The Dodgers and Giants getting set for first page. And I'm joined right now
with a man that headed the Dodgers amateur draft over the All Star break.
He's been doing it for Andrew Freeman ever since twenty fifteen. He's the director
of Amateur Scouting, the one and only great Italian American Billy Gasparino. Billy,
thanks a lot for the time, Appreciate it. Love the intro,
perfect perfect. No glad to be here and glad to always talk draft.
Yeah, you still look very grizzled from the draft war room. When was
the last time you saw your family? Well, I got a good weekend
with him now, but it's a long road to recovery. I start now,
and I hope I'm a home ready for the playoffs. That's always a
goal. This is something new that I feel like still sneaks up on all
of us. That the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft now is held during All
Star Week? Is that different? Challenging? How do you feel about that?
I don't love it, but I've grown to accept it. There's definitely
some pros to it, but I think the most part is just it's a
little too late in the year. I think we like lose development time with
some of these players, and which is so valuable, and I think it
just kind of like it starts a morph into the trade deadline, and it
just never feels like you get a break. So there's there's more coms and
pros. But m MLB says to do it, So we do it.
And where did you hold the draft? Where did you make the phone calls
to Texas? We we did the downstairs and the Dodgers Stadium club. It
was a nice little venue. We we had it all seated up and TechEd
out and and it worked perfect for us. Obviously, you picked these players
because you like what their potential may be. Is there any player that we
should remember? Obviously you picked a shortstop with the number one overall pick the
Dodgers had. Yeah, I mean we you know how it goes. We
we like all the players we took. Obviously we did. We we went
a little more upside this year. We went high school shortstop with our first
pick and then high school third basement with our third round pick. So those
are two exciting players, huge talents, huge potential, and really a lot
of work to be done. But we trust our player development and we were
excited to turn those two over maybe for the fan base or fourth under Jacob
Bright, just because he's a cal poly kid, a local East LA kid.
We're excited about him. We think he's like a talented lefty four pitches,
a really good breaking ball, and a really good competitor. So I
think Jacob Bright's probably maybe a guy for the fans to remember and to look
out for. Kellen Lindsay shortstop, high school shortstop. I did some homework.
It seemed like the mock drafts were picking you guys to take this young
man. What intrigued you and what told you that he has a chance.
Yeah, the mock drafts are kind of right this year. They we got
to only do that for the NBA Billy. No, we did. We
liked him all year. I think I think we felt fortunate you. No,
he didn't play summer because he broke his phibia and so the scouting community
was a little late getting to him, and we just felt like, a
he's a great athlete, be some of the rawness to his game. We
really thought we was a good thing we could develop and he could really push
shortstop. I think his defense is a little underrated and he's in. He's
the top of the scale runner for us. So that was kind of where
the trade turner comps came. It's not kind of like athlete runner exciting package.
What is it about high school players that may or may not separate them
from a college player because I've heard if you're a pitcher, it's better to
be drafted, if you're a position player, it's better to go to college.
How do you weigh all that when you pick a guy like Kellen Lindsay
who obviously hasn't grown completely into his body. Yeah, it's hard. I
mean a lot of it is, you know, risk versus reward, and
the college guy's a little more established and trying to figure out how they can
what development's left or how much more of their potentials left him to be,
you know, a high end major league player, because that's what it takes
to be on our roster. Let's be honest, We got it like a
high borrower of talent. It takes a lot of It takes a lot of
talent and work to just play on our team. And so we're really conscious
of that, and so we've leaned a little bit more to some more talented
guy lately, and we trust our player develpment group. We really think they
usually get the most out of these guys and maximize their talent, and it
kind of has led us to these high school kids lately. Billy Gasprino,
the Dodgers director of amateur scouting, is our guest. When you look at
what the Dodgers major league roster looks like, when you look at the wealth
of pitching the organization has. Does Andrew Friedman give you any direction on where
he wants you to pick or position he wants you to pick or is that
mutually exclusive? Good question. No, Andrew is good. I think he
understands the draft very well and so he definitely like is like, hey,
go get the right players or go pick the best players. But I think
he has urged us lightly to be aggressive, and I think part of that
is like our pitching depth, our depth in minor leagues. You know,
we really feel like prospects, say ten through forty is really high quality,
and go be more aggressive and don't feel like you can't make a mistake.
And that's comforty knowing this, like our situation here allows us to do that,
and he gives us confidence. And so we did no doubt. Hey,
Billy, before I let you go, there's a lot of the draft
picks that you were able to select that have made it to the major leagues
and made their major league debuts even this season. How emotionally connected are you
to these players? Secretly? Probably pretty emotionally connected. You know. I
think you try to stay usual and I'm biased, but you just have You've
seen where they come from and where they are now, and it's just a
really special moment just to make it here, and just even like one pitch
one of bat is hard enough and you realize how far they and how hard
they work, and so it's more like proud dad than anything else. Yeah,
Well, you're a great guy. The Dodgers are lucky to have you.
You've been able to provide the organization with a lot of good young talent,
and I'm sure it will continue twenty twenty four and beyond. Thanks a
lot for the time, and congratulations on getting through another draft. Thanks David,
always special talking to you. I love it. Great Italian American Billy
Gasparino. He champions the cause,