You gotta give major league scouts credit. They can dig up talent anywhere.
Brad Rempel/USA TODAY Sports
The Minnesota Twins signed pitcher Brandon Poulson for $250,000, who was playing for the Healdsburg Prune Packers of the Golden State Collegiate Baseball League. I’ve never heard of the team or this league before today and have no idea how the Twins found this guy. Even more surprising, Poulson was undrafted and baseball wasn’t even his first choice of sport to play. Hard to believe for a guy who throws a 100 mph fast ball.
The 6’6, 240 pound Poulson was assigned to the Twins’ Rookie level team in Elizabethon and his journey to get to this point has been an interesting one.
He originally played football at Santa Rosa Junior College, which explains his size, and when he finished his pigskin career, he went back home and worked with heavy equipment for his father’s excavating business. This includes driving 18-wheeler trucks. After playing in a men’s baseball league, he went to an art school, Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and pitched for their baseball team.
Only time will tell if this gamble on Poulson will pan out. But for the Twins, this was a gamble worth taking and a cheap one. If Poulson turns into something special, they got their own version of Aroldis Chapman for a fraction of the price.
And if you’re curious what Poulson looks like, he’s the tall fellow in the picture below.
H/T: USA Today
