00:00:01
Speaker 1: Hello, everybody.

00:00:02
Speaker 2: J.J. Cooper, Carlos Colosso, Baseball America Draft Podcast. And today we are talking all about draft report cards. Check them out at BaseballAmerica.com. We have full draft report cards on all 30 teams. Carlos did all the work. I used to help him with these. Now he just does them all by himself. And that's a perfect way to start this, which is, OK, someone's watching this. Someone's listening to this and has never seen one of our draft report cards, which you've, you've got a 40 year plus run here that you could go back and look at, but what are the draft report cards and why are they, why do we think that they're valuable?

00:00:37
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love doing the draft report cards every year at baseball America. Like you said, it's a series we've been running for more than 40 years, seemingly as long as baseball America has been around. And every year around this time of year, around the end of the regular season, we get a chance to take some time and look back at every team's draft class. And, I think the most common misconception is that we're grading each team's draft class.

00:01:01
Speaker 3: That is not the case for this.

00:01:04
Speaker 2: Could you explain that to the people who may be like, well, why not? Are y'all just chicken to grade them? Why would you not?

00:01:11
Speaker 1: If you've listened to our last few episodes where we're looking back at draft classes, I think it's just the case in MLB draft that it's disingenuous to grade a team's draft at the time because we don't know who's going to have the best or the worst draft. We have an idea of the players we like, the players who were maybe consensus top of the board picks at the time. We do a lot of exercises to see which players and which teams the BA board likes, but I think grading a team's draft within a few months when barely any of these players have played a significant amount of actual pro games is either disingenuous or a little bit more arrogant, and I think there would be very little correlation with those grades today. and which teams actually wound up having the best draft classes. So for these draft report cards, it's more of a superlative system. We have a number of different categories where we can look into the different profiles of players. We can spend a little bit more time on players who are drafted later in a team's draft class who maybe didn't get the sort of shine and attention that they deserved on draft day. We can take a look at some of the players who performed well in their pro debuts. We can hear from teams who've said, oh, we're really excited about this player. He came and did X, Y, and Z after signing. So there are always a few players who've impressed team officials.

00:02:28
Speaker 3: In that capacity.

00:02:29
Speaker 1: So I think it's just a really nice way to, again, spend a little bit more time on each team's draft class. You could spend a lot of time reading these. I think it's just over 18,000 words total for all 30 teams. Hopefully it takes you maybe, I don't know if it'll take you as much time as it took me to write them, but there's a lot of information here. I think this is also a good place where you can kind of get a headstart on, on prospects who might pop. Um, there are always a few names who, who come out of this process, I think who, who wind up surprising people and, and maybe this will be the first entry for us kind of being aware of that. Um, but yeah, there, there are a ton of fun to do. I wish we had more playing time for all these players. Um, but yeah, we've got all 30 teams up and you can dive into your favorite team or, or every single team if you want to on, on baseball America, America.com, excuse me.

00:03:20
Speaker 2: Just to add to what you were talking about with why we don't grade them right now.

00:03:23
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:03:23
Speaker 2: Let me just use an example. 2022 Yankees draft, right? Spencer Jones, Drew Thorpe, Tristan Veerling, Anthony Hall, Chase Hampton. If you were grading that in 2022, at the end of the 2022, you know, this time in 2022, it would all be about Jones and a little bit about Thorpe and like, okay, what do you think of them? And to buy, but Hampton was starting maybe to pop a little bit as well, but, Here we are, and if you graded this class even in 2024, you'd be like, well, Jones is striking out a lot. Thorpe's gotten hurt. Hampton's gotten hurt. This is a terrible draft class. And then Cam Schlittler develops an additional five miles an hour, six miles an hour during the 2025 season. He's probably going to win the Cy Young Award this year. And that draft, which even as late as December 2024 would look like it was a poor draft, is now one of the best drafts in the 2022 class because if you draft a Cy Young winner in your draft class, it's always going to be good. If you get him in the seventh round, it's going to be exceptional. So that's why we're saying you have to give these draft classes time to breathe before you can in any way responsibly grade them. You can put a grade on them, but as you said, Carlos, you're arrogant about it and you're also probably going to look like an idiot at the end of the day because– Too much stuff is going to happen for you to say like, oh, I feel like I have enough information. We try to cover this as well as anyone can, but I promise you there are players, as this is why we do draft report cards, who we didn't know enough about to know that that 14th round pick coming into the draft is a sleeper.

00:05:08
Speaker 1: And this also reminds me, I think live on this show, we were kind of talking through our process for how we can better maybe provide reports on each draft class. This also got me more excited about our idea about just writing up reports on everyone who signs for X amount instead of focusing on the college seniors after the draft. That would take a little bit more time, but I think it would be really beneficial because there are a lot of these players who we just didn't have a ton of information on at the time that now sound super exciting and have made me rethink like how I'm viewing these classes even now. So yeah, I'm very excited to kind of continue iterating on this post-draft explanation period, I guess you could say?

00:05:50
Speaker 2: I think that is something we'll probably do next year. I do want to ask you with this. The first thing we're going to jump into. What I want to ask you is when you go through this process, you gather information, talk to people, pull this all together for 30 teams. One of the things that you do with this is you learn from doing that. What team's what teams draft or what couple of teams drafts excite you more now than they did maybe at the end of draft day, the final day of the draft.

00:06:19
Speaker 3: Right.

00:06:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the most obvious team for me, and this was actually the case when I was writing their draft report card, but the Brewers. I mean, I liked their draft on draft day in the sense that they got Sawyer Strohsnyder in the second round. And for me, that player in Pittsburgh was tremendous. Yeah, he was one of my guys. It also helps that I think he arguably had the best pro debut in this system. But the reason why I'm even more excited about this Brewers class is I've had a little bit more time to dig in on some of their high school signings. And Ben has written about this in the past. We've talked about the Brewers doing this. They are the masters at taking these later, more under the radar high school names and signing these guys out of atypical power conference commitments. And there are no shortage this year of players who I'm really intrigued by. And the more I kind of looked into these players, I was like, man, I wish we knew about this guy before the draft.

00:07:22
Speaker 3: He's super exciting.

00:07:23
Speaker 1: Maybe the most prominent name in the class this year for the Brewers, because of how much he signed for, is Carson Hart, who is a high school outfielder out of Minnesota. He signed in the 13th round for $ 380, 000. Uh, I believe that was their biggest signing after the 11th round. He was signed out of a Creighton commitment and he, he was their superlative winner for best runner. He's a tremendous runner, at least a 70 grade runner. It's a great frame at six foot two, 190 pounds. It moves really easily. I like the swing. It's, it's very clean. Uh, so this is just an athlete in this range with tools that I like. Um, After that, Colorado right-handed pitcher Keaton Mairana. Hopefully I'm not butchering that name too much, but he's a 6'5 right-handed pitcher whose fastball is trending up, and he already throws a slider that gets into that 3,000 RPM range. Potential plus or better pitch there with that breaking ball. He signed for $ 230, 000, signed out of a UNLV commitment. Those are the two most prominent names in the bigger money signings from this class, but you also look at Wisconsin shortstop Chance Ruby.

00:08:36
Speaker 3: He looks like a good athlete. He has speed.

00:08:38
Speaker 1: He's clocked 60 or 70 great run times. Right-handed hitter with some power. They signed him out of an Illinois-Chicago commit. I believe it was 150. $ 150, 000 bonus he signed for. And then Missouri right-handed pitcher Brady Smith. Clean, lean right-handed pitcher. Looks like he moves well.

00:08:56
Speaker 3: Low 90s fastball.

00:08:57
Speaker 1: I probably know the least about him even still now compared to this other trio of high school players that I've just been able to watch more. video of and see them more, but he was also signed out of a Wichita state commitment.

00:09:10
Speaker 3: And so you see, there's a lot of these like.

00:09:13
Speaker 1: Northern or just like, like less hot prep States that, that the brewers are signing less seen too. Yeah.

00:09:21
Speaker 3: Less seen.

00:09:22
Speaker 1: None of these were players that we had ranked on our board before the draft. They were just like, I mean, for us under the radar players who have real tools, real size, physicality, And it's just funny to me that they continue to do this.

00:09:36
Speaker 3: It's Wichita State, Illinois, Chicago, UNLV, Creighton.

00:09:39
Speaker 1: If you can find players who are committed, either you can sign them out of those colleges or you just know that these are players who are really ready to go to pro ball. However you're doing it, getting real talent signed here in the high school ranks, I think is still a separator because most teams are just taking college players who you have less of a risk that those players aren't going to sign you need to do less homework i would imagine uh although that has certainly changed but i just think this collection of of high school players all after the 10th round have me very excited about what this class could look like in a few.

00:10:11
Speaker 3: Years a.

00:10:13
Speaker 2: Couple of examples of this of why we you know like i said ben wrote about this kind of spelled this out but So you say, okay, well, why do they do this? What are examples of this? Well, okay, Luke Adams, 12th round, 2022, high school, Illinois high school, third baseman, who we'll see, but he's a top 30 prospect for them. Massive power, draws a ton of walks. Okay, then you flip to 2023, Bishop Letson in the 11th round out of Indiana, high schooler out of Indiana. Josh Adamcheski, top 100 prospect now out of Indiana. Again, was a shortstop What position he can play? Oh, we'll see. But then, again, it's not always high school. Tyson Harden as a 12th rounder, again, for really reasonable money, I would say. And then the other thing with this that ties into this is it's not just that. It's 10th, 11th round on. When we've been talking about when we do these draft lookbacks, we kind of highlighted how the Astros seem to find guys after the fifth round year after year. Okay, so how about, again, not all of these ended up working out for them with them, but okay, 2021 Brewers, Logan Henderson in the fourth, Tristan Peters in the seventh. Now, Tristan Peters did it elsewhere, but heck of a draft pick. We just talked about Luke Adams from the following year. You go beyond that, you go, oh yeah, Cooper Pratt, who got money, but sixth round pick. Craig Yoho, a $ 10, 000 eighth rounder who made the majors. We said Bishop Letson, Josh Adamczewski. They're just doing this year after year. They're really working the draft really well.

00:11:52
Speaker 1: And then one of the other players I want to mention on this pod, he's not a high school player, but I think just represents sort of a creativity that the Brewers bring to the draft. Texas State's Chase Mora, ninth round pick. So he spent four years with the program. He played 227 games. He hit more than 42 home runs. The Brewers draft him as a pitcher. So all of his time in college was spent as a hitter. He threw just in two games in 1.1 total innings. The Brewers selected him as a pitcher. He has this fastball that's in the mid-90s. He was up to 98 this spring. And you look at him on the mound and he moves shockingly well for a player who has pitched as little as he had. So I cannot wait to see what the Brewers are able to do with just this like raw arm talent that they have here. I think that's another one that I would have to point to before we move on to another team.

00:12:47
Speaker 3: You just look at this, their draft report card is littered.

00:12:50
Speaker 1: With just really interesting players, interesting backgrounds, atypical paths. And all of these players we've talked about are names I'm really, really excited to see what they're able to do with them next year, a few years from now.

00:13:02
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:13:02
Speaker 2: Give us at least one more team that as you kind of dove in more, you kind of got excited about.

00:13:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this one is maybe like if you just are looking at results of draft classes so far, you could pick this team out.

00:13:14
Speaker 3: And I think that's the Yankees.

00:13:16
Speaker 1: I think the Yankees had maybe as many exciting pro debuts from their class as any team. And I think it starts with Anthony Potestio, who they drafted in the 11th round. I've already heard from multiple other organizations that they feel like from the outside looking in, Anthony Potestio is one of the more or one of the better after the 10th round picks. It sounds like the Yankees were really excited about him and felt confident they could get him here in the 11th round. He comes from a baseball family. His dad played at UC Riverside, was a fourth round pick in 1986. His uncle was a fifth round pick by the Royals. And then Potestio just had this really advanced offensive approach in college that I think translated pretty immediately to pro ball he made a ton of contact he doesn't expand the zone he picks up the ball early the Yankees think he has a chance to be a plus hitter and he hit 333 513 684 in his pro debut more walks than strikeouts and he also showed more power than we were expecting him to see based on his pre-draft profile he's played all over the infield he's played in the outfield corners he's primarily a shortstop. I think like shortstop third base is probably what you're looking at with Potestio. But I think you could say that while Ace Reese maybe has the most impressive Ace Reese with the Mariners who was drafted with their first overall pick in the first round, he maybe had the best statistical and underlying batted ball debut of any player in this class. If you factor in draft capital, I think Anthony Potestio might be just the best overall debut player in this class. We did a piece earlier a few weeks ago where I looked at 10 of the top standouts. I had Patestio too, right behind Ace Reese. He had a one, uh, 1197 OPS, 19 games, low a Tampa. Um, I, I think everything he's done has just made him a super exciting player and it doesn't, it doesn't stop there for the Yankees. They have a number of other, uh, let me just actually pull up their, um, their performers. They've got other college performers like Paul Gutierrez Contreras, um, who hit well, showed a lot of power. Luke Pettit, who is another interesting player because he's the son of Andy Pettit. And I really liked him coming into the spring as a pitching prospect. He didn't pitch any because he was injured. He instead DH the entire year, showed a ton of power. It sounds like he's got a chance to be a legitimately good hitter.

00:15:51
Speaker 3: He showed power.

00:15:51
Speaker 2: There's more development potential when you have a guy. We've seen this over and over. Like the Mets are a team, I would say, that absolutely goes all in on the idea that if you take a two-way player, I know there's all this talk of, why don't they develop more two-way players? Really, I would say the modern draft approach to this and development approach is, if you take a two-way player and you make them a one-way player, there might be more there to unlock than there is for a player who's just been doing one thing.

00:16:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Mets have done this with some names in recent years. The Braves have done this with a lot of players that have found success. But yeah, I'm now wondering, hey, Luke Peta had a great pitch ability and command and a solid pitch mix, and now.

00:16:30
Speaker 3: He came out in his pro debut.

00:16:31
Speaker 1: He hit four home runs in 46 plate appearances in low A. Then you look even further down the board. We've got Tice Armstrong, 19th rounder. He was a player who just missed this top 10 debuts piece because I was like, oh, do I want to have three Yankees players in this piece?

00:16:50
Speaker 3: Because we had Potestio. Who else did I have here?

00:16:54
Speaker 1: Cute.

00:16:55
Speaker 2: Cue the commenters who say, well, that's just because the Yankees pay you guys.

00:16:59
Speaker 3: Oh, excuse me.

00:17:00
Speaker 1: No, Tice Armstrong did make it. It was Pettit and Paul Contreras who I think had cases, but I used a tiebreaker for some other teams when it was close. But yeah, he had a 10-41 OPS, hit six home runs. They just had a ton of guys who came out and really hit. And then you look at some other players who I think you haven't seen them quite as much in pro ball. Jason Krieger, you just look at this profile and what the Yankees have done with players like this. He's a pitcher out of the Northeast, signs in the 17th round out of Maine. He was not a super prominent player for us before the draft. I believe he topped out at around 95 miles per hour. I've heard from the Yankees that he's been up to 99.

00:17:48
Speaker 3: Miles per hour.

00:17:48
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to put Cam Schlittler on anybody, but the Yankees have done a tremendous job With just players from the Northeast in general, they've done a nice job adding velocity. So if you're going to take a player like Krieger, who was sitting 90-93, getting up to a 95, he posted a 4.57 ERA and 15 starts this spring with Maine through a solid amount of strikes, improved his walk rate quite a bit. That's a name I'm interested in in the 17th round. And then another player who I'm really interested in is Lee Garris. who is another under-the-radar high school player who the Yankees are very bullish on, just his pure hitting ability. He signed out of Virginia for $ 300, 000, and just hearing about how the Yankees are talking about him as a natural pure hitter, he's another player to be excited about. We haven't seen him yet in official pro games, but just talking to people with the organization, that's a player I would definitely keep an eye on moving forward. So I think there's no shortage of names here. to be excited about here from this Yankees draft class. And I didn't even mention guys like Hunter Dietz, Sean Duncan, Brendan Brock, who are all like the obvious names at the top.

00:19:00
Speaker 2: Those are, yeah.

00:19:01
Speaker 3: Who are exciting in their own right.

00:19:04
Speaker 2: So we're going to dive a lot more into this right after this quick break. So Carlos, we'll touch on this one. This one won't be as long, but you already hit on the fact that one thing that does make this more challenging is the current timetable for of when signing day is, you know, signing deadline, I should say. And the complex leagues are done now because that's how it's structured now. A lot of players go to bridge league or they go to, we're going to shut you down until post-season instructs or an off-season, you know, like specialization camp on working on whatever. There's a lot of ways it's done. Were there teams or was there a team where you're like, okay, there's info here, but there's not as much like signal. There's not as much data for post-draft than there are for some of these teams. You talk about the Yankees had guys who went out and performed in games. That makes it a lot easier to feel good about. Were there any teams that you're like, okay, this class really, we haven't seen them yet in official games.

00:20:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the Rays are probably the most obvious here. They had only two players go out and play in any official games. That was their number two overall pick, Grady Emerson, who had 60 plate appearances in low A and really didn't perform super well. He hit 176, 283, 216. I'm not changing my opinion on Grady Emerson from that small of a sample. And then they had their 18th rounder, Nate Smithberg, who threw a single inning. Outside of that, we didn't get to see any of these players in official games. I mean, looking at this draft class, I think there's a lot to like. Both the hit tools of Grady Emerson and Taj Marchand, the Rays love their high school shortstops. I think Ben Blair is a really exciting, unique look on the college pitching side. He could have easily gone 10 spots higher than where the Rays got him at pick 49. There's lots of players that I'm intrigued by, and I think Logan George's in the 11th round is a player that we can get to a little bit later in this conversation as an interesting, like later sleeper name. But if you're looking at this and, and trying to say, okay, who are the teams who had players go out and perform and perform? Well, who can we get excited about? You really can't do that with anyone with the razor organization. Cause again, two players who played great Emerson didn't like the world on fire in a single inning from another player. So if there's like a, Hey, incomplete need more time. to be determined status on a team, I think the Rays is probably the one you're putting that on.

00:21:37
Speaker 2: So next I want to get to is, let's call this non-obvious close to the majors candidates. And I say non-obvious because, okay, look, Rock Cholowski could move quick for the White Sox. Von Lackey could move quick for the Twins. Jackson Flora could move really quick. He's already pitched in AA for the Giants. But those are top five picks. Like, you know, those are guys where We're not telling you a whole lot. Ace Reese, as you said, had a great debut. I would expect to move relatively quickly next year. Those are the top picks. But there are other players who, because you have a closest to the majors category here, there are players who are not top 10 picks, not top 15 picks, who also fit in this. Who are some of those?

00:22:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I tried to stay away from those first rounders like you're talking about. I think Von Lackey is interesting because we typically don't see that with catchers, but he could be one of those just outliers who's just so advanced that he moves quickly. But one of the first guys that I thought could be interesting was Ty Head, who was the Orioles' second rounder, signed out of NC State. I think he might be a non-obvious pick if you're unfamiliar with his profile because this is a player who hit under 300 in multiple years. with NC State, and he also doesn't have a great wood bat track record and just like a 12 game stint in the Cape Cod League. But this is a player who I think has the sort of skill set and profile who could move quickly. He has some of the better pure contact skills in the class, which you maybe wouldn't know if you're just looking at batting average. And then in his pro debut, he's also been exposed to high A competition already, which is uncommon for most players, college or high school from this class already. I think it's, it's easiest for most teams just to send the players they're going to send out to, to low way. But he played 15 games with low a Delmarva did really well in that stretch. And then he got promoted to high Frederick played six games. I think he has the sort of defensive polish. He's a plus runner, really instinctive defender in center field, who probably doesn't need a ton more reps to, to get to a level that you'd feel comfortable playing him in center field. And then again, that, that the pure bat to ball skills is, that he has, I think could be sort of a carrying tool for him. His end zone miss was pretty solid. His overall miss rate was solid. His swing decisions were solid. If there's something that's going to hold him back, it might be the power. He's not hitting the ball hard. He's never really hit the ball hard with wood. So if the Orioles want to take him a little bit slower, have him add a little bit more strength, see how hard he can hit the ball, then maybe not.

00:24:12
Speaker 3: But I think that's maybe the first name that I would point to.

00:24:15
Speaker 1: Another player I like in this category is Angels fifth rounder Jackson Willits. Maybe any player who was drafted by the Angels already.

00:24:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, go ahead.

00:24:26
Speaker 2: I'll say that's what I'm going to say. I don't think so anymore. I really do believe we saw this year. Tyler Bremner, I think is our Christian Moore spent the entire season with the exec until September in AAA. Tyler Bremner was put on what I would say was a conservative track, players went to high A for the Angels. I would say, I agree with you on Willits, but I would say that this is on merit on qualities of Jackson Willits, not on where we've been able to say in past years, just it's an Angels prospect. So he's going to be in double A to start the season. And when you're in double A, then you can get promoted. I think that they're taking a little bit of a different approach.

00:25:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's not like a top-of-the-class player, fifth rounder, so maybe not someone everyone would be looking at and pointing to as someone who can move quickly. But I do think Jackson Willits, again, he's a college player. He's very polished in all facets of his game, defensively, offensive approach, contact ability. He did play 26 games with low-A Rancho Cucamonga. He played well in that capacity. He actually had better contact numbers than Ty Head, who I was just raving about him from a contact standpoint. His swing decisions were good. He has more power than Ty Head now. I don't know where he's going to wind up defensively. I think Jackson Willis could play a solid shortstop for you, but I also think he could be the sort of player who moves all around the infield. Now, whether that means that he has a quicker to the majors timeline or a slower one, I think you could argue that either way. I don't think it would take Jackson Willis too many reps to get comfortable at any number of different defensive positions.

00:26:06
Speaker 3: Around the infield.

00:26:07
Speaker 1: And he's a player that I'm just bullish on in general and seeing what he did in his pro debut and kind of lining that up with the Angels organization as well. I think he's an interesting pick. And then I have two pitchers that maybe are non-obvious names as well. If you look at the Dodgers draft class this year, you're really looking at a small group of players in general. They didn't take a college player into the fourth round. That was still their second player that they took because they had just no draft capital this year. But Russell Sandifer, right-handed pitcher out of Florida, he has pitched in a reliever role in the past. I think most teams try and develop their top pitching prospects, the guys who got the most money were taken with early draft capital. Most teams want to try and develop these players as starters. I think that makes a lot of sense. But if they feel like that experiment is not working or they just have a need, Um, I think he has both the stuff he's been up to 97. He's got a number of different secondaries, maybe headlined by a sweeper in the low to mid eighties with really high spin rates. Um, that could be effective for him, maybe allow him to move quickly. Um, and then the last guy I'll mention here, um, maybe the furthest kind of off the board pick, I'm going to the 10th round with the Marlins and I'm looking at VCU right-hander Zachary Peters. He was already quite old for this class. He was pitching in his age 23 season this spring. He was a senior sign, signed for $ 50, 000 essentially.

00:27:37
Speaker 2: I would hope at 24 he's a senior sign.

00:27:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he'll be in his age 24 season next year. So I think both from an age perspective and again, a player who's pitched in the bullpen, I think you could put Peters on a fast track just to try and mitigate that age issue that you already have with him. I think is very common. If you're taking players who are a little bit older, if you, if you put them on an aggressive minor league timeline, you, you really quickly forget about that age consideration. And if you're looking at a reliever, I'm not too bothered with, with the age factor at all, but he's got some interesting traits on the fastball. Um, he doesn't have a ton of extension, but it's a flat approach angle. He's got this unique slot. Um, and he's also got a curve ball that he was able to generate a solid amount of widths with. So I think that's another player who could move quickly and is Certainly not a guy that you'd be looking at and saying, oh, this is going to be the quickest of the majors for players.

00:28:26
Speaker 3: So those are a few that I would point to.

00:28:30
Speaker 2: Now, this is the part that gets really fun to me, though, which is, OK, this is where you already talked about some brewers that fit this, but best late round picks or non-drafted free agents. And if someone's wondering, OK, yeah, you do this. Is this really useful? I just pulled through twenty twenty three. looking at our 2023 draft report cards before we started the podcast. And I'll start by saying like, not every one of those, there are players on there. There are a few there that I'm like, I don't remember that player. That's going to happen. You're talking about late round fines, non-drafted free agent fines. However, you're looking through there. It's like, get to the giants. And it's like, the giants are really excited by Bo Davidson, this non-drafted free agent who has real tools who they just signed out. You know, it's like, okay, Bo Davidson, who's now top 100 prospect in the big leagues. Then you get to the Orioles, and it's like the Orioles are really the 14th rounder Michael Ferret is the guy to watch because this guy has these traits and all this. And here we are, Michael Ferret, who's been kind of been on the top 100, on the fringe of the top 100, let's say right now, and probably will pitch in the big leagues in 2027.

00:29:36
Speaker 3: Those are the.

00:29:38
Speaker 2: Kinds of guys that at the best you find on this, because the great thing about it is, is some guys really do. They show tools, they show traits that you kind of point towards. Oh, this is more than where we thought we were getting when we brought them in. You even learned that for, if you're an MLE team. Okay. So who are some of the late rounders that, who really stood out as you were doing this work?

00:30:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I won't spend too much time on this first one because we've already talked about him a little bit, but I do think you have to say Anthony Potestio is the most interesting right now, both because of just how the pro debut was and how his profile has already changed a little bit. And for this conversation here, I'll just highlight the fact that the better than expected power that he has shown, I'll be really curious to see where that settles in moving forward because I don't think there was some huge jump in exit velocity that we were not expecting. I think he just seemed to get the ball in the air a little bit more consistently. Um, if that's something that's sticky and allows him to just tap into more power than he showed, I mean, he had two, five and four home runs respectively year by year with UC San Diego.

00:30:37
Speaker 3: And then his pro debut, um, I think it was four or five. Um, you can, if you have that pulled up and you want to correct me on that, feel free.

00:30:45
Speaker 1: But, but again, I just think if, if you were pulling the industry, it would be surprising to me if Anthony Potestio did not like win, like, Oh God, Best late round pick. But I'll move on to some other names that I'm also intrigued by. Tigers 11th rounder, Alabama high school hitter, Will Adams. This is not a super unconventional, super unknown player. Will Adams was a player who we had ranked as a third round talent. We had him ranked inside the top 100 on our board. But I think the ability to get players like this signed in this range is impressive.

00:31:23
Speaker 3: Just in general.

00:31:25
Speaker 1: And I am super bullish on Will Adams as a hitter and a hitter who is going to hit for power. His track record of hitting at the high school level is pretty tremendous. The swing is low maintenance. I think he can get to his power easily without a lot of swing modifications or the intent to hit for power. He's just that strong and physical. So he signed for a million dollars in the 11th round. And I think the Tigers have done a really nice job with prep hitters in the last several years. So he's a name that I would highlight. I mentioned him a little bit earlier, but Ray's 11th rounder, Logan Georges. This is a name that I'm kind of intrigued by because I feel like if you look at a lot of the later round pitching hits, a lot of these come from players who it's like a post injury, like you're getting these players late because they were injured. Logan Georges is a high school player who already has a Tommy John surgery. On his resume, he had TJ in 2024, but there are a lot of things I look at the profile and like. He's 6'5, 210 pounds, so he's big and physical. He spins the ball well across his pitch mix. He's been up to 94-95. He's got great carry on that pitch. He generates a ton of spin with his breaking balls. There's a low 80s slider that could become a plus offering. We've also seen a solid change up from him in the mid 80s. He signed for basically.

00:32:57
Speaker 3: $ 600, 000 in the 11th round.

00:32:58
Speaker 1: So those are a couple high school players who I think, if you just looked at the bonus, you could say, okay, there's clearly something that these teams like about these players. Otherwise, they weren't going to be spending this much money on them. But I also have a few undrafted free agents that I'm excited by.

00:33:16
Speaker 2: The A's... With just even more. That's like.

00:33:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're getting into crazy BA.

00:33:20
Speaker 2: That's awesome.

00:33:21
Speaker 3: It's also fun.

00:33:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, crazy BA, kind of nerdy territory here. I'll keep us on the high school side for a second and go with Padres. Canadian prep variety, AJ Rogers. I feel like every year, the Padres are one of the most aggressive teams in terms of getting players signed to undrafted free agent deals. I know that they very quickly pivot into... hey, we're getting these players signed mode. Because after the draft is over, you can sign players for as much as you want. It just counts towards the bonus pool. So you don't tend to see a lot of big signings because teams just aren't saving money for undrafted free agents. But you still have to convince all these players to sign with your organization rather than any other of the 29 organizations that you could sign for. Now, granted, a lot of these players don't have a huge market because they've just been passed over 20 times. But I'm fascinated by Rogers. He's six foot eight. He's this really deep projection play with upside six foot eight, 185 pounds. So you're imagining that he's going to add quite a bit of strength, quite a bit of muscle.

00:34:25
Speaker 2: I mean, there's, I, I, I, I do the Padres mid season updates. Now we have someone that's, you know, I don't do them in the off season, but doing in season. And I just imagine writing at some point next year with him, like his control waivers, because he's not fully built into his body yet, but, There's those moments where it really flashes.

00:34:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he's already been up to 93 miles per hour. You could imagine how much harder he's going to throw in the future. Really good feel for a changeup that has good separation off the fastball. It sounds like the changeup is ahead of the slider right now, but that's just a classic Padres sort of play. Big physical high school player that they're going to dream on and take a shot on. And then another team that has an interesting undrafted free agent signing that I've already heard has gotten some good reviews, um, is athletics outfielder, Alex Fernandez, who they signed out of San Jose state. Um, he's undersized. He's not the biggest player in the world, but he has tremendous contact skills. If you look at his pro debut, it was not a ton of ton of innings. It wasn't a huge sample. Um, pulling up the numbers for him right now. He played in only... I have 77 plate appearances for him. And if you look at just the overall line, it wasn't an impressive line at all. He hit under 200, but he almost never swung and missed. His end zone contact, overall contact rates were elite. And I do feel like that is a player profile that we've seen in the past overperform their draft stock. Guys like Stephen Kwan, I'm not saying this is Stephen Kwan, but a large reason why Stephen Kwan was able to kind of be the player he was is because he has elite contact skills and everything else just was a little bit better than we thought, and he just maximized that. So I do think contact ability can be a caring tool for players, and just the elite bat-to-ball ability that Fernandez has already shown makes him a name that I'm intrigued by and I know the A's have been excited about. It sounds like his just bat speed is... even though he's not going to be a guy who hits for a ton of power, doesn't have big exit velocities at all. Definitely a name to keep in mind and someone who popped throughout this process for me. Okay.

00:36:47
Speaker 3: Don't worry.

00:36:47
Speaker 2: We're not going to do this, Carlos. I'm not going to assign this as a follow-up, but the other thing that I think is notable nowadays about this is, is that this is our end of the 2026 minor league season draft report card, right? The part that's going to be fascinating that we see more and more is you just talked about. When we talk about a guy like A.J. Rogers, the six-foot-eight right-hander who's not fully filled out yet, a lot of this is going to be the offseason no longer. It used to be when I started at BA, the offseason was something where it wasn't that players would arrive much better than they were when they left the year before you were really hoping that they arrived in shape, ready to go to then be developed in spring training. Right now, if I will say, if there is a player leaving minor league, you know, especially a draftee from this year, a signee this year who goes home and doesn't have a training plan for what they're working on the off season, That's, that's, you wonder why at this point, like that almost sounds like, you know, like, okay, that something fell through the cracks there because that's what teams do now. Teams send players out and this is like their, the goal is, is that they will arrive in spring training.

00:38:09
Speaker 1: Right.

00:38:09
Speaker 2: Having fixed something that has been discovered that could be improved.

00:38:14
Speaker 1: Right.

00:38:15
Speaker 2: And so we're going to see next– the next steps is going to be on this is we're not going to do draft report card 2.0 on April 1st. But I will say where this gets really interesting is some of this is going to be like, okay, this is the starting point. This is almost kind of like the before. And then we're going to– if not get the after, we're going to get the next step. when we see what these guys are doing next year.

00:38:38
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I would just encourage people again, like we, we try to talk about as many of the highlights as we could on this podcast, but there are hundreds of other players that were talked about and mentioned and guys we couldn't get into classes were exciting tools that are really exciting pro debuts that were strong, late names that you might not know. Like there's a ton of content, spent a lot of time putting it together, really appreciate all the teams who took the time to, to provide feedback for this exercise. Not every team does, but it's always super useful and helpful for us.

00:39:04
Speaker 3: To get that.

00:39:05
Speaker 1: And again, I think it's just a great exam or a great opportunity to shine a little bit more light on each draft class. So thank you to, to all the, all the industry sources who are taking the time to just share a little bit more about their draft class and hope you guys enjoy it on the site at baseball America.com.

00:39:20
Speaker 2: Right. I, again, we don't expect all of you to read all 30, but I promise you, you read your team and read, you know, like again, if you scan through it, even though I would say that like, if you look at, uh, pro debuts, you know, closest to majors, like, but again, you're going to learn something in every, like I read, you know, I read them all because it's something that I really enjoy in addition to being my job, but there's a lot to be gleaned from there. It gets us ready for the, it gets us ready as we go into prospect season, the off season, like I use them a lot as I start putting together. you know, I'm working on reds top 10 and top 30 right now. And this is a very valuable part of that. You know, so that is today's baseball America draft podcast, Carla Claus and myself, JJ Cooper. Again, do check out. We'll have the link for the draft report cards on the description here for the podcast and on the video side. And we do check out all the other stuff we have. We're doing post-season coverage, obviously with the baseball America slant, looking ahead, like as teams get knocked out, what their kind of prognosis is for next year. We're doing a whole lot of fantasy coverage with James Anderson. We're doing a whole lot of– we've got a really fun week next week on the prospect side I think you're going to enjoy as well. So check it all out, BaseballAmerica.com. For Carlos, I'm JJ.

00:40:33
Speaker 3: So long, everybody.