Saturday, May 17, 2014

Feelin' a draft: Mid May edition

The major league entry draft is coming up -- first round is June 5.

I've seen four mock drafts in the past week or so, all from pretty knowledgeable sources (Keith Law of ESPN, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com and two from Baseball America).

All four have the Twins getting high school shortstop Nick Gordon with the fifth pick of the first round. What's interesting -- and indicative, perhaps, of how locked in the Twins appear to be on Gordon -- is that they all get to that point with different routes.

Oh, they all have left-handed pitchers Carlos Rodon (North Carolina State) and Brady Aiken (high schooler from San Diego) going before the Twins pick. Most of the mock drafts also have high school catcher-outfielder Alex Jackson and/or prep right-hander Tyler Kolek -- reputed to have the highest velocity of the draft era, which (barely) includes Nolan Ryan -- in front of the the Twins.

Those are, really, the five names for the first round that matter for the Twins. It's entirely possible that more than one of those five will reach the Twins, maybe probable, because the Cubs (pick No.4) are said to be intent on a collegiate starter as opposed to anybody from a high school. The Cubs have a wave of impressive position players rising through their system and would like a pitcher who'd be ready to help when that wave hits Wrigley in the next two years. But there's only one college pitcher in that list of five, and there's Rodon is likely to go in the first two picks.



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