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It’s time. Ok, well… it’s not literally time yet. But the day has arrived: MLB Draft Day. I couldn’t sleep and I figured now is as good of a time as any to get this ball rolling.10:08pm: Keegan Akin, my 4th round pick, just went to the Orioles in the second round. 10:03pm: Ryan Boldt just drafted by the Rays. Good for Boldt! 9:58pm: Erceg and Shore both off the board. Lots of catchers available still... 9:42pm: Interesting to see which teams - the expected ones - taking the high price tag guys now as the draft continues. Braves getting Anderson/Wentz/Muller and the Phillies getting Moniak/Gowdy. Big $$$$. Even the Reds and Trammell. 9:29pm: Daulton Jefferies was my pick to go to the Twins in Round 2. He went to the A's. I already lost my Will Smith pick to the Dodgers. 9:22pm: Comp Round A kicked off. Reds take a high schooler with a high price tag... see if that's a trend with some of these teams (Atlanta and Philadelphia). ------- 7:43pm: Twins take Kirilloff, a polished high school hitter. 7:37pm: TWINS ARE ON THE CLOCK! 7:31pm: Law says Will Benson to Indians. Get. It. Dunn. 7:27pm: Lowe to Rays. For me, I'm taking Justin Dunn. If he's gone, I'm taking Kirilloff. 7:20pm: Sounds like Groome to the Red Sox. I have Groome #2 on my board based on talent alone. There are some concerns, however. Twins are up in three picks...! 7:18pm: Fingers crossed that Red Sox take Rutherford here. Rutherford doesn't do it for me. 7:14pm: Collins to the White Sox is ok with me. Lewis should go to Mariners here. Dunn and Kirilloff are favorites to go to Twins at this point. 7:08pm: Manning to the Tigers took me by surprise, but I'm glad because he's one guy I didn't see the Twins taking. Lengthens their board. 7:02pm: Padres take Cal Quantrill. I had him mocked correctly for a while... hoped he would fall to Twins. 6:56pm: Cooper says there are "rumblings" this could be Kyle Lewis to Padres. I'm ok with that. Probably will try to get Manning with their next pick. Marlins make Garrett official. Twins really liked him. 6:52pm: Braxton Garrett expected to be selected by Marlins. Garrett to the Twins was my #1 pipe-dream. Boras/Vandy guy. 6:48pm: Nothing reported on Marlins front yet, but many expect Braxton Garrett to be drafted next. Puk to A's done. 6:46pm: Puk likely to come off board to A's. Really surprised Kyle Lewis is still available. He won't fall to Twins, but someone will get quite a bat. 6:40pm: Wow. Brewers go with Ray - not Puk. I've had a few people tell me that Ray is the best player in the draft. The Brewers could have some freaky good outfields in the future with Phillips, Clark, Gatewood, Harrison and now Ray. 6:37pm: If Brewers take Puk, they get a steal. He was #1 on my board. 6:34pm: So far I'm one-for-four in my mock draft, but I really like the Pint pick. Pitchers don't want to sign there, so you have to draft them. I think Pint is going to be a star. Nothing crazy so far. 6:32pm: Jeff Passan tweets that the Braves are expected to save $2.5-$3m on the Anderson pick. They basically get to make another top 10 pick. Rockies make Riley Pint official. Pint throws straight gas (homey) and I compared him to Max Scherzer. 6:27pm: Braves make Ian Anderson official. They will have a lot of money to play with. I declare them draft winners. (Kidding.) 6:22pm: Braves are on the clock and expected to take Ian Anderson. Who had him as the first prep pitcher off of the board? Not me. But I did have Anderson connected to the Braves all along, so I'll count that as a three-quarters-win. 6:20pm: Cooper also says Rutherford to Brewers. He not-so-correctly had Daz Cameron to the Astros last year. Reds make Senzel official. Boras guy, can't imagine they're going to save a ton, but enough to make a difference in round 2 for sure. 6:17pm: Cooper says Puk to Brewers at 5. If A's go Groome, that puts Marlins on clock. Braxton Garrett has been the name mentioned most. 6:15pm: John Manuel suggesting that the Braves may go Corey Ray. Could Anderson fall to #40? I've said as much. 6:13pm update: Keith Law says Pint to Rockies at 4 and after the Brewers pick at 5, Jason Groome could go sixth to the A's. 6:12pm update: All indications are that the Phillies are taking Moniak, the Reds are taking Senzel, the Braves are taking Anderson (!) and that would put the Rockies in position to get a pitcher that they want - either A.J. Puk or Riley Pint. 5:58pm update: ARE YOU READY?! LET'S DO THIS! 3pm update: John Manuel has been updating and reupdating his mock draft.... but still has Dakota Hudson going to the Twins. He's got Kirilloff going to the Angels at #16 and Whitley going to the Blue Jays at #21. LEN3 tweeted that the Twins are scheduled to make their first pick around 7:20 and their last two picks around 10:08. Schedule accordingly. I might do a Periscope after the last two picks if people are interested. 11:10 update: Keith Law says that Rutherford is still in play for the Brewers and that Whitley is in play to the Mariners. Frankie Piliere adds Zach Burdi to the list the Mariners could be considering. 11 am update: There are lot of new rumors floating out there. The newest has Ian Anderson going to the Braves at #3 on an underslot deal and the Braves hoping to catch Groome at #40. I will be posting noteworthy news here. So keep it here and refresh often. --- In the midst of a poor season, we always have the future to look toward. The draft is a small step to realizing that future and by the time you go to bed tonight, the Twins will have added four pieces of that future. This three-day event starts on Thursday evening (tonight!) at 6pm and concludes on Saturday. The first 77 picks (Round 1 through Comp B Round) are Thursday. Round 3 will start at noon on Friday and last through Round 10. Round 11 will begin at 11 am on Saturday and last until the conclusion of the draft, which is 40 rounds long. The Twins will make their first selection with the 15th overall pick. They were in line for the 17th selection until both the Diamondbacks and Orioles signed free agents which required them to forfeit their first-round draft pick, thrusting the Twins up two more spots. They will come back on the clock with the 56th pick, their regular second-round pick, before finishing out their night with back-to-back picks in the Comp B round at 73 and 74. They were awarded the 73rd pick for the second consecutive year as winners of the one of the twelve Competitive Balance Lottery picks. Because they failed to sign last year’s choice, Kyle Cody, they receive the 74th pick this year. On Friday, the Twins first choice will be 93rd overall. They’ll be on the clock every thirty picks after that for the duration of the draft. So who will the Twins select this evening with the 15th overall pick this year? That - along with 14 picks before it - remains a great mystery. Over the last few weeks, at Twins Daily, we run several articles highlighting a number of players that the Twins could take: We started our coverage by looking at some local players that could be drafted.Our specific looks at players started with flamethrowing Zack Burdi, younger brother of Nick, and Miami Hurricane backstop Zack Collins. But then a funny thing happened, all heck broke loose. Boards started doing somersaults and players, mostly prep pitchersstarted coming out with giant bonus demands. We profiled one more specific bat, prep outfielder Alex Kirilloff. It really became increasingly difficult to not only peg who the Twins would take, but also what would happen before then. The last profile included a handful of college pitchers, some of whom entered the discussion very late. In addition to that, I treated readers to a 10-round Twins-only mock draft and a look at how I’d stack my own Draft Board if you threw bonus demands out the window. Oh… and the mocks. I projected the Twins to take Forrest Whitley on May 11th in Mock Draft v. 1. On May 29th, I switched course and had the Twins drafting Justin Dunn in Mock Draft v. 2. My third and final mock draft was posted this morning. One thing that I need to continue to note is how important it is for you to understand how teams go about manipulating their draft money. The teams drafting at the top - the Phillies, Reds, Braves - and other teams with multiple picks (like the Padres) will be working on cutting deals right up until the draft starts. This doesn’t only mean with their first pick, but also with later picks. When this happens, agents will start floating their price tags out to teams, who shy away from those players, essentially making them unavailable to teams though they haven’t already been picked. A potential example that I’ve used is with the Braves, Ian Anderson and pick 40. The Braves love Anderson, but he’s not going to sign for $1.6 million, which is what pick 40 is worth. The Braves also have the third overall choice, which is worth $6.5 million. Their likely choice there, Corey Ray, isn’t going to need that full allotment to sign. So what the Braves could do is offer each player $4 million. They would draft Ray at 3. Anderson’s agent would let all teams know it will cost them $4 million to sign his client and - after a tumble - guess who’s available the next time the Braves select? The Braves, who are just one example, could get even more creative because they have three more picks in the top 80. Long story short, it means if the Twins lined up their favorite 15 players, it could come time for them to pick and all 15 of those players could either already be picked or just be “unavailable.” The players that will fit into that “unavailable” category will be primarily high-school pitchers. The MLB Draft is such an important time for MLB teams. The Twins will select 42 players to add talent to the organization. In any given year, if two or three of the picks become useful big leaguers, the draft was a huge success. We encourage you to keep close to Twins Daily for more updates. We will post articles for each of Thursday’s picks. On Friday, I’ll be posting all of the picks and adding thoughts throughout the day. (So keep pounding that refresh button.) Saturday will be more of the same, with picks coming - and you refreshing - more rapidly. But we don’t expect you to make TwinsDaily.com your only priority on draft weekend. We also want you to tune in to KFAN (100.3 FM or online or on iHeartRadio) on Friday night at 7pm for a special radio broadcast that I’m calling Guru and the Geek. John Bonnes and I will be in studio discussing the first 10 round (12 picks) and might even have a special guest or two. It's going to be a full, fun, busy three days here at Twins Daily. Use this thread to discuss rumors throughout the day. Even more fun, post below your thoughts on who will be taken with each of the top 5 or 10 picks. And, in all seriousness, check out some of the best league-wide draft sites that exist: BaseballAmerica.com’s draft coverage is outstanding. Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo team up at MLB Pipeline to rival BA’s coverage. Keith Law isn’t free at ESPN, but if you have an Insider account, you can read all sorts of good stuff. You can find a lot of information on prep players at Perfect Game. Enjoy the conversation. Enjoy the hope. Don’t hate all the relievers (again). Just kidding. Maybe. 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