Twins roll dice on Royce Lewis

[mlbvideo id=”1214338683″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /] Leading into the MLB draft, the Twins were rumored to be deciding between a trio of players who could develop as top end pitchers: Hunter Greene, Brandon McKay and Kyle Wright. Little did we know, the Twins had something else in mind entirely. The Twins selected southern California high school SS/OF Royce Lewis with the first overall pick.

I’m not going to sit here and claim that I know anything about amateur baseball players, but I have been around enough to understand one thing: Pitching prospects are much more volatile than position players, so drafting the top position player in the draft pool, and many people smarter than me have said that Lewis was indeed the best position player available.

With their second selection, the Twins selected Mississippi State slugger Brent Rooker, who hit 21 home runs for the Bulldogs this season. He was selected by the Twins in the 38th round last year, and exploded this season for a team currently making a run in the College World Series. Rooker seems to be a potentially dynamic bat from a corner outfield position.

With their last pick on the day, which was the first pick of the 2nd round, the Twins finally took a pitcher, Canadian Landon Leach, a big righty. There is concern about his relative inexperience as a pitcher, but to that I say… he’s 17. There is room to grow. Hopefully, all three will sign soon, and can start playing rookie ball this summmer!