WEBVTT

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The Dodgers and Giants getting set for
first page. And I'm joined right now

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with a man that headed the Dodgers
amateur draft over the All Star break.

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He's been doing it for Andrew Freeman
ever since twenty fifteen. He's the director

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of Amateur Scouting, the one and
only great Italian American Billy Gasparino. Billy,

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thanks a lot for the time,
Appreciate it. Love the intro,

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perfect perfect. No glad to be
here and glad to always talk draft.

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Yeah, you still look very grizzled
from the draft war room. When was

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the last time you saw your family? Well, I got a good weekend

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with him now, but it's a
long road to recovery. I start now,

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and I hope I'm a home ready
for the playoffs. That's always a

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goal. This is something new that
I feel like still sneaks up on all

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of us. That the Major League
Baseball Amateur Draft now is held during All

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Star Week? Is that different?
Challenging? How do you feel about that?

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I don't love it, but I've
grown to accept it. There's definitely

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some pros to it, but I
think the most part is just it's a

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little too late in the year.
I think we like lose development time with

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some of these players, and which
is so valuable, and I think it

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just kind of like it starts a
morph into the trade deadline, and it

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just never feels like you get a
break. So there's there's more coms and

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pros. But m MLB says to
do it, So we do it.

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And where did you hold the draft? Where did you make the phone calls

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to Texas? We we did the
downstairs and the Dodgers Stadium club. It

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was a nice little venue. We
we had it all seated up and TechEd

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out and and it worked perfect for
us. Obviously, you picked these players

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because you like what their potential may
be. Is there any player that we

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should remember? Obviously you picked a
shortstop with the number one overall pick the

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Dodgers had. Yeah, I mean
we you know how it goes. We

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we like all the players we took. Obviously we did. We we went

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a little more upside this year.
We went high school shortstop with our first

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pick and then high school third basement
with our third round pick. So those

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are two exciting players, huge talents, huge potential, and really a lot

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of work to be done. But
we trust our player development and we were

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excited to turn those two over maybe
for the fan base or fourth under Jacob

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Bright, just because he's a cal
poly kid, a local East LA kid.

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We're excited about him. We think
he's like a talented lefty four pitches,

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a really good breaking ball, and
a really good competitor. So I

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think Jacob Bright's probably maybe a guy
for the fans to remember and to look

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out for. Kellen Lindsay shortstop,
high school shortstop. I did some homework.

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It seemed like the mock drafts were
picking you guys to take this young

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man. What intrigued you and what
told you that he has a chance.

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Yeah, the mock drafts are kind
of right this year. They we got

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to only do that for the NBA
Billy. No, we did. We

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liked him all year. I think
I think we felt fortunate you. No,

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he didn't play summer because he broke
his phibia and so the scouting community

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was a little late getting to him, and we just felt like, a

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he's a great athlete, be some
of the rawness to his game. We

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really thought we was a good thing
we could develop and he could really push

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shortstop. I think his defense is
a little underrated and he's in. He's

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the top of the scale runner for
us. So that was kind of where

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the trade turner comps came. It's
not kind of like athlete runner exciting package.

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What is it about high school players
that may or may not separate them

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from a college player because I've heard
if you're a pitcher, it's better to

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be drafted, if you're a position
player, it's better to go to college.

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How do you weigh all that when
you pick a guy like Kellen Lindsay

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who obviously hasn't grown completely into his
body. Yeah, it's hard. I

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mean a lot of it is,
you know, risk versus reward, and

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the college guy's a little more established
and trying to figure out how they can

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what development's left or how much more
of their potentials left him to be,

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you know, a high end major
league player, because that's what it takes

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to be on our roster. Let's
be honest, We got it like a

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high borrower of talent. It takes
a lot of It takes a lot of

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talent and work to just play on
our team. And so we're really conscious

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of that, and so we've leaned
a little bit more to some more talented

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guy lately, and we trust our
player develpment group. We really think they

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usually get the most out of these
guys and maximize their talent, and it

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kind of has led us to these
high school kids lately. Billy Gasprino,

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the Dodgers director of amateur scouting,
is our guest. When you look at

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what the Dodgers major league roster looks
like, when you look at the wealth

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of pitching the organization has. Does
Andrew Friedman give you any direction on where

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he wants you to pick or position
he wants you to pick or is that

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mutually exclusive? Good question. No, Andrew is good. I think he

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understands the draft very well and so
he definitely like is like, hey,

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go get the right players or go
pick the best players. But I think

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he has urged us lightly to be
aggressive, and I think part of that

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is like our pitching depth, our
depth in minor leagues. You know,

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we really feel like prospects, say
ten through forty is really high quality,

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and go be more aggressive and don't
feel like you can't make a mistake.

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And that's comforty knowing this, like
our situation here allows us to do that,

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and he gives us confidence. And
so we did no doubt. Hey,

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Billy, before I let you go, there's a lot of the draft

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picks that you were able to select
that have made it to the major leagues

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and made their major league debuts even
this season. How emotionally connected are you

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to these players? Secretly? Probably
pretty emotionally connected. You know. I

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think you try to stay usual and
I'm biased, but you just have You've

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seen where they come from and where
they are now, and it's just a

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really special moment just to make it
here, and just even like one pitch

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one of bat is hard enough and
you realize how far they and how hard

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they work, and so it's more
like proud dad than anything else. Yeah,

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Well, you're a great guy.
The Dodgers are lucky to have you.

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You've been able to provide the organization
with a lot of good young talent,

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and I'm sure it will continue twenty
twenty four and beyond. Thanks a

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lot for the time, and congratulations
on getting through another draft. Thanks David,

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always special talking to you. I
love it. Great Italian American Billy

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Gasparino. He champions the cause,