[SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, JJ Cooper, Jeff Ponds, Baseball America Prospect podcast, a, the second to last Prospect podcast of the year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we will have a, that week between Christmas and New Year's, we're normally the podcast kind of go away and dry up.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not gonna come back together to record it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're recording it early, but we, we're gonna have a little bit of a theme here.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is our podcast to wrap up 25, where we look back.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we look at, give a couple of awards.

[SPEAKER_01]: We kind of look a little bit at, well, at 20, 20 pop.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the next week on the podcast, and also on YouTube where we do our videos as well, we're going to look ahead to 20, 26.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to make some predictions for where we will be a year from now.

[SPEAKER_01]: So with that, great to see you as always, Jeff, and...

[SPEAKER_01]: We both have a little bit of a, you know, a baby of rosy glow right now or or like bags under our eyes or both because we just finished the prospect handbook.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is now done.

[SPEAKER_01]: The last time we, the last time we recorded one of these, we still have very much work still to do, but it is all done now.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is the Hayes in the barn and please if there is a typo or something like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: you know tell me next year tell me early next year if you get your get your hands on the the digital copy that i'm emailing out today because you know we're just going to help play kind of rest in the glow that we have that that book done how good is the field i have that book behind you now got feels pretty good uh honestly you know it's always a great feeling when

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's, you know, it's a lot of hard work.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot of fun to putting it together.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to know that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do enjoy the process of the rankings and reporting, gathering information, writing the reports, and, you know, putting together the grades and all the little details that go into the book.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it is a great feeling when it's off the floor, you're done proofing, and, you know, I think having, you know, the last week or two

[SPEAKER_00]: catch your breath a little bit after it really is like a non-stop.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a distant sprint.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you're really, you're really, you're really,

[SPEAKER_01]: So this is the perfect timing for this because what we're going to do today is we're going to look at a couple of things from the 25 season which do tie into things we were just working on with the handbook.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to look at most improved.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're giving our most improved work.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've added this almost like, you know, like this is our report card to your or like it's a yearbook and we're doing our superlatives.

[SPEAKER_01]: But so Jeff, when we look at the most improved

[SPEAKER_01]: in 2025, where we sit right now, compared to where we sat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I'll say right now, because if you'd have asked me a week ago, maybe I would have said the Orioles, because the Orioles had that draft class that is just so deep, so many players in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: They also had some breakouts, like in the George breakout, Estimum Mejia is a very intriguing young arm.

[SPEAKER_01]: Samuel Bassayo is a truly elite prospect, although Bassayo kind of was that coming into the year two.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there were a lot of depth, but then they went out and traded.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sider to Brown, they traded Kated Bodai, they traded Austin over and they traded Michael Farat.

[SPEAKER_01]: They traded Anna and a competitive balance pick, so they traded away four of their top 18 prospects still an improved farm system, still a deeper farm system that it was a year ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: Dillon Beaver still qualifies by the way, another guy who was improved in 2025, but probably wouldn't say them now because those are raised prospects now, but I think I'm going to kick it to you, and I think that we have kind of the same answer, but if you don't

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I have a little bias on this as well because it is a form system that I cover, but I do think it's the cardinals.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think we just look year over year, from where they were, to where they are now.

[SPEAKER_00]: The JJ weather halt, you know,

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to see break out because I think that's disingenuous, but confirmation.

[SPEAKER_01]: How about that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Confirmations are good way to put it.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was a great prospect coming into the year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's firm that I what he did this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe even got a little bit better.

[SPEAKER_00]: The breakout of Rhinel Rodriguez, I think, is a big one.

[SPEAKER_00]: The breakout of Josh Bias, who we'll probably talk about a little bit later, and then drafting Liam Doyle, drafting Caner Franklin.

[SPEAKER_00]: uh, really good season from each on Henderson.

[SPEAKER_00]: They got two of the better catchers in the miners in their top 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: They acquired Brandon Clark.

[SPEAKER_00]: So even when they had sort of down seasons from Quinn Matthews or, you know, an injury from Tacoma Roby who's now out for a little bit, uh, taking a step back, taking a big step back, taking a big step back as far as going, or injuries to like guys like Cooper Jerpee, um, who is a first round or a few years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were able to acquire enough talent through all these different acquisition windows, whether it's trades, even a rule five pick, that's kind of interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the draft, I think you can kind of look at the system and say, all right, it's gotten a lot better.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then they were able to add again this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, Blake Ada and you know, Yorker Frijardo, like,

[SPEAKER_00]: probably top 10 guys in the system.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is probably more like 25 to 30.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for Jardo, probably nine to 13 somewhere in that range.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they have a lot of different,

[SPEAKER_00]: types of prospects in the system.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have a lot of pitching depth and they have a lot of variety within that pitching depth and you should be at least somewhat intrigued by what high and blue can do in terms of building out the development structure which was part of his key focus over the last couple of years as he was sliding into that that pobo.

[SPEAKER_00]: role.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I think this is an up-and-coming system.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think you look at the Major League roster and, you know, I don't know how much in Aranado nets.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that Brendan Donovan probably nets a little bit more than Aranado.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think a lot more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, and Lars Newbar, if he gets traded, probably nets a decent amount as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a handful of players here that could potentially be on the move that could further sort of stockpile this system.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think they're going to end up with anyone who's going to rival either whether Hulther Doyle or Rodriguez top of the system or probably bias for that matter.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this sort of five to 30-group, I think continue to improve.

[SPEAKER_00]: between now only recording this and, you know, February 1st.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think, like you said, they could make further moves as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was the one I was going to pick also.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Cardinals to me, I do want to give a little honorable mention here, like the pirates were already a good farm system coming into the year, but I would say that it's that's an organization that at the top end.

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't like, it's really a top heavy or, you know,

[SPEAKER_01]: multiple steps forward like he did.

[SPEAKER_01]: Baba Chandler continued to be what he was.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I would say Edward Fortunetino kind of emerged as another elite hitting prospect.

[SPEAKER_01]: You put that together.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the much improved farm system over where it was, you know, a year ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's another one that stands out that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: but you also hit on that we're also wanted to talk about who's the most improved prospect?

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, well, I think we have a degree on the number one here, but then I think we probably should at least highlight some other players who kind of also meet that criteria.

[SPEAKER_01]: But so Jeff, who is the most improved prospect in 2025 to you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think staying with a Cardinals theme, it's Josh Bias.

[SPEAKER_00]: on what his career trajectory was, kind of out of the draft, a lot of injuries, the body, and the athleticism backed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were a major hit tool questions as, you know, a power hitter from the Northeast that maybe didn't have as much high level experience as other guys and generally had a decent amount of swing and miss on the circuit.

[SPEAKER_00]: That came to fruition over his early years as a professional really struggled with a pro struggled with swing and miss always had power, but just was not making enough contact to consistently get to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: revamped his swing coming into the year made some further adjustments over the first month.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the biggest thing though, is you kind of look physically year over year, and everything just got a lot tighter.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like the athleticism was back.

[SPEAKER_00]: It might have, he might have even looked and moved better than he even did, you know, in high school, you know, when he was an impressive sort of athletic freak, that's all back again.

[SPEAKER_00]: plus running ability, huge power now not selling out for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, it was a little bit more hitterish just in terms of his approach and that's a ball ability and the underlying data and all that sort of stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do I think he's a long-term center field or probably not, but I think this could be like a power speed, you know, corner out field there for a whole bunch of years and the majors that, you know, has some pretty impactful seasons.

[SPEAKER_01]: and he's the clear, like he was not in the top 30 for the Cardinals coming into the year, coming into 25.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now he's a likely top 100, pretty strongly, likely top 100 prospect going into 2026.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's about as big a jump as you're going to see for a guy who was a known quantity.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see this with just for our Gonzales was like, made a big jump from signing to where he is now.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when you see a DSL guy come out and set the road on fire,

[SPEAKER_01]: And you're like, well, he took a big jump.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, no, he made his pro debut.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, that's a little different than a guy who was a known quantity.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh, we feel like we have an idea who Joshua Bias is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you look at a year later, he's just so much better.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do want to highlight some other guys who I think, like,

[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds crazy to say that our number one prospect in the game, but I think it is fair to say that Connor Griffin is a much improved prospect over where he was at this time last year because as we've detailed on this as we've talked to Connor Griffin about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peyton Toli with the Red Sox is one who kind of really emerged.

[SPEAKER_01]: Camp Schlittler's graduated now.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was in the top of the Yankees top 30 last year, but he's the perfect example that I love to use of how difficult it is to do this.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just put the handbook to bed.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's December.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I promise you, somewhere in that book, there is a picture who we wrote up the most accurate pitching scouting report we can right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by April, we're going to be like, that report.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can tear it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's obsolete.

[SPEAKER_01]: Camp Schlittler was that last year, who went from 92, 93 coming out of the last year to sitting 98, touching 100 with a absolutely, you know, relacious secondaries by October.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's one that jumps out that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: To me, I was at Carter Jensen's another one, who

[SPEAKER_01]: was already good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Took another step forward.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now is a, I would say kind of fits in that elite prospect category of the royals catcher.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyone else to you that jumps out is like, hey, while bias is our number one, most improved prospect.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's another guy who really did jump out.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think a gauge standard for from the blue jays.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could say Johnny King, but that's kind of like the same thing as the Joe Swar example where it's like, well, he made his pro debut and signed for a decent amount of money and, you know, he knew it was a good athlete, a sort of thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stanford, you know, was like a 19th round high school pick three years ago, you know, took a couple of years to really adjust as a professional.

[SPEAKER_00]: came out this year, all of his stuff was up, you know, better movement.

[SPEAKER_00]: more velocity, a lot more strikes, just kind of all the things you want to see click at once where it's like, all right, yeah, he added the stuff or, you know, this pitch is a lot cleaner in terms of movement, but he's not throwing any harder or he's not throwing it for strikes.

[SPEAKER_00]: All that stuff was less of a concern, you know, pitched his way all the way up to AA.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think he's won for me that kind of jumps out as a guy that was off the Blue Jays top

[SPEAKER_00]: I might have been like 38, 39, 40 in those extra little blurbs that we put out after the new year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not a guy anticipated would be in the top 100 conversation and in the top half of the top 10 for the Blue Jays.

[SPEAKER_01]: A couple of other guys I will point out Dodgers out Filler was at this time last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've fixed still reds out Filler, Mike Seroda, who was a considered a potential first-round pick going into

[SPEAKER_01]: was hurt, didn't really, you know, didn't really kind of have that step forward.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we think it was a fourth round pick.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did have injuries again this year, this is the second half of the year, but when he was healthy, Sarota really was, say, you know, established himself to clear a number, you know, top 100 prospect.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jeff is in Roha's, I think, fits this also another guy that you do, because didn't Roha's kind of take a nice step forward, I would say, in 2025, is that accurate?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, repeated like high A because it was super young when he was there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Short improvement there, you know, got up to AA and perform pretty well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, I think there's with Rojas.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's maybe a few more questions regarding the defense than I had anticipated coming into the year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Frankly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, prospect out of the way thought coming in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a little bit more of a bat first second basement, maybe third basement, because it's a big arm.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think there could be more power coming, but yeah, I mean, had a really good year in the Midwest league and then struggled a little bit once he got up to AA, but the Southern League isn't exactly the easiest place to hit either.

[SPEAKER_01]: Still one other.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll highlight is TJ Nichols with the raise who was kind of always considered a good stuff but wild pitcher in college and now is throwing, you know, has maybe above average control you could argue, which is a very big step up for him a lot of guys who took stuff forward, but want to, you know, who want to highlight some of the guys who really think he's got to go ahead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't say, Tanner McDougall and Christian opera, both of a white socks, those are pretty big breakouts between the two of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, I don't think either will probably be on the top 100, maybe McDougall has a shot at the back end, but I think definitely within that, like 75 to 125 tier that we always talk about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: They might be off the top 100, but they're sort of just off the top 100,

[SPEAKER_00]: If I were those guys took another step forward this year, I think we could see him in the big leagues, you know, by the middle of the summer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, the last thing is we look back on this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to, you know, we're not going to praise our, you know, this is the prediction on most proud of that seems a little bit back on, you know, patting on back.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going the other way.

[SPEAKER_01]: The prediction I would want to do over on from this past year is this I did look back at our MLB predictions and I would say that yours were really good Jeff had a couple that like I said that the twins we're going to be my surprise team of 2025 and I mean

[SPEAKER_01]: We just got done doing the 30s and no, I really came into the season.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not trying to pick on prospects, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But, but Braden Taylor was a guy who I really thought was that kind of that embodiment of the safe college bat who gets drafted every year, middle and fielder, second baseman, third baseman who could just do everything really pretty well, like a lot of 50s and 55s on the scouting or card.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this year was really kind of a really a step back year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that he really, like, if you look at it now, you look at it and it's like, okay, he had a really struggled and the final month of season after got to AA.

[SPEAKER_01]: That just got worse in in 25.

[SPEAKER_01]: Probably got a little bit too power, hungry, pull heavy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Swing didn't really work with that, but that's the guy who went from being a top 100 guy largely because of where I had him ranked on the race to a guy who was fighting to make the race top 30 this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's one that I wish I had to do over.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you probably have a couple to anyone that comes to mind for you Jeff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know it's funny.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the one that

[SPEAKER_00]: bothers me the most is like ones you don't make that you kind of look at it and you're like that was really obvious and I feel like I could have been more aggressive in terms of my love for Nick Kurtz and just my belief that he was going to hit and going to hit immediately.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I could have predicted obviously what he did but I think I was a little bit

[SPEAKER_00]: you know like it made a lot of sense that he would move as quickly as he did and I think they kind of telegraphed it a little bit by sending him to AFL after the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think I was scared off more or less just by the the injury history with Kurtz because you know I mean he never played baseball during the summer when he was in college because he always had a

[SPEAKER_00]: a different surgery that he had been under goal in the off season.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, like it wasn't like it was completely unfounded, but I think like that one and it's sort of the same with Traia Savage.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were all really, really high on, you know, Carlos and the amateur team were high on your savage.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think as soon as he went pro, we were high on him, he was kind of the main focus of my early spring training trip was like I want to see Traia Savage pitch live.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think I could have been more aggressive with that one too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, granted, once again, we can't predict that he's going to go and, you know, set a record in the world series, but you would be good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those are, you know, yours are a little more positive than mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll say that, you know, mine was, you know, I have, I have regrets.

[SPEAKER_00]: But do you have to have another, I have another one, which is, which is or Elvis Martinez.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, I had a sneeze, so I had to go quiet for a second, but, um, no, I think or Elvis Martinez, like I really bought into the improvements, the year to prior.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, his second test or or or taste to AA was much better than he went up to AAA and he performed and then the next year he performs again in triple A gets the call to the majors then fails the PED test and it's like, well, we've seen plenty of guys fail PED tests and then be good after.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not like that's never happened before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I should have been more skeptical because he never gone through the big leagues again.

[SPEAKER_00]: The team ended up releasing him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, there was obviously a lot more wrong than I thought, and it went about as south.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's far south as it possibly could.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's very rare that we rank prospects in the top 10 that don't get protected in the rule five draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let alone guys that don't like, they get released.

[SPEAKER_00]: That almost never happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a very unusual situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we'll know more in years down the road of what truly happened there,

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, really, really that was unusual and obviously I could eat that one a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all have our regrets.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we hope you've enjoyed this look back at 2025.

[SPEAKER_01]: We hope that you're having a wonderful holidays, whether that's Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate, we hope you're having a wonderful holidays.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as we said, we will be back next week in truth with one more prospect podcast for 2025, whether you get us on your pocket favorite podcast feed, or you check us out on YouTube at Baseball America's YouTube channel.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know that there are more of you now than there were when the year began and we really do appreciate that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Please like, subscribe, leave a review, leave a comment.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is your biggest, you know, most improved prospect or most improved pharmacist to make the case for who you think might be the best.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'd love to see it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love to respond to a lot of those as well on the YouTube channel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Borgeth, I'm JJ.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a long everybody.