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July 14, 2025 13 mins
Chris Crawford talks Reds 2025 MLB Draft Picks.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
By the way, the MLB home run Derby coverage on
ESPN Radio starts at eight o'clock. You'll hear it on
ESPN fifteen thirty. The Draft is happening. Reds took a
seventeen year old shortstop from hewittt trustful Alabama steel Hall
who has a cool name. To learn more about him,
along with other guys the Reds have taken in the

(00:25):
twenty twenty five MLB Draft. Is a guy who has
joined us now for years to talk about the draft,
the prospects, and other guys that very few of us
have heard of until now. Chris Crawford is with us.
It's good to have you, sir. How are you.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
I was trying to think of the first year we
did this. Was it Hunter Green? It might have been
Hunter Green.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
It was because I couldn't get enough Hunter Green content
and I found you and I said, all right, I
need And by the way, I still can't get enough
Hunter Green content. Except we never talked about his pitching.
We talk about his growing But nonetheless, yes, it was
the Hunter Green year.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Dam that's just I'm going to live forever, aren't.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
God? I hope.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
So all right, Steele Hall, awesome name, seventeen year old shortstop?

Speaker 1 (01:08):
What do we like about him?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Quite a bit? And you know, I have to tell
you this was a pick that I didn't seem really coming.
I thought that they were going to go probably the
collegiate route. But I really do like this pick. It's
worth pointing out that this is a guy who doesn't
turn eighteen until July twenty fourth, so there is a
long way to go in his development. But the intriguing

(01:31):
thing here is that he's already such a solid shortstop,
the type of guy who I know gold glove is
sometimes a phrase that we don't love saying, but it's
already a sixty great defender with a plus arm and
super speed, like the type of guy that you see
steel thirty to forty bases. Now. The offense is still
very much a work in progress, but that's true for

(01:53):
any seventeen year old, but in particular for a guy
that you're taking with the ninth overall pick. There's some
work to be There's some question marks about the power.
I do think Great America Ballpark is a nice place
for that power to play up, but I think the
hit toll should be above average. He recognizes spin well,
he makes hard contact to all parts of the field.
I think he's more high floor than high ceiling, which

(02:16):
is a weird thing to say for a guy who
is just barely old enough to go to rated heart movies.
But I do think that there is some upside here.
Obviously there's upside if you're taking someone with the ninth
overall pick, But I think the really intriguing thing here
is the floor, because he really just seems like a
lock to stick a shortstop, to be a guy who

(02:36):
provides a ton of value on the bases and makes
enough hard contact for him to be worth putting in
the lineup every single day.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
So I've gathered the same that the overwhelming sentiment last
night was surprise, not that he's a bad prospect, not
that he doesn't have a lot of upside, but a
little surprise that he was taken ninth overall. So, as
the draft is unfolding last night and the Reds are
on the clock, if it's not this guy, who would
you have taken?

Speaker 3 (03:05):
That's a good question, I will say. I think the
passing on a arm like Jimmy Arnold was a little
surprising to me, and I know Cincinnati has gone college
arms so often and maybe they just feel so confident
they don't need to do that right now. But that
was probably who I would have taken, a guy who
probably would have been the first overall pick in a

(03:27):
draft if it happened. Happened in February and kind of
a mixed year, but that stuff is definitely filthy and
I think would have played really well there. I don't
think it's a huge reach. I had Haul like thirteenth
on my board overall, so it's not like it was
this massive reach. The other guy who came to mind
was Irish, a catcher slash outfielder who has a chance

(03:49):
to hit for a bunch of power, really good approach
at the plate, probably more outfielder than catcher, but a
guy who I think has a solid floor on top
of that ceiling. Those are probably the two guys that
would have taken Overhaul in that situation. But this was
not a reach by any stretch of the imagination. I
was just surprised that they want to prep that route.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
They have a lot of short stops. It's my take,
you can't have too many of really anything specifically shortstops.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Is that a fair way of looking at it?

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Absolutely, because here's what's going to happen. You have guys
like him and Sammy Stefera and a few others that
you know, the cream will rise and we will see
who exactly is that shortstop. Defensively, I do think it
will be halled just because he has such clean actions
and such quality athleticism. That's no insult to a few

(04:39):
of the other guys in the system, and that's no
insult to a certain shortstop that it's playing there right now.
But I just think at the end of the day,
you take those guys because it's a heck of a
lot easier to move the short stop to a different
position than vice versa, right like having depth at that position.
As a Seattle Mariner fan, I'm seeing this more and more.

(05:01):
They are just accumulating short stops over and over and
over again. Well, those guys can play anywhere outside of catcher. Really,
shortstops are going to be able to handle whatever position
you put them at. So the best player on your
high school team, he's playing shortstop right there. Just aren't
a whole lot of great unless they know. The MLB

(05:22):
draft is like coming up and they are six foot
five or something like that, then they're probably not playing shortstop.
They want to say, hey, look at what I can
do at third base. But you put those guys, You
draft those guys that are shortstops knowing that they're going
to be able to play in the outfield, play second base.
Probably a few of those guys could even handle first
base or corner outfield as well. But never a bad

(05:43):
thing to have too many shortstops.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Pick fifty one, Round two, they take a prep pitcher
and a tall one, Aaron Watson.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
What can you tell you about him?

Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah? I really like this pick. The Reds had a
good draft, by the way, This is one of my
favorite drafts that I think of any especially over the
first three days. Is what the excuse me? Over the
first three rounds Day two, a lot of senior signed
type of guys. But Watson's really interesting. Because we talked
about the high floor with Tull, it's kind of the

(06:12):
same thing with Watson as well, which is very rare
for a prep pitcher. He just has such excellent feel
for pitching, like it feels, has good feel for a changeup,
has good feel for a slider. There's still some projection left.
At six foot five, two hundred and five pounds, you
will fill up that frame, and I think his fastball
will probably be plus offering when all is said and done.

(06:33):
Not talking about a future ACE, but it's very easy
to project mid rotation starter here and it wouldn't shock me,
even as a guy who I think doesn't turn nineteen
until January. It wouldn't shock me at t is a
I'm putting up my quotation marks even though people can't
see it. Fast riser for a prep on somebody who
could help you in twenty twenty eight, which you know,

(06:54):
typically you're talking about five years of development for a
high school pitcher. But I really like this pick because
of the high floor and the high ceiling that he offers,
and you're going to need him because're a big kid.
You need high ceilings for six ft five people.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
I'm not going to ask you about every player, but
there is one that I want to focus on, Mason Neville,
a fourth rounder. So this is maybe not the most
scientific way of looking at it. First of all, I
see from Oregon led the Nation and home runs, so
that's cool.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, But I follow the draft.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
I follow along at MLB dot Com and so he
was the one hundred and fourteenth pick. MLB dot Com
ranked him as the thirty fifth best kid in the draft,
thirty fifth best player the true So I go, wa
it's incredible value? Is that an unfair way of looking
at it? Is that a stupid way of looking at it?
And what do we like about Mason Neville on top
of the fact that he hits a bunch of home runs?

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (07:44):
So, first of all, back to back Mason's is interesting too,
because they took Mason Morris with the pick before, and
he's someone I actually really like as well.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
I was really surprised Neville was still around. I didn't
think he was going to go in the first round
or anything like that. But I thought he made an
awful one sense in that late day two, early day three.
So I don't think he's like the steal of steals
because there are some issues here. He strikes out a lot.
There are considerable swinging miss issues with that, and you

(08:12):
know that's not the best for a college guy to
be striking out that much because he's going to be
facing much better stuff as he gets into the pros.
But the power's legit. The power's legit. He's a solid athlete.
He should be able to be at the very least
a solid bench bat type of guy with the type
of power that makes him a weapon. But if he

(08:33):
can handle left handed pitching, which is a big question
mark for anybody hitting from the left side when you're
going into the professional ranks, you can't simulate the type
of left handed stuff that you're going to see. And
if he can keep the swinging myths to a low roar,
he's got a chance to be a starting outfielder. That's
really solid value. I think some teams kind of overthought
it a little bit, and you know, contact issues are

(08:56):
something that will see guys slide in drafts. There's no
question about it. Flatting all the way to the fourth
round and being able to procure his services there. I
thought that was a nice piece. Ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
It was actually the nicksen Zell draft when they took
Nickson nine years ago. You made your debut in this
radio station talking about Nick sen Zel.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
I went and looked, Oh my god, that's so long ago.
And that worked out fine, right, everything, everything worked out
really well with Nixon Bell.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Right, No, And like I've always felt for him, because
I remember the consensus was, you know, this isn't a
good year to have the second overall pick. The Reds
were awful obviously the year before, right, and the prize
was Nickson Zel, and I feel like he was just
from the get go miscast and know it didn't necessarily
work out.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
They don't have Nick Senzel anymore.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Right now, give me before I let you on a
top to bottom assessment of the Reds farm system because
I heard it described this way last week.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
It's sneaky good. Do you share that? Do you share
that sentiment?

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah? I think it is. Now. I will say this,
Chake Burns didn't get account as a prospect pretty soon,
and that is going to hurt the system quite a
bit because the names after him, there's a pretty precipitous drop.
And you know Rhet Lauder still counts as a prospect
as well. So if you take away those two, the
top of the system isn't all that great. Like I

(10:16):
wouldn't love having South Seward or cam Collier being my
top prospect if I'm just being one hundred percent honest
with you. But it's the depth after that, it's the
look Edwin Arroyo is a guy who I still think
has a chance to be a solid player. Alfredo Duno
is the guy who has a chance to be a
really good one. Adam Cirwanowski, I think is one of
the more underrated pitching prospects. Luke Coleman, who I thought

(10:36):
to you about last year. I think he's got a
chance to be a very solid one. Then there's guys
like Ty Floyd and Luis May, who I know you
guys have seen already who I think has a big future.
There's some real solid depth. The top needs work, and
you know, that's one of the interesting things I think
about taking high floor guys with those first two picks,

(10:57):
because maybe looking at that system, I would have been
a little bit more interested in high ceilings than high floor.
But I do get it too, and adding those type
of players, you know, those high floor guys to a
group where I see a bunch of quantity of major
league players is pretty solid. It definitely needs work at
the top, but Chase Burns has a chance to just

(11:18):
be such a special picture.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, we've we've liked most of what we've seen so far.
Awesome to have you on, great to hear your voice.
Can thank you enough. Appreciate the time.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Man, anytime. Man, you know you can call me at
times other than July, just so you know, like I'm
willing to talk to you at different times.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, if the Reds, if the Reds go in the
tank here and then end up being sellers and they
you know, trade I don't know who they'll trade away,
but end up acquiring a bunch of prospects, then it's
requirement for me to call you. So let's I hope
that's not what they do, but you know it could happen.
It's it's happened before.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Well now I'm hoping I don't talk to you until July.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
You're the best appreciated man. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
One of my all time favorite people to chat with,
Chris Crawford for years has been he does a radio
in Seattle, Kjar. On top of he does a lot
of draft work for a lot of different outlets and
has for years and is awesome and I appreciate his insight.
It's fun to talk with people who have watched these
guys play. It's fourteen away from four o'clock five to one, three, seven, four, nine,

(12:21):
fifteen thirty is our phone number.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
I want either Shamar Stewart.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Or the people who run by the Bengals to be
hit by a bolt. I will explain that incredible sports take.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Help
Traffic Center.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
The UC Health Brain Tumor Center finds answers for some
of the most complex brain tumors.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Learn more at UCHealth dot com. Still got that accident
on southbound seventy five between Paddock and Norwood Lateral.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
That one off on the right shoulder to US twenty two.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
Another accident at Stillwater Drive and Westchester Road closed down
for a broken water main. Between Beckett Road and Meridian Way,
I that ezelic with traffic

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