Cooz

Do you think, then, McKay was not willing to play the position the Twins wanted him to play? Perhaps they said all P or 1B, no two-way, but TB said he could DH on off-days and see how it goes?

We saved money by drafting, allegedly, under slot with the top pick to save money on drafting a guy we've already drafted, and a Canadian who wasn't expected to go any time soon. The front office can't get a bonus for pool money not spent, can they? "BOOM!"

So clearly . . . he's the best!

Didn't we draft this Rooker guy once already?

I live a county over from where McKay's from in the Pittsburgh area. Many are like him up there.

And when someone came back from down 3-0 in the World Series . . . it happened once in forever. You're not betting on it happening again any time soon.

That's weak, though. 1. He threw 28 innings this year because it was obvious he was a top 3 pick at worst. Why is he throwing more than that? 2. He was the second pick overall. Excuse us for thinking he could/should have been the first. We weren't far off. 3. If you think people are only formulating their opinions based on their own viewing of YouTube clips, you're way off the mark (you might even be giving fans more credit than you're intending). There are many people who do not work in a front office who understand the game and the draft process. Those people are capable of writing and articulating their observations. We're capable of reading them. 4. The shelf life of a general manager at the major league level isn't exactly massive, so suggesting his position earns him some kind of immunity from criticism is simply based on nothing. Plenty of people are perfectly informed to disagree and criticize intelligently the decisions made by a GM, just as if that GM can make an intelligent argument as to why the decision was made. We might not know the nitty-gritty details, but that's what makes him the GM and us the fan. If it was a dollars issue, then fine, but we can point to reasons why we felt Greene, or Wright, or McKay were better choices than Lewis. You can say Lewis is a solid prospect for reasons A, B and C. But give reasons, not blind-faith in a management team working their first draft together. They can make bad decisions. It does happen.

There's a reason no HS RHP has gone No. 1. I don't like passing on him, but I can see why they might have done it. My money was on Wright. I wonder how much his performance against OSU impacted his stock. Not saying that's everything, but he's staring down the draft as well as the top team in the country and . . . gives up seven earned in six and change. Walks in a run. Hmmm...

Obviously no one can suggest the Astros missed the boat on that, but logically, that really doesn't make much sense for the team that has more (bonus pool) money than everyone else. I'm not an agent, but if the Twins call me and say we're going to pay you x, would you take that if we drafted you at 35? All I'm doing is saying "I don't know. Lemme call the guys at 31-34 and see if they'll offer me more, because what I really want to do is leverage YOU at 35, because: A.) You went cheap with the top pick, giving me the impression you are over-valuing the 35th pick (certainly more proportionally than you valued the 1st pick). B.) You have more money available, so logically, you SHOULD be able to spend more than the teams around the 35th pick, but what's more important is you CAN spend more, so I'm going to shop around. C.) And thank you for giving me all the power in this conversation. Not sure how many guys you feel are worth paying over slot at the 35th pick but I'm going to guess that list isn't very long and I'm at or near the top of it. Unless your plan was to compile a list of several players you'd like to overpay at this spot . . . ? Tell ya what, though, if no one else is willing to pay me a little more than you are, congratulations, you got yourself a player no other team was willing to pay as much for at 35 overall. Let's pop the champagne, because you, like everyone else, are smarter than everyone else.

To be fair, the current regime did not draft Gordon, and Lewis is 17 years old and is an exceptional athlete for his age. If Gordon pans out as a SS, perhaps they like Lewis in LF down the road. Maybe it's the other way around. Reports indicate the Twins wanted McKay, and perhaps they wanted him to pitch. One reason or another, he turned them down. So just by that, Lewis was no better than their second option. I initially thought they wanted McKay to pitch and perhaps he wanted to play 1B. Someone else mentioned his reaction when he was drafted (they called him a first baseman, allegedly he was under the impression he'd be announced as a two-way player), so perhaps that wasn't the case.

Haven't they drafted No. 2 two years in a row now?

Someone's going to have to explain this to me. Why is justification in taking a certain player No. 1 overall made by the selections of two other players at 35 and 37? The Twins didn't get those two picks because of who they took first overall. "It's ok if the top pick wasn't so good because we know the rest of baseball -- including us -- totally snoozed on the guys we got at 35 and 37!" How does that make sense?

Ah. Well, there goes Baz.

I understand it's feasible for them to essentially save some cash to pick up on a player who falls to a certain point, but the logic behind this position essentially says "No. 1 overall isn't worth it to us, but we've got a great plan for a few players who were passed on 34 times, including once by us, so stick around!" If the "BOOM" part of that hip quip is they'll draft a BETTER prospect than Lewis at 35, I'm really confused as to what there is to be proud of.