Seth began discussing his minor league draft today on his site.  I believe he will be posting the middle rounds and lower rounds tomorrow and the next day.  Please go to his site if you are interested in seeing what all four of us did in this draft. 

He also asked that each of us discuss our team and how we would "manage" it in a hypothetical tournament. 

My starting lineup and batting order would be:

CF - Brandon Roberts

2B - Brian Dinkelman

RF - Angel Morales

C  - Wilson Ramos

1B/DH - Brock Peterson

DH/1B - Whit Robbins

LF - Juan Portes

SS - Trevor Plouffe

3B - Wander Guillen

My bench:

Alan de San Miguel, Daniel Santana and Mark Dolenc

My Starting Rotation:

LHP - Michael McCardell

RHP - Brad Tippett

RHP - Adrian Salcedo

RHP - B. J. Hermsen

RHP - Cesar Ciurcina

My bullpen:

Michael Tarsi (long relief/spot starter)

Spencer Steedley

Matt Tone

Ben Tootle

Alex Burnett (closer)

This team was drafted to have a good mixture of top prospects (Ramos and Morales) with a strong presence of minor league veterans who have been successful and reached the higher levels of the organization.  Beginning with the speedy Brandon Roberts followed by several productive players from AA and AAA.  I believe the spread between my outfielders and the outfields of the other teams is more than offset by the huge gap between Wilson Ramos and any other catcher in the organization.  My middle infield has two veterans that are as good as anyone on the organization.  Although Chris Parmelee may be a better long term prospect, my two first baseman were very successful last season in AA and AAA. 

My starting rotation has equal quality to any of the other three rotations, with one young man who just may have Ace potential, albeit a bit young.  My bullpen includes the player I believe is the Twins closer of the future with four other very solid arms.  The team may be a player or two short on big names, however, if we were to play they would compete very well on the field.  The only negative is that my two highest ranked starting pitchers are very young (will likely be in Appy League or Midwest League this year) and would struggle a bit against the older/top players of other teams. 

On the flip side, my starting nine provides more advanced depth than any other team.  The only really young prospect is Wander Guillen.  If he were to struggle in his rookie season, I would move Plouffe to third base with Daniel Santana, who is one of the brightest young middle infield prospects in the organization, filling in at shortstop. 

Now all Seth has to do is talk to his contacts with the Twins and get a nice round robin tourney this spring.  I'll be in Ft. Myers if he can arrange it!