Catching up on the Twins seventh and eighth round picks:
In the seventh round, the Twins selected lefthander Ryley Widell, from Central Arizona College. He's throws around 90 with a solid changeup and curveball he needs to refine some.
Here's Baseball America, who has Widell ranked as the 185th best prospect.Twins took him at 196:
A Hawaii prep product, Widell played first base and pitched as a prep and for his Trosky Baseball travel team before focusing on pitching as a freshman at Washington State. He struggled with command (19 BB in 20.1 IP) and wound up transferring to Central Arizona JC, where he emerged as one of the state's top juco talents. Physical at 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, Widell got his delivery in sync and dominated wood-bat competition down the stretch, giving up just two earned runs in his last 36.2 IP with 39 strikeouts. He's mostly a fastball-changeup lefty at this point, with the fastball in the 89-91 mph range that has touched 92 mph. It plays average as he locates and sets up an above-average changeup. with action. His curveball is fringy but serviceable because of Widell's command. Scouts see projection in the body, which could get Widell out in the first five rounds.
Widell was 8-2 with a 1.98 ERA. He held opponents to a .179 batting average and averaged 10.82 strikeouts per nine innings.
In the eighth round, the Twins selected Bryan Sammons, a lefthander from Western Carolina:
Here's Baseball America:
Sammons was a durable college lefty for much of his career. Then he pitched for Yarmouth-Dennis last summer in the Cape Cod League, pitching and winning the league title game, and got on scouts' radar a bit more. He had his best season as a senior and should be a solid senior budget sign. He's big-bodied (6-foot-3, 235 pounds), improved his walk rate (to 3.5 from 5.3) and throwing more quality strikes with his 88-91 mph fastball that can touch 92. He throws a curveball and cutter as well as a changeup, though none grades as more than average.
The phrase "budget sign," jumps out here. Sammons is ranked 375th by BA, which makes this look like a reach with the 226th overall pick. The slot number here is $174,000. This suggests that the Twins what to make sure they don't have to go over slot here? In fact, they can sign him for $100,000, which was more than he expected, and slide the $75,000 in savings elsewhere. It's baseball bonus-ology.
It will be interesting to see what the Twins say about him. Sammons was 8-3 with a 3.02 ERA for the Catamounts. In 104 innings, he walked 35 and struck out 108.
