00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. J.J. Cooper, Jeff Potts, Ian Cundall, Baseball America Prospect Podcast. And we're doing something different today. I think that you all will enjoy this. I know that we're going to enjoy this. Because what we're going to do today is we're going to hold a draft. I got to give Ian credit. Ian's like, we got to do some drafts on the podcast. And so this is our first one. The rules are pretty simple, but they allow for a whole lot of different strategies. Because today, all we're trying to do is draft power. But when I say that the rules are simple, they're not like we're not going to say draft the best power prospect.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: Nope.

00:00:35
Speaker 1: What we're saying here is much more focused than that. The job that we have today are to draft prospect eligible prospects, prospects who are currently on our top 100, top 30s. And then we have an open world part where you have to be in an MLB organization already and have not exhausted rookie eligibility. If you fit those criteria, you are eligible for this. But what we're going to do is say the goal is that at the end of the 2030 MLB season, we are looking to add up all the homers that these players have hit in the major leagues from 2027 to 2030. Came up to the big leagues at the end of the year and hit a homer? That don't count for you on this. It's a pretty defined five-year span, five-season span. And we're also not just going to say you can just draft anyone. What we're going to do here, here are the rules. We're going to each draft two players who rank in the Baseball America Top 100 current Top 50. Now, we'll note, we haven't updated our Top 100 or our Top 30s since the start of August, since the end of the trade deadline, a little after trade deadline. So when we talk about this, there may be players who in the offseason are going to move up, are going to move down. If you look at our So we've got two of those top 50. Two who rank between 51 and 100 on the top 100. Two who are not top 100, but rank within the top 15 on a team top 30. And then two grab bag. You cannot fit those criteria, but you could be a 16 to 30 prospect. You could be someone who's not ranked on a top 30 right now. As long as you are in an org and prospect eligible, you are available to be picked. I think there might be some different strategies here that we're going to take. We're going to do a snake draft. And the other part of this is we're not going to go in order. We're not going to say, okay, who is your top 50? If you want to go for your everyone else pick first because you think that there's someone people may take, feel free. If you think that there's a ton of guys you'd be happy with in the top 50, you can save those to the end. At the end of the day, we're each going to pick eight players, 24 sluggers total. And when the pre podcast drawing Jeff, we're going to, like I said, snake draft, the order is going to be Jeff, then myself, then Ian, Ian gets the turn. Jeff though, gets the first pick. He chose the first pick. He had the choice of where he wanted to pick. He chose it. So Jeff with the first pick in the inaugural baseball, America prospect podcast, power draft. Who do you select?

00:03:17
Speaker 3: That's right.

00:03:18
Speaker 4: Pushing peas right off the bat. You know, this was a tough one because I feel like there's a few different options here. Ultimately, I went with Rainey Rodriguez of the Cardinals. I'm going to stay true to my organization, but I think when you look at his combination of actualized home run power at higher levels, you know, was his age 19 season, super young. I think there's more power to come. He's going to get stronger just as he sort of, you know, he's already pretty physical and, But I think you look at the body and it's like, he's going to get a little stronger. He's going to get a little bit more physical. So those EVs that are already excellent as a 105.7 90th percentile for the year, um, had multiple balls above one 10 max was one 11.3.

00:04:03
Speaker 5: High barrel rate. Um, high hard hit rate, the launch angle on hard hit balls.

00:04:10
Speaker 4: So balls and play at 95 plus 16.8 degrees.

00:04:13
Speaker 3: That's great.

00:04:14
Speaker 4: High air pull percentage, 35.2. He's checking all the boxes in terms of an optimized power swing. And then you factor in swing decisions, which I do. Contact is obviously a part of it. But I think swing decisions, especially swinging at the right pitches, Rodriguez does that well. Heart swing rate of 82%. He's going to hit for power. Had 27 home runs this year as a 19-year-old. I'd have to look at what the number was within the Texas league. An absurd amount of home runs. I think that within the next three years, absolutely. Like you could be looking at a guy here who has at least a 30 home run season, if not multiple. The home park certainly doesn't help, but I think he's going to have the kind of power that it's not going to restrict him too much.

00:05:01
Speaker 1: I don't think I would have been surprised, to be honest, if you'd have picked anyone else. I kind of thought that that was where you were going, but I think that there are a wide array of options here. So I get the second pick. I'm also going to stay in the top 50 for now. May change that up later, but I'm going to go with someone that y'all may expected that I might say I'm going Sebastian Walcott shortstop slash infielder for the Rangers. I would say that we say that we haven't updated our top hundred since August. We kind of give it a little break, get us a little, little time for it to, You lay the field, let it kind of rebuild and all, and then we have our off-season list. I can promise you that now showing that he's healthy, he played in the field before the end of the season, he's head of the Arizona Fall League. Sebastian Walcott hit 10 homers in just 41 games in the minor leagues after he came up. We know the power's there. He's obviously the other part is he's basically, I would say, I think feel pretty comfortable that you can pencil slash write him in to the Rangers lineup sometime in 27. It's an infielder who's going to hit for a lot of power, I think, with good impact. Just a very well-rounded player, one of the top prospects in the game. That's my pick at two, which hands it over to Ian at three.

00:06:25
Speaker 2: Well, this is delightful because my 1-1 is still on the board. I had both of those guys on my board, but I'm going to take Josue to Paula because we're not judging defense here. All we care about is offensive production. And I think one way DePaulo is going to give me a benefit is he's going to be accumulating home runs before either of those two guys are, because I have a feeling this offseason the Dodgers will find a way to shoehorn him into their lineup. He's obviously, you know, I think he's the top offensive prospect, just purely offensive prospect in the minors right now. And we saw when he came up, I mean, he already showed he's probably one of the Dodgers better hitters already. And I think that I'll start accumulating stats next season where you guys are going to be having to wait for Rodriguez and Walcott till maybe, you know, mid summer next season, maybe later in some case. So I think just to Paul is combination of offensive upside and pure hitting ability is just going to be too much for the Dodgers to ignore. And he's going to end up getting enough playing time for me to, to start accumulating earlier.

00:07:22
Speaker 1: I will tell you this. He would not have made it past my, you know, back on the turn. Like I got to me, I was taken to Paula. So yeah, I would, I, I'll say this. Okay. Three picks in. I don't think any, there's no surprises here. There's no picks here. I'll look at it and go, wow, you're out on a limb there. These are premium prospects among the best hitting prospects in the game. And I would say also though, the other part of it is, is that, which makes sense for this, these are close to the majors prospects. Sometimes with, I think all of them have some sort of defensive question, not the same level. DePaula's question is how much is he going to be capable of playing left field. Rodriguez, his question is, how much is he going to play catcher with Leo Bernal and others for the Cardinals? With Walcott, I think the question is, where is he going to play in the Rangers infield, I would say, or outfield? But they still do have Corey Seager. There's some question with that, but all three of these guys, premium, premium prospects. And Ian, you get the next pick too.

00:08:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a tricky one because I think there's a lot of ways you could go. Obviously, I could double up here with top 100 guys, but I feel pretty good about those players. So I'm actually going to dip down to another level. And I'm going to take someone that's actually outside the top 15.

00:08:52
Speaker 1: Okay. And that person is.

00:08:58
Speaker 2: josiah ragsdale from the finals um i he obviously went up to double a after he was acquired in trade it was fantastic and um we saw you know the breakout started with the brewers after uh being drafted out of boston college evs are solid um pretty good angles he showed power he's in double a i think the proximity and i think there's going to be runway with the uh, Cardinals to play at some point, probably not next year, but I think starting in 2028, I think is a realistic timeline with him. And I just think he's someone that when I was looking at the top 15 or outside the top 15, he really stood out in that regard as someone who I think could make an impact and give me, um, some surplus value here compared to the other options. So I, uh, I was quite pleased to be able to grab him there, especially because, uh, noted Cardinals fan, uh, Jeff was sitting there at the turn with two picks before I picked again. So I had to, grab him because I was not sure he would get back to me.

00:09:59
Speaker 1: And I will just note, because we have people listening, think, oh, Jeff's a Cardinals fan. Jeff covers the Cardinals.

00:10:04
Speaker 3: He's not a Cardinals fan.

00:10:05
Speaker 1: Very bullish. Very bullish on this farm system right now.

00:10:10
Speaker 4: It's funny because the first three picks of the draft were more or less like my first three in order. I didn't have Ragsdale on my board at all. You could have taken him in the last round, 100%. Yeah. I think he's like a 15 to maybe 18 home run guy.

00:10:26
Speaker 3: Which I think is perfectly fine outside the top 15.

00:10:28
Speaker 1: The one stat that shocked me when I saw it is that, again, this is a very just random stat, but doing some work this week, discovering that Josiah Ragsdale basically had a very, very, very low pop-up rate, which... I would say is rare for someone who does, you know, elevate. Like we see guys who elevate, who have the swing to, you know, to get to power often do have infield pop-ups kind of as part of it. I think Josiah Ragsdale's rate was like among the 10 lowest in the minors. Kane Kepley was, I think it was Kane Kepley. If I remember right off the top of my head was the lowest, but cause he didn't have any, but it's okay. So that puts it back to me. There are so many ways to go here. I love the strategy and challenge of this. Because again, you got to kind of scout what everyone else is going to do here as well. And I think I'm going to clear out my top 50s, you know, guys. I'm going to stick there and So there's a couple of different ways I could go here, but I'm going to end up just going a way that might surprise some of you all, but I'm going to go, I'm almost still thinking this over as I do it, but yeah, no, I'm going to change up. I'm not going to go that way. I'm going to go to my non top 10, top 15, just because I think someone else might try to steal this guy too. I'm going Boston Smith who look, let me be clear here. This could end up blowing up on me, right? Like this could end up being something where we look back on this. Hopefully we're all here podcasting in 2030, you know, at the end of 2030 season. And we're like, what were you doing taking Boston Smith? However, one of the best seasons of the minors this year breakout season and is closer to the majors than you may think. There are questions about where he's going to play, but he does know how to elevate. And again, you're taking flyers here a little bit when you get to non-top 15 prospects. I thought someone else might take him too. Maybe I'm wrong, but I saw Ian looking like maybe he had him on his list too.

00:12:58
Speaker 3: I don't know. He did. He was my number two option for the non-top 15.

00:13:02
Speaker 1: So I feel better about that then. So Jeff, back to you. All right.

00:13:08
Speaker 4: And I just want to be clear here. We're still picking a second guy that's a top 50 prospect.

00:13:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got to get two of each.

00:13:15
Speaker 4: I feel like there are guys here that are clear, right?

00:13:21
Speaker 1: Okay.

00:13:23
Speaker 3: There's a few.

00:13:24
Speaker 4: And the toughest part is choosing between this trio. But I'm going to go with Ralphie Velasquez. The reason that I'm going to go with Velasquez is I think that What he does is needed in Cleveland long-term. I think he could be up there early next year and could accumulate home runs. Might be some adjustment period over the first half of the season, but I do think eventually within this period of time, we could be talking about a guy that has a 25 to 30 home run season.

00:13:51
Speaker 5: And if it clicks earlier than we expect, maybe multiple.

00:13:55
Speaker 4: So when I look at the top 50, he was somebody that I felt really comfortable with the combination of like hitting ability, Power, angles, all that sort.

00:14:03
Speaker 5: Of stuff that I'm looking at. I think he's a really high-quality hitter.

00:14:06
Speaker 1: That was the guy that I was about to say until I audibled and changed it off. Well done there. Well done. We are six picks in. We have 18 more picks to go, and we'll keep doing this right after this quick break. The MLB postseason is here, and whether your team is in it or not, you need to experience October baseball by getting yourself some tickets. For the friends at SeatGeek, and watch some baseball, or hey, check out a concert, anything else you want to see. With over 35 million downloads, SeatGeek is the number one rated ticketing app. You can get tickets to baseball games, concerts, festivals, and more. And SeatGeek has your back because each ticket is rated on a scale of one to 10. So you know you're getting a good deal. Look for the green dots. The green dots tell you you're getting a good deal. Green means good, red means bad. And every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. And of course, we have a code for you all. You can use code TERRITORY10, that's T-E-R-R-I-T-O-R-Y, 10 for 10% off your next set of tickets at SeatGeek. That's 10% of all tickets. That's not just Major League Baseball, all tickets with promo code TERRITORY10. Make sure you click the link in the description so you can download the app, have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later. So we are six picks in, but we are back at the turn, which means that Jeff has the next pick. He's done his top fifties. His top fifties are done because everything else still on the board. Yeah.

00:15:37
Speaker 5: You know, um, I felt like.

00:15:40
Speaker 4: These 51 to 100 guys had some really, really good options.

00:15:46
Speaker 5: Um, you know, you say I'm a Cardinals fan.

00:15:49
Speaker 4: My, my allegiances are to cold weather baseball players from new England.

00:15:53
Speaker 5: I think you guys know where I'm going.

00:15:55
Speaker 1: I start talking it right. Yeah.

00:15:57
Speaker 4: Josh, Josh bias is, uh, is my first pick in this range. He's already shown the power. There's no questions that he can hit a ton of home runs. That's what he does best. So if the other stuff works out, um, this could be a good pick or, you know, it could crash out.

00:16:14
Speaker 5: We'll see.

00:16:15
Speaker 4: But, um, I feel pretty good that, you know, The power is going to translate. We've already seen that.

00:16:21
Speaker 1: Okay. So could have seen that one coming, I'll say. That swings it back to me. Kind of what Jeff said, like, I feel like there's a lot. I'll put it this way. I feel very comfortable. You all can take whoever you want. I'm going to have 51 to 100 guys that I am very comfortable with. So I'm going to keep kind of staying a little bit lower. I think that there are fewer guys in these ranges that I'm really going to be happy with. So, here, I'm going Murph Gray in my non-top 100, but top 15 in an organization. The Pirates, their baseman, made it three levels this year. Still not going to be on the big league roster to start 2027. I don't think anything like that. But I do think, again, I'm taking a little bit of a risk here. There's still some flame-out potential, but there's also real power, real hitting ability, more hitting ability, I think, than we thought. And it's the pirate sword that could use some additional bats. So they've got some good ones now, but they need more. That one I know is a little bit off the board, but I do feel like that he's someone who fits well in this top 15 range. Got a couple of others of those two, to be honest, but that kicks us to Ian who gets two picks. So who is your first of your two?

00:17:40
Speaker 5: It's tricky.

00:17:44
Speaker 2: Cause I have three people that I like for two spots here. And the strategy comes into play here. Um, but I think for my first pick, I'm going to take our minor league player of the year that I was a little surprised last about this far. And, uh, this is a gamble. I, I, I still don't know if, uh, how the hit tool is going to actually develop, but this player did hit 50 home runs this year in the minor leagues. If you include the playoffs 48 plus two. And, uh, so Andrew Fisher, just to be clear, Andrew Fisher from the Brewers, um, I think the logic here is that I think that the odds of him breaking through with the Brewers might not be great, but I think there's another org that would be willing to take a chance on his power. And I don't feel great about it, but I also didn't really love the options for this area. There were some interesting ones. But yeah, I just think that Fisher has, you know, he optimizes his power. He might not have the best EVs. I mean, they're very good.

00:18:43
Speaker 3: Don't get me wrong. It's like a 107 90th.

00:18:45
Speaker 2: But he optimizes them by pulling everything in the air and highest fly ball rate in the minor leagues this year.

00:18:52
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:18:52
Speaker 2: And in this day and age, you know, there are definitely parks and teams that are looking for that. And I think that someone will give Fisher a chance. And, you know, there's a lot of variance, I think in his, in his long-term profile, you know, is he going to end up being someone who kind of, you know, I know JJ, you made some videos comparing his statistical stats, her statistics to guys like Bobby Dahlbeck, you know, even Bobby Dahlbeck in a three-year period had a pretty good run in the majors. So, you know, we're not talking about the course of the career here. We're just looking through 2030. I think Fisher already in the high minors, you know, maybe he gets up at some point in 20, early 2028 and, uh, can give me a nice little run before maybe the league adjusts. So I think Fisher, um, pretty happy to get him here. I was kind of surprised.

00:19:31
Speaker 3: I thought he was going to be your pick JJ. I'll be honest.

00:19:33
Speaker 1: I was, I was thinking about it. He was on my list.

00:19:35
Speaker 2: Um, So my other one is tricky because there's two people I really like for this spot. And it's, again, I'm going to stick with the non-top 100, top 15 crew. And I'm actually going to go with someone that I think... this is a pure park play. And we have seen what Las Vegas has played like this season.

00:19:57
Speaker 1: Ooh, I like this strategy.

00:19:59
Speaker 2: And this person is in AAA already. And it's Devin Taylor from the athletics. Um, again, we don't care about defense in this draft. Devin Taylor is, had an incredible first pro season and made it up to triple a hit at every level across the way over the course of the season, 23 home runs slug, just under 500. But this is just, this is literally just a park play proximity and park because when, I mean, you've got Sacramento, which we saw how that plays. And then eventually if we get Vegas at the end of the end of the decade, I think that the athletics are going to be value. I think there's going to be runway for him to get a lot of playing time on that team. Um, I just think he checks all my boxes, even if his EVs might not be as good as some of the other guys on this list. I think there's, there's, there's a path where he can be a, you know, a solid contributor who gives me 20 to 25 home runs a year, um, playing up because of, of those secondary factors. So I was pretty happy to get Taylor. And I also did this, this group, I think it gets weak pretty quick. I think there's one more pretty clear pick. Then I don't know where you guys are going to go. So, yeah, I was, I think Taylor, Taylor really intrigues me in the, in the spot.

00:21:08
Speaker 1: Okay, so that brings it back to me. And see, this is where this is tricky, right? Because I've got two. And if Jeff had already picked one non-top 100, top 15, I'd be like, I don't need two. I'm good. Well, I'm going to get one of these two, and I'm happy with either one of them. However, that's not the case. I feel very comfortable in saying, if I go one way, I know Jeff's going the other. And he won't need to do it for a while because we'll have cleared out. So strategy-wise, Jeff's actually played this pretty well because he then can wait on his non-top 100, top 15 if I do this. But I'm going to do it anyway. And again, we're taking guys here who I would say have a chance to really be productive, but there's a little bit more risk. That's why they're non-top 100 prospects right now. I go back and forth though. When Jeff picks the other one, I'll tell you that, yes, that was the other guy I was talking about. But I'm going to go Owen Ayers, the catcher with the Cubs, who made it up to AAA, breakout season. And the key thing here is, great year offensively, but Duke can really catch. So I think, again, he's a catcher. That's going to limit him. There's going to be some injuries and all that. But he can really catch. There is real power here. I don't think it's going to be 40 home run power, but I do think that there's a chance that he's going to be a very productive catcher. I'm going to get a very productive five-year window out of him. Breakout prospect in 2026. But again, there was another guy I thought about there too. I'm kicking up. Jeff won't even have to take him now. He's going to wait. I will just call it right now. Jesus Baez is going to be on Jeff's team, but he's not going to pick him for a while now. Yep.

00:22:54
Speaker 4: Well, the thing is, is like, I actually feel like that non-top 100, But top 15 category might actually be the deepest category of close to the majors home run hitters. There's several guys. I have seven or eight guys that are still in that tier that I haven't picked yet. I'm going to go with my next 51 to 100 prospect. I am trying to assemble the loudest exit velocities anyone's ever seen in one lineup. I'm taking Lanzaro Montes. Like, I understand that the hit tool was an issue. He struck out 40% of the time in the major leagues. there are no parks on earth that can hold this guy. I mean, the polo grounds and center field couldn't hold the Zaro Montes. Like he hits tanks. It's the team that needs power. There's going to maybe be some adjustments. I mean, I almost hope he gets traded and has.

00:23:45
Speaker 5: A little more runway. But to get up to the big leagues is still really young.

00:23:49
Speaker 4: And I, if I'm looking at a three year window here, I feel like he can make the proper adjustments to get to the point where, you know, he's hitting bombs just as well as some of these other.

00:23:58
Speaker 1: Guys that I will say this. No one is going to look at your four picks right now and say, you know what Jeff's missing? Guys who can really thump.

00:24:09
Speaker 4: My strategy was there's a lot less of those guys. There's only so many top 50 prospects that are going to hit home runs at a high rate and be in the majors soon. There's only so many 51 to 100 guys that are going to be in the majors and going to be hitting home runs soon. There's a lot more guys who are non-top 100, but in teams top 15s. that are interesting power hitters to me. I felt like that was the deepest category. I think when you get to the non-top 100, non-top 15, I understand that you'll say a Ragsdale pick because there's a very high probability that he is an average everyday regular because of the depth of that system. I don't know how many systems have those guys floating around outside the top 15. And Ragsdale's a guy that in a couple of months is going to be top 15, I.

00:24:55
Speaker 1: Think, in that system.

00:24:57
Speaker 5: So You kind of got it while the iron was hot. We were still adjusting.

00:25:00
Speaker 1: Okay. So, Jeff, you are up to four picks, but you have one more because you have the term. Yeah.

00:25:08
Speaker 5: So, like I said, I thought this group was really deep.

00:25:15
Speaker 4: And I felt like there were a lot of guys that could be in the big leagues next year.

00:25:20
Speaker 5: I'll make it easy. I will go with Jesus Baez. I'll get him off the board.

00:25:24
Speaker 4: Um, because I think that of the guys that I have in this tier that I would have discussed, he's the one that I feel most confident could be starting at a position in the Cardinals lineup opening day. Some of these other guys, there's maybe some players in the way, a little bit more murkiness, um, where I think he's a good enough defender and player. And I think the organization just based on some feedback for the handbook really believes in bias enough that, um, This is a guy that, you know, will likely be, I think May 1st would be, I'd be shocked if he's not in the big leagues by May 1st.

00:26:00
Speaker 1: Can I just lay it out though? Like, I think good, you know, bias better than I do, but like I watched a lot of bias this year, talked to some people about bias. I think some people are going to be listening to this podcast, watching this podcast and be like, how did you all let a guy who had 39 homers second, most in the minors in double a for much of the season last this long. And I agree with you. I really like Baez. The reason I went Ayers over Baez is, is I do feel like that Baez, like he said, this is the most, this is a record setting year. Homer wise.

00:26:34
Speaker 5: Long term.

00:26:40
Speaker 1: Like, I feel like he's a good, a useful guy power wise, but I think he's more of a, I feel like he's more of a 15 to 20 than I expect to see 30 to 35 from him in the long term. Is that fair?

00:26:53
Speaker 4: Possibly i think the thing that i buy in with him is like another hard high heart high heart swing rate guy tons of zone contact with the bat to ball ability is really good and he doesn't ever take a cheap swing no there are no easy swings that come come from jesus bias like he hits you know he swings the bat like he's trying to do damage every time so I don't think the angles are perfect in some of that, but I do think the volume of balls that he'll put in play that are hit hard could potentially boost that. Another guy with St. Louis where I haven't picked hitters that are in particularly good hitting parks. At this point, I have three Cardinals, a Guardian, which is okay, and then a Mariner. I haven't exactly played into that, but I felt like these were better bets than some of the guys in better parks where I had to do a little bit more projecting.

00:27:53
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:27:54
Speaker 1: So that brings it back to me. I have one top 50 pick remaining two top 51 to hundreds. Am I, and one more non top a hundred non top 15 in the org prospect, find out what I'm going to pick right after this second break. And we're back. So looking at this, I know that if I'm eyeing this, like, okay, so I'm cleared from my top 15 but non-top 100. I don't have any 51 to 100. I feel like that's where I probably need to go. You took Lazaro Montes. I'm going to go kind of a similar idea. I'm taking Charlie Condon with the Rockies. So we have proximity because he was in AAA all year, close to 30 homers in the PCL. We have, he's going to play in Coors Field.

00:28:48
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:28:49
Speaker 1: I do think that Ian was smart. I think that we could be talking about Coors Field as the second most offensive ballpark in the majors in a couple of years when we go to Vegas for the A's, but it doesn't hurt. And the real question is going to be where Condon, you know, like, okay, I would imagine Condon is up next year. Again, he was a AAA all year, his first round pick. Is he going to be a first baseman long-term? Well, TJ Rumfield's there, you know, first base DH outfield. I think that's probably more, but I do think that he's going to get very regular playing time. And again, I think he's going to hit for power. So feel pretty good about Charlie Condon with my pick for my first 51 to 100 guy. Ian, that brings it to you.

00:29:32
Speaker 3: That was a good pick.

00:29:32
Speaker 2: He was going to be my first pick also for the same, very similar reasons that you said.

00:29:39
Speaker 3: I'm actually going to go back.

00:29:40
Speaker 2: Into the 51 to 100 well also. And I'm going to take someone who I'm only getting access to because they were hurt most of the season. And that's Aiden Miller with the Phillies. Miller obviously was someone who was well inside our top 50, missed a large portion of the season with a back injury. Back now, EVs, I mean, it's a very small sample size, but you know, And he had a 107 90th, 109.1 max. I mean, it's like five. There's not a lot of bad at ball events there, but pretty good EVs. He's going to go to Arizona. We'll see what he looks like in the fall league. But I think that he's someone that when I looked at through the 51 of the 100 range with Baez and Montez and Conant off the board, he really stood out as someone who could outperform their projection. He's also close to big league ready. And I think when I look at that Phillies team too, there's a pretty clear opening for him. probably as soon as next year. And while I don't think he has the same raw power as some of the other guys we've talked about here, I think there's above average raw here, maybe plus raw and plays above average in game. I think I could see him getting to 20, 25 home runs per season and just being an accumulator because if he stays healthy, he's someone who should be in the big leagues and starting for them for many years to come. So Aiden Miller is my first choice in 51 to 100. And I'm going to close.

00:30:55
Speaker 3: Out 51 to 100 actually.

00:30:57
Speaker 2: And this is going to, this is going to sound very similar, but I'm going to go back to my good friends in Las Vegas and I'm going to take Drew Burris with the athletics. If we want to talk about swings that are optimized to pull the ball in the air and hit for power, Burris does not get cheated. You know, I don't think the EVs again, it's not the same level here, but I think that park is a great fit for him. And yes, he might be the smallest player that gets drafted in this, but I, you know, he's got a big heart and he's got some power.

00:31:29
Speaker 3: And so I.

00:31:30
Speaker 2: Think, I, uh, I think, you know, it's, you know, plus above average, a plus raw swings really hard. And, and I just, I think that park, like that game we saw with, um, what was it? The brewers and the athletics in Vegas was absurd. Like, was it, there was a home run that was like, what was it like a 91 EV with like a 35 degree launch angle or something from Jonah Heim.

00:31:53
Speaker 3: And I think that is really stuck with me. that game.

00:31:56
Speaker 2: I might've also been because I saw those starting pitchers look horrified as they gave up home run after home run.

00:32:01
Speaker 3: And the final score was like 14 to 10 or whatever it was.

00:32:04
Speaker 2: And even if I only get a, I don't know when that stadium is going to be ready. I think it's what, 2029 or 2028. Um, eight supposedly, I believe.

00:32:11
Speaker 3: But if I get a couple of seasons.

00:32:12
Speaker 2: There between Burris and Taylor, I think those two could easily, you know, maybe they're not true 30 home run hitters in that park.

00:32:18
Speaker 3: They might be.

00:32:19
Speaker 2: And so, uh, I'm banking a lot on that stadium being, uh, playing like a band box. But I, I think that, uh, Given the other options at 51 to 100, I was pretty happy actually to get Burris.

00:32:29
Speaker 1: Okay, that brings it back to me. I have one top 50, one 51 to 100, and one non-top 100, non-top 15 prospect. I'm not taking 51 to 100. I'll be my last pick because you all are closed out there. So I can have my choice of what's left there. So it's either a top 50 or a non-top 100, non-top 15. I'm going to close out my non-top 100, non-top 15 prospect With, again, another slugger who reached AAA last year. I'm going with Ray's first baseman, Xavier Isaac, who I would say had a very down 2025. But I would say with that, did have brain surgery. So there was a, as he described himself, it was significant. It was life-saving. Came back this year. I would say the first half of the year was a little slow. Got better and better. Key thing here is proximity. I would say you're getting... I'm buying cheap power here, basically, which is a non-top 15 prospect in an org, partly because that Rays org is so deep in prospects. And if you said, well, how's he going to play for the Rays next year? I don't know the answer to that right now because they do have Yandy Diaz. They do have Jonathan Aranda. They do have first base DH types. But I do think that he's going to play in the majors... some point in 27, whether it's raised, raise are also team that's always willing to trade. And I think that there's going to be opportunity for him. And I do think that there's a chance for, you know, he's got real power there. So, and again, that non top a hundred non top 15, you're, you're dying. You're, you're kind of, you know, you're taking on some risks, but you've got some, some upside there too. So that's my pick at closes that bracket out for me. First one to close out the non top a hundred non top 15 and, which takes us to Jeff who has one non top a hundred, but top 15 prospect left. And then both of his non top a hundred non top 50. Yeah.

00:34:30
Speaker 4: So, um, some interesting names coming off the board now, uh, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to stick with, um, the non top 100, but top 15 grouping here. And a guy that I think is just sneaking through as a non, top 100 prospects. Justin Gonzalez. I believe in the power. The swing looked more optimized this year. I think he could get some more. I feel like the organization really believes in Gonzalez. Guy that maybe isn't up in the big leagues until later next year, but maybe has a shorter path to the big leagues than we expect and could start the season in AAA next year. I don't think that would be crazy or at least be up there pretty early. Um, so I'm going to go with Justin Gonzalez here. There were other options. I just feel like he's the best hitter, uh, with power that.

00:35:26
Speaker 5: I have in this group. And I just feel like those guys tend to get more opportunities.

00:35:30
Speaker 1: And then that takes us back to Jeff for his second to last pick. He has, it's going to be a non top hundred non top 15 prospect. Cause that's all that Jeff has left. Yeah.

00:35:40
Speaker 4: You know, there's, there's some interesting options here. Um, I had to just check on one thing. One name that I was going to pick is actually 14 in his system. So that throws things off a little bit. I feel like when you're looking at this tier, a lot of my favorite names were like young dudes that may not be up in the big leagues until like 2029.

00:36:06
Speaker 5: So that kind of like, that kind of undercuts it a little bit.

00:36:09
Speaker 2: Right.

00:36:09
Speaker 4: So I'm going to, I'm going to choose to stay away from those guys and go with somebody who has humongous power, Um, plays a premium position though. I wouldn't say it's particularly well. Um, but I think he's a, I think he's a home run hitter and he's been in the upper minors.

00:36:29
Speaker 5: That's Brooks Brannon. Um, it is big power. It's a weird body.

00:36:37
Speaker 3: Uh, I'm not.

00:36:39
Speaker 5: Sure he's a catcher long-term. He strikes out a lot.

00:36:43
Speaker 4: Um, but when we start to get into this range of non top 15, top 100 prospects.

00:36:52
Speaker 1: I held off on putting position. Do you want to call him a catcher or do you want to send him to first base?

00:36:56
Speaker 4: We can call him a catcher. I think he caught enough games. He didn't catch it all this year. I'm dreaming that he caught. I'm putting him at first base. We can put him at first base. I guess he's coming off a knee injury too. This is a tier where there are names here. I think the shining example, the best player was probably Xavier Isaac, where you actually believe it could potentially go right again, you know, after going left for so many years.

00:37:28
Speaker 5: So yeah, I, I took Brooks Brandon reluctantly.

00:37:33
Speaker 1: That kicks it back to me. I've got one top 50 and one 51 to a hundred. As I said, I'm not taking my 51 to a hundred. I'm waiting. That's my last pick. I'll do that in a minute. So, A lot of options here. This is where I felt like I'm still very happy about the choices. When we get done with this and talk about like, there's about seven different ways I could go here and feel pretty good about it. But I'm going to go with Caleb Bonamer, third base slash outfield for the White Sox. I will say there are questions about where Bonamer is going to play defensively. You can have questions about how much he's going to hit. What I don't get when I talk to scouts about him when I've watched him is, is there going to be power there? There's going to be power there. I've gotten the comparisons of him. I've talked to people who think he's going to be a first baseman long term, but one of those was like, yeah, but he could be a 30 home run first baseman. So that's who I'm going with my second to last pick, which kicks it over to Ian, who has a top 50 prospect and a non-top 100, non-top 50 prospect. It's got two opposite ends of the spectrum left.

00:38:44
Speaker 5: On the board.

00:38:45
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:38:46
Speaker 2: So my non-top 100, non-top 15, there was a player I wanted. He's on the top 30 right now. And I looked because I'm a man of honor and checked and he graduated, unfortunately, like in the last week of the season.

00:38:59
Speaker 1: Rafael Flores?

00:39:00
Speaker 3: Yes.

00:39:01
Speaker 1: I was looking at him as he graduated. Yeah.

00:39:03
Speaker 3: He's like at 161 plate appearances or something.

00:39:06
Speaker 2: So unfortunately, that was a good one. He was going to be my pick in the first round from this group if I could. You guys have taken– Smith and Isaac were my other two top options for.

00:39:19
Speaker 3: This.

00:39:20
Speaker 2: I think this group is tricky because of what Jeff said. A lot of guys are far away that you're taking. There's very few kind of like close proximity guys who have runway options. and so I'm actually going to take one that falls into that boat though. And that's, uh, someone who made the majors this year. And I believe they still, I probably should have double checked this, but they believe they still have prospect eligibility. And that's your handy Morales with the nationals.

00:39:42
Speaker 1: I believe he does too.

00:39:44
Speaker 3: He, uh, got up.

00:39:45
Speaker 2: I think what the nationals are doing, um, I don't know if he's a full-time guy, but I think I could see him fitting in a platoon in some capacity. And I just think, again, this is an accumulation play. I think he'll get enough at-bats. It might only be 200, 300, 400 a season. But with that, I think there's enough power there that he could get to 10 to 15 home runs. And you add that up over the course of the next few years, and that I think is going to outweigh someone who might not be up until 2028 or 2029, which were kind of the other options I was looking at. So, uh, Morales was my pick there.

00:40:20
Speaker 1: Um, that brings you to your last pick. You'll be the first one pick last to start, but you'll be the first one to close it out. You have a top 50 prospect.

00:40:30
Speaker 2: I do. And I'm very happy that the player I actually would have taken, uh, right after DePaula, uh, is still sitting there and that's Walker Jenkins with the twins.

00:40:39
Speaker 1: I thought about him too.

00:40:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Jenkins is one of those guys that his power might take a few years to come actualized. But when it does, I think there's 25, 30 home run potential here. He's also, I think, one of the better hitters in all of minor league baseball. And I think we started to see it. You know, it took him a few weeks to get adjusted to major league pitching, but he finished the season on a tear. You know, he had some really impressive swings like that one against Ben Joyce, just turning around 100 was 100, 203 mile an hour fastball. There's not many hitters in baseball that could do that with the ease that he did. I believe in the talent. I think that he's going to have, obviously, plenty of playing time with the Twins. This guy's going to hit a premium spot in the order. He's already up in the big leagues. He's going to be there the entire duration of this exercise. I just think that it might take some time. Maybe he's only 15 home runs next year, but I think eventually there's a chance he gets to 25-plus. I just think I believe in the bat. I think it's a really, really special bat. I'm very happy to get him with my last pick here.

00:41:38
Speaker 1: That kicks it back to me for my last pick. I got a 51 to a hundred. And as we've kind of been talking about this, there's a lot of different ways you can go here, but I'm going, the proximity is important to me as well. I'm going Bo Davidson outfitter with the giants was up at the end of the year, power speed guy, maybe a platoon guy. That's what, that's something that, you know, might be a kind of a, something that plays a role in here, but I do think that there is going to be runway for him. especially with the giants are going to need to spend their money on, on, on, they've got a lot of injured pitchers right now. So it's going to be, they're going to need some cost controlled, less expensive position players. Bo Davidson absolutely fits that. I think that there is real power potential here. The ballpark is not ideal. I would say that's generally true for any San Francisco giant, not named Raphael Devers. But I'm still, I'm pretty happy with that for the spot at this point, which, which, Gets us back to Jeff, who gets to wrap this up as far as the picks. He has a non-top 100, non-top.

00:42:44
Speaker 5: 15 prospect to pick.

00:42:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, so this is a player that, if he was in any other system, probably isn't available to me in this tier. I'm going to stick him with my four Cardinals. I'm going with Jack Garavich. Hit 32 home runs this year in his first full minor league season. They worked with him to kind of adjust the swing, was more of a contact hitter. What position do you want to list for him? I would list him at first base as well. I don't think he's going to play any third base. But I think this is a guy that if he's in the Blue Jays system, he's a top 15 prospect. If he's in the Astros system, he's a top 15 prospect. Maybe a little bit more of a debate with the Nationals, but I look at my other systems and I'm like, this guy's not in the top 30 for the Cardinals and probably ranks top 15 for a lot of others. And I think in the first full season, showing that kind of power where he does have a quality hit tool, I can kind of buy into that potentially working.

00:43:45
Speaker 1: And as I would say, of all the players on this that were picked, if you said, okay, Andrew Fisher is the elevate and celebrate champion here, right? Gerevich is pretty high up there. Gerevich is looking to hit the ball hard on the pull side of the air. That's his approach. He does it pretty well. So, So that is it. That is our 24 player draft. Man, I had a lot of fun doing that. We're going to do more of these, but if you do, let us know what you think. Like, we want to hear what you think, guys, you think that we left out and put a poll up. Yes, we should put a poll up with this. Who do you like? Go ahead.

00:44:25
Speaker 4: I was going to ask what players in each tiers were still available that you guys had listed within like your depth charts.

00:44:33
Speaker 1: That's, let's go through that kind of like, let's go through top fifties and we'll go through it in this order. Right. Yeah. I felt like in top 50.

00:44:40
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:44:41
Speaker 1: So now look, before we do that, before we get to that, let's talk a little bit about strategy, right? Which I did a little bit of advanced work for this that might help for, for others as well in kind of understanding. Let me stop sharing for a minute because I'm going to share a different. So, okay. Let's say that we had a time machine and we were going to go back to this time in 2021. And we were going to do this for the last five years. I have the answers. Here are the players now.

00:45:21
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:45:22
Speaker 1: I look, I did the quick and dirty. If you tell me that Jake Berger hit his service time exhaustion, in 21, even though he didn't hit at bats until 22, my apologies. Like, but I would say in general, you can feel pretty good that this is the list of guys who were available at that time. And the most important thing that guided my strategy from this is note that part here. Again, you can just kind of ignore that as much as that's when they can, but note seasons, right? Every one of the top, 11 players on this list played five seasons in the majors out of the five. Now that doesn't mean they were all up there for five full seasons, but everyone, if we'd have drafted in 21, who was in the top 11, 94 homers or more CJ, but if you're listening to us, Jake Berger led the way with 149 homers. I think you could win a lot of trivia questions. If you said which prospect eligible prospect, from going into 22, has the most homers in the majors. I don't think Jake Berger will be the name that comes up top, but Jake Berger won, Julio Rodriguez two, Bobby Witt Jr. three, Shea Langoliers, Gunnar Henderson, Spencer Torkelson, Corbin Carroll, Michael Harris, Riley Green, Christopher Burrell, CJ Abrams, Junior Caminero. He is the first of the four seasons to be there. Eli De La Cruz, Vinny Pasquitino, and Hunter Goodman, who also had four seasons, at 15. PCA, also Zach Netto, are in at four seasons. And in the top 20, Nolan Gorman, who's kind of, kind of feels like as a prospect kind of, uh, who hasn't always lived up what we expectations 20th on this list, but you have to get to Ben rice at 27 to find the first player who had played three seasons. And you have to get to Nick Kurtz at 51, who, you know, like to find the, but Nick Kurtz, by the way, wasn't even eligible at that point. So like, I, I, again, this was a quick and dirty list. Nick Kurtz was settling into college at that point. So the whole point of this being, I would say that my strategy was proximity was very important to me because five seasons of 15 homers is going to serve you better than two seasons of 25. What strategies did you all have as you kind of jumped into this? Go ahead, Ian.

00:47:54
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:47:54
Speaker 2: I mean, I, I had proximity and ballpark where the, my two factors, um, that I really emphasize as you can tell, um, you know, everyone, I think every single player I took except for Burris is in the high minors, but I mean, the athletics have shown they've been willing to be aggressive with college draftees. So I think there's a chance Burris is in the majors at some point next season. And if not, he'll be up, I think in 2028. Um, but yeah, it was, it was really just proximity and ballpark. Um, I kind of, when you got to the non-top 100, non-top 15, that's where you kind of had to go a little off the board with the ballpark. That was where I focused more on the proximity. But yeah, those were really my main two strategies. I also thought that the top 50 was extremely deep. Like the six names we had, I had all on my board too. I had actually one more name that we haven't mentioned yet too also, but I thought that actually 51-100 was not very deep. I had the six guys we have listed here, and then I did not have anyone else. That was my entire board right there. So I thought that was kind of– I was surprised that how a lot of the hitters in that group either were farther away, which makes sense. You're talking about the back of the 100. You're talking about guys who have not shown up in the upper minors yet or some new draftees who maybe yet to debut. And obviously there's a lot of pitchers in that range too. Um, so yeah, um, that, that I thought was a pretty weak group, but that was, that was really my main strategy and you kind of see, there's a lot of, a lot of high minors talent there and a lot of good ballparks as well.

00:49:22
Speaker 1: Jeff, you said before we ever started this, that this was a draft that you've been spending years on, not even knowing that you were doing so, but has spent years preparing for what was your strategy?

00:49:33
Speaker 5: I very much like power hitters.

00:49:34
Speaker 4: Um, You know, I had done something similar where I kind of tried to look at the type of profiles that had accumulated the most home runs. And I felt like with a lot of these guys, they either had to be like super outlier power or there had to be sort of like a baseline hit tool. So I did try to go after players like that. I think Rodriguez, Velasquez falls into that. Jesus Baez, Justin Gonzalez. I would even kind of throw Garevich in there in terms of what the available options were.

00:50:03
Speaker 5: That middle tier, I just kind of.

00:50:04
Speaker 4: Went for proximity and guys that had 70 plus grade power, right. Um, that regardless of what the ballpark is, they're going to hit a lot of homers. That's what their game is kind of focused on, uh, and centered around. So I just kind of went with, with, you know, the good power hitters that were there. Um, I, I liked that 51 to a hundred tier a little more. I had a few guys, I had one actually in particular, uh, that I think in terms of if you were evaluating ballparks and swings, Josh Adamchevsky is the quintessential power hitter for Milwaukee.

00:50:46
Speaker 5: He is a backspin merchant.

00:50:48
Speaker 4: He optimizes a batted ball spin as well as anybody.

00:50:54
Speaker 5: Just really, really clean backspin.

00:50:57
Speaker 4: It's arguably, over the last five years, the best ballpark for left-handed pull power. Um, I thought Adam Chesky was a slam dunk pick. I wondered if one of you guys would take them actually. And the other one that was in that range was Xavier Nines, who maybe doesn't get up into the big leagues for another couple of years, of course.

00:51:16
Speaker 5: And the hit tool has some questions, but has huge power. And, you know, it's, it's a great ballpark to hit in. So those are like a couple of guys that I had kind of considered.

00:51:26
Speaker 4: Um, and then the other one I was shocked by, no one took Caleb Bonhamer.

00:51:29
Speaker 5: That's a great, I did take Caleb Bonhamer. Oh, you did take Bonhamer. Oh, my bad. I missed that.

00:51:34
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I took Bonhamer. That was the opposite. So.

00:51:37
Speaker 5: Zaire Hope?

00:51:39
Speaker 1: Zaire Hope. Okay. I thought like 51-100 was the thin one to me as well. You mentioned... And Chesky is one I was looking at. The other one... There were two other names I had, right? One of which was Cooper Fleming, who... If he was... If this was... If we were drafting next year, I'd feel much more comfortable taking him. But I do think that you're probably... as much as I like Cooper Fleming as a prospect, you're probably losing two years in the minors. The rays are not a speed them to the majors team. So like that was too much for me. And the other, which is not a power hitter, this would have been the anti Jeff pig, but it would have been like Seaver King in that range. Not because I think he's going to hit for power, but just for accumulating in that. I do think he'll be in the big leagues next year. I think especially like they're going to figure out a way to get them up there. And if CJ Abrams is moved, you know, like, cause he's not a big extender. He's like that. He can be their shortstop for the next five years. And so you just go, okay, I'm going to get five to 10. I'm going to get 10 to 15 just year after year. But those were, that was like, Jeff had more names there than I did. Like I was, there were not a whole lot of guys who I felt had both power and proximity in that range. I do want to kind of go down to the top 50 though. Cause we did. So we've covered kind of 51 to a hundred other guys. top 50. I felt like we could have gone four deep on this and I would not have been like, Oh, I don't have anyone to pick. Um, Ian, who was on your, I would be still happy to take them in the top 50 if there was more picks to be taken.

00:53:15
Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, I mean, that was, I thought the deepest crew and that's why I left it my second pick till the very end. Um, I wanted to get to Paula or one of the, you know, one of the, one of my top three guys on my board to kick it off. But after that, I thought it was pretty flat, which is why, um, just moving, looking down the list, uh, Theo Gillen was one I had.

00:53:34
Speaker 3: I think that on my list might.

00:53:36
Speaker 2: Not be again, like a 30 home run guy, 35 home run guy, like some of the other names on this list, but I think he's going to accumulate. I think he could be up this season or well, 2027. And, um, so he was one, uh, George Lombard, I think is graduated now. So, but he, if he had not, he would have been on the list. Um, that's partially a ballpark play, but also I think that, um, there's power there, you know, Max Clark, same way in the accumulation mold. I think a couple of, a couple of more interesting names that are, that are in this group, but, but a little bit, I think hope is that your hope as Jeff just mentioned. And I think in that same vein, Emmanuel Rodriguez, kind of two guys with hit tool questions, but huge power. And if they can stay on the field and, you know, just continue to perform, you might get 30 home runs from those guys just by, you know, because they get 600 plate appearances a season.

00:54:25
Speaker 1: If I felt comfortable that Emmanuel Rodriguez would stay healthy for five seasons, I would have really considered that. Durability was my concern there with someone who spends time on the aisle every year. Jeff, what about you? Any other names from the top 50 that were really on your list of I would be happy to have them?

00:54:41
Speaker 4: I think it was Zaire Hope was the only one that I had remaining among the six that I had prepared ahead of time.

00:54:50
Speaker 1: I had three others. I had a lot of 50. Do you know which one of them?

00:54:54
Speaker 3: Oh, okay.

00:54:55
Speaker 1: Ethan Salas, again, we know I would feel very comfortable he's going to be their catcher going forward. I don't think it's going to be great power. He would probably be my last of this group. But again, accumulator, I just didn't feel like I needed an accumulator at this. Arjun Nomala in a fantasy world, I would feel good about it because he would get power for the position. But again, we're not talking about power position. We're talking about you could take all DHs in first baseman if you want for this. And then the other one I did consider, but I think he's a little bit further away, was Josiah Hartshorn, who I think has real power. Could kind of go to Jeff's theory here. The hit and power guys like Ryan Rodriguez, Rafa Velasquez, I think Hartshorn fits in that. But further away, a little further away, where I would be a little hesitant.

00:55:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, Emil Morales was in the same boat for me there, where it was like, I like the hit and power combo a lot, but it's just, I think it's too far away.

00:55:47
Speaker 1: Okay, Jeff, I'll go to you first. You seem to have a lot of top 15, not top 100 guys that you felt good about. Who else was on your list of guys that you would have looked at?

00:55:57
Speaker 3: All right.

00:55:58
Speaker 4: Brandon Compton, I think is underrated, frankly, everywhere.

00:56:05
Speaker 5: He's a great athlete, huge power. There's some hit tool questions.

00:56:09
Speaker 4: If that improves at all, I think he just does too many things well. Blake Burke, who– I may like him as a power hitter long-term more than I like Andrew Fisher. Don't tell Fisher I said that. Chase Harlan, James Tibbs, Jace Lavalette, actually second half of the year, really came on a little bit.

00:56:29
Speaker 1: Much better?

00:56:30
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

00:56:30
Speaker 1: You could throw Nolan Shubart as teammate into that, too.

00:56:33
Speaker 5: Imagine Andrew Fisher if he played a position. Andy Yazokar, I know this one's.

00:56:38
Speaker 4: Probably far off, but I kind of looked at the Orioles' options and was like, this dude might be good enough to hit his way into the big leagues.

00:56:45
Speaker 5: By the end of the year, next year.

00:56:47
Speaker 4: And then like my long-term one that probably won't get enough seasons, which is like Eric Ventanti. But I did think there were some like interesting names in that tier, you know, alongside some of the guys you took. It's just, you maybe get a little bit less of the sure shot proximity plays there.

00:57:05
Speaker 1: I had two others that were, again, proximity played very large role in how I lined this up. Cody Huff with the Guardians, who, I think is going to be their backup catcher next year. I know they have too many catchers, but I think his ability to catch kind of puts him above Cooper Engel on that kind of who's going to catch for the guardian step chart. And Sean keys with the blue Jays who I had keys on my list. Yeah. That was the other one. Anyone else that you had Ian?

00:57:29
Speaker 2: Yeah. I had two more. Um, I had we ha alloy with the Orioles. Um, again, this is like an accumulator. I think like maybe you could have like a JJ Hardy, like career where, you know, it's going to be a low average, but, he's good enough at shortstop that you run them out there for, you know, 600 plate appearances a season. He gets 15 to 20 home runs. And then the other one I had was Ty Pete. I think he might be a little further away, but I thought he made some really nice adjustments at the plate this year. I mean, the tools are crazy. It's just a matter of how much, where's the hit tool going to end up.

00:58:00
Speaker 1: So if Ty Pete had been taken, we would have had four Springfield Cardinals in a power draft. Yeah.

00:58:07
Speaker 3: It's a good team. It's a very good team.

00:58:08
Speaker 1: Very fun team to watch.

00:58:10
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, it's, It's interesting, though, that, yeah, Keys was on one. Dakota Jordan actually was another one who falls in that vein. But Giants Park, I wanted no part of. But, yeah, I think it's interesting that we all kind of ended up in the same spot with this range. Whereas I thought the weakest two were the 51-100. I thought there were six or seven clear options for that group.

00:58:32
Speaker 3: But then outside the top 15, I... I mean, I'll be honest.

00:58:36
Speaker 2: I had the guys JJ had on his board. I had the guys I took. I did not have Brandon. Gervich was an oversight. Definitely should have had him on the board. I thought that was the hardest group, which was why I took Ragsdale so early. I only had one other guy that we didn't mention. That was Carson Roccaforte with the Royals.

00:58:51
Speaker 1: 30-30 season this year with the Royals. You know, again, they need outfitters. I could see him fitting there. I had him on my list. That was one I had is like I could take. The other one would have been everything got taken. You know what? Let's take the biggest possible swing for the fences. Hey, if EV. you know, EV is important to power. I think you guys know which way I would go there. If I'm doing that Tony Blanco jr. Who hits the ball harder and further than anyone. And then I've had, I've tweeted that out before. And someone's like more than so-and-so and you don't even have to look it up. The answer is always yes, because it's, This is a man who could hit a ball 120 miles an hour. This is a man who could hit a ball. Like again, he, if there's anyone, he played in Greensboro, which is a great park to hit homers in. But I will say there were a lot of Tony Blanco, junior homers to go to the old major league thing. He would have hit him out of any park other than Yellowstone. So that was my other name I had there. I had, but I was right there with you on Flores. Like I first pass, I had Raphael Flores on. I was like, wait, I think he has too many at bats. So, Because again, proximity and playing time, I think that he will play for the Pirates next year. Okay, as we wrap this up, one last question, which is, who is the, I'll start with you. I'll start this so you all have time to think of an answer. So, which is, who is the player that someone else took that you most wanted to take? And then who is the pick that someone else took that you would not have taken? So we'll both praise and rip. each other at the same time. So for mine, I will say, I said it at the time, Jesus Baez, like, I think I might come back and regret that I took all the errors over Jesus Baez. That's the one where I was like, it's 50-50 coin flip. So I would, I think that he, if he had not been taken by one of us as a non-top 100, top 15 prospect, I would have asked like, what are we doing? He did hit 39 homers this year and he can play like he can really play defense in the infield. This is not, where is he going to play? This is like, I think he could play second. I think he could play third. I think he could play short. Not, he's not going to move Mason win, but if you needed him out there for a week, I don't think that'd be a problem for a guy that can do that. We reached double a and hit 39 homers this year. Love that pick. So I praise Jeff there. And then I would say, when you talk about proximity and all like being important to me, I would have not a Brooks Brandon was not a guy on my list from that standpoint. So Jeff, great job. And I would not have taken one of your guys. So Jeff, I'll give you the rebuttal. You get to come back and tell me about what you hated.

01:01:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's, that's totally fine.

01:01:39
Speaker 4: And, and honestly, if, if the pick that I had the least amount of confidence in is my worst pick in my last round with.

01:01:46
Speaker 5: The highest, lowest probability of hitting, I think, I think I'm okay with that.

01:01:52
Speaker 1: Did you like, yeah, you know.

01:01:55
Speaker 4: I don't really have, this is, this is kind of boring podcasting, but I don't really have anything negative to say about any of your picks. I would have gone other guys over.

01:02:09
Speaker 3: Oh, and airs.

01:02:11
Speaker 4: I didn't have them listed in that tier though. I think he will be up. I really liked the Murph gray pick. I think that's a good one. I think you're, I mean, Walcott was, I was between Rodriguez or Walcott for my number one. So I think you got the best possible player left among the players not taken with the first overall pick in this draft. So I like that one as well. And Ayers, like I said, I don't have a problem with it. I just, I think I prefer everybody else's, including your other non-top 100, top 50.

01:02:48
Speaker 1: I want to praise one thing Ian did too, which is I think that the A's gambit was a very smart one. I did not think about that enough going into this because we did say ballpark is important for this. It is possible that you basically have the most offensive ballpark in. They have a offensive ballpark now, but then you may go to another level on that. But Ian, what stood out to you?

01:03:12
Speaker 3: I agree on the Walcott pick.

01:03:14
Speaker 2: There was a path where I go top 50, top 50, and that was if DePaul and Walcott got there. or if two of DePaulo, Walcott, and Rodriguez got there. That was kind of the one way I had in my head that I would go with both of those guys early. I thought that pick was good. I like the Charlie Condon pick for similar reasons. I think the ballpark is just going to be really beneficial to him, and I think he'll get plenty of runway on that Rockies team to be an accumulator, kind of what we saw. Maybe not in the Jake Berger mold, or maybe it is in the Jake Berger mold. I wouldn't be surprised if Condon ends up leading this entire list in home runs in 2030 because of that. Cause he's probably going to be up to start next year and he's playing all his games in course field. So I think I thought that was a really good pick. He was someone when I took Aiden Miller, he was who I was going to take. He was the kind of the top of, of, of that tier for me. So I thought that I would agree. I thought though, I did not have own errors on my board either. I think him and Davidson were the two Davidson. I like the player. I think he has power. I just don't like the ballpark that giants park. As you said, if you're not Raphael Devers or Barry bonds, you don't hit home runs there. If you're left-handed hitter, And I'm not sure Davidson has kind of the swing that is going to play to getting above 15 home runs or so there, 20 home runs there, even though he has plenty of raw power for it. And then with Ayers, yeah, I did not have him on my board.

01:04:31
Speaker 3: Catchers are weird. I think that.

01:04:34
Speaker 2: He's not going to have a full-time role. And so I think with guys that I still had as everyday projections, I wanted someone who I could see getting 600s, 650 plate appearances um and i don't see the air as being able to do that just because he's a catcher you know he might be talented enough but teams don't give them and there's very few catchers who hit that much and i don't think he has enough bat where he's also going to be dhing when he's not catching i'll.

01:04:58
Speaker 1: Kind of go along those lines like like people may be surprised that fisher who hit 48 homers in regular season our minor league player year lasts this long and for me it was very much i just don't know like i don't know the path for him right yeah right like Bowers is Bowers Vaughn. That combo has been exceptional for the brewers this year. Now there are the brewers. That doesn't mean that that's going to be the long, long-term plan. But even then, like Jeff mentioned, Blake Burke, Blake Burke is a candidate for there. And we say that these are candidates, but these are the true first base candidates. And then this is the brewers. So it also could be like, Oh, we secretly like, you know, Luis Pena might be, or he's a little short.

01:05:39
Speaker 2: Josh Adamchevsky might be a first baseman, like something weird like that.

01:05:42
Speaker 3: Yeah.

01:05:44
Speaker 1: This is a team that plays shortstops at third base, shortstop and second base. That means, and they have a lot of depth of guys who are close to the majors. Like we feel like Jesus Bidet is going to be up there somewhere next year at some point. You're still going to be moving guys around. Like we, you just don't know. I just wasn't comfortable saying, I feel comfortable that he's, got a clear path to 500 plate appearances a year. And without that, that was why I was a little scared of it. But I also thought Ragsdale, Ragsdale is very much the, a name to me that stood out is like a guy who we said he was undervalued because he's going to be a top 15 prospect.

01:06:20
Speaker 3: Do you think it's interesting?

01:06:21
Speaker 2: You mentioned him now for the first time that Jesus Maday, none of us even considered him for the top 50, just because like, he's probably going to be up next season. And yeah, I just, I don't know. I don't know where you guys were at if you had it on your mind.

01:06:36
Speaker 3: I didn't, but yeah.

01:06:37
Speaker 1: If we'd have gone four guys, but like in the top three.

01:06:42
Speaker 5: This was a war draft I would have taken.

01:06:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.

01:06:46
Speaker 3: But it's interesting.

01:06:46
Speaker 5: It's just home run.

01:06:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.

01:06:48
Speaker 2: And it's like, because I looked at him and then I was like, yeah, I don't know if it's going to be Maybe he can accumulate them again, but I think with that top 50 group, you're looking for more than accumulation when you're drafting those players. You're looking for guys who have that 25, 30 home run potential as soon as next season.

01:07:07
Speaker 3: And I'm just not sure about it.

01:07:08
Speaker 1: I will point out, we're going to update our 100. Like I said, this is not the update 100 that we'll have in the offseason, but DePaula is the only of our top five prospects who has taken in this. But I think that's where we go to what Jeff just said, the difference between overall value and power value we very much emphasize guys who have defensive value up the middle profiles at the top of the board a lot of times yeah and the guys who went here are primarily players who have power but you know i would say that like ronnie rodriguez isn't up the middle prospect because he's a catcher but he's not going to catch every day for the cardinals yeah Like literally every, it's possible that none of these players end up playing regularly and up the middle position.

01:07:58
Speaker 2: Walkout is the only one who has a chance or I guess Rodriguez also, but technically.

01:08:03
Speaker 1: Jenkins could be a center fielder, but he's probably going to.

01:08:05
Speaker 3: Be a corner. Yeah.

01:08:07
Speaker 2: I think though that that's, that's a reflection of the way baseball as a whole is going. I mean, you talk to teams, I'm sure you guys do up the middle defense is one of the most important things. That's why, like if you find, and I think it's something that it's going to be interesting to see how it kind of turns out with the handbook. But you know, when you look at, catchers, guys who can actually catch, guys who can actually play shortstop, guys who can actually play center field. The offensive barrier bar gets a lot lower if you're an above average to plus guy at any of those positions. When you're looking at the top of a prospect list, I think that that's what teams... If you're looking at the number one, number two, number three prospect, you have to have defensive value. It's just very difficult unless you're one of the best hitters in baseball immediately, which is why DePaul is in the top five. But Yeah, I think that that's just a reflection of where the where the industry is going, that there's just such a premium. It's more than just fantasy stats. These teams are looking for, you know, you have to be looking at all all aspects of a player and defense. is a huge portion of that.

01:09:02
Speaker 1: That's, that is our first of what will probably not be the last. If you have ideas for other drafts for us to do, bring them on. We want to hear them. And if you have feedback on what we, you know, what we did right, what we did wrong here and, guys that you can't believe that we didn't pick, guys that you can't believe we did pick. We also love to hear that. So that is the Baseball America Power, the Prospect Podcast Power Draft with Ian Cundall, Jeff Pumps, and myself, JJ Cooper. Thank you for joining us. Please do like and share, and we will see you next week on the next Baseball America Prospect Podcast. So long, everybody.