00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody.

00:00:01
Speaker 2: J.J. Cooper, Jeff Ponce, Ian Cundall. We're back for another Baseball America Prospect podcast. And like we did last week, we're drafting. Last week, hope you enjoyed it, we drafted power. We drafted to see who could put together a team of the most home runs for the 2027 through 2030 MLB seasons. I have some restrictions on that. We're going to do the same thing today, but we're going to do it with strikeouts. Now, before we dive in, let me explain the full rules here. you can draft, you were looking for eight pitchers, five starters, three relievers. You can draft up to two who are in the top 50 on our top 100, current top 100 prospect rankings. Two from the 51 through 100 on the top 100 rankings. Two others who are in the top 15 of their organization's top 30 rankings, but not within the top 100. And then two more free form. They have to be prospect eligible. They have to be currently signed to an MLB organization and not have graduated from prospect eligibility. But other than that, they don't have to be on a top 30. They could be anywhere else, but they can't be among the top three groups that we already talked about. So that leads to eight players. But there is a little tweak here because we're talking about pitchers. As I said, we're drafting five starters, three relievers. Now, how do you know if it's going to be a starter or a reliever? Well, we're going to have to put our you know, our best guess to this, but there's going to be a penalty if you get it wrong. So if you declare a pitcher as a starter, any relief strikeout that that pitcher gets only counts as half. We're not going to dock you entirely. And this vice versa is true as well. If you declare a pitcher as a reliever and he ends up starting games, those starts, the strikeouts only count half once again. So I say half. I mean, obviously we're going to also depend on, we want to draft this accurately and reasonably. So one could argue that, hey, drafting starters in the relief roles that you don't think are going to relieve the difference in workload could work out that way, but I don't want to make it too punitive. So I think that we're going to draft pitchers that we think have a decent chance to be relievers in those spots. No one's going to pick Kate Anderson as a reliever and just live with that. But we're not going to do that.

00:02:29
Speaker 1: So those are the rules.

00:02:32
Speaker 2: And I think we ended up having the same order as last time. Jeff will pick first. I'll pick second. And Ian is on the turn. We are doing snake draft. So we'll come back and Ian will get two picks before it goes back to me and then back to Jeff again. This one's going to be interesting because there are a lot more options here. than there were the last time. We have the entirety of pitchers to choose from. And here we go. I'm going to add our little draft board as well. So, Jeff, you've got the first pick. Who are you taking?

00:03:12
Speaker 3: So, as you said, there's way more options here.

00:03:16
Speaker 4: I think that I was the only one that kind of really attacked the top in the power draft early.

00:03:23
Speaker 3: And in its entirety, kind of finished off those tiers in order.

00:03:28
Speaker 4: I think it's sort of the same approach here because of how deep it is at the back end. There's a lot more options where I think trying to find productive, you know, future MLB hitters with a fairly, you know, short ETA in terms of when they're actually in the big leagues is really hard. I don't know if it's so hard, especially when you factor in the relief innings. I think from a strategy perspective, just kind of explaining things up front, I think it changes the board.

00:03:59
Speaker 3: A little bit. So I'm going to go high end here.

00:04:02
Speaker 4: I'm going to go with Kate Anderson. And I'll say there were a couple of options here. I don't think that he has the most strikeout upside, like in terms of swinging strike rate and what his highest strikeout seasons are going to be. But I am the most confident in him kind of being an accumulator in terms of having enough strikeouts, throwing enough innings, getting enough big league starts as a starter to accumulate those strikeouts and just kind of stuff the category in some old-fashioned roto five-by-five kind of speak.

00:04:40
Speaker 3: So that's why I'm going with Anderson, though.

00:04:42
Speaker 4: I do think you can make an argument that there are obviously other pitchers in this top 50 that will have higher swinging strike rates and higher K percentages when they are in the big leagues.

00:04:53
Speaker 3: They just might be there a little later.

00:04:56
Speaker 2: It is very logical. Again, we talked about this in the last one that having proximity is kind of, I think, a key factor here. So that's your first pick off the board. This is, again, this could go a lot of different ways. There's a lot of different ways to approach this. I'm going to go what maybe seem a little odd, but again, going with proximity, I'm going to take Brody Hopkins and I'm going to take him. He's a, so Cade is a top 50. I'll put that notation by here as well. But so I'm going to take Brody Hopkins as a reliever. I think that he has stepped into that role and that's where he's going to very possibly stay. And so to make this a little shorter, we're not going to put, And then, so that's top 50. So I'm going to take him there and feel pretty good that I'm getting probably one of the guys who's going to give the most strikeouts among relievers that are available. So that's my first pick. I put that for Ian. That's JJ. I'm going to put JJ there and Ian here on the spreadsheet. So Ian, that leads it to you for two.

00:06:10
Speaker 1: Um, That's a little annoying because you guys took, obviously, I thought Cade was the clear 1-1 in this exercise. And then Brody Hopkins was my 1-2 as my first pick in the 51-100. So, bravo. I'm going to take Ryan Sloan with my first pick. I think that he has more strikeout upside than Cade. I think his proximity, he spent the entire year in AA. We've seen the Mariners do not care about AAA. So, I think there's a pretty good chance he's up at some point next year or so. He's going to be a bit behind Cade in terms of timeline, but I think he can make up for it with his strikeout upside. I was pretty happy. I thought there was a chance JJ would take him and I'd end up with Hopkins, but went the other way. So very happy to get him. And then I'm going to actually double up on my top pitching and I'm going to take Jackson Flora from the Giants with my other pick. I think he's going to move really quickly. And I think that Just on stuff alone, he belongs a lot higher than we currently have him. I believe he's number 50 on the list right now. I think he's one of the top three or four right-handed pitching prospects in baseball. And the stuff he showed in his debut was electric. And I think that the Giants are going to move him quickly. He's a college right-hander. He's pretty polished. I don't think he's going to take a ton of time in the minor leagues. So I think he could get up to the big leagues maybe late next year. And I think he's going to have a lot of strikeouts once he does. So those are my picks. Doubling up on starters.

00:07:32
Speaker 2: So we already have seen three top 50 pitching, three pitching prospects ranked in our top 50 off the board. We get back to this break. We'll see. I think I've got a little bit of a surprise coming up. We'll do that right after this quick break.

00:07:49
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00:07:55
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00:07:56
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00:08:13
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00:08:20
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00:08:27
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00:08:46
Speaker 2: We're back to me. Go to SeatGeek. And I feel like when I take this player that there's almost a need to make a notation because everyone likes to yell at us. about how we have river Ryan ranked in the top 100, even though we do not currently have river Ryan ranked in our top 100, maybe in the off season, but we don't, cause he did come back at the end of the year, but proximity, the ability to drop, get strikeouts. And, uh, the fact that he is not a top 100 prospect all fits together here. The tiger's right-hander. Yes. Is he older than anyone else that we're going to pick today? Almost assuredly, but Hey, If I can get three healthy seasons out of him, that's going to be the big question is the durability. But I feel very good about that. And that's one of my starters is River Ryan from the Tigers, which kicks us back to Jeff for two picks.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:09:44
Speaker 4: So I'm going to go with the biggest name here. And honestly, he would have been my other option at one. I know how young he is and how risky this pick is, but I just think Seth Hernandez is kind of an alien, The stuff that Hernandez does, it's elite swing and miss stuff.

00:10:05
Speaker 3: I think it could get better.

00:10:06
Speaker 4: There was an injury at the end of the year.

00:10:09
Speaker 3: I don't think it's going to be a major problem. You never know.

00:10:14
Speaker 4: We've seen guys that move this quickly and then get hurt like an Andrew Painter and then they miss a couple of years. So there's some risk involved here, but I mean, I think this guy would have made multiple starts in double a by the end of the season, if he's fully healthy. So I think he's going to be in the upper minors next year. And, you know, I don't know how aggressive the pirates will get. Maybe I end up losing a year here, but I think once he's up in the big leagues, he's going to be a phenom and just the nature of it can make up, you know, big amounts of strikeouts in a short period of time.

00:10:46
Speaker 2: That one. I think I started typing that in there, Jeff, before you even actually said his name. I think you can understand why. Okay, so that's one of your picks. So you get another.

00:11:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, so this is a really interesting one because I feel like there's so many different directions you can go.

00:11:14
Speaker 3: I'm going to stay in order. And this was the thing I had mentioned off here.

00:11:18
Speaker 4: I almost wanted to ask as a question, do I have to take two prospects that are ranked between 51 and 100 on the list currently?

00:11:25
Speaker 3: Yes.

00:11:26
Speaker 1: Okay.

00:11:26
Speaker 4: Because if I was, there are players that I would take in that outside the top 100 that I think will be 51 to 100 within a few months when we re-rank all this.

00:11:35
Speaker 2: Nope, you got it.

00:11:36
Speaker 4: I would have taken over one of those guys. So knowing that I have very limited options there. I'm going to take Harlan Susanna. And I'm going to slot him in as a reliever. I do think that he's probably going to make starts in the big leagues. I think ultimately over the long stretch here, I'm going to gamble on him as a reliever, which I don't know if that's a strategic mistake or not. But I want to get all the really sexy arms on my team. So I'm going with Suzano.

00:12:10
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk about that one again for a little bit because that was one of the ways I was looking at going too. I don't know if Ian had him considered as well. I was also going to take him as a reliever.

00:12:19
Speaker 1: I was also.

00:12:21
Speaker 2: I look at him. He's not the complete Yohan Duran finish set, but he's headed that direction. Absolutely, could he start? Yeah, but I do think at the end of the day, I think he's just going to end up being one of the best relievers in baseball is my sense. But what do y'all think?

00:12:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.

00:12:42
Speaker 4: And I think that we're starting to see teams use some of these type of guys maybe in different, almost like old school firemen kind of relief roles. We see it more in the playoffs, but a guy like this that can maybe give you like two, maybe two and two thirds, like he can get you six to eight outs in the middle of a game.

00:13:09
Speaker 3: Or at the end of the game and close it out.

00:13:11
Speaker 4: Like I think he can kind of be unique in that sense that there might be some volume in, in the bullpen as well. He'll probably make starts early and then eventually get moved to the pen. But I think that's more a matter of just like where the nationals are at and their rebuild, but it's electric. And I think we all agree, like guys like this tend to end up in the pen. Like Mason Miller was great, but, kind of dealt with, you know, some injury stuff, maybe not as much on the command side, but I think ultimately guys like this always kind of end.

00:13:46
Speaker 3: Up in the pen.

00:13:47
Speaker 2: The other thing I would say with that is, is Susana's fastball for as impressive as it is Velo wise and all like it's, it's not a, you know, it's not a pitch that drives the same number of whiffs. And I think that if you put him as a starter, which he can still develop, he's still very young, but if you put him as a starter and, That second time through the order, that fifth inning, you might see a little bit of degradation in the velo, which makes the fastball even more hittable. Whereas if you put him in that relief role where he's going to be 102, 102 is hard to hit no matter what, unless you are Jackson Trurio and you can foul off 103.5 and then spit on a slider out of the zone.

00:14:28
Speaker 3: But that's Jackson Trurio.

00:14:29
Speaker 2: He's rare. But that leads it back to me. I don't need to pick a top 50 prospect. Y'all have both done that. So those are going to be my final two picks. I can tell you that much. This one's going to be one that I'm going to start finishing up my relief, my bullpen here pretty quickly. And this is one that I'm going to take right now because I feel like if I don't, Ian will. So I am taking, I'm sticking with the Rays. I'm taking Alexander Alberto. A Rays... Rule 5 pick of the White Sox last offseason did not stick. Got up to, you know, basically really kind of improved. It is a truly nasty pitch mix. The cutter is really special. Ian, is that one that was on your list to pick?

00:15:24
Speaker 1: He certainly was. I actually saw him a couple weeks ago when Durham was up here in Worcester. And yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's the a manual class a starter kit, you know, it's, it's a high nineties cutter and a devastating breaking ball. And he's six, seven with huge extension. So it's a, it's a pretty good combo that we've seen play out of the bullpen. I think proximity works too. He's probably going to be up in the big leagues next year. So yeah, I think that's a, that's a very shrewd pick and he was definitely on my bird, my board.

00:15:52
Speaker 2: Well, we go back. So Ian is, and I, by the way, that is what I feel very comfortable is going to be a reliever.

00:15:57
Speaker 3: He's already a reliever.

00:15:59
Speaker 2: So no projection required there at all, but Ian, you get two.

00:16:03
Speaker 5: Um, yeah.

00:16:04
Speaker 1: So my first pick, uh, I'm actually going to take, and this is, uh, it's interesting. I was looking at the 51 to 100 options and I was surprised at how few I would actually project as starters, like in the short term, um, guys who are proximity have the combination of proximity and safety. And the one who fits the best, I think for me right now is, is Joseph Gerwa and I'm going to take him as a starter. Um, I think that he's just, he's going to be up pretty soon. Um, you know, maybe next late next season. And I think that he's going to be someone who can accumulate innings for me and accumulate strikeouts in those innings. Cause it's just a very, you know, it's a deception first profile, but it's really good fastball, good change up breaking ball continues to improve. And I think there's another step that he can be, that he can take if he can find more consistency with his velocity. And I just looking at the options of 51 to 100, I was kind of surprised, um, how there were a lot more guys that would trend towards a bullpen track long-term than starter. So I thought the starting options were limited. So I wanted to grab one of the few that I felt was safer, even though he does have some bullpen risk, but all those guys do. And then for my second pick, I'm going to go back to that same well and take a pure reliever, and that's Carlos Aguirre from the Yankees. I'm putting him as a reliever. No, I'm putting him as a reliever. Yeah, they've already moved him to the bullpen. It's electric stuff. And, you know, it seems like he's overcome the injury concern from this year. So I think he could be up next season. He probably would have went up this season if not for the injury. And I think that he's someone who could give me very good value out of the bullpen for years to come. Kind of in the Brody Hopkins, Jarlin Sussana mold of, you know, a multi-inning guy. What we've seen from, you know, Didier Fuentes, Grant Taylor, guys like that this year, as Jeff alluded to, that that hybrid multi-inning role, but he's also got the nasty stuff that allows you to go through the order one time and not have to worry about anything. I think LeGron was very happy to get him still there.

00:17:55
Speaker 2: Speaking of, I kind of agree with you all on the 51-100 being kind of the there's less options here that I like. I'm going to take Liam Doyle and I am going to put him as a starter and Jeff seems upset about that idea.

00:18:12
Speaker 6: I tried to play possum here, assuming that you guys wouldn't take Doyle, but you would take Susanna.

00:18:23
Speaker 4: So that was my two picks there, and I ended up going with Susanna.

00:18:27
Speaker 1: I almost took Doyle, too. I was between Jerwa and Doyle as my pick there.

00:18:33
Speaker 2: So the things I like about this is I don't think that the consistency is always there right now, but he does miss bats. I do think that You have proximity. I'm not saying he's going to break camp in the Cardinals rotation, but I think that he will. He obviously spent most of the year at AA. I would expect him to pitch much of the time in the majors in 2027 and beyond. There is, I would say, a little bit of... Jeff, you're doing the Cardinals for us. What would you say the breakdown of starter-reliever risk is here, short-term and then long-term?

00:19:04
Speaker 5: Uh.

00:19:05
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm probably the wrong person. I mean, 90% starter.

00:19:09
Speaker 4: I don't think there's any chance that this guy's not starting games for them next year. I don't think they'll move him to the bullpen unless he really, really struggles in the big leagues.

00:19:22
Speaker 3: I think they'll roll with him for a while for what it's worth.

00:19:25
Speaker 4: Just kind of where they're, they're another team kind of where they're at in their rebuild and just the belief in the organization and this player.

00:19:32
Speaker 3: I just, I think, yeah, that you can lock them in pretty easily.

00:19:36
Speaker 2: So I'm going to feel good about that. Thanks. That clears out my 51 to hundreds, which is a spot I wanted to be done with. And that kicks us over to Jeff.

00:19:44
Speaker 4: Well, then I'm going to take his Cardinals teammate because I am Cardinals Jeff and I need to do that, I guess, because I took so many cardinals in the last draft um i'm going to take tanner franklin here um who is not a top 100 prospect.

00:19:58
Speaker 2: Are you putting him as starter reliever i am.

00:20:00
Speaker 4: Putting him as a starter sir um so I think he's kind of neck and neck with Doyle. He will probably be behind Doyle in the upcoming Cardinals top 10, but they will both be ranked highly.

00:20:13
Speaker 3: I think they're both top 100 prospects.

00:20:16
Speaker 4: I think you can maybe even argue that they could enter the season as top 50.

00:20:20
Speaker 3: Prospects if you're a little more aggressive.

00:20:22
Speaker 4: The progress that Franklin showed, and I think when you put it into perspective of this is a guy that was a bullpen guy at Kennesaw State. He went to Tennessee for a year. He pitched out of the pen there. and had to really grow into that starting role, made it up to AA, was excellent by the end of the season. And I think if you watched him over the first two months of the year, and then you really watched him over the last month and a half, six weeks of the season, you saw the arsenal depth. You saw the command improve. Kind of when he needed to throttle a fastball, he was doing that. He could reach back and find 100 when he needed it. But maybe he was operating more five to six more consistently and spotting it. I just thought there was a lot of progress as a starter. I'm really excited about Tanner Franklin. And I think he's a guy that could have a better career as a starter than Liam Doyle, maybe. I think there's some benefits with Doyle's release height and the progress of the secondaries and the fact he's left-handed.

00:21:20
Speaker 3: But I like Franklin a lot. He's one of my favorite starters in the minor leagues. So I think there's a lot of good here.

00:21:25
Speaker 1: Okay.

00:21:26
Speaker 2: And now you get one more pick.

00:21:28
Speaker 5: All right.

00:21:29
Speaker 4: So this is where it gets, I think, most interesting. And it's a matter of where do you want to pick your relievers from and where do you want to take your starters from?

00:21:44
Speaker 3: So I'm going to take a starter here from... I need to double check. Give me a sec.

00:21:56
Speaker 4: I know this makes for great podcasting, but I want to double check on where this guy is ranked in the system.

00:22:04
Speaker 3: And of course, a page up. We're good.

00:22:07
Speaker 1: All right.

00:22:07
Speaker 4: So this is another top 15 non-top 100 guy. I'm going to take Tyson Harden of the Brewers. He had a phenomenal season. I was really in on Tyson Harden last year, kind of identifying that. The Brewers do a bunch of things really well, but one of the things they do well on the margins is identifying.

00:22:27
Speaker 3: SEC, Big 12.

00:22:29
Speaker 4: Power 4, relievers with good stuff that maybe can transition to starters. Uh, they did it with Casey hunt, not as successful as Tyson Harden has been in this, in this transition, but Harden has been really good. I've written about his really, um, unusual angles, you know, good extension, um, outlier release height, good fastball.

00:22:54
Speaker 3: I like the slider. There's, you know, above.

00:22:56
Speaker 4: Average command here. And he really performed and performed in the upper minors as well. So Harden's a guy that I was kind of always going to leave this draft with.

00:23:05
Speaker 3: So I'll pencil him in there as one of my starters.

00:23:10
Speaker 1: Okay.

00:23:10
Speaker 2: So that's one that I had on my list as well, at least as a, I'm not saying I was going to take them, but it's definitely someone I was.

00:23:15
Speaker 3: At least considering.

00:23:18
Speaker 2: This is where this now gets a little tricky because, so I need three starters.

00:23:23
Speaker 1: And one reliever.

00:23:24
Speaker 2: I have picked one non top 15, both my 51 hundreds, one top 15 prospect, no, top 50 prospects. I'm going to wait on those. It'll be the last two picks because y'all are already booked for those. But I've got to get three starters. And I don't feel as good about getting my starters from different, there are certain groups of this that I feel less comfortable about than others. So when I look at this, okay, I'm going to go Kendry Rojas of the twins. Cause he's a top 15, but not top hundred. And I'm going to say him as a starter. Now I'm not sure like, okay, Ian, I will hit you up on this because you are do the twins for us. What do you think are the chances that Kendry Rojas is a starter?

00:24:24
Speaker 1: Um, say 50, 50 right now. Cause I, I just look at the twins actually have a decent amount of, like starting pitching depth because of the trades they made. You know, getting Taj Bradley, who's turned into, you know, arguably their best pitcher. You have Zebby Matthews. You have Connor Prelip ahead of him. But I think Rojas is right up there with Prelip now. I think you could make the case. Like the stuff when he's healthy is electric. It's just, you know, a matter of health. And you saw this year, they kind of piggybacked him a little bit. He started some games. He worked in relief in some games. But I think that he will get enough volume as a starter that I think that could be. The tricky thing for you is if they use him in a piggyback. You know, is that counted as a starter or as a reliever? That would be the question.

00:25:05
Speaker 2: When he piggybacks, if he started this game, then you get the full right. And then if the games he relieves, you get a half right.

00:25:12
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:25:12
Speaker 1: But I think that's, he was on my board. I think that's a solid value.

00:25:15
Speaker 5: Okay.

00:25:16
Speaker 2: That kicks it to you. You have two picks to catch up people on the pod who are not watching the video. You have two starting pitchers, two relievers still to pick. You have picked, Everyone in your top 100 and no one outside of it. You have two top 50s, two 5100s. So you have top 15 and non-top 15 or really open world to choose from.

00:25:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll be honest. I thought you were going to take this person. I'm going to take Jonathan Santucci from the Mets. He's not in the top 100. I just double checked. And I think the combination of proximity and stuff is really appealing.

00:25:53
Speaker 2: Led the minors in the strikeouts. Yep.

00:25:55
Speaker 1: That's just about to go. Yeah. He had a, had a great season. And I just think that, yeah, the combination, if you look at the mats, I think there's a lot of opportunity in that rotation for people to come out and, and establish themselves. I think he could be up as soon as early next season. And yeah, there's strikeout stuff there from the left side. So I was, I'll be honest. I thought for sure. One of you two was going to take him for your top 15, not on top. It's a very good pick.

00:26:24
Speaker 2: Um, you got another one too.

00:26:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh, this one is trickier. Um, cause I think that to me, Santucci and Franklin were the, and river Ryan were the three standouts from this group, uh, from the top 15 group. But, um, I'm going to go a little bit. I don't think this is going to be as much of a strikeout play as it is. I just think like a accumulation play and that's Michael Ferret from the Orioles. Um, he's in triple a, I think he gets up the big leagues next year. I don't know. I don't think it's, it's a sexy pick. Um, I don't think he's going to miss a ton of bats, but I think he's someone that, you know, is going to be able to go five, six innings consistently. Um, you don't make 30 starts a season. And, uh, I think that looking at the available options, I think that there's a safety net here that a lot of the other guys that potentially, uh, where I was looking at as a starter could not provide for me. And so I think for that is a, is a nice safe play there to, to accumulate me a good number of strikeouts. And I feel pretty confident that he's going to be a starter. Also.

00:27:21
Speaker 2: I didn't know that he was an Oriole to his traders, the race being traded back to the Orioles, which you don't see very often. Often you will see within a year, a three-time trade prospect. There's like a concern like, Oh, is this a guy who keeps being handed off? Once the team realizes who he is, But that doesn't apply if the team that traded him away is the one who brings him back. So that's not a three-time trade concern there at all. Like, no, why would you want.

00:27:46
Speaker 3: To ever let him go?

00:27:47
Speaker 1: He was sent on loan to Tampa to outsource some development for a couple months.

00:27:51
Speaker 2: They needed a roster spot. So they sent him out and then they brought him back. Yeah, it's like we're in soccer here or football if you're in Europe. Okay, that brings it back to me. As I said, I can think you can comfortably say that I'm going to take two starters with the top 50 prospects. I'm holding off on those. I don't need those right now. So I'm going to sound like I'm Jeff and I'm going to take another Cardinal because I'm going to take Brandon Clark as a reliever who is number 16 currently on the Cardinals top 30, which makes him a non top 15 and one who throws, uh, 101, you know, should pile up strikeouts in the pen. I do think he ends up, there's been some injury issues with him as well. I think there's that. And again, when Jeff just mentioned, there's a lot of starting candidates who are, we haven't even mentioned, there's at least one other Cardinal who I think at least could be considered as an option to be taken. So there's a lot of young arms battling for the starting rotation spots. I think some of them end up in the pen. I think Clark is one of the most likely to do so. That gets back to Jeff and Jeff like he was considering that Clark as well.

00:29:07
Speaker 4: I wasn't actually, there was another Cardinal that I'm going to take.

00:29:10
Speaker 3: Um, I'll take them now.

00:29:12
Speaker 4: I think I might be sniping Ian on this one, but Sandro Santana, who they acquired from the diamond backs is ranked 29th in the system. He is a pure relief play. I think he might be one of the best relievers in the minor leagues. Now, anytime you say that you're taking a gamble, but it's left-handed power. Um, you know, big spin capacity. He's got feel for a change up. I think it's an easy plus slider, you know, gets lots of whips, gets a fair amount of chases, throws enough strikes, can get enough ground balls, particularly with the fastball. So he was a guy that when I was thinking about these like back end and like where I was going to fill out my relievers from that, I was like, yeah, that's a guy that I definitely want to pick in my pen. Now, there's so many good options, uh, kind of among that class that this could look foolish.

00:30:03
Speaker 3: In a few years. Um, or it could look really smart. He moved really quickly.

00:30:07
Speaker 4: I know there's multiple organizations that spoke highly of him. Um, so he was, uh, kind of a sneaky ad by the Cardinals. And I think, uh, one of the guys that was going to go with here, uh, without a doubt.

00:30:19
Speaker 1: Next, you considering him in, I certainly was. Yeah. I think, I think that's a great pick, and it's interesting seeing some of the discourse around the Lars Neubauer trade. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he's the best pitching prospect in that trade. I know Curley and Egan are ranked higher and kind of get a lot of the attention, but Santana was probably going to come close to jumping both when I was going to redo the Diamondbacks system prior to the trade. Obviously, I had to remove him, and he went over to Jeff's Cardinal system, which is deeper than the Diamondbacks. But yeah, I think he could be up in the big leagues next season, and he's just going to strike out a ton of bats. It's really, he's really small, but it's, it's a lot of fun to watch.

00:30:55
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:30:55
Speaker 4: And I think like when he's small, but it's big stuff left-handed in the upper minors already kind of pitch and leverage innings.

00:31:02
Speaker 3: Um, and it's a 27 rule five.

00:31:05
Speaker 4: So he's kind of in that sweet spot that if there isn't maybe baseball early in the season, he's going to be able to play in the minor leagues and, uh, can be fresh and ready whenever they need to call on him late in the year. I think he's, uh, going to be a nice pen weapon for the Cardinals and could be up there pretty quickly. Um, I'm just going to stick with, with my historical cheese ball here. I'm going to slot them into the relief pitching slot. That's Ricky Tiedemann on the blue Jays. He was up last year, uh, you know, pitched a little bit out of the pen. I think ultimately that's where he's going to be now, just based on what the injury track record is.

00:31:39
Speaker 3: Um, we'd be thrilled if I'm proven wrong. And these are halfway.

00:31:42
Speaker 2: I don't think you have a spot for him.

00:31:44
Speaker 5: Do you?

00:31:44
Speaker 3: I have a relief.

00:31:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I should.

00:31:46
Speaker 2: Cause he's a, you don't have, but you need a non top 15.

00:31:49
Speaker 3: Excuse me. I don't, I forgot he's 13 in the system. All right, well, then I'll pivot.

00:31:54
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. That means that Ricky Tiedemann may not be picked. I know that is.

00:31:58
Speaker 3: Ricky Tiedemann's not going to get picked now, so sorry.

00:32:01
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:32:02
Speaker 3: Wow. I'll take... I do this.

00:32:08
Speaker 2: So you have, just to catch up for everyone, you've taken two top 50s. You have one 51 to 100, which is what you don't want to pick, it seems like. You've taken two top 50s. You have one... open world and one 51 to a hundred take. You have one starter, one relief. Yeah.

00:32:24
Speaker 3: I got a, I got a pivot here too.

00:32:26
Speaker 4: And a guy that was traded this, this season as well into one of my systems, that's Jack Siebert from the nationals. He's been primarily a starter, but I think everyone kind of agrees that it's, it's going to be most effective in relief. He's got, you know, some power on the fastball, good extension, good angles. He misses some bats with that pitch. But it's a nasty sweeper. He's got some decent secondary stuff. He's got a two-seamer that's effective as well. So it might be a little bit of a gamble here, but I was going to take my shots with Siebert as a reliever.

00:33:03
Speaker 2: Okay. I have two spots left, and they're both top 50. So I can just be open and talk about these because no one's going to take a top 50 prospect. I have five names that I would consider. which are Christian Zazawayda, Anthony Ionson, Robbie Snelling, Gage Wood, Thomas White. Now, Robbie Snelling and Thomas White both have proximity, but both of them missed significant time with injuries, both of which those could bleed over into 2027. Still have proximity, but that probably takes them off my board for that reason. I'm going to start by taking Christian Zazawayda, who is the furthest away, but did get pretty close to the majors. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he plays in the majors at some point in 2027. And when it comes to pure strikeout ability of these guys, I think he's very much near the top of that list. So I'll take Zasueta, who is now one of the best pitching prospects in the game, I would say. Elite stuff, elite movement, elite, elite, elite, elite. And again, someone who kind of really did rock it to, the thing that gives me a little bit of concern, You have a little less track record of him performing like this. This is something that the Dodgers picked up in trade. And as we seem to have said before in other times, that he seems to have unlocked another gear, which kicks it to Ian, who's going to wrap this up for us, for him. He gets to wrap up first because he has two picks. He has two spots, both relievers, and both of them are open world relief spots. No top 15 team or top 100 prospects spots.

00:34:44
Speaker 1: Yes, and I have to say I was convinced Jeff was going to take one of mine when he started introing Jack Stiebert. It turns out he did not go the way I would have gone, and that's with Ben Grable, who was also acquired by the Nationals at the deadline. I look at the Nationals' bullpen, and obviously I think they set a record for most blown saves in the season. There's a lot of opportunity there, and I think that Grable, 76 strikeouts in like 50 innings this year, he's up in triple A. wouldn't be surprised at all if he's up early next season. And I think that he's someone who could grab a pretty important role in that nationals bullpen very quickly. And he's going to, I think he's going to miss a lot of bats, you know, it's a pure relief play. Um, but I was very, I was sure when Jeff was ensuring that nationals pick, that's who he was going to take. Um, my other one, the other one's tricky. I, this was where I was hoping that Santana or Alberto would be there. Um, kind of was banking on that. I'm actually going to go with, uh, Josh Eakness with the Marlins. Um, he's another guy got to see him this year. It's huge stuff. Got up to the big leagues, showed pretty interesting stuff when he was up there. I look at the Marlins bullpen, same thing. I think there's opportunity there. I think he'll be on the roster to start opening day. And I just think it's, he's good and he'll accumulate stats. I'll get, you know, max value out of him in terms of time in the majors for this exercise. And I don't think he has the same strikeout upside as some of the other relievers we've talked about, but I still think he's going to miss enough bats because it is really good stuff.

00:36:10
Speaker 2: So.

00:36:11
Speaker 1: Pretty happy to get him to round out my bullpen.

00:36:14
Speaker 2: Gravel is very much on my list as well. I thought there were a lot of relievers that in that 16 plus range that you're going to be, I think we'll talk about some others that were probably on some of our list as well. That kicks it back to me. I have one starting pitcher spot left. I have top 50 prospect left, and I'm going to take Anthony Ionson for that. Um, again, we talking about proximity, uh, I would say opportunity, um, I think that there are pitchers who are going to strike out more batters, but again, you are going to get a lot of accumulation here because he should be in the rotation hopefully for much of the next five seasons. And that's kind of perfect spot for that. Again, him versus Snelling and White, the injuries, him versus Gage Wood. That was a little tougher to be honest for me. But at the same time, I feel more comfortable that Ionson is 100% going to be a starter. Whereas with Gage Wood, I would say that was a little bit of relief risk with him. And obviously you would get discounted strikeouts if he ends up being a reliever. So that's why I.

00:37:21
Speaker 3: Went with Ionson.

00:37:22
Speaker 2: But that kicks it back to Jeff who needs one more starter. And that will be in the 51 to 100 range. And there are some starters here, but as we said, there are a lot of guys who look Like there could be relievery too.

00:37:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll take Tyler Bremner. I thought he finished the season pretty well. And, you know, I just kind of believe in the stuff, maybe more than some of the other guys that were in this range.

00:37:51
Speaker 3: I think he'll get an opportunity to start.

00:37:55
Speaker 4: Maybe won't be phenomenal, but might accumulate enough strikeouts to help me. Just a matter of him seeing more and more innings.

00:38:03
Speaker 2: So to recap, and then I want us to get into some of the players who we did pick that, you know, hey, we were thinking about, but we didn't pick them. But so Jeff gets Kate Anderson for the Mariners, Seth Fernandez for the Pirates, Tanner Franklin with the Cardinals, Tyson Harden with the Brewers, Tyler Bremner with the Angels, Harlan Susanna with the Nationals, Sandra Santana with the Cardinals, and Jack Siebert with the Nationals are his relievers. I got River Ryan with the Tigers, Liam Doyle with the Cardinals, Kendri Rojas with the Twins, Christian Zazueda with the Dodgers, and Anthony Einstein with the Orioles as my starters. Brody Hopkins with the Rays, Alexander Alberto with the Rays, and Brandon Clark with the Cardinals as my relievers. Ian got Ryan Sloan with the Mariners, Jackson Flora with the Giants, Joseph Zerwa with the Orioles, Jonathan Santucci with the Mets, Michael Ferret with the Orioles as his starters, Carlos Lagranje with the Yankees, Ben Grable with the Nationals, and Josh Eckness with the Marlins as his relievers. Okay, I'll start out. I'll just kind of throw it out open world, open question to you guys. Ian, I'll start out with you. player we didn't take that was on your board that you're like, I would be thrilled to have them on.

00:39:07
Speaker 3: My team too.

00:39:09
Speaker 1: Um, I was a little, I gauge wood was, I would say one of them. Uh, I think he's going to be up next season. I think the tricky thing with him is I think he'll be, he'll start initially. Um, I do think there is some bullpen risk there, but I think the proximity he'll still be able to accumulate a fair amount. He, was one um i would say the other one was quinn matthews in the top 15 range he made starts for the cardinals this year um they do have a lot of options coming but i do think they'll he'll be given runway in that rotation whether he can grab a hold and stay as a starter i think remains to be seen but i was a little surprised that he didn't get taken um given you know it's it and i'm pretty sure he didn't graduate i that was actually something I just realized that.

00:39:51
Speaker 2: I'll look that up to confirm while we're talking.

00:39:53
Speaker 1: Um, but yeah, I, he was one, um, and that, that I had on my list that, uh, that I was a little, a little surprised that Jeff didn't take.

00:40:01
Speaker 2: And he is still eligible.

00:40:02
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:40:04
Speaker 2: Uh, Jeff, what about you? Who was that? That sat on the board that you would be happy to have on your team?

00:40:10
Speaker 4: Um, yeah, I think there's a few, a lot of them for me were more in that, uh.

00:40:17
Speaker 3: Top 15 non top 100 range than anyone else.

00:40:20
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:40:21
Speaker 4: Um, Travis Sikora, David Hagerman, I think as a reliever, Miguel CMA junior certainly would have been one, uh.

00:40:30
Speaker 3: Nolan Perry.

00:40:31
Speaker 4: I thought good and hard about Ben Blair in that range too, but there were just too many good players, um, for me to, for me to go there. Caden Hunter. Um, yeah, you know, uh, Ferrette actually went. Fajardo's there, but I don't know if any of us actually believe in Fajardo. He did have like great swinging strike rate and a ton of strikeouts this year. But I think just gets buried in that system a little.

00:40:57
Speaker 2: In that range also, I thought like there were a ton of potential relievers that were interesting. Jackson Wiggins with the Cubs, you know, as one. Tanner McDougal and Pierce George with the White Sox. Luis De Leon with the Orioles, who I think had a little bit of a, Is he going to start? Is he going to relieve? He started primarily in the minors. When he came up, he relieved. I think he's probably a reliever. Um, you mentioned Sikora, Bishop Letson with the Brewers, who I know didn't have a great season, but did finish the season very strong. Gerangelo Cintia, who in proximity, although with the Cardinals, we just rattled off like eight Cardinals. So some, not everyone can be in that rotation or that pen. Um, But the one that if I had more non-top 15 picks I would take, it would have been Cam Leiter.

00:41:44
Speaker 1: With the Dodgers.

00:41:45
Speaker 3: I thought that that was one.

00:41:45
Speaker 1: I thought about him. Yeah.

00:41:48
Speaker 2: You know, I also, Ty Johnson with the Rays was another Rays reliever. Although, again, I'm a little bit oversubscribed to Rays relievers already in mind. So I didn't really want to go three there.

00:42:02
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:42:02
Speaker 2: I'm now going to ask the more tough question. The other 51 to 100 guys in the top 100, Who would you feel most comfortable is going to be a starter? The names that I have here, I'm sure I'm missing a couple of them. These are the ones I at least looked at. We did get Carlos de Granje, but not Elmer Rodriguez. Jonah Tong is there. Zach Root is there. Carson Milbrandt is there. And I'll try to get up some of the other names that were out. But those are the names I would say that have proximity as well, where there are the guys. Someone may ask us, why did you not take Kendri Trurio? Well, Kendri Trurio is further away. You know, guys like that, you're like, okay, I would say that, you know, like, again, Caden Scarborough is another, you know, one in this range who was available. But Jamie Arnold, and I think that might be Johnny King, Cam Caminiti, and I think that is it. So who else were you all feeling like, okay, if I need to, I'll take so-and-so? Jeff.

00:43:09
Speaker 4: Um, toward the backend, I mean, I panicked a little bit and took Siebert, um, and was like between him and Grable could honestly have probably gone the other way.

00:43:19
Speaker 3: Carson Wiggins.

00:43:21
Speaker 4: I thought about as a he's non, um, top 15 and you know, there's huge stuff. There's a ton of injury risk could be a guy that ends up like streamlined in the bullpen and move pretty quickly eventually. I thought about him as another one for that last relief spot. I wondered if anyone would take the Eliza Dishmay pick because he's non-top 15. But I think you would have to slot him in as a starter, and there were just so many good starter options. But if it was one of those drafts where you had values assigned to each slot and could only spend so much money, he probably would have been a nice number five starter at a dollar or something.

00:44:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.

00:44:06
Speaker 3: I thought we did generally pretty well.

00:44:09
Speaker 4: I think the guys that went in the top 100 are the ones I would have anticipated were.

00:44:13
Speaker 1: Going to go.

00:44:16
Speaker 2: Were there any non top 51 through a hundred guys that you would consider or would not have been opposed to having?

00:44:24
Speaker 1: I think the issue with a lot of these guys is they're either probably relievers or they lack proximity. Um, I thought Cam Caminetti was one I did consider just because I don't think he'll be up next season, but he's probably the one I have the most confidence as a starter of this group of the undrafted guys. So I considered him. I considered Zach Root also, but it's just it's hard to see him slotting in with the Dodgers because you have Zazoueta ahead of him and they have about 10 starters already. So that was that was kind of if he was in a different org, I could have seen definitely taking him. I thought about Johnny King in relief, but I think he's he's a little bit further away. Um, yeah, I just think it's, it is interesting. I think there's a substantial drop off in terms of quality, um, after the top 50 in terms of pitching prospects right now. And I think part of it is that we haven't re-ranked, um, in a while we started the top 10 process. So there's some names that are not in there right now that as Jeff alluded to that are definitely going to move in. Um, but yeah, it just, it was surprising going through. I thought that was by far the weakest group compared to, I mean, we haven't even mentioned like from the top 15, um, but not top 15, not top 100. I thought JT Quinn would have been a very good pick for the Orioles as a reliever. Boston Bateman is a starter as someone I like a lot. David Sandlin is a reliever from the White Sox. Zach Thornton is a starter from the Mets. Luis Perales is a reliever from the Nationals. We haven't even mentioned any of those guys, and I have more beyond that. Whereas I think, you know, in that, in that 51 to 100 group, I think there were, there were the six guys that we took and, or actually I had only five guys on my list. I didn't have a sixth. Bremner wasn't on my list, but it was, I thought that group was, was by far the weakest. And yeah, there were plenty of options from the top 15, top 30, obviously because there's a far bigger player pool, but it was definitely surprising to me how weak I thought the, for this exercise, it was in terms of combination of proximity and bat missing ability was not really there in the 51 to 100 range.

00:46:18
Speaker 5: Right.

00:46:18
Speaker 2: I would say that again, we saw with 40 Hopkins is a reliever now. And again, we'll, we could see, but I'm expecting he'll stay in that role. Jonah Tong. We don't know if he's going to be a starter reliever. He's starting, but at the same time, it's not a slam dunk that he's going to be. He has not grabbed a part in that mess rotation yet. I would say that Carson Milbrandt is kind of probably trending towards reliever as well. So a lot of guys in that range where it's a little bit more kind of up.

00:46:45
Speaker 1: In the air.

00:46:47
Speaker 3: But again, okay.

00:46:48
Speaker 2: I will throw out also, Jeff threw out a couple of these. Any other open world non-top 15 prospects that were intriguing to you guys? I think I mentioned Cam Leiter and Ty Johnson, but anyone else stand out to you guys? Probably more in the reliever group, I'm guessing generally.

00:47:07
Speaker 1: On El Bastardo from the Red Sox, I think that he's someone who could be up next season. When he throws strikes, it's premium stuff. We saw it in In July, he struck out 23 guys in 14 innings and didn't walk anyone. Had some struggles in August. Without those struggles, I do wonder if he's up in the big leagues at some point this season. But he's a minor league free agent after the season. The Red Sox are probably going to have to protect him if they're going to keep him. Because if they just re-sign him in a minor league deal, he strikes me as someone who would be Rule 5 if there is a Rule 5 draft. So I think I thought he would have been a very good pick. He was the last guy I was debating between him and him at this for that pick with Ty Johnson. Also, those are kind of my last three for the open world portion of this exercise.

00:47:48
Speaker 2: Anyone else from you, Jeff? No, that's it. But okay, well, that is our strikeouts draft. I think I have one more of these ideas that's going to be The most difficult one for all of us, but also maybe the most interesting. I'm trying to figure out a formula so we can draft defense. Probably having to be some form of like multiple defensive metrics. And there has to be a counting component too, because you don't want like, you know, well, I'm trying to figure it out, but that's going to be, that I think would be fascinating and also incredibly challenging at the same time. Because again, playing time also wouldn't matter. Like you could take Connor Burns all you want, the Reds, great defensive catcher, but it's got to get the big leagues and you got to hit a little bit to do that. So that may be, we may have one more of these in us. Do check out everything over at baseballamerica.com. And please do like, and subscribe both. If you're listening on the podcast channels, you know, please, you know, share a review or if you're on YouTube, liking and subscribing, clicking that bell, all our things to help. Not only, you know, when we have next video out, but I'll help other people to see it as well. For Jeff, for Ian, I'm JJ. So long, everybody.