Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Heat Check. Today is Friday,
Speaker 1: July seventeenth, and I am your host, Nathan Graham. We're
Speaker 1: fresh off the All Star break and instead of our
Speaker 1: normal format, we're gonna be We're gonna take a look
Speaker 1: at the amateur draft. Joining me this week are two
Speaker 1: thirds of our draft team at Baseball Prospectus and Michael
Speaker 1: Donadeo and Jared Sidler. Gentlemen, welcome, thanks for joining.
Speaker 2: Me, Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1: Hey, you're welcome. Jared, you were at the draft? First
Speaker 1: of all, tell us a little bit. What was it like?
Speaker 1: And then also, why does Rob Manford hate baseball?
Speaker 3: It was like the MLB Draft done is like a
Speaker 3: low a baseball game, like with like a tempted Savannah
Speaker 3: Banana's bits.
Speaker 4: I have no idea how much of.
Speaker 3: That came across on TV, but it was just like wow,
Speaker 3: blaring music like bad between innings, minor league entertainment.
Speaker 4: They did a Mockerina.
Speaker 3: Contest at one point between picks, like in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: I just like want I.
Speaker 2: Heard did a backflip to go one one?
Speaker 4: I mean that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that actually happened on a telecast about what seven
Speaker 3: years ago?
Speaker 4: Was that Mason Wayne who did that.
Speaker 3: I think somebody did watch, But yeah, there were no
Speaker 3: players there, which like if you're kind of doing that
Speaker 3: kind of draft broadcast, that really needs like at least
Speaker 3: some of the key players there. It was just that
Speaker 3: was very and it was also it was in It
Speaker 3: was basically in a conference room off the floor of
Speaker 3: the MLB All Star Village, which is what they called
Speaker 3: the Fan Festival this year, which was at the Pennsylvania
Speaker 3: Convention Center. So it's like literally in like conference room
Speaker 3: where they do bar exams. Like that's like what that's like,
Speaker 3: and that's like the vibe it was giving off. And
Speaker 3: then they Day one was round one through four and
Speaker 3: then they got through pick Ford and so it's like, okay,
Speaker 3: we're done, everybody leave, And it turned out that included
Speaker 3: the media.
Speaker 4: They kicked the media out.
Speaker 1: Yeah they started. People were still in there, yes.
Speaker 3: And then while the MLB Network broadcast was still on
Speaker 3: the air, was still streaming or whatever. You can find
Speaker 3: a Twitter clip of like Ryan Sprasdowski talking with like
Speaker 3: loud construction noises being made in the background as they
Speaker 3: were taking down.
Speaker 4: The stage and just like.
Speaker 3: It was all just like a little embarrassing I think,
Speaker 3: especially compared to the broad scale I wrote about this
Speaker 3: for BP a few days ago, just like the broad
Speaker 3: scale spectacle of the NFL Draft, Like the last time
Speaker 3: the NFL Draft was in Philadelphia, they put several hundred
Speaker 3: thousand people into into a draft area on the Rocky
Speaker 3: Steps and all the way back down the Ben Franklin Parkway, right,
Speaker 3: And this was like two thousand people in a conference
Speaker 3: room that mostly had no idea what was going on.
Speaker 3: And there was like a drum line randomly showed up
Speaker 3: at one point and I don't really know why, right,
Speaker 3: And there was.
Speaker 2: Just like there were.
Speaker 3: No yeah, Like this wasn't even like big enough to
Speaker 3: have the mummers or like anything like particularly yeah, like
Speaker 3: they did like T shirt launches and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Like it legitimately reminded me of being in an a
Speaker 3: ball game, except like it was like Savannah Bananas themed basically,
Speaker 3: which again no shade on that. It's just like the
Speaker 3: cross section of people who are interested in that type
Speaker 3: of event and the cross section of people who are
Speaker 3: realistically going to tune into or show up for the
Speaker 3: first round of the Major League Baseball Draft. It's just
Speaker 3: like revealous really small like they have the drafts for
Speaker 3: the die hards, right, like, especially when you're doing it
Speaker 3: on I mean, I guess it was on NBC, but
Speaker 3: most of it's on like streaming platforms or cable television
Speaker 3: on a Saturday afternoon like this is not.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, games going on as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, against games.
Speaker 3: And then the second the second day the draft was
Speaker 3: against the Futures Game, Like I'm at the Futures Game
Speaker 3: like trying to see like what teams are doing with
Speaker 3: their extra pool a lot. Man, I'm just going like,
Speaker 3: these are events that have very high crossover interests. Like
Speaker 3: the people who are the people who are realistically going
Speaker 3: to pay attention to the day two of the draft
Speaker 3: are like almost all of them are also going to
Speaker 3: watch the Futures Game. Why are both of these going
Speaker 3: on at the same time. And it's exacerbated by the
Speaker 3: fact that they had both Sunday night and Wednesday night free.
Speaker 4: There was no baseball either, Yes, yeah, and.
Speaker 2: I know I know.
Speaker 3: Manford told the BBWA that those events got moved around
Speaker 3: because they wanted the broad casterers wanted them, and they
Speaker 3: were doing, you know, doing work for the broadcasters and
Speaker 3: trying to get them in the best television streaming situations possible.
Speaker 3: So I get that, but you know, maybe it's worth
Speaker 3: giving up a little bit of broadcaster rights money or
Speaker 3: advertising money to get more exposer on this stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Yeah, you would think so. And was
Speaker 1: the futures game still just seven innings?
Speaker 3: Seven innings, no pitcher pitched. I don't think anybody pitched
Speaker 3: more than three three outs. Yeah, it was seven innings.
Speaker 3: It was rotating through pitchers NonStop batting practice because the
Speaker 3: game was at twelve, so batting practice started at nine
Speaker 3: to ten, and most of the players did not look
Speaker 3: like they'd had their coffee, like you know, just way
Speaker 3: to PAULA to Paul's batting practice was so forgetable. And
Speaker 3: again it's a guy who takes a killer batting practice
Speaker 3: that I asked Brent, I like had to ask Frank
Speaker 3: Percy whether he had like gone already, know, like four
Speaker 3: rotations later, because like I didn't actually remember doing anything
Speaker 3: and he went up there any home runs and batting practice,
Speaker 3: that's like what the And that's obviously you know, but
Speaker 3: he was taking batting practice at nine and twenty in
Speaker 3: the morning after presumably after travel, you know, like I
Speaker 3: there was a period of time where I cared about
Speaker 3: futures game batting practice a lot. I wrote about this
Speaker 3: too in a different article, and that time has passed
Speaker 3: because realistically, why you were caring about futures game batting
Speaker 3: practice was to assess optimum situation, like raw power in
Speaker 3: a showcase environment. And there's just like twenty better ways
Speaker 3: now to assess players raw power than optimal environment showcase.
Speaker 4: Circuit, you know, three rounds of batting practice.
Speaker 3: So it's you know, it's fun to see, you know,
Speaker 3: guys builds and guys swing mechanics in a really easy location.
Speaker 3: But I don't think I got like a ton out
Speaker 3: of an evaluatively, certainly not as much as you know
Speaker 3: when you know, Nathan, I know you've went to some
Speaker 3: of these in the past, like you know, in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 3: like that was the best chance to get a to
Speaker 3: get in two hours a really good view of like
Speaker 3: forty of the top prospects, you know, rough raw power potential.
Speaker 3: It's just not bad anymore. It's not that event anymore
Speaker 3: from scouting perspective. It's just kind of like this curiosity
Speaker 3: almost as a television product, just like make it nine innings.
Speaker 4: Like, but you can.
Speaker 3: They're gonna say they don't want to wear out the pitching,
Speaker 3: but you can just like name five more pitchers per
Speaker 3: team to the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can just add more players.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you could add more players. You can make
Speaker 3: the game longer, you can you can take it more.
Speaker 3: You can take the selection of the players more. Seriously,
Speaker 3: I thought this year was actually better than a lot
Speaker 3: of past years, and that weren't like too many, you know,
Speaker 3: like there were all a couple like Mark McGuire's kid
Speaker 3: was still there. They took Ryan Clifford as the Mets representative,
Speaker 3: and realistically those are not top prospects per se, although
Speaker 3: Clifford has been one of the past so at least
Speaker 3: I get that.
Speaker 4: But for the most part, they got they got most
Speaker 4: of the.
Speaker 3: Guys who are eligible for the game that should have
Speaker 3: been there were there, Like you know that there's a
Speaker 3: few guys I would have really liked to see.
Speaker 2: It was fun. The game was on in the bar
Speaker 2: somehow last night, and I saw and I just like
Speaker 2: looked up at one point and I was like, Jojo
Speaker 2: Parker is there. That's fun. So somebody paid no attention
Speaker 2: to the futures game for obvious reasons getting the draft, But.
Speaker 3: There's some value in just me having seen like j
Speaker 3: Parker's as like Joe J. Parker taking field and batting practice,
Speaker 3: Like it's not no value, it's just like with all value.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's what we think saw.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Jojo Parker. I don't think it's the
Speaker 3: world's toughest evaluation anyway, kind of just you know, it's
Speaker 3: full swing and it's you know, medium power, and the
Speaker 3: hit tool feels like it should be better than it
Speaker 3: actually is.
Speaker 4: Like that's Jojo Parker.
Speaker 2: Definitely not running a showcase circuit contact rates anymore.
Speaker 3: But right, but they're still they're still above average. It's good, right,
Speaker 3: but yeah, like I will right him and Eli will
Speaker 3: its flipped hit tolls and that's not right. I mean
Speaker 3: you could have seen that one coming to like we did, Frank,
Speaker 3: I will draft right, Yeah, and there's still they're not
Speaker 3: one and two anymore. You know, Kate Anderson is the
Speaker 3: second best player out of that class right now. I think, well,
Speaker 3: cater cad is the second best player out of the
Speaker 3: group of players we poassibly would have ranked number one
Speaker 3: in that we have MS fine, right, we look, we
Speaker 3: had we had seth as Lalliver because we didn't think
Speaker 3: he could spend the ball because he couldn't spend the
Speaker 3: ball at the time. And it's a year later and
Speaker 3: he can really fucking spin the ball now. And that's
Speaker 3: the thing that happens when you're going when you're nineteen,
Speaker 3: like guys.
Speaker 2: Eight year about and we rank you top ten, that
Speaker 2: means we think you're very good. Like that's just.
Speaker 4: Like I wrote pretty much all the pitcher and the
Speaker 4: mids is fifth.
Speaker 3: They were kind of broke them out a little bit
Speaker 3: more this year by specialty, a lot of time suffering,
Speaker 3: and I just kind of split this stuff up by like, oh,
Speaker 3: you're right that guy, or I'll right that guy, or
Speaker 3: like you wrote that guy this year, I'll write that guy.
Speaker 4: You wrote that guy last year, all right the guy
Speaker 4: this year.
Speaker 3: This year I did the pitchers, the extreme riser guys,
Speaker 3: the ur Hartman types, and the draft guys, so basically
Speaker 3: the guys that I have kind of specialized and at
Speaker 3: least in character to death for it.
Speaker 4: And that also made it a lot.
Speaker 3: Being able to focus on the pitchers made a lot
Speaker 3: easier because I was able to do a lot of
Speaker 3: like one to one comms, but I I'm the one
Speaker 3: that wrote that I think Seth Fernandez is the best
Speaker 3: pitching prospect since we've gotten shape data, because I do
Speaker 3: not remember guy's shapes being this good at the point
Speaker 3: in his development that he was like that guy's he's
Speaker 3: getting dinged is having dead zone fastball shapes. And I
Speaker 3: am one hundred percent stories actually throwing two different fastballs
Speaker 3: and neither of them is dead ball, but when you
Speaker 3: average them together, it.
Speaker 4: Looks like a dead ball fastball. Same.
Speaker 2: So there was also risk in high school that like
Speaker 2: if with like the shape regression, then it would kind
Speaker 2: of get like he was doing a lot of like
Speaker 2: you know, maybe like seventeen seventeen fastballs, and it's like, okay,
Speaker 2: well with a pro ball, what does it look like?
Speaker 2: Any answers that it still looks fine, So it's.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, now now it's not seventeen seventeen. Now it's
Speaker 3: like seventeen to eleven, which is arguably better than seventeen seventeen.
Speaker 3: And there's also like I don't I don't know whether
Speaker 3: it's like a technical two seamer, but he's throwing a
Speaker 3: lot of like ten and nineteens, and like that's like
Speaker 3: a that's just like a really fuck like ten and
Speaker 3: nineteen of like ninety nine miles an hours, just like
Speaker 3: a really fucking nasty shape, especially when it's not.
Speaker 2: Your holy shit, his hands right like running and you throw.
Speaker 3: What might be an eighty change up and you can
Speaker 3: throw it to both sides of the plate with that
Speaker 3: fastball shape, also throwing a more you know, ride and
Speaker 3: run type fastball, and also all of a sudden he's
Speaker 3: spinning two like plus breaking. But like this is the
Speaker 3: I think these are the best shapes out of any
Speaker 3: prospect I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: A year ago, I was like a slutter at eighty five,
Speaker 2: and it's like.
Speaker 4: It's right, and we're tall.
Speaker 3: Because we're mostly gonna talk about the draft here, we're
Speaker 3: gonna talk a lot about what guys are throwing. And
Speaker 3: one of them and I hinted at this, I think
Speaker 3: and the Tanner Franklin blurb, but it was definitely a
Speaker 3: blurb and that they might have been zach Rude.
Speaker 4: A lot of.
Speaker 3: This has gotten really kind of theoretical for evaluating college
Speaker 3: pitchers because a lot of these guys what they are
Speaker 3: throwing in college, between differences in balls and especially differences
Speaker 3: in coaching and even differences in throwing to ping bats
Speaker 3: versus wood bats just is not what they end up
Speaker 3: throwing in the pros.
Speaker 2: Like I'll be talking about Jackson Flora right, this will
Speaker 2: be coming.
Speaker 3: Up Tanner Franklin that the Cardinals competitive ballance pick last
Speaker 3: year was a college reliever, fastball cutter, almost never threw
Speaker 3: anything else, and when he was in college, he threw
Speaker 3: like a small handful of like baby sweepers, and the
Speaker 3: Cardinals successfully projected off of that that they would be
Speaker 3: able to have him throw a plus full sweeper in
Speaker 3: the pros.
Speaker 4: And they were right. And that was not a pitch
Speaker 4: that he threw in college.
Speaker 3: Like it's just but based on like some of the traits,
Speaker 3: that was something that they thought would get there. Jackson
Speaker 3: Floyd is a good example of this in that we
Speaker 3: think he has some breaking ball traits that are going
Speaker 3: to lead to throwing better breaking balls and he's throwing now.
Speaker 4: Is that a safe way to describe that.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're still interesting. They're still interesting, Like it's
Speaker 2: it's his breakers move a ton, but they're kind of
Speaker 2: slow for how what the fastball velocity is. But we
Speaker 2: think just because those shapes are in there there's little
Speaker 2: cues you can get. Now, this isn't a perfect example
Speaker 2: because UCSB is actually very good at this stuff. One
Speaker 2: of the best pitching development schools in the country is
Speaker 2: actually for a mid major. They punch way above their weight.
Speaker 2: But we kind of see this capacity for essentially how
Speaker 2: easily he gets around the ball and the sort of
Speaker 2: shapes you can project out because of that, He's already
Speaker 2: done this to an extent as well, adding in a
Speaker 2: kick change before this year, which is another one of
Speaker 2: these pitches that we see these like these Supernation dominant
Speaker 2: guys throw and it became his best secondary in the
Speaker 2: college season. So we also think this is going to
Speaker 2: have downstream effects on fastball as well. His fastball's fine now,
Speaker 2: especially for the velo he like averages ninety six. We
Speaker 2: think he can even throw it a bit harder, but
Speaker 2: he's probably going to seam shift a sinker more in
Speaker 2: pro ball than he is now. We know he has
Speaker 2: that capability. The fastball shape is like fine, it's not amazing,
Speaker 2: So I think there's room to just like diversify the
Speaker 2: arsenal a ton throw a curve, you know, maybe more
Speaker 2: of a true cutter, sweeper combo as opposed to this
Speaker 2: like kind of weird hand of God Slider super Sweeper
Speaker 2: Company she he's throwing now that doesn't really have a
Speaker 2: ton of velocity behind it. So there's different ways you
Speaker 2: can go, especially with a guy who throws the ball
Speaker 2: like that. But and we were talking about like guys
Speaker 2: with upside is you know, to spoil what's coming in
Speaker 2: this podcast, But Flora is a guy we kind of
Speaker 2: see having this capability because of the release traits. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of room to play and because of how
Speaker 2: the art, how his delivery leads him to release the
Speaker 2: ball kind of superinated at release. We see him having
Speaker 2: these different avenues to go expand the arsenal in a
Speaker 2: bunch of different ways, right.
Speaker 3: And this is a guy who was in both practice
Speaker 3: and in draft position pretty much the best college fensure
Speaker 3: in the content.
Speaker 2: And he's great, like we love pretty.
Speaker 3: Well, and we're still kind of talking in these theoretical
Speaker 3: terms about what we expect him to do from a
Speaker 3: player development perspective and what changes we.
Speaker 4: Expect a pro team is going to make.
Speaker 3: So you can imagine if we're talking about like say
Speaker 3: William Peterson, who did not perform particularly well in college
Speaker 3: and I think I think, well, Florida has fired. They're
Speaker 3: pitching college, like you know, there's no other way to
Speaker 3: tuggercoat that one. And they've had a lot of guys
Speaker 3: underperform in their program and then turn out to be
Speaker 3: getsing pros and like.
Speaker 4: And then if you get further down, like you.
Speaker 3: Know, we start talking, we'll pull on one of my
Speaker 3: favorite weller around the two picks of the draft, Cal Randall,
Speaker 3: the UCLA reliever that the Cardinals drafted in the fifth round,
Speaker 3: kind of similar to Tanner Franklin. That guy through ninety
Speaker 3: percent fastballs is a middle reliever for at UCLA and
Speaker 3: we successfully predicted that a team is going to draft
Speaker 3: him as a starter, and the Cardinals drafted him as
Speaker 3: a starter, right, so jar get he will be.
Speaker 2: Talking a lot about the card in this podcast, by
Speaker 2: the way, and as convinced that he's a starter. It's
Speaker 2: I don't love the release traits and but it's definitely
Speaker 2: it'll be interesting to see because you can work with them.
Speaker 3: It's like fancy sticks through the upper miners as a starter.
Speaker 4: But historically special though, Like right.
Speaker 3: Historically you would look at a pick like that and
Speaker 3: go this guy's equick to the major's reliever.
Speaker 4: And that's just not how teams are thinking, right, So.
Speaker 3: You you would look at that, you would look at
Speaker 3: that demographic and go, there's no chance.
Speaker 4: There's a chance.
Speaker 1: All right, you brought up a Flora and let's let's
Speaker 1: kind of stick in the first round. Tell me who
Speaker 1: do you think out of the entire group, who's got
Speaker 1: the highest ceiling you talked about? Maybe Flora, there's more
Speaker 1: in the tank there who might have that all star
Speaker 1: profile if everything goes right. Who do you like there?
Speaker 2: For like the top guys, I'm interested in Grady Emerson.
Speaker 2: We did not rank him one, but I think if
Speaker 2: you're looking at like just pure upside between the power
Speaker 2: potential long term with the Ford and the defensive ability,
Speaker 2: I think that's a there's a ton of ceiling there.
Speaker 2: We ranked We ranked Rock one. We think Rocks a
Speaker 2: little more of a sure thing. He's a little more
Speaker 2: developed already. We kind of comp Rock to a Dansby
Speaker 2: Swanson type. But Great is definitely a fun player in
Speaker 2: his own right. Von Lack he's also great too. He
Speaker 2: was in that conversation. If we're leaving like the top four,
Speaker 2: the guys I highlighted were EJ. Booth, who went to
Speaker 2: the Orioles Athletic Powerhouse. Needs some work on the swing,
Speaker 2: but there's feel for contact, elite run times, elite bat speed.
Speaker 2: Jared Grindling are going to the Angels. Really really young
Speaker 2: two way talent. We think he should go both ways
Speaker 2: in pro ball, and I believe he will be. We'll
Speaker 2: see what we like him a little more as a bat,
Speaker 2: or at least I do a ton of feel for contact,
Speaker 2: so much projection on the frame, Like he's not hitting
Speaker 2: the ball hard at all. He barely even has the
Speaker 2: muscle to like actually get the bat in a position
Speaker 2: to hit the ball in the air. But it's it's
Speaker 2: pretty fun to it's funny to watch, but there's I
Speaker 2: think there's a lot of long term projection. And then
Speaker 2: going back to the back of the first round, we
Speaker 2: like Liam Peterson, not presently. We kind of alluded to
Speaker 2: him the Florida guy. We don't I wouldn't say we
Speaker 2: presently love him as much. He struggled to miss bats
Speaker 2: in the zone. The fastball plays down because of his
Speaker 2: really high release height. But we think with some mechanical tweaks,
Speaker 2: if you can get him into some like deeper positions
Speaker 2: in the delivery. We think there's a lot of room
Speaker 2: to to kind of make it more fluid, you know,
Speaker 2: lower the release height a bit through some mechanical changes,
Speaker 2: and then that I carry fast washing playoff and he's
Speaker 2: already spinning the heck Addison breaking balls, So you know,
Speaker 2: I think that's a good developmental place for him to
Speaker 2: be too. In Cleveland, they know what they're doing over there,
Speaker 2: so I'm excited to see what he can do.
Speaker 3: Michael took almost all of the guys I would mention,
Speaker 3: but I would throwing Chris o'copian the A and m infielder.
Speaker 2: I had him written down a different different part.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's he's like not what you would traditionally think
Speaker 3: of his high upside, like athletic raw tools, that type
Speaker 3: of stuff. But based solely on the types of KPIs
Speaker 3: that we look at the types of underlying trait level
Speaker 3: statistics contact power swing this, you know, measurable power swing decisions,
Speaker 3: batted ball directionality. He was like the best offensive prospect
Speaker 3: out of the college ranks by like a lot.
Speaker 4: And sometimes that.
Speaker 3: Guy who just is the best offensive prospect out of
Speaker 3: the like he could just be an offensive monster.
Speaker 4: He could be an offensive monster pretty quickly, and he.
Speaker 3: Could be an offensive monster who ends up playing second
Speaker 3: or third base, even if it's not like the prettiest
Speaker 3: second or third base in the.
Speaker 4: History of the universe.
Speaker 3: So that's another guy that I think if you're looking
Speaker 3: at more of like a who has like the best
Speaker 3: like eightieth percentile offensive some war out Commet's probably him.
Speaker 3: And I think when people are talking about upside sometimes
Speaker 3: that actually is what they're talking about, even if they
Speaker 3: don't realize it.
Speaker 2: We'll also throw Drew Burris into that conversation, and this
Speaker 2: was I had. I had Buris Hacopian and one of
Speaker 2: the guys circled for like my favorite, just like favorite
Speaker 2: first round selection. Buris is a guy who's kind of
Speaker 2: weird because he's undersized, but has really performed at Georgia
Speaker 2: Tech for three years. Gets to really hard exit velocities,
Speaker 2: even like when you once you adjust for h for
Speaker 2: the metal bats, like it's some of the highest exits
Speaker 2: in the college class, and maybe you think, okay, a
Speaker 2: smaller frame, maybe it doesn't translate one to one in
Speaker 2: the way like you can't just like knock down four
Speaker 2: ticks of exit velow for everyone, sure, but really good exits,
Speaker 2: really good field to pull and lift the ball, decent
Speaker 2: enough contacted swing decisions. There's some issues with the swing.
Speaker 2: I'd say it can kind of get grooved, like go
Speaker 2: so hard to create this twitch that he can kind
Speaker 2: of like be susceptible to rolling over stuff moving away
Speaker 2: from him. But you do that, and I think he's
Speaker 2: fast enough where he can eventually learn centerfield. It's kind
Speaker 2: of been if he i'd say at Georgia Tech. But
Speaker 2: he's he's a good runner. He can go out and
Speaker 2: make some plays, So I think it is a long
Speaker 2: term center field profile. And then if we want to
Speaker 2: move to the prep side, kind of a similar not
Speaker 2: totally similar, but some directional similarities to Trevor Condon Ediwa
Speaker 2: high school guy also from Georgia, and he's just a
Speaker 2: really like total speed guy out in center can really
Speaker 2: go get it, makes a good bit of contact. We
Speaker 2: think there's some power in there. It's a good twitchy swing.
Speaker 2: He adjusted the leg kick some, got the ball in
Speaker 2: the air more his senior spring, So we think there's
Speaker 2: some really good stuff there as well. So if you
Speaker 2: want to see maybe a guy who's who like, we'll
Speaker 2: just accumulate wins in a bunch of different ways, playing
Speaker 2: some good center field defense. I think that's some ways
Speaker 2: you can also you can also project it out in
Speaker 2: that way.
Speaker 3: I also, if we want to scare everybody, he's like
Speaker 3: very clearly modeling his game after Pete Caro Armstrong, like
Speaker 3: just kind of in like mannerisms and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: And yes, you are old enough that people are modeling
Speaker 3: their games after if you want.
Speaker 2: And I just busted up my knee in work league softball,
Speaker 2: so you know it's it's coming for all of us.
Speaker 2: But also, Liam will kill me if I do not
Speaker 2: mention that Trevor Condon plays every game in a hoodie. Nice,
Speaker 2: and it's awesome. Nice, It's great.
Speaker 1: All right. So, yeah, you guys kind of mentioned some
Speaker 1: of your favorites from the first round here we're gonna
Speaker 1: look at. I think it's kind of silly to put
Speaker 1: grades on team selections right away, but was there any
Speaker 1: teams that, as the draft went on, kind of had
Speaker 1: you scratching your heads on maybe what was their strategy?
Speaker 1: Any teams that really stood out there?
Speaker 4: I'll take that one. The New York Metropolitans.
Speaker 1: I knew I knew we have.
Speaker 4: We have relatively liked.
Speaker 3: Their drafts the last couple of years at the time
Speaker 3: they were made. The twenty twenty five one doesn't look
Speaker 3: very good right now. Antoniojaman has turned out not to
Speaker 3: be able to hit, which is a thing that sometimes
Speaker 3: happens with pop up third rounder college guys. Peter Kussal
Speaker 3: immediately destroyed his shoulder, which is a thing that sometimes
Speaker 3: happens with print pitchers. And they haven't really gotten any
Speaker 3: super huge breakouts out of the lower round guys.
Speaker 4: All I've got a couple.
Speaker 3: Of guys that are stock up, like Whian Vincent camp Tilly,
Speaker 3: but then they also took a lot of injured guys
Speaker 3: that are just coming back.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: The Mets this year went complete Galaxy brain.
Speaker 3: They took Carson Wiggins and gave him full slot at
Speaker 3: twenty seven, who was a player that both Michael and
Speaker 3: I liked very early on in the draft process. But
Speaker 3: here's the problem of Carson Wiggins. He threw fourteen college
Speaker 3: innings because he had a UCL injury. All of them
Speaker 3: were in relief. He's got this is this. If this
Speaker 3: was a third round pick for a million and a
Speaker 3: half bucks, I would have loved it as a reliever
Speaker 3: to starter conversion candidate at twenty seventh overall for full slot,
Speaker 3: I have no way to evaluate this because you need
Speaker 3: to make that pick. You have to have a pretty
Speaker 3: good feeling that this guy's going to be able to start,
Speaker 3: and I don't have it. Not only do I not
Speaker 3: have any idea whether he's going to start or not myself,
Speaker 3: I have no idea on what the Mets would be
Speaker 3: basing that decision on. There's a lot of non public
Speaker 3: information out there, including presumably Carson Wiggins's pitch data from
Speaker 3: the side sessions.
Speaker 4: He was throwing.
Speaker 3: Although I did talk to a couple of teams that
Speaker 3: also had that data and none of them were like
Speaker 3: blown away by it.
Speaker 4: It was not as good as.
Speaker 3: He was throwing in games in twenty twenty five before
Speaker 3: he got hurt, which of course it wasn't because he
Speaker 3: was throwing in shorts coming off a UCL repair. But like,
Speaker 3: conceptually I love reliever to start our conversion candidates, I
Speaker 3: just don't like them if the acquisition cost a full
Speaker 3: slot at twenty seven, right, So then they took Aiden
Speaker 3: Robbins in the third round, who, like absolutely strictly speaking,
Speaker 3: was good value where they took him, and there's not
Speaker 3: a bonus number out there for him. I expect him
Speaker 3: to be overslot, but not dramatically. So I like and
Speaker 3: Aiden Robbins was like our least favorite guy relative to
Speaker 3: where we ranked him in the entire top seventy five
Speaker 3: that we wrote. I think it was either him or
Speaker 3: Justin Lebron, who incredibly got overslot from the Reds.
Speaker 2: Like we'll get that.
Speaker 3: I like, yeah, like what what was his leverage that
Speaker 3: he was going to go back and hit under two
Speaker 3: fifteen conference play again?
Speaker 4: Because like yeah, like okay, sure body, but you know
Speaker 4: you go Red. That was another draft that I didn't
Speaker 4: particularly love.
Speaker 3: But like Robbins is like he transferred from Seaton Hall
Speaker 3: to Texas. He was like a really kind of cool,
Speaker 3: like mid major prospect when he was at Seaton Hall
Speaker 3: because the Biggest is basically a mid major now like
Speaker 3: really well rounded, you know it does a lot of things.
Speaker 4: Well type guy. And then he went.
Speaker 3: To Texas and like really started selling out for damage
Speaker 3: and didn't really do have enough damage while doing it
Speaker 3: to make that sellout worth it. So it's like what
Speaker 3: version of Aiden, Like he's a guy who's basically at
Speaker 3: some point done most things well, but not done any of.
Speaker 4: Them at the same time together.
Speaker 2: And this is probably what he did on the Cape
Speaker 2: is what you're looking for, Like he won the batting
Speaker 2: title on the Cape. But also we have our concerns
Speaker 2: with the swing. I did the Robins Report, we ranked
Speaker 2: him like forty five ish, I think, but you know,
Speaker 2: even in then we high that was great concerns here, Yeah,
Speaker 2: there are concerns with that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like it's fine, but like for that to be
Speaker 3: the guy that you were kind of building your draft
Speaker 3: strategy around, it's just like, is there enough upside here
Speaker 3: to actually have made Like is the good version of
Speaker 3: Aiden Robbins Worth having.
Speaker 4: Done this for I don't know.
Speaker 3: And then like they just like underneath that, they took
Speaker 3: like a lot of guys who are like perfectly fine
Speaker 3: for where they took them, but they didn't get like
Speaker 3: a lot of like they got a few of them,
Speaker 3: but they didn't get like a ton of like the
Speaker 3: elite trade elite trade guys they've been trying to go after.
Speaker 2: McNeil and Keenan are good. AJ Crudle is kind of
Speaker 2: your your Day three guy, you know, the UCSB guy
Speaker 2: actually he's staring like big extension, big carry, spitting the
Speaker 2: heck out of a sweeper like twenty inches, where if
Speaker 2: you could just get him like filling out his frame more,
Speaker 2: it could be pretty interesting. But there's also some command
Speaker 2: issues there.
Speaker 3: I know, some people, especially like the fan or like
Speaker 3: the blog type circles, were really excited about Alex Petrovic
Speaker 3: because he's kind of famous, because he was kind of
Speaker 3: a famous college player. Typically, if a famous college player
Speaker 3: is going on day two of the draft, they stink yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: because like the Rentaio is actually like a really good
Speaker 3: example of this, like if a if a guy with
Speaker 3: that profile and it's not you know, versaile.
Speaker 4: Sometimes these guys turn out fine, but like yeah, and.
Speaker 3: Like you look at you know, I talked to some
Speaker 3: other teams about Petrovic and it was like, yeah, we
Speaker 3: had him turned in as like a sixth seventh day rounder,
Speaker 3: Like there's you know, he's fine. He might be like
Speaker 3: a fourthponth starter and that's that's just like yeah, Like
Speaker 3: they took like a lot of guys who they didn't.
Speaker 3: They took a lot of major conference guys without particularly
Speaker 3: interesting stuff going on, and then a few guys that
Speaker 3: had some interesting traits, and in the past few years
Speaker 3: they had leaned very heavily into taking like the really
Speaker 3: interesting traits guys up high, like the really interesting major
Speaker 3: college trades, guys up Hie Carson beinge.
Speaker 4: Mitch Floyd to.
Speaker 5: Some extent, and then behind that doing like really interesting
Speaker 5: out of the box things. And this year, like they
Speaker 5: Galaxy Brain the first pick and then took like a
Speaker 5: bunch of big conference performers essentially, which is just like,
Speaker 5: it's not like.
Speaker 3: A catastrophic draft. It was just not the draft I
Speaker 3: expected them to have.
Speaker 2: Right on the topic, if you're on the topic of
Speaker 2: college college performers, hang.
Speaker 1: On, Michael, I got a we gotta take a take
Speaker 1: a break real quick right here, and then we'll come
Speaker 1: back and we'll get we'll face up, we'll get Michael's
Speaker 1: thoughts on maybe his head scratching teams from this draft. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're back. So Michael, I want to start with you.
Speaker 1: And we heard about Jared and the Mets kind of
Speaker 1: draft strategy.
Speaker 4: Was it.
Speaker 1: Was there a team that kind of, uh you kind
Speaker 1: of questioned the way they went about the draft.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's hard, it's hard to judge it
Speaker 2: right now, right. But I think I think if we're
Speaker 2: on the topic of just taking kind of the college
Speaker 2: performers and not really thinking as much about traits, I
Speaker 2: think there's a couple of teams that kind of fit
Speaker 2: into this. The big one for me is actually the Mariners.
Speaker 2: It's a team I've I've liked a lot of their
Speaker 2: drafts in the past, especially last year. We thought it
Speaker 2: was one of one of our favorites. They started out
Speaker 2: taking Ace Reeze's like, fine, he's around where we ranked him.
Speaker 2: He's he's okay. He's a cornerback, he's got some field
Speaker 2: to pull and lift. It's not exceptional in any way.
Speaker 2: And then they followed it up with Bohm, Right, big
Speaker 2: boy hit homer. He listen. It looks good when he
Speaker 2: hits a homer, and we think he's okay. Then they
Speaker 2: followed it up with Jake Brown and Nathan Taylor, neither
Speaker 2: of which are guys we were ever particularly high on
Speaker 2: Jake Brown. There there was some stuff in the combine
Speaker 2: with like forced plate data. So if you want to
Speaker 2: squint in your eyes and see maybe he can get
Speaker 2: a little more impact, that is a way it could happen.
Speaker 2: But it is kind of a college performer, famous name,
Speaker 2: big high school or pretty swing Nathan Taylor Cincinnati, like
Speaker 2: really slider heavy guy. I think this is a little
Speaker 2: more interesting because the Mariners are so smart at pitching.
Speaker 2: Maybe they think there's ways to further optimize the arsenal,
Speaker 2: but it's not a great fastball. And then down the
Speaker 2: board they essentially did not take a prep at all.
Speaker 2: They took a Dominic Santarelli in the eighteenth round, which
Speaker 2: seems more like a you know, like one of those
Speaker 2: backup picks, especially with his LSU commitment. Hayden Yost is
Speaker 2: like kind of interesting. He added power as the season
Speaker 2: went on at Florida. But overall this was very much
Speaker 2: a draft that like wasn't for us, just not the
Speaker 2: way we'd go about it if we want. We mentioned
Speaker 2: the Reds earlier as well. I think the Reds did
Speaker 2: do some interesting things on Day two with the picks
Speaker 2: of Duncan, Marston, Sherman Johnson, Kenny Ishikawa down the board,
Speaker 2: but we did not really like the beginning of the draft.
Speaker 2: Justin Lebron as a guy just didn't hit in conference play,
Speaker 2: didn't really have exceptional exit velocities. There was some swing
Speaker 2: decision issues. He's a great athlete, He's going to play
Speaker 2: a great shortstop. You could certainly see how it can
Speaker 2: get better, but to give him overslot, to give him
Speaker 2: five mil at pick eighteen was just not what we
Speaker 2: would have done. And then Eric Becker was a guy
Speaker 2: who went a little ahead of where we ranked him,
Speaker 2: but another guy with some swing decision issues, hit a
Speaker 2: lot of you know, really struggled to optimize his spray profile.
Speaker 2: And then they followed that up with Mulliva Lavoue, the
Speaker 2: first baseman. You know, maybe you can run him out
Speaker 2: at third base, but we you know, played first basement
Speaker 2: at UCLA and just a really weird swing that we're
Speaker 2: not sure how it plays. Again, I don't hate every pick.
Speaker 2: I like ty Horn who they followed it up with,
Speaker 2: but just not a draft we would do. And then
Speaker 2: the last one I'd shout out is the Phillies taking
Speaker 2: Tyler Spangler, a guy we were not super huge on
Speaker 2: for a couple of reasons. Caden Bogan Pull is someone
Speaker 2: we've kind of questioned if they can hit. Will Gasparino
Speaker 2: is a guy I really question if he can hit.
Speaker 2: I've seen him just get eaten up with like ninety
Speaker 2: two up in the zone. Again, I think, like the Reds,
Speaker 2: they did some interesting things. Ruey Rojas is an interesting
Speaker 2: senior signed guy. Devin Sheeran is a pretty interesting like
Speaker 2: he started out at Mount Saint Mary's before transferring to LC,
Speaker 2: which is funny. He was starting like ninety nine at
Speaker 2: Mount Saint Mary's and everyone was going like, how the
Speaker 2: heck did this happen? Bo Rudy really interesting like fastball
Speaker 2: traits if you want to find like the next thing.
Speaker 2: He's not Tanner Franklin because he doesn't throw that hard,
Speaker 2: but like really interesting fast small reliever at Tennessee who
Speaker 2: throw strikes and might be able to expand the arsenal.
Speaker 2: So there's like, there are some interesting things, but it's
Speaker 2: it's very much just not what we would have done
Speaker 2: on that side either.
Speaker 1: Right, right, So we kind of we've touched on a
Speaker 1: lot of the big names in the draft. Let's narrow
Speaker 1: it down to a specific tool I want. I want
Speaker 1: each of you kind of thinking, give me, give me
Speaker 1: like one player where there might be some flaws in
Speaker 1: the profile, but maybe they have a seventy or eighty
Speaker 1: grade tool somewhere in the scoutering report and any guys
Speaker 1: like that that you saw.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were a few. For me. A fun one
Speaker 2: is Miles Bailey, draft eligible sophomore from Florida State. We
Speaker 2: go to the Cubs and just the power, the best
Speaker 2: exit velocities in the class, Just thunderous homers, right, they
Speaker 2: would go. It just looked different off his back, significant
Speaker 2: significant with issues and an injury. So I'm not sure
Speaker 2: if he'll actually be getting to that, but when he
Speaker 2: gets into one, it's very fun to watch.
Speaker 1: Is he strictly a first baseman?
Speaker 2: I believe he was playing outfield actually, but I would
Speaker 2: have to double check on that. I mean, that's a
Speaker 2: profile where you just the entire question is or he
Speaker 2: was playing first base. Yeah, so he's it's a it's
Speaker 2: just a masher. Yeah, but you know it's the entire
Speaker 2: profile is just Kenny Head. I think it's almost definitely,
Speaker 2: And now he has actually he has played third end
Speaker 2: corner outfield at times in college. So we'll see, but
Speaker 2: I don't really think that's what's important in the profile there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll throw one more guy in there because I
Speaker 3: feel like if we don't mention him at some point
Speaker 3: during here, people are going to go why didn't you
Speaker 3: mention him, which is Martin Sheelar with Red Sox round pick.
Speaker 4: Yes, course we rid him as a mid first rounder.
Speaker 4: He just signed today.
Speaker 3: For a million and a half, so he did not
Speaker 3: get quite that much, but he did get you.
Speaker 1: Know, he was actually a he was a ninth router.
Speaker 1: That's where he got correct.
Speaker 4: Yes, he went in the ninth round. They gave him
Speaker 4: a million and a half.
Speaker 3: They cut like almost three million dollars with Jake Schaffner
Speaker 3: at at what tick did they have like twenty and
Speaker 3: it was just twenty and they cut like he got Yeah,
Speaker 3: he got less than half slot at twenty. And they
Speaker 3: did that to fund a bunch of really interesting prep picks.
Speaker 3: We thought the most interesting was she Lar, but they
Speaker 3: got several other guys and like that.
Speaker 4: Kind of like blows they went over a well.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think he got like two million in the
Speaker 3: third They got the kid in the tenth round.
Speaker 4: The pitcher is kind of what.
Speaker 2: He's a huge extension guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's got like some really interesting trade properties. But
Speaker 3: Stela was the guy who we liked the most. We're
Speaker 3: not the only people that had him as a first rounder.
Speaker 3: That also created some discourse because like they quote consensus
Speaker 3: media on him was like that he was a third
Speaker 3: or fourth rounder, but there absolutely were people that had
Speaker 3: him in the first round. There were people with teams
Speaker 3: that had him in the first round, and it was
Speaker 3: a very kind of this is either very much for
Speaker 3: you or.
Speaker 4: It's not profile. Seventy power by circuit.
Speaker 3: If you take his circuit showcase stuff, it face value
Speaker 3: plus back to ball ability. There is skepticism over the
Speaker 3: equality of competition he faced on the showcase circuit, and
Speaker 3: there's a lot of skepticism on his swing.
Speaker 4: He has a very deep.
Speaker 3: Kind of you know, kind of kind of janky looking
Speaker 3: type swing. This is this is not a comp It
Speaker 3: is only a swing comp but there's like some like
Speaker 3: Barry Bonds type swing stuff. Literally nobody other than Barry
Speaker 3: Bonds has really ever made that type of swing work,
Speaker 3: and a lot of people have.
Speaker 4: Tried, so like there was just like there's a lack.
Speaker 3: Of industry consensus about his value, both on the media
Speaker 3: and team side. But I think even that detractors are like,
Speaker 3: this guy's got seventy power and he has a history
Speaker 3: of hitting for contact, Like so there's stuff there, right,
Speaker 3: and to pull him for like a million and a
Speaker 3: half and the ninth round. Like a kid with seventy
Speaker 3: power who has some feel to hit, even if he
Speaker 3: even if you don't like his athleticism, even if you
Speaker 3: don't like his swing mechanics. I think that's a really
Speaker 3: nifty pick that you might be able to do some
Speaker 3: thing with.
Speaker 4: Like this is a lot of what this is. This has,
Speaker 4: This has a lot.
Speaker 3: Of similarities to them popping Roman Anthony in the late second.
Speaker 3: Obviously it's a later pick, it's a little less money,
Speaker 3: but it's kind of the same brought profile and obviously
Speaker 3: that to get a Roman anthen up being the top
Speaker 3: prospect in the game and went healthy, has been an
Speaker 3: excellent major league player, and Bostin tends to be really
Speaker 3: good at developing these one toll power guys and like
Speaker 3: maximizing out their power and also getting them to hit
Speaker 3: like a little bit. So we're kind of excited to
Speaker 3: see that that's where he that's the fit he landed with.
Speaker 3: He signed, which there were definitely signability questions with him.
Speaker 3: There were, you know, there was there were ideas that
Speaker 3: it might require a lot more than one point five
Speaker 3: million to sign him, and that he might go through
Speaker 3: some seeing was seeing an old miss or Mississippi.
Speaker 4: State comm out. I think, yeah, yeah, and they do
Speaker 4: that some kids to campus.
Speaker 3: Some One of the most underrated stories of the last
Speaker 3: couple of drafts is how much nil money teams are
Speaker 3: throwing around, not just their prep eyes, but in that
Speaker 3: college eligible guys at this point. And that's become a real,
Speaker 3: a real interesting thing to track in the draft now
Speaker 3: that there's just like a lot of nil money floating around.
Speaker 3: In some cases kids can and especially considering they can
Speaker 3: catch it twice right, you're still gonna be able to
Speaker 3: catch in your bon as later, even if it's.
Speaker 4: Not as high as a ball and as right.
Speaker 3: But you know, there are there are high six, little
Speaker 3: seven figure in IL packages out there now, which is
Speaker 3: not something that was happening even a few years ago.
Speaker 1: So the mid season fifty came out today at a VP,
Speaker 1: and you know, Schiller kind of reminds me of a
Speaker 1: guy that's on it, Josiah Hartshorn. We ranked the thirty
Speaker 1: seventh overall. I know he was an overslought guy from
Speaker 1: last year as a sixth round prep I believe yes,
Speaker 1: and I think we can kind of classify him as
Speaker 1: a sleeper prospect that made a huge jump. Give me
Speaker 1: a couple of guys middle to late round guys from
Speaker 1: this draft that we might be talking about next year
Speaker 1: making the same type of jump.
Speaker 4: We're already burned. All On, I think you got more.
Speaker 4: I got more. I could probably more.
Speaker 2: Here. All right, we'll start out with this is my
Speaker 2: favorite part, because this is we've also been very BA focused.
Speaker 2: I feel for a lot of thought and it's time
Speaker 2: to start talking about some weird arms. I'll start with
Speaker 2: a couple of cubs, so Isaac Morton and then Ariston
Speaker 2: vis So Morton Minnesota starter. Actually not the only Minnesota arm.
Speaker 4: We really like.
Speaker 2: University of Minnesota arm. We really liked Cole Selvig was
Speaker 2: also a guy who we thought had some interesting traits,
Speaker 2: but just really really interesting East West shapes and Veilo.
Speaker 2: We think that's like just the Sacre sweeper. Maybe it's
Speaker 2: a relief profile. I would run him out as a starter.
Speaker 2: See what you have, it's it's really just really really
Speaker 2: good sweeper, spins the heck out of the ball. And then,
Speaker 2: if you want the really deep cut, Ariston vis a
Speaker 2: guy who only he went from Alabama to Clemson only
Speaker 2: as of like a year or two ago became a
Speaker 2: full time pitcher, but he's in as a reliever. Was
Speaker 2: like mid nineties twenty ver cut ride fastball with this
Speaker 2: big breaker off it. It's definitely not a like a
Speaker 2: polished profile at all from an either strike throwing or
Speaker 2: shape perspective. But to pop a guy on what's essentially
Speaker 2: what I call day three what used to be day
Speaker 2: three past the tenth round with like these sorts of
Speaker 2: like hoppy cut ride fastball up to like ninety eight
Speaker 2: ninety nine with breaking ball potential, I think there's so
Speaker 2: much untapped room to add pitches and you know, get
Speaker 2: the strike throwing going. That. For another one, I'll talk
Speaker 2: about Jacob Haley. So we loved the Cardinals draft, our
Speaker 2: favorite drift. He was my favorite draft of any team.
Speaker 2: Jacob Haley was a guy we flagged. I flagged in
Speaker 2: a ten pack before he made it onto anyone's boards
Speaker 2: just from it was like twelfth, fifteen or twenty innings
Speaker 2: at South Alabama where he was throwing this like really
Speaker 2: interesting combination of like a low mid nineties kind of
Speaker 2: hoppy fastball with big extension getting to like a gyro
Speaker 2: slider in the mid upper eighties and then throwing a
Speaker 2: banger curve off that, so we I ten packed him
Speaker 2: as like this is kind of interesting. I know nothing
Speaker 2: about him. He's throwing once a week and he went
Speaker 2: to the Cape and ended up striking about striking out
Speaker 2: a bunch of guys and got popped, I believe in
Speaker 2: the eleventh or twelfth by the Cardinals. So I'd like
Speaker 2: to see him develop as a starter and see what
Speaker 2: you have there. He did end up making it onto
Speaker 2: a few boards. But yeah, those are just a couple there.
Speaker 2: I mean, I could talk about the late round guys
Speaker 2: all day, but those are those are three that I'd highlight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's I'll throw on a couple more here, because
Speaker 3: you know I can.
Speaker 4: I can come up with a few.
Speaker 3: Alex one Gartner was a to a South Jersey prep.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 3: I'm using heart Charn to let myself cheat a little
Speaker 3: bit on guys that are actually getting like second and
Speaker 3: third round bonuses, because cart Jarn.
Speaker 4: Got the second round bonus in the sixth round. One
Speaker 4: Gardner was a thing. It's like a fifth or six
Speaker 4: round pick.
Speaker 3: He went to the White Sox U two a guy
Speaker 3: kind of really interesting athletic upside.
Speaker 4: We had him eat in the second round.
Speaker 3: We thought he might go in the second round, just
Speaker 3: kind of like a really interesting guy that has like
Speaker 3: a bunch of interesting things going on. We suspect he's
Speaker 3: probably going to hit as a pro. We have major
Speaker 3: questions about his hit toll. But there's like a really
Speaker 3: big power speed combination here. If like positive things end
Speaker 3: up happening, and sometimes those colder weather guys just like
Speaker 3: really pop off once again into a pro development. This
Speaker 3: is a really extreme example of that, as Eric Cartman,
Speaker 3: who was not in our Braves top ten coming into
Speaker 3: the season and we just ranked as a top thirty
Speaker 3: prospect in baseball because he picked up like five grades
Speaker 3: of measurable power this year. I'm not like exaggerating here,
Speaker 3: because average eason velocities went up seven miles an hours,
Speaker 3: ninety percent pile likes and velosities went up like five
Speaker 3: or six. Like this is like this is actually like
Speaker 3: five grades I measurable. This is a guy who coming
Speaker 3: into the season in measurable power projection was grading out
Speaker 3: at twenty grade and is now grading out at seventy
Speaker 3: grade relative to age. And that just like is a
Speaker 3: thing that usually doesn't happen but he's from like the
Speaker 3: middle of no where in Alberta, Canada, which is literally
Speaker 3: Alberta has literally never.
Speaker 4: Produced a major league caidder.
Speaker 3: It's produced a couple of pictures, but it's never produced
Speaker 3: a major including Michael Soroca, but literally never produced the
Speaker 3: major league hitter.
Speaker 4: And it's like, yeah, like I don't know if.
Speaker 3: Like when Gartner's actually gonna hit his a pro, but
Speaker 3: like there's a lot of really interesting upside here and
Speaker 3: just like for a sixth round pick in a third
Speaker 3: round bonus, like that's not.
Speaker 4: That's not to me a bed pick.
Speaker 3: And the other guy, I I am really owen owen, Henny,
Speaker 3: did I get that right? Michael the Cardinal's sixth the
Speaker 3: Cardinals sixth rounder they took out of.
Speaker 4: A D two school, who is just like that.
Speaker 3: He was He was the best hitter in D two
Speaker 3: last year and he went to a tracked MLB partner.
Speaker 4: Summer league and put up some really.
Speaker 3: Interesting KPI data And I have no clue if this
Speaker 3: is actually going to hold up long term, but for
Speaker 3: a sixth round pick that I don't think. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: think it was the draft league, like it was like
Speaker 3: killer swing decisions and like non zero like contact and
Speaker 3: power ability after having played really really I mean, this
Speaker 3: guy hit four hundred with power in D two and
Speaker 3: there's just like, if you're gonna take guys like that
Speaker 3: with you know, contrasting this with the Mets, I want
Speaker 3: guys that may have been overlooked, right because like guys
Speaker 3: to guys who hit like three ten at all, Like
Speaker 3: three guys who put up the three four five at
Speaker 3: Auburn and are still there in the sixth round generally
Speaker 3: are not particularly good. Because if you put up the
Speaker 3: three four five at Auburn and you're good, you went
Speaker 3: in the first round. If you put up the three
Speaker 3: point five a three four five or you know, obviously
Speaker 3: in this case much better than that at Division two
Speaker 3: Seaton Hill, people may have just missed you, and like
Speaker 3: you've got like some hope there with that pick.
Speaker 4: So that's another guy that I just like. That was
Speaker 4: like a the Cardinals, like every.
Speaker 3: Guy they took there was like a real reason to
Speaker 3: like the pick at the point that they made him.
Speaker 3: They took uh their third round pick whose name is
Speaker 3: eluding me, and I feel like, no seconds, yes, you
Speaker 3: know who this guy we had in the middle of
Speaker 3: the first round and they got for slot in the
Speaker 3: slot in the compound. Caden Ferraro was another guy who
Speaker 3: was pretty close to Cocopian in terms of like current
Speaker 3: KPIs now. Jacopian did that for three years in major conferences.
Speaker 3: Ferraro was a junior transferver did it for one year.
Speaker 3: In some ways, this mirrors and Tonio Jamanez picked that.
Speaker 3: I the kind didn't work out for the meds, but
Speaker 3: like that's like a shot for I was like no
Speaker 3: defensive value whatsoever.
Speaker 4: But this is a guy who plausibly in terms of KPIs.
Speaker 3: Was one of like the five or six best college
Speaker 3: hitters in the country last year, and you got him
Speaker 3: in the third round, you know, not as a.
Speaker 2: Fastball trade guy like that. It's just Nick Bond in
Speaker 2: the tent was like one of my favorite favorite senior
Speaker 2: signs guy because he throws like from the nineteen twenties
Speaker 2: but it tops out at one hundred and it's it's
Speaker 2: so fun.
Speaker 3: Rocco Maniscalco, who you mentioned, has like as much measurable
Speaker 3: power as like any seventeen year old and like the
Speaker 3: big data draft.
Speaker 4: Era, like ever Andrew.
Speaker 2: Williamson, if you can fix the swing, it's good, like.
Speaker 3: Right, like Madiscalco absolutely probably can't hit, which is why
Speaker 3: that guy was available with the fiftieth overall pick, Because
Speaker 3: if a guy had some of the best measurable power
Speaker 3: ever as a guy who is like a year and
Speaker 3: a half young for the draft class and had any
Speaker 3: high chance of hitting, he would have went in the
Speaker 3: first three picks in the country.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: However, we see all the time guys who have very
Speaker 3: little feel for contact when they're seventeen years and one
Speaker 3: month old. By the time they're like twenty, you have
Speaker 3: pretty good feel for contact. I mentioned Roman Anthony earlier.
Speaker 3: Roman Anthony at times as a showcase circuit kid could
Speaker 3: look like he could.
Speaker 4: Not hit at all.
Speaker 3: James Wood as a circuit showcase kid looked like he
Speaker 3: could not hit at all at times. And Manascalco has
Speaker 3: got a lot of runway to develop that to ball feel.
Speaker 3: And if he does that, that's a kid who has
Speaker 3: a chance to be a top global prospect in a
Speaker 3: couple of years because he's so young and has so
Speaker 3: much power for the age. Because usually guys that have
Speaker 3: like plus major league beats speed when they're again seventeen
Speaker 3: years one month old continue to develop more bat speed
Speaker 3: when they get older.
Speaker 4: This was the junior Kavanaro thing, right.
Speaker 3: He had so much batspeed and so much power so young,
Speaker 3: and he now literally has the best batspeed the sport.
Speaker 3: So like the Yeah, the Cardinals did a lot of
Speaker 3: stuff that we like. I also want to shout out
Speaker 3: because I never shout this team out. They never get
Speaker 3: any praise from analysts like us. The Atlanta Braves constantly
Speaker 3: make demographic picks that I hate of players that I
Speaker 3: like within the demographics that I hate, and then you
Speaker 3: never hear them in best draft conversations because it's always
Speaker 3: dem Like they get Jensen.
Speaker 4: Kurshcorn four million dollars.
Speaker 3: I personally would not have given Jensen Hirshcorn four million dollars.
Speaker 3: I understand why they did. All their picks are live.
Speaker 3: They always take like the best versions of these guys,
Speaker 3: especially when they're giving them lots of money, like you
Speaker 3: know Aj Grassio.
Speaker 4: Would I have really taken Aj Grossi as high as
Speaker 4: they did.
Speaker 3: No, But they got to cut there, and we liked
Speaker 3: aj Glossia more than a lot of other people.
Speaker 4: We had him ranked in the middle of the round.
Speaker 3: A lot of people had him ranked at the back
Speaker 3: of the round, and like that's a live pick, and
Speaker 3: that allowed them to take purse porn for the Hurst, Corn.
Speaker 4: And Grassia got the same bonus money.
Speaker 3: And like, it is not my personal flavor to give
Speaker 3: that type of projectability high school arm four million dollars.
Speaker 4: I would rather give a cup. I'd rather spread that
Speaker 4: money out to college guys with good trades.
Speaker 3: However, they seem to hit on these guys an awful lot,
Speaker 3: which means they're doing it.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Like you also, you took Kayden McCarthy, you took Jensen Hirst, Corn,
Speaker 2: you took Cole Dennis and Tyson Grokowski. Well, now like
Speaker 2: two of those can hit or one and a half right,
Speaker 2: you know, and that's still like value just because you
Speaker 2: have a bunch of ice at the apples anumbers that
Speaker 2: we think are interesting in some way. I'll also shout
Speaker 2: out Carter Deck and Domki as guys I love.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love carter Back.
Speaker 3: Carter Back, if somebody had taken him in the third
Speaker 3: round would have been one of my shoutouts for this.
Speaker 3: The Braves took him in with a comp pick, so
Speaker 3: he wasn't a shout out.
Speaker 4: He was a huge cut. He was straight up the.
Speaker 3: Best mid major KPI guy in the draft, like he
Speaker 3: just was he had one of he just had outrageously
Speaker 3: good zone contact and damage indicators put together, like right
Speaker 3: up there with the Pacobean. But he was a mid
Speaker 3: majors guy, and you know he did that for unlike uh,
Speaker 3: the Cardinals guy.
Speaker 4: He did that for three years.
Speaker 3: But one of them was that you know, he started
Speaker 3: out at a non D one school and transferred up,
Speaker 3: but he only transferred up to a mid major. But
Speaker 3: you know he's he was basically mid major cris Like
Speaker 3: that's the profile they got yea and absolutely Canadian, Canadian,
Speaker 3: but there's there's you want players that have more.
Speaker 4: Developmental runway for their aid.
Speaker 3: So guys, by the way, right, guys that are from
Speaker 3: Row Row instruction areas two way guys, Guys that didn't
Speaker 3: play a lot and earlier in college, guys that played
Speaker 3: at lower levels.
Speaker 4: Those guys always have more runway.
Speaker 3: Like our favorite picks in the draft, and there really
Speaker 3: wasn't a good one this year, but we love taking
Speaker 3: like draft eligible sophomore two ways, like those guys just
Speaker 3: always have like way more developmental runway than anything, right right.
Speaker 1: All right, We're gonna wrap it up there gentlemen. Great job,
Speaker 1: Like always on the draft coverage, you guys knocked it
Speaker 1: out of the park. Thanks for joining me today, for
Speaker 1: the listeners, thanks for listening. If you haven't already, check
Speaker 1: out the mid season fifty up today at Baseball Perspectives.
Speaker 1: Also go back looked at the draft work that Michael
Speaker 1: and Jarrett and and Liam that those guys did, and
Speaker 1: thanks again, Thank you gentlemen, and we will see you
Speaker 1: next time.