Twins Draft Blayne Enlow, Seven More

I thought he'd sign for closer to 3m so it seems likely that the Twins might be able to do something more tomorrow.

Me too. I wonder if this means that the Twins were hoping to make a run at both Enlow and Carlson with picks #76 and #106. Between Lewis and Leach, they should have way more than necessary to sign Enlow for $2M.

Yet Greene had mediocre stats, particularly given his level of competition, despite that being your argument against Lewis.

What are you talking about? He had 13.8 K/9 and just 4 walks in 28 innings. I'm not saying I want him in the field. He throws 100 mph. Just take him. How many teams wish they had paid for Aroldis Chapman when they had the chance?

Honest question. How many of these late round picks actually sign?

I've been reading from others on here that there are still some talented people left. Now that we're at this point in the draft, wouldn't they forego signing a contract and try their luck again? Especially if they're HS players.

Last year only 3 picks from the 11th round did not sign, to use that as an example.  2 high school kids, and a college catcher.  

Of course, its possible the highly ranked high school kids won't be drafted today in the 11th round, because teams already know they won't sign. 

Edit: Same for the 12th round, 3 unsigned.  2 HS, 1 College

that's partly because teams are passing on the great players now, since they probably won't sign.

 

Only a handful of late picks signed for "big" money last year, IIRC.

Correct - the MLB site I used to reference those numbers don't show signing bonuses, just whether they signed or not. So I'm not sure how many big bonuses were given in later rounds

Seems to me as though the Twins targeted the highest upside defender in the 1st round with Royce Lewis, regardless of current/future position.

Twins have always gone after toolsy players, but now I think the new front office is expanding their search for quality defense to the draft. J.Castro, Gimenez and Adrianza are the only position players they've brought in at the ML level and now Royce as their 1st pick. 

Not to say they won't acquire other skill sets, but my sense in Falvey/Lavine see value in defense for the present and the future.  

There are a few players I'd like to snag today. My guess is that we have enough money to snag at least one. Garrett Mitchell, the HS OF from CA, Tristen Beck, Standford's sophomore pitcher and Tanner Burns, etc.

 

So maybe they saved money knowing that someone would be available in round 11 although not necessarily knowing who.

Burns is out, according to this:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2017/06/auburn_signees_tanner_burns_st.html

Beck miiiight be an option but as a sophomore you'd have to think he'll want to try and raise his stock next year.

Would love to get Mitchell but doubtful we have the $$.

Just glancing over MLB.com's remaining talent list, I'd be looking for a guy like Steve Williams who is an Auburn commit that scouts aren't sure will stick at catcher. Maybe one of the 19 year old toolsy inf/of types, or someone like Van Eyk whose spring performance raised arm health concerns.

Tough to see them making more of a splash today because of the Enlow pick.

Zero, if they believed they had to pass up a 4 WAR shortstop to sign him.

 

I can understand being disappointed about Greene - that's who I wanted to see the Twins draft - but given how the rest of their draft went, it's pretty hard to complain, in my opinion. It appears they got what they believe to be four top 80 or so guys, two of them top 30 guys. That's a good draft.

 

Now only time will tell if they're right.

Those are valid points. It's too bad the reds didn't give him the chance to start. I suspect his value would have been much higher, but that is obviously a hypothetical at this point.

That's because the Twins don't have very good pitchers. They drafted Stewart and Jay and acquired guys like Thorpe, Meyer, and Romero. Those are power pitchers who (should) miss bats. Unfortunately, Stewart continues to falter and Jay is back in the bullpen. Meyer is out of the organization entirely.

 

The Twins have been drafting and signing power arms for quite some time, they've just done a very bad job of it (and also ran into what is likely more than their fair share of bad luck along the way).

Bad luck is the residual effect of insisting its easy to convert college relievers into professional starters.

Definitely not making excuses for that strategy. I was speaking more about the plethora of TJ surgeries, the overall injuries, and just weird crap like Stewart not being able to miss a bat despite throwing 94mph.

A fair amount of that is likely a development problem, though.

Developing pitchers is a number game. Always has been. Always will be. For all the talk of Stewart being behind Gonsalves and Romero in the present, he could bump into the magic change up fairy that Johan Santana found in 2002 and end up being the ace. Or he could follow the status quo. You never know.

When you draft guys with bad deliveries in the name of velocity, you're cutting down your numbers. The great part of this draft is that Enlow could be a great starter. Or Leach could. Or Barnes could. Or even Widell could (Sammons and Fauscher seem more like relievers, but they're also 8th and 10th rounders). And while it's nice to pretend we're sages and know that Enlow has the best present stuff, you never know when a guy like Barnes is going to become the next Kluber. In reality, the plus of this draft is its been way too long since the Twins picked four guys in the first ten rounds who should remain in the rotation long enough to see how they play out.