McKay Says No Way

Jack,

I really don't appreciate the unnecessary personal shot.

But here is what I know:

We had the first pick as well two other picks in the 30's

We had the most money to spend

Not only did we not agree to terms with the player we wanted, we went under slot with 1-1 and 35 and 37 (Mayo said he can't see 35/37 getting full slot)

I also know that if you look back at history, a pretty high distribution of good players come in the first 30-40 picks vs the rest of the draft. So getting less value here just seems like a pretty bad idea.

If we end up signing guys in rounds 38-39 that project as first round picks next year and we use all of our money, then the strategy would seem more clear. But in the meantime I am not sure the Pohlad's have a track record that would warrant the benefit of the doubt some are giving them.

The last two games were examples of how badly the Twins need pitching, both starters and relievers. But that help will only come from one of three places, trades, free agents and pitchers in the high minors. So the answer to their problem wasn't McKay, Greene or Wright. But it may be guys named Jorge, Romero, Gonsalves and maybe Thorpe.

The Twins lack of front line starters is because they never draft them.  Once again, they went for the toolsy everyday player.  Nobody thinks these guys are going to help the current team, but it would have been nice to have a top of the rotation guy in the system.

The Twins lack of front line starters is because they never draft them.  Once again, they went for the toolsy everyday player.  Nobody thinks these guys are going to help the current team, but it would have been nice to have a top of the rotation guy in the system.

The Twins have used 2 top-6 picks on pitchers in the past 4 years

Both of you please stop monopolizing this thread.

Perhaps more arguments on TD should be solved with a Monopoly game. I'm sure there's some way to play online. Maybe they could be a sponsor of TD?

Jack,

I really don't appreciate the unnecessary personal shot.

But here is what I know:

We had the first pick as well two other picks in the 30's

We had the most money to spend

Not only did we not agree to terms with the player we wanted, we went under slot with 1-1 and 35 and 37 (Mayo said he can't see 35/37 getting full slot)

I also know that if you look back at history, a pretty high distribution of good players come in the first 30-40 picks vs the rest of the draft. So getting less value here just seems like a pretty bad idea.

If we end up signing guys in rounds 38-39 that project as first round picks next year and we use all of our money, then the strategy would seem more clear. But in the meantime I am not sure the Pohlad's have a track record that would warrant the benefit of the doubt some are giving them.

It's not a personal shot. Just saying, understand the rules. You can't say cheap after one day of the draft. It's just not possible. That's like calling the Twins the AL Central champs because they're up right now. This thing has to play itself out. The word cheap cannot be used except in the highly unlikely case the Twins don't use their full allotment of draft money. Let's hold off on calling people cheap until them.

Note: I hate the Pohldads. I booed when they honored Carl. I didn't feel great about booing the dead but that man was terrible. Made his fortune foreclosing on farmers in the Depression, tried to move and contract the Twins. Why we honored him, I don't know.

I'm not drinking the cool-aid.  This has been a squandered draft so far in my opinion.  I understand Falvey and Levine not trading Dozier or Santana last season (the offers just weren't right).  That said, not addressing an obviously inferior bullpen in the offseason was strike one, wasting a 1:1 pick on Lewis and the supplemental pick is a big FAT strike two if you ask me.  Just my opinion.  I am not impressed so far at all with the new regime after seeing this.

What kool-aid? It's literally a fact that the same amount of money will be spent on their draft, as it would have if they had taken Greene like you preferred.  Like it's not a debateable point or argument to even have.  

That's not my point. I didn't say that i wanted Greene as the #1 either.

"but again it comes down to money."

In literally no way does it come down to cheapness. They will spend the exact same amount of money on Lewis + the remaining picks, as they would have on McKay (Or Greene) and the remaining picks

They refused to pay McKay slot and that was THE GUY they wanted.

I'll just end this now.  Try to be smarter.  

1) You don't know that was the guy they wanted

2) They paid under slot so they could draft the 29th ranked prospect at #76

3) Again, they are paying THE EXACT SAME amount of money to draft picks

I think Lewis is a very defendable pick. He was either 1 or 2 for position players on just about everyone's list.

I would have preferred Greene just because I think his floor is a legit front line closer if he doesn't improve his secondary pitches much but I'm not losing any sleep over it.

They picked up a couple of interesting RHP in the next rounds. Leech was a reach at 37 but to get Enlow later sort of makes up for that. Two very solid signable HS pitchers both 18 will be interesting to watch.

What I will say, is if this is the route you are going to go in the draft, I don't want to hear anything about how free agency isn't the way to build a team later on. None of these guys is on the radar for 4-5 seasons. The Twins are going to have to lean on FA and trades to improve this atrocious pitching staff in the near term. 

From what I have read, Enlow at 76 dropped because his velo dipped from 92-94 to 89-91 this spring, not because of a signability issue.

Good.

Lewis wouldn't have been my first choice, but I'd much rather have him than McKay.

Personally, I would not give two rips where a players heart is. You draft a guy, hand him 6-7 million bucks and he is controlled for 7 years. He will get over it quickly.

In the case of Lewis and Greene, Boras represents both. So if they pan out we may only get 7 years.

My personal theory is that Greene was the best prospect. The biggest knock against him was the track record of and lack of HS RHP going 1-1. And the recent track record of guys that were HS RHP but weren't as highly regarded as him. It seems to me that he became a victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy that benefitted the Reds, who were more than happy to scoop him up at #2.

In fairness, the Cubs are in a position to spend on guys like Jon Lester and we are not.

If you need pitching to win, the Twins lack an avenue some teams have. That is part of the equation.

Now we can point to guys like Arrietta or even Ervin that we could get, but it is not a level playing field. Please note, I don't want to start a debate that we could sign an ace. The fact is we won't.