Twins executives gather to assemble draft board

Twins scouting director Deron Johnson will arrive in the Twin Cities on Sunday night to begin the final leg of preparations for the June 8-10 draft. He will begin to assemble the Twins' big board — but has no idea which players will be around when their No. 6 pick comes.

"No one knows what's going on this year," Johnson said, "This could be the most muddled draft in the top half that I've been around. There's no consensus."

Various reports have the Twins linked to a number of players, including Kyle Tucker, an outfielder from Plant High School in Tampa, Fla.; Daz Cameron, an outfielder from Eagle's Landing Christian Academy in McDonough, Ga.; Alex Bregman, a shortstop from LSU; and Dillon Tate, a righthander from UC-Santa Barbara.

There's also lefthander Kolby Allard from San Clemente (Calif.), who missed most of his high school season because of a stress reaction in his back. The Twins and other teams will focus on his recovery in the days leading up to the draft.

After the No. 6 pick, the Twins don't draft again until No. 73. They lost their second- round pick when they signed free-agent Ervin Santana.

That No. 73 pick is from the competitive balance draft, which is a lottery for teams with the 10 smallest markets or 10 smallest revenue pools. Their pick in the second round is No. 80 overall.

"We just have to be prepared and that we do all our homework on all the guys," Johnson said. "This is another big draft for us, drafting sixth in the country. It's a chance to continue to load up the minor league system with impact players."

Questions were going to be asked as soon as Blaine Boyer, and not closer Glen Perkins, got up to warm up for the ninth inning Saturday.

Perkins allowed the game-winning, two-run homer Friday. On Saturday, he was held out.

"He was out early on the field [before the game], and he just thought it would be a good time to back off a little bit," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "He talked to [pitching coach] Neil [Allen], and he communicated to me. So we went ahead and made other plans."

Molitor expected Perkins to be available Sunday.

"I would imagine," Molitor said. "There's nothing physically wrong. I think he just didn't feel very live trying to get loose during batting practice."

What happened to Herrmann's ability to play the corner outfield spots and first base being a plus?

"Between off days and personnel, I haven't had much opportunity to get him out there or need to," Molitor said. "It's kind of been your basic backup catcher role."

And he's filled the role well. The pitchers who have worked with him like the games he calls, and Molitor said Herrmann has been mechanically sound.

"I don't know if comparing it to umpiring is fair," Molitor said, "but the less I notice what he's doing the better job he's probably doing. And I haven't had to think much about why he called this pitch or he boxed that pitch and it should have been a strike and he pushed it outside. I've really haven't seen a lot of things over the course of his last couple game where I've had to stop and think about how he's receiving or calling pitches."

That was before the game. Herrmann hit his first home run of the season but also committed two throwing errors, one allowing the tying run to score in the sixth.

"He's doing fine," Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said. "I don't think there's any superlatives I'm going to throw out, but there's certainly nothing negative.