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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
John Russell was manager for Minnesota’s Class AAA affiliate in 2001, the year the Twins drew voluminous criticism for drafting a hometown catcher with the No. 1 overall pick in the first-year-player draft.
Kid named Joe Mauer.
Same kid batting .429 after an eye-popping 4-for-4 display against the Pirates last night, raising a .326 career mark that trails only Rod Carew’s .344 in Minnesota’s franchise history among players with 2,000 plate appearances. Kirby Puckett’s .318 is third.
“Not a bad pick, huh?” Russell said with a laugh.
Sure seemed that way to many at the time. Pitcher Mark Prior was the consensus top talent, but he and agent Scott Boras had set a new bar for his bonus—he wound up with a record $10.5 million—and the Twins signed Mauer for $5.15 million, less than half.
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1. joker24 Posted: June 17, 2009 at 12:09 PM (#3221934)It wasn't voluminous. I think most people understood why they did it and Joe Mauer was a great prospect. And who knows, maybe as a Twin, Mark Prior really would have been the next Tom Seaver.
Fixed.
And I like the Sanchez pick. It's acceptable to take the safe, easy-to-sign, inexpensive guy at #4 when there's not much perceived talent difference in the next 10 or so picks. Not when you (cough, BRYAN BULLINGTON) do it at #1 overall.
Sure, if the guy you take is perceived to be of or at least near the talent of those ten picks. That's not the case with Sanchez.
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