[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, JJ Cooper Carlos Closso, Baseball America, draft podcast, a fun one today.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are getting close.

[SPEAKER_00]: The draft is a little over a week away as we record this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're recording this on July 2nd.

[SPEAKER_00]: At this time next week, I will be almost to Philadelphia.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do a bounce around.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think I'll be at a Worcester game on Thursday, potentially, you know, because I think, I'm going to go to the Cape Cod League on Wednesday.

[SPEAKER_00]: First time I've ever been to the Cape.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm very jealous of you, JJ.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have never been to the cape either.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: It always feels like we have other people on staff who are there and going.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, I could go watch other high school players.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the cape sounds amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that'll be good.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: That'll be out.

[SPEAKER_00]: That'll be.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have many things.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got to be honest.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very fortunate.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do not have many things left on the baseball bucket list.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's one.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll not have you been known.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow, I never did that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I've been definitely been at Omaha.

[SPEAKER_00]: The big ones left for me are, I want to go to Japan and see MPB games, but also probably as much caution.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I was cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see the best high school baseball tournament in the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a part of me that wants to go to see the midnight sun game in Alaska, but at the same time,

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's one of those works like it'd be really cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I also, I have volunteered to go to the high school all-american game at Field of Dreams this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll mock that out.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good one too.

[SPEAKER_00]: And after that, like I go on to get to, I'm not at all 30 MLB parks yet, but I'm getting close.

[SPEAKER_00]: So.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll start game world series, rule five drafts under game WBC, so yeah, not much left pretty cool, but what we are going to talk about today, I feel like.

[SPEAKER_00]: that we talk a lot about, okay, who's going one to the white socks?

[SPEAKER_00]: How does the top of the draft line up?

[SPEAKER_00]: We rank 500 players.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are 500 scouting reports up at baseball in America.

[SPEAKER_00]: Really, there are 575 or 565 or so.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's even more than that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got high school players, a five-on-geles of high school players.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got a college list that's getting out to a hundred.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to have more than, well, well, we will have more players written up than we'll get drafted.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will not get a hundred percent because there will be players drafted who we have written up yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: But,

[SPEAKER_00]: a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what we want to do today is kind of acknowledge that there's a whole lot of draft after round ones and round two.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we're going to do today is kind of talk about some of the names.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be the Carlos show today.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to let him have a run with this because these are a lot of these names.

[SPEAKER_00]: All I'm going to interject, but he's got more background and all these guys that I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to be talking about

[SPEAKER_00]: really like third through late round pick, a couple of names to watch in each of those rounds, and this will be really fun because, again, these are guys who, there's something very interesting here, but at the same time, we'll probably get in a little bit also why they may still be on the

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where a lot of future stars are found, but at the same time, the miss rate goes way up because that's why they're getting picked a little bit later in the draft, but we're gonna dive straight into this Carlos looking at some third round names to watch.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what we mean by this is we're talking, I don't have the draft order in front of me right now, you might be pulling it up as I'm feeling about spring out of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm gonna say off top my head, I'm guessing that's gonna be picks like AB on, is that about right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's right around mid 70s to 100 is kind of the third round range.

[SPEAKER_01]: And these are players who, I'd say for this conversation, it's like players that we have ranked in this range, who are really interesting to us in one or another.

[SPEAKER_01]: Either we, we may be like them more than that range, where we see them in the industry, or they're like really interesting traits to build on.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so every player in these round ranges, that's where we have them ranked.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would say like our precision to say they're definitely going to go there.

[SPEAKER_01]: falls apart once we go further, but yeah go ahead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's expand on this a little bit too, because I think this is something useful to note, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're trying to, as best we can, how we're hearing that these players line up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're getting feedback on, that's a third round player, that's a fourth round player.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there are a hundred percent, there are players, like we were talking about a player, not one of the ones we're going to tell about today, and it's like they're seem to be about five teams who think that this is a second round talent.

[SPEAKER_00]: and then the majority of the industry thinks that this is more of a third-to-four-fram talent.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: where that player is going to go, if we just don't guarantee that one of those five teams is going to pull the trigger, but if they do, then that's going to be a player who goes in the second round.

[SPEAKER_00]: But when we rank that player, we're going to rank a more in that third round range, because we're trying to incorporate the fact that there are teams who think this player is a higher, but basically what we're saying there's the range for that player is second to fourth round, and we think he fits this kind of a third round talent.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are players who sometimes you will have a player

[SPEAKER_00]: 209 teams out of 30 think is a certain round or more lower, but if it all takes one, and then especially also when you throw in that we are in a bonus pool situation where you may also see a situation where it's like, I used a couple of years ago like, you know, the podries took Hudson pots with their first pick.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, I believe the Hudson Potts ended up being like their fourth highest bonus in that class.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a high school kid, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't like something where you had the senior sign go first or something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's also the reality of bonus demands and all fit in this, it's,

[SPEAKER_00]: It's something where if when we see that we have a player rig 68, then they go 68, that's almost like a lucky coincidence more than it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because my favorite one was a few years ago, it wasn't the exact number, but a few years ago our number B-A-500 went with the final pick of the actual draft and I just don't think that'll ever happen again.

[SPEAKER_01]: So.

[SPEAKER_01]: I might pull that up at some point and find the exact player name, but it was like two or three years ago, I think, but yeah, let's get into the players.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, first player we're going to talk about, one that we both are very well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think a lot of people listening to that, if you're listening to the baseball or draft podcast, we already know you're smarter than the average fan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jason DeCaro, right, handwritten North Carolina, prominent ace of the Carolina staff that went deep.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, very deep at Omaha, one win short of a national title.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what is it about to care about that stands out to you in a positive way, start with that, Carlos?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think for DeCaro and maybe his performance helping UNC in the super regionals against Southern California where he threw a complete game shut out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe we'll move him up into the second round range on draft day if he went in the second, I wouldn't be surprised.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like DeCaro checks a lot of the boxes you're looking for in a ready-made college starter.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the more I've dug into his profile over the last few weeks in months of the season, the more I really am just fascinated with.

[SPEAKER_01]: What he's done, the tools he has to work with, and then some of the...

[SPEAKER_01]: tweaks I think that are going to be open for teams to tinker with to help him maybe get to the next level.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he's very young.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was just 17 years old when he took on a full-time starting role with North Carolina in 24 during his freshman season and he probably has one of the largest samples of starting track record and college baseball.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every season he has started at least

[SPEAKER_01]: he finishes a career with 270.1 innings with a 3.46 ERA across that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that alone makes him interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: Doing that in a power conference probably isn't like an automatic hey we're looking at you in the top three rounds.

[SPEAKER_01]: Almost like regardless of the stuff you're throwing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think he's got a solid pitch mix to back up that performance and just the volume that he's thrown.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a fast ball that sits in 92.93, he's been on to 96.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's done a really nice job throwing that pitch for strikes, he's got a change up, he's got a curve ball, he's got a slider, I think.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's confident enough in those pitches to where he has a distinct attack versus lefties and righties.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've heard most doubts like the change up more than his other secondaries.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I just think he's just like a very reliable starter who can hold a lot of innings.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a workhorse frame.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I mentioned his size, but he's six foot five, two hundred and thirty pounds.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, he just checks a lot of boxes for me and I'm sure you're going to ask about

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the question with him?

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's like he probably doesn't lack a true white belt offering right now I think there are some scouts that I've talked to say hey like we like everything he does right now And we also think that he doesn't really utilize his lower half as efficiently as we could help him and so if that allows him to Throw a harder at the next level if maybe getting more in sync with his delivery allows him to Improve his his slider or his curveball and he can develop a plus pitch

[SPEAKER_01]: who really have a pretty well-rounded pitching prospect that I don't see an obvious flaw in his game.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I've really found myself liking Dakaro's profile.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've been trying to scoop him up in all of our staff drafts in the last few weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just got him in our recent one, a little spoiler for our next staff draft.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I really like this profile.

[SPEAKER_00]: What I would say with that is this is where it's going to be an interesting, I think as you noted, like really his fastball and it seems again crazy for me to say this, but I used to remember that was not the case, but I need like you said he sits at a level that if it continues there, he will have a velocity-wise a blow-average, well I won't go well blow-average, but a blow-average basketball velocity-wise for a starter, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: As you said, this is where this is I think going

[SPEAKER_00]: The approach you can take is, this is a guy who has an exceptional durability, like you said, he has taken the ball every time and been good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like he hasn't been like, oh yeah, but he had that month where he just was completely lost.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he just goes out there and is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Time after time and over and over.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's the durability, there's the consistency all that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you want to, you could say, oh, and he's unoptimized right now, we're going to get his delivery where we think that there's more velocity in there once he kind of unlocks his lower half better.

[SPEAKER_00]: All that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The risk I think what that is is like, is that going to unlock him or, you know, we see examples of pictures like,

[SPEAKER_00]: the red socks took kison with her spoon and like his offseason he was like I'm going to cry things differently and all of a sudden he had a dead zone fastball that was actually velocity wise no better or worse and he had to go back to his old system and once he did he's been a better pitcher we would back to the top hundred but it's like okay there's no guarantees like

[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be a fun debate I would say within organizations.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you believe that he's unoptimized now and there's so much more potential or do you risk kind of?

[SPEAKER_01]: What are you messing up with his favorite work, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think there are some traits with his extension, with his release, with his fastball shape that in addition to the velocity you mentioned could maybe be further questions, like despite his framing his size, he has below average extension kind of across the board.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that he has the sort of release height that are gonna help him maybe mitigate that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I guess release height and extension are often

[SPEAKER_01]: correlated together.

[SPEAKER_01]: So those would be some of the areas like delivery, some release questions, but I also think like with the breaking balls, he has really impressive ability to spin the ball.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the spin rates of both his lighter and curve ball are high.

[SPEAKER_01]: You get near 2,900, 3,000, range of this curve ball a little bit lower than that with the slider.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just think there are a lot of really solid tools to work with.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that just in the caro is going to become a mid rotation starter, but if you get a really solid number four, number five,

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that is perfectly like an easy path for me to see with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the youth in innings that he has really give me a lot of confidence and comfort with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it also is like, I just made that sound like it was a binary choice.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's also the possibility that you could see if you could unlock more.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you always like, he has this delivery already well imprinted in his muscle memory.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you try something, it's like, that didn't work.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can probably revert back to what he had done before.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you, it's not like something where it's like, if you go down that road, you've burned all the bridges behind you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, so,

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the interesting one.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is another third round name who also was quite prominent, uh, you know, Mahah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Candid Johnson, third baseman at Oklahoma.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I kind of brought him up.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's one I wanted to talk about and say this because I think he's really interesting in the third round range.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, positives are this is an exceptional athlete I would say for especially for an influencer and a successful one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like this was a key player on the national champions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Really good athlete.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like there's athleticism in the

[SPEAKER_00]: He makes highlight real plays at third base.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's played elsewhere as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I think you could say he's a third baseman.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could say that he's a third baseman or he's a second baseman or he's an outfielder if you need it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say Akata was assuming he was going to move to the outfield but then he's made a couple of really impressive plays at third base.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I was like, oh, okay, maybe you keep them on the dirt for a while that generally is more valuable than outfield but

[SPEAKER_01]: with his range alone in athleticism, he was a really talented receiver in high school and I think that generally lent itself pretty well to a transition to the outfield.

[SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned the athletic bloodlines of his family, his father was a rugby player at Texas Tech, he had multiple athletic uncles, one is a member of the college football hall of fame, the other is Joe Driscoll who played the NFL.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like he is athletic himself and comes from a very athletic family.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's an excellent

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think is on the bottom of the bat?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like the reason it's on the ground or is okay, how much offensive impact?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's not, I should be clear.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like he's a left hand in a hitter with some bat to ball skills with some, but it's a pretty level like ground ball approach.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not a lot of, even with a metal bat.

[SPEAKER_00]: There hasn't been a lot of impact there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You expect that there'll be less with the wood bat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hm.

[SPEAKER_00]: And

[SPEAKER_00]: that's where I think it does like you the right up, I think you wrote us up him up for us like the right up kind of does kind of lay it out that it's probably more of a utility profile than it is like and every day regular and I know that someone's hearing this is like and you like you've been the third round.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, go back and look at the drafts.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was talking about this on a couple of pot just like being guests and shows talking about the draft is we get closer but

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it's useful for this point in the conversation, but if you go look at most drafts, I was having this conversation with Scoutsy of a Day at the field, but like resetting expectations or just like trying to create like realistic expectations for what is a good outcome in the draft, once you get beyond about 15 or so, in any given draft that you're redrafting with hindsight, putting the best players in the order they should have gone in the first round, you run out of regular, everyday impact players, quicker than you might think.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're picking in the back of the first round

[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a 25th overall pick, like I hope to get someone with like all-star potential.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your expectations are probably a little bit too high for that draft.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's not to say you can't get a player there, they certainly do, but it just going off of like historical draft outcomes.

[SPEAKER_01]: those should be your expectations.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you get a contributing bigleager in the third round, that's a win.

[SPEAKER_00]: 28 team, just because I feel like that's eight years ago, that's kind of the perfect range of like, we know what these guys are, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just use that for infielders.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cody Clevins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Carlos Cortez, Owen Miller, Connor Kaiser, Calraw is the catcher in that class up.

[SPEAKER_00]: That third rounder.

[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.

[SPEAKER_00]: It comes up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ford Proctor and upchink converting the catcher, Beteo Gil, Teren Vavra, Jeremy Peña.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that one's for not really well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rich, bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, there are a number of guys there like, okay, yes, you could, you would prefer to take the big swings and land your calerol, your gerby pain, you too.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say, gerby pain, yeah, it wasn't a big swing at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: He really changed his profile, power, you just like, he was like, I mean, his profile, I would have to go back and read his report.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm sure he read like a potential utility guy could play defense, make some contact, and it was better offensively than I thought.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the point I wanted to make with this is,

[SPEAKER_00]: You're kind of banking on the athleticism, the grit to kind of give you some development down the road like that you're not getting the player who's what he's going to be at 26 when he's, you know, when you're drafting him and the defense of ability, the athleticism, the bat to ball skills kind of give you a nice baseline as you develop this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you

[SPEAKER_00]: Gage workmen do the tigers, but he just made it up with recently.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a rule five pick last year, made it up this year with the tigers again, or trade crews also rice, you know, guy from a few years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like these are guys who kind of hung around in the miners, but eventually start to figure it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you said, well, why did they start to figure it out?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because they've been valuable enough defensively, and they play, they complain much pretty much play anywhere across the diamond.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that keeps you around long enough to maybe figure it out to where, you know, you start to become that guy again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Richie Palacios is a good example of this where you stick around long enough and you go, okay, I'm starting to figure out the hitter, but you've earned that, you've avoided those decision points where in year four or year five of your career.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, we're good with you now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to move on to another direction.

[SPEAKER_00]: So,

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a look at two guys from the third round.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rides is quick break.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will be back to talk about a couple of forefroundings to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're back.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so looking at four frown names to watch, you know, now we're talking, you are now in the triple digits.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are pick numbers that are gonna be the low triple digits, but you are now in the 100 plus range here.

[SPEAKER_00]: But again, as we just said, like there are absolutely, we just gave an example of that in the third ground for, you know, where you could find a Jeremy Painor, you can find a Calaroli.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are names to be found in here.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first one that you wanted to talk about was Elliott LaShells.

[SPEAKER_00]: Shortstop, Team C, another Canadian.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen a lot of Canadians kind of really stepping up Eric Hartman.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nathan Flewelling, a pair of guys who really got lost in this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Already, what is it about Elliott that really stands out to you?

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like there is a smoothness and an ease to Ellie, it's game that is very appealing to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: When writing up his report and talking to scouts about him and watching video to familiarize myself with him, again, it's just one of these players that I feel like the more you watch him, the more he grows on you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is this standout athlete who has a lot of contact skills, he's got a lot of projection to his frame, he's six foot two, he's a lean, he's a hundred and ninety pounds.

[SPEAKER_01]: he's got great balance.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very compact direct swing to the ball that does not have a lot of moving parts and I think he just has a really impressive feel for the zone and an advanced approach.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm uncertain of how much power he's going to get to in the future.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of that will depend on like how the body progresses and I'm not expecting him to get to above average like 20

[SPEAKER_01]: Like a great outcome for what I believe his spear hitting ability, his on-base skills to be and his short-stop actions.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's a plus runner.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he looks the part at a middle-in-field position.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he has enough arm strength to stick at the position and maybe like the cherry on top of his profile as he's gotten some time in the MLB draft league this summer and he's hit really well.

[SPEAKER_01]: and walks three strikeouts.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have a huge history of the MLB draft league, but I think even just getting that summer exposure is good and seeing those numbers.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I can note, that is the second best OPS in the draft league so far.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's got her skeleton, the top guy, and I'm going to tell her, okay, that's another defensive short stop I really love who I'd be more excited about.

[SPEAKER_01]: So maybe we'll tack him on.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's your bonus player that I like as well for even later.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, Elliot, between everything I just mentioned.

[SPEAKER_01]: The performance in the draft league team candidate is a great job getting their players exposure against pro arms and I think teams have seen him a lot against more advanced pitchers than most high school hitters face and he's acquitted himself nicely.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just think this is a well rounded package for young player who just turned 18 in February.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a well rounded smooth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like this is a player who if he went to pro ball and performed, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him like rocket up list.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like this would be like a breakout kind of

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, it can work the other way, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we have seen a number of,

[SPEAKER_00]: Canadian players, you could argue very much have like more development to go than most because of the cold weather that are left there on side less.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, the flip side of that is is that the Canadian, you know, National Federation that Greg Hamilton puts together kind of these Canadian teams.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's also the lengthy blaze that make a point of coming down to, and they put it into playing

[SPEAKER_00]: You're a child I plan Florida level competition a lot of times.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: They do a really good job.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not as much of like oh, but isn't that taking a risk on a player.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, you've actually a lot of cases seen them against

[SPEAKER_00]: Even just not just age appropriate, but something like this is what we're talking about the drafts like team candidate down there.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's our Canadian team and a Mexican team in the draft league kind of setting this up.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's where it's interesting on that one.

[SPEAKER_00]: This one I've I also think I may have got a chance to write up this one at least at one point when we're doing updates.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, when you say Peyton bonds the up through from Rutgers, we will start with.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not a coincidence that name.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a bond.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is, yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is related to Barry, related to Bobby Peyton bonds.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, son of 11-year pro, Bobby Bond's junior nephew of the home-run king, Barry Bond's, and I think Peyton is interesting because he is maybe a swing change away from being a really impactful player who we would not be talking about as a 100-plus rank commit.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think his toolset in athleticism fits inside the first three rounds.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are just questions about his offensive approach

[SPEAKER_01]: If you watched the combine or saw our coverage of the combine or just looked at our combine sack has leaderboard, there's no question that Peyton Bonds can hit the ball incredibly hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he has plus raw power right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has never hit more than six homeruns in a season.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think there are a few question marks and reasons for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: One is his approach is extremely aggressive.

[SPEAKER_01]: He likes to swing the bat.

[SPEAKER_01]: He expands the zone a lot because of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's going to lead him to suboptimal contact, swinging and suboptimal counts, just getting himself into positions where he's not going to be able to drive the ball.

[SPEAKER_01]: Additionally, when he does make contact,

[SPEAKER_01]: best contact is too frequently on the ground and so for some teams they maybe would just look at those two traits and say no, we don't want any part of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be hard to fix.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do think that four teams who's willing to take a shot, there are really exciting skills to build on.

[SPEAKER_01]: His overall contact rates, his inzone contact rates are pretty exciting to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's a great

[SPEAKER_01]: a really good defender in center field.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, I think he's going to need to improve defensively.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's been a tremendous base runner in his career.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's stolen at a 90% plus success rate in his three years in college.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think there's just this really exciting.

[SPEAKER_01]: athleticism, power, physical combination.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's six with five, 230 pounds.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's a lot to dream on here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you are a team who does a good job with fixing swings or helping players adjust their approaches, this is no brainer to me in terms of like, last Peter Flaherty would have said with us a ball of play to work with offensively.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know he probably used that for pictures more, but I just love the ability to dream on upset here with Peyton.

[SPEAKER_00]: The thing that stands out to me here is it's like you said he is aggressive, but it's not an aggression that leads to high-walk, I mean high-k-rates.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an aggression where he hit, and it's also not something where it's like, well, that's why he hit 270.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a guy who has hit for average.

[SPEAKER_00]: has this year had a, you know, 21 K's in, you know, 36 game to 142 outbats, we don't PAs on their stats for Rutgers, but like, you know, it's a modest, home, you know, K rate.

[SPEAKER_00]: As you said, there's athleticism and he is six foot five to 30 as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're not talking about, oh, this is a singles hitter, you know, and you look at him and go, well, yes, Nick Madder goes probably never going to get to a whole lot of power.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at who he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't hit 20 homers this year, how, kind of thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I do think that again, this is where, this is where scouting gets really fun, is you get to this rate, and you know that you're generally going to be taking someone who there's a reason they're still here, but then you start dreaming of what they can be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, not all of these will turn out, but some of them will.

[SPEAKER_00]: rolling on to the fifth round and names to watch.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, another name that if you have been paying attention,

[SPEAKER_00]: I think for if you pay attention to the draft or you pay attention to the college baseball or both, you're probably going to say yes, I know who Jackson Willett's Oklahoma short stop is another guy from the National Championship team older brother of one one pick last to your Eli Wilts who's gone out and had a very strong start to his pro career.

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I'm going to start with a little different question this time.

[SPEAKER_00]: How is Jackson like his brother and how is he different from his brother do you think as a prospect?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, short stops, obviously.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they both have very well-rounded games.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they are very heavy and stingsual baseball players that you maybe would expect of the the sons of a baseball coach at a high level.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they're both players where it's difficult to point out like a glaring flaw in their game.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do think at the same stage and even now comparing the two, there is a different level of twitch that Eli has that maybe Jackson doesn't have.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is probably the reason that he ranks where he does.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think in some ways, Jackson Willis is like the opposite of a profile of a paint and bonds who we just talked about.

[SPEAKER_01]: The reason why I really like paint and Willis is because Jackson, Jackson wills.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I combine the two, there'd be maybe first round.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Jackson, Willis.

[SPEAKER_01]: I every time I watch him and I said this to Jacob after the first week of the season we got to see him and I was just like, man, I really just come away and press from Jackson's A-B's.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like he never gives away in that bat.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's always competitive.

[SPEAKER_01]: He sees the ball well.

[SPEAKER_01]: I like his takes.

[SPEAKER_01]: This may be his weird to say, whenever I come away from watching a hitter and I find myself liking their takes, I'm very excited about their approach, offensively.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that Jackson Willett has a single above average tool, JJ, but I think he just always competes.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's one of those like, he's greater than the sum of his parts sort of players and he definitely got a little bit more traction after his performance in the college world series.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was the most outstanding player in that tournament.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, and again, I don't know if he sticks at short stop, I think the actions and just the range might be a little bit short for the position, but he's very reliable defensively.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not a burner, but he can move fine.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's instinctive runner on the bases.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he's going to have a ton of power.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's more doubles oriented, but we have seen some of these players in the past who just do everything really well.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if the hit tool,

[SPEAKER_01]: is solid.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that plays.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the lack of explosive tools isn't a limiting factor if you can do everything well.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think Jackson might be the sort of player who does everything well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he can play third-based second-based for you in addition to distance of shorts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he just sticks at shorts up because he's such an instinctual player.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just really think he's

[SPEAKER_01]: He's well rounded.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's safe.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would think about him myself in the second round.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe some teams would look around and say, there's not enough juice here for that, which I would understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, again, you probably have these players where if you watch them for one BP or one game, maybe they don't blow you away.

[SPEAKER_01]: But after watching them for a few weeks, you're like, man, he just always is in the right spot.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's he's making things happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's just a smart baseball player.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll throw a comp for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a fifth rounder.

[SPEAKER_00]: Long

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, who was it Creighton and again I remember writing him up at the time and it was like well-rounded Heady player.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could say that the tools were kind of okay rather than great.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah This is all of us trying to recalibrate to the level like so that's a fifth round pick and I'm sure that some out there are going Nikki Lopez.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that really you're excited about that and it's like well if you look in the 2016 fifth round

[SPEAKER_00]: you should be because that's one of the best players taken in the fifth round.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like that may be, like the other competition for that is Cavend B'sio and Abraham Toro and Donny Walton and guys like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, you know, like I do think that in the fifth round, even in the fourth round, that would not be something where you're like, oh,

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that was just not a good picture.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you're big league career, six, six B-war.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think people might be surprised by if you could guarantee that career, how high a player like that would actually go on the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we're trying to recalibrate the realistic ones.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, even in day one of the draft, when you are hearing names call, and they're like, oh, this guy has, yes, we do hope that some of these guys go on to have Hall of Fame type careers.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you get one or two of those out of a draft, that's a good draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you get three, it's a great draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not many of those in a draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's our fifth round name.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna have sixth and a little bit later around guys talk about two right after another break.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Carlos, sixth round names to watch.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are now talking about, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: The draft we are now on date, we are well in today too now.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where the picks are going to be fly in a lot quicker than they were on day one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, but they're still going to be players who get taken.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a name that you want to talk about here, which I'll tell you this.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you took the aspects of his first name Andrew with a view, and the aspects of his last name Giles as in Brian Giles, outfit or from basic high school in Henderson, Nevada, what is it about Andrew Giles?

[SPEAKER_00]: That stood out to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I would say for this one, I'll just reinforce that we have him as a six round talent.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do think him signing in the six round might be a little bit unlikely because it sounds like he might be a tough commit out of Oregon, so it could take some draft mechanics or maybe just a big oversluck deal to get him here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would be really excited about a team trying to sign him out of that commitment because

[SPEAKER_01]: he has this really instinctual hitting approach and I think what makes what like pushes him further down the board here is probably the tweener nature of his

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't have the loud power or just prototypical size that you would expect for a pro corner outfielder.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that he has the speed or the no doubt defense of a no doubt centerfielder at the next level.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's a solid runner who has turned in 55 great occasional plus run times.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most scouts I've talked to think he'll settle in as a solid average runner.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so like,

[SPEAKER_01]: Everything about him feels like this, not quite fast enough to be a center field or not quite big enough to be a corner outfielder.

[SPEAKER_01]: So teams are very hesitant of those tweeter high school outfield profiles.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think what's going in a positive direction for him is one of the hits left handed.

[SPEAKER_01]: That helps with that profile.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think the high school right right tweeter outfield profile is a little bit sketchier than the left handed hitting one, which jails is.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he has just a very functional swing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, we talked about a couple hitters that I like here who have compact direct swings.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has that well.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has the ability to hit to all fields.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he sees the ball well for his age.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think there are more power here than you might expect of a player of his size.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like he has shown impressive Rob Hauer already in high school from Falpool to Falpool.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think his approach is very much seems geared towards being a hit or first, which means you're not gonna see the power flash as much.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think,

[SPEAKER_01]: seeing the power for his profile is probably something that would give teams a lot more confidence.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I also feel like Jialis is just the sort of hitter who has a strength in the natural hitting ability to where he's going to come into that power naturally as he improves at the next level.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the way I hear Scouts talk about just the swing mechanics that he has right now makes him a super interesting player for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll be really curious as someone like

[SPEAKER_01]: takes a shot on him and tries to sign him out of school because I think it's just really exciting hitting ingredients.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, as you said, again, it's less in that case can be less about round position that is going to be about the amount of money that a team has because of what they've done elsewhere in the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if a team has saved some money elsewhere, then he might be around and you go, okay, we can make this work.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then again, we always say like, if you're taking the 11th round, don't think of him as a 11th round talent, then it's more of like, right, taking the 11th because of the mechanics of the draft where you make that run, but if you don't get it, you're not, you can then take a run at someone else who's your 14th round picker.

[SPEAKER_01]: One proxy I used to and this is more useful after signing day and we have all the bonuses, but you can just sort the signing bonuses and descending order and then look at the slot values and if you see a player sign for $500,000 and wherever around they were taken, you have a pretty good idea that the team viewed that player as a fifth round pick, for example, so that it's almost always just look at the money after the fact, especially for these like big oversluck guys and the five plus round range.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's going to be a little bit in the first round, too, because you'll see guys going to go in the first round and it's like, the other reason they went where they did, hey, you can always say you were a first round pick, but sometimes you do that because a team's like, well, but this player will take X, and that means we'll be able to spin on more later.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, we're going even a little deeper than this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Going on beyond the sixth round, this point where it's going to call it later round names to much partly because we said, we rank it, we rank them out to 500, we do others, but you get down to this level

[SPEAKER_00]: Precision really does kind of slide away.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is something where

[SPEAKER_00]: We try to line them up as best we can, but if a guy on this goes 182 and we have them at 217 or 250 or 320, don't be like, oh, that's a dress steal at that point.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, the buckets of tears get increasingly wide.

[SPEAKER_01]: The further you go down the board and our ability to meaningfully separate players in those tears is almost non-existent, I would say.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll start with one that you've probably heard this name from me before on this is cheese boss status for you This is cheese boss status for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because again, just watched and play defense multiple times and came away saying yep jac lambed in the Duke shortstop can really play defense now The other aspects of the game We'll see we'll see yeah, you know and again like this is also weird now also at the point where This is where the draft is also changed a little bit

[SPEAKER_00]: We are now at the point where when you get down here, even with college players, especially, we won't spend a lot of time hanging on this now, but the NCAA rules that just passed essentially say, for current players, you get to choose the best outcome for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're a player who, it's not going to be a lot of baseball players, in this case,

[SPEAKER_00]: And that means that you want to play to your 24 or 25, you can because you are already in.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the stage is referring to the new five year eligibility rule.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the flip side of that is is if you are in school now and you are under the old system where you've got four, five years to play four if you're registered for a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you've got five to play five.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of the things I think that is going to mean when we get later on in the draft is that there are going to be

[SPEAKER_00]: further down you go on the draft, the more valuable college players will have a real tough decision because when you get in that $152,250,000 bonus range, a school, let's say this offering in some cases these players will be having full rides plus within I.L.

[SPEAKER_00]: That equation becomes a little bit closer, and especially when you throw in that on top of that, now you know that if you're a junior, you actually have two years of algebra left.

[SPEAKER_00]: So next year if you come back, you're not going to be the true senior sign that has no other options other than design.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do think it's gonna get a little more complicated in the back here, but again, I was speaking of Jake Lamden.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's one of the best defensive shortstuffs in this class.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you get to this level, I would say, you get to the seventh eighth round on.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is more about players.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we are at the point where the players have clear the either of one of two things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Either, in most cases, I would say, the younger players, the higher ceiling players,

[SPEAKER_00]: are so far from that ceiling that you have no close to certainty that they're going to get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the big power or the athletic outfielder in high school who but he hasn't put it all together and that's why you know you could say go to school and prove it or we're going to take them now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the college players, this is the college players who have great gloves who can't hit,

[SPEAKER_00]: can hit, but our first basement, can't really play first base.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's those kind of things, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where I think Jake Lime did.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do think that if you said, is this guy gonna hit enough to make it all work?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but if you said, is this kind of field enough to make it work?

[SPEAKER_00]: I would say yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that may be enough to kind of give him a chance to figure it out as a hit or I don't know if you have anything to add on Lambda, but I know you have a guy you wanna talk about too.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'll just echo your thoughts on Atlanta being an impressive defender.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, like how teams are valuing these like org-type players who were just a elite defensive, short-sense, maybe they're a few response for those guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: In mindly ball, but it certainly would be really fun to see him pan out and make strides as an offensive player, purely to see him in a big loop line up making defensive plays.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I do think he is a dynamic and fun defender to watch, but yeah, I want to maybe my favorite player to talk about.

[SPEAKER_01]: In this specific podcast is Gage Peterson, who's a right-handed pitcher at Appalachian State.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think you get the credit for having our lowest ranked player here in this conversation.

[SPEAKER_01]: So could us you JJ if we're really going to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Gage Peterson is a guy we have ranked just outside of the top 300.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he's certainly not a household name by any means.

[SPEAKER_01]: But as I wrote him up and as I talked to Skalton, as I watched some video on him, he was another player who was like, man, if you can get him the 8 to 12,

[SPEAKER_01]: Round range where we have him ranked.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would be thrilled with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, he is a big Physical pitcher six foot five, 220 pound frame with like a physical frame to dream on and also fastball and release traits to dream on.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think What you're buying if you take Peterson is a really exciting fastball and it's exciting not because he's lighting up radar guns.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's sitting ninety ninety four

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's an exciting pitch because even at that below average right hand, it's starter, fast ball velocity, he misses bats because he has elite extension.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has well above average writing life on that pitch.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe he averaged just north of 20 inches of induced vertical break.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's got some natural cutting life to it as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's more than six and a half feet of extension on the fast ball in particular.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's also a pitch that he threw for strikes at a pretty solid clip.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think getting this sort of fastball from this frame for a college starter who actually performed pretty well this spring.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean pretty well might be underselling his line.

[SPEAKER_01]: He started 15 games.

[SPEAKER_01]: He threw 85 innings.

[SPEAKER_01]: He posted a 3.28 ERA.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had a 30% strikeout rate and a 10% walk rate.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think beyond the fastball, beyond the frame, beyond the performance, there are questions about the secondaries.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's

[SPEAKER_01]: There's the makings of solid secondary.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, there's a slider curve ball to change up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they're all fine pitches.

[SPEAKER_01]: None of them are terrible, but I think all of them need to be improved.

[SPEAKER_01]: They need to be developed, having him get to a more consistent secondary to pair with that fastball.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe even see him throw a little bit harder in the future will help unlock him more.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would be really excited if I was a fan of a team that has a track record of getting a lot out of college arms and Gage Peterson was a team that was a player that my team drafted.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I think that's the perfect example of you're talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where we really are in balls of clay, where you're like, okay, there are attributes here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, can we accentuate the develop some of the other attributes that this pitchable need to become a big leader?

[SPEAKER_00]: You got to like that there's a starting point here where you feel really good about one of the key components there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I did want to answer, I just pulled up the great thing is if we've been doing this for a long time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like I just pulled up the 20, our 2022 graph reports.

[SPEAKER_00]: Two, I look for plus defenders.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't look for gold glove.

[SPEAKER_00]: I look for plus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just looking for words here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Plus defenders after 150 infielders, college infielders, after 150.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jack Branigan at the Notre Dame and Jim Jarvis at Alabama.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I say this because, okay, Jim Jarvis has made it up with the braves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jack Branigan's kind of like right there with the pirates.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like these are guys who, here we are, it is five years later, basically.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now four years later, I should say four years later.

[SPEAKER_00]: five season, like, four years later, and both of them are still kind of like, you know, those are neither of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think are ever going to be stars in the big leagues or anything like that, but if you said, well, what did they develop into, you know, these are guys who very much did develop into useful pro players.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, Jarvis Jim Jarvis, 11th rounder, big leader, whatever he does, I feel like he can kind of write that on his success.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so like that's where I do think that when we say like well, what are these, you know, attributes like that kind of stand out like there's a lot to be mind there from looking at past years and all.

[SPEAKER_01]: I also mentioned this at the top of the podcast, and I did have some time to look it up as we were talking, but our number 500 from the 2023 class was Pascanal Ferraris, a short stop at a Western Carolina.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was the 614th pick of the 2023 draft, so that was Mr.

[SPEAKER_01]: Relevant on both our list and the actual draft, and

[SPEAKER_01]: to some fun trivia that again.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's ever going to happen again.

[SPEAKER_01]: If it does, I'll be thrilled again.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will say again, I know that we are the geekiest of the geeky when it comes to the stuff, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But like when you look, like I've got the 2022 master plan up, and you said, well, why do you guys, right, rank 500 guys, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ethan Frey, Ethan Frey, I should say, you know, who's basically Astro's outfiler now was 49 the nine on the 22 master plan when he's still a catcher in Louisiana High School.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Judd Adermarkus had a long college career was number 49B2 out of Charlotte Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph Zwera, I'm going to miss for now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jerwa Zwerba.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just don't even think of the DZ with that one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just Jerwa.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he is just joined our top 100.

[SPEAKER_00]: As the Orioles, he was number 485 on that list.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you can just, again, you just kind of scroll through this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And

[SPEAKER_00]: there are absolutely names who this is the last time that we ever, you know, ever talked about them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that there's not, but you could just scroll through and Pierce George was 439, a high school army who's just a hundred mile an hour dude now in the white socks, the prospects of the bullpen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you could really go,

[SPEAKER_00]: The thing that's also that always is both fun and could drive you crazy is when you get into the list of guys like Brendan Summerhill was number 570 on this list.

[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't make the 500 who ended up being a prominent dude as now a raise prospect.

[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Ferret was that Providence was in that kind of like 570-600 range.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Adrian Rodriguez, shortstop at Puerto Rico Baseball Academy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that is the Texas A-Rot now, is it not like so is the shortstop at Texas now?

[SPEAKER_00]: You can go down and you will see names like even going beyond the, you know, because we do have on a normal year, I'd say we have about.

[SPEAKER_00]: but 1100 names that we kind of have at least put into the day to base for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that age in Roger gets might have been a different one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, maybe in a different one, sorry, you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, uh, co, uh, numbers in our kind of like seven, eighty range, Andrew Fisher, third baseman at Wal Township High School in New Jersey.

[SPEAKER_00]: Colby shows short stop at a Bloomingdale High School in Valorica like again.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are guys that I've just written up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've just written up for top 30s right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, there's again, there's a little, that's what makes this fun.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could keep doing this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could be talking about who are the guys, who are the most interesting guys that we don't currently have on the 500 and we could do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could probably would not be our most well received podcast, but it's still be fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, first of the likes for you, maybe.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, that's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: a little bit of logistical stuff just like we know, you know, the next piece we will have coming up on the draft podcast feed is a staff draft that we will roll out that we did like we did this last year as well, but where we will, we're going deep, you know, we're not going

[SPEAKER_00]: first round.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going beyond that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if we're going to talk about every single player for every that we pick because we're going, you know, long in that, but we will talk about a lot of them and that will be the next draft pod which will be a little bit out of schedule of normal.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to get that up.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think our plan is to have that up Monday so that we'll have that up for the full week to get you ready for the draft and then when it comes to, I say that

[SPEAKER_00]: We try to have this out Friday at 5 a.m. on the podcast, the 9 a.m. on the on the draft feed.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's still going to be our goal for next week, but at the same time Carlos is going to be very busy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be bouncing around.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see if that, you know, we, that's going to be essentially our bonus pod next week, because we will have this staff graph once I'm just saying that in advance, that there's also other stuff that we have.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we'll have a lot, we want so much over at baseballamerican.com a week and by the way, if you haven't checked out this week,

[SPEAKER_00]: We had a mock draft this week that Carlos did.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have draft intel that Carlos did that you should check out.

[SPEAKER_00]: We expanded our senior sign list to reports now for 75.

[SPEAKER_00]: As you are listening or watching this, we have rolled out an update to our high school rankings.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe we have 500 high school players with star ratings as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: so much check it all out at baseball america calm and again also check out Carlos if you're watching this a little bit later you know we will have cars will be on the MLB draft broadcast for the for day one day one rounds one through four yeah and

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna see about trying to do something that night.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who all it'll be, but we've had fun doing some live shows and all we did that with a cultural series.

[SPEAKER_00]: We may see what we can do from a very busy time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I say, I don't know who all will be on it because we're gonna have a lot of people doing a lot of stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Putting the draft and the future's game running at the exact same time is both my dream and my nightmare at the very same time because I wanna pay attention to both.

[SPEAKER_00]: everything, but it'll be a lot of fun.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're looking forward to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anything leading last words, Carlos?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, I think there's a ton of content to get you guys ready for the draft, so definitely check out the site over the next week or so, check out the podcast feed, if you want to write and review the show, that's always really helpful for us, and our JJ is really active on the YouTube comments, so if you got anything you want to ask us, throw those over there, he'll do his best to answer you, but there's just a huge volume of content to produce into consume and hopefully on draft day, you guys will have all the information you need to get a

[SPEAKER_00]: will be taking so i'm ready to get the show on the road it's been a long time coming and i can't wait to see what happens yeah we're we're already starting you know Carlos has been watching the uh twenty twenty seven you know if we have to be uh juggling we're doing a little bit of both because you're cnt a lot this week and i'm i may get out there next day or two be good for me to see you know see those guys uh yeah

[SPEAKER_01]: So, even if we're going to bake, because it's like it feels like a hundred years ago, they're doing all night games, seven innings now, so at least the sun is not roasting you the whole time, but it is warm, but it's nice to be out of the field.

[SPEAKER_01]: But for Carlos, I'm JJ.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a long everybody.