SB Nation Minnesota - Twins Add Talent On Day Three Of MLB Draft

2012 MLB Draft: Jose Berrios To Sign With Twins With $1.55 Million Bonus

2012-06-12T00:34:24Z

The Minnesota Twins and No. 32 pick Jose Berrios came to an agreement on Monday on a $1.55 million signing bonus, via the St. Paul Pioneer Press' Ben Goessling. The right-handed pitcher will receive exactly the recommended bonus for his draft slot after the completion of a physical.

This news comes on the heels of a report that No. 2 overall pick Bryon Buxton is 'very close' to signing with the Twins. The latest on Buxton is that he should take his physical on Tuesday.

Berrios is an 18-year-old from Puerto Rico who throws in the mid-90s. If this deal becomes official before Buxton's, it will be the highest pick signed by Minnesota.

The Twins were riding a three-game winning streak before falling to the Cubs on Monday. They begin a three-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies at home on Wednesday.

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Minnesota Twins Start Contract Negotiations With First Round Pick Byron Buxton

2012-06-08T12:42:43Z

The Minnesota Twins and their first round pick in the 2012 MLB Draft Byron Buxton have taken the first steps in negotiating a contract according to Charley Walters of Twincities.com.

The 18 year old outfielder is scheduled to be in Minneapolis on June 11 in order to get a physical done, after which the contract negotiations will begin. The recommended signing bonus via baseballs new signing agreements is $6.2 million.

If the No. 2 overall pick signs quickly with the Twins, he should start his minor league career with the Twins' rookie level team in Fort Meyers, Florida. If he does well there during the short two and a half month season, he will move up to their higher level rookie team in Elizabethtown, Tennessee. At that point it will be all about performance -- Buxton hit .513 at his high school in Georgia before being drafted and will look to have similar success in the lower levels of the Twins system.

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MLB Draft 2012: Twins Allowed To Spend Roughly $12.35 Million On First 10 Rounds

2012-06-07T01:08:32Z

The 2012 MLB Draft is in the books, and the Minnesota Twins got an exciting haul, to be sure. Of course, that starts with outfielder Byron Buxton, who was drafted with the second overall pick after Mark Appel of Stanford went to the Houston Astros at No. 1 overall. Buxton has a lot of potential and it's likely he would have went No. 2 overall to most teams in Major League Baseball, though he wasn't the consensus that Appel was at No. 1.

Minnesota had 13 picks in the 10 rounds of the draft, more than any other team. According to the Pioneer Press, the new labor agreement for the MLB includes recommended signing bonuses for each team's first 10 rounds of draft picks. It says the Twins are allowed to spend about $12.35 million in signing bonuses on those picks specifically.

Right there in the headline of the piece they mention that $10.5 million of that could go to the top five picks. There are suggested slots for many of the picks as well, and Buxton's slot pays him $6.2 million. It also noted the rest of the top five:

For the Twins' next pick, pitcher Jose Berrios (No. 32 overall), the recommended bonus is $1.55 million. For the Twins' No. 3 pick, pitcher Luke Bard (No. 42 overall), $1.227 million; No. 4, pitcher Mason Melotakis (63 overall), $818,500; No. 5, pitcher Jon Chargois (72 overall), $712,600.

To contrast, the Twins' final pick in the first 10 rounds is pitcher D.J. Baxendale, and the report says that his slot suggests a signing bonus of $125,000 - further affirming most of the allotment is going to the top guys.

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MLB Draft 2012: Twins Continue To Add Arms On Day 3

2012-06-06T22:12:26Z

On the third day of the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft, the Minnesota Twins continued their desire to add to their pitching pool by drafting 12 pitchers throughout the course of the day. Over the course of the last two days, the Twins have selected 24 pitchers over the course of the 40-round draft.

Here is the complete list of players taken on Day 3:

430	Proctor, Jake	CF
460	Leverett, Jarret	LHP
490	Hurt, Will	SS
520	Hicks, Dalton	1B
550	LaMarche, William	RHP
580	Murphy, Jonathan	LF
610	Larson, Zach	CF
640	Altobelli, Bo	C
670	Graham, Joshua	C
700	Huber, Travis	RHP
730	Favela, Jose	C
760	Licon, Joel	2B
790	Jones, Justin	LHP
820	Grundy, Jerad	LHP
850	Goldsmith, Carson	RHP
880	Hagan, Sean	LHP
910	Santy, Bryan	C
940	Robinson, Timothy	LF
970	Ferreira, Andrew	LHP
1000	Merck, Kaleb	RHP
1030	Haar, Brian	OF
1060	Wilson, Jared	RHP
1090	Bayardi, Brandon	OF
1120	Marvel, James	RHP
1150	Rei, Austin	C
1180	Liquori, Alex	OF
1210	Schreiber, Brad	RHP

For more 2012 MLB Draft coverage, stay with SB Nation Minnesota's StoryStream. For more Twins coverage, check out Twinkie Town. And for the best, most insightful MLB analysis on the web, make sure to visit Baseball Nation.

Twins No. 1 Pick Byron Buxton Should Go To GCL Twins When Signed

2012-06-06T15:51:06Z

The Twins used their second overall selection in the 2012 MLB Draft to pick outfielder Byron Buxton, and he may be in the farm system much sooner rather than later once he gets a deal inked with the team.

According to the Twins blog at Twincities.com, once Buxton is signed officially by Minnesota he is likely to head down to Fort Meyers, Florida. That's where the GCL Twins play, Minnesota's rookie ball affiliate. By the end of the year, he could move up a level to Elizabethton, the Twins high rookie affiliate.

Pending physicals for Buxton and everyone else picked by the Twins, we just have to wait and see how soon the team and player can work out a signing. More than likely, it won't happen until after the final 25 draft rounds are finished, of course. The rules of the new CBA require all players to be signed by July 13 under the new system, but it's made easier with the new allocated money system.

2012 MLB Draft Order: Twins Pick 2nd Overall In Every Round On Third Day

2012-06-06T14:01:06Z

The Minnesota Twins got their man on the first day of the draft when they snagged Bryan Buxton with the second overall pick. Since, they've put together a solid mixture of players but the real test for scouts starts on Day Three of the draft process, when rounds 16-40 have teams seek out diamonds in the rough.

The draft dictates that after round four, every round shall be exactly the same, so the Twins will continue to get the second overall pick in every round on the third day.

Coverage of the third day of draft action will begin, just like it did on Tuesday, at 12 p.m. Eastern time with the best live coverage being provided on MLB.com.

2012 MLB Draft: Twins Select 2B L.J. Mazzilli, Four More Pitching Prospects

2012-06-06T00:01:34Z

In what appears to be one of the bigger steals of the later rounds, the Minnesota Twins picked up Connecticut junior second baseman L.J. Mazzilli, the son of former MLB player/manager Lee Mazzilli.

Projected as a fifth or sixth round pick, Mazzilli slid all the way down to the the second selection of the ninth round and No. 280 overall. A productive player during his three-year stint with the Huskies, Mazzilli is a jack-of-all-trades type of player that lacks an elite quality, and likely slipped because of it. Even though many of his attributes grade out as average and hardly dazzle scouts, MLB.com still served up plenty of praise for the six-foot infielder:

He has a short, compact swing and should be able to hit for a good average at the next level. He has shown good power this spring but many believe that at best, it will be average. He has the ability to steal some bases and has shown it throughout his college career, but it will not be his best asset. Mazzilli is not the greatest defender at second but scouts believe that with some instruction he could be an average defender. Mazzilli's bat will most likely be too much for teams to pass on in the top five rounds of the Draft.

After the Mazzilli pick, the Twins went right back to the well and picked up yet another handful of young pitching prospects. Arkansas' D.J. Basendale was the first at No. 310, and the organization followed up by snatching another SEC player in Kentucky's Taylor Rodgers 30 picks later.

With as many as 10 pitchers already in the bag, the Twins refused to ignore their desperate push to bring as many talented arms to Minnesota as physically possible, and went ahead and grabbed Alexander Muren from Cal State-Northridge at No. 370 and South Carolina high school prospect Erich Knab at No. 400. The two selections give the Twins a whopping 12 pitching prospects drafted out of 16 picks alone, and make it painfully clear just how badly this franchise needed quality arms.

2012 MLB Draft: Twins Select Three More Pitchers, Catcher Jorge Fernandez At No. 220

2012-06-05T21:15:37Z

In a draft where the Minnesota Twins have already acquired eight pitchers after the first 250 picks, it was only natural that the organization acquired a catcher at some point. And with the 220th overall pick, the Twins did just that by nabbing 18-year-old catching prospect Jorge Fernandez from Puerto Rico.

Before Fernandez came a pair of, rather predictably, pitchers. The Twins locked up Rice junior pitcher Tyler Duffey at No. 160, college teammate of J.T. Chargois, who happened to be Minnesota's choice at No. 72 overall. With only one lefthander, Mason Melotakis of Northwestern State, drafted until that point, the Twins moved to the other side of the rubber and plucked lefty Andre Martinez from Archbishop McCarthy High School in Florida at No. 190.

To become the team's eighth pitcher drafted over just 11 picks, Minnesota wasted little time calling the name of College of Charleston's Christian Powell at No. 250. Powell went 9-4 with a 2.69 ERA over 16 starts for a 38-22 Cougars squad this past spring, and will join a growing list of a newcomers expected to infiltrate Minnesota's organization over the coming years.

For more on the 2012 MLB Draft, stay with SB Nation Minnesota's StoryStream. For more Twins coverage, head over to Twinkie Town. And for the best MLB analysis on the web, make sure to visit Baseball Nation.