FanPost

Backwards Trend: Just how bad was the Twins 2008 Draft?

I want to know the ages of the current Twins scouts. Sure 2005 was an outstanding draft and their best one to date but that was 5 years ago...I read/heard somewhere that the Toronto Blue Jays now employ the most Pro Scouts across the world, more than any other MLB franchise... 5 years ago they might of had the least amount of scouts...

We all know the same old story The Twins draft / develop/ and grow players from within as good as or better than anyone else and have done so since the Late Terry Ryan era (or 1999-2000 to date...)

Well, I want to change that to SPEND / Develop /and Grow because in recent times the draft is going backwards.

Thank goodness for Kyle Gibson. God i hope to see him win an A.L. Cy Young one day or at least lead our staff to a few post-seasons. That was a good outsanding pick in the first round of the 2009 amateur entry draft -22nd overall.

But what this fanpost is about and what i want to talk about is the 2008 MLB draft. but first I will show just off the top of my head how the draft(s) have gone in recent times.

2000 Adam Johnson BUST

also got Jason Kubel

2001 Joe Mauer Success

also got Nick Blackburn

2002 Denard Span Success

also got Jesse Crain

2003 Matt Moses BUST

also got Scott Baker

2004 Trevor Plouffe Semi-Succesful (HUGELY DISAPPOINTING DRAFT, however)

could of had Yovani Gallardo instead of Fox, Rainville, and to a lesser degree Waldrop and Phill Hughes instead of Glen Perkins

2005 Matt Garza Success (turned into Delmon Young)

also got Kevin Slowey, Brian Duensing, Alex Burnett, Rene Tosoni, Dave Bromberg

2006 Chris Parmelee Undetermined

also got Danny Valencia, Joe Benson, Anthony Slama, Jeff Manship

2007 Ben Revere Undetermined

also got Angel Morales

2008 Aaron Hicks Success (I'll go out on a limb) (-although similar to 2004, shitty picks afterwards)

2009 Kyle Gibson Success (This is pretty safe bet)

also got Billy Bullock

2010 Alex Wimmers Undetermined

2008 MLB Draft

14th Overall selection = OF Aaron Hicks (great pick, although OF/2B Brett Lawrie went 2 picks later and I'd prefer him; in my made-believe materialistic perfect world)

27th overall selection = SP/RP Carlos Gutierrez (interesting pick, that I'm Ok with) however, we could of had the following instead: SP Casey Kelly Top 40/50 prospect in all of baseball, 3B Lonnie Chisenhall Top 30 prospect in all of baseball, Ouch

31st overall selection SANDWICH ROUND = SP Shooter Hunt (again, I liked this pick at the time, however he needs to Retire...please) could of had: SP Jacob Odorizzi Brewers TOP SP prospect, SP Michael Montgomery Royals TOP SP prospect and 15th Overall in baseball, SP Jordan Lyles Astros TOP SP prospect, and Top 30 prospect in all of baseball...also OF/DH Jaff Decker Padres top Hitting prospect top 50/75 prospect in all of baseball OUCH

60th overall selection ROUND 2 = SS Tyler Ladendorf (we moved him for Orlando Cabrera last year and that was an Outstanding Move) however could of had... SP Tyler Chatwood(LAA), 3B Jason Darnell(S.D.), SP Jason Knapp(CLE.) and SP Zeke Spruill(ATL.) instead .....sort of an Ouch...

92 overall selection ROUND 3 = SP Robert Lanigan ( I didn't like the pick at the time, and even though he may turn out to be OK, like a 4th or 5th starter in the majors MAYBE) we could of selected: CL Craig Kimbrel Braves Top prospect, SP Christopher Carpenter CUBS top prospect, OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis AAA METs OF prospect, SP Ryan Chaffee Angels TOP SP Prospect. (also Chase D'Arnaud, Tim Melville, and Kyle Weiland) Ouch

126 overall selection ROUND 4 = OF Danny Ortiz (I didn't like the pick at the time, and he looks like a BUST) we could of picked some HUGE talent here......SS Dee Gordon (LAD) son of Flash Gordon TOP 50 prospect in all of Baseball (i have him #31) , CF/2B Jason Kipnis who didn't sign with Pads now resides in Cleveland Farm and is a top 50/60 Prospect in All of Baseball...SP Trevor May (PHI.) A TOP SP prospect for the phillies top 100 in all of baseball... SP John Lamb TOP K.C. Royals Prospect #22 prospect in all of Baseball....and SP Daniel Hudson (CHW) top prospect untill he was traded to D'Backs for Edwin Jackson looks like a great young pitcher for Arizona --- MAJOR OUCH

156 overall selection ROUND 5 = 2B/3B Nick Romero ( I didn't care for the pick at the time, but couldn't say i hated it)

could of had instead: Alex Avila C (DET) already in majors Chris Dominguez 3B (Col.) , Ryan Westmoreland OF (BOS.) , Eric Surkamp SP (S.F.) , Robbie Grossman OF (Pit.) ...sort of an Ouch..

-ROUND 6 we did get SP B.J. Hermsen which was a great pick and was supposed to be a tough sign Thank Goodness he signed.....