Look for the Minnesota Twins this week to be among serious pursuers of either Dallas Keuchel or Craig Kimbrel, or both of the free agents.

By waiting until the major league amateur draft that begins Monday, signing clubs no longer, by baseball rules, would lose a compensatory pick.

Both Keuchel, 31, a left-handed starter, and Kimbrel, 31, a right-handed closer, could cost the Twins between $15 million and $20 million each on pro-rated contracts just for this season. Competition is expected to include the Atlanta Braves (Kimbrel lives in Atlanta), the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Phillies.

It remains unclear whether Tiger Woods will play in the inaugural 3M Open PGA Tour tournament July 4-7 at the TPC in Blaine. If he doesn’t, though, it might not be the last time Minnesota golf fans get to see the 15-time major winner in person.

That’s because the 3M Open has a seven-year contract to be in Minnesota.

“If he doesn’t come this year, (tournament owner Hollis Cavner) has got six more years to get Tiger, and maybe the tournament will fall at different times,” Tim Herron said.

Only twice during the seven-year 3M Open contract is the tournament to be played during July 4 weekend.

Herron and Tom Lehman are Minnesotans with exemptions to play in next month’s tournament. On Monday, the pair will be at TPC to promote the event.

Herron, 49, made the cut in last week’s Fort Worth Invitational PGA Tour event at the Colonial, where he won a check for $1.1 million in 2006. That was 13 years ago, the last of his four PGA Tour victories. He was 36 years old.

Asked who should be favored to win the 3M Open, Herron laughed and said, “probably me and Brooks Koepka.”

Herron turns 50 in February and plans to be on the Champions Tour next year. The difference on being a tour player at age 36 and at age 50?

“Let’s just say that every guy I played with last week hit the ball farther than me,” Herron said. “When I was 36, I was still in the top half (of the tour’s longest hitters). Now I’m in the lower half. And (last week at Colonial) I hit a couple drives over 300.

“The guys now are bigger and longer. I played with this Trey Mullinax and he’s 6-foot-5 and looks like an NFL quarterback. And he kills it.”

Herron, 5-10, affectionately nicknamed Lumpy on tour, averaged 290 yards when he was winning on the PGA Tour.

“I killed it back then, too,” he said. “I was driving it about the same distance that I drive it now, 290-something is my average. Now it’s a different era, guys are 6-5, they look like Brooks Koepka, like a swimmer — they’re more athletic looking.

“They’re not dumpy guys like me, Fuzzy (Zoeller), (John) Daly — they don’t look like us anymore.”

Herron, by the way, has a new side business to go with his Lumpy’s Lager brewing venture. It’s an apparel deal called Lumpco.com.

Vikings Pro Bowl wideout Adam Thielen, a 2-handicap golfer, will play in a 3M Open pro-am, then the Lake Tahoe national celebrity tournament a week later.

Gophers softball pitcher Amber Fiser’s fastball, generally clocked between 68 and 69 mph from 43 feet, is comparable in speed to a 95-mph major league baseball pitcher’s fastball from the mound at 60 feet, 6 inches. Fiser’s release point is just 38 feet from home plate.

Rachel Garcia, the UCLA starter who beat the Gophers 7-2 in the Women’s College World Series opener on Thursday, threw fastballs in the 69- to 70-mph range.

In each ascending level of competition in college softball, pitchers’ velocity increases on average about three miles per hour. Most pitchers’ fastballs in the softball World Series are in the 69- to 70-mph range.

Twins minor league pitcher Jhoan Duran’s fastball reached 101 mph during a 14-strikeout outing for Class A Fort Myers last week. The right-handed Duran, 21, came to the Twins’ system in the trade with Arizona last July for Eduardo Escobar.

Baseball’s major league amateur draft begins on Monday, and last week was a good time for Will Frisch to display his fastball.

The Stillwater High School senior right-hander’s fastball, recorded by major league scouts, reached 98 mph. Senior teammate Drew Gilbert, a left-hander who also is a standout center-fielder, throws in the low 90s, and on Wednesday at CHS Field he no-hit Henry Sibley in a sectional game. Of the 21 outs, 18 were strikeouts.

The pair, which has signed with reigning NCAA champion Oregon State, is expected to be chosen within the top 10 rounds of the draft. How high they will be drafted will depend on their eagerness to sign professionally. That, of course, will depend on the size of signing bonuses.

Another pitcher, Jack Washburn, a senior from Webster, Wis., and son of former major league pitcher Jarrod Washburn, also has committed to Oregon State.

Several Gophers are expected to be drafted, but in the mid-to-late rounds. They include junior catcher Eli Wilson, son of former Gophers-major league catcher Dan Wilson; junior pitcher Brett Schulze, and senior pitchers Nick Lackney and Jake Stevenson.

Forest Lake grad Matt Wallner has led Southern Mississippi to the Conference USA baseball championship and into the NCAA tournament. The 6-5, 220-pound outfielder, who declined to sign with the Twins as their 32nd-round draft pick three years ago, on Friday hit his 22nd home run with four runs batted in against Arizona State in regional play. He has driven in 59 runs in 58 games.

Wallner and Simley grad Michael Busch, a junior first baseman-outfielder at North Carolina, should be top 50 picks in this week’s draft.

It looks like Amir Coffey, who’ll take his chances in the NBA draft on June 20 rather than return to the Gophers for his senior year, will end up in the G League with a two-way contract playing for about $7,000 a month while trying to work his way up to the NBA, which has a minimum salary of about $850,000.

The best Coffey can hope for is being a second-round pick in the NBA draft. The top half of second-round picks generally get guaranteed contracts; the second half do not. Coffey could try playing in Europe, but that’s tough unless you score a lot.

Point guard Tre Jones, the former Apple Valley star who is bypassing the NBA draft to remain at Duke for his sophomore season, underwent an arthroscopic hip procedure the other day and is back at school working out. Jones’ first academic year at Duke has resulted in a B average.

Ex-Gopher Leo Rautins, 59, is a TV analyst for the Toronto Raptors, who are in the NBA Finals.

As for the NHL draft that begins on June 21, the top Minnesota taken will be Chaska’s Jackson LaCombe, a 6-1 defenseman who played at Shattuck-St. Mary’s and should be picked in the last half of the first round.

Bart Starr died last week. Jerry Noyce remembers the legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback for a message he gave Gophers athletes years ago.

Noyce, from Evanston, Ill., was a Gophers freshman tennis player in the fall of 1962. Back then, the Gophers hosted an orientation dinner for all first-year athletes at Coffman Memorial Union. That class included future Gophers luminaries Lou Hudson, Archie Clark, Aaron Brown and Gale Gillingham.

“It was a great event because we didn’t know each other — it was the first week we were on campus all together,” Noyce said.

Starr, who died at age 85, was the Gophers’ featured speaker.

“It was a big deal because the Packers had just won the NFL championship — that was before there was a Super Bowl,” Noyce said. “He was ‘The Guy’ in pro football. And to have him come in and talk to the freshmen was a big deal.”

Starr’s message?

“It was about how fortunate we were to be able to play and represent our university, and that we should always think about what we can do to help our university after we graduate.

“And, the importance of taking advantage of our opportunity.”

Noyce, now 75, went on to an illustrious career as the Gophers men’s tennis coach and fitness businessman.

“Bart Starr was a real humble, real classy guy, just one of the guys,” Noyce added. “You’d never know that he was this very successful player.”

Flexibility-strength guru Roger Erickson from St. Paul has another high-profile client in Vikings safety Harrison Smith. Others have included Joe Mauer and Matt Birk.

Mauer has invited Erickson among guests for his No. 7 Twins jersey retirement on June 15 at Target Field. Look for Joe’s No. 7 to be placed between Bert Blyleven’s No. 28 and Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 in left field. Twins retired numbers at the ballpark this week are being refurbished and will be reinstalled on June 11. Mauer’s number will be covered until its unveiling four days later.

Ex-Gophers football coach Glen Mason has ex-player Ben Utecht introducing him at a Capital Club breakfast on Tuesday at Town and Country Club.

Brian Brunette, Matt Vanda, Anthony Bonsante, Ben Sternberg, Chuck Van Avery, Mark Nelson and Johnny Tillman will go into the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame on Oct. 11 at Mystic Lake Casino.

DON’T PRINT THAT

This is not a good year for pitching for the major league amateur baseball draft that begins on Monday. The Twins have the No. 13 pick, and that’s where pitchers worth taking should begin being drafted. It’s mostly college arms.

Considering the window now is open for the Twins to become a regular division contender, it’s a good guess they’re eyeing three tall college pitchers: Nick Lodolo, a 6-6 lefty from Texas Christian with a plus-90 mph fastball; Jackson Rutledge, a 6-8 right-hander from San Jacinto junior college with a 95-mph fastball; and Alec Manoah, a 6-6 right-hander from West Virginia with a mid-90s fastball.

Should the University of St. Thomas, squeezed out of the Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, decide to upgrade to Divison II, the Tommies’ budget will increase from $5 million a year to $20 million annually.

Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be surprising if St. Thomas, which is allowed to remain in the MIAC for the next two years, instead decides to move out after the next school year.

Believe it or not, there has been a buzz that one MIAC school president wants to establish a Division IV for schools less inclined for elite competition.

Word is Denis McDonough, 49, who was chief of staff during President Barack Obama’s second term and played football for John Gagliardi at St. John’s, in August could replace departing President Michael Hemesath at St. John’s.

That was Vikings owner Zygi Wilf zooming into town last Thursday morning, then out in the afternoon in his private jet.

Among reporters covering the Vikings these days is Jeff Diamond, 65, who spent nine years as the team’s general manager, including 1998 when he was named NFL executive of the year.

“It’s kind of interesting, a different experience,” said Diamond, who is doing local radio work. “It brings back a lot of memories watching a lot of practices.”

Word within the NHL is that Bruce Boudreau probably would have succeeded Phil Housley as the Buffalo Sabres’ coach had the Wild not decided to retain the final year of his contract.

The Boston Bruins, who are in the Stanley Cup Final, feel Charlie Coyle has been all they expected he would when they traded Ryan Donato to the Wild for him in February. Coyle, 27, is beyond happy to be playing for a Stanley Cup near his hometown of Weymouth, Mass., and has been a popular addition among teammates.

As for Donato, in the end he’ll score a lot more for the Wild than will Coyle for the Bruins, and that’s what the Wild desperately need.

The Twins’ Class AAA Rochester affiliate is 12th of 14 teams in International League pitching with a 5.58 earned-run average.

Touring pro Tim Herron of Deephaven, on what it would mean to have Tiger Woods play in the 3M Open in Blaine next month: “Ginormous!”

Zack Raabe, freshman second baseman and son of former Gophers-major league infielder Brian Raabe, who is coach at Bethel, hit .312 in the Big Ten this season. Gophers catcher Eli Wilson, son of former Gophers-major league catcher Dan Wilson, hit .247.

Former Vanderbilt QB Kyle Shurmur, son of ex-Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, has a free agent deal with the Kansas City Chiefs, who have the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in QB Patrick Mahomes.

Duke, which has received a basketball commitment from Rochester John Marshall’s Matthew Hurt, is ranked No. 2 entering next season by 247Sports. Arizona, with Hopkins’ Zuke Nnaji, is No. 1.

Tim Harris, the Los Angeles Lakers’ CEO for business who is embroiled in the team’s ownership mess, was a goaltender for the Minnesota Strikers soccer team in 1987-98.

OVERHEARD