Twins sign former truck driver ... who can throw 100 mph

Twins sign 100-mph throwing prospect out of nowhere

By Matt Monagan

July 30, 2014

Last year, Brandon Poulson was driving 18-wheelers for his father's excavation business in northern California. On Tuesday, he signed a $250,000 deal to play for the Twins' Rookie-level club in Tennessee.

Originally a football player at Santa Rosa Junior College, Poulson has bounced around various baseball teams over the last few seasons -- studying/pitching for Academy of Art University in San Francisco, spending the last two summers in the Golden State Collegiate Baseball League and even playing in a weekly league called Wine Country Baseball (when he wasn't working for his dad).

The 6-foot-6, 240-pounder has struggled in the past, but this summer he's finally put things together -- striking out 31 batters in 12 1/3 innings while playing for the Healdsburg Prune Packers (that's a real and awesome team name). He also throws 100 mph ... and has a 40-inch vertical ... and runs a 60-yard dash in 6.6 seconds ... and can empty an entire pond of frogs with one "holler." This was enough for the Twins to scout and sign the undrafted pitcher:

"He's a freak athlete," scout Elliot Strankman said. "He's 24 years old but he's got ceiling. He played football for a couple years and took a couple years off before he started pitching. He has to pick up on some of the nuisances of pitching, but in terms of being athletic and big and having a big arm, he has all that."

We'll keep an eye out for any video once Poulson reports to camp, but we're guessing it'll look something like this: