Notes, quotes and comment

A good bit of roster shuffling before and after the Twins' loss Wednesday to the Astros:

• Optioned to Triple A Rochester before the game: reliever Tyler Duffey and outfielder Jake Cave.
• Promoted from Rochester: starter Kohl Stewart and reliever Fernando Romero
• Activated from the disabled list and optioned to Rochester: Reliever Gabriel Moya
• Optioned to Triple A Rochester after the game: Stewart
• A corresponding move will be made before the Twins next game on Friday.

Stewart's line score is unimpressive: six innings, eight hits, five runs, three walks, one strikeout. But he did give the Twins some length. They got though the game without using, or even warming up, any of their bullpen's Big Four. There is some value in that.

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For one game, at least, the Twins had a 13-man pitching staff. It's back down to 12 with Stewart's return to the minors, but it will be 13 again if, as I expect, Matt Magill is called up Friday. Magill was pulled from Rochester's game Wednesday after seven pitches.

Magill would give the Twins eight relievers on the active roster. Of more importance: Will somebody emerge as a fifth reliable arm? They need some quality out of the quanity.

My guess is that Romero is going to get some opportunity to claim such a role. He has the arm for it. Whether he has the command and composure is unclear.

---

So the Twins won just one of the three games in Houston. No shame in that. Stewart vs. Verlander was not a prime matchup for the Twins in the rubber game; Verlander's going to the Hall of Fame when his career ends, and Stewart is not.

It was to have been Jose Berrios vs. Verlander, but Friday's rainout pushed Berrios' start to Saturday and messed up the rotation, which is why the Twins needed somebody for Wednesday night. As it turned out, Berrios would have needed a shutout to beat Verlander. 

The Twins still had a winning road trip to Baltimore and Houston. Now they get those same two teams at home. And -- of course -- the weather is about to turn chilly again in Minnesota.

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Perhaps you saw the frightening video of former Twins bullpen prospect Nick Burdi, now with Pittsburgh, throwing a pitch and collapsing on the mound clutching his elbow in pain.

The news out of Pittsburgh the next day was surprisingly optimistic. Burdi may not even need surgery. But he described the biceps pain as “It was just kind of a sensation that you never forget,” and the Pirates have not revealed the results if the post-injury examinations.

Burdi still has his Rule 5 limitations in place, so he could, theoretically, wind up back with the Twins. But Pittsburgh has invested some time in him, and we'll see how this all plays out.

Rule 5 update

Tyler Kinley has yet to appear in a game for the Twins; Paul Molitor is, presumably, looking for a really low-leverage situation for his debut, and the Twins haven't had that yet except in the Jose Berrios complete game.

Meanwhile, Luke Bard, one of two pitchers claimed off the Twins in Rule 5, has gotten into three games for the Angels. He's pitched four innings and allowed one run on two hits and five strikeouts, all of which is good; he's also walked four, which is bad.

Luke Bard's game-ending strikeout of Jed Lowrie came on a 2,844 rpm elevated 4-seamer. That's what high-spin fastballs do -- get whiffs up in the zone -- and Bard's could be the highest we've seen since Statcast started tracking. pic.twitter.com/cnNxTOcttb

— David Adler (@_dadler) March 31, 2018

The other Rule 5 loss, Nick Burdi, is on the 60-day DL with the Pirates. His Rule 5 clock really doesn't become a factor until 2019; he had Tommy John surgery last season and isn't likely to pitch this year.

Bard versus Kinley is an intriguing comp. The Twins COULD have put Bard on the 40 last winter; they wouldn't have gotten Kinley in that case, but Bard would have options and could be sent to the minors. Kinley, as a Rule 5 guy, can't. There would be roster flexibility.

And the Twins will need a fifth starter next week, which will require a roster move. It's more likely that Gabriel Moya will be the demotee than that Kinley will be offered back to the Miami Marlins, but ... the reality of Rule 5 for contending teams is that it's really hard to devote a roster spot to that kind of player for the full season. Even if the Twins think Kinley is better than Bard, the flexibility matters. I'd rather have Bard.

And the payoff for keeping a Rule 5 guy is often slim. The Cincinnati Reds -- not a contender, of course -- two winters ago took catcher Stuart Turner out of the Twins system and kept him. He hit .134 in 82 at-bats. Last week,  his Rule 5 requirements satisified, the Reds waived him. He cleared and was outrighted to Triple A. So the Reds no longer think he's worth a 40-man roster spot, one year after carrying him on the active roster all season.

Rodney and Rule Five

The Twins had a busy Thursday with bullpen moves:

• They lost a pair of power arms from their Double A bullpen in the Rule 5 draft;
• They picked up a power arm from a Double A bullpen in the Rule 5 draft and
• They reached a reported contract agreement with veteran closer Fernando Rodney.

Let's start with the latter, since that is certain to have an effect on the 2018 team.

Most of us know Rodney to some degree. He spent seven years with Detroit to open his career; he was the losing pitcher in the famous Game 163 of 2009. He'll turn 41 during spring training, he's third in career saves among active pitchers (behind Francisco Rodriguez and Huston Street), he's made three All-Star teams and the Twins will be his ninth major league team.

This well-crafted opinion was issued early Thursday, after news that Brandon Kintzler had reached a two-year deal with the Washington Nationals:

If the #MNTwins were/are more interested in Fernando Rodney than Brandon Kintzler, they're doing it wrong.

— Edward Thoma (@bboutsider) December 14, 2017

They are quite different in pitching styles and repertiores. Rodney throws 60 percent fastballs and alomost 40 percent changeups; Kintzler throws more than 80 percent fastballs. Kintzler's strikeout rate and walk rates are both near the bottom of the league; Rodney's strikeout and walk rates are both about twice Kintzler's. Rodney threw strikes on 61 percent of his pitches (21 percent swinging strikes); Kintzler, 64 percent and 9 percent. (Stats from the Bill James Handbook.)

I'd rather have Kintzler pounding the strike zone than Rodney fighting his command. And since Paul Molitor's stated rationale for going with Kintzler and then Matt Belisle as his closers was that he could rely on them throwing strikes, I suspect Molitor might agree.

Kintzler got two years, $10 million from the Nats; Rodney one year at $4.5 to $6 million depending on incentives. (Both deals are pending physicals; both reportedly include an option year.)

It's possible the Twins preferred Kintzler too, but that Kintzler preferred the Nats. Or that the Twins truly see the addition of a veteran closer as a placeholder and want/expect to transition to a younger pitcher in that role as the season progresses and thus didn't want to do multiple guaranteed years. 

A lot of Twins fans will be irritated by his habit of wearing his cap cocked to the left and his post-save celebration of pantomining firing an arrow into the sky. I will be more irritated by the 2-0 counts and walks.

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Lost in Rule 5: Nick Burdi and Luke Bard. Gained in Rule 5: Tyler Kinley. Three hard-throwing right handed relievers who spent much of 2017 in Double A.

Burdi and Bard were high draft picks during the second Terry Ryan era; both have missed more time than they've spent on the mound in the minors. The Twins reportedly tried to trade Burdi to the Braves last summer in the Jaime Garcia trade only to have him rejected on medical grounds. My guess is that the new regime does not believe either can remain sound enough to help the major league bullpen. And Burdi in particular is unlikely to fill the 90-day active roster requirement to retain Rule 5 picks in 2018. 

Kinley has been in the Marlins organization. His numbers in Double A and Triple A are not impressive, but he has apparently been dominating in winter ball so far, and the Twins opted to take a flier on him.

I will be surprised if Kinley sticks. 

Roster moves and injuries

Adalberto Mejia was indeed called up after Friday's game to make today's start. Adam Wilk, the lefty claimed off waivers from the Mets on May 10, was designated for assignment.

Wilk made two long relief appearances in some 16 days on the roster, working seven innings total. It was relatively easy to forget that he was on the roster, and I suspect that he's one of those guys who, when I look at the Baseball Reference page for this team five years from now, I'll think: Who was that?

Maybe he'll clear waivers and accept an outright to Rochester. Maybe he'll be claimed. I doubt anybody in the front office is overly concerned either way.

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A worse loss for the Twins was announced Friday: Nick Burdi needs Tommy John surgery.

I saw his second professional game, working for Cedar Rapids in a game in Clinton, Iowa in July 2014, and wrote about him (and Kohl Stewart) here. I am fairly certain that if on that muggy, buggy night I were told that the major league team would be in first place entering Memorial Day weekend in 2017, I would have expected that one or both of those pitchers would be part of that.

But Burdi, who was overwhelming the Southern League this year, can't seem to stay healthy, and Stewart is struggling in Double A (22 walks in 24 innings).

Anyway: scratch Burdi for 2017 and probably 2018, at least in terms of getting to Target Field. He was supposed to be a fast mover, but ... pitching at around 100 mph is a cruel occupation.

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Some injury news regarding established major leaguers:

Phil Hughes is seeking a second opinion on his arm issues. Glen Perkins is apparently going to pitch to hitters (what they call live batting practice) on Tuesday.

My lukewarm takes: Hughes isn't so sure his current issues aren't related to the thoratic outlet syndrome for which he had surgery last year. And I'm glad to see some progress for Perkins, but I'm not counting on him for 2017.

The AFL selections

Catching up on "old" news: The initial rosters for the Arizona Fall League were issued Wednesday.

This year the Twins prospects will play for the Surprise Saguaros, Five of the six were identified Wednesday: catcher Mitch Garver, outfielder Tanner English, left-handed pitchers Mason Melotakis and Randy Rosario, and right-handed pitcher John Curtiss.

The Twins are to supply one more pitcher to the Saguaros, and presumably they are hoping Nick Burdi, who has missed almost the entire season with a bruised humerus bone, will be ready to get some innings. 

The most interesting of these guys for immediate purposes is Garver. He's a bat-first catcher who has reached Triple A and might possibly get a September call-up, although the Twins would have to open a spot on the 40 for him. Supposedly he has improved his defensive skills since I saw him play in Cedar Rapids a couple years ago, and he might figure in the Twins catching plans for 2017. 

Even without Burdi, the pitchers assigned to the AFL are a collection of rehab projects. Melotakis and Rosario are on the 40-man roster, but each is in their first full season after Tommy John surgery. Melotakis will end the Double A season with less than 40 innings worked, all out of the bullpen; Rosario is approaching 100 innings combined between High A Fort Myers and Double A Chattanooga. Curtiss split the season between Low A Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers and has 50-some innings, all out of the bullpen, after a 2015 marred by repeated injury issues.

I had had some hope during the offseason and spring training that Melotakis might be a factor in the major league bullpen this year. The Twins obviously took a more cautious approach, made easier by the fact that they weren't in contention. Rosario was a couple levels behind Melotakis and was never really a consideration.

English I don't take particularly seriously as a prospect. He had limited playing time this year, presumably because of injury. (The Twins moved him up to Triple A Rochester from High A Fort Myers last week, presumably to meet AFL requirements minimizing the assignment of A-ball players.)

Notes, quotes and comment

Nick Burdi caught
eyes with his
velocity this spring.

Nick Burdi, much-anticipated relief prospect for the Twins who made it deeper into major league camp than anticipated, will open the year on the disabled list with tightness in his forearm.

This may or may not be the precursor to a more significant injury. But I can't help but remember that early in camp he was reported to be working on a split-finger fastball, and I was dubious of that idea in part because of the injury risk.

I don't know if he continued to pursue the pitch; if I recall correctly, Terry Ryan said at the time that it was up to Burdi. Even if he was still working on it, connecting the pitch to this forearm issue is at best imprecise. Pitchers get hurt.

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While watching the Twins beat the Red Sox in Thursday's Fort Myers finale, I tweeted this:

Understand why Twins kept Arcia, but I prefer Mastroianni more as a bench piece. Does more things will than Arcia.

— Edward Thoma (@bboutsider) March 31, 2016

Other than misspelling "well" as "will", I stand by that thought. Oswaldo Arcia has the advantage in power. Darin Mastroianni does everything else better. I don't know where Arcia's going to get his at-bats, and if he's not getting at-bats, he's no help.

Last year Shane Robinson, who is kinda sorta the same player as Mastroianni, played in 83 games with almost 200 plate appearances for the Twins. Now, that was a team with a 40-year-old right fielder who needed plenty of days off, and this year's roster doesn't have that kind of issue. But it does have an outfielder who has minimal experience in the outer garden (Miguel Sano), and another who was once hit in the head by a fly ball in a major league game (Arcia).

Robinson, incidentally, was released by Cleveland this week, where he was a non-roster invitee, and on Thursday signed with the Angels.

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In other ex-Twin NRI news:

• Brian Duensing, non-roster invitee with the Kansas City Royals, was released this week.
• Anthony Swarzak, non-roster invitee with the New York Yankees, was reassigned to minor league camp.
• Blaine Boyer, non-roster invitee with the Milwaukee Brewers, made the major league roster.

Nick Burdi and the splitter

I thought the most intriguing piece of information out of the first day of workouts for Twins pitchers and catchers was this from Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press: Relief prospect Nick Burdi is experimenting with a split-fingered fastball.

This comes off in Berardino's piece as Burdi's brainstorm, not something that is being pushed on him by a pitching coach. No matter who it came from, I doubt it's a good idea. Burdi has a fastball that approaches 100 mph and a plus slider; I can name any number of relievers who have thrived with a fastball-slider arsenal that isn't nearly as impressive.

Burdi's ascent through the farm system did hiccup last season; he opened in Double A, fared ill, was demoted to High A, got his command straightened out, and finished in Double A before allowing one run in the Arizona Fall League,  His problem wasn't repertoire, it was location. Uncertain command of three pitches does not trump uncertain command of two.

Another curious aspect of this: The Twins have for years been loathe to have pitchers use a splitter. I can only think of two such pitchers since the mid 90s, Carlos Silva and Mike Pelfrey last year, and they were both veterans on the last year of their contract who almost desperately needed some sort of reliable off-speed offering, Silva's case was particularly amusing; He reported to camp talking about his new split-fingered fastball, and by the end of the week the terminology had been changed to changeup. I imagine that somebody (then-pitching coach Rick Anderson?) told him: You can throw it, but I don't want these 20-year-olds thinking they can try it.

The splitter didn't really work for either Silva or Pelfrey. Pelfrey used it for 14 percent of his pitches last year (according to Baseball Info Systems) and put up his usual mediocre numbers.

Anyway: Neal Allen may be more open to the splitter than Anderson was, but there are reasons the pitch fell out of widespread use about 20 years ago -- elbow strain and command prominent among them. Burdi probably doesn't really need a changeup, and I rather expect that his experiment will be squashed.

BA's Top 10 Twins prospects

The dead tree edition of Baseball America arrived in my mailbox Friday with Byron Buxton on the cover and the Top 10 prospects writeups for the AL Central teams inside. No link here because BA will roll the Twins stuff out online sometime next week.

The list:

1. Buxton (CF)
2. Jose Berrios (RHP)
3. Max Kepler (OF-1B)
4. Nick Gordon (SS)
5. Tyler Jay (LHP)
6. Jorge Polanco (SS-2B)
7. Byung Ho Park (1B)
8. Kohl Stewart (RHP)
9. Stephen Gonsalves (LHP)
10. Nick Burdi (RHP)

Buxton, who retained his rookie status for 2016 by two at-bats, was the obvious top choice; he's very likely to be BA's No. 1 overall prospect for the third straight winter when that list comes out in a few weeks. Nor are No. 2 or 3 -- Jose Berrios and Max Kepler -- startling selections. There are plenty of organizations for which either would be the headliner.

The list was compiled for BA by the Pioneer Press beat writer, Mike Berardino, A few comments on his rankings:

Gordon, who spent last year in low A, is above Polanco, who split 2015 between Double A and Triple A, this on the basis that Gordon is expected to stick at shortstop. I like both players, and I agree that Polanco is stretched as a shortstop. His problem right now, as for Berrios and Kepler, is the lack of obvious opportunity on the major league club.

Stewart, the No. 4 overall pick in 2013, the year the Cubs took Kris Bryant with the No. 3 pick, "slid" to No. 7 after seeing his strikeout rate decline in the Florida State League. Key sentence: "The Twins hope he'll start to miss more bats as he learns more about pitch sequencing."

Gonsalves, the Twins fourth-round pick in that draft, has essentially caught Stewart in the rankings. But Berardino figures Stewart will open 2016 in Double A while Gonsalves, who finished 2015 in high A Fort Myers, remains there for a few months.

Jay, college reliever, is likely to start in 2016, probably at Fort Myers. The Miracle figure to have some really interesting left-handed arms in the rotation this spring, with Gonsalves, Jay and Randy Rosario, who was added to the 40-man roster after a strong TJ-recovery season in Cedar Rapids. Of that trio, I assume Jay is both closest to the majors and has the highest ceiling but that Gonsalves is the most likely to be a major league starter.

Minor league trip: Kohl Stewart and Nick Burdi

Kohl Stewart delivers Friday against the
Clinton LumberKings. (Photo by
Linda Vanderwerf)

The single most important player on the Cedar Rapids Kernels is Kohl Stewart, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2013 draft. I made the trip to Clinton's 1930s relic of a ballpark Friday to see the kid pitch.

Cedar Rapids blogger "Jim Crikket" warned me on Thursday: Stewart is kept on a tight pitch count and thus doesn't often work deep into games. (The same is true of the other teenager in the Kernels rotation, Lewis Thorpe, who I will not see pitch on this trip.)

The limits show in Stewart's record: He averages less than five innings a start, which makes it very difficult to pick up the win. His ERA is 2.58, but his won-loss record is 2-5; you can get a loss in a four-inning start, but you can't get a win.

He had no problems with the limits Friday. Stewart went six innings, allowing one run on six hits. He didn't walk anybody, and struck out five.

He has a very compact delivery; even in the windup, the right knee doesn't come close to waist level, and the hands don't rise above the chest. There's even less motion in the stretch; the slide step seems to come naturally to him.

Nick Burdi's is a maximum-effort delivery.
Notice the back leg kick in his follow-
through. (Photo by Linda Vanderwerf).

Unlike the (generally) more up-to-date Cedar Rapids yard, the Clinton park displays radar gun readings. Stewart touched 95 at least twice, but he generally worked his fast ball around 91 mph. The higher-velocity stuff tended to get hit pretty hard, actually; he got most of his outs, and certainly most of this third strikes, on offerings in the mid to upper 80s, either sliders or two-seam fastballs.

He got eight outs on ground balls, five on outfield flies and five on strikeouts. One of the hits off him came on a bunt. He made a very nice defensive play himself, coming off the mound to field a tapper on a short hop and take it to first himself for the out.

Another pitcher I was hoping to see got the ball for the ninth inning: Nick Burdi, the Twins' second-round pick in last month's draft. He threw 12 pitches Friday and struck out the side. I recorded the speed on the park scoreboard for each pitch:

93, 97, 97, 88 (strikeout); 98, 96, 97, 89 (strikeout); 95, 89, 97, 96 (strikeout). Overwhelming stuff, to be sure, with the three high-80s offerings being wicked sliders. I don't think the three hitters Burdi faced even mustered a foul ball.

The word on Burdi around draft time was that he could be fast-tracked to the majors. I sure didn't see anything to contradict that assessment. It's not likely that the Twins would do that, but they could.

Notes, quotes and comment

Trevor May is 8-4,
2.94 for Rochester

A third Twins farmhand was named Wednesday to a Futures Game roster: Trevor May, named to the U.S. squad to replace a pitcher who had been called up to the majors.

I saw some social media consternation Tuesday over May's exclusion from the original roster, but as a rule no organization gets more than two prospects on the preliminary rosters. I have no problem at all with J.O. Berrios and Kennys Vargas getting the Twins' initial berths. At age 25, May isn't a real good example of what the Futures Game is supposed to be about: The brightest talents in the minors, regardless of closeness to the majors.

May has a much better shot at playing in the majors this year than Berrios or Vargas, but he's not as highly regarded, certainly, as Berrios.

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Second-round draft pick Nick Burdi signed this week and was sent to Cedar Rapids. That is a more aggressive placement than we're used to seeing with college picks, and mirrors a similarly aggressive placement with first-round pick Nick Gordon. Gordon, fresh out of high school, was sent to Elizabethton rather than the complex league; the collegiate Burdi to low A rather than Elizabethton.

The other college bullpen guys the Twins loaded up on in the early rounds were sent to E-Town, the Twins standard for college picks. (John Curtiss, who like Burdi was pitching in the College World Series, has not signed yet.) So this more aggressive approach isn't universal.

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No surprise here: The Twins reactivated Aaron Hicks from the disabled list Wednesday and optioned him to Double A New Britain.

The New Britain destination was signaled when they sent him there for the rehab assignment.

What does interest me about this: Hicks isn't playing strictly center field there. He was in left the other day, and in right on Wednesday. Eddie Rosario started Wednesday at second base but finished the game in center. This may be an indication of where the two rank in the Twins current estimation.

Bottom line: expect to see Rosario in the majors before we see Hicks again.

On Kendrys Morales, Jason Kubel and Nick Burdi

Kendrys Morales started
his career with the
Angels, then was traded
to Seattle.

My Monday print column focused on the Twins signing of Kendrys Morales, specifically on these points:

• Whether the Twins are really the contenders this move suggests they think they are;
• How Morales and agent Scott Boras misjudged his market;
• How the Twins might well, should they slide out of the playoff picture, turn around and trade Morales.

Morales is truly a no-lose signing. He's not blocking, at least for this year, anybody who really deserves a chance to play.

Well, that may not be completely true. One can argue that Morales will keep Josmil Pinto from seeing regular time as the designated hitter. But the reality is that Ron Gardenhire isn't going to use Pinto as a regular DH without a third catcher on the roster, and the front office isn't going to give Gardy a third catcher he doesn't going to use.

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The decision to dump Jason Kubel was inevitable. He hadn't had a hit in his last 31 plate appearances (0 for 26 with five walks and 12 strikeouts). His last extra base hit came on April 25.  His final slash line -- .224/.313/.295 -- is uncomfortably close to his 2013 line -- .216/.293/.317.

Kubel is one of many players who might well wish to try this career over. We can only wonder how things would have played out for him had he not wrecked his knee in the Arizona Fall League back in 2004. At the time, the Twins viewed him as a hitting prospect at the same level as Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.

Life didn't work out that way.

Even with the chronic knee issue, Kubel was a dangerous hitter for several years. He might have been even more dangerous had he played for a manager who valued platoons.

Kubel's final start with the Twins, fittingly, came against a left-handed pitcher. At this point, it probably didn't matter.

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Had the Twins signed Morales any earlier, they would have forfeited the 46th pick in this year's draft. And the money allotted to their bonus pool for that pick (more than $1.2 million) would have vanished as well.

Instead, the Twins got to pick Nick Burdi (who they also drafted out of high school in 2011 but didn't sign).

Burdi is the closer for the University of Louisville. His college season is still going; the Cardinals earned a berth in the College World Series this weekend.

He is a true power arm, pretty regularly hitting triple digits on the radar gun, and there is a genuine expectation that he can come to the majors as soon as this summer. Indeed, some pre-draft speculation had him going late in the first round to a contending team looking for somebody who could goose their bullpen depth for the stretch run. (I'm really rather surprised Detroit didn't do that.)

It seems likely that adding Burdi to the organization is worth two months of Kendrys Morales.

Feeling a draft: Recapping Day 1

Nick Gordon shakes hands with Commissioner Bud Selig
during the draft Thursday.

No drama for the Twins in the first round of the draft Thursday. As predicted in virtually every mock draft for a month, they took shortstop Nick Gordon. Despite my frets that Houston would gum up the works, the three big arms went 1-2-3 and the Cubs went with a cheaper college bat. Which left the Twins with the guy everybody figured they wanted.

If you read this blog regularly, you know what I know about Gordon: High school kid, expected to stick at shortstop, son of long-time big league pitcher Tom Gordon, brother of Dodgers second baseman Dee Gordon. He's not as fast as his older brother, but he's stronger and is expected to be a better hitter.

Nick Burdi is the closer for the Louisville
Cardinals, who will play in an NCAA
super regional this weekend

So Twins landed the consensus best shortstop in the draft field. They have not developed a quality shortstop on their own in a long time. The best shortstops in team history, at least since Zoilo Versalles (who came with the Twins from Washington) came from other organizations: Leo Cardenas from Cincinnati, Roy Smalley from Texas, Greg Gagne and Cristian Guzman from the Yankees, Jason Bartlett from San Diego, J.J. Hardy from Milwaukee.

The Twins spent their second round pick on another Nick: Nick Burdi, a right-handed reliever from the University of Louisville. Burdi fits a relatively recent trend for the Twins in the draft: a collegiate power arm who has been used primarily in relief. Burdi is said to have hit triple digits on the radar guns on occasion.

The Twins drafted a number of guys in this mold in 2012 with the intent of trying some of them as starters (which is, apparently, not the plan with Burdi). The returns have been mixed at best. A couple of those power arms (Luke Bard and J.T. Chargois) have been injured more often than not. Nobody has pushed their way to the majors, or to the brink of the majors.

And that's it for the Twins on the first night of the draft. Today will be rounds 3-10, and it's fairly significant. The remaining 20 rounds are on Saturday, and that's largely organization filler.