Minnesota Twins' 2009 Draft Picks

Speaking of teams that like to draft college pitchers, the Twins took three college pitchers with their first three picks of the 2009 draft.

At 22nd, they selected Kyle Gibson, out of the University of Missouri.  This is a selection with a lot of upside for the Twins.

Gibson was expected to be drafted much higher, but it was reported on June 6 that he developed a stress fracture in his forearm of his pitching arm and could not pitch for six weeks.  As a result, he fell all the way down to the Twins.  Baseball America had him ranked fourth among players in the draft, and the injury isn’t expected to have any lingering effects. This is definitely a good pick for the Twins.

Here are his college numbers for 2008 and 2009:

Year    W  L  ERA  IP      Hits  BB  K’s

2008    9  4  3.84  86.2   86   23  96

2009   11 3  3.21  106.2 95   19  131

Look’s a lot like a Twins' pitcher, doesn’t he?  He attacks the plate and gives up a fair number of hits because of it.

With the 46th pick (a sandwich pick) the Twins selected left-hander Matt Bashore out of Indiana University.  Here are his numbers the last two years:

2008    7  3  3.59  82.2  73   46  86

2009    7  5  4.07  95    98     30 108

Clearly, not as good as Gibson, but Bashore also looks like a Twins' pitcher, particularly this last season.  Like Gibson, his strikeout totals suggest he’s got a live arm.

Finally, with the 70th pick the Twins selected Florida right-hander Billy Bullock.  Here are his numbers:

2008    4   5  5.01  82.2  87   29  63

2009    3   3  2.64  47.2  n/a  22  50   (plus 11 saves)

He was converted into a relief pitcher after two unsatisfactory years as a starter.

[Thanks to Gator Report for the '09 stats I couldn't download off U. of Florida's crappy Gatorzone.com website.]