Twins Insider special guest: Reusse on the draft
Posted on June 26th, 2007 – 11:34 AMBy La Velle
Patrick Reusse’s column for Tuesday’s early editions concerned the Twins’ June draft. Here’s a condensed version:
The Twins stuck around for all 50 rounds of this month’s first-year player draft. They have signed 16 of those players and scouting director Mike Radcliff said the final number doesn’t figure to be more than 20.
The Twins currently have signed seven of the their top 12:
1-Ben Revere, cf; 3-Angel Morales, cf; 6-Mike McCardell, rhp; 7-Dan Berlind, rhp; 9-Steven Hirschfield, rhp; 11-Andrew Schmiesing, rf; and 12-Michael Tarsi, lhp.
Radcliff said that eighth-rounder Daniel Lehmann, a catcher from Rice, and 10th-rounder Blair Erickson, a righthanded pitcher from Cal-Irvine, also will sign soon.
Radcliff is optimistic about signing second-rounder Daniel Rams and fourth-rounder Reggie Williams. Rams is a catcher and Williams is a shortstop. They are both high schoolers.
“I think we will get them both done,’’ Radcliff said. “The kid that’s going to be tough is the fifth-rounder.’’
Nathan Stritz, a righthanded pitcher from New Mexico, has a scholarship to North Carolina. If Radcliff’s current read on the situation remains correct, that would leave Stritz as the only draftee in the Twins’ top 12 not to sign.
Right now, there’s only one player signed after 21st-rounder Ozzie Lewis, and that’s a Chris Cates, the 5-3 shortstop from Louisville’s team in the College World Series. Cates was selected in the 38th round.
The Twins also went short in the first round with Ben Revere, the 5-9 outfielder from Lexington, Ky. He was rated much lower by most teams. Radcliff and the Twins have been getting hammered by draft wonks who insist it was only cheapness that caused the team to take an undersized outfielder with the 28th overall pick.
Revere signed quickly for an $800,000 bonus. The main knock against Revere is that he has a bad swing.
“We’ll see, I guess,’’ Radcliff said. “One thing I can say is this wasn’t a financial decision. We had no limit placed on us in advance.
“We just really like this guy as a player. We think he can hit.’’
172 Responses to "Twins Insider special guest: Reusse on the draft"
I appreciate the update on this — I wish the Twins did a better job of indicating who has been signed on their team website “draft results” page. The first batch of signings was updated on 6/12, and then there’s been nothing on the site. The only reason that I knew Michael Tarsi and Chris Cates had been signed was that they showed up on a rookie league roster and started to play. I hadn’t heard a thing about Morales (and you’d think there would be some kind of acknowledgement of a 3rd round signing). I love the Twins, but it would be a service to the fans to get this information out rather than leaving us to wonder! Thanks for the post.
And just to rib both La Velle and Reusse a little bit — I have to say that “Reusse on the daft” sounds about right . . .
Daft draft:
Sometimes I think the organization is trying to do things secretively to avoid public criticism. That PR model doesn’t work with blogs because it only raises suspicions for all of us amateur pundits. It would serve them better to embrace Web 2.0 by being more open with their reasons for drafting the players that they do, especially with controversial selections like Revere.
In this case, there were some very good reasons for drafting as they did. Even though Revere was ranked between 90 and 100 on most boards, the Twins wanted him badly enough to take him at 28 and not risk waiting until 92 and hope he’s still out there. Unlike other sports, you can’t trade draft picks. So trading down is not an option. You just have to take the players you want regardless of how the scouting services rank them and hope they pay off better than the guys you passed on.
Both of the rookie leagues began play this week, and the Twins entries have both been offensive juggernauts in the first few games. When Revere was drafted, there was an assumption he was a slap hitting Piranha style player based on his size. However, I note he has batted third and cleanup for the Gulf Coast League team. The manager must see more than a Piranha type player.
Radcliff can try to spin it anyway he wants but the first pick,and those that followed the first day, were money motivated.Not only now but down the road.The Twins drafted nothing but High School players again in the first day and they won’t have to worry about the clock starting to tick on any of them arbitration wise,for a long time.
Peter Gammons had an interesting take on the draft on Sunday Night Baseball.Alot of the top college talent that is almost big league ready,slides to the teams willing to offer huge signing bonuses.The Twins for the most part, aren’t interested in paying the price for someone who could help them pay more immediate dividends.
I don’t think Cates is the only player signed after the 21st round. Spencer Steedley, who is listed as a 1B, but is being projected as a pitcher, was signed after being drafted in the 25th round.
I guess we’ll have to take Radcliff’s explanations for what they’re worth. But my sense is that if Middlebrooks had indicated that he would sign quickly for slot money, he would have been our number one guy and we would have taken a chance on Revere dropping to our number two. I sure would like to see the Twins invest some more money in Latin America next week by signing some solid pitching and middle infield prospects. It’s difficult to enter into bidding wars with some of the large market teams, but we don’t have much of a choice given that the Twins haven’t been successful in the draft at picking up gifted SS prospects.
Nolte (24th) and Steedley (25th) are signed and playing.
Good research Patrick 
Ken Harvey hit a dinger for the GCL Twins Monday as well, so I guess he’s ahead of RonDL for getting back into ‘game shape’ .
Paul Kelly is having knee issues, Ken, otherwise he’d be at Fort Myers, likely getting ready to push Plouffe for the top prospect at that position at this point.
Don’t sleep on Trevor Plouffe.
Despite a bad May, he had a very good April and is in the middle of a very good June…add in the fact that he’s usually a 2nd half player, and the Twins may have their future SS.
He’s still young at 21 years old at the AA level…so there’s definitely time. He’s comparable to the kind of minor league career that JJ Hardy had, and Hardy is doing quite well now that he’s healthy.
Twins are also getting help from a pick from last year, Waltenbury, at GCL Level.
Plus, the GCL Twins are being helped from academy and international scouting:
Brito and Solarte are from VZ, Richardson and Soto from DR, Beresford from Australia, Lin from Taiwan.
At Eliz, a bunch of kids that were at GCL are there this year. Plus, Leveret comes in from St.Martin and they picked up a guy like Slama from last year’s draft/follow.
Twins are trying to use other sources besides the draft, and hopefully will improve the positional depth. Unfortunately it’s going to take some time.
You’re right about Paul Kelly, Funkytown. They gave him a couple of at-bats in the GCL the other day, which means that he is almost all the way back unless there are more setbacks. He’s fielded much better than Plouffe in the minors and has a very strong arm. I’ve always wondered, however, about his range. We’ve spent a number of higher picks on middle infielders recently, e.g., Plouffe, Kelly, Tolleson, and Thompson, and traded for Casilla. But I’d still like to see us get a speedy gold glove prospect from the DR or Venezuela.
On a separate issue, I see that we’re still trying to groom Henry Sanchez and Mike Rogers. It would be terrific to see them become prospects. Injuries have really hurt their development.
Finally, with regard to drafting high schoolers vs. college players, it seems that the Twins do have a mild preference for drafting HS at the top of the draft. I suggest it is a mild tendency because we have spent a number of picks on the likes of Garza, Perkins, Fox, Baker, Crain, et. al., over the years.
I still have high hopes for Henry Sanchez. It’d be nice to finally see a right handed power bat come through this system.
He’s had issues with his hamate bone, but hopefully he’s past that. If he can cut down the K’s, and be able to adjust to better pitching, he may turn into something.
He had the best power throughout any high schooler in the 2005 draft ahead of guys like Maybin, Rasmus, and others.
ken, Sanchez hasn’t played for a few games, so I wonder if he’s hurt again, Leveret has been at first.
And De Los Santos has been working the top of the lineup.
Singleton has had error issues, Dinkleman may have the best bat of the middle infield prospects. 8 dingers so far this year between FM and Beloit.
Leveret may be the next “power hope” from the right side.
Off to a very good start at Eliz, as are several others.
Regarding college kids vs HS kids, I don’t have the stats or details but I remember reading awhile ago that while HS kids had greater risk, they often had higher upside. The analysis was based upon looking at all star selections and asking whether they were originally signed out of HS or out of college. Easily the highest pct of all stars was out of high school.
We have our SS of the future already on the MLB roster. Plouffe will need to move to 3B, or DH if he wants to play with the Twins in the next 3 years. Plus, Bartlett is good, not great, so the Twins can afford to sign him….
Henry isn’t injured.
They just want to play everyone right away to see where things are headed.
That’s good. They do need to see if he can hit. 2 games out of 5 is a little suprise.
Only 2 games E-Twins have scored UNDER 10 runs out of 5. 
E-Twins Offense>>>>Minnesota Twins?
Elizabethton is a perennial favorite in the Appy League. Might it be because the Elizabethton Twins are slightly older than the other teams? That is purely conjecture on my part and I have no data to support this. But in the good old days, it seems like we sent a fair number of college picks directly to low A rather than to the Rookie Leagues.
Now, it seems like the trend is to send 20-21 and even 22 year olds to Elizabethton to get their feet wet without additional pressure.
Elizabethton is sure dominating their league right now, that’s for sure.
Monday night’s win is an example of Rook Ball. 20 runs, 21 hits, helped by 7 errors and 11 walks.
ken, just checked the rosters out, and there are only a few teams really stocked with more teens than early 20 guys, those of the Tampa and Baltimore teams.
The E-Twins are pretty much on a par with the rest, age-wise.
A guy like Slama, who is 23, isn’t even the youngest any more. I saw a couple of guys 24 on rosters.
I saw Cates play a couple of games at the CWS. Fun player to watch. At 5′3″ he will probably never make the majors, but the same would be said for anyone else drafted in the 38th round. Good glove, good range, and he ought to be able to draw a few walks 
Thanks for looking up that information, Funkytown. In that case, I wonder why it is that Elizabethton has been so successful. Whatever they’re drinking down there, they should bottle it for New Britain and our FSL team.
I am sure the Twins must always take into consideration the cost of the player.
They should also try to project the future cost of the player. They need to determine if that player is a good fit for a small market team.
With stadium cost overruns likely (land and infrastructure), the Twins may need to adjust their signing bonuses and payroll downward.
**We’ll see, I guess,’’ Radcliff said. “One thing I can say is this wasn’t a financial decision. We had no limit placed on us in advance.**
I can’t believe he would tell us if it was for financial reasons so I prefer to let that statement slide right on by.
Has anyone heard anything more on whether or not the Twins are going to make a real effort to sign #28 pick Seth Rosin out of Mounds View (MN) HS? I’m told the kid’s 6′5 or 6′6, and throws in the low 90s…
If they don’t sign him this year, how long do they retain his rights?
They have until August 15, under the new rules. Used to be you could sign a player until right before the next draft, but the days of the draft & follow are done.
Strange, Radcliffe says they’ll sign 20 of the draft choices. Ryan, however, says the Twins will sign between 22-27 players. My guess is they will sign 28. I, too, wanted Middlebrooks. I believe that the Twins could have waited until the third round to draft Revere. The Twins only signed 22 players from last years draft when themajority of the other major league teams sign 30 or more.
Craig, the Twins ’should try to project the future cost’ of a player?
You mean they should not only be able to determine if draft picks are good enough to play in the majors some day, but project their costs 10 years down the road?
Ask for much?
Elizabethton already has 14 runs through seven innings tonight again. I think they send a lot of their college guys there first and the top guys from the GCL the previous year. Leveret already has a homer and six RBI.
USAFChief, Virtually all larger businesses develop business plans and make future projections. They aren’t always accurate but they lay a framework. Why would the Twins be different?
Do you think this whole thing is done just for our fun and entertainment?
Ken -
I think you are right. A number of teams have short-season A teams where they send guys the Twins would send to Elizabethton. The E-Twins always seem to have some polished college kids who tear up the Appy League and then fade quickly in A ball. Think Deacon Burns. Cates is the type of kid where that could happen.
So now it’s ‘develop business plans and make future projections.’
I’m quite sure the Twins do that.
But that’s not what you said.
You said the Twins should look ten years down the road at a player’s projected costs when they draft them. And then what, presumably not draft them if they project to someday be good enough to be free agent eligible?
USAFChief, I think its reasonable to project that some players may fit inside a teams budget better than others. Some players can be expected to demand larger bonuses and future contracts than others. That doesn’t necessarily make them better players in terms of wins and losses.
Revere is a good example. Everyone is looking for size and power. That drives up the cost of such a player. Revere can win as many game without size, and using other tools. He projects to cost the team a lot less money.
Do you finally comprehend?
Why does the Twins stop signing at 20?
Why do they draft until 50 rounds, then?
Why not like Toronto, who already signs 23 out of the 35 players they drafted? Or Mets who has signed 29 out of 43? (Note: all the numbers are tentative)
The fifth pick said he would sign for $300k, had he changed his mind?
Craig, I presume you’re saying that if all the Twins scouts said “this guy is the next A-Rod,” then you’d prefer TR to say “oh, we can’t afford A-Rod after arbitration” and PASS on him?
That’s absolutely not what a small to mid market team is supposed to be trying to do.
We’re much better off if we get a bunch of guys we probably can’t afford after they hit free agency, because it means we’re doing BETTER than our payroll indicates until then.
Anybody know what the signing amounts were for the other players? Baseball America has Revere signing for $750k.
Craig doesn’t know what he’s saying. He’s changed it three times now.
Patrick,
Any updates on signings? My last count was that we had signed only 16.
Where I read new articles?
Wellcome to Bebo online ?ommunity, allowing you to share photos and blogs
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