Twins great Oliva to rep club at Draft
Twins great Oliva to rep club at Draft
Commissioner Bud Selig will announce Minnesota's first selection, while former Twins great Tony Oliva and area scout John Wilson will serve as the Twins' representatives to announce their two selections in the compensation round.
The Twins have two picks in the compensation round (No. 32 and No. 42) following the departures of Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel via free agency.
Oliva and Wilson will be on hand at the club's Draft table and will phone in Minnesota's selections in the compensation round before announcing the picks at the podium.
The annual First-Year Player Draft takes place this year from June 4-6, beginning with the first round and Comp Round A on Monday, June 4, at 8 p.m. CT. The first night of the event will be broadcast live on MLB Network and streamed live on MLB.com. Rounds 2-40 will also be streamed live on MLB.com on June 5-6.
MLB.com's coverage, sponsored by CenturyLink, will include Draft Central, the Top 100 Draft Prospects list, Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of every Draft-eligible player, and Draft Caster. You can also keep up to date by following @MLBDraft on Twitter. And get into the Draft conversation by tagging your tweets with #mlbdraft.
Oliva, 73, currently serves as a special assistant for the Twins and also is an analyst on the club's Spanish radio broadcasts. The Cuba native is a member of the club's Hall of Fame and had his No. 6 retired in 1991.
He retired as a .304 hitter with 220 homers and 947 RBIs in a 15-year career with the Twins, which still stands as the club's longevity mark. Oliva's the only hitter to win batting titles in his first two seasons, and won three during his career. He was also an All-Star in eight straight years from 1964-71, and was the American League Rookie of the Year in '64.