Just a couple things:

 ESPN’s Kieth Law wrote about the best and worst drafts, based on who was signed before Monday’s deadline. Guess which team he thought had the second-best draft? The Twins.

Here’s what he wrote:

 “The Twins march to their own drummer in the draft, and this year that meant taking some guys who were more highly regarded in January than they were in June, including first-rounder Kyle Gibson, a probable top-15 pick whose season ended with a stress fracture in his throwing arm. He’s healthy now and throwing pain-free, so the Twins may have landed a player who should have been long gone by their first pick simply because they were willing to take on some risk. What their draft might have lacked in pure upside — they took mostly college players early, and only Gibson and Ben Tootle (whose spring was ruined by a bad stomach flu) really project as impact guys — it made up for in depth, with picks like Indiana sinkerballer Matt Bashore and Minnesota second baseman Derek McCallum.”

The Twins usually identify an area to attack each year, and this year they needed college arms who could get to the majors in a couple years. There’s been talk of Kyle Gibson being ready to help the Twins next year. That’s not how the Twins roll. Look for Gibson to pitch in instructional league, and spend a year in the minors.

 That’s not the end of the world. Matt Garza was drafted in 2005 and debuted in 2006, but he was able to pitch in the year he was drafted. Gibson has been injured, so the safe play is to take it easy with him next year.

Silver Slugger

The Silver Slugger ballots have been sent to major league managers and coaching staffs. Here’s who will lose to Joe Mauer and compete with Justin Morneau.

 Catchers - American League

Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins

Victor Martinez, Boston Red Sox

A.J. Pierzynski, Chicago White Sox

Kurt Suzuki, Oakland Athletics

Mike Napoli, Los Angeles Angels

 First basemen - American League

Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins

Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees

Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers

Here’s where I have a problem:

Designated hitter:

Aubrey Huff, Detroit Tigers*

David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox*

Adam Lind, Toronto Blue Jays

Aubrey Huff has spent the majority of the season at first base. Jason Kubel isn’t listed on this ballot, which is wrong. Even if coaching staffs can write in whoever they want, not listing Kubel and having Huff as a DH  misleads people. Adam Lind. by the way, has had more at-bats as an outfielder than Kubel this season.

I’m not saying Kubel should win. But he deserves to be considered. If you do a straight DH search on ESPN.com, Kubel’s numbers put him in the mix.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Random thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.