July 17, 2025 • 8 mins
Aram Leighton of JustBaseball.com joined us to talk about the Reds' 2025 draft class.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Baseball Draft happened on Sunday and Monday. Aaron Layton
from jess Baseball dot com, which is an invaluable resource,
joins us. Let's start by talking about the draft class
as a whole, a thirty thousand foot view of the
players the Reds took.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Give me your assessment.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I think they stuck to their guns, which is go
for upside, and I'm excited to see how it works out.
I think they'd balance it out a little bit, you know,
with some of the arms, which we'll talk about. But
I think the Reds are very risk tolerant when it
comes to the draft, and they had an opportunity to,
I think, take on a lot of upside and albeit
some risk as well, and I think it's exciting to see,
(00:37):
you know, how it all shakes out.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
All right, So obviously they took on some risk. Man
with a seventeen year old high school shortstop who is
reclassified Steel Hall. We'll talk about the risk there, but
give me the upside. What do you like about him?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Well, I think the upside and the big parts of
what make him so exciting are also the things that
hedge some of that risk. Right, of course, seventeen year
old high schooler with citing bat speed, but you know,
raw operation over all in the box, you're gonna wonder
how that all comes together offensively. Of course, it takes
some time, but he is probably the best athlete in
the draft. Right He's probably the only eighty grade runner
(01:13):
in this class. He's a seventy grade defender I think
at shortstop as it all comes together, and then he
has this electric bat speed that you can really dream
on as well. You add in the fact that he's
extremely young for the class and one of the youngest
in the class, it makes it a really exciting upside proposition.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Here a lot of risk. He is seventeen years old,
so I would expect him to not know how to
hit a breaking ball. I would expect the learning curve
to be quick. Yet it's gonna take some time. What
do you make of someone who says they may be
with the ninth overall pick took on a little bit
too much risk.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
You know, I think in a class like this, I
can understand it because the other pick could have been
Billy Carlson, right, who goes right after, who I think
still comes with plenty of risk. A high school shortstop
who has some more pros and but with Hall you're
betting on I think a little bit more upside and
a little bit less track record.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
At that point.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Though, when you're talking about high school shortstops, at the
end of the day, it's going to be risky regardless.
So I can understand the angle of trying to just
go for the best athlete possible, especially when that's what
the Reds mos has typically been. And this is a
draft that didn't have a lot of college talent at
the top bats wise.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I think we saw that that was pretty clear.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
You had one, you know, college bat really go off
in the top ten, and it was, you know, a
guy that went at seven. So I think it makes sense,
given the way the draft shook out, for the Reds
to maybe gravitate towards what they typically like to do.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Some have said they have too many short stops. I
think you can never have too many of them, maybe
the game's most important position.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
What do you say to that criticism, Yeah, you can
never have too many short stops.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Colleges recruit shortstops and put them at other positions. If
those guys end up staying at shortstop, big league teams
are targetting shortstops and then end up moving them off
of the position. That is a problem that you welcome
at the highest level and with open arms. But I
think when you have an opportunity to take the best
athletes possible, those are typically gonna be guys that play
up the middle, and I think you want players that
(03:11):
are projecting up the middle, because worst case scenario, they
slow down athletically. You move them to a corner, and
they're more athletic than most of the people at the corner.
A guy that's seventeen eighteen years old and already at
a corner may not age well in terms of the
defensive ability there and how everything's gonna look.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So I strongly disagree with that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Second round pick fifty first overall, a prep pitcher by
the name of Aaron Watson.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
What do we like about him?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know, I think this was a nice way to
maybe offset some of that that risk. Of course, right
handed prep, you know pitcher is always going to be
a risky I would say archetype, But Aaron Watson's arsenal
I think is one that more fits the bill of
a back end of the rotation starter. Of course, you
can dream on more upside given that he's six y
(03:55):
five two oh five, but he's got a great feel
for an assortment of offerings. He gets a lot of
ground balls already, and I think from that high release
getting it's on the ground balls. You think about how
that plays potentially a great American ballpark. It's like, I
don't want to compare him to him, because Ret Louder
stuff is ridiculous, you know, compared to you know, anybody
that's gonna be drafted outside of the first round, especially
out of high school. But it's that type of picture
where you can, even if he's not getting a ton
(04:16):
of swing and miss, you can still dream on being
able to eat innings, get a lot of ground balls
and project from there. But again, you also have a
template at six five two five out of the Florida
prep ranks, where maybe you can build on him and
get even more.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Out of them.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
The most interesting pick early ish in the draft for
me was the kid they took in the third round
from old Miss, Mason Morris. For two reasons. One, it
feels like they want to try him as a starter,
where for most of his college career he was a reliever.
Number Two, he took a major lead from twenty four
to twenty five, statistically kind of changed his motion, changed
his arm slot. I feel like they're getting a lot
(04:51):
of upside here. What do you make of this pick?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I mean, it's it's just a high octane arm that
you know you mentioned heading in the right direction. And
you see big league teams all the time now that
they're betting on the stuff and what they can potentially
do to unlock more out of these arms rather than
you know, the college statistics. But of course, when you
see a positive trend, that's gonna be something you're excited about.
Get the walk rate below ten percent, struck out thirty
(05:15):
four percent of batters, and he can really spin the baseball.
He's got this ninety two to ninety three min hour
cutter that was just disgusting, and then a bigger slider
off of that that he landed for a strike pretty consistently.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
When you're averaging ninety.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Six with the fastball, that's a guy that at least
you know, if it doesn't work out as a starter,
you can put him in the back of the bullpen.
It's probably gonna play pretty well there, which I like
as a backup plan. But I do think this is
a guy that's worth trying to develop as a starter.
Fastball shape hurt him a little bit, and just consistency
landing that fastball first strike, which is interesting when he
has a better feel for the spin than the fastball.
(05:48):
So maybe just playing with some grips, playing with some
you know, I think, maybe release points there to see.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
What exactly works for him.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
If they can find maybe a heavier fastball or something
that has a little bit more carry too, he maybe
starts throwing two heaters with the two breaking balls that
he has. I think it could be a really fun,
you know, pitch mix there that could work. But worst
case scenario, you got a six four to two hundred
twenty pound ridy who can spin it and will probably
tick up to the upper nineties, you know, in short
spurts if you want to put him in the bullpen.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Aermlaighton just baseball dot Com telling us about the Reds
draft class. One more individual player, Mason Neville, who's a
kid who had Oregon led the country in home runs
last year. Do these strikeouts give me pause when I
start to think about his home run potential? Maybe one day,
Great American Ballpark understandably, you know that they should. You know,
(06:35):
that's why he slipped to the fourth round.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And it's it's not quite the Mike Sioda situation, but
there are some similarities there right where there's some things
that could have maybe pushed him into the first round
just didn't come together, right. The contact rates weren't totally there.
You know, maybe some of the things that he could
have shored up with his profile he wasn't able to do,
so that ends up having him slip back a little bit.
But you have an opportunity now where sometimes those guys
(06:58):
just it's like a snowball and they end up falling
further than they should. And I think that's kind of
what happened with Neville here, and you get an opportunity
to pick up, you know, some of the best raw
power in the draft. A guy that hits the ball
in the air consistently, I think you can really dream
on that. And the thing that gets me a little
bit more encouraged at least is Okay, there's definitely some
serious concerns with with breaking balls, but he does not
(07:19):
miss many.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Heaters at all.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I mean, it's an ops of nearly fifteen hundred against fastballs.
So if you can get him to a point where
he's recognizing spin and at least laying off of it
and crushing the mistakes, he could be a mistake hitter
that hammers fastballs and carves out a nice career. So
I think that's what they're hoping for in the fourth round.
And anytime you can get plus plus power in the
fourth round with production in college, it's worth a shot
to take.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You've given me good intel on the top four picks.
Of the four picks in the first four rounds. Is
there anybody they took later on who's maybe a little
off the radar that we should be paying close attention to.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I think Kyle McCoy is interesting. You know, that's another
guy that you look at, maybe more of the projection
paired with the pitchability, you know. I think you're hoping
you can squeeze out more velocity because it's low nineties.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Is six sixth lefty, you.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Know, out of Maryland, But you're maybe dreaming that you
can get a little bit more out of him stuff wise,
he gets a fair amount of ground balls. The slider
looks like you can play. But again, another guy that
six six lefty. If it doesn't work as a starter,
maybe you try to put him into the bullpen. But
he looks like a guy that could be, you know,
eating some innings and has some I think intrigued there
at the very least. And then there's some prep kids
that I'm interested to see if they're able to sign,
(08:28):
you know, in the back end of the draft, like
and Ethan Moore. If they're able to sign him away somehow,
I think it would take a.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Pretty surprising scenario there.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I'm interested to see how much they ultimately end up
saving with some of the top picks.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
But I think that's another name to watch.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I wouldn't rule out maybe them being able to sign
you know, a couple of those high school guys they
grab later.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Interesting stuff. Aaron Layton, just baseball dot Com. I know
you have a lot going on. I can't thank you enough.
We love having you. Thank you as always, thank
Speaker 2 (08:54):
You for having me on
The Baseball Draft happened on Sunday and Monday. Aaron Layton
from jess Baseball dot com, which is an invaluable resource,
joins us. Let's start by talking about the draft class
as a whole, a thirty thousand foot view of the
players the Reds took.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Give me your assessment.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I think they stuck to their guns, which is go
for upside, and I'm excited to see how it works out.
I think they'd balance it out a little bit, you know,
with some of the arms, which we'll talk about. But
I think the Reds are very risk tolerant when it
comes to the draft, and they had an opportunity to,
I think, take on a lot of upside and albeit
some risk as well, and I think it's exciting to see,
(00:37):
you know, how it all shakes out.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
All right, So obviously they took on some risk. Man
with a seventeen year old high school shortstop who is
reclassified Steel Hall. We'll talk about the risk there, but
give me the upside. What do you like about him?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Well, I think the upside and the big parts of
what make him so exciting are also the things that
hedge some of that risk. Right, of course, seventeen year
old high schooler with citing bat speed, but you know,
raw operation over all in the box, you're gonna wonder
how that all comes together offensively. Of course, it takes
some time, but he is probably the best athlete in
the draft. Right He's probably the only eighty grade runner
(01:13):
in this class. He's a seventy grade defender I think
at shortstop as it all comes together, and then he
has this electric bat speed that you can really dream
on as well. You add in the fact that he's
extremely young for the class and one of the youngest
in the class, it makes it a really exciting upside proposition.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Here a lot of risk. He is seventeen years old,
so I would expect him to not know how to
hit a breaking ball. I would expect the learning curve
to be quick. Yet it's gonna take some time. What
do you make of someone who says they may be
with the ninth overall pick took on a little bit
too much risk.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
You know, I think in a class like this, I
can understand it because the other pick could have been
Billy Carlson, right, who goes right after, who I think
still comes with plenty of risk. A high school shortstop
who has some more pros and but with Hall you're
betting on I think a little bit more upside and
a little bit less track record.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
At that point.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Though, when you're talking about high school shortstops, at the
end of the day, it's going to be risky regardless.
So I can understand the angle of trying to just
go for the best athlete possible, especially when that's what
the Reds mos has typically been. And this is a
draft that didn't have a lot of college talent at
the top bats wise.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I think we saw that that was pretty clear.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
You had one, you know, college bat really go off
in the top ten, and it was, you know, a
guy that went at seven. So I think it makes sense,
given the way the draft shook out, for the Reds
to maybe gravitate towards what they typically like to do.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Some have said they have too many short stops. I
think you can never have too many of them, maybe
the game's most important position.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
What do you say to that criticism, Yeah, you can
never have too many short stops.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Colleges recruit shortstops and put them at other positions. If
those guys end up staying at shortstop, big league teams
are targetting shortstops and then end up moving them off
of the position. That is a problem that you welcome
at the highest level and with open arms. But I
think when you have an opportunity to take the best
athletes possible, those are typically gonna be guys that play
up the middle, and I think you want players that
(03:11):
are projecting up the middle, because worst case scenario, they
slow down athletically. You move them to a corner, and
they're more athletic than most of the people at the corner.
A guy that's seventeen eighteen years old and already at
a corner may not age well in terms of the
defensive ability there and how everything's gonna look.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So I strongly disagree with that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Second round pick fifty first overall, a prep pitcher by
the name of Aaron Watson.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
What do we like about him?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know, I think this was a nice way to
maybe offset some of that that risk. Of course, right
handed prep, you know pitcher is always going to be
a risky I would say archetype, But Aaron Watson's arsenal
I think is one that more fits the bill of
a back end of the rotation starter. Of course, you
can dream on more upside given that he's six y
(03:55):
five two oh five, but he's got a great feel
for an assortment of offerings. He gets a lot of
ground balls already, and I think from that high release
getting it's on the ground balls. You think about how
that plays potentially a great American ballpark. It's like, I
don't want to compare him to him, because Ret Louder
stuff is ridiculous, you know, compared to you know, anybody
that's gonna be drafted outside of the first round, especially
out of high school. But it's that type of picture
where you can, even if he's not getting a ton
(04:16):
of swing and miss, you can still dream on being
able to eat innings, get a lot of ground balls
and project from there. But again, you also have a
template at six five two five out of the Florida
prep ranks, where maybe you can build on him and
get even more.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Out of them.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
The most interesting pick early ish in the draft for
me was the kid they took in the third round
from old Miss, Mason Morris. For two reasons. One, it
feels like they want to try him as a starter,
where for most of his college career he was a reliever.
Number Two, he took a major lead from twenty four
to twenty five, statistically kind of changed his motion, changed
his arm slot. I feel like they're getting a lot
(04:51):
of upside here. What do you make of this pick?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I mean, it's it's just a high octane arm that
you know you mentioned heading in the right direction. And
you see big league teams all the time now that
they're betting on the stuff and what they can potentially
do to unlock more out of these arms rather than
you know, the college statistics. But of course, when you
see a positive trend, that's gonna be something you're excited about.
Get the walk rate below ten percent, struck out thirty
(05:15):
four percent of batters, and he can really spin the baseball.
He's got this ninety two to ninety three min hour
cutter that was just disgusting, and then a bigger slider
off of that that he landed for a strike pretty consistently.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
When you're averaging ninety.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Six with the fastball, that's a guy that at least
you know, if it doesn't work out as a starter,
you can put him in the back of the bullpen.
It's probably gonna play pretty well there, which I like
as a backup plan. But I do think this is
a guy that's worth trying to develop as a starter.
Fastball shape hurt him a little bit, and just consistency
landing that fastball first strike, which is interesting when he
has a better feel for the spin than the fastball.
(05:48):
So maybe just playing with some grips, playing with some
you know, I think, maybe release points there to see.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
What exactly works for him.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
If they can find maybe a heavier fastball or something
that has a little bit more carry too, he maybe
starts throwing two heaters with the two breaking balls that
he has. I think it could be a really fun,
you know, pitch mix there that could work. But worst
case scenario, you got a six four to two hundred
twenty pound ridy who can spin it and will probably
tick up to the upper nineties, you know, in short
spurts if you want to put him in the bullpen.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Aermlaighton just baseball dot Com telling us about the Reds
draft class. One more individual player, Mason Neville, who's a
kid who had Oregon led the country in home runs
last year. Do these strikeouts give me pause when I
start to think about his home run potential? Maybe one day,
Great American Ballpark understandably, you know that they should. You know,
(06:35):
that's why he slipped to the fourth round.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And it's it's not quite the Mike Sioda situation, but
there are some similarities there right where there's some things
that could have maybe pushed him into the first round
just didn't come together, right. The contact rates weren't totally there.
You know, maybe some of the things that he could
have shored up with his profile he wasn't able to do,
so that ends up having him slip back a little bit.
But you have an opportunity now where sometimes those guys
(06:58):
just it's like a snowball and they end up falling
further than they should. And I think that's kind of
what happened with Neville here, and you get an opportunity
to pick up, you know, some of the best raw
power in the draft. A guy that hits the ball
in the air consistently, I think you can really dream
on that. And the thing that gets me a little
bit more encouraged at least is Okay, there's definitely some
serious concerns with with breaking balls, but he does not
(07:19):
miss many.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Heaters at all.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I mean, it's an ops of nearly fifteen hundred against fastballs.
So if you can get him to a point where
he's recognizing spin and at least laying off of it
and crushing the mistakes, he could be a mistake hitter
that hammers fastballs and carves out a nice career. So
I think that's what they're hoping for in the fourth round.
And anytime you can get plus plus power in the
fourth round with production in college, it's worth a shot
to take.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You've given me good intel on the top four picks.
Of the four picks in the first four rounds. Is
there anybody they took later on who's maybe a little
off the radar that we should be paying close attention to.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I think Kyle McCoy is interesting. You know, that's another
guy that you look at, maybe more of the projection
paired with the pitchability, you know. I think you're hoping
you can squeeze out more velocity because it's low nineties.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Is six sixth lefty, you.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Know, out of Maryland, But you're maybe dreaming that you
can get a little bit more out of him stuff wise,
he gets a fair amount of ground balls. The slider
looks like you can play. But again, another guy that
six six lefty. If it doesn't work as a starter,
maybe you try to put him into the bullpen. But
he looks like a guy that could be, you know,
eating some innings and has some I think intrigued there
at the very least. And then there's some prep kids
that I'm interested to see if they're able to sign,
(08:28):
you know, in the back end of the draft, like
and Ethan Moore. If they're able to sign him away somehow,
I think it would take a.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Pretty surprising scenario there.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I'm interested to see how much they ultimately end up
saving with some of the top picks.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
But I think that's another name to watch.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I wouldn't rule out maybe them being able to sign
you know, a couple of those high school guys they
grab later.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Interesting stuff. Aaron Layton, just baseball dot Com. I know
you have a lot going on. I can't thank you enough.
We love having you. Thank you as always, thank
Speaker 2 (08:54):
You for having me on
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