Episode 404 - MLB Draft Top 75 FYPD Ranks

New Prospect One Podcast!


📊 MLB Draft - Top 75 FYPD Ranks

➡️ Top 30 board

➡️ Targets through 5 rounds

➡️ Rank update risers


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
In this League podcast that work present Prospect One Look,
Fantasy Prospect podcast, Prospect What with your host Chris Wels.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the Fantasy Baseball prospect podcast. This is Prospect One.
I'm your host, Chris Welsh. You can find on Twitter,
Instagram at is it the Welsh and on in this
League dot Com, which we'll just take you to the
Patreon not like a normal website. It'll take you over
to my Patreon page. Which if you want to support
what I do with prospect stuff, anything really in fantasy,

(00:37):
that's the place to do it. But we're giving you stuff.
We've got my top five hundred prospect list which is
at the forefront of the conversation today, top four hundred,
Dynasty twenty twenty six first year player ranks are up,
oh yes, and more. Plus we've got group me rooms,
a great community. You can you know, be a captain,
have access to literally everything when we do mock drafts

(00:58):
or in the very near future one EPs when we
draft and create the ADP system. All of that stuff
is on Patreon, So go and check it out today.
Support I appreciate when you do so. In This League
dot Com, In This League dot Com Today, on the episode,
we are going to be looking mainly the big core
of it is the first initial first year player draft ranks.

(01:21):
I did an episode last week obviously with Chris clig
where we talked about our top ten. Also done a
bunch of podcasts. Did Fantasy Baseball Today with Frank Stanfel
talking about some of the ranks, CBS Sports HQ, we
did it on Fantasy Pros. We did a video toolshed
with Aeric Cross, and then by the time you're listening
to this as well Rode a Wire with Cross, Clegg

(01:43):
and James Anderson where we're going to do with drafts.
There's a plug for all of that. But this is
my episode today because we've talked in kind of mainly
like first roundish conversations even in the last past episode.
The plan for today is I'm going to give you
the Top thirty cur set of Top thirty, which how
I present it is a first round top fifteen players.

(02:06):
I'm gonna just take as a roto top fifteen first
round the next second round. The rounds are important because
then I'm gonna talk about targets. I'm also gonna do
that in the first and second I'm gonna be giving
you targets in each round of first year player that
I'm going through, and I'm gonna go five rounds deep
because on the Prospect Update list, I have got all

(02:28):
the first year player guys I've ranked added to the
top five hundred as well. There's a separate sheet that
is just first year player ranks, which represents like what
I'm talking about here, I have it in rounds so
you can look at it. It obviously will have like,
you know, here's the rank. You know, here's seventeen, but
seventeen would also be the second pick in right, yeah,

(02:49):
second pick in the second round, So I kind of
present it like that. I have got on my new
Prospect Update seventy five ranked, so that is five rounds
worth of play, and I will give you kind of
numerically what the top two rounds look like with targets,
and then I'm going to just talk about targets in
the third, fourth, and fifth round only. So if you

(03:12):
want to see the entirety of the list, go to Patreon.
You can see just how they rank, and you can
see where they rank on the top five hundred. That
maybe even is more critical. How many make the you know,
top one hundred, Top fifty, DA DA, all that type
of stuff. So that is the core of the episode.
But I'm also going to talk to you about some
rank updates since the big rank update is released, Dynasty

(03:33):
is updated. The top five hundred was mainly built around
adding these guys, but there were still plenty of updates
some guys added. So I'm going to give you some
key names in the rank update that have moved, maybe
some names we haven't talked about before. So I've got
some movers in the top five hundred, and then we
are going to do a more expansive look at the
first year player draft ranks, and this is this will

(03:54):
just be a better look because like I said before,
you know what I did on Fantasy Pros first round,
Me and Cross did pretty much first round. What I'm
gonna do with James in them two rounds and it's
going to be a draft. This is going to go
five rounds in with some key targets of mine. And also,
like I would say, when I talk about a player

(04:14):
in the third round, that's my third round, someone might
have him completely higher. That's the craziness of what we
talked about with this draft. And I've said in every
place that I've done a guest appearance on is that
there's just no consensus whether you love that or hate that.
Everybody feels differently about all the players. I just got
a sneak peek. James released his This is the first time.

(04:39):
By the way, between me, Cross Clegg and him, one
of us has the same number one, but like he's
got a guy inside of his top five that I
don't have in my first round. You know, Clegg has
a guy I don't have in the first time, No
vice versa. We go back and forth. There's just so
so much inconsistency as far as like how we're ranking them.

(05:01):
And that's not a negative thing. It's not inconsistency because
you know, half the people don't know what they're talking
about and half do just different opinions. And there's so
much high school and you're playing upside, and then how
valuable are the college hitters, and then then throw pitching
into it. It is a wide open space. I'm gonna,
I hope, give you maybe one of the more robust

(05:24):
baselines to what it looks like right now. But you
should firmly know that things are gonna change. We're gonna
get to see guys in you know, quote full season ball.
We'll get to see them in like some will be
in Low A, some won't. Luckily, I will be able
to see some because they're gonna play out here in
the Bridge League. That's what Slade Caldwell did last year.

(05:46):
Tyson Lewis, you know, I'm gonna be targeting guys like
Keseon Cunningham and Steel Hall, Billy Carlson, Like those are
guys that I expect they could jump up. They could
jump up to Low A, but they're gonna play in
the Bridge League, and there's no stats for those guys,
so it's tough. It's funny I saw old friend of
the show. I haven't talked to him in forever. Eddie

(06:06):
Almenger kind of made a funny tweet about like he's
never seen so much parody in these ranks that this
might be the most important draft he's ever seen, where
it's like, my god, we need to see some short
sample sizes and there's so many guys you're not going
to see them for so you might have some stuff.
You might have college guys who people actually get to

(06:27):
see something start to rise. You know, I'm not trying
to say that I have no idea where everyone's gonna
put Andrew Fisher. But let's just say Andrew Fisher is
the eighteenth prospect for somebody. But then you don't see
all these high school pitchers, you know, or shortstop. You
don't see all these guys do this. Fisher goes to
low A, maybe he jumps up to high A. H's
two eighty three or four bombs all of a sudden,

(06:48):
Andrew Fisher's the fifth pick in first year player next year.
I'm just saying there's this battle between out of sight,
out of mind, and short sample size. It has a
chance to be really weird. And I think you've kind
of gotten that vibe in any conversations around first year
player that you've heard. So this is just my take.
This is just the baseline. Things are gonna change with me.

(07:10):
Things have changed over the last four or five days.
Things are gonna change with me. They're gonna change with everybody.
Just understand, if anything, this might be a fun listen to,
like three months from now, when we kind of have
this conversation again, or you know, whenever. I mean, I
guess more typically we kind of talk about first year
player like next January, you know, but when we do
p and ADPs, we'll look at that stuff. Just having

(07:33):
this as a baseline to come back to to see
like where did people change, you know, what players started
to move up? How the hell are we targeting pitching?
It is a it's a very goofy draft. I do
think there's still like a lot of fun depth. I
feel pretty comfortable and like how I'm ranking them so far,
Like I think guys will move up, but I look
at the seventy five and I'm like, yeah, these are
kind of the dudes. I got a little bit more.

(07:54):
I'm gonna keep going, you know, but we'll see, you know,
some of these high school guys might have some early fails,
some injuries. Some of these college guys might roll pitching.
Seems like there are some pitchers that we're ranking low
now that could fly up. There's just so much that
can happen. So I think, if anything, it might be
the most important time if you're invested in first year player,
like he didn't trade away all your picks, or you

(08:17):
want to buy back in that you kind of just
consume all of these conversations we're going to have. So
I am going to do that here for you in
a little bit as well as talk to you about
this rank update. But want to remind you guys to
go check out my friend Dennis Sidler. Sidsgrass always supports
Prospect one. Make sure to go and support him as
well all the awesome autograph signings. I believe over the

(08:38):
All Star weekend he had Lazarro Montes as Merlin Valdez,
which was a pretty cool one. He's one of the
like top twenty or I think it's twenty or younger
guys with twenty or more homers or twenty one or under,
but Lazaro Montes Saldez is in there. I believe he
did a signing. If you like game use gear with
Drake Baldwin. He's got some major leaguers coming up, like
will you or Bray You go and check him out today,

(08:59):
sids Grass. That's on eBay, social media and on the website.
Go and support Dennis Sidler. Check him out today. All right,
so before we get into the first year player, let's
talk about this rank update. So, as always with my ranks,
you know, lots and lots of updates. I'm not necessarily
going to talk about all of them here.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
But what I.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Decided to do was I hand picked some names. I
hand picked some names of some players that from just
like joining the top five hundred all the way up
to the top fifty, some big rank changes for the positive.
A few of these guys one or two we've talked
about before. There's a couple I've definitely like over the

(09:40):
last couple years. There's actually a guy that's jumped back in.
But there's a couple names we haven't talked about. Definitely
a couple of names we have. And again this is
going to span from a couple new additions to the
top five hundred, some guys you know, jumped up into
the top three hundred, top one fifty, and one guy
that moved into the top fifty. This is just a
handful of the big updates. And the craziest thing about

(10:00):
this one, this rank update is kind of wild too,
because as you know, on my ranks I have, you know,
it's just Google sheet and it's like, you know, rank
name team da da DA. And then over on the side,
I have two sections. One is the change that the
player has had from the last update, and then the
change the player has had since the start of the

(10:21):
season and it's color coded. This one is very dramatic
because we added seventy something players to the ranks, so
you're gonna have guys that are like they've dropped seventy
spots and it's like, you know, there's fifty spots and
it's just because other players were put ahead of them.
But what it also presents is this interesting little like
if you're going through and all of a sudden you

(10:43):
see this sea of red and then you see a green,
You're like, oh, that guy made a massive impact. Because
everybody else is moving forty spots down, this guy moved up.
Or even if you see a player that has a
you know, as the the bigger the number, the darker
the shade goes, you could see this light. I'll get
an example of one right now. Chase Harlan. You know
Chase Harlan. I really like Chase Harlan. He's he's had

(11:06):
these like Corey seeger ishkomps. He's with the Dodgers, he's
in Complex Ball. He's a lot more raw, but he's
just big, physical dude, kind of like a high schooled
ava Arquette that's out there, you know, But again it's raw.
But like he is. He was he was surrounded in
a sea of guys of red, you know, minus forty eight,

(11:26):
but he's light green. He moved up eight spots, but
in reality he probably moved up forty or fifty spots.
So like that, that would be a way if you're
looking at the ranks to take a look at these,
you're gonna see blue, a lot of blues. Those are
non ranked players that were added for the draft, a
couple new additions, and then anything that is a lighter
color is going to be a player that got you know,

(11:47):
either wasn't affected a ton by ranks, moved up a
little bit, or moved up a lot. But the the red,
the moving down, you're gonna have to look numerically more
than just the color. So it's just another interesting view
as you're going through this. So there are plenty of guys,
but let's talk about a few specifically that I wanted
to throw at you. First. One with the Washington Nationals,

(12:10):
who had the number one overall pick I thought they
kind of like I love Eli Willetts, I like him,
but I thought the if they are saved, and I've
said this a bunch, but you know, if they were
saving money. I just don't think they quite hit what
you want to do when you when you shave off
the first overall pick, I feel like you really want
to get something special. They did get some good arms,

(12:32):
they got harm in a little bit later Koy James,
I really like. Then they didn't really like. I just
didn't think they ran away with where you. I guess
you could argue if they just truly didn't feel Ethan
Hollidy was a top guy, or Kate Anderson is a
pitcher that could be up tomorrow. If let's say just
eat Eli Willis was like the best guy. Okay, we'll

(12:52):
move on. But if they end up saving like two
million dollars, I guess I would look back and be like,
I just don't think he really optimized. But that's just
my opinion. The reason I'm saying all this is because
I'm going to talk about a national. This is not
a guy that was drafted, but he's a guy that's
younger than the majority of the entire class. Added to
the top five hundred list in the Dominican Summer League.
Marconi Hermann. He's a shortstop listed five foot ten to

(13:16):
one seventy seventeen year old switch hitter. He has got
some wild metrics right now. It is very difficult to
you know, sparse out all this stuff with DSL, especially
if you go to like the Fangrafts Minor League board
and you sort ops, you're just going to see a
gajillion DSL guy. So trying to find like the separators
is a really big key. There are some loud tools

(13:39):
going on here. So over thirty one games he's hitting
two seventy. That doesn't quite like jump out to you crazy,
but you know it's still solid. He has a two
hundred plus point boost on his OBP at four eighty
eight because he has struck out twenty two times. He
has walked twenty eight times in thirty one games. He's

(14:01):
got a five to twenty eight slug and over one
thousand ops because he has six homers five doubles currently,
so it's eleven eleven of his twenty four hits are
of the extra base variety to go along with seventeen
stolen bases. Those are some big swings there. There is
some video out there of him. I really like the approach.

(14:21):
He's super young. There is still some projectable body. This
is an offensive DSL bat. We've been fooled before, so
that's why you know the other slight caveat I would
tell you is and I've done this a lot, but
it's like, you know, we're in an age definitely of
like more you know, automated, like hey, this guy pops

(14:41):
and dah da da, And I think in that world
of who is hot right now, people might start throwing
you know, Marconi Herman. He is a top no doubt,
top one fifty prospect. Duh. Maybe, but you know, I
will play it a little bit safer. What I think
is Warringt is that what he's doing in the DSL

(15:04):
has to be on the board. He's a guy you
should look at and speculate on if you're in really
deeper leagues. We need to get him stateside to see
a little bit more of it, and as he continues,
will keep going. But he's on the list. Moved him up.
I think he's super interesting. There's a lot of power potential,
there's stolen base. He fricking forty eighty eight OBP is crazy.
But I would I would just caution everybody before whoever

(15:25):
you listen to, and you like, if people already want
to sell you on him being a top one hundred prospect, like,
let's see him get over Yasser Mercedes was like insane
in the DSL and a big fat failure when he
came back. The positives, though, are this guy has a
really really great swing, looks like a good approach. He's young,
he's not older for the level the OBP I love,

(15:47):
and he is on that. He got into the top
five hundred, so he wasn't on it before. He's on
there now. Deep league guy Marconi Hermann is someone I
would take a look at. Next up on the list
is a picture in the Dominic in Summer League that
has joined the top five hundred as well. So that's
a little scary proposition. Eighteen year old pitcher with the

(16:08):
Houston Astros, Adrian Ardna ardenas our Dinas Ardna We're gonna
go with Ardinas. Ardnas has got a five and zero record,
a one to seven to three ERA, thirty six strikeouts
over twenty six innings pitch. He's got a sub one
whip he did pitch last year and he's well overperforming

(16:28):
where he was last year. But he's got some pretty
big powerful stuff. Now again, I caution because any any
Dominican League summer stuff I think is super fun and
awesome speculative, but like to start getting into the like insanity.
Oh he used this in that I don't quite know yet,
but there's a little bit of video out there where

(16:51):
you can take Astros Development even from last year was
showing off like some combined strikeouts in the DSL. He
had had a streak over six outings of zero era
twenty seven strikeouts, two walks, eighteen innings pitched. That was
from Astro's Future that posted that on July seventh. You know,

(17:12):
body wise like six foot like you would imagine there's
like some projectability, like you want gage pitchers like six
one six two, but you know, a little bit filled
out looks like there's a good fastball. Astros Develop, Well,
he's kind of dominating right now. So he has made
the There's not many of those DSL pitchers I'm ever
gonna put on that list, but he got inside the

(17:33):
top five hundred. He should be a state side guy.
It's kind of like Kendre Churio, if you remembered, I
think I brought it up with Chris Claig. Kendrick Trio
was one of those like dominating DSL guys who then
came state side and his look sick. He has also
been added to the top five hundred. Adrian our Dynas
is kind of one of those players that I'm putting

(17:53):
in that range, but I decided to put him in
the top five hundred real Real Dominance right now, so
he is in that space. Are d R d I
n Ees is the last name. If you want to
look it up. You can also find him on my
rank update number three for a player that I want
you to pay attention to now, I have talked about
this guy. I actually don't remember if I just did

(18:15):
this last week with Cleig. We talked off air about it,
but I feel like I have been kind of pounding
the table at least locally, and I've done it a
couple times on here. So I just want to make
it a little bit more official. If you don't understand
this from me, Dari Fernandez is a dude now, dude
level am I because of what he's doing in complex
going to be like Carver Barty who's a top one

(18:37):
hundred probucts. No, we're not going to do that, but
I will tell you he is such a freaking gamer.
He has now moved inside my top three hundred, so
it's a five hundred list. He is now moving into
the top half of that list. He is still bawling out,
hitting three point thirty five with an almost four hundred OVP,
nine to fifty ops, six homers, fourteen stolen base. Is

(19:00):
dominating in Complex. He's struck out only twenty two times
in one hundred and fifty five at bats. You know,
you can tell the walk rate's pretty decent. Four triples,
nine doubles. You can see multiple different videos that every
time I see him, he gets hits. But the crazy
thing is just the other day, and I I'm very
disappointed that I in myself that I miss this. I apologize,

(19:22):
But we had Shane Bieber versus Blake Snell out here
in Complex going off crazy. Dodgers also said let's throw
on Blake trine In as well. Darry hit two homers
in that game the other day, one of which I
believe was against Blake Trinin. He has a massive contact approach.
You know we're talking so much about like Eli Willitts
and gets the bat in the zone. That's how Darry is.

(19:45):
He gets the bat in the zone. He can also
lift the ball clearly because he's got six homers I
mean of extra base hits to the quick amount nineteen
of his fifty two or at least extra base hits.
He steals the bases, he's aggressive on the bass paths,
high batting average, doesn't strike out a bunch. You know,
he's not he's he's not as small as he's listed.
They list him five to nine, one fifty five. I'd

(20:07):
say he's like five ten, five eleven, maybe one seventy.
That's a general range. I don't know how much further
he's going to go, so I think there's like a
body cap. But dude, he's a total total dude, non strikeout,
high batting average, homer, stolen bases, kind of an unknown
in that league. People focus on the other kid, Juniker,

(20:28):
but I think Dari Fernandez is the guy that you
should pay attention to. And he has made my top
three hundred continuously moving up. He's that's my dude. A
blast from the pass. Here's a player that has moved
inside my top two fifty. But this player used to
be a lot higher, and maybe he deserves to go
a little bit higher than I'm giving him right now,

(20:48):
but I really kind of pulled the rug from how
disappointed I was and how things went. But Gabriel Gonzalez
is back to doing some stuff my friends, and disappointed
myself for kind of coming back off of it. But
things things really kind of fell apart last year. He
had only two fifty five, no real counting stats to
speak of. He still wasn't really striking out. That's what

(21:09):
I've always liked. You know, I've got an old video,
this is great Homer and I don't know he got traded.
Why did they let him go? And then the offense
depleted and that was one of those things where you're
just kind of like, all right, hands up, maybe I'm
just wrong. Well, just want to point out he's only
twenty one years old. Still, he's in Double A. He's
moved two levels so far. He's hitting three forty seven

(21:31):
with the four to twenty OVP, nine to forty seven ops,
seven homers, six stolen bases. He's near the tippy top
of hits. I think he is. Actually, he has the
most hits of any twenty one or younger player in
the minor leagues right now. If you want to sort
that out, but he went to HIA this year started
hit three nineteen forty four games in Double A. He's

(21:53):
hitting three seventy. Contact is back. I don't think he's
probably ever going to be maybe where I was hoping
the are going to settle in, but he might be
a fifteen to fifteen guy, high batting average, doesn't strike out.
Gabriel Gonzalez is just kind of back at it. So
he's back on the radar. He's moving up. You know,
I think a little bit more we're going to just
kind of keep flowing him up in the ranks. But

(22:15):
you know, if you if you got those shares from
a long time ago that I was definitely selling anyone,
they might not be dead, just quite yet. One of
the most impressive kind of pop on guys is We've
talked about a couple of these guys, but this guy
went from complex to a ball and he's thriving at
a ball. I mentioned him a couple of weeks back,
or a month or so back. But Edward Florentino with

(22:36):
the Pittsburgh Pirates, big six foot four, two hundred plus
pound eighteen year old in their system, left handed bat,
hitting three twenty five over thousand ops over four hundred OBP,
a full hundred points higher OBP than average. You'd love
to see that. Ten homers, eighteen stolen bases. But he's
doing it in a ball as well. Twenty nine games

(22:59):
in the Florida Coast League, three P forty seven moves up,
still hitting two ninety four, hitting two ninety four in
a ball with an over four hundred OVP. You absolutely
love to see that. He's still hitting homers eleven of
his eleven of his twenty hits. You've got extra base,
which is beautiful strikeouts. You know we're gonna have to

(23:21):
monitor that. But he's also stolen twelve bases in twenty games.
We know that there's some really really solid exit velocity
metrics out there on him. And Florentino is a dude,
and he is continuously moving up. And Florentino has now
moved inside the top two hundred, so Dari top three,
inside the top three hundred, Gabrio Gonzalez inside the top

(23:42):
two fifty, Florentino inside the top two hundred, and this
is a guy. I think some people are gonna start
making a case for even higher. I think this is
the general spot the one thing he's doing which makes
it better is he's going level to level and continuing
the dominance. And those are the things you really love
to see because it's like you'll see these awesome tools,
you'll see these awesome things, but you really need to

(24:03):
see these guys be able to carry it over and
not just like, oh, you know they're taking advantage of
a league, or you know these rookie ball levels. Rookie
ball level pitching can stink. Not always, but it can stink.
Two other updates, I trow the players. I want to
highlight this guy has moved inside the top one fifty.
I will completely admit I think this was a player
I was just too low on what I wasn't giving

(24:26):
enough credit for. I was pretty impressed watching them in
the futures game because he's up at triple A. But
I had to make a more dramatic move on JR.
Richie Jr Richie Is I think some would have him
inside the top one hundred easy. I moved him inside
the top one fifty two three five vra at triple
A sub one whip the strikeouts. We'll see where that
ends up going. Because he's got less strikeouts than innings

(24:48):
pitched so far, but that is having a hell of
a time trying to make any contact off of him
so far this year. You know, walks, Like my only
problem is is, you know sometimes it it gets a
little inflated with these Braves pitchers. But like he's doing
really good in this minor league level, but you know,
if he ends up being like a high three four
era guy, he walks maybe a tiny bit too much

(25:10):
with also not a ton of strikeouts, So like what
if he becomes a eight k per nine with two
and a half to three walk per nine, you know,
so then he's just becoming mediocre. But I thought some
of the stuff looked really really good. No, no crazy
shade on him in the futures game, but I made
it a big move and that's probably just more about me,
but just wanted, you know, he inside the top one

(25:31):
fifty and then finally, try not to be too happy
with it, because we know how things can turn, especially
with this player. But I did not give up on
Spencer Jones when all else and everybody else thrust there,
Spencer Jones shares a side. We've kept him inside the
top one hundred, and I am back into the top

(25:54):
fifty on Spencer Jones. It's pretty straightforward. You guys know,
he's a strikeout monster, and unfortunately he's not really fixing
that a ton. I will say, like, maybe it looks
a little bit better at Triple A, but he's moved
from Double A to Triple A and he's got exponentially better.
That's like the big eye opener as well. In fourteen

(26:14):
Triple A games, he's has seven homers, hitting three sixty two.
He left Double A hitting two seventy four with sixteen homers.
He's stealing bases, he's hitting for power. The torpedo bats
seem to be working. Maybe the k's are maintaining, but
he's moved up a level. He's gotten better. And I've
said just from day one, I think he's just so
physically crazy talented. I think he's a smart guy too.

(26:36):
I love the idea that he wanted to take a
look and optimize and they said, where you know he
hits the ball is why the torpedo bat would work
really well for him. All that aside, his things are clicking.
And I was talking with Joe about er. Yeah, it
was Joe Piezapia where he was like, yeah, you know,
he's like, but Spencer Jones is twenty four, and I
threw back, I'm like, he is twenty four. But you
do have to remember he was also not a full

(26:58):
time hitter. He became a full time time hitter, I
believe his last year at Vanderbilt, so you know, I mean,
I guess that's four years including this year. But a
lot of these guys have that commitment. It just took
him a little bit longer. You know, he was a
pitcher and a hitter, and then I guess it was
probably twenty twenty two or twenty twenty one that he
was a full time hitter. It's twenty twenty five and

(27:18):
things are clicking. So I'm not like crazy worried about age,
but I'm worried about the strikeouts. I get all that stuff.
But you know me, I love me some Spencer Jones.
I'm putting back in the top fifty. Be fascinated to
see where other people are kind of, you know, settling
on him because the strikeouts are still in your face.
But twenty three homers, sixteen stolen bases in two hundred
and thirty something at bats, that is right in your face.

(27:40):
And we'll also see if maybe he's not even a
Yankee in the very near future. So those are some
interesting movers on my top five hundred. You want to
check out the rest, go to End this League dot Com.
Sign up on Patreon. I very much appreciate when you do,
so you can have access and the future updates p
one ADPs. I'm actually going to try to get one
going right at the beginning of August, because we usually

(28:01):
don't do one right after the season. We do it
like after the AFL, So I'm going to try to
get one mid season after to add these draft guys in.
You can be a part of the drafts if you're
part of Patreon, or you'll just have access to what
those p one ADPs, and that is an ADP system
for prospects. We rank them out, We do multiple drafts
and it kind of gives you a good vibe of
where things are at. So I will be conducting those

(28:22):
and I just appreciate you guys that support so in
this League dot com. If you want to see all
the stuff we're talking about. All right now, let's take
a break. When we come back first year player ranks,
Let's talk about my essentially my top thirty. But I'm
going to give you targets in the top five rounds
based on a fifteen team league that is covering seventy
five players. We're not going to talk about them, but

(28:43):
I will give you my targets, three targets per round
that I'm really honed in on, and we will do
it right after this say I like you. I like
you so much, I'm going to make you my partner.
All he has to do is find the gold and
I'll share.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
It with you. Fifty to fifty prospect.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
What the draft is over, we have the players. The
only big question now is will they all sign? Presumably
first rounders are good. You usually get all of them.
Maybe you'll get a stray second rounder. I mean, I
don't want to say that, because you know, it was like,
how far removed are we from Matt McClain going in
like the teens and the Diamondbacks not signing him. It

(29:23):
can happen, but presumably these guys are all kind of
set to sign. I will say there are a couple stragglers.
The big shocks of this draft. We did not see
Jack Bauer go, the guy that the the high school
kid that throws one oh three commitment to Mississippi State.
Probably wanted too much money to be fair. Also, I
believe his last game pitch shout out to Dennis Sidler

(29:43):
and Dennis Sidler's kid who his team went up against
them and got to him. They beat Jack Bauer's team
and the you gotta forgive me. I don't remember what
it is. It's like the state high school tournament finals
or something like that, and they got to Bower early on.
So you know, maybe that was floating around and teams
weren't comfortable paying some big, big price. He was the

(30:04):
biggest name that is not set. You know, he's going back.
But there's also a couple at the end. Jacob Parker
specifically jojoh Parker's brother went in the nineteenth round of
the Diamondbacks. Oh baby, what I love for him to sign.
You assume he's not going to sign. You assume he's
going off to college. I think he has a I
think it's Mississippi State too. It's that or Tennessee. Those

(30:25):
are the powerhouses, like essentially it's Tennessee Tech, LSU at
Mississippi State. You know, those are the ones that are
vying for anybody. There's a possibility he could sign and
he would be added to the list, But you know,
I would say, like Parker, it was the Ford kid Bower.
Those are kind of the big ones that might not
be added to this list. But everything seems pretty chock

(30:47):
full of what we expect here, so I'm pretty comfortable
giving this list. I will tell you if if Parker
were to sign, not just clearly not because he's a diamondback,
but does a big power bat, big like pulled air
guy barrels like he would come up on this list.
So this is the initial run of how I've got it.
As I mentioned at the top, I'm not going to

(31:07):
go into like the stuff about the draft because I've
kind of done it a lot, not to say that
this isn't the spot for all the breakdowns, but like, listen,
if you want my take, it's on CBS website. I
think I did it with Frank on CBS Fantasy Baseball Today,
Like I've talked about it, like I thought the Nationals
were okay, I thought the high school I thought the

(31:29):
high school shortstops told a story of how bad the
college bats were. You know, all that type of stuff.
So let's talk about strictly the fantasy. It is not
crazy top heavy, not saying it's not going to feel
that way in a little bit, but when we compare
it to last year, my god, it is nothing remotely close,
especially because we have the power of hindsight. But this

(31:51):
is not the draft where it's like, oh, yeah, go
get that first pick, Go get that Nick Kurtz, get
that Bizana, take a risk on. It's none of that.
This is the draft We're having some multiple picks in
the teams. Feels really good. There's some really really good
bets here, especially because as mentioned before, it's really not

(32:14):
a big consensus. There's so many different opinions. Guys that
we'll have in the second round that'll be first and
vice versa, that you know, my overarching theme is having
as many picks at value is what I really like here.
I'm not saying I don't want some of the top guys,
and I'm not saying I would just give it away.
If someone's like, well, i'll give you, you know, if
I had the second pick, we'll give you a twelve

(32:34):
and a future third. Probably not actually, let me rephrase that,
I'm not. But if someone is like, well, I want
that second pick and I'll give you twelve and I
have fifteen, and then I also have the six pick
in the second round. Like, that's where we're starting to cook.
That's where we're going to get some really good value.
So I don't want to trash this draft because I
think the main focus is going to be like, oh yeah,

(32:56):
this is not as deep, it's not as good, it's
heavy pitching. We have no census where I do think
there's a lot of like later value. I don't know
if any of these college guys will turn into what
we saw last year, but if they do, you're getting
a cheaper cost for it. That's guaranteed. So with that said,
let's talk about the first round. Here are my top fifteen.

(33:17):
It's publicly out there going from one to fifteen. Ethan
Holiday at one, Kate Anderson at two, Eli Willetts is three.
I've settled very comfortably on that. I have Arquette at four,
Seth Hernandez at five. I personally believe that is a
tier some combination of that where things fall apart again
because of the inconsistencies are like was it Cleig had well,

(33:41):
Clig had Eli Willets at one, but Cross had Jojo
Parker in there all right. That throws a wrench in it.
James Anderson loves steel Hall. My personal opinion, Holiday Anderson,
Willets are Kett, Hernandez. That's the tier in some order,
whatever the hell you want to do. Tier number two
is my next two guys, Liam Doyle, Jojo Parker. I
think that's kind of that next little grouping where I'm

(34:04):
not this how I would formulate this is like, I
really got to get a good value. If I'm coming
off of that Tier one, I don't value Tier two
as much, and that's where I could move off of stuff.
So that's six and seven. Eight is Jace Lavalette who
went to Cleveland, Jamie Arnold at nine, Xavier Naan's at ten,
Tyler Bremner at eleven, Kayson Cunningham with the Diamondbacks at twelve,

(34:27):
Gavin Fien's at thirteen, Ike Irish at fourteen, and Gavin
key Line at fifteen. Those are my top fifteen. You
can adjust accordingly. You want proximity, move the college guys up,
you want pitching more. Bremner Arnold should both move up more.
If you're playing for the future, you know, Jojo Parker
should probably come up more. Kaison Cunningham I think has

(34:49):
massive upside. So in that top fifteen, let's talk about
my targets. My targets I am placing on this are
targets because I think I'm higher on them than the
majority of other people. I do not know one hundred percent,
because I haven't done the Road a Wire show yet.
I haven't. I did see I glanced at a tweet
James put out, but I did not go through it.

(35:09):
I literally the only thing that stood out was we
had the same number one and Steele Hall was at three.
So I just don't remember. But I'm caveating this to
say that I based on the conversations I've had with
Clegg and Cross, There's plenty of other people out there.
Remember we're ranking for fantasy, not real life. That I
think I'm higher on these guys, and frankly because of that,

(35:30):
I'm like, I want to draft them. So number one
is Jayce Lavallette, who I have at eight. I have
not seen or heard anybody that has him higher. He's risky,
He's Spencer jones ish risky. But I don't think as
much volatility, big exit, Velocity's huge power. Max ev is
good He had a forty seven percent pole aired ball

(35:55):
percentage rate in college, which is absurd. He barrels the
crap out of the ball. These are the big positives.
The negatives. His contact rates are kind of stinky, and
he struck out a lot, like he's got a lot
of swing and miss in here. But let's give you
the caveats. He was hurt. He got hurt because there's

(36:16):
wrist that could have had and I would presume had
a pretty big impact on his average dipping down and
just his overall game. And maybe that lingers though the
other thing, the other caveat, he had a low chase rate,
even though he swung in miss on zone stuff. His
chase rate was actually pretty low. And apologies on a

(36:38):
few things that I'm going to get into if if
I'm a little repeated, if you listen to other stuff,
but I have this remnence of chase the lotter with them,
big physical guy was a potential number one overall pick,
just like Jase got hurt, and you know, he has
a lot less of like a swing and miss issue,
but he also doesn't chase. He doesn't chase at all.

(36:58):
Big power, he runs. There's a lot of that in
Ja Jace, like six foot six, doesn't chase a whole bunch.
The differences are he has like a worse zone contact rate.
He doesn't have the speed I don't think that the
latter has. But there's some similarities in there, and I
think they feel they can fix it. Now that's not
a great cell, by the way, because the latter keeps
getting hurt, but it's a good ballpark to hit in.

(37:20):
They've got kind of a type. It's elit power, and
I guess at this stage of the game where I
think there's so much weirdness and we don't know, like,
I'm gonna take some shots, man, and I think a
college bat with that type of power, with a chase
rate that maybe could help the strikeout rate, and a
guy that also had injuries that may be impacted, Like
I kind of think that's the deal. I think others

(37:41):
are going to feel different. This is probably my big
risk one. I'm gonna target him because I have him
higher than everybody. So Jace Lavolette, I've got it. Eight
number ten Xavier Naans, I think I'm gonna be higher
on most than him. He's gonna be a third base
prospect He's not the high school version of let but
he's just like one of the big power guys shortstop

(38:03):
that's gonna play most likely third. I like his swing,
good batspeed, big power, high school physical presence. People were
trying to do videos of like him and Alvarez. I
don't think that really works, but I love the offensive potential.
And you know, Frank Stanfele brought this up, and I
hadn't been thinking about this, but there is something to like.

(38:26):
I'm a bit higher on some of the power guys
because also in fantasy, what the hell are we doing
this year chasing power? We're obviously chasing consistency. You know,
I think more than ever, you know, higher batting average
should be equated, and that's why like someone like Eli Willitts.
Eli Willitts could be special if the power develops. I've
camped him to maybe Trey Turner. That's why some have

(38:47):
him at one. I've got him at three. If the
things click. I just think there's more ifs. If the
things click, he kind of checks the boxes. You love
first round second round picks to be guys that yes
they steal bases, but they also have a high average.
But when you're moving a little bit further. A big
portion of that is chasing power. And I think Nayans
can hit for average, maybe a little bit plus, and

(39:10):
I think his power could get to a thirty plus potential.
I like the ballpark. I think they can build around him.
I'm in on Naans and I've got him over a
college pitcher and Tyler Bremner. I've got him actually sandwich
between college pitchers, and I got him right after Lavalette,
and in the theme that's ahead of them is more consistency.

(39:33):
Jojo Parker, He's like the floor kind of like it's
good power, it's good contact. Where Eli is great contact,
questionable power. Ethan Holliday is great power, questionable contact. Parker
kind of checks those boxes. So it's like after you
get those pictures, after you get Arquette, after you get
those shortstops, then it comes into like let's take some shots, baby.

(39:54):
And that's why Lavallette and and Nayans are in there,
because I am chasing more power. So just like understand
that before I talk about the last guy. Clearly, one
thing I just want to mention is like I feel
really good about my top three. Specifically, I've done a
lot of conversations about this, but Ethan Holiday is my
number one. I'm banking on the power, I'm banking on
improved contact. I love the ballpark. I just I'm there.

(40:18):
I'm there with it. But in the same tone last year,
I was a little dismissive of Charlie Condon, but that
was a college hitter, and there were much better options
in front. Like if I had Ethan Holiday and Condon
right now together in last year's draft, I'd put Holiday
above Condon, but I wouldn't put Holiday above Kurtz or Bazana.

(40:39):
And you can see where I have him placed on
my top one hundred. But I just think like, and
there's some major questions about like what that contact is
going to be, but I'm here for it, and I'm
here to take that shot. Kate Anderson. I also think
the destination's incredible. I had a different alteration of this
in the episode I did last week. Kate Anderson in

(41:00):
Seattle is phenomenal. It's phenomenal. I think they could do
wonderful things with him. He's got multiple pitches of already
grading out. Plus he could get to the major soon.
It is an ideal situation, and that's why I put
him there. Kuld Eli Willitts jump him. Yeah, it could,
especially if you want to go offense. Just Holiday and
Willets on that. And then I you know, like Arquette

(41:21):
and I think Hernandez high school pitching, blah blah blah.
You know the drill with that. It's risky. All of
those guys are like pseudo targets, but it's not right
to be like Ethan holders my target. So my third
target on this list is kase On Cunningham. I love
kase On Cunningham, and I'm happy to say, like Slade Caldwell,
it didn't have to do with the Diamondbacks. I'm happy

(41:41):
that he's with the Diamondbacks. Don't get that wrong. But
I liked him beforehand. I saw him in the Dream
series last year. Thicker body guy. I think some people
comped him to Jet Williams. There's like a little Jose
Ramirez esque maybe a little maybe a little bit better
body right now, but he's got like insanely trum like
good batspeed, I want you want to say tremendous, but
it's like really great bat speed, really good contact, really

(42:04):
good plate skills. I think there's power there and this,
This will hopefully be the last like big repeati thing.
But I've mentioned that he had interviewed with the Diamondbacks
in June. He did a pitch simulator. They said who
do you want to go against? And he said Paul
Skeens on the pitch simulator took Skeens deep. That's all fun,
that's a fun anecdotal thing. But the nugget that he
threw in there that I cared about is he said

(42:25):
he was registering one to fourteen one fifteen evs in
that thing. That that's the type of projection you want.
You're telling me a high contact guy, high contact guy
with incredible bat speed is putting up well above average
like elite power max numbers. There's so much to that,
So Welsh, why do you have him at twelve? Great question?

(42:48):
I might go higher on him. I've continuously bumped him
up the more that I look at it. With the
stolen base potential, it might need to go over nines.
But that's why this is the very early onset I
could see. I could see myself honestly going as high
as six on case on Cunningham. I don't think I'll
move off my top five. I could see myself putting
him over Jojo Parker. This is just where I've sat on.

(43:10):
There's still some questions. I'm speculating on the power, of course,
but I really like the destination. Obviously, with Arizona, they've
heavily gone in as Corbyn Carroll told me a couple
of years ago, they've gone into more of an analytical
approach to their drafting. So they obviously loved what they
were seeing as far as barrel numbers and hard hit numbers,
how he gets the ball in the air, his bat speed,

(43:32):
You're seeing what Junior Camenaro just did, and with bat
speed that I think he checks these boxes that they
think they might have something big out of him. So
I think he, of all the players again diamondbacks aside,
really has the potential to fly up a board of
the type of guys we like, but no one's going
to get you. Guys aren't going to get to see
any stats. So I'm hoping he's going to play in

(43:53):
some of these Bridge League games that I can check
and talk to some people. We'll have to see if
it all clicks, of course, but he's a target of mine.
Nayan's Cunningham lavolette. First round targets bunch of fascinating players.
But that is how the first round finishes out for me.
So now let's take a look. I am going to
give you sixteen through thirty on my current board. Things

(44:15):
are going to change and then we'll talk about targets.
So sixteen to thirty. Andrew Fisher comes in at sixteen,
very popular name, people might have higher out of Tennessee.
Goes to Milwaukee, love it seventeen. Ethan Conrad, I'm lower
than some steel Hall at eighteen. I'm clearly lower than
James Daniel Pierce at nineteen. Billy Carlson at twenty. That's

(44:37):
going to stand out to people because he went ten overall,
I've got him lower. I got him at twenty, Kaisan
Witherspoon at twenty one, Gauge Wood at twenty two, Quentin
Young at twenty three, Devin Taylor at twenty four, Josh
Hammond to the Royals at twenty five, Wave Aloi, I
say his first name right way away. Aloi to Baltimore
at twenty six, Merrick Houston, Slater, de Brunn, Cruz, Schoolcraft

(44:59):
and summer Hill at thirty. That is the second round.
Good names. Clearly, I think the three most polarizing names
in this are Fisher, Conrad, and steel Hall. If you
listen to my counterparts in the space, I think you've
seen I think we've seen Conrad in the top ten.
Steel Hall for James is in the top ten. I
don't know if Fisher moved up, but Fisher's kind of

(45:21):
a pretty popular back end pick. And frankly, I see
the path where Fisher could get up to like thirteen
or something like that. For me, Gavin Keyline is super
fascinating with you know, his ability to make contact and
get the ball in the air looks like a maybe
even a twenty twenty guy. Ike Irish has got an
advance bat. Gavin Fiends has just kind of like a

(45:41):
little collection of everything, like as a hitter to be molded.
So like Fisher's just in that group, he just falls
to quote the first pick in the second round because
he's sixteen on my board. Ethan Conrad also, I'm talking
about these guys, these aren't my targets, but Ethan Conrad
too has got an incredible offense profile, but a really
bad shoulder injury. That's you know, something to maybe think

(46:03):
about how it carries over. I think those two bunch
of potential helium, they might move up. Listen to the
Showman Doom Rotal wired to hear the Steel Hall and
Daniel Pierce stuff. Daniel Pierce is probably actually the most interesting.
Steel Hall's got like blazing speed, and if he hits
for some power, maybe he's going to be a poor
man's Eli Willits Right now, I'm a little bit more

(46:24):
questionable about it, but Daniel Pierce does feel like he
might have, like maybe some of the best combination of stuff.
So if I were to pick one of the three
that I think I'll personally move up, it's probably him.
But let's talk about my targets. So actually one of
them is one of the guys we talked about, Andrew Fisher,
So we'll get that out of the way. Andrew Fisher,
who I have at sixteen, not just cause he's sixteen,
but listen again, great exit velocities, as mentioned, that's kind

(46:48):
of like a common thing. Let me pull up some
of the data I have for you. So Andrew Fisher
low chase rate love it the best of what I
have of Eve's ninety five plus per percentage sixty two
percent on the data that I'm given of ninety five
plus he was hitting. That's I mean that you're talking

(47:09):
like average EV stuff there good in zone contact ninety
three point three average EV. Love that max EV at
one oh nine. But here's the kicker there, because some
of those are actually not like insane numbers. Ike Irish
had a MAXIV of almost one fourteen, but best barrel
rate thirty seven, almost thirty eight percent for Andrew Fisher,

(47:31):
which is absolutely sick and the second best of these
guys in their pulled air percentage. Jays Lavalette is number one,
Fisher is number two, so he's got some of that
same stuff, but maybe like better contact ability. He has
a better contact percentage than Lavallette, but it's not like
too much better, but similar chase. They both just don't
chase at all. He misses less against breaking pitches and

(47:55):
made more zone contact percentage. So there's just a lot
of potential upside. Whether we havesume he's gonna be first,
he could be third or whatever. But you like the
landing spot, you like where he's at, and I think
there's a lot of potential upside movement if you are
caring about proximity. So Andrew Fisher is a target. The
other two targets I kind of moved past quick. I've

(48:15):
got them both in the twenties. The first guy that
I really love, love love is Quentin Young, and I
want to be pretty firm about that is a huge
target of mine. This is why, Like, you know, I
could get like twelve, seventeen and twenty one and I
could come out of a draft getting you know, maybe
it only cost me one pick. I could walk out

(48:37):
with Keison Cunningham. You know, I don't know Daniel Pierce
or Kaisan Witherspoon and Quentin Young. I think I'm rolling.
I think I'm rolling man. Quentin Young is the cousin
of Delman and Dimitri Young. He's huge, six foot six.
He got drafted as a shortstop, massive X of velocities. Again,

(48:58):
I think there's a lot more inherent with him swinging
missed does a swing get long? But he broke records
at the MLB. Combine with his exit velocities. He has
got tremendous, tremendous power. He can run, and I think
he's just He's one of those guys you want to
bet on. You know, people are gonna be like Ellie.
I see more James Wood a little bit in there,

(49:18):
less stability to make contact than James would but I
think the comp comes from just like, you know, six
foot six dude, he's got dreads like James Wood did
at some period of time before he cut them. But
I really like the fantasy prospects of Quentin and Young.
He might be raw at the end of the day,
but I'm gonna take that risk. I was dying for

(49:40):
him to be drafted, not by an East Coast team,
but Minnesota took him. I thought that was a really
good steal. That's the guy where I was like, if
you're gonna take Eli Willet's go get yourself Quentty Young,
you know, go take a shot on that. And they didn't.
So I really like Quentin Young. The other third target
on this list is I really really like Devin Taylor.
Devin Taylor went to the athletics. He's out of Indiana,

(50:02):
left handed bat. He is offense first. He's graded lower,
probably because he's not much of a defender, but his
metrics look really solid. High ev ninety five percent, above
average contact percentage. You love that end zone contact percentage
up ninety four average exit velocity. Love that pulling the
ball in the air, and he almost doubled his walk

(50:25):
percentage over strikeouts nineteen percent walk to eleven percent. K percentage. Dude,
he just hits the ball. He's just not like a
good He's like a probably a left fielder, which is
not going to get people excited. But there's offense there.
That's what I care about. And if he were to
move a little bit faster hitting in Sacramento, give me
that all day.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Baby.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
The problem is they got a million outfielders, and that's
ultimately like they did some stuff in this draft where
I was like, why did they take all these outfielders
when they've got you know, Sodastrum out there and Butler
and Clark and Bolti and Kobe Thomas. I don't know
Devin Taylor's going to be a left fielder, but I
really like his bat. So he's a guy that I
want to bet on. And I will say this is
a pretty good round. Kaisa Witherspoon is someone to make

(51:08):
a bed on four plus pitches. You can look down
at alloy golden spikes, winner huge power slater to brun
rightfully so gets Slade Caldwell comps like, there's a lot
of guys in here to like. And I didn't even
really mention those shortstops, but I think like Quinn Young
and Devin Taylor might not get as much run. I
really really like them as second round picks. So now
I'm not gonna numerically give you all these guys, but

(51:30):
I'm going to give you targets. So we're moving to
the third round. This is guys that I have thirty
one through forty five on the first year player rank.
I don't remember the general range. You can go look
at the top five hundred where they are like where
we ended. I mean, I can tell you, you know,
like from Fisher at sixteen. There's some gaps in these ranks,
by the way, because like Fisher is close close to

(51:53):
a top one hundred prospect. You move down to like
Summer Hill and I think he's outside the top two hundred.
But thirty one through forty five, these are three prospects
that are my targets. And number one, I targeted this
kid before the draft, and he ended up going to
the Saint Louis Cardinals, Ryan Mitchell, and I believe Ryan

(52:13):
Mitchell is a second baseman, but they listened him as
an outfielder high school, six foot two, one point eighty five.
Cardinals got him in the second round. I loved his profile.
Another one of those like bat speed, left handed guys,
doesn't chase, He's gonna walk some. I thought there was
some shades of Tamorrow Johnson a little bit in there,

(52:34):
especially with like how he's watching he, you know, watching pitches,
finding his pitch. Tomorrow's too passive. But Barrel's the crap
out of the ball. So it's like, if you give
me projectable body, you give me a guy that makes
consistent contact in the zone. Barrel's the ball and is
going to get up in there. And oh, by the way,

(52:55):
plus speed. Yeah. Love Ryan Mitchell another one of these
guys that I think could fly up boards in the
third round. Fifteen first year player. He is a massive
target of mine. Number two in the third round aericross
and I may have talked about him, but Jaden Fosky.
Jaden Foski is another one of those dudes. I just
remember like physically looking at him. I was like, Okay,

(53:18):
this is the type of guy I love. Second round
pick by the Chicago White Sox. So White Sox fans.
I don't. I'm not in love with Billy Carlson, not
to say that he's not gonna be awesome. He's probably
the best defender in the class. If his bat comes along,
let's go. But I do love Jayden Fosky Jaden Foski.
Fausk E was a catcher but drafted as an outfielder,

(53:39):
and Fosky has a prototypical like. Fosky has that like
prototypical projectability for an eighteen year old kid, six foot three,
two hundred, easy swing, pretty advanced for his age as well,
doesn't chase a whole bunch. He's got easy twenty plus power,
There's some speed in his game, and he's going to

(54:00):
come out here and I'm going to get to see him.
I think this is a dude people are getting excited about.
Like in Tanachi and Bonhamer, I think Foski. I think
Fosky can move up ranks if it wasn't if we
were talking about only offensive profiles. I don't think it's
out of pocket to think that Fosky could end up
being like better than Billy Carlson. It's just I don't
want to get ahead of myself because if Carlson. Carlson's

(54:21):
defense is so elite that if like he's hitting for
average and some power, dude's gonna rank so high. But
Jayden Foski is a guy that I think I have
quite a bit higher than a lot of other people.
So I've got him in the third round here. So again,
the third round is the thirties through the forties, and
I am a pretty big fan and I'm going to
be targeting him a little bit later rounds. And then

(54:42):
the last guy is what the Nationals did do with
one of those high school picks. Took him in the
fifth round. It's Koy James, shortstop, six foot one, ninety range,
highly valued prospect from like a year ago. You can
read some of the reports to talk about like most
recent circuit stuff kind of fell off a little bit.
You know, they talk about like weight game, but I

(55:03):
think from like a body perspective, things or that's good.
It's not a bad thing whatsoever. His swing is kind
of altered a little bit in different spots where some
talk about smooth, some talk about like, you know, he's
regressed and it's getting a little bit wonky. But at
the end of the day, I like the swing. I
think there's okay power or okay speed. I think there's

(55:24):
plus power in his game. And again we are talking
about like thirty to forty third round type of prospects.
He was drafted much later, but I think he's gonna
get probably a much higher signing bonus. And I think
this is one of those like, oh, he wasn't great recently,
so he's kind of falling down off of boards. But
I actually really think the package of the hit tool

(55:48):
at least average speed, high power, maybe he ends up
like you know, like Luke Dickerson was. It was like
a really late guy and then he kind of started
coming up boards like I wouldn't be surprised if it
goes in that range. But I definitely like Cooy James,
and I've got him on my list and he is
a target fourth round. So these are now picks forty
six through sixty or ranks. By the way, these are

(56:10):
players I have ranked forty six to sixty. So these
are only my fourth round. If someone's like, well I've
gone Folski twenty, it's like, okay, then here's your second
round going into the fourth round. Three players that I'm targeting.
Number one Gavin Turley. Gavin Turley out of Oregon State.
He went quite a bit later I think than most

(56:30):
people expected, especially Travis Bazana. Bazana thought he was going
to go higher. He went in the fourth round. He
went to the A's again. This is another one of
those like why are the A's taking all of these outfielders.
I'm just not going to think about it and not
care because Gavin Turley has some of the sickest power
in the draft and it is just no shocker to
you guys. I am going to value like elite power.

(56:52):
Obviously there's some Chase tools Chase stuff that we do
have to pay attention to because he had a pretty
high colleg strikeout rate, but we're also talking about some
of the like elite power in a really huge program
and dude had eleven hundred ops in twenty twenty four. That, like,
I'm hoping that the A's can work through this. And

(57:13):
you know, they did a decent job with guys. I mean,
Butler kind of fell off, but like they changed, you know,
the way these guys were barreling and hitting in Soda
Strom and Butler, that Gavin Turley's power is just so
stupid that we're in the fourth round here. You know
whether or not he's a just above or below of
his top fifty. I just look at the rest. There's
some great high school bets here, but Gavin Turley, just

(57:35):
a college bat with just immense power, kind of regressed
a little bit as he got older into college that
maybe if we can refix this that I think he's
an absolute dude. And maybe there's a little bit of
Bazarn in my ear talking about like he's like, oh,
he's a top fifty overall prospect. He loved Gavin Turley,
and I just love the power potential. Seventy grade power
is something I'm going to bet on. And if you

(57:57):
throw a little bit of speed in there as well,
I'm gonna take it. And I like what the a's
did there, And then my oh, I got two more.
Sorry Josh Owens, you definitely heard. I am not the
Josh Owens guy. So this is one of those like
I'm targeting him in this range, but if I'm in
a draft with Chris Clegg, I'm clearly not getting him.
There's a lot I want to see because he was

(58:18):
listed as a two way player. I want the hitting
version of Josh Owens before. I want the pitching version
of Josh Owens, but I don't know what side he's
going to end up on. It's a good left handed swing.
It's hit overpower right now, but I think, you know,
from a six foot three point eighty five like, I
think we can build some serious power in there. If

(58:40):
he is more of that, I'm probably gonna be a
little bit more excited. But you know, he was also
solid fastball. You know, maybe I don't know if it
would be reliever. We just got to see, so I
think he belongs lower than taking him in like the
twenties or whatever. But he's definitely a target in the
fourth round and I will get to see him out here.
I assume with the Rangers he's just gonna hit, which

(59:04):
is great. I'm gonna try to talk to him about
the pitching and I'll have better reports on it. But
he's like a super good projectible. Could be a wiry outfielder.
Jerry Owen, Jeremy Owens kid, tons of speed, good hit.
If he gets the ball in the air, which they
do say that, you know he has some ability to
drive it in the air. He's going to run into
some homers. He could fly up boards. I mean, you know,

(59:26):
let Chris Clig tell you on that. But I've got
him in this fourth round range. Maybe he'll move up
a little bit more into the third, but he's super interesting.
And then the final one in the fourth round is
Anthony Anson, who went to the Boston Red Sox. The
Boston Red Sox they did a pretty dang good job
with their draft and they pulled lsu pitcher Anthony Ienson,

(59:47):
good projectable six foot you know, thicker dude, two hundred
plus hits mid nineties, got a big ol' hammery curve ball,
which I really like. There might be some inconsistencies, but
you know, there's a slash that he's dropping that seventies
curveballs disgusting. It'll be interesting if he goes in the
reliever range, that's obviously going to diminish value. But yeah,

(01:00:10):
he's got like four pitches that are going to play.
There's some solid command in there. I think he might
come out there and be a dude. And he was
taken in the third round by the Red Sox, so
it's not fair at the Red Sox. This is the
breaking bad. They can't keep doing this to ask like,
why do they keep getting all of these pitchers. Witherspoon

(01:00:31):
is obviously like the headliner, but Anthony Ironsen is a
guy that I'm paying attention to in the later rounds, especially,
I'm probably attempting to avoid pitching with all this hitting upside,
which may inadvertently make me start moving pictures down a
little bit more. But it's because of like Ironson or
some of the high school guys a Landon Harmon or

(01:00:54):
you know, even Patrick Forbes. The Diamondbacks took like there's
some decent college pitcher Zach Root with the like I
could make some bets on those players while investing early
on you know, some of these bats that we've talked about.
But he is definitely a player fourth round. Maybe he
even moves up a tiny bit more. It's just a
great organization. He's got some stuff. I don't want to

(01:01:15):
call him a mold of clay because this is a
college pitcher at LSU, but like, this is the guy.
It's the guy after Kate Anderson, so Ironsen. Maybe I'm
a little too low, I really don't know, but I've
got him in this fourth round and he is a
definite target where there are some other, you know, really
fascinating guys as well. I have like Ethan pett I'll

(01:01:36):
just throw Ethan Petrie out there, Cooper Fleming. Some of
those guys are in this fourth round, fifth round, final
one that we're going to do. These are three hitters
that I'm focused on. This represents overall sixty one through
seventy five, definite possibility that we could have some big
high risers in here. This is day one, This is
day one a first year player. We start seeing these

(01:01:59):
guys get going. A lot of things can change. Jared
Jones going to the Pirates, but not that Jared Jones.
Of course there's gonna be two Jared Jones with the Pirates.
But this is the first baseman out of LSU who
dropped all the way to the ninth round. Maybe that's
not good. Maybe that is more telling than anything else,
or as many people are going to go, this is

(01:02:20):
a freaking steal because this is one of the better
power bats that is out there, and that is what
he has built on big body guy. You know, there
could be a conditioning thing that could end up being
a problem, or it could ultimately fix itself, but this
is a pure bet On just elite power. I don't
know if he'll ever hit over two forty, but when

(01:02:43):
you can get him this late, because he's also like
he went in the ninth round, so he's going to
be very dismissed in drafts. But this is a college,
big power bat that I actually think could move relatively
decent through the system and you might have this team
just start demolishing and off of pieces. They're talking about
kee Brian Hayes being traded, whether they start getting rid
of it. Jared Jones, He's one hundred percent of guy

(01:03:03):
that could move up this system as long as you know,
like weight doesn't become too much of a problem. He's
got a hit for some average I think he'll dominate
lower levels and ultimately maybe he's only a DH, but
first base DH. I just care about the power this late.
Why the hell not dude? Number two Josiah Hartshorn. Heartsorn
went to the Chicago Cubs. He was one of those

(01:03:25):
guys that a lot felt that this was like a
massive deal. I believe Pipeline had him just outside the
top one hundred. He went in the sixth round. He's
an outfielder, switch hitter, six foot two, bigger guy, two
hundred and twenty, and boy does he have the swing.
It's a super easy swing, there's loft to it, there's

(01:03:45):
big projectable power. I believe he won the high school
home run Derby. I think that was maybe last year.
I'm kind of forgetting now, but that it was a
left handed swing where it's just big home run potential.
This does look like a steal. I'm not really sure
why he fell. Maybe it's overslot. I guess he also
pitched as well, but big switch hitting, massive power guy

(01:04:10):
who also makes good contact. Sign me up. Man I
left fell in love with like PJ Orlando, who thrived
in that homer in Derby a couple of years back.
Hartshorn is definitely a guy that you need to pay
attention to. Sixth round by the Cubs. He falls into
the fifth round of first year player, which again is
sixty one through seventy five, and then the final player.
This was not a guy that was on my radar,

(01:04:32):
but man, I remember watching the first piece of video
and I was like, whoa Gustavo Melendez the Pirates? Another
Pirates guy, high school shortstop. He is a smaller dude
listed five eight one sixty. There's some projectability that's out there.
But let me tell you one thing. Dude has got

(01:04:52):
bat speed. We're talking like wam. Like you watch some video,
you're like, Okay, there's a swing. There's a swing, and
then you see a cage video and you're like, whoa,
that is some big bat speed, and then he can
start turning it into in games. Sometimes the swing ca
get a little flat, but he can get the ball
up in the air. And as mentioned by a lot,
it's like, you know, he gets undervalued based on his size,

(01:05:13):
but maybe you know there's going to be a lot
more power than you're going to put out in projections.
He might have more power than Slade Caldwell. It's a
really good hit tool. If the power projects people throw
out the like Assie i'lbi type of stuff. The guy
can run. I think he's probably gonna be a second baseman.
But I was kind of thrown back fourth round pick.
They ranked him one forty, he went a little bit higher.

(01:05:36):
I think he's a pretty good bet right now because
I think he might hit for a lot of contact
and he might be a guy where the power comes later.
But I was really impressed with the bat Speed, so
Gustavo Melndez. That's two pirates in the fifth round that
I'm paying attention to, and that covers seventy five prospects
that I have already ranked. And obviously there's a gajillion
guys we didn't talk about, you know, from other high

(01:05:59):
school interesting players and saying interesting a lot, but you know,
from Briggs McKenzie with Atlanta him, Dean Livingston with the Diamondbacks.
Those were two you know, high school pitchers that look
like they could stand out. Dean Moss going to Tampa Bay,
Jake Cook going to Toronto. That was a big popular one.
Some fun stories, I'll tell you. I almost put cam

(01:06:20):
Canerella on this list. Who went to the Miami Marlins.
I'm just kind of jumping up and down. Brandon Compton
also a Marlin. There's some dudes. We're gonna have to
see how it all ends up being. But it feels
like there's some really good pairing, some really good value
late compared to like everything being top heavy, which this
draft is just not. I just don't feel that it

(01:06:40):
is now. Hindsight might tell us the different story. Kate
Anderson makes the Bigs next year. Seth Hernandez doesn't blow
out his arm, he gets to the majors quick and
Ethan Hall. Yeah, Like we could look back on this
and we're like, man, look how good this looks. But
it's not gonna be at the same trajectory of last
year's draft, where we literally less than a year We're like,
look at this draft. You know, Dravis Bazano was the

(01:07:03):
number one and he's hurt right now, and everybody else
is making to the majors. I'm not sure anybody breaks
camp next year. If they did, it's probably Kate Anderson,
maybe Jamie Arnold, Tyler Bremner would be the easiest one.
Maybe there's a reliever or two that gets pushed up.
These guys might take a little bit more time to simmer.
But there is some you know, high power guys that

(01:07:25):
put in the right situations, can even out their contact
things can work well. There's some great contact hitters that
if they can get the ball in the air, like
Eli Willetts could be he could be a trade turner
if he gets there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
So how I feel about it right now is just
like I want to be involved so much in those
middle rounds. If value's there, but you know, evaluations are
going to be crazy. You get a James Anderson guy
in your draft, you get a Chris Klaig guy in
your draft, and all of a sudden, where you thought
you were going to get steel Hall at twelve, he's
gonna go five. Or you think, oh, man, I got
to pay a top ten pick to get Xavier Naans.

(01:07:58):
If these guys don't like him, maybe he's a second pick.
So just keep your you know, your ears to the
ground on this entire process, because they'll start signing in
the next week or two. A Tay South Scene already
signed with the Braves, which means they will start getting
to complex. Bridge League starts about two weeks. Complex Ball

(01:08:18):
inns next week, and then there's a little break and
then it's like August fourth or something complex or the
Bridge League. And again, the Bridge League is how instructs.
It's essentially instructs. They are fully sanctioned games just like
rookie ball that nobody has any information on. They don't
keep stats, they roll innings. And last year I went

(01:08:38):
to like day one of Bridge League and I went
to the Brewers and it was Burke and Braylen Payne
and Jaden Fielder, and then on the other side with
the Royals, it was Jack cagleone like, that's what I
just ran into. So we're gonna have some of that,
and then the college guys will move on to a
ball pitchers probably hang back, and high school guys will
probably spend the majority of their time mostly in Bridge League.

(01:09:00):
So you just might not get a ton of info.
So it's gonna just be reports that are flown out there.
Hopefully I can give you guys some and we will
just create some more clarity. But that is how it
stands for me right now with a majority of the
names some of my targets. You want to see the
full list where all the names are and where they
sit on the five hundred. You know what to do
in this league dot com check it out today. I

(01:09:21):
appreciate your support makes me want to continue doing all
this stuff, and it supports being able to do all
this stuff like going out to the games and stuff
as well. There you go, friends, that is everything. I'm
gonna be on obvitually in ten minutes as I'm hitting
stop here, I'm gonna be on rode wire. If you
want to see a draft take place, James, myself, Cleg
and Cross. We're gonna just, I think, go like twenty

(01:09:42):
four picks. We're going to have the first pick, so
Ethan Holliday will be we'll go through, we'll make our picks,
we'll kind of see how things round out. That'll be
an interesting exercise comparing it to some of our ranks,
except it's probably gonna be chaos because you know, one
dude's gonna have like four or five guys and none
of us have, and it'll be fun. So you can
check that out. Also, like I said before, Fantasy Baseball

(01:10:04):
Today with Frank Fantasy Pros, there's a great thirty minute
video on the draft and some of the picks that
jope'z ap and I talked about, and I've just kind
of been all over talking about it. So hopefully you
guys aren't insanely sick of it quite yet. We will
get back into the prospect streets next week Rookie Ball's ending.
We'll kind of get to finalize and talk about some
of the biggest rookie league standouts. I'll probably have a guest,

(01:10:25):
so make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you
don't miss any of it. And I just thank you
guys all for hanging out with me. Also, make sure
you go and check out and subscribe to the YouTube
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see if we can get that Twitch going a little

(01:10:46):
bit more consistency, Twitch dot tv, slash in this league.
Go and follow those grab subs. If you can all
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Is it the Welsh? It's all a mouthful my friends.
You guys have a fantastic week. I'm gonna talk to
you about some more prospects next week and we'll do
it right here. Prospect one by guys