[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: JJ Cooper Carlos Klausov.

[SPEAKER_01]: Baseball America draft podcast, and we are starting a series today.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna look back at some recent drafts.

[SPEAKER_01]: What do we learn from them?

[SPEAKER_01]: What do we remember from them?

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're starting with 2017.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're starting 2017 for a key reason here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Carlos, I will kick it to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why are we starting with 2017?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we're starting with 2017 because this is the first, my first official draft with baseball America.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if we can count my 2014 intern year when I was doing this.

[SPEAKER_01]: There were a Clinton intern.

[SPEAKER_01]: You were the Clinton intern that doesn't count to some level.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at least watch the draft in 2014 in the B.A.

[SPEAKER_00]: office.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in 2017, I came on in March.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was very late in the draft cycle as week over the draft that baseball America might be right at the start of the draft cycle for most people who follow the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for us, that's coming in very late.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so this was kind of me learning the process really in a full-time capacity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Back then, Hudson Blinski was our lead draft writer, John Manuel, was around.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was very involved in the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually funny now.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was looking back at some of their pieces around this draft class to try and refresh my memory on like what our perception was of this 2017.

[SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me, class and seeing by-line,

[SPEAKER_00]: mock drafts from John and Hudson was funny now.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if we ever had maybe for the first year in 2018 Me and you did some violent mocks.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I've ever I've never that is a challenge that I have quite willing to never undertake I mean, you know, because it is it is so like

[SPEAKER_01]: I was deeply involved on the talking to scouts, going to, you know, like I saw a lot of the guys that previous summer, all that, in a what can I do to help kind of roll, but right.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when it came to doing mox, I had, no, that was a, that was Hudson and John, and then it was, was it you and, you know, like a minute with all of the sudden, it was you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think you, yeah, if you weren't helping me on those initial mocks, it was just a me Yeah, I was going to get on for it, but I was never being like, oh, I need to put my name on one of these.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, you could do that Yeah, we'll give John and Hudson credit their final mock did have the first four correct They went Royce Lewis, Hunter Green McKinsey, go our brand of a K and their first miss Fittingly enough for this conversation Austin Beck and we'll get into that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we're gonna talk us to back

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna type plenty of awesome back.

[SPEAKER_00]: But do you remember your perception of the 2017 class?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean for me JJ

[SPEAKER_00]: It was, it's kind of funny because I saw in-person McKinsey Gore that spring and Austin Beck who were the top North Carolina prospects.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were both kind of consensus top 10 players in the class.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both went in that range.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember watching McKinsey Gore absolutely dominate and then I taught him after that outing and he was so pissed because he let up like one run and I think two hits.

[SPEAKER_00]: Neither of which were squared up and he was absolutely fierce and I was like, oh, I thought you just look great.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the more fun high school looks I've ever seen of a position player as an absolutely loaded field of scouts.

[SPEAKER_00]: He hit two home runs, a double, shut off the arm, it was tremendous bat speed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember it was a pivotal spring for Austin back too, because he was injured, he had an knee injury, I believe, and didn't play much the summer before.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I was convinced Austin back had to be a star because he was just a tool-shagalore and absolutely dominated his high school pitching.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't really have too much of a memory of how we were reviewing the strengths of this class at the time, it felt fairly muddled at the top.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure there was the conversation about, oh, Hunter Green is one of the top players in this class.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've never seen a high school right-hander go first, and we had this conversation just a few years ago with Seth Hernandez.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what's your memory of the class and how we were kind of viewing it at the time?

[SPEAKER_01]: I felt like, okay, it was a very prominent high school class, because we had 100 rain, we had McKenzie Gore.

[SPEAKER_01]: You had a number of these guys here at the top, that we talk about Royce Lewis.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was viewed as, I feel like a very solid high school class.

[SPEAKER_01]: The college class, I would say like, it was like that there was a clear delineation, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there was Brendan McKay who was a star.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you had Kyle right kind of who had who kind of fit all the boxes that you were expecting to see in a top of the draft pitcher, you went to Vandy, he was Vandy's ace, he threw hard, he did all the kind of the things that you kind of expected there and then after that it was like, okay, this feels a little more muddled after that college side.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we ranked the top five, just so I remember how our rankings were, we had 100-1, Kyle Wright, too, bread and McKay-3, McKenzie Gore-4, and then Royce Lewis-5.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say, like, we're going to get into this, like, when you look at it now, but the benefit of effectively 10 years, I would say the most important thing that we didn't know you had, like, this was going to be like, when you get to 20,

[SPEAKER_01]: 19 or so, 1819, I feel like that this was a little bit of a, we were coming off of we had the we had the Acunia, Otani, Tatis, Vlad Jr., we had this kind of wave largely of international players.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like this was a little bit of a draft route is the way I would describe it, where we didn't know at that time, but you look back, I mean, 2016 draft is a truly barren draft, especially when you look at that first route.

[SPEAKER_01]: That first round for 2016 the year before was just ugly, and we're gonna get into this further, but on the heels of that, to have this 17 draft where I think this is probably a good way to jump into this,

[SPEAKER_01]: What about on the college hitter side?

[SPEAKER_01]: Where did we have guys ranked?

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so our first college hitter was Adam Paisley, number 8 overall.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was the only college hitter we had ranked inside the top 10 if you're not including Brendan McKay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, you could have used to include him as one of the better two way players who are seen in college.

[SPEAKER_00]: At 12, we had Evan White.

[SPEAKER_00]: At 14, we had Kess and Hira, second baseman, and then at 15, we had

[SPEAKER_00]: first baseman so as we're kind of running this back and mentioning them you've got two first baseman a second baseman and a light hitting I would say at college outfielder not a super appealing group just purely on demographics wise I can go a little bit

[SPEAKER_01]: base was in quotes with Keston here, like even like the reports at the time were like, we don't know if you'll be able to play second base.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe we in fact actually listed him as second base slash LF because we thought there was a decent chance that he would end up in a corner outfield spot.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a

[SPEAKER_01]: That is a really, I would say that that kind of left a mark.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you'd like to go back to our full top 10, 100 green cow, right, run the McKay McKenzie-Glor, Royce Lewis, J.B. B.B.

[SPEAKER_01]: B. Koskis, Joe Adele, Adam Hayesley, or Austin Beck, and Alex Fadeau.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, that's June 1st.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm looking at the wrong one.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you have the full one, I believe, because I think that's the mag issue version, which maybe is the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was some uncertainty with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say even at the top, like one thing I'll say, we also, this was a two-way guy draft, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because under Green was, we had listed his RHP slash shortstop.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this was, I don't want people to forget, like he was a absolutely legitimate shortstop prospect with real power even after the first hit.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he didn't pitch.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you're on talent.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you had Brandon McKay, who was a true two-way player, really a lefty DH, a little bit of first base at Louisville.

[SPEAKER_01]: But like, was again seen as, if you said that Brandon McKay couldn't pitch, I don't think he's going top five, but he would have been a potential first-round talent as a hitter.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I will even say like, Joe Adele was always going to be an outvitter, but Joe Adele did pitch some of that year and he was, you know, he had, got a premium arm, it would have say at least.

[SPEAKER_01]: who kind of had that merciless.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I do the other thing I think those kind of work for remembering at the time was, is that 100 green also, 100 green was,

[SPEAKER_01]: was throwing a hundred at a time when a high school pitcher throwing a hundred was a absolutely unusual shocking thing and he did it and he was doing it we'd had we'd had Tyler Cole like you know and Riley pint and Riley pint but he did it in a different way than those guys it was not that super effort full all out it was much more easy graceful athletic

[SPEAKER_00]: the deception of Hunter Green's festival because he threw quite hard but it was so easy that it actually got hit around a lot more than scouts were expecting to at the time and so there are questions of like okay how is that going to play in pro ball if it's not missing as many bats as we expected to right now the other thing that jumps out to me about this class as we're talking about it and I personally love it because the high school pitching

[SPEAKER_00]: is one of my favorites and I feel like an under-undered drafted just in terms of like the talent.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you look at the top five players by war just in the first round, three of those top five players are high school pitchers, 100

[SPEAKER_00]: Green is first followed by Trevor Rodgers who went 13th overall to the Marlins, then you get Brent Rooker, Tanner Howe, on the collar side, and McKinsey Gore, who was third overall to the pod raise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those are your top five players in the first round.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just on B War so far, and we'll see how their careers continue on.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I guess two of those aren't surprising, but what is notable is none of the other kind of consensus top five players are in that grouping.

[SPEAKER_00]: have some kind of surpass what both Brandon McKay and Kyle Wright, who probably then, and even now, in recent drafts, we will say, okay, those are the safer profiles.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to go with those guys, close to the big leagues, less chance to get injury, less less of a projection needed on them, but they both come into their own and pitch like at least middle rotation and for a hundred green and particular, like top of the rotation type arms that they're best.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I want to get to.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to talk about Brennan McKay and Austin Beck, and kind of the section we're going to have in each of these lookbacks is what it will be learned from this.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get into that right after this quick break.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Carlos, let's start with Brennan McKay.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you say like, what have we learned from this draft?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a lesson that I would love to say you don't, you don't want to be true, but it kind

[SPEAKER_01]: The Brendan McKay story is one, the raised draft at him, he wanted to be a two-way player.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the raised were all on board with him working as a two-way player.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, he had the perfect profile to do it in some ways, which is starting pitcher, DH first base, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So you can do that in a way where every time we hear of, oh, he's a short stop slash by the hand of pitcher.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't make that work.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, you can try all you want.

[SPEAKER_01]: You, there's no way to say he's going to pitch and he's gonna play shortstop.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those two things don't work together, arm care-wise.

[SPEAKER_01]: First base, DH and left hander, you would say, okay, if you're gonna line this up, you're gonna start a game every week, and that's what they did in the minors, as a pitcher, and then you're going to take days off, but then you're gonna hit, and you could be a DH, and you could be a little bit of first base, and how many throws do you really make it first base in a normal day?

[SPEAKER_01]: would seem to be set up and this was a thing that the rays were doing Tanner Dodson is around this era too.

[SPEAKER_01]: The rays were embracing I would say kind of developmentally the idea of developing two-way players.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say that Brendan McKay's story, Journey, is kind of why you don't see teams doing this as much developmentally.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know we still have a couple of arrangers

[SPEAKER_01]: Brett and McCay, injuries basically utterly derailed his career.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say it's the way to say it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like we don't know, but like it was a shoulder injuries, lost time, then we came back, the stuff just wasn't the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you had it to do all over again, like I do not, no one could ever know if the wear, physical wear and tear, the fatigue of doing both was a part of this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Brennan McKay's success, Brennan McKay as a first baseman, you're kind of hopeless, you be okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: You be a, an okay starter, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Not a star.

[SPEAKER_01]: The hope was you was going to be a star lefty.

[SPEAKER_01]: And who didn't throw all that particularly hard at the time and then we lost the stuff a little bit, then it became a much more challenging thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think that Brennan McKay's path to like kind of being derailed by injuries, discouraged teams from kind of going down this path further?

[SPEAKER_00]: I would imagine so, and I also think the Brennan McKay career path is why even when Jack Kegleon was coming out of Florida, why I was so skeptical about the fact that he was a legitimate two-way player.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had the outfield position element to his game, even though he played first base plenty in college.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just think more than anything

[SPEAKER_00]: Shoheotani is just an outlier and because we're even seeing with Shohe and I was 32 years old now, he did have three seasons where he threw over 100 things, but we're even seeing with Shohe where the two way factor is just challenging for him to do, to stay healthy and to manage that workload, even for him it is a challenge, it's something that he hasn't been able to do consistently year in and year out full time.

[SPEAKER_00]: really it reinforces me that baseball is a sport of specialist.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is incredibly hard to succeed as a hit or a pitcher if that is the only thing you're doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I really do think Otani is the outlier who sort of proves the rule.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think teams should

[SPEAKER_00]: waste development time, waste the health of players, trying to do it both ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just think it's so difficult and the odds of you making it in either action or so low, tack on both to it, you're only adding more opportunities.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're really adding more opportunities, like you said, for overused injuries, especially if it's a sort of bubble Chandler Mason win.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how frequently Mason win is actually pitching when you got into pro ball.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's a pretty quick switch, but even

[SPEAKER_00]: where he was hitting, he was playing shortstop, he was kind of juggling both, and just the armcare and the maintenance you're talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: The amount of throw work catch play that you have to do as a professional pitcher, I think is probably more than people expect.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's much more than just the official innings and pitches.

[SPEAKER_00]: that you're seeing show up in the game logs and the box scores.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's tremendously difficult.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a hitter, you need as many ABs and reps as possible.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a pitcher, there's just so much that goes on behind the scenes, getting your body ready to throw, just adjusting to the pros schedule.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're only a pitcher going from, let's say college, college to the program, you're throwing more frequently.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're expected to throw in a longer season, so that workload alone is a big jump.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then you're adding on all of the stuff you have to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Offensively, the reps unit is a hitter, the reps you need defensively, or you're doing a lot more defensive work as a position player and pro ball.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do think that this is why I am always extremely skeptical of

[SPEAKER_00]: two way players continuing that path in probably.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think in high school, it's great.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's great for you to be a national athlete and to get reps. And at that stage, who knows what side your future is going to be on.

[SPEAKER_00]: There have been plenty of players who were two way guys, Austin Riley, Michael Harris, two notable ones with the braves who I expected.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the general scouting consensus was that they were going to be pitchers.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so in high school and in college,

[SPEAKER_00]: Basically, all the best high school players in the country can help their teams on both sides of the ball and in college.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're good enough, I think the scheduled demands, the pitching demands, in just the differences in the game can allow you to do both at a high level, so I'm fine with it there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But once you get into pro ball, I really do think we've seen enough players who are over-tounds at on both sides who have just failed or not been able to do both that I feel like

[SPEAKER_00]: It is pretty important to kind of figure out where's your where's the upside coming from are you better on one side or the other.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where do you need more reps on and kind of focus on those areas.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do feel like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Show Hayo Tony is a generational player for a reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was not a harbinger of things to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the two-way side, a showe of Tony existing does not make the path any easier for players just because he's doing it, and I think we really should be hesitant about putting like two-way likely outcomes on anyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we'll get a generational player in a few decades, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Austin Beck is the other what I would say when I say what things we've learned to lay at you just kind of laid it out this, but I don't think a player of Austin Beck's profile has a chance to go top six, top seven today, just because of as you write out, like this is a guy who

[SPEAKER_01]: I think partly because of the Austin backstory to be honest is kind of what I think has taken teams off of this, but it's a little bit more data driven out.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was a, again, we love Scouts, but this was a, this was a difficult evaluation because as you noted, Austin Beck,

[SPEAKER_01]: I won't say they came out of nowhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like people were like, who's Austin Beck coming into that spring.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you had was known.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was known as an, so I could just read the first three lines of our draft report at the time and it'll give you good context.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I believe it was a Hudson at the time, Rowe.

[SPEAKER_00]: As an underclassman, Beck was a known commodity for Carolina, Eris, Gauss thinks to travel along his own high school team.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then, Beck tore his left knees ACL.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just as a junior year came to a close and missed the entire summer and fall as a result.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Scouts went in to see Beck hit in the cages during the winter,

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we go into just the the number plus and plus plus tools he has in his card, but yeah, so this was a player who went from nowhere near the top hundred players in the class coming into spring to a top ten type talent by draft day and

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I do think you're again, it's unfortunate for Austin back, but he is a cautionary tail.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Went out that year is 17 and hit 211, 293, 349 and the AZL, okay, you know, adjusting to Pro Ball next year in 18296, 335, 383 and the Midwest League, which was low at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: The year after that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's best still in Pro Ball right there.

[SPEAKER_01]: the year after that, Cal League 251 302 for 11.

[SPEAKER_01]: In 20 year old in high A, it is the Cal League.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a great year.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I would say like, it wasn't something where he had completely gotten the bat blown out of his hands, but you weren't seeing the tools that we talk about.

[SPEAKER_01]: you know, here, like really be evident in S, and then COVID hits last year, and really after that, like it really kind of like, 1.98, 2.51, 3.69, the following year, a little bit of the injury issues as well, start to crack in.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's done basically, 22 is last year with the A, he has a double a year with in 24 with the Dodgers, and that's kind of his last time, in affiliate

[SPEAKER_01]: What I would say is, is that this goes back to something that you and I talk about a lot on this.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll kind of kick it to you on this, which is, there is a lot of value to the showcase season, especially when you talk about a guy, like when you talk about Austin Beck, if you said you was playing in the CIF in,

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he was playing at Orange Lutheran.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was playing at Huntington Beach.

[SPEAKER_01]: You would be able to say, okay, we didn't see it during the summer, but I've seen him five times against, you know, premium talents this spring.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's just not gonna happen at North Davis in high school.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's not.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we're recording the podcast today on the site, we had a team of high school summer circuit all stars go up and what I try to emphasize in that piece is just how critical this period is for the hitters in particular, because like you said, when you're competing as a hitter over the summer, in a lot of these big national showcases, travel wall tournaments, all star games, you're facing the best pitching in the country and what you do in that time period is just so telling in terms of the

[SPEAKER_00]: the pure hitting talent that you have, the contact rates you're able to manage against elite pitching.

[SPEAKER_00]: It puts everyone on the same sort of playing field in terms of high-level competition.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're coming from an northern state where you don't get a lot of reps, if you're coming from a bad air of the country where you're really not facing velocity, much at all, it's just super useful in forming scouts like, hey, can you hit high quality pitching or can you not?

[SPEAKER_00]: Austin Beck missed that most critical window of his high school evaluation career.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's four players who were taken inside the first round, who did not make the major leagues.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who was the only player in the first 21 picks to not make the major leagues?

[SPEAKER_00]: The other three who joined him after that are Logan Wormeth at 22, John Kendall at 23, then Chris sees at 29.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think the lesson really is you can't go inside the top 10 as a high school hitter if you don't have any sort of track record.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even as a

[SPEAKER_00]: immensely athletic tools the up the middle position player because Austin Beck was a centerfielder who ran at a high level he had a tremendous arm yet tremendous for all power just that hit piece is a huge quest mark and I remember also being a question mark for Joe Adele in a different way because Joe Adele was on the circuit but he had a huge swing and miss questions he had a lot of strikeouts on the circuit and then being back during the spring and he dominated bad competition so I remember that being a kind of a conversation piece as well

[SPEAKER_00]: spring against bat performance make up for the five that he did struggle on the summer circuit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you look at Austin Bex, mildly career, he had three stints where he was a league average or better hitter if you're looking at WRC Plus.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was that 2018 low-a season, which is I think is best in it because it was the biggest volume of games, 123 games.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had a 104 WRC Plus.

[SPEAKER_00]: The strike out right, I'm circling

[SPEAKER_00]: Then in 2022, he had a four-game stint in the complex league of accounting this, the WRC plus does clear the 100 threshold, the strikeout rate is below 30% in the stretch, and then his final one, 2024, AA with the Dodgers, he did nearly get over 103 with a 35.1% strikeout rate, and that's largely because he was tapping into that power with a little bit more frequency.

[SPEAKER_00]: But outside of that,

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a huge struggle for Austin Beck, and I do think the lesson is to go in that range, at least there are plenty of players who go lower in the draft with either bad or no offensive track record in the summer.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that high, you have to be very, very careful about taking the high school hitter.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, the other thing, the other two guys, I think that we should talk about as far as lessons learned in all is,

[SPEAKER_01]: I would summarize this as you can't force that everyone wants to have college bats at the top of the draft college bats or say, college bats or say, when we talk about Adam Hazley, when we talk about Paven Smith, who were really prominent bats pop bats in this class.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those are two others that I would bring up as saying I don't know like,

[SPEAKER_01]: the game has changed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, like, and I do think it's, it's one of the things that's tough.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got to remember about this is is 2016, 2017 college baseball, very different environment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we were, we were out of,

[SPEAKER_01]: the worst of the adjusting to the new bats where like we have the crisp Bryant year where it's like crisp Bryant hit homers and no one else in college baseball did, we're not there anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a year that Jake Adams hit 29 bombs, Nico Holsizer hit 27.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're not there, but at the same time, we're also not in an era at this point like we are now where everyone in college baseball is hitting for power.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was kind of the question with both Paven Smith and Amhazely.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say it was kind of that, with the way I would describe it, I kind of want to ask you kind of like what, you know, like that, they were, okay, maybe they're corner profiles, maybe they're like, it was, I felt like that they were like in hindsight they were, but I felt like at the time there were little hints there that these could end up being tweeners.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what are your memories or what, especially now, what we've added to it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Since, yeah, both of them, you look at their profiles now, and they just don't have the typical sort of tool sets, or the tool set and kind of defense of profile combination that you would think of as a top 10 pick in the class, both them going seven and eight.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, even for college players, like Adam Hazley always felt like a little bit, and I hope I'm not doing too much like hindsight coloring of my views on the player at the time, but Adam Hazley was this very well-rounded player who you were hoping hit for above average pure hitting ability and stuck in center field.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think even at the time, there are some questions about whether or not he was fast enough for good enough defensively to stay in center field.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if he moves to a corner, then the sort of power question that he always had,

[SPEAKER_00]: is something that becomes even more of a concern with his game.

[SPEAKER_01]: David Smith, I was just going to know, are right up at the time said that he, you know, he could stick and center as a pro, but may slide to a corner, which translation is normally when you read that is, he has a chance, but he's going to have to really work at it and get better at it to be able to stay there.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that was a right up at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Paven Smith, I think for a large stretch of the spring and maybe even the entirety of the spring hit more home runs than strike house, but I think that was more representative of the fact that he didn't strike out a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was not he was some huge home run hitter.

[SPEAKER_00]: He did have one of these sort of odd.

[SPEAKER_00]: profiles for a first baseman.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a really good defender.

[SPEAKER_00]: He made a lot of contact, but he didn't have the sort of either offensive approach or raw power that allowed him to access much in the way of damage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, you're taking a first baseman at a college inside the top 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure how much people were projecting on his power to come at the next level.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like you really have to nail

[SPEAKER_00]: the pure hitting tool if you're taking that profile inside the top 10 picks and so I don't know like Paven Smith maybe stands out the more of the two because Adam Hayesley was selected right in a range where where we had him ranked but

[SPEAKER_00]: guys like Nate Pearson, Shane Bos, Alex Fado, I mean, we had Kesson here ranked right above, payments from it that I imagine the defensive profile played a lot into that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I do think it is the case where even if, yeah, you probably want college hitters.

[SPEAKER_00]: If those players aren't on the board and you don't have the supply, you really have to be careful about pushing those profiles up the board just because historically those are the demographics that pan out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say with this like in hindsight, again, and I am not saying like we had pavents fifth rank to head of Jake Burger, but in hindsight, you were talking about me.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had two first-based profiles.

[SPEAKER_01]: Burger was 20 on our list.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paventsmith was five spots higher than him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you look at it, I would say that Missouri State versus Virginia played probably, I mean, you're a played a part of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would say that that, like,

[SPEAKER_01]: I would actually say also though, like the funny thing about it is, in this case, I do think the fact that everyone kind of didn't think that Burger was a third baseman kind of worked against him, where there was almost like, Paven Smith didn't get to at least play third base.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is interesting when that happens when we're like, hey, we think you're going to move to first base versus the guy who's already at first base and is good at that position.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, would you really rather have the guy who's already only playing first base?

[SPEAKER_01]: We should have given more credit like, hey, Jake burgers at least able to go over there and place some of his papers with throws with his left hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's no scenario where he's, like, that was part of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's like, but like, but Jake burger that year, like, if you're just kind of comparing it though, Jake burger hit 22 homers that year, payments fit hit 13.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you look at what's happened in the long run, Jake burger has just way more power.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say if you said,

[SPEAKER_01]: We had ways to evaluate power at that time, but I do think if you just fast forward that like six, seven years and you said, oh, we now have EV data on every one of these balls that you guys have hit, the difference between a burger and a Smith might have stood out a little bit more, didn't did it at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I do think I remember that the interesting debate at the time, again, we talk about Burger like Burger and Jeremy Ironman were both, uh, kind of that same area, and Ironman was kind of this power hitting short stop who might not be able to play a short stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: Burger was this power hitting third baseman who night that the old played third base.

[SPEAKER_01]: Burger ended up being obviously the, the much better of those two, but it, it's, it's kind of the, the challenge of this

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, these two guys who, you could kind of mix and match and compare to each other, the other one, I think we have to bring up, who's ended up being the best of this group.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Brent Rooker was a very unusual profile at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is coming on the heels, by the way, of his, the top.

[SPEAKER_00]: the top rank hitter by B.

[SPEAKER_00]: War among all first round picks so far and he's fourth overall behind Drew Rasmussen who didn't sign 31st overall the race, hunter-green and Trevor Rodgers.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the top three and then you have Rucker.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say that with Rucker, it's kind of like funny we talked about with Austin back and how he rocketed up this despite the lack of showcase track record.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Rucker's case I do think he was

[SPEAKER_01]: limited in some cases by the fact that he had a great year that year, but he was a red shirt, basically he was a, you know, like he was, he was a red shirt junior, he, like he hadn't

[SPEAKER_01]: He was a there was defensive questions and it was like how fluky is this year because it was like we didn't expect to see a year like this because it was also not a super high profile high school

[SPEAKER_01]: kind of unheralded high school recruit and then you're talking about his college tracker could being short of been maybe you would love could write he was a he was a 38th round pick the year before when he was draft eligible and everyone was like yeah we're kind of you know he's he was viewed as kind of this org type player then he had this monster season i think there was just this skepticism that kind of stayed with that that

[SPEAKER_01]: in hindsight like again I will say the defensive questions kind of to go back to kind of the Jake Burger thing I think that even when he was a twin the twins drafted him and never really kind of gave him a full-time job because it was like he's not good enough defensively in a corner which he wasn't and he wasn't a good first baseman

[SPEAKER_01]: He was the case where the A is kind of basically said, D. H. And once they did that, it's like, oh, I just get to hit.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's all I really want to, that's all but that's that's that's what I'm good at.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's ended up really kind of blossoming that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're

[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna dive into a little bit of the later rounds, but before we do that, I do want to ask you like, who else at the top or the near top of the draft?

[SPEAKER_01]: You think, I would say, you know, I just want to note that we had two junior college players in the first round, that you don't see that very often now.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what else stood out to you?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, is this too soon to move into the Dalton Varshow?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd say this is a perfect time to move into the Dalton Varshow.

[SPEAKER_00]: perfect.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do that because I mean Dalton Varshow as we sit here today is the best pick, the best player from this, this draft class.

[SPEAKER_00]: Overall he was taken 68th overall in the second round by the D-backs.

[SPEAKER_00]: We ranked him number 100.

[SPEAKER_00]: at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at the time, he was an unusual catching prospect who was very fast.

[SPEAKER_00]: His arm was questionable.

[SPEAKER_00]: We, I think, viewed him as a three to five round talent.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Kudos to the debacks for popping him here.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the second round, he's been worth 18.7 war as of this recording.

[SPEAKER_00]: The D-backs actually have the best overall draft hall from this draft class.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are at the top right now with 26.2 war, other entire draft class, a bulk of that is from Dalton Varsho, their other successful pick was 7th rounder Jose Cabo-Yero.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are, I mean, if you line up everyone who's signed, again, like, maybe we can talk about the, Yeah, I don't care about what it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Most of those are players who, when they were picked, we knew they weren't going to sign.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but if you, so if you're just taking the players who signed,

[SPEAKER_00]: The D-Bax have two of the top eight best players who's a Kevayera as a nine more career.

[SPEAKER_00]: He cracks the top 10 of this list, which may be speaks to some of the drafts of this year's draft class, but getting that return in any draft in the seventh round, I think is a massive win, and it does enough for the D-Bax to kind of put them over the top here, over the twins.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I will say four of the twins,

[SPEAKER_00]: them picking where they did having extra picks in the 30s.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like this has to be viewed as a pretty successful draft for the twins in hindsight, giving how the class panned out, but you can push back on that if you want.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I definitely think the d-backs are the big winners overall.

[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with that, no, obviously.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although the d-backs also got very little of the value of Dalton Varsho, and I don't think they got any of Jose Caballera's major league.

[SPEAKER_00]: or value, but I will put that in.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got Gabriel Moreno, though, four Dalton Marshalls.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they did get real value for him now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I will say.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're more accumulated was with different big league teams.

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess a more precise way to phrase that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I would say though, that's the difference between them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you want to knock the twins here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Royce Lewis, like again, at the top of the draft.

[SPEAKER_01]: Royce Lewis has had a little bit of an up and down career, but he has a regular, there have been highlights, even with a lot of injuries.

[SPEAKER_01]: You definitely rather have him than say a Brendan McKay in the long run.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what I say is, but Brent Rooker, they get credit for drafting him, but they didn't get value for Brent Rooker.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Dalton Varsho was a hit where they drafted the Dbex drafted him, and then he had real value and they traded him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's kind of one of those trades that kind of really did work out for both teams.

[SPEAKER_01]: The d-backs were like, Varsho's really is this weird center field or catcher type, but we need a full-time catcher.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the blue jays ended up being like, we've got actually one of those in Alejandro Kirk.

[SPEAKER_01]: What we need is a center fielder.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so Gabriel Moreno, you go to the d-backs and Dalton Varsho, you go to the blue jays and everyone wins.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I would say with that though, the thing that stood out to me is there aren't a ton of massive wins,

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: But they are athletic.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every one of them, that would say the biggest Winston Dalton Varsho earning Clement, who, by the way, crazy part of this is that Virginia team, we just talked about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had two of the top college hitters in the class and those guys at the end of the day have been trumped by their teammate

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the raise, again, this one, I think I would say that most people would not kind of imagine that Taylor Wall's has as much war as he does, the value of defensive shortstop, but the raise took Taylor Wall's third round 79th overall.

[SPEAKER_01]: And

[SPEAKER_01]: that ended up being, you know, another of these picks where when you look at long-term regulations, there are not, this is just not a class that you look back on and go, oh there are a, you're good, the story's not fully written, but it's written enough to say this is not a draft that you would go back.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say in hindsight, this draft is ended up not being as good as it was thought to be at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and I didn't want to circle back to the twins here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe fold in.

[SPEAKER_00]: We start talking about some post 10th round wins essentially.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to get to that, because we have a team that really did kill it.

[SPEAKER_01]: After the 10th round, we'll get to that right if it's a quick break.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Carlos, let's move on past the 10th round.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was the twins, I think, kind of the start of something that they became really, really good at.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's exactly what I wanted to mention.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their best player from this draft isn't Brent Rucker.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Royce Lewis.

[SPEAKER_00]: At least in terms of bigly war accumulated.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's Bailey Ober.

[SPEAKER_00]: who they drafted in the 12th round, 346 overall pick, signed him to 125,000-dollar bonus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like you said, the twins, I feel like from maybe this point, maybe maybe as a few years earlier, I'd have to go back and look at all their drafts.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the twins have been one of the better teams, really for much of the last decade, in my opinion, on getting value from college pitchers into three to 20 round range, Bailey Ober is one of those.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think,

[SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of pictures just in general that have found more success than their first round peers who have much better stuff at the time of the draft and a lot of the time these players have won or several of the following traits.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's strike throwing ability almost across the board.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bailey over was a really impressive strike through our throughout his career.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he had two hundred and sixty innings less than two walks per nine is what we have in his draft report.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another common trait of these college pitchers who pan out are pitchers who are discounted because that injury questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: at the time, which is maybe something that we wouldn't actually think about.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of the time we're talking about college pictures, we're talking about, oh, you can get this survivorship bias.

[SPEAKER_00]: Angle, take the guys who are healthy and state healthy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of the big wins, if you look at recent years, two or three rounds plus, their pictures, who other teams pass on because they had injury questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another thing is that

[SPEAKER_00]: These are players who don't necessarily throw hard now, but they're players who teams can coax more of a lossy out of.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Pro Ball, and then I'd say the fourth one, and I'm not sure if this definitely was, or wasn't the case for Bailey Ober, but it's also been the case for several of the hitters we talked about, Jose Caballero.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was mentioned in his draft report, but just make up competitiveness, ability to make adjustments and compete.

[SPEAKER_00]: So those four traits, I think we could throw out a litany of,

[SPEAKER_00]: of college pitchers over the years who have been able to overcome their draft day ceiling projections.

[SPEAKER_00]: Parker Messick is maybe a standout example of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think Cleveland is another team who's done a great job in this area, but Bailey over represents the twins' best pick from this class and what we would continue to see year in and year out from that organization.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there may be even as a more exciting team to mention here for late round winds that isn't even possible in today's draft.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will say, there is no question about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you say, the award for the 2017 draft of doing more with less goes to the Houston Astros.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think it's really to be honest.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not close.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's exactly what everyone is hoping for for the 2017 Astros.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wasn't it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly, you know what, you know, a wobble of team that everyone, but no, I mean, I will say,

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, they were really good at it.

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't, this was their best year at it, but they let me, let me throw you this, JJ.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the Astros ranked fourth in total war from this class, their combined B-war with their first 10 round picks is negative 4.2.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let that's a whole, like a little percentage value from any draft is coming from first round, like generally if you're not hitting on your first round, you probably didn't have a good draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Astros say, no, no, no, they had three players worth more than five or after the 13th round, JJ, two of them after the 20th.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't even draft 21st through 40 rounds, but they have a 21st at 26th and a 13th round pick that are just tremendous success

[SPEAKER_01]: So, okay, they took JB Bukascus in the first round that year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And basically, I don't know if Kilana, I remember watching him pitch, I remember watching him pitch that year, and Michael Ias who was scouting director for the Astros that time was at that game.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was, that's firmly burned in my mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to run that into the last mock draft.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and then they also took Corbin Martin, they took JJ Madagewick.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I would say the Astros at the top that year

[SPEAKER_01]: They're realm of like, we like college hitters.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't care what they look like.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't care about the defensive questions.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that didn't always work for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's where they got the matter of Jeviks.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got the Seth Beers and all that just didn't really pan out.

[SPEAKER_01]: As you said, Joe Perez, like Tyler IV, Peter Solomon,

[SPEAKER_01]: park of machine ski, Corey Jolks, they took guys who made the majors and the top 10 rounds.

[SPEAKER_01]: But no one in those top 10 rounds who really ended up, I would say that Bukoscus and Martinolik, they were traded to the D-backs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, along with one of the guys we're going to talk about, in a trade, believe the Bliephos, the Granky traded for, I remember, right.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they did get value of some sort for them, but just take us through what they did.

[SPEAKER_01]: in the late rounds of that draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so in the 13th round, they take Jake Myers at a University of Nebraska.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's one more $7.3 so far.

[SPEAKER_00]: They signed him for $125,000.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe Jake was ranked at the very back end of the B-A 500.

[SPEAKER_00]: We had him ranked at $457.

[SPEAKER_01]: At least I got him, because that was my area that year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that was my area, and at least I didn't completely miss.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and then in the 21st round, this is where things really get exciting for the Astros.

[SPEAKER_00]: They took Chasm McCormick out of Miller's really university of Pennsylvania in the 21st round.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beer, if doesn't have the signing bonus, but I believe McCormick signed for just $1,000.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think we have that on the B.A.

[SPEAKER_00]: draft board.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll hop to double check and see if he was on the B.A.500.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to assume no, but also something like the Astros.

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: Afterwards, and then there are other big win here.

[SPEAKER_00]: in the 26th round, picked number 781, also signing for a whopping $1,000 signing bonus, Josh Rojas, second baseman out of the University of Hawaii at Manau, he has been worth 5.5 more.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, literally just these three players,

[SPEAKER_00]: have essentially put the Astros into top five territory in this draft class in terms of total work accumulated from players again, who signed anyone who wound up being some star who was 35th round pick and didn't sign.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not counting for the sexier size.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's above the reds who had the second overall pick and hit on the pick.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that just tells you, especially in a 40 round draft, if you're hitting multiple times on actual big leagueers,

[SPEAKER_00]: Those picks are not getting a lot of attention, nobody really knows of those players, even us at the time, we're being drafted in that stage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's not a sexy area, but it can be absolutely pivotal in terms of how your team is going to be able to compete in the value you're able to gain there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, they had negative war value from their first 10 rounds and they're still number four overall and total war accumulator from the draft, it's insane.

[SPEAKER_01]: 1267 players that we had, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, between stateless notes, all that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure there's more, but like, in our database of how we kept things together.

[SPEAKER_01]: 1260, they, they manage, which again, and I'm not even faulting us, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: $1,000 players, you're not, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, hey, I'm glad we got Jake Myers.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll write up on Jake Myers, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not terrible like I will say like when I read it, it's like basically what it said was, hey

[SPEAKER_01]: It does have Threader, J.J. by it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I didn't get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was there lefty, Sunday starter, but who also played center field, modest power disappeared as a junior, controls his own draws walks, get some base, runs the base as well, he's a 70 runner, who plays a good center field and can throw.

[SPEAKER_01]: So like the tools were there, but I would say that the read was also difficult in part because he was also a pitcher.

[SPEAKER_01]: and but also that hinted at his well-rounded game as athleticism, all that, and but also it does kind of fit in with this also in that we say that this isn't a great draft.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think as impressive of those are, I don't think that you come away from it going, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: How did you get Jake Myers?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the guy that comes like, this is not like, hey, let's share a story about Eve and Longore being drafted, or let's talk about the day that the Astro's got Carlos Correa, or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's just wasn't a great draft.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, this was not a draft at the end of the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is not a draft that you, it, I think it's very useful to kind of be a reminder of,

[SPEAKER_01]: not every draft is a really good one.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're gonna rank them every year.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you also have to have that kind of natural skepticism, give a little sneak peek, like I said, we're gonna go forward from this.

[SPEAKER_01]: That next year's draft, we're gonna be saying some of the same things.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like this was not like, this was not an era where,

[SPEAKER_01]: And I do always wonder, I do have to wonder, like how much does 2020 play in that, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like do have a lost year coming up here.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's yeah, I think the what if you could play with again, we mentioned for us in back like his first few years precovid it wasn't exceptional It's not what you wanted to see from a player draft that high, but he was in the ballpark where you would like to be if you could like run that one back and say if he if his reps at that time a player of his with his background probably more important than any player to get as many real game reps against quality pitching as possible with things to pin down differently, but

[SPEAKER_00]: No, JJ, a fun exercise to kind of look back at this.

[SPEAKER_00]: See what it takes always are to panned out, like some names that maybe we've forgotten about, just kind of refresher cells on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do think the exercise of whether it's doing a redraft, whether it's just going back and looking and talking through, seeing like,

[SPEAKER_00]: What the caliber of player you're getting once you're in like sorting sorting by War what what are the caliber of player after the first 10 argon is always a good reminder of like expectations for the draft So now this is fun to talk through and I'm sure we have a lot of fun with the future ones I think I do want to end it with this okay because again each of these drafts We were both involved pretty Intently in them I don't want it to be a bad pack of back padding exercise.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to go the other way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah

[SPEAKER_01]: Looking back at this, by the way, because Drew Rasmus, like I we didn't talk about, we talked about Indra guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: Drew Rasmus is one who was, you didn't sign that year, but again, it was going to be an Indra guy who didn't have success.

[SPEAKER_01]: But who is the player from this class that you look at?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's got to be reasonably prominent that you look back on and go, oh, I was wrong about, like, I was wrong about that guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's got to be awesome back for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So again, like, for this class, I didn't have the full summer circuit,

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't see a lot of them and I wasn't forming my own opinions.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was doing a lot of logistical help on this draft internally.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I would say him, and then I also really remember being excited about Brady McConnell, because I believe I saw him at NHSI that year.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't at NHSI.

[SPEAKER_00]: he was excellent there and showed some tools.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's another one I like to didn't pan out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then maybe the most fun one who draft nicks in baseball, America fans will definitely remember, but Michael Mercado was one of the more exciting, late risers, super lean, had this really extensive pre-game routine that he was doing before his starts.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was really polarizing for scouts at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was really excited about him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So those would be three players who I like to who didn't pan out.

[SPEAKER_00]: But again, I'll definitely have better

[SPEAKER_00]: better options for this question when we look at the 2018 class.

[SPEAKER_00]: How about you?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's saying though, like I was all on board, but I will say Mason House, who was the kind of guy who gives you sleepless nights doing this, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's always going to be some pop-ups who were like, oh, this guy's got, and I've really come to learn.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very, very now, reticent to really buy in on pop-ups.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mason House is one of those reasons why because it's like, yeah,

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd never heard of him and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, he's got to be in the top hundred and then he's getting money and then it kind of just all, and I, I, we, I feel like that I could, I, I might even highlight a couple of this guy not to pick on them, but to highlight those that like that is kind of a kind of, I feel like a continuing theme about this year after year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Kevin Smith in that range, who ended up having a little bit of a bounce as a prospect in the miners after that, but the Maryland shore stop is another one that I kind of I was enamored by at least a little bit at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, those are two that kind of really stand out, but I would say that that overall like,

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's something where it's fun going back and looking through this and trying to remember, like again, to try to remember what you were thinking that I do remember I was a big Brent Roker guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that was because I was, you know, like, I just, I've been burdened on this a lot of times, but it's like, if you hit like this in the SEC, I just probably believe you're not going to be good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you're going to have to be working on that one.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what I'm saying about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But this was also the other thing about this draft is is that I think it's worth mentioning as we wrap it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was the draft that I would say that the Texas Rangers had like,

[SPEAKER_01]: Truly a They were in a stretch here where like so Chris sees was I think gonna be like if you had one guy I was gonna pick out a slight

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, what could have been?

[SPEAKER_01]: You could say, Brandon McKay with the injuries, Chris Cs, who was the shortstop that they took at the very back of the first round, injuries really derailed his career.

[SPEAKER_00]: Barely got to play, but those, this is when the, this is when the ranger is for, I mean, not that they didn't just also go for it, but Bubba Thompson, Chris Cs and then Hans Krauls, one, two, three at the top.

[SPEAKER_00]: Big, so we got to, got a little bit of a little bit of a way.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I mean, Chris Seas in the end played a total of 266 games in his career.

[SPEAKER_01]: Injuries really did derail it, but there seemed to be some things there in those few moments when it was healthy.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go way to wrap it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to continue the series.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think you can probably figure out the 2018 we'll be next up on the baseball america draft podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do check out also everything over at baseball america.com.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you haven't seen it already, James Anderson has joined us as our lead fantasy analyst.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're interested in fantasy baseball, I'll do check that out and I think

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, there might be, there might be, go check out the story, there might be a code there that's still maybe active depending on when you're listening to this to get a discount on a first year of your B.A.

[SPEAKER_01]: digital subscription for Carlos Coloso.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm JJ Cooper.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a long everybody.