[SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, JJ Cooper Carlos Claus of Baseball America draft podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got to hang out together at the under armor next on American game last weekend Now we're gonna talk draft updates ranking updates that are coming the end of the summer showcase season and also what we saw this past weekend with some of the top high school players were around the country Carlos great to see you

[SPEAKER_01]: How are you doing?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're kind of, uh, we're kind of, it's going to be, we're going to be into ranking upstate season before we know it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, it is in some ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like a year-round thing for us now with our iterative rankings.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're always trying to keep things updated, but we have reached what I would say is kind of a, a dead period in terms of we're, I feel like now officially done with the summer showcase.

[SPEAKER_00]: circuit.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was saying one more of that kind of fits in it right because technically the PBR event is still before we get to know whether whether or not you want to call that fall or summer I guess I would let you go either way but the bulk of this showcase season is kind of wrapped up for us we've seen a lot of players we've been exposed to a lot of players that maybe we haven't seen in the past and

[SPEAKER_00]: Essentially, over the next month or so for me, I'm going to be doing as much reporting and work as I can to make sure our next update for the 2027 class, really reflects what we've seen from players and what we've seen from the class this summer, both on the college and high school side.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's an exciting time.

[SPEAKER_00]: It feels like this is really the first time where

[SPEAKER_00]: You can go back over your notes and really take a longer process and a deeper look at each player and work through them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is really where the class starts to come together in a more detailed way for me personally.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, people like Ben who've been covering this class, this is kind of just an ex-stage for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'd say for me, for you, for the bulk of the industry, most teams don't have a lot of full-time underclass scouts rolling around.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although all the

[SPEAKER_00]: just getting updated with most of their top underclassments.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there are way of these guys, but for them as well, they've got a chance now to really come into this class rested further away from the 2026 draft and start to sink their teeth into the class.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a fun time of year.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is that they're aware of it, but at the same time, there's no need to bear down on it the same way, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: If you know that you have a sophomore in your area who's going to be a stud, you start paying attention, you might see them.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you're not going to be like, oh, I've really got to break down that swing and how it's going to project yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now we're at the point.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a different pace in a different sort of depth level of depth in the reporting at this stage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like you said, we have basically a full year until the draft itself, a lot of these players are going to continue evolving and changing, but it's kind of starting the process of getting all of your evaluation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Starting the early processes for teams and getting their priority guys bucketed, whether or not it's a specific board that's

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, a long way away from the team side, but for us, we do have a board that is kind of up regularly throughout the year.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll be a little bit more particular about how each individual player is lining up in connection with players outside of the area.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just love that process.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for me, Judge Ed, this stage of the year,

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you feel differently about it covering the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: We cover it in different ways, but it's always very refreshing to me at this stage because we're just now seeing the 226 players get their taste and pro ball and it's like, okay, we just spent a full year on those guys and every year I feel like the discovery process, the initial conversations of OD like this picture, verse this picture, how do you compare this short stop to this other short stop?

[SPEAKER_00]: I just love this conversation, I love the process.

[SPEAKER_00]: of building the board and I'm just excited for this next update so.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of with that the logical question we ask is so how much like we came in we already have a full ranking but I do feel like that we should prepare people for the fact of when say how much will this change a lot will change in this ranking because

[SPEAKER_01]: We have, as you said, there's been a lot done over the summer, especially on the high school side.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of the college said to, but on the high school side, you really, the summer before your draft year,

[SPEAKER_01]: doesn't write anything in Sharpie, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: You can still think of this as more like an eraser mate, those old pens that you could erase, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: You can still change your what happens, but it's also not pencil either.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like a lot of what you do this summer, we'll stick with you whatever you do next high school season as well, so I'm the good or the bad, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I would say for different demographics, the summer probably carries a little bit more weight or less weight depending on what position you play if you're in college or if you're in high school.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the most, maybe the most meaningful demographic in terms of how much the summer matters for where teams are being next year is high school hitters.

[SPEAKER_00]: because teams just really value the performance and some of the underlying process numbers that they can tease out from the summer when you're playing against the best competition in the country, especially if you come from a

[SPEAKER_00]: a state or a high school that isn't known for playing the best competition.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a lot harder to read into performance numbers during the spring.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the summer, everyone is on a pretty level playing field and facing the best composition that you really can face.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we saw last year, Jared

[SPEAKER_00]: in the current year class at the time, but what jumped Jerry Grandlinger's stock heading into the spring after he did reclassify and why a lot of teams started to really prioritize him as a hitter was because his summer content.

[SPEAKER_00]: skills were exceptional.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the best we've seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he was one of the top high school players selected in last year's draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think a large part of that is because his summer data, his summer performance was so strong and so good.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the opposite end of the spectrum, you have guys like Brady Harris who entered the summer as a potential top 10 pick.

[SPEAKER_00]: We had him inside the top 10 of our way to early mock draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's one that would like to have back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he struggled throughout the summer he showed a lot more swing and miss than expected he was not the sort of pure hitter That we had seen as an underclassman.

[SPEAKER_00]: He really regressed in that area and If he had a strong spring there's a chance he could have put himself in a position to be drafted But I don't know that regardless of the the caliber of the spring season that he had if he ever would have put himself back inside that top 10 conversation just because the summer

[SPEAKER_00]: kind of buried him a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so both positively and negatively for high school hitters, I think the summer is massively important.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have a decent idea of the players who just stood out at events that we've seen, at events that we've just reported on, heard from, seen the performance is a performance remotely.

[SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'd say that demographic probably should have the most movement

[SPEAKER_00]: that's not to say that pitchers like George Ferguson aren't going to move up as well because certainly every player can move the needle and move their draft stock in some different areas, but I think that just the high school hitters, the weight is probably most meaningful for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the thing I was going to say also with this when it comes to the high school class.

[SPEAKER_01]: the hitters, I do feel like you just kind of laid out.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's more important for the hitters than it is for the pitchers, because what we see from the pitchers during the summer, you're seeing it, but you really are seeing a little bit of, unless you are looking trying to scout the next reliever, which no one's trying to scout high school pitchers like, oh, I think that that guy's gonna be a good reliever in seven years.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not really what you're looking for.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're not generally seeing these pitchers in their full natural environment, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: a little bit artificial.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a showcase season, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like you're seeing them again.

[SPEAKER_01]: We want to keep my company.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was a game Sunday and the goal was there are basically nine guys on each of these pitching staffs who were going to pitch.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you're going to go in handy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you're going to go a little more than anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's not the same thing as where you're going to see in the high school season.

[SPEAKER_00]: absolutely here scouts talk about seeing pictures when they get extended and essentially what that means is they're throwing longer outings.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the summer we will see maybe three ining stints from players who are being viewed as starters on national teams, add events like East Coast Pro, Ericode Games, the starters in those games, they tend to go three innings but for the most part that's the max that you're seeing.

[SPEAKER_00]: throughout the summer you may be turning over a lineup once and because we're dealing with extended lineups where there could be 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 players in a lineup you don't even need to get through a full lineup and still have the advantage of a hit or not having seen you and so the shorter outings allows you to throw harder your average velocity is going to be

[SPEAKER_00]: quite a bit higher than it'll be next spring when you're stressed out and you know you have to work through six or seven innings for a high school starter at this level.

[SPEAKER_00]: You expect them to kind of take the ball and throw the bulk of the game.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so next spring you'll get a much better understanding of how a pitcher navigates that multiple times through the order, how they maintain their stuff over a longer outing into your point.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the summer they are being

[SPEAKER_00]: scouted and evaluated and showcased in a much more limited inings scenario.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they're throwing for the radar gun in a lot of situations.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're seeing much more of the top end velocity more frequently than if you're going to look at a picture who throws one in and say, oh, he was ninety six ninety seven.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next spring when he stretched out, you're probably going to have that average velocity come down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though there are going to be some guys who who take some some steps for velocity wise physical device.

[SPEAKER_00]: I also think.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is easier to, if you missed a picture throughout the entire entirety of the summer, you didn't see him at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is easier to have an accurate evaluation of a picture during the spring than it would be for hitter.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can get a good idea of what he does now, how he projects moving forward, and not worry quite as much about a lack of history, whereas with a hitter, you just need so many A.Bs and so many high quality A.Bs that you probably would feel a little bit more nervous going into,

[SPEAKER_00]: a big money sort of decision on that player heading into the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: So those are all of the the reasons why I think it's more meaningful for the high school haters.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will say for all of the you hear a lot like, oh, you know, the showcase and the tournament schedule and all and how bad it is for amateur baseball.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there is something that is absolutely also true, which is I 100

[SPEAKER_01]: for the draft.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is a lot of improvement in the evaluations that have come from the fact that, you know, this, again, we're now a generation plus removed from when this did not exist.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I remember the story, I've, you know, that I've probably set on the podcast before.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember writing a story about Byron Buxton when he was coming up through the minors.

[SPEAKER_01]: I talk to a lot of twins' officials about him and asking, you know, kind of there on the amateur side, there's got an apartment and asking different scouts, like, what's the best that you all saw by Rimbuxton face?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the best picture he faced at Applin County as high school senior season?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, there was probably one guy who could probably pitch to the Juco, who was mid-80s, I think.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, so if you were trying to evaluate by Rimbuxton, purely off of his high school schedule,

[SPEAKER_01]: you would be like, how do we feel confident taking this guy high?

[SPEAKER_01]: But you see him in the summer against premium velocity.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about, again, what you just laid out, you're seeing these pictures in a lot of ways high school pictures at their very best.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's also the challenge that these hitters face, which is you're getting them at their best philosophy.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're getting their best stuff because they know they don't have to save anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not worried about how what they're going to do against you the next time.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're giving you everything they have right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, before we move on to some of the players to stand out this, I do want to ask on the college side, we have info.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have some players who clearly have adjusted the viewpoint of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let the evaluation be as by what they've done to summer ball.

[SPEAKER_01]: In some cases, what they did, team USA, we had college national team.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but when it comes to, and you've kind of laid out how this kind of creates a little bit of something that we want to make sure that we're adjusting for a lot of these players though, a lot of the top college players in our rankings kind of going to almost a little bit of public hibernation during this time, don't they?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they do, there are a lot of players that we just didn't see very much at all throughout the summer, there are a lot of pitchers who didn't throw at all, I think, just the state of college summer leagues is so unusual these days and so...

[SPEAKER_00]: split in terms of the roster's pre and post draft so players bouncing between different leagues bouncing from USA trials then to the cape like you might not see hitters extended at all you're going to the same as true of pitchers in the summer.

[SPEAKER_00]: With outside of a few exceptions there are not a lot of pitchers who are really stretching out and throwing a ton and so.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's, and for the college players both pitching and hitting the spring is so impactful for their draft stock and you have such a longer, playing time window to evaluate them.

[SPEAKER_00]: The competition level is significantly better than the high schoolers.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do think that for the most part the spring season is going to carry a lot more weight in the past and I think even still.

[SPEAKER_00]: teams are going to value wood bat track record that you have with college players but just because of how the summer has evolved and changed for players focusing on their development and labs, focusing on getting stronger and the fact that the pitching has really just been down in these summer leagues.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do think that maybe

[SPEAKER_00]: The wood bat track record is not quite as valued as it has been in the past.

[SPEAKER_00]: You almost can't because that you're just not getting the same volume of a bat's And playing time and quality of competition.

[SPEAKER_00]: So for me What's what's interesting is like kind of putting eyes on the top players who are at TMSA who stands out in the cape Who who are the big transfers because that's such a a prominent aspect of the college side of the game?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are the big transfers who are moving to power conferences that

[SPEAKER_00]: We're maybe getting a little bit of a teaser for that we should circle on our list as we head into the spring.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking at a guy like Jamie Leskovski, who is a short stop.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to be playing for North Carolina.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've done a really nice job in the past with getting these sort of mid-major players and pulling them into to UNC guys like Jake Schaffner, who would haul from from last year's draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think players like that who who are going out and

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm also a thing of a guy like Jack Omen who was exceptional as a freshman with Yale and maybe didn't pitch quite as good as he did as a freshman during his sophomore year and then there's a baby about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he definitely didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't pitch quite as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you see him in the summer and he looked like the Jack Omen of Old who we were thinking about as a potential top 15

[SPEAKER_00]: player.

[SPEAKER_00]: So with the college players, I don't want to read too much into everything and you also have an upcoming fall evaluation period that I do think is really meaningful.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can see some of those in person, but a lot of that is just like hearing from scouts who are the players who are really taking off, adding velocity, looking good in the fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that's kind of broadly how I would describe the cow I'm looking at the college class and maybe some of the differences

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to dive in now to some of the names of players who really have kind of risen up what we're hearing, what we're seeing this summer, we'll do that right after this quick break.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Carlos, let's kind of get into some of the nitty gritty of this, like we'll give a little sneak peek of kind of, get a lot more reporting to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when you look at our rankings, you look at

[SPEAKER_01]: I do this, you know, when I look at him, it's like, oh, you know, I can't wait to re update these because some of the guys we know are going to move some down.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're a lot of them up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, who are some of the guys who stand out to you as far as, okay, after the summer, this player is definitely going to be climbing when we do our next rankings update.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, three of the high school players, I think we can bucket it maybe into a high school conversation and then a college conversation, but three of the high school players, I feel like you got to see them all at this past weekend at the Under Armour next All America game, so maybe that's a nice, maybe we'll talk about the college players first and then transition into the school players.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's a good way to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's talk about the college guys first.

[SPEAKER_01]: You better listen.

[SPEAKER_01]: But let's talk about, like I say, like a Jamie Laskowski, who was in the cape, his headed to North Carolina, what is it about him?

[SPEAKER_01]: Coming out of William and Mary, a couple years that William and Mary, what is it about him that kind of will probably push him up the next time we do nothing?

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like any time you are leading the list of our Cape Cod top prospects or at the very top of the list, Jamie was number two on that list.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a player that kind of should be aware of and I also feel like Jamie Leskovsky has the sort of profile that we just saw teams massively reward in the draft in 2026.

[SPEAKER_00]: So purely from a demographic and

[SPEAKER_00]: Like innate skill set standpoint, I feel like Los Cowsk is a player who we should be very aware of and very eager to move him up the board if the performance in the feedback.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lawrence it and what we've seen from him at William and Mary for two years is a player who makes a ton of contact gets on base a lot and also had a pretty dramatic step forward in in game power going from two homers and twenty twenty five to thirteen in twenty twenty six layering on that strength with an up the middle short stop profile it sounds like there might be some questions about whether or not he's

[SPEAKER_00]: a better fit long-term for short stop or second base, those are questions that can be answered.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next spring, but anytime you are a short stop at a power conference in particular, the SEC or the ACC, you make a lot of contact.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a profile that you should be very, very careful about missing or being light on.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think, especially after what we saw from 2026.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, a lot of Los Cowsky's profile right now, already reads like Jake Schaffner and Jake Schaffner was the kind of big surprise.

[SPEAKER_00]: First rounder, his pro debut is going pretty well right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a player that I'm super excited about just in general, and I would expect him to be in up era mover.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I will say at this stage as we're talking about all these players.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have like set positions for where they're going to move up now, but we still have a fairly good idea of the players who have just performed in our ranked low enough to warrant pretty significant or notable up arrow jumps.

[SPEAKER_00]: Laskowski would be near the top of that list I would say.

[SPEAKER_01]: A couple things that stand out to me about M1 is that unlike a lot of guys that we talk about the summer, 27 games in the Cape, so like a 115 plate appearances.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're talking about, by summer standards, a pretty large sample to go on what you're using synergy sports data, 11% swing and miss this summer, which is a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of

[SPEAKER_01]: That's tremendous.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's really good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, for a guy who hit for average got on base as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will say you mentioned like it's a hit first profile right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did show increased power last year in the summer with a wood bat, did hit a couple of homers, but it's a very up the middle profile.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a really, if you said there were 30 hits,

[SPEAKER_01]: four doubles, two homers, a lot of singles up the middle, a lot of line drives, but line drives them front of the outfit.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's not behind them.

[SPEAKER_01]: You would say that like if you said like, okay, what are you looking for?

[SPEAKER_01]: What are you going to be evaluating?

[SPEAKER_01]: His power with wood seems to be still something that's on the come more than it is something that he presently has, but as you just laid out.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the part of the profile that we're seeing that teams right now are like give us the hitters.

[SPEAKER_01]: We think we can develop the power rather than give us the power and we hope we can develop the hit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: The next player I would mention here.

[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about Jack Omen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we can just finish the conversation off on him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe he was the top ranked pitcher on our Cape Codless Jeff Ponce.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a really nice job with this list.

[SPEAKER_00]: He ranked number four.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the board, and like I mentioned with Jack, his first year with Yale, it was exceptional, put him on the map, he had a 1.10 ERA over 73.2 innings.

[SPEAKER_00]: That backed up to a 5.53 ERA in 26 or 66.2 innings.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one thing that I like about Jack in both years are the peripherals are really strong.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think his walk rate did jump about 3 percentage points from 6.9.

[SPEAKER_00]: The strikeout rate was pretty similar a year over a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I do think that his jump in ERA is probably a little bit overstated in terms of his actual peripherals.

[SPEAKER_00]: The stuff, his ability to throw strikes in a deep mix that we saw.

[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds like he was exceptional throughout the summer.

[SPEAKER_00]: The stuff was good.

[SPEAKER_00]: The fastballs in the mid-90s.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that a single hitter hit his fastball hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: He throws a slider.

[SPEAKER_00]: He throws a curveball.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's got to change up.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has starter traits and a starter look on the mound.

[SPEAKER_00]: So whether or not it's just, hey, this sophomore year was a little bit, the numbers maybe were a little bit inflated based on like the pure stuff or it's just making some adjustments and getting back to the picture he was in 2025.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's probably a little bit of both in there, but I think it's only encouraging to see what he did this summer also like.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how teams will view this, I'm sure some teams will be bummed to not see him pitching in the ACC or SEC because he certainly had the opportunity if he wanted to transfer out of Yale, other scouts will look at and say, hey, we really appreciate the commitment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just thinking with your program, it's almost irrelevant like what you think about that regardless Jack Oman is a very talented pitcher, he's going to be in the mix.

[SPEAKER_00]: with this deep college pitching class in 2027.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's a guy I could see moving maybe a little bit closer to kind of where we had him in previous iterations of this board.

[SPEAKER_00]: Certainly a player who's going to be in the mix for a potential Versound pick.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would say at this stage.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say also again when you talk about this as far as top to your pitching prospects.

[SPEAKER_01]: probably solve more from him this summer than we saw from almost anyone else as far as And I get not that he was going out there like ten times or he's like that at the cape But going out there multiple times and I would also say though you just kind of hit on it What we just talked about my high school side?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably a little more important for him Pictures can be evaluated throwing against air basically in some ways like the pitches are of the pitches But seeing him in the cape do it probably

[SPEAKER_01]: probably is a little more important for a guy who said like he's going back to the Ivy League, which hey guys can draft it all the Ivy League too, but no one's going to say that the level of hitter competition you're going to face gaming game out is going to be anything like what you see in the biggest conferences.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that probably is a little more important for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think you had one more college guy that you wanted to cover those as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, did.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll Sanford, a right-hand picture at Oregon.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's a name that we definitely want to highlight here in Circle.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he made a significant change this past spring in his second year with Oregon.

[SPEAKER_00]: He moved in the Friday night roll.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the big thing that he improved was his strike throwing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He walked 22% of the batters he faced in 2025.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a starter, that's one of the higher rates.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll see, for starting pitcher even at the college level, he improved it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's still a below average walk rate in 206, but going from a 22% walk rate to a 12.5% walk rate is a pretty dramatic increase in just being around the zone.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think Bo's encouraging for scouts who watched him this summer with Team USA as he was generally also around the zone, especially with his fastball.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think for him moving forward it's going to be hey can you continue to maintain the strides you've already made and then also improve some of the location and strike throwing ability with your secondaries in particular.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the fastball

[SPEAKER_00]: being a reliable inzone pitch is great, and Will Sanford is also the sort of pitcher who has just exceptional pure stuff in an unusual movement combination to where if he is going to be around the zone more frequently, I would expect him to dominate hitters.

[SPEAKER_00]: He did that this past spring.

[SPEAKER_00]: He led Team USA with H strikeouts in official games when they were playing

[SPEAKER_00]: pitcher in the world he's just six foot two hundred pounds.

[SPEAKER_00]: I actually both will Sanford and Angiaco man I believe are listed at six foot exactly but he's been up to ninety seven he has tremendous riding life it's a hammer curve ball that he pairs with that fastball at the bottom of the zone and then he'll also mix in the slider we'll see if he incorporates more of a change up next spring but in terms of power stuff and unique release trades movement trades for the arsenal we'll Sanford would rank towards the top of

[SPEAKER_01]: I think nowadays, if you're a six foot pitcher who has, again, who has that kind of life with your fastball, I don't think as long as teams feel like that you have enough strength.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that they look at that nearly as, I mean, don't look at nearly as, as worry some about that as they used to because you know that that kind of generates

[SPEAKER_01]: a little bit more of an unusual look.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then if you've got your typical six foot three, you know, you know, normal release point kind of guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll probably say this a lot throughout covering this class, but we'll say him for it as a guy who's going to enter the spring with 120 plus innings under his resume.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already got 27 starts even with that straight during background.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think he's already starting in a pretty good place.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you pair that with the summer

[SPEAKER_00]: really exciting to see if like 226 is the new baseline for him or was just kind of one step forward and he's going to take another if he takes another step forward with the command and we're looking at like a sub 10% walk rate.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could be having a lot of conversations about which of these top end pitchers.

[SPEAKER_00]: He stacks up with the knee rank number six on our team USA top 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel that's a pretty pretty loud ranking for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to cover now some of the high school players who stood out

[SPEAKER_01]: So cause we can kind of wrap the hitters here into kind of also kind of our under our armor thoughts, yeah, which was that Camden yards was we're recording this this past weekend and they were all there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think everyone that we're going to talk about now on my high school site was there.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're it's pretty good time, pretty easy.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to have really good video on the YouTube channel because of the odd and you want to see some of these guys head over to the YouTube channel because we wanted to make sure that we have good video of these guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like

[SPEAKER_00]: And we also, I'll just plug the piece that the U and I go off there if you want more of our thoughts on these players and then additional names who stood out to us like JJ said we were both there and we've got a bunch of reports and I think video on every player that we wrote about on the site as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So check out that piece at baseballmerica.com But JJ, where should we start?

[SPEAKER_01]: I was gonna say if there's not video on there was something that we just failed to upload it because I know we have video of every like we have a lot of video every player from this off from in-game for a lot of guys for most of you guys and also from the workout on Saturday.

[SPEAKER_01]: But okay, three hitters.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, okay, there are several, there's a couple of guys here.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's two and a half hitters here, I would say.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I do bring that up because we can start with, okay, the easiest one to say here who'd definitely be rising up the rankings in our 2027 update is Colin Scott because the last one from the top ranked to ranked.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was the 2028.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's reclassified, Ben Badler, you know, broke that story over at baseball america.com, and explained in it kind of Colin Scott explained that, hey, he wants to get to a player.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of one of the reasons for this is as he goes through the

[SPEAKER_01]: He thinks of himself as a pitcher and a hit or he wants to do both, and he wants to do off in college.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, he's kind of indicating, doesn't mean you won't get drafted, but it kind of indicating strong possibility of him going to school, uncompited right now, because he was a 28th and the 28th contact period, started not that long ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I bring that up because obviously he's been one of the stories of some repeating lies.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's touched a hundred miles an hour.

[SPEAKER_01]: You also went for for for in the underarmor game with a double.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was about to say he, the joke, the running joke on future projection with me and Ben is that Ben wants every player to be a two-way player.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, and for eternity, and I want them all to pick aside.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like for Colin Scott last weekend at Under Armour was an excellent showcase of his actual talent on both sides of the ball because we were watching him in batting practice and I'd say, you know, part that that seems to favor lefties for just showing off power.

[SPEAKER_00]: Colin Scott right handed hitter showed maybe some of the best rock power that we saw.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's this big physical six for three, 225 pound kid who just generates a lot of rock power with a ton of ease.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like you mentioned, he's touched a hundred miles per hour on the mound

[SPEAKER_00]: He was up to 98 and in the 96.97 mile-proud range, pretty consistently.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen him with just like tremendous ease at that range in the past as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then adding to the power on the mound, the power and batting practice, he was maybe one of the better offensive performers in this game, four for four in a game like this, is no joke.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a difficult hitting environment, and to see him go four for four, I think you really showed a lot of what he can do on both sides of the ball.

[SPEAKER_01]: other thing I would just bring up is in that that's not an like oh look out you know that that's kind of out of the blue or anything like when you talk about the three hitters we're going to talk about here the two and a half hitters that we're going to talk about here from the summer his statistics again it's not every event but we use synergy sports kind of has doesn't have the four for fourth on our arm in there at least yet but even before that 355444579 this summer with kind of I would describe it as gap to gap power like he has

[SPEAKER_01]: extra base hits to the right center power alley and to the left center power alley.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not really a pull hit or more of kind of an up the middle approach, which is again a good hit or approach.

[SPEAKER_01]: 18% swing and misrate too.

[SPEAKER_01]: So a very solid for especially for a guy who has real power,

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing about him as a hitter, real like, oh, this is a lip service of, oh, this guy thinks he's going to do that, but he's really just a picture who they're going to humor and let him hit, because they want to bring him on to, you know, let him pitch.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh, this guy has real hitting ability, too.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was in for, like you said, the BP was impressive.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that the only thing that you kind of have a little bit less understanding of right now, when you say two way player,

[SPEAKER_01]: because he's such a pitcher, you're not gonna get as many looks.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't get as much work from him as a physician player in the field as you do, not they didn't play, but you're not seeing the same thing of like, okay, here's how he projects every time out as a because you get, if you're throwing in the game, you don't want him also getting a lot of throws at their base or wherever you want to put him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he ranked number 15 on our 2028 high school list prior to his reclassification.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would imagine roughly he's probably going to rank somewhere on the top 50 of our universal draft board, Drake Hop right now is ranked number 53 overall.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's number 20 in the high school list.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not always a one-to-one, the class is very in strength, but I would be a little bit surprised if we didn't see Colin Scott kind of in the top half of this ranking when we update two other players and he said he just mentioned Drake Hop, so just talk to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's a great hop.

[SPEAKER_00]: Drake Hop and other, another probably, this is a hit or only, Drake Hop, the son of

[SPEAKER_00]: For me, maybe the most well-rounded offensive player in terms of showing ability to hit, showing ability to get on base and showing in-game power.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the offensive operation is just really impressive.

[SPEAKER_00]: To me, it's an unusual looking swing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the most fluid left-handed swing you'll ever see.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a bit of this like late trigger action, but,

[SPEAKER_00]: It's extremely twitchy, he has a lot of bat speed, he has easy rough power, I think again, and batting practice, he may be showed some of the furthest hit flyballs in the batting practice round.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if he's a corner outfielder, I think we saw that he had an arm that could fit nicely.

[SPEAKER_00]: right field, it looks like a plus arm to me, and so I think beyond this specific event, just what Drake Hop has done throughout the summer, regularly being in the middle of the lineup, regularly being one of the seemingly most feared hitters that the pitchers are trying to navigate around, showing an ability to hit all pitch types, use the entirety of the field has been impressive to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I imagine he's going to be one of the more exciting offensive players in this

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I would expect him to move much closer into the top 50, then kind of just being on the fringe right now up.

[SPEAKER_00]: His profile isn't one that screams first rounder, unless you're really bullish on the hitting ability and power, and we'll see maybe Scouts will come back and say, yeah, he definitely is because he has some of those corner limitations.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we're talking about right outside of that range, but I think he should be an up arrow guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless at this point, I don't know if you've seen enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: of Drake at this stage to come in as well, JJ, but he's one of my favorite bats in the class at this point.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not as much as you obviously, but at the same time, we should know it also made the T-made USA 18-U-National team where as you kind of laid out, there are very few pure out filters on that team, Drake Hoppe, I think we'll be heavily relied on not just with his bat, but also as someone who

[SPEAKER_01]: is not just an infielder moonlighting in the outfield, but someone who's a real outfielder.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, the profiles of one thing, if you said, like, I think there is kind of a limitation to how high he's going to be up on these rankings, because you are talking about batsl, you know, batsl left throws right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that kind of is, I would say there's always a little bit of indication there of like, what your ultimate athleticism is when you say, like, probably corner after.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, good, you know, could probably write, but like that's there's when it comes to the top of the draft board, we see more high school short stops going at the top that we do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, let me just pull up last year.

[SPEAKER_00]: So last year high school hitters.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our first corner out fielder or corner profile.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're a center fielder, if you're a catcher, if you're a middle-end fielder and I'll even include third baseman here, I think that's a more attractive position than either first baser or either corner out of the position.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jared Grindlinger at 12, I think a bit of an outlier just because the hit,

[SPEAKER_00]: the pure hitting ability in youth gave him such a huge edge for model heavy team.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, Jared Grindler, you're going to go 12.

[SPEAKER_00]: After him, the first true corner profile that we're looking at.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could maybe say,

[SPEAKER_00]: And not even called ProSec.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's drafted a second baseman as catching you're getting into the 40s and 50s now before we get to a true corner out filter.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all short stops through the third round.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd say Andrew Giles at pick 108 in the fourth round to the Pirates, maybe Kevin Roberts.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would put Kevin Roberts in center field and see how long you can play there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Andrew Giles, to me is the first player we get to on the high school side drafted last year who is like, you can look at and say, okay, he might very well be a corner out filter.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think Drake Homp offensively has already done more than Andrew Drows did a year ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that maybe is just to emphasize what teams are prioritizing for their high school bats.

[SPEAKER_00]: They want up the middle players.

[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing I mentioned with Grindlinger, because I would say with him is that it's a little different is, okay, if you bat left, throw left.

[SPEAKER_01]: then the only profiles you can effectively have are you could be a center field profile, you could be a first base profile or you could be a corner out for the profile, but that's pretty much the lid, the list.

[SPEAKER_01]: So this is where I had the two wave factors, well, but if you throw right, then that's a different, if you kind of, I would say there's a clear distinction there between corner out field profile, throw left, okay, well, why are also gonna play versus, throw right, where it's like, okay, that means you've already edge down the spectrum

[SPEAKER_01]: the vast majority of prep players in a class.

[SPEAKER_01]: Speaking of guys who play kind of all over the book place, you know, had that ability.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've seen Malachi Butler kind of bounce around the infield, depending on who else is playing at that time, but I would say Malachi Butler very much fits the profile of what you're talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: of a in-fielder, a shortstop who can also probably like set free.

[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about them on the podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think last week we talked about for 18 use, very probably going to be the third basement on that team, but we've seen him at shortstop, we've seen him kind of multiple places, but what is it about him this time?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is raising him up the list.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is, is that profile question you talk about when you're a short stop and your bat's left throws right, I think that's kind of the ideal sort of situation you want to see.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's young for the class.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be 17 at the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's super well rounded in terms of tool set, power, arm strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't have the best running ability in the world, but I think he's shown a very polished offensive approach.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ability to use all fields, the ability to track the ball, get on base when he needs to.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't swing him a miss a ton.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for me, JJ, I feel like this event, this event's super useful because all the infillters are going through a pro style workout.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so even if you're not getting reps at short stop in game or even if you play short stop, you don't get a ball hit to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: you can see every single player who's playing shortstop regularly go through and in and out defensively and I don't know about you but Malachi Butler to me had the most impressive shortstop in and out of the field which I was excited to see because for so much of my time watching Malachi Butler it's been with Team USA where he's often playing third base because there's so many other shortsobs on that team.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first time I saw him he was playing third base and physically

[SPEAKER_00]: He looks like a typical third baseman because of his size, and so I think early on, I kind of pigeonholed myself into just thinking about him as a third baseman, but I do not think that at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think he has all of the actions, the footwork, the exchange, the fluid movement that you want to see from a big league shortstop.

[SPEAKER_00]: He certainly has the arm strength for the position.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that in particular was exciting to me, and then when he takes a batting practice,

[SPEAKER_00]: professionally minded BP.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's using the opposite field with intent and a more natural ability to go to the opposite field and I feel like most high school hitters show at this level and especially when you factor in his age.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's maybe half a year younger than Drake Hoppe's, but he doesn't look like it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I just think there's a

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a sort of well-rounded toolset and solid performance all spring that makes me personally really excited about Malachi Butler.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I'm sure the questions for him are going to be okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's the ultimate upside?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like are the tools just more 50s, 55s?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are there a bunch of 60s that you can put on the card and dream on?

[SPEAKER_00]: That probably is going to be the question for him, but I do feel like if you're just looking down the list and saying what boxes do you want?

[SPEAKER_00]: Your young high school sure stops the check.

[SPEAKER_00]: He checks a lot of them for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: To go back to what we said at the start about the emphasis on hit tools, um, drag hop again for what we have this summer, 17 and a half percent strike out rate, about 10 and a half percent.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Butler is one of the best I've think that to ball skills, 12 percent swing and miss rate in the events that we have in the in the database, some synergy sports.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's like a really good swing and miss rate.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, it's comes with, it's not a guy who's just a single's hit or either.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is some pop here, there is some athleticism, there is, like you said, the infield actions, all that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, when you say like ultimate profile,

[SPEAKER_01]: even if you're someone who says like who evaluations, I think this long crimines of being a third baseman, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not a, there's nothing about who we just laid out where you go, oh well, that that would be a real problem if that happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would be more like, he kind of fits the profile that you're looking there.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I think he's very much right now someone that you would at least send out as a short stop and then see kind of long term.

[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about, you know, gravy Emerson from last year's grassroots.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to go, I was a short stop, we'll see.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he's a short stop long term.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he's a third baseman, but the best part is going to work either.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that Malachi Butler kind of fits that kind of profile as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I agree.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think so too.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he given every opportunity to play a short stop and if you have to move to third base, maybe you're talking about it and above average or plus defender at the position with a still really well-rounded offensive package.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other one maybe the last block is the most obvious.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say the one that we know,

[SPEAKER_01]: When we do this, we don't, yes, we are iterative in our rankings.

[SPEAKER_01]: We think there's a real value.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've had people yell at me and say that you all just move rankings around just to get clicks.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, no, we really don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we really do believe in the value of regularly updating allows you to try to,

[SPEAKER_01]: both carry what you already knew, but make a judgment.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the other thing we also know from a very good kind of said, but surely practical standpoint, when we reach out to people and say, how do you line everything up, which we try to do if our reporting?

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the things we also know is you get more feedback after you've done the ranking than you do before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some from may notice a player or two, but then you get the full ranking and we get feedback like, oh, I think you're too high on this guy too low on this guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the other value of the iterative rankings.

[SPEAKER_01]: George Ferguson is someone who we know is

[SPEAKER_01]: from the last update to now has kind of changed his profile, hasn't he?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I'll just say once upon the iterative ranking side, just from a process standpoint, I think we've done a lot of, we care a lot about this, obviously, so we've looked into a lot of different aspects, and there have been a lot of studies done in various fields when you're trying to make projections, predict the future, the people who are most accurate are the people who are updating most frequently, and that allows you to

[SPEAKER_00]: incorporate all sorts of different input to readjust your evaluations to change your mind to change your opinion.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not just moving players around to move them around.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're constantly trying to react to all the different pieces of feedback we're getting relentlessly and I feel like the more you do that, the better the product is going to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that is kind of

[SPEAKER_00]: going a little bit behind the scenes in terms of the process for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we just did one ranking a year, there's a lot of players change.

[SPEAKER_00]: The reality of covering baseball prospects is, especially at this age, players are changing rapidly.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're getting bigger.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're getting stronger.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're getting more skilled.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're getting less skilled.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're backing up.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're improving different pitches that they're throwing.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're getting more reps against competition.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're having growth spurts.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're getting in the gym.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're getting new coaches.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're changing rapidly.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to reflect that to the best of our ability and we're never pushing out a ranking that's half baked or we haven't done the work on.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's just a lot of year-round regular work to update these.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I am a full believer in iterative rankings and we'll continue to do so because our product is better because of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully that's what you guys want to see.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah George Ferguson, hammer,

[SPEAKER_00]: him or let me not let me not butcher the names here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's a case for him as a top high school pitcher in the class.

[SPEAKER_00]: Essentially, you saw him in the game.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't able to see the actual game this year at Under Armour.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just saw the workout, but I was very excited for you to see George Ferguson in person, JJ, because the first time I saw him and I believe this was also the case for Jacob at the area, good games.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just really wowed in a big way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for me, it's between Connor Solerna, the left-hand of Pitchrow, North Carolina, and George Ferguson as the top pitcher in the class.

[SPEAKER_00]: What did you see of him in the game on Sunday?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's obviously one inning, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So it was a good inning.

[SPEAKER_01]: But again, it got to swing three.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I have the advantage on you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got to see an inning.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a really good inning.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I would say it's hard you don't want to I got I've watched some of the area code as well, you know, from a, you know, on synergy to kind of understand it as well, but what I would say is if that's not in consideration for the top prep picture in the class, then I won't know what why it's not why he's not right and I say that from the standpoint of.

[SPEAKER_01]: there's not really anything lacking.

[SPEAKER_01]: Someone may then say, well, you just talked about Cole Scott and Cole Scott throws, not a ton harder, but he throws harder than George Ferguson.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I would say when it comes to kind of what you just said, like,

[SPEAKER_01]: the control, the command, the secondaries, I would say that they're a little further along right now from what I saw, then colonists, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not that colonists got, can't get there anything like that, but George Ferguson, you're, I would just felt like, which, not shocking one of these guys just reclassified, I would say that he's a little further on.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we saw that obviously, would we talk about Team USA again?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like we saw this,

[SPEAKER_01]: When you talk about them kind of putting together their, you know, their 18-year team and all as well, like Ferguson was really good there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Scott was, I would say good, but then like you said, I think you mentioned on the podcast last week, it phase two, you know, he was not as sharp.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, very scattered.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like the peer stuff and the ease with which the ball canner is hand was obvious.

[SPEAKER_00]: But George Ferguson was a much more advanced peer pitcher.

[SPEAKER_00]: What what stood out to me when I saw him at USA again.

[SPEAKER_00]: I saw him for a little bit more extended than the US on three innings and so maybe chance to see more of those second areas But I felt like his fastball was obviously plus at the time was 95.

[SPEAKER_00]: 97 touchdown 98 I think that's a similar velocity range to what you saw in his first inning, but then his his change up was Just such an obvious plus pitch to me right away

[SPEAKER_00]: throwing it at 87, 89 miles per hour, a ton of power in a ton of movement at that power.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like it's rare to see high school pictures throwing a change up near 90 miles per hour.

[SPEAKER_00]: In general, when they do, it's typically more of a firm kind of straight change up, that there's not a lot of visual difference between the fastball and sometimes that can be beneficial just because maybe it's a little bit more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Disaptive, maybe the hitter can't pick up on the the difference as much, but this one has this perishooting Diving action to the point where I was wanting hey, this is like an actual splitter.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it is He's just able to generate a ton of vertical movement with the pitch.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got a lot of swing and miss.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got a lot of ground balls and then you also showed

[SPEAKER_00]: potentially above average, maybe also plus in the future breaking ball, another pitch with impressive power for a high school secondary in the mid 80s, really impressive glove-side sweep at times, it's already an effective right on right chase pitch and so you're looking at a a pitcher who's up to 98 miles per hour, throws a lot of strikes with the fast ball, has

[SPEAKER_00]: people are going to nitpick the delivery because it looks a little bit unusual.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you had any thoughts on how the delivery worked, but if he's on time he's throwing strikes, he's got a full arsenal.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of what you need to do and there are a lot of different pitches at the big leagues who look a little bit different.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't think there will be something to sell against him too much.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you say, look a little different, I always kind of want to follow it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is there something about it that not just looks different, but creates a potential problem, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like correct.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you say it looks different because he's cutting himself off, it looks different because it's arms not on time.

[SPEAKER_01]: It looks different because there's massive recoil at the end.

[SPEAKER_01]: Things like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's really short even like if you said it's like it's really short in the back They're just aren't a whole lot of starters that you see in the major leagues not that you haven't seen any Lucas Gielito reworked his delivery to be really short in the back But those are things where I'm like, okay, you're now going beyond it's unusual to This is a potential concern.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't get anything of that, you know with first at least so far

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have that either.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be curious if in any conversations with scouts more like in-depth pitching analysts if they have anything to say about like some maybe bread or yellow flags in the delivery.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it mostly just a little bit of an unconventional look and for me I'm trying to get get beyond.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think in the past I've been a little bit too critical of deliveries that look unusual even though like you say nothing about the deliveries preventing them for being on

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm trying to be a little more open-minded for that moving forward.

[SPEAKER_01]: But they aren't think I've said that is as you hit on it, I think I'll good way to evaluate too, which is if you see unusual and the guys all over the place and he's missing arm side high, one pitch and then he's missing, you know, gloves side down the next and it's really scatter shot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, then you have an indication that he's troubled, this pitcher's having trouble repeating.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're repeating and you're able to do so time after time, again, that's a, you've kind of a removed at least some of that concern because that's what deliveries are supposed to be able to do is get you into a place where you can release the pitch from the same spot over and over on time as far as synced up with your delivery to where you're not causing a lot of control troubles come from an inability to do the same thing over and over.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you look at him where he is right now and we look at, I think it's useful to kind of have a bigger picture.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will say, his change up so good.

[SPEAKER_01]: It actually is a little bit worrisome to me, because while that's great, I'm gonna sing like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I expect, I expect a prep picture with a great change up who throws up to 98 to Dominique.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because,

[SPEAKER_01]: even the best high school hitters, they're not used to seeing that combo together.

[SPEAKER_01]: We see this over and over, even in the minors, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can dominate the low minors if you they're hard and have a good change up and can land a good change up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because no one, that is a,

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a really advanced skill for hitter, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: A hitter who can handle that usually is not found in the lower minors or an amateur baseball.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are found in the upper minors, or especially in the major leagues.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you have that skill, you're probably a really good hitter.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not a knock against Ferguson.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just saying, I expect him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you said, who's more likely to dominate?

[SPEAKER_01]: A fastball, great change up, right hander in high school

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that those hitters are really more used and they really want to face more of like a nasty slider off of the fastball because that's kind of almost like that's the challenge that are looking for.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're geared up.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're, you know, everything's in hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whereas if you have that change up off of it, they're really, they don't want to face that.

[SPEAKER_01]: They really hate seeing that change up of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would be more concerned if this was a case where George Ferguson didn't have a track record of throwing a good breaking ball.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he was always a fastball change of picture and it was maybe a natural pronator who just couldn't spin them all well.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in the past, Ferguson has been a fastball breaking ball forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: pitcher he can throw the breaking ball with power he can spin it at above average rate as well and so because that aspect is not An element of concern for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just mostly excited about like the fully realized three pitch mix already So I don't think it's a situation like Gary Morse from last year's class right in a pitcher out of orange Luther and he was a very change up forward pitcher and his breaking ball

[SPEAKER_00]: There are real questions about his ability to spin that pitch so I don't think it's a like a spin capacity question with which George Ferguson I just think he's a really talented really well-rounded pitcher

[SPEAKER_01]: One other I do want to bring up we wrote about him, but I would say like it was notable because Chub Jones came into the summer as one of the top pitching prospects in the class, and it's been a pretty uneven summer.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's been a lot of control problems.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was good to see he was easily, and I haven't seen him that many times this summer, but he was easily the best I've seen of him, the most important thing being that he threw strikes, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He basically went out there

[SPEAKER_00]: which in this game, that's getting extended and then showcase game like this to innings.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and he, and again, he was throwing strikes generally.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying there weren't misses, but when he had a miss, he would then respond to the next pitch by being back in the zone, which is much more kind of looking to see.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I did want to bring that up as a guy who, you know, it's been a little bit uneven at times.

[SPEAKER_01]: The other one that I just wanted to bring up,

[SPEAKER_01]: because I knew when I saw the thing I loved about this event, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is I love the rare cases where you get to be an event and you're, if not you're scouting fresh, you know, you're watching fresh, you're evaluating fresh, that there are players who you know much less about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, I'd seen a lot of the guys already.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've read our reports and all.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when it comes to a loop in Rinkone or even a Derek Vesquez who is for the next time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I knew with those guys were coming in, but then to see Jordan Griffin who's running back size, he's five foot nine, a hundred and ninety pounds and built.

[SPEAKER_01]: But to see the speed, but also to see the hitting ability that I like to see yet a good game as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's always fun for me when there's a guy who I think I've literally saw him his first round of BP and then just kind of peeled off to go find you and it's like, I really like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what you did.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so definitely check out our piece at baselamerica.com for full notes on the baseball factory game in particular, and obviously we'll be in the works updating our 2020 SamDraft board, our high school board, our college board, all that in the works after we get off the show.

[SPEAKER_00]: So.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is the Baseball America Draft Podcast for this week, Carlos Glyza JJ Cooper.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I really do.

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