Twins select LHP Connor Prielipp in Round 2; SS Tanner Schobel in Comp Round B
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MN – The Minnesota Twins announced tonight that they have selected shortstop Brooks Lee from California Polytechnic State University with the eighth overall selection in the first round of the 2022 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
The 6-foot-2, 205-pound infielder hit .357/.462/.664 (84-for-235) with 25 doubles, one triple, 15 home runs, 55 RBI, 46 walks and 56 runs scored in 58 games as a sophomore for the Mustangs in 2022. That season, he was named a D1Baseball.com Preseason and Midseason First-Team All-American, and a First-Team Preseason All-American by Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Perfect Game. After being a finalist last season, Lee also won the Brooks Wallace Award, given to the nation’s top college shortstop.
Lee, 21, played parts of three seasons at Cal Poly, hitting .351/.426/.647 (161-for-459) with 104 runs scored, 53 doubles, four triples, 25 home runs, 114 RBI and 64 walks in 115 games. The switch hitter had a solid campaign in 2021, hitting .342/.384/.626 (76-for-222) with 27 doubles, three triples, 10 home runs, 57 RBI and 18 walks in 55 games en route to being named Big West Co-Field Player of the Year, Co-Freshman Field Player of the Year and Co-National Freshman of the Year by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, alongside other honors including First-Team All-American by both Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and D1Baseball.com, and a Second-Team All-American by Baseball America and the American Baseball Coaches Association. Lee played summer ball in 2020 for the Northwoods League’s Willmar Stingers, approximately 100 miles west of Target Field, hitting .345 with 35 RBI in 36 games after opening the season with a 19-game hitting streak.
The San Luis Obispo, California native was ranked as the second-best overall prospect entering the 2022 draft by Baseball America and the fifth best by MLB.com. He is the highest overall pick out of Cal Poly as well as the fourth player from the school taken in the first round (including supplemental picks). His father, Larry Lee, is the head baseball coach at Cal Poly and played one season of professional baseball in 1983 with the Utica Blue Sox of the New York-Penn League. Two of Brooks’ uncles, Terry Lee and Mike Lee, also played in the minors; Terry was a first-round selection (19th overall) by the San Francisco Giants in 1974 out of San Luis Obispo High School, while Mike spent 1974-75 in the Giants’ system. Brooks is named after Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson.
This is the ninth time the Twins have selected a college infielder with their first overall selection in the First-Year Player Draft as well as the second time in the last three drafts, after selecting Aaron Sabato out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the first round of the 2020 draft.
Brooks Lee was recommended by Twins scout Brian Tripp.
This year marks the fourth time in Twins history they have had the eighth overall selection in the MLB June Amateur Draft, also doing so in 1972 (RHP Dick Ruthven), 1984 (SS Jay Bell) and 1994 (2B Todd Walker).
The Twins also selected left-handed pitcher Connor Prielipp tonight in the second round (48th overall) out of the University of Alabama. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound southpaw went 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA (7.0 IP, 3 ER), one walk and 12 strikeouts in three starts for the Crimson Tide as a sophomore in 2021, his most recent season before sustaining an injury that required Tommy John surgery. He was Alabama’s No. 1 starting pitcher as a freshman in 2020, going 3-0 with 21.0 scoreless innings, five hits, six walks and 35 strikeouts in four starts before the COVID pandemic prematurely ended the season. The Tomah, Wisconsin native was named the state’s Gatorade High School Player of the Year in 2019, after going 6-2 with a 0.85 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 49.1 innings pitched his senior season at Tomah High School.
Connor Prielipp was recommended by Twins scout Matt Williams.
The Twins also selected shortstop Tanner Schobel tonight in Competitive Balance Round B (68th overall) out of Virginia Tech University. The 5-foot-10, 170-pound infielder hit .362/.445/.689 (85-for-235) with 68 runs scored, 18 doubles, one triple, 19 home runs, 74 RBI and 35 walks in 59 games for the Hokies in 2022, leading the team in home runs, RBI and total bases (162). He attended high school at Walsingham Academy in Williamsburg, Virginia where he was a four-time All-State selection and led the Trojans to a pair of state titles.
Tanner Schobel was recommended by Twins scout John Wilson.
