The Twins selected right-handed pitcher Kohl Stewart with the No. 4 overall pick in the Major League Baseball Draft Thursday night.
Stewart was a two-sport star athlete at St. Pius XX High School in Houston, Texas.
The Star Tribune reports that Stewart has a fastball in the 92-94 mph range (that reaches 97 mph) and a slider that can hit 88 mph.
Twins Daily writes that Stewarts’ speed is what the team needs, as long as he masters location and movement.
Stewart also has a scholarship on the table to play football at Texas A&M. If he were to pick football over baseball, he would be Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Johnny Manziel’s backup.
After getting picked by Minnesota, Stewart tweeted:
https://twitter.com/KohlStewart1/status/342787040343097345
And later in a conference call with reporters, he shared his thoughts about maybe putting on a Twins uniform one day:
“I think that they’re committed to winning,” he said. “They’re looking for ways for the organization to reach the World Series. I’m committed to being part of that organization and work my way up, grind it out until my name is called. And hopefully, one day I hope I can help the Minnesota Twins become one of the winningest organizations in the league.”
In the second-round, the Twins selected right-handed LSU pitcher Ryan Eades. Here’s what MLB.com had to say about Eades.
Eades is everything you want from a pitcher: size, stuff and feel for pitching. A Cape Cod League All-Star back in 2011, Eades pitched in LSU’s rotation last year and helped anchor it as the Saturday starter in 2013. He’ll hit 94 mph with his fastball, and he has a good curve and changeup to go along with it to give him a good three-pitch mix that he knows how to use effectively.
In last year’s MLB Draft, the Twins used the No. 2 overall pick on outfielder Byron Buxton, who is absolutely dominating in his first year of professional baseball.
