Eden Prairie's Boer to Twins in round 2

Madison Boer has imagined what it would be like to pitch for his hometown team, and to throw to a fellow Minnesotan behind the plate.

"I can guarantee I would be nodding my head a lot," Boer said of Joe Mauer. "I wouldn't shake him off."

He may get a chance to live that dream in, say, 2015 or so. The Eden Prairie righthander, who has pitched for the Oregon Ducks the past three seasons, was chosen with the Twins' second-round pick in baseball's draft Tuesday, the 87th player taken overall.

"We love his body," Twins scouting director Deron Johnson said. "We had a guy at his last game a couple of week ago, and he ran it up to 96 [miles per hour] in a relief role. ... He feels comfortable out of the bullpen, but he's got the pitches to start."

Starting pitching was the Twins' emphasis on Day 2 of the draft, as they took 21 pitchers with their 29 picks, 13 of them with collegiate experience and two from junior colleges. "We thought that was an organizational need," Johnson said. "We went with some pretty big-bodied pitchers. We got some velocity, some guys with a chance to start."

Among them are Vanderbilt lefty Corey Williams, who went in the third round, and righthander Matt Summers of Cal-Irvine, the Big West's Pitcher of the Year. And eight-round pick Jason Wheeler, a lefthander from Loyola Marymount, was the Northwoods League's top pitcher last summer with St. Cloud.

Even their most notable name among the position players -- Dereck Rodriguez, son of 14-time all-star catcher Ivan Rodriguez -- has thrown off a mound this year, serving as closer for his high school team.

"He really came on late," Johnson said of the 19-year-old prospect. "He's got a totally different body than his dad -- he's a lean kid. But he's got really good tools -- raw power and he's a solid runner."

His father, now with the Nationals, had been told in advance that the Twins planned to draft him, but he didn't tell his son so he could enjoy the moment. "It was cool. It was nice," Rodriguez said before the Nationals' game in San Francisco. "It's been a dream for him ever since I put a glove on his hand. ... Hopefully, he can be in Fort Myers soon. It's time to play ball."

Dreams were answered for a total of 10 Minnesotans on Tuesday, including two selected by the Twins: Centennial High pitcher Austin Malinowski, taken in the 16th round, and Gophers shortstop and Minnetonka native AJ Petterson in the 25th.

Boer, 21, was having breakfast in Eugene, Ore., when his parents, following the draft via Internet in an adjacent room, began shouting. "I had a mouthful of pancakes, and all of a sudden, they started freaking out," said Boer, a Star Tribune All-Metro player in 2008. "It was exciting -- a chance to come home, kind of. Hopefully someday I can play in front of my parents, and then go home and eat dinner with them."

Could happen sooner than anyone thinks, said Eden Prairie coach Mike Halloran. "He's got the perfect mechanics. And he's continued to develop at Oregon," Halloran said.