringing endorsements in the scouting world either, for what’s it worth.

*A third name to add into the mix of Hudson and Manning is Alabama prep lefty Braxton Garrett. Though he’s been projected to be off the board on all four of the mentioned mocks, he’s a Vanderbilt commit (tricky) and a Boras client (tricky). But if it comes down to best available and Hudson and Manning aren’t, Garrett should be next in line.

*While this is my sense as of today, I’ve had more than a couple people tell me that someone good is going to slide to the Twins. Not “the Twins are going to get someone good”, the word “slide” has been used. It could be a coincidence, sure. It could be an emphasis on how weird this draft is expected to be, yes. But it could be something else too… maybe?