The Natural? Twins sign undrafted truck driver w/100 mph fastball

thisnumbersdisconnected · Jul 31, 2014

Fox Sports: Why Twins signee Brandon Poulson's 100-mph fastball was so hard to find

Not even Hollywood could write a script like this.

Every day, five days a week, Brandon Poulson would make the trek south from Santa Rosa, Calif., to the field in east Oakland where the Academy of Art University baseball team trained. Sure, he could have moved closer to his school and his team, but Poulson wanted to stay home and help his family.

So he woke up early every weekday morning, drove the nearly 70 miles to the field and took a quick nap in his car — not easy to do at 6-foot-7 — until his teammates arrived. Following practice, it was back to the Academy of Art campus in San Francisco for classes.

When everything was done for the day, the 24-year-old Poulson hopped back in his car and headed north on US-101 back home to Santa Rosa. Then he'd do it all over again the next morning.

"That's discipline right there," Academy of Art baseball coach Dan McDermott told FOXSportsNorth.com. "He always did above and beyond what everybody would do. Just a hard worker. Finally, something really good happened to him."
Click to expand...

That was the Twins finding him and signing him to a minor league contract worth $250,000, well above the typical undrafted free agent pay scale.

Poulson didn't pitch much in high school and gave up baseball to for a few years to drive a truck for his dad's excavation company in northern California. He went back to school a couple years ago and played both football and baseball at Santa Rosa Junior College -- yeah, they still call it that. In the spring, he did nothing to call attention to himself: an ERA over 8.00 and more walks than innings pitched. But this summer, for the independent Healdsburg Prune Packers (what a name!) he is 1.45 and more than twice as many strikeouts as innings pitched. Not only that, but his fastball is regularly 98-99 mph and touches 100 frequently.

I just want to know: Where were the Royals' scouts? :laugh:

InTheLight · Jul 31, 2014

This is a great story. It's possible the Royals didn't have any money left in the draft pool fund. Here's the local article on this:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/269141081.html

The Natural? Twins sign undrafted truck driver w/100 mph fastball

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The Natural? Twins sign undrafted truck driver w/100 mph fastball

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