5/26/12

Profiles of the Top 22 Pitchers for the 2012 MLB Draft: Chris Stratton



With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher.  To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft.

I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them.  I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer.  Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos.


Profile 17: Chris Stratton

Profile/Stats:

Christopher Lee Stratton is a Junior at Mississippi State University. He went to Tupelo High School in Tupelo, MS. He was born on August 8th, 1990. He is listed at 6'3" and 198 lbs. He throws right-handed. He was not previously drafted. Stratton has been a starter all 3 season in his NCAA career starting 14 games each the past 2 seasons. This season he started 9 and came from the pen in 4 (a practice common for high level prospects.) He pitched 89.1 innings, allowing 19 bases on balls and striking out 107. He has pitched a complete game shutout, his ERA is 2.22 and his WHIP 0.960.

Mini Scouting Report:

Stratton's fastball is his greatest weapon. It sits at 94-95 and bursts up to 96-97. He has great command and control, even though his fastball at the highest speeds occasionally flattens out. He has a hard slider that sits at 84-85 mph, which is an average pitch, and an above average 12-6 curve at high 70s, which is his out pitch. His mechanics and arm action are not consistent but will benefit by professional coaching. Here is a piece on Chris Stratton by ESPN.

Videos/Photos:



Here is a video of Stratton pitching in a High School game:







Here is a recent interview after a game:







Here is a video of a game between Georgia and Mississippi State with Stratton pitching for MSU:

5/25/12

Profiles of the Top 22 Pitchers for the 2012 MLB Draft: Matt Smoral


With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft.

I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them.  I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer.  Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos.

Profile 16: Matt Smoral

Profile/Stats:

Matt Smoral is a senior at Solon High School in Solon, OH. He throws left handed and is listed at 6'8" and 225 lbs. He was born on Last season he went 4-1 with a 1.82 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 32.2 innings pitched. This season 3 games in, he had a metatarsal fraction on his landing foot. He had surgery and is out for the season. The recovery is said to be 12 weeks. Here is a good article about his injury and recovery. He is committed to attend the University of North Carolina.

Mini Scouting Report:

Matt Smoral is throwing a fastball and a slider and is developing a change up. His fastball sits at 91-92 and touches 94-95. His slider is a hard slider and is a plus pitch with plus plus potential. His changeup is a work in process. His delivery is nice and easy and almost side arm. A lot of similarities with White Sox' pitcher Chris Sale, but Smoral is taller. Good command of his fastball. Very injury prone, maybe because of his size. His latest foot injury is his 3rd injury in 3 years, but nothing major.

Videos/Photos:



Here is a video of Matt Smoral pitching (7.5 minutes) in a game:







Here is a four minute scouting video:







Here is a Baseball America video of Smoral pitching and an interview:











His Perfect Game Profile Page has 5 additional videos of Matt Smoral.








5/24/12

Profiles of the Top 22 Pitchers for the 2012 MLB Draft: Lucas Sims


With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft.

I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them.  I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer.  Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos.

Profile 15: Lucas Sims

Profile/Stats:

Lucas Sims is a senior at Brookwood High School in Lawrenceville, GA. He throws right handed and is listed at 6'2" and 185 lbs. He was born on May 10, 1994. Sims is also playing at shortstop but will be drafted as a pitcher. He is committed to attend Clemson University.

Mini Scouting Report:

Lucas Sims is throwing a fastball, a curveball and a change up. His Fastball is averaging 92-94 mph and has been thrown up to 96-97 mph. His stamina needs work because his velocity seems to drop late in the game. His fastball is an above average pitch with some life. His curveball is an above average pitch at 76-78 mph with a late break. His changeup is fairly polished. It sits between 85-87 and has good fade. He has a smooth delivery, even though there have been some concerns with his mechanics, especially his elbow being positioned high.

Videos/Photos:



Here is a video of Lucas Sims Pitching:







Here is a video of Sims hitting and pitching from his perfect games showcase:







Here is a video interview:







And here is Sims pitching in a recent High School game (April 2012) :











His Perfect Game Profile Page has 5 additional videos of Lucas Sims.


5/23/12

Profiles of the Top 22 Pitchers for the 2012 MLB Draft: Clate Schmidt


With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft.

I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them.  I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer.  Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos.

Profile 14: Clate Schmidt

Profile/Stats:

Clate Schmidt is a senior at Allatoona High School in Acworth, GA. He throws right handed and is listed at 6'2" and 175 lbs. He was born on December 10, 1993. Schmidt is also playing at shortstop very well and enjoys it (and hitting .406/.500/.688 this season), but will be drafted as a pitcher. This season he pitched for 29 innings, allowing 9 hits and striking out 33. His ERA was 1.69 and held opponents to a .222 Bating Average. He is committed to attend Clemson University.

Mini Scouting Report:

Clate Schmidt is throwing a fastball, a curveball and a change up. His Fastball is averaging 92-94 mph and has been thrown up to 96 mph. It is an above average pitch with good motion. His curveball is a plus pitch and is a sharp breaking low 80s curveball. His changeup is a work in progress. He has a 3/4 arm slot and has a fast arm, but his delivery is a maximum effort delivery and his mechanics need to be simplified.

Videos/Photos:



Here is a video of Clate Schmidt hitting and Pitching:







His Perfect Game Profile Page has 4 additional videos of Clate Schmidt.

Twins Consensus Top 71 Prospects List (off-season rankings)

This is way overdue.  My goal was to get it a. within the few days of the season (that passed) and then  b. before the amateur MLB draft that will bring in a new influx of talent to the Twins.  So I am sticking with it.  And Seth Stohs already starting his mid-season rankings,  really made me want to get this up before it is too obsolete.  And before I post my post-draft rankings for 2012

I have not done prospect rankings for a couple of years now, mainly because I did not see the players play.  Now that I have spent a good 15 hours or so watching Twins' prospects of all levels live in Spring Training, I feel confident to create a post-draft top prospects list (or 2 really; I like to separate pitchers from position players in these lists;)  this had to come up first as a housekeeping item.   Thus, I decided to do a consensus list.  What is a consensus list?  A consensus (or aggregate or composite) ranking is a ranking based on other rankings calculating averages.  This is what this list is.

A bit about methodology:  I combined 25 rankings of Twins top prospects.  Some of them were top 10, some of them top 50.  So I ended up with 71 names.  The players were scored from 1 until the last position in the ranking (lets say 10 in a ten prospect list) and the ones who appeared in the master list but did not appear in the individual list were scored as one over the lowest ranking (i.e. prospects in the master list, but not in a top 10 list were scored as 11).  The reason that this is required, is to not have artificially high rankings when results were averaged from players omitted in most lists but ranked high in one or 2.  After all players in the master list were scored this way, their average scores were calculated and a new consensus ranking was created.  This is the consensus list I am presenting here.

What are the 25 sources?  They are both national and local to the Twins' area, both professional and bloggers.  And they are were weighted the same.  My rationale in this is a. several Twins bloggers (Seth Stohs, for one) have a much more intimate view of the Twins' system than Baseball America. and b. Twins' bloggers care more and pay more attention to the Twins' system and get to watch more Twins' MiLB games than Keith Law, Johnathan Mayo or Kevin Goldstein.  But the other guys have "professional" opinions.  So here every opinion weighs the same.   Here is a list of the 25 sources (alphabetically) :

Baseball America
Baseball Intellect
Jim Crikket (Knuckleballs)
Aaron Gleeman
Keith Law
Kevin Goldstein (Baseball Prospectus)
Fanatic Jack Steal
Fangraphs
Field of Twins
Gear up for Twins baseball
Jonathan Mayo
MLBDirt.com
MLB Prospect Portal
LaVelle Neal   
Nick's Twins Blog
North Dakota Twins Fan
Jeff Reese- Bullpen Banter
John Seikels   
On the road with Shawn
Puckett's Pond
Al Scorupa -Bullpen Banter
Seth Stohs
Travis Talks Twins
Top prospect alert
Twinkie Town - community ranking

This is what the master list looks in Excel:


And if you want to have a close look, original size is here (and I did copy and paste a row -Lance Ray- twice; this would not fit in one screen)

There are 71 names in the list, but six of the players listed are no longer with the Twins for various reasons (alphabetically) :  Matt Bashore, Philip Chapman, Tony Davis, Terry Doyle and Kane Holbrooks

Without further ado, here is the consensus rankings list of the top Twins' prospects this off-season (one can call it "post 2011 season" list :

1    Miguel Sano 3B
2    Eddie Rosario 2B/OF
3    Oswaldo Arcia OF
4    Aaron Hicks OF
5    Joe Benson OF
6    Liam Hendriks P
7    Kyle Gibson P
8    Levi Michael IF
9    Adrian Salcedo P
10    Brian Dozier IF
11    Chris Parmelee 1B/OF
12    Alex Wimmers P
13    Travis Harrison IF
14    Hudson Boyd P
15    Max Kepler OF
16    Madison Boer P
17    Angel Morales OF
18    Chris Herrmann C
19    Manuel Soliman P
20    Niko Goodrum IF
21    Tom Stuifbergen P
22    David Bromberg P
23    Garlos Gutierrez P
24    Nate Roberts IF/OF
25    BJ Hermsen P
26    Matt Hauser P
27    Matt Summers P
28    Pat Dean P
29    JaDamion Williams OF
30    Jairo Perez IF
31    Deolis Guerra P
32    Tyler Robertson P
33    Corey Williams P
34    Logan Darnell P
35    Scott Diamond P
36    Danny Rams C/OF
37    Jorge Polanco IF
38    Lance Ray OF
39    Danny Santana IF
40    Lester Oliveros P
41    Tyler Grimes IF
42    Jose Gonzales P
43    Danny Ortiz IF
44    Angel Mata P
45    Tim Shibuya P
46    James Beresford IF
47    Michael Gonzales 1B
48    Bruce Pugh P
49    Cole DeVries P
50    Michael Tonkin P
51    Dakota Watts P
52    Nelvin Fuentes P
53    Bobby Lanigan P
54    Rory Rhodes 1B/OF
55    Evan Bigley OF
56    Kennys Vargas 1B/OF
57    Andrew Albers P
58    Anthony Slama   P 
59    Anderson Hidalgo IF/OF
60    Ryan O' Rourke P
61    Hung-yi Chen P
62    Danny Lehmann C
63    Darin Mastroianni OF
64    Derek Rodriguez OF
65    Luis Nunez P
66    Kyle Waldrop P

Just thinking about the 2012 Twins' draft and how they might want to supplement the system, there are way too many OFs and not enough Ps in the top spots (and this is not about to change in the mid-season rankings) and there are not enough infielders in the whole system (other than the top 2 spots).

5/22/12

Profiles of the Top 22 Pitchers for the 2012 MLB Draft: Lance McCullers


With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft.

I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them.  I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer.  Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos.

Profile 13: Lance McCullers

Profile/Stats:

Lance McCullers Jr. is a senior at Jesuit High School in Tampla, FL. He throws right handed and is listed at 6'3" and 200. He is the son of former MLB relief pitcher Lance McCullers who has a 28-31 record with 3.25 ERA, 252 bases on balls and 442 strike outs in 526.1 innings pitched in seven MLB seasons with the Padres, Yankees, Tigers and Rangers from 1985 to 1992. Lance McCullers Jr is also a shortstop but will be drafted as a pitcher. This season he pitched 77.1 innings, allowed 30 bases on balls and had 140 strikeouts. His ERA is 0.18 and his opponents hit .106 off him. Here is an interview of McCullers with Scout.com, and here is an older article from his hometown newspaper. He is committed to attend the University of Florida.

Mini Scouting Report:

McCullers is throwing a four seam and a two seam fastball, a slow and hard breaking ball and is working on a changeup. His Fastball is a plus pitch. It averages 94-95 and sporadically hits up to 97-98 mph and has decent movement. It projects as a plus plus pitch. His slow curve is a weak pitch and will probably be scrapped for his slider that can be a plus pitch. It sits at 85-86 mph and has a hard sharp two-plane break. His changeup is a work in progress. His delivery is inconsistent with varying arm slot and needs work. Because of that, his command and control are lacking. It will be corrected in professional baseball with a pro coach.

Videos/Photos:



Here is a scouting Video of McCullers:







Here is a slow motion video of his delivery from stretch position:







Here is a video interview







His Perfect Game Profile Page has 5 additional videos of Lance McCullers.

Random Tuesday Twins Thoughts and Tidbits


Here is this week's installment:
  • Still continuing the presentation of the top 22 arms for the 2012 MLB draft. You can find them all here. For a couple years (2009 and 2010) I live-blogged the Twins' draft, providing profiles and information for each pick, and it looks like I might resume doing it this season again. More information on the MLB draft coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch next week, as it is getting closer to the draft.
  • No matter what, one has to find humor (and maybe hope, if one is sarcastic enough) in Drew Butera's pitching appearance last Sunday at Milwaukee. He was not half way bad, either. As a matter of fact, his fastball was the fastest of any other Twins' pitcher that day not named Brian.
  • Looks like the Twins want to give Carl Pavano an extra day of rest so they are looking for a spot starter this coming Thursday versus the White Sox at Chicago. I suspect that Anthony Swarzak will be it. Still the Twins need to figure out who Marquis' replacement might be (if you did not hear, he was Designated For Assignment) so this might muddy the waters.  Edit: Was just announced that Cole DeVries (rhymes with "Reese" and not with"fries")was recalled and will be making his debut in the majors against the White Sox on Thursday. Congratulations!
  • Congratulations to Tsuyoki Nishioka for hitting his first Professional Home Run in the US last Saturday with the Rochester Red Wings.
  • Here is a first year Twins' player (ok, second, if you count 12 games with Elizabethton after he signed last season) who is not a household name, but has the potential to break the top ten Twins' prospect lists one of these years: 23 year old C Matthew Koch who is hitting .265/.412/.471 in Beloit. This is higher OPS than Eddie Rosario and second only to Miguel Sano (who, btw, leads the Twins' organization with 11 home runs) in that team
  • Speaking of HRs, Justin Morneau is 10 away from career 200 and Josh Willingham 10 away from career 150 HRs
  • Alexi Casilla led the Twins in pretty much any defensive metric, but the manager of the millennium benched him in favor of a 38 year old and a bad fielding, cold hitting Plouffe.
  • Hopefully, this latest accident does not sideline a well-performing Twins' pitcher
  • A couple of Rochester Red Wings players (Anthony Slama and Mike Hollimon) and a whole bunch of Rochester executives (including a woman - don't ask) are growing mustaches for charity.
  • Former Twins' First Baseman Aaron Bates has signed a contract with the Cardinals' organization
  • If you are wondering why the Twins want out of Beloit, these disgraceful numbers might help you understand. The Red Wings are towards the bottom of the International League(but thankfully better than the venue-sharing Yankees) as far as attendance goes, and both the the Rock Cats and Miracle are middle high in their leagues.
  • The aluminum bat "boink" sound will not escape Target Field. It will host the 2013 Big Ten Baseball Tournament
  • Allegedly, a former Twins' player is cruising the NYC subway in his pajamas and harrasing young women. Not sure that I am buying the story (he lives in TX.) but who knows?
  • The Twins' product of the week is perfect for the warm and humid nights at the ballpark:Nike Minnesota Twins Perfect Game Dri-FIT T Shirt


The parting shot today is in honor of Brian Dozier and all the buzz he generated in his rookie season as a Twin. He is not the only Dozier in the organization. Buzz Dozier pitched for 2 games for the Washington Senators in 1947 and for 2 more in 1949. He was born in Waco, TX on August 31, 1928, played in the Senators' organization (from Charlotte Hornets to Chattanooga Lookouts to Augusta Tigers) until 1950 and had a year with 3 Independent League Teams in 1951 (Port Arthur Seahaws, Sherman-Denison Twins and Texarcana Bears.) Afterwards he went to school at Baylor University in Waco TX, lived all his life in Waco, TX and died in Waco, TX on November 24, 2005 at age 77. Here is Buzz Dozier as an 18 year old rookie RHP for the Washington Senators.









And here is a bonus video of Ben Revere singing a popular song:









As always you can find all the Random Tuesday Twins Thoughts and Tidbits Posts here, in reverse chronological order.

5/21/12

Profiles of the Top 22 Pitchers for the 2012 MLB Draft: Pat Light


With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft.

I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them.  I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here.  I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer.  Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos.

Profile 12: Pat Light

Profile/Stats:

Pat Light is a Junior at Monmouth University. He was born on March 29, 1991 and he is from Colts Neck, NJ. He went to Christian Brothers Academy for High School. He is listed at 6'6" and 210 lbs and throws right handed. Last summer in the Cape Code League, he pitched 12 games (4 starts) and was 0-5 with a 3.77 ERA, 10 bases on balls and 24 strikeouts in 31 games pitched. This season he started in 14 games, pitched 101.1 innings, had 16 bases on balls and 102 strikeouts. His era was 2.40 and allowed a .225 opponents' batting average. He was drafted in the 28th round of the 2009 draft by the Minnesota Twins, so keep an eye for him, as far as the Twins are concerned, on the supplemental round, if he lasts that long.

Mini Scouting Report:

Pat Light's pitching repertoire features three above average pitches: a low to mid 90's fastball four seam, slider and a changeup. His fastball is above average occasionally hits mid 90s, there has been a report that he touched 99 mph. His slider is truly plus and is his out pitch with a tight horizontal break down and away to righties. His changeup is a slit-change that sits in the upper 70s. Good command of the fastball, especially low in the strike zone, he will need to learn to command his secondary pitches better. He throws from an under 3/4 arm slot, almost side arm.

Videos/Photos:


Here is a Scouting video of Pat Light from the Cape Cod league summer of 2011:







Here is a 15 minute video of a College game this April:







Here is a baseball video and interview by Baseball America this February:







Here is an interview after a Cape Cod League game last summer:







The Unofficial #Twins @Twitter Guide

In the age of social media we live in, more and more teams and players are taking opportunity of the available methods to reach out and communicate with the fans.  Or just get something off their mind.  Or just post some nonsense.  Since there is an off-day today, and there is not much else to do (Twins-wise), I decided to present an unofficial Twins at Twitter guide.

I have compiled a  list of twitter accounts of players in the Twins' organization, front office personnel, broadcasters, coaches and managers and official minor league teams and presenting them here.  There are more than 100 twitter addresses, with 91 players.  Some of the players are recently departed, but all of them were with the Twins at the end of the 2011 season.  Also, new faces for the 2012 season were added as well.  Some are more active than others, but nothing like certain former Vikings' players...

I am not including twitter accounts, like Justin Morneau's, which are run by public relations people or of long gone Twins, such as Chuck Knoblauch's, even though the latter might be an interesting list to compile in the future.

If you have any additional twitter accounts that I may have missed, please comment and I will add them. Thanks!

Here is the list:

MLB and MiLB players:

A.J. Achter  @ajachter35
Nick Alloway  @Allow26
Tim Atherton  @TimAtherton89
Aaron Bates  @A33bates
James Beresford  @JamesBeresford2
Evan Bigley @Bigley3
Steve Blevins  @blevins13
Hudson Boyd @HudderDudder55 and @Hboyd27
Joshua Burris @Josh_Burris_
Sean Burroughs  @seanpburroughs
Alex Burnett  @ABurnett31
Drew Butera @drewbutera
Matt Capps  @MattCapps55
Phillip Chapman  @ChapTC
Derek Christensen ? @dchristensen57
Tony Davis  @_TonyDavis_
Pat Dean  @pdean15
Clint Dempster @ClintonDempster
Scott Diamond  @Scott_Diamond58
Brian Dinkelman @BrDink
Mark Dolenc @m_dolenc
Brian Dozier @BrianDozier
Brian Duensing @BrianDuensing52
Dallas Gallant  @DGallant18
Kyle Gibson  @kgib44
Gunner Glad  @G_Glad11
Niko Goodrum  @NikoGoodrumTC
Deolis Guerra @deolisguerra
Pedro Guerra  @pedroguerra39
Carlos Gutierrez  @CGutierrez44
Nate Hanson  @NHans12
Matt Hauser  @MHauser_17
Jamaal Hawkins  @jhawkss12
BJ Hermsen  @bjhermsen12
Chris Herrmann  @ChrisHerrmann18
Aaron Hicks  @AaronHicks31
Michael Hollimon  @MTHollimon
Luke Hughes  @lukehughes38
Max Kepler  @kepleroni
Brian Kirwan  @bkirwan99
Kyle Knudson  @KKnudson6
Tyler Koelling  @TylerKoelling
Erik Komatsu  @KomoBeatz
Bobby Lanigan @BOBBYLANIGAN
Drew Leachman  @d_leachman
Andy Leer  @andyleer12
Danny Lehmann  @LehmannD
Steven Liddle  @StevenLiddle23
Francisco Liriano  @liriano47
Austin Malinowski  @A_Mali24
Matt Maloney  @mo44maloney
Chris Mazza @ChrisMazza10
Angel Morales Jr.  @AngelMorales24
Miguel Munoz  @mikemunoz59
Lester Oliveros  @lesteroliveros
Dan Osterbrock  @danosterbrock
Ryan O'Rourke  @StreetOfFire
Matthew Parker  @MJParker14
Chris Parmelee  @CParmeleeAFL
Glen Perkins  @glen_perkins
AJ Pettersen  @apettersen1
Trevor Plouffe  @TPlouffe24
Michael Quesada  @Ksada55
Danny Rams  @DannyRams35
Ben Revere  @BenRevere9
Rene Rivera  @ReneRivera13
Whit Robbins  @powerdot11
Michael Robinson  @Mrobinsonjr
Dereck Rodriguez  @DereckrodRF3 and @Dereckkrod3
Dan Rohlfing  @DanRohlfing
Anthony Slama  @Slama39
Jacob Stevens  @jstevens1118
Brad Stillings  @bstillings45
Tom Stuifbergen  @TomStuifbergen
Manuel Soliman  @SOLIMAN30
Denard Span  @thisisdspan
Anthony Swarzak  @ASwarzak51
Joe Thurston  @Joeyballgame
Matthew Tomshaw  @MatthewJTomshaw
Michael Tonkin  @mtonkin37
Rene Tosoni  @Tosoni08
Ben Tootle  @T00TLE
Daniel Turpen  @DdTuRpEn
Danny Valencia  @dannyvalencia19
Todd Van Steensel  @toddvs35
Kennys Vargas  @kennysvargas
PJ Walters  @PJwalters33
Dakota Watts  @watts_22
Jason Wheeler  @Lil_Wheels
Alex Wimmers  @AlexWimmers21
Jacob Younis  @jakeee34


Managers and Coaches:

Tommy Watkins  @TommyWatkins

Front Office:

TC Bear  @TC_00
jacksonbroder  @CJBroder
Mike Herman  @HermPR
Dustin Morse  @Twins_morsecode
Dave St. Peter  @TwinsPrez
Minnesota Twins  @Twins
Twins Grounds Crew  @TCGroundsCrew

Broadcasters etc:

Dick Bremer  @dbremer_pxp
Bert Blyleven  @CircleMeBertHOF
Robby Incmikoski  @RobbyFSN
Cory Provus  @CoryProvus

Minor League Affiliates:


Rochester Red Wings (AAA) @RocRedWings
New Britain Rock Cats (AA) @RockCats
Fort Myers Miracle (A+) @MiracleBaseball
Beloit Snappers (A) @BeloitSnappers
Elizabethton Twins (Rk+) @EtownTwins

5/20/12

Profiles of the Top 22 Pitchers for the 2012 MLB Draft: Brian Johnson


With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft.

I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them.  I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here.  I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer.  Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos.

Profile 11: Brian Johnson

Profile/Stats:

Brian Johnson is a Junior at University of Florida. He was born December 7, 1990 in Lakeland, Florida and went to Cocoa Beach High School. He is Left hand pitcher and first baseman. He is listed at 6'4" and 225 lbs. This season he starter 14 games, pitched 72 innings allowed 15 bases on balls and 59 strikeouts. He has a 3.88 ERA and his opponents batting average is .256. He has been hitting .313/.351/.469. He is Mike Zunino's teammate. He was drafted in the 27th round of the 2009 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Mini Scouting Report:

Brian Johnson's pitching repertoire features a low 90's fastball, changeup, and curveball. His fastball averages 90-92 but occasionally jumps to 94. His four seamer has good movement. Overall it is an above average pitch. His curveball is a sharp breaking curveball and has the potential to be a plus pitch once he commands it better. His change up is a work in progress. His delivery and mechanics are very consistent.


Videos/Photos:

Here is a video of him pitching in High School:







Here is a 9.5 minute video of him pitching with team USA in 2010 vs Taiwan:







Here is a video of him discussing his hitting and pitching: