Day 2 of the MLB draft is about to begin
Posted on June 10th, 2009 – 11:14 AMBy La Velle
Michael Young was a fifth round pick.
Matt Holliday was a seventh round pick.
Kevin Youkilis, eighth round. Freddy Sanchez, 11th round. Roy Oswalt, 23rd round. Erik Bedard, sixth round. A.J. Burnett, eighth round. Ian Kinsler, 17th round.
Impact players can be found all over a draft, so the Twins have a chance to find some great today as the draft continues with rounds 4-30. There seemed to be some concern (Jaskson?) that the Twins didn’t address over areas when they took pitchers with all four of their picks. Calm down, calm down. They can still strike gold.
One thing I didn’t do last night was list the stats of the other three pitchers. I’ll do that now.
Player HT WGT W-L ERA G IP H BB SO
Matt Bashore, LHP, Indiana: 6-3 200 7-4 3.57 15 91 90 29 101
Billy Bullock, RHP Florida 6-6 225 2-2 2.06 30 44 36 20 44
Ben Tootle, Jacksonville St. 6-1 185 3-4 4.56 12 51 N/A 35 58
Day One notes:
- Like most teams, the Twins had a list of five players they wanted to take with the first pick. But all five had been taken when it was time for them to pick. But they had done their homework on Gibson and went after him. I’m not sure if the Twins would have torn up their list if their, `Fav Five,’ would have still been in play with Gibson available.
- There was a moment where prep third baseman Bobby Bochering was dropping a little bit. The Twins would have had a tough decision if it came down to Gibson vs. Borchering.
- The Twins clocked Tootle’s fastball at 99 mph, but scouting director Deron Johnson said Tottle actually touched 100 mph during Cape Cod league play last year.
- Johnson wouldn’t comment on how fast these pitchers could move through the system, leaving that up to the coaches. “We have a saying in scouting,” he said. “You sign ‘em, then leave ‘em.”
Baseball America’s John Manuel wrote that the Twins were one of three teams whose picks impressed him:
The Twins. Minnesota has drafted a hitter with its first pick every year since 2001, with the exception of 2005 (Matt Garza). Not this year. Second-year scouting director Deron Johnson and Co. went heavily after pitching, and it’s hard not to be impressed with the haul. Righthander Kyle Gibson dropped to No. 22 overall due to his forearm stress fracture, but if he’s healthy, he’s a steal at that spot, after ranking as high as fourth on BA’s initial Top 200 draft prospects list. At various points from last summer through this spring, the Twins’ other picks—Indiana lefty Matt Bashore, Florida closer Billy Bullock and Jacksonville State righty Ben Tootle—all were first-round possibilities. Bullock and Tootle were two of the hardest throwers in the college crop, as well.


