Twins Select Terry Doyle, Lose Shooter Hunt in Rule 5 Draft

The Twins stole a pitcher from the White Sox today when they selected righty Terry Doyle in the Rule 5 Draft. Doyle seems like another low 90s strike thrower, in the mold of pretty much every other starting pitcher in the organization. He won’t rack up the strikeouts, but he apparently has a solid change, curve, and slider combo.

In 100 innings at AA Birmingham last year, Doyle posted a respectable 3.24 ERA and a 7-5 record. He only struck out 73 in those 100 innings, but on the plus side he only walked 22. If Doyle is to stick with the Twins, he’ll either need to stay on the roster for all of 2012, or the Twins will have to work out a trade with the White Sox, as they did to keep Scott Diamond from the Braves last year. Doyle will likely need to pitch from the bullpen if he stays in the Majors.

He has an interesting backstory. Doyle worked as a substitute math teacher in Rhode Island before his baseball career took off. He graduated from Boston College with a degree in math after a stellar academic career, which would make Doyle a good candidate to replace Kevin Slowey in the brains department. Hopefully his time with the Twins is more pleasant for himself, his teammates, and the fans than Slowey’s turned out to be.

In the minor league phase of the draft, the Twins selected Indians pitcher Marty Popham. Popham appears to be more of a project than Doyle, but his strikeout rates are much higher. In 112 innings last year (mostly at High A ball, but with appearances in AA and AAA), Doyle went 6-3 with a 4.58 ERA and 106 Ks.

It wasn’t all to the positive for the Twins – they lost pitcher Shooter Hunt, a first round supplemental draft pick from 2008. Hunt entered the organization with some fanfare in 2008, but he soon developed major control problems. Hunt had a 7.38 ERA and 12.9 walks per 9 innings last year at Fort Myers.