MLB Draft - 2012

[bruinbison]

Monday is the start of major league baseball's draft - round 1 + 1S. It continues on Tuesday and Wed, going through 40 rounds this year (down from 50 rounds in previous years under their new labor agreements). Baseball America puts together their top prospect lists, including a top 500 list. They are kinda the Mel Kiper's of baseball as in they kinda invented baseball draft coverage years ago. You can decide for yourself if you think BA's Jim Callis has MelKipercaliberhair. Anyways, only found one Summit League player on their top 500 list - at #450 ORU's Bennett Picker - a catcher. But in their state - by - state maps there is this list

http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft...submit=Search#

The top 5 draft prospects in ND - SD include 2 Bison - RHP John Straka and RHP Luke Anderson.
No rabbits or 'yotes this year, the other 3 are Div 2 & 3.

In their subscription-only notes, BA mentions NDSU has not had a player drafted since Neil Wagner, but that this year there are 3 candidates - Straka, Anderson & also RHP Simon Anderson. They give quick thumb-nail descriptions of Straka & Luke Anderson & what type pitches & speeds they have.

Anyone drafted after round 10 are slotted to receive a max 100,000 signing bonus in the new draft set-up, perhaps significantly less. Anything more counts against each teams allotted total signing amounts. So each player with college eligibility remaining have a decision to make on if they turn pro or not. But it is, of course, an opportunity. Undrafted players can also sign - with any team that offers - like in pro football.
The Twins have the most money of any team this year - 12.3 million on their 13 draft picks in the top 10 rounds.
They also have two interesting examples of what can happen on their roster. Nick Blackburn was a 29th round pick in 2002 and Cole Devries was an (I Believe) undrafted freeagent from Minn Gophers in 2007. (insert Twins pitching jokes here....)

So, good luck fellas - as they say you can never have too much pitching

[DjKyRo]

Thanks for the info bruinbison! Good luck to the guys hoping to hear their name called.

[coldspot]

Not surprised to see Ethan Opsahl on their list. Got to see him in action last week in amateur ball. very good stuff from the left side, I wouldn't put him above Straka or Luke Anderson though.

perfect game has a very good breakdown of the state as well

http://perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=7055

[southcliffbison]

thanks for the info, Bruin. Good stuff; I am not surprised to see the absence of any USD Coyote players on a MLB draft list. Not many, if any, club teams generated draft quality talent. I umpired the Yote club team vs. UNI's club team this spring............ very nice people (both teams) and a joy to umpire. Draft quality? ........ no.

[bruinbison]

Not surprised to see Ethan Opsahl on their list. Got to see him in action last week in amateur ball. very good stuff from the left side, I wouldn't put him above Straka or Luke Anderson though.

perfect game has a very good breakdown of the state as well

http://perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=7055

Good stuff! Fun to read.....Sure beats 1993 when I had to listen to Sid & Dave (?) to hear who the Twins
picked in the draft. Sid was pretty excited that Sunday morning as I recall.
They picked a high school kid from Arkansas in the first round they thought had all sorts of tools to develop.
Guess that one turned out alright - Torii Hunter

[bruinbison]

NDSU's one & done (?) football friends Georgia Southern had a power-hitting outfielder
picked in mlb's 1st round of the draft - Victor Roache - Baseball America had him at #22
on it's prospect list so no surprise there, but he did have a broken wrist this spring he is
just recovering from - not a good thing for power hitters right before the draft.
If he gets full slot on that draft spot (#28) it's worth $1.650,000.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...s_mlb&c_id=mlb

Ga Southern also has a RHP pitcher - Chris Beck - ranked at # 80 at BA who could be picked today.

Will be interesting to see if the Twins get to pick instate RHP Mitch Brown from Rochester Century HS.
BA has him as the #44 prospect. Twins pick at # 63 today (3rd pick today, top 60 were yesterday) and
also at #72.

[bruinbison]

No on RHP Mitch Brown to the Twins, they picked other pitchers at #63 - LHP JT Chargois from Rice
and at # 72 RHP Mason Melotakis from Rice
Then Cleveland did take Brown at # 79
And Ga Southern's Beck went at #76 to White Sox.

[coldspot]

No on RHP Mitch Brown to the Twins, they picked other pitchers at #63 - LHP JT Chargois from Rice
and at # 72 RHP Mason Melotakis from Rice
Then Cleveland did take Brown at # 79
And Ga Southern's Beck went at #76 to White Sox.

college pitchers are more valuable to take high in the draft than high school pitchers, so I'm not overly surprised the Twins passed on him for a college guy. They tend to be more polished and they tend to climb through the minors much faster (think Lincecum, Sale, Strasburg, etc.). there are exceptions (Dwight Gooden and currently Dylan Bundy in the Orioles organization)

[bisonaudit]

college pitchers are more valuable to take high in the draft than high school pitchers, so I'm not overly surprised the Twins passed on him for a college guy. They tend to be more polished and they tend to climb through the minors much faster (think Lincecum, Sale, Strasburg, etc.). there are exceptions (Dwight Gooden and currently Dylan Bundy in the Orioles organization)

Is this also how the Twins end up with a staff full of no walk no strikeout pitch to contact types? Or can these college draftee's they're getting actually miss some bats?

[coldspot]

Is this also how the Twins end up with a staff full of no walk no strikeout pitch to contact types? Or can these college draftee's they're getting actually miss some bats?

back when the metal bats were juiced, you had to be able to throw swing-and-miss pitches in college ball to be successful. now, with the dead bats, you see a lot more pitch to contact guys because well hit balls are staying in the park more often, similar to wood bats. guys like Andrew Heany from OK state and Mark Appel from Stanford are guys that have legitimate professional strikeout stuff, where a guy like Jose Berrios has the explosive stuff to be a strikeout pitcher, but he doesn't have the mechanical and mental fine tuning that the college guys have.