Twins Daily College Baseball Notebook: Week 3

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.