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SAN FRANCISCO » In one of their craziest scouting experiences, the Minnesota Twins have reached a deal with a 24-year-old pitcher who has thrown 100 mile per hour fastballs in a California summer league but has never been drafted.
The Twins plan to send Brandon Poulson to their rookie league club in Elizabethton, Tennessee. He was cleared to play on Tuesday.
Poulson pitched this summer for the Healdsburg Prune Packers in the collegiate Sacramento Rural League. He played last season for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco after taking off a couple of years to work in his father’s excavating business.
The 6-foot-6 Poulson previously played baseball and football at Santa Rosa Junior College but was never drafted. His manager this summer was the brother of major leaguer Jonny Gomes.
Sean Johnson is the Twins’ scouting supervisor for the West Coast and says "this kid came out of nowhere."
