Diamond Dreams: MLB Draft, Homerun Derby, and All-Stars

The MLB Draft highlights the dominance of shortstops, with the first 10 picks being pitchers or shortstops and six coming from high school, including two from Corona High School. History was made when 17-year-old Elis Willits became the youngest #1 pick ever, while the Marlins selected Max Williams from FSU, creating mixed emotions for fans with complicated relationships with the franchise.

• Shortstops and pitchers dominated the draft, with high school players taking 6 of the top 10 spots
• Corona High School in California produced two first-round draft picks
• Eli Willitss made history as the youngest #1 draft pick at age 17
• College pitchers like Kade Anderson and Liam Doyle have shorter paths to the majors
• Jamie Arnold, drafted 11th by Athletics, will likely debut when their Las Vegas stadium opens
• The Home Run Derby features showman Jazz Chisholm and hot-hitting Byron Buxton
• All-Star Game pitching matchup: Detroit's Tarik Sckubal vs. Pirates' Paul Skenes

Grab some peanuts and Cracker Jacks and let's watch the game together.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How we doing baseball fans.
Anybody looking for a shortstop?
They all got picked in thefirst round of the Major League
Draft.
No surprise since Little Leaguethe best athletes are always
shortstop and when they're notplaying short, they're on the
mound throwing strikes.
The first 10 players to bedrafted were either pitchers or
shortstops, and six out of 10are high school players, and two

(00:23):
of them are from Corona HighSchool out of California.
What an honor for that program.
The number one draft pick is akid named Eli Willis out of
Oklahoma.
The Nationals are taking achance on the high school
shortstop At 17,.
He's the youngest player toever be drafted first.
Good luck, kid.
Can't wait to see you play.
Lsu Tiger.
Cade Anderson went number threeto the Mariners and Liam Doyle

(00:47):
went number five to theCardinals.
You know those two arms got ashort path to the show.
The Miami Marners got them ahell of a player in shortstop
Avia Arquette from Oregon State.
You know that boy could playball.
My guy, jamie Arnold, went 11thoverall to the Athletics.
He's also going to have a shortpath to the show and he'll get

(01:07):
there just in time for the newstadium to open up in Las Vegas.
There's going to be a lot ofhype around the new team.
Yes, you're going to put on ashow.
The stadium's probably going tobe spectacular.
I think it's a great fit and agood place for him to start his
career.
I mentioned the Marlins earlierand listen, if you don't know it
already, I have a complicatedrelationship with the Marlins,

(01:27):
as many baseball fans in SouthFlorida do.
But here's the thing they mightas well have slid into my DMs
yesterday because they went andpicked Max Williams.
That's my boy from FSU.
He's an intense, big play kindof guy that every team needs one
or two of.
And listen, miami, you can hurtme, but don't hurt Max.
You hear me, don't hurt Max.

(01:49):
It's complicated man.
All right, that got a littlebit intense.
Let's change gears.
It's officially the All-Starbreak and that means tonight is
the home run derby.
Now.
I told you the other day that Iwas going to pull for Kyle
Riley as long as it wasn't aYankee in the mix.
Well, jazz Chisholm threw hisname in the hat, so I'm pulling

(02:10):
for Jazz.
You know he's a showman, so Iexpect him to do well.
But I think this is KyleRiley's year that he becomes a
household name, and what betterway to do that than to win the
Home Run Derby?
But keep an eye on Byron Buxton.
He's coming off a hot weekendwhere he hit for the cycle On
this and it is Byron Buxtonbobblehead day.
Talk about having yourself aday.

(02:32):
Let's go, byron.
The all-star game is Tuesdaynight and the starting pitches
have been announced.
Detroit's Tarek Scobo is goingup against the Pirates Paul
Skeens.
I don't know how competitivethe game's going to be, but it's
always fun to see the bestplayers from Major League
Baseball all on the field at thesame time.
So grab you some peanuts andCracker Jacks.

(02:53):
Let's watch the game together.
Let's go baseball.