Twins Daily 2022 Draft Coverage, April 28

Lesko drops and the Twins should pounce.

21 minutes ago, SarasotaBill said:

Lesko drops and the Twins should pounce.

Yeah I agree.  That first year is just instructs mainly anyway.  He will have TJ surgery out of the way and shouldn't mess his time table up much.  I think I like Lesko more now than before the news of surgery.

I remember Giolito fell in draft because of injury, he has panned out fine.  I would lean toward Lesko if he drops to 8.  From what I read his change up elite, which is always one of the pitches that takes time to develop.  If he is advanced with it, then less likely he just got by with velo in high school. 

At first glance, drafting a HS pitcher who just had TJ surgery scares the hell out of me. But then again, so many pitching prospects have it before they even reach the majors. So maybe it isn't that big of a risk (beyond the risk of drafting a HS pitcher in the top 10 in general).

I am admittedly not a fan of drafting players who are already far down the defensive spectrum. The offensive bar they need to clear just becomes so high that there isn't a ton of upside anymore. I would always prefer SS, CF, C or a pitcher.

I have seen this draft class being touted as really good but is it just me who is a little underwhelmed by the scouting reports of the top prospects? Apart from Druw Jones and maybe Lesko, these prospects just don't sound that exciting to me, at least not when compared to other draft prospects I've seen ranked in the top 10 in previous years.

(Not that I know anything, that's just my impression when reading the scouting reports. )

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

SS or C for me, given the rankings. But, I'd be ok with Lesko too.

Given how things stand I think one of the two catchers will be there at number 8 and at the very least there will be an elite bat at number 8.  Not a great year for shortstops this year IMO.  I think the more plodding position player bats will be available to the Twins but will have to wait and see.  The Cubs or Nats might grab Lesko since he has ace potential and that is so hard to find.  Certainly he is a risky bet but the payoff could be huge. We know first hand how good Santana was with his elite changeup.  It is a feel pitch though and after TJ that could be problematic.  Hard to say. If a team a head of us does grab a pitcher then there will be more options for hitters for us.

The Twins are pretty risk averse and seem to be in more need of bats than arms so I could see them skipping on Lesko if he is still there.  They also seem to feel they can identify arms later in the draft and make them work.  Depending on who is there at number 8 it might be hard for them to go pitcher.

I would like to know where fangraphs stands on the pitching in this draft as I feel they have better analysis for arms than the other sites.  They haven't updated in a while now.

6 minutes ago, gunnarthor said:

Dumb question, but what are our picks this year? Do we have any supplemental picks?

It looks like 8, 48, 68 if the MLB site is correct.  However, I have seen reports out there that indicate we lose our supplemental pick at 68 for signing Correa and that would move us to 8, 48, 86.  So I guess the big question is are supplemental picks included in a teams top three picks or are supplemental picks technically different than a normal draft pick since are given and can be traded etc.  Maybe someone else on this board can clarify.

If Lesko is the best high school pitching prospect in ten years and has such high marks for three pitches, take him if available. The Twins need to go athletic, which means taking a vacation on drafting plodding corner players who project to hit the crap out of the ball but whose primary position is DH. The only bat first player I'm interested in is Juan Soto and we cannot draft him. 

I hope the Twins take one of the catchers.