Episode 93: MLB Draft Standouts From The Summer Circuit

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Future Projection. This is episode 93 of the show. I'm Carlos Clauso, joined at long last by Ben Badler. What's going on, Ben?
00:00:13
Speaker 2: I've just been waiting for Bobby Witt Jr. to go into a slump because I didn't want to get on here every week and listen to you wax poetic about the glory that is Bobby Witt Jr. and how right you were about him and how awesome he's been, but never got that opportunity, so I figured I'd just tap out and come back this week.
00:00:34
Speaker 1: You had to give up at this stage just given how he's been doing no it's been a while since we've been on the show our last podcast episode was our mega draft preview which feels insane we're almost to the to the end of august so um like we say every year i think that the summers are always tricky for us we've got draft then post-draft travel both you and i it seems like are going to a lot of events in the summer but never the same ones then we also had So much needed and long-awaited vacation time. That was also a little bit staggered and alternated, so it's just been difficult for us to get on the show. But I am happy to see your face here virtually, Ben, and get back on the show. But yeah, as I'm sitting here, Bobby Wood Jr. stands second in all of baseball with 9.3 F4. I think he's maybe having a top 15 season among age 24 and younger players this century, which is a pretty fun designation. Mike Trout did that four times, but uh, it's a good list of, of luminaries, a rod, uh, Bryce Harper, um, some, some pretty good names in that list.
00:01:36
Speaker 2: It's going to be an all time runner up MVP season four, I think.
00:01:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. And as the, I said this the other day in our editorial meeting, we're talking about some, some end of season awards and just looking at how the various races are going. Uh, yeah. And I don't, I don't think you can really make a case for Bobby with junior over here and judge at this point. And again, I'm, I have to be on the short list of top Bobby Wood Jr. fans. I mean, right here in the office, Ben, you guys can't see this if you're listening, but I'm holding up a blown up Bobby Wood Jr. Crown Jewel Baseball America cover that I need to find a spot on the wall for, but that one looks pretty good. But no, Aaron Judge is insane. Bobby Wood Jr. is simply more fun, but it is kind of crazy. You know what's also crazy too, Ben? The amount of people who, it seems like recently I've been more exposed to this, and it I'm sure it's simply the fact that I've just been on Twitter more often for whatever reason. There are so many people who want to just discount what Aaron Judge is doing or discount the state of play these days. And I just find myself seeing so many people who just love to complain about baseball these days and tell everyone that things used to be better back in their day. And I know this goes on at all times. There are always these clippings of newspaper articles from like the 1920s where managers and former players are basically saying that players today just don't do it like they used to, but it does constantly really rub me the wrong way, and I've been getting a lot of it recently, so it's frustrating.
00:03:09
Speaker 2: Do you think people are saying that about Aaron Judge, though?
00:03:12
Speaker 1: Well, I know that for a fact because JJ was on the Hot Sheet show making the case that what Aaron Judge is doing this year is just so difficult, just given the frequency of velocity that he's facing and the lack of third-time-through-the-order, fourth-time-through-the-order against starters. compared to Miguel Cabrera in his, I think he used 09 to 13 for Miguel Cabrera. And even that comparison where JJ is basically just making the point of like, look how things have changed in this short period of time. Like there are people pushing back against that and saying, Oh, Aaron judge plays in a small park. No, there are no true pitchers anymore. These days, Miguel Cabrera could have easily done this in this era.
00:03:49
Speaker 3: And like, No true pitchers.
00:03:52
Speaker 1: I don't think that JJ is ever making the point that, like, Miguel Cabrera could not have succeeded in this era. He never once made that point. He's simply pointing out the differences. But, yeah, and I shouldn't even be giving these people more attention because it just makes it seem more present than it probably is. But, man, I just feel like there are so many things to enjoy about the game today. And, I don't know, we don't need to hit on this too much. But, yeah, I mean, there are always going to be people who act like everyone these days just throws hard and can't truly pitch, which I think is preposterous. Yeah.
00:04:22
Speaker 2: Well, I'm, you know, every probably since what year did they invent baseball? Whatever it was, I'm sure 10 years later, people were complaining about how the game just isn't as good as what it used to be. That's, that's just going to happen until you turn until the day you die.
00:04:41
Speaker 3: You're going to be hearing that from people.
00:04:43
Speaker 2: I think the better, like I said, how, As we get older, how do we avoid that trap? There clearly are people who have been able to do it and recognize and appreciate the obvious, which is that players today are better than they've ever been.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: If you want to.
00:05:01
Speaker 2: Argue that the brand of baseball today is not as entertaining to watch compared to some other era, All right. I think that's, you know, you can make that case. I think you certainly could have made that case a few years ago prior to the advent of the pitch clock and just how slow the game has gotten and how much dead space there was in the major league game and the minor league games too that before they had the pitch clock and some of the other new rules that we have now. But I mean, the argument like that the athletes are inferior now to what they were in the 1980s or 1990s is pretty pretty preposterous but i think there's i mean just once you get once once people start to get into their 30s i think and i mean i see some people who are even in their 20s who are complaining about or just saying how the players today aren't aren't as hungry they're not as motivated or they're not as driven they don't work as hard as they used to, they're not as good as they used to be. They're not as fundamentally sound. That's a big one too. They're not as fundamentally sound. Like, I think a lot of this is, and you know, especially from, you know, I think there's especially culpable to it. If you're a former player to say, Oh, well, you know, back in my day when I was playing, this was like, obviously the peak of baseball when I was in college baseball or when I was in, pro ball, this is the peak of when things were done. Whereas now, you know, everything's kind of going downhill.
00:06:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I think what you said at the start of that is really important to me. I mean, I'm entering my age 30 season this year, Ben, so I'm getting into old man territory. And I think just avoiding falling into that pitfall is going to be definitely a priority for me. But I think just understanding that generally we're moving in one direction in terms of talent, in terms of athletes, if you look at just sprinting records over the years, those aren't getting worse over time. They're all getting better. I think in general, our athletes in all sports are as good as they've ever been, and that'll continue to be the case. So it probably will be tough for me when there's someone who's making a case to be better than LeBron James at some point in the future, and I'll just have to accept it. And I think the other thing, too, is we're really good at forgetting some of the more mundane things um, aspects of, of our like childhood era, like the nostalgia highlights the peaks and we kind of forget about what the, the average player was like or what the bad players were like. And, uh, we remember all the best parts about it. Whereas when you're looking at the present, you're kind of evaluating everything at the same time. So that can certainly distort your view of it on top of just any biases about how you want your era to be the best, but, uh, kind of along these lines, did you see the, the Randy or Rosa Raina drama? Recently, that kind of factors into this discussion. He went into the Rays' visiting clubhouse or the Rays' clubhouse. I don't know if they were at home or on the road. But he basically went into the Rays' clubhouse and was being buddy-buddy with his former teammates. And a lot of people are pissed off that he did that.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: Were the Rays pissed off about it or were his current teammates pissed off about it?
00:08:26
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone is really too pissed about it except former players. So who cares? Yeah, what? I think the thought is like back in my day, we never would have let this happen. We would have told him to get the hell out of the clubhouse. We'll see you on the field. So that's one element of this.
00:08:43
Speaker 2: I mean, I could see if the Rays players or if his current teammates were pissed off about it. I could understand that, but I don't know why anyone else would care about that.
00:08:54
Speaker 1: Well, there's a lot of drama involved in the game, Ben. We're not here to talk about it today, unless you have more that you want to. dig into some just you on twitter for something.
00:09:04
Speaker 2: No somebody just like i think at some point we'll we're going to be in the year 2045 and you're going to have uh who's like you know jazz chism is going to be on a broadcast being like you know what these kids today are just not not the same as they were back in back in my era carlos i guess in this situation you're.
00:09:26
Speaker 3: You're on him.
00:09:27
Speaker 2: You're on the broadcast too on Sunday Night Baseball. Or maybe this will be on the draft broadcast.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: Maybe this will be on our podcast when we get to episode 240 years. He'll be on our podcast.
00:09:38
Speaker 3: Probably.
00:09:42
Speaker 2: Oh, man.
00:09:42
Speaker 1: All right, Ben. Let's get into some of what we've been up to. So I guess just to get into it, what have you been up to over the last few weeks and months? We can talk about that.
00:09:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of.
00:09:55
Speaker 2: a lot of travel trying to balance minor league prospect stuff with a the just the busy summer months especially on the high school side there's just so much going on but but especially for the the high school players it's it's really the peak season to be able to evaluate those players both for the current year's drafts the the the following years drafts as well. So 2026, 2027, even looking at those players, making sure we have a good handle on, on those players, seeing, seeing guys at the top events, whether it's with their, with their travel teams or some of the bigger events organized by like a USA baseball for their 16, you 17, you national team development program going out to California for, for area codes, a bunch of events, obviously down in, Atlanta, too. Big travel ball hub down there with the Perfect Game, I think, headquarters.
00:10:57
Speaker 3: Basically, all their.
00:10:58
Speaker 2: Events run out of East Cobb down there and the Lake Point facility that PBR has.
00:11:05
Speaker 1: Have you developed a favorite event or favorite locale to go to for these games? I know Area Codes is a favorite for a lot of people. I'm not sure if you've had one that's kind of become that, like, oh, I get to go to this one finally.
00:11:18
Speaker 2: Uh, as far as the, the, the event itself or just the location.
00:11:24
Speaker 1: I'd say kind of like a totality of it all. So like an event that maybe for you combines like a lot of great talent, uh, a fun location to go to. If there's one that like, if there's one that stands above the rest, but if, if they're all pretty similar to you and have various pros and cons that kind of even out that that's fine too. I mean, there are a lot of, yeah, I think, I think.
00:11:41
Speaker 3: Area Codes is my favorite.
00:11:44
Speaker 2: You just get a collection of players that are selected by MLB scouts from all across the country. So it's a lot of players who I'm familiar with and then a lot of other players who I've heard about or maybe haven't heard anything about and I'm able to see for the first time live in person.
00:12:06
Speaker 3: So it's a good opportunity to see them.
00:12:08
Speaker 2: I mean, can't beat the weather in Southern California, far superior to, uh, I mean, I like going to events that, you know, USA facility, but, and I'm a former Raleigh resident myself, but like, you know, late July in North Carolina is not like the, my favorite.
00:12:26
Speaker 1: The big, the big change this year with area code games is it went back to Long Beach, which is kind of the, uh, historically where that event has taken place and then post COVID moved down to university of San Diego's field for a few years. And I was definitely an outlier in this. I know most of the scouts are glad to have it back at Blair field in long beach, but I really loved having it at San Diego. You get less, less, uh, shade at that stadium compared to long beach, but in general, I just love going to San Diego. So I was thrilled for it to be there. Thoughts on, on San Diego versus long beach for the area code games.
00:13:00
Speaker 2: I thought Long Beach was superior. San Diego definitely is a... It's a bigger stadium, so you have more seating there, but you have a much more comfortable environment, I would say, if you're going to be sitting in your seat from 7 a.m.
00:13:17
Speaker 3: Until.
00:13:18
Speaker 1: Here are the two factors. You have the stadium seats at San Diego, and unless I'm mistaken, you only have the bleacher seats at Blair Field. And I also... I wasn't at Area Coast this year. I just went to East Coast Pro, which I missed last year. And I can get into this too, but I think East Coast Pro and Area Coast would be my top two events. I heard the playing surface at Long Beach was not as great as maybe it has been the past few years at San Diego. And also the big difference is typically it does seem like you get a lot more homers and the ball plays a little better in San Diego's field versus Long Beach. Yes. Definitely tricky to homer out of. I don't think this is like a pro or a con, just something to note.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: If you are, if you are power, fewer home run videos.
00:14:05
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:14:06
Speaker 3: I guess that would be the one downside.
00:14:08
Speaker 2: To it, but yeah, I mean, it's definitely a harder, more challenging ballpark, especially I was at the underclass event. So pretty uncommon to see a kid take one out, even in, even in BP. But I mean, those, those events too, are not like that and East coast pro too, where they'll have the track man up on, up on the screen so you get all the data live while.
00:14:29
Speaker 3: You're watching it.
00:14:31
Speaker 2: And in BP too, even just to see the exit velos in BP.
00:14:36
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I have become really spoiled by the fact that almost all these major events I'm going to now just have so much of this data up on the board in real time. Don't have to worry about putting up a stalker radar gun. I used to carry around a radar gun and I barely... never have to have it anymore because anywhere I go has a board with track man. That's giving me more data than just the velocity reading. And I, I get the hands-free experience.
00:14:59
Speaker 2: So, yeah, we're going to get you out to an event next time in San Pedro.
00:15:04
Speaker 3: See how that works.
00:15:06
Speaker 1: They don't have the track man unit set up there with a big scoreboard. Come on.
00:15:10
Speaker 2: No, not at the Tatello Vargas or the, or the, or the, or the trainer programs haven't put it in yet.
00:15:19
Speaker 1: Did the underclass area code games have an MLB Breakthrough Series team, or is that just for the upper class? Yeah, what are your thoughts on that?
00:15:28
Speaker 3: On the Breakthrough Series team? Or just them having a team?
00:15:31
Speaker 1: If you guys are listening, typically for area codes, basically those teams divided up into regions of the country. You get a Southeast team, you get a Northeast team, Midwest, you get a Texas-based team, Four Corners, Southern California, Northern California, Pacific Northwest, typically is how those teams are broken up, and this year there's I think this is the first year where MLB Breakthrough Series has had a team, and I'm not sure how they divvy up the players they're taking from other regions or how that works specifically, but I was kind of curious to see how that would play out as a new wrinkle in the rosters.
00:16:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember they had them at the underclass team last year. I don't know if I, I mean, so, I mean, Rookie Shepard was on that team.
00:16:14
Speaker 3: He homered.
00:16:15
Speaker 2: He's a top 10 player in that class, shortstop from nevada he's been i mean just just one of the best pure hitters in that class for a long time not uh he's probably grown to about 5 10 5 11 but he's gotten really strong he had a ball out 106 off the bat which again like we were just talking about not an easy place to hit balls out um really usually more of a hit first approach like the line drives spread the ball around snap the barrel through hit the ball hard to uh to all fields makes a lot of contact but Yeah, that ball was launched to his pull side, left-handed hitter, good swing. Has some experience catching, too, which is kind of interesting. He kind of built like you'd think. I think some teams will be intrigued by the catching conversion possibility with him because he has good actions at shortstop. He moves his feet really well. He has a good internal clock. He has good hands. He has a high baseball IQ, but just the way he's built again like is he going to have the range for shortstop I think that's going to be a question that scouts have with him so all right is he more of a shortstop or is he more of a second baseman what you know how valuable is that profile for clubs like we saw it even just you know last year in the draft with Kevin McGonigal where he didn't even go in in the first round I think if you could redo that now everybody would I don't say everybody but I think he certainly would deserve to go in the first round, although I thought at the time he did.
00:17:52
Speaker 1: You were consistently taking Kevin McGonigal somewhere in the 10-20 range, if I remember correctly, at the time. So it's no hindsight bias for me here.
00:18:02
Speaker 2: I think some teams would be intrigued by that, but I don't know. He hasn't been catching, and I don't think he frankly needs to catch. I'd run him out at shortstop, give him the opportunity to play there. and if not be a really good defender at, at second base, potentially, uh, somebody who can really hit, but, um, yeah, there's some intriguing guys on, on that team. Some, uh, some good sleepers too, like Sean Mack, who, um, right-handed pitcher who I just, I didn't really know much about him coming into area codes. Um, but he, he was pretty impressive. Um, not, not like a hard, hard thrower. Um, wasn't lighting it up with the, um, the radar gun, but, uh, I think he was maybe like 86, 87, something like that, but could really, uh, could really spin a breaking ball. Um, so I, uh, you know, and you know, six, six, three, a lot of physical projection, a lot of strength projection, uh, in his frame. So I wrote up, you know, 50, uh, 50 players from, uh, and he's another kid from, from Nevada too. So, you know, six foot three, but, uh, yeah, breaking ball above 3000 RPMs at, at times. So, uh, maybe not a guy who's been a big name on, sorry, not a, not a big name on the national circuit yet, but I was like, all right, we got to start following him a little bit more closely.
00:19:31
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:19:32
Speaker 1: You mentioned the spin and it made me think of like just the, the spin rates that I've been noticing more frequently. Do you feel like you're seeing, uh, More high spin rate breaking balls more frequently from players. I remember back in, I believe it was the 2018 draft. So one of my first at Baseball America. Carter Stewart, his big curve ball was like the wow pitch, kind of the outlier breaking ball. Getting over 3,000 RPMs pretty consistently with that pitch was kind of outrageous. And I do feel like we see high spin rate breaking balls kind of getting to that 3,000 RPM range more frequently these days, I'm sure. Like a lot of players are specifically training for that. People are more aware of it now than they were in 2017 at the amateur level. So it feels similar to velocity where a 92 mile per hour fastball for a high school player just is a little bit different today compared to 10, 15 years ago. I'm wondering if you view the just ability to spin the baseball or at least generate high raw spin rates has become more commonplace for you because it is something where I feel like I just write down 3000 RPM breaking balls more often this year, this summer, last summer than I did five, six summers ago.
00:20:44
Speaker 2: Um, I mean, it's still pretty uncommon. I would say to see a guy really spend the ball of 3000. Um, but, uh, so I, I think we're, we're measuring more players now certainly than we were five years ago. So it makes sense that we're going to see more players, uh, or have records of more players who have that really elite spin on their breaking ball. I think we're also probably in various tracks, like an area code game tryout. You may have the track man on a guy. Okay, we're probably going to select more guys to participate in these games. Or maybe it's not area codes, but it's an event run by PBR regionally where hey some kid shows up and yeah like all right he's let's say like a 2026 high school player uh throwing 84 87 uh nothing really jumps out in terms of the velocity or some of the other stuff um but oh it turns out yeah the the breaking ball is pretty good. You see, you can, you probably see that visually if it is spinning at 3000, but maybe it jumps out a little bit more. Maybe that gets him more opportunities to go to bigger events. And then like you said in your original point, yeah, I think there's probably more, more emphasis and better training and better techniques to improve.
00:22:18
Speaker 3: Players ability to spin the ball.
00:22:19
Speaker 2: I think some of it is just, there is a certain level of either you have, yeah, either you have it or you don't like, you're not going to teach a 18 year old right-handed pitcher who's, you know, spinning his curve ball at 2,100 RPM. Like he's not somebody who you're going to suddenly give a 3000 RPM breaking ball to. But yeah, I think over, you know, slowly over time, the kind of the frog starts to, we don't even really notice it like we were talking about at the beginning of the show you don't necessarily notice year to year how much players are getting better and getting more talented as a whole until you really look back at like hey like 10 15 years ago like these guys are doing stuff now they weren't doing back then so i think the the training.
00:23:10
Speaker 3: Is is an aspect of it too Yeah, absolutely.
00:23:14
Speaker 2: And there's also probably guys, I don't know if you included in training or not, but a better understanding of how to look like the umpires are not going out at these showcase events and being like, let me.
00:23:26
Speaker 3: Check your hands for what you're putting on the baseball.
00:23:30
Speaker 1: Wow, the conspiracy theory has been back on the podcast. All these players are cheating. It's definitely a little relaxed than the bigs.
00:23:38
Speaker 3: Whether it's for pitchers.
00:23:39
Speaker 2: Or even just for outfielders or infielders throwing the ball too, putting something on their hands to get a little better grip on it before they throw in a workout.
00:23:48
Speaker 1: Well, you know what's interesting too is that I hadn't thought of this, but there are certain bats that seem to be loaded, like wooden bats that seem to be loaded more for just better performance in batting practice. I think there's a video of PJ and Orlando explicitly talking about this At the draft combine, he's talking about the bat that he used for BP there. And his BP there was, I'd say, the most impressive batting practice at the combine. And he was talking about how he's specifically using this bat that's weighted in a certain way that'll allow for him to have a more impressive BP that maybe isn't necessarily the same sort of weighting of the bat he would use in games. I don't think that's cheating or anything, but it is interesting to think through just like... how much you can sort of weight things for your advantage in these situations that maybe obfuscate things a bit. Like, again, P. Jim Orlando has tremendous raw power. I don't think if you just gave him a random bat that he would all of a sudden not be able to hit the ball hard. But it is always funny to think about some of these things that might be happening in these contexts.
00:24:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's, yeah, I do think we're seeing, you're probably right, we are probably seeing more guys gradually uh being able to to train for for these things that we'll look back and i don't know maybe maybe more guys will be able to to to train spin the way we train velocity yeah right now.
00:25:18
Speaker 1: Well back in my day ben players were much more focused on being good baseball players rather than training for outlier traits that don't make you good at baseball so we've gotten worse collectively Um, any specific players that jumped out to you this summer that you're really excited about? I know I have a bunch that, that have jumped out to me. I went to East coast pro this year, wrote about 42 standouts from that event over the last week or so. I've been talking with some scouts in the industry, watching a bunch of video from other events that I wasn't able to go to in person just to put together our high school showcase all-star team, which has been a fun piece to put together in recent years. So that'll be on the site. Um, probably when you're listening to this podcast, I think the plan is for that to go up on Thursday. Uh, so if you're listening to this podcast on Thursday or later, you can check that out fully. Um, but yeah, I just wanted to give us a chance to maybe talk through a few notable standouts players to keep an eye on players who are exciting for you that maybe the listeners should, uh, start to get to know a little bit more either, either this year's class 2025, and you're obviously looking ahead to 26 and 27 as well. So if there really any players you want to start with Ben or I can, whatever you want to, whatever you want to go.
00:26:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's start with the 26s and then move closer to the 25s. We'll start with my favorite demographic, high school pitching.
00:26:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was trying to get some positive propaganda for high school pitching on the Hot Sheet show this week, and I don't know if I did a great job because the first players I mentioned were Dylan Lesko and Brock Porter, and they haven't exactly panned out quite yet.
00:26:50
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness.
00:26:51
Speaker 1: But McKenzie Gore.
00:26:53
Speaker 3: Jackson Joe, we've got to cite him. McKenzie Gore, who's back here, he had.
00:26:55
Speaker 1: A long time. he had a long, a long path to the majors and he looked pretty good this year. So you just, you just got to give those guys some time, but I'm with you. I love high school pitchers. Give me, give me the risk profile. Give me the upside that comes with it. They're a lot of fun.
00:27:08
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:27:08
Speaker 2: Well, I think I, we're always, or I'll always rank high school pitchers probably lower than they'll, they'll be ranked other places. So they probably won't like me, but the, all right. So I'll start with a couple of guys, two of the, I think, you know, two, two, the probably maybe the two best high school pitchers, in the 2026 class the most electric guy who i saw at area codes was savion sims and it was my first time seeing him live in person this i had seen him previously but his his velocity.
00:27:44
Speaker 3: This year has taken a huge jump forward i mean.
00:27:47
Speaker 2: He is so he's six foot seven 200 pounds physically like kind of like a Jacob Miziorowski almost with the Brewers. I mean, the delivery is very different. Miziorowski is more of a, a lower, lower slot guy. Whereas Savion Sims is a, you know, he's six, seven and using that height as steep downhill angle for just to really drive the ball downhill from, from a high slot. But he, I mean, he came out and I mean, like for that age, if you're touching, you know, 93, 94, like that's, that's a pretty hot fastball for, for that age. Like, you know, some guys will touch 95. He came out and it was, I mean, it was 96, 96, 97, 96, 97. Um, like in his first inning, I don't, I maybe threw a fastball under 95, like, It was pretty ridiculous for a pitcher who just turned 17, had a good delivery, good arm action, and again, he looks like he could put on a good 30, 40 pounds still.
00:29:08
Speaker 3: He's ultra lean on the mound. He's what?
00:29:12
Speaker 1: I said he's ultra lean on the mound just watching the video you have here from your area codes look. It's a super projectable frame.
00:29:19
Speaker 2: Oh yeah it's super loose whippy so much arm speed um showed some feel for for spinning a slider at times um but i mean just he looks like i don't know Whatever the ceiling right now is for a human being to– in terms of how hard a human being can throw a baseball, that's what his ceiling is.
00:29:52
Speaker 3: In that regard.
00:29:54
Speaker 2: I mean, it was– There's obviously a lot more to pitching than just being able to throw really hard.
00:30:01
Speaker 3: But in his case, again, he showed feel to.
00:30:05
Speaker 2: Spin a slider through strikes too, which has been a pretty good part of his game this year too. I'm not going to say it was like Noah Schultz when we saw him in high school with Sims. Last year, the strikes were more of an issue. This year, it sounds like it's been– It's been trending in the right direction. So just as far as like a freakish talent to watch, he definitely caught my attention.
00:30:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay. We'll let you go for more before we pivot to some 2025s too. Yeah, him.
00:30:41
Speaker 2: And then, you know, to me, still the best pitcher in that class is Trey Rangel from right-handed pitcher from Texas who, you know, we talked about 3000 RPM breaking balls.
00:30:54
Speaker 3: That's him.
00:30:55
Speaker 2: Um it's you know six one or so uh not the tallest guy but everything it's just a super fast arm it looks really clean really easy uh throws a lot of strikes was up to 94 gets a lot of swing and miss with his fastball um really just the breaking ball is a chance to be a wipeout pitch it's it's regularly above 3000 rpm he's you know, using one of those, uh, kind of that new kick change grip on, on his change up, it can really kill spin at times. I think it's a new ish pitch for him or like a new ish grip now, but, um, I think there's a lot of upside there. So, uh, athletic right-handed pitcher that age up to 94, who does it easy. You can spend a hammer breaking ball, uh, and it's showing feel for, for a change up to, um, Hard for me to get super juiced up sometimes about the 16ers. Some of these guys are now 17-year-old right-handed pitchers, but hard to find a more complete package for a pitcher with starter traits and big upside than with Trey Rangel.
00:32:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, he sounds exciting. I mean, I'm going to keep the high school pitching demographic going here because I think the 25 class also has– a high school pitching prospect at the very top of the list that really checks a lot of boxes and is probably the most complete pitching prospect at this age. I mean, certainly than anyone in last year's class. We had Noble Meyer go 10th overall. Guys like Noble Meyer, Jackson Jobe, Dylan Lesko were fairly complete pitching prospects. I guess Jackson Jobe, not necessarily at this specific time, the year before his junior year. But Seth Hernandez is a guy I wanted to talk about. Not a guy that I saw in person at the East Coast Pro. He's part of this loaded Corona high school roster that currently has three players on his team that we have ranked on our top five of the high school players next year's class, along with Billy Carlson and Brady Ebel. But Seth Hernandez, for me, is one of the more exciting pitching prospects that I've seen. And in a few years, I think it's hard for me to say how I'd view him compared to Noble Meyer, just because I had more in-person looks with Noble Meyer. But He is a guy that just does a lot of things well. He's got a great frame to start with, 6'4, 195 pounds. He's sitting in the mid-90s this summer. He's touched 98, 100 miles per hour with his fastball. He has a high spin breaking ball. He's thrown, I think he probably threw, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, I think he threw a curveball more frequently as his go-to breaking ball in the past. This summer, it looks like the slider has been more of a focal point of what he's trying to do. It seems like he's trying to work on that pitch, but Maybe his best pitch overall, including this mid-90s to 100-mile-per-hour fastball, is his changeup. I had some scouts asking whether or not this was the best amateur changeup they've ever seen, which I thought was pretty tremendous feedback, just given the fact that Dylan Lesko a few years ago was getting some of those same comments, just how unusual it is for a high school player to have a changeup that's this advanced. But it's a pitch that has tremendous separation from the fastball. typically around 12 miles per hour, even more off the heater. It's got a ton of drop. It's got a ton of fading life. He throws it with fastball arm speed. I think he even has probably better feel for that changeup than either of the breaking balls. So he just checks a lot of boxes from purely like a stuff perspective. Physically, I think you can project on the frame. And he's also just a much better athlete and two-way player than I was expecting him to be. Like I had some scouts who were really excited about him as a hitter. I still think that ultimately his upside is greater on the mound and that'll be where he's focused on moving forward. But kind of like Dylan Lesko, who was a pretty talented high school shortstop at the time, Seth Hernandez is this really fascinating right-handed pitcher, athlete, velocity, raw spin. I think what's fascinating to me for both them is they both have like the ability to spin a breaking ball and you can like look at the shape of the pitch and the spin rates and see a chance for better breaking ball in the future. But it's just the changeup that is probably like a 70 grade pitch at this point. And I really feel like we've got a chance with, with Seth to maybe see another high school pitcher go inside the first 10 picks, which we didn't have happen this past year's draft. And right now, I guess it would be really hard for me to line up 10 players in the class, high school or college who, I was more excited about than, than Seth Hernandez.
00:35:39
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:35:39
Speaker 2: And he's been, I think ever since we started ranking, um, the 2025 high school class. So probably two years ago, he's been the top pitcher in that class. Uh, it's, it's all, uh, everything you said in terms of the, the stuff and the athleticism, uh, and then the strikes, the pitch ability, the feel for what he's doing on the mound, the, the understanding of how to attack hitters is really advanced, uh, Obviously, it helps when you have the kind of stuff that he has to be able to throw just about anything at hitters. Just a really advanced, really polished, high upside player. That combination of upside and polish, or at least polish relative to his age, the ability to miss bats with multiple secondaries, the velocity he keeps trending up. He's always been one of the harder players. Throwers in the class, like you said, he touched 100 at area codes. I didn't think he was going to be up to 100, at least by this quickly. But he has so many different weapons to beat you.
00:36:48
Speaker 3: Obviously, the risk is.
00:36:50
Speaker 2: Something like what we're seeing right now with Dylan Lesko, where things can unravel. But we're seeing, too, whether it's Noah Meyer, Thomas White, Jackson Jobe, some of these other high school pitchers have, well, I don't want to say justified, maybe in Job's case going to overall, but kind of just certainly justified their, their ranking being where they were in, in the draft and coming out of high school.
00:37:18
Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned those guys too. Cause I wanted to ask just who has been the most impressive high school pitching prospect you've seen maybe just in general or in recent years. Cause I think for me, maybe it's a little bit easier since my window is a little bit smaller than yours, but, Like in my head, I would put McKenzie Gore and Dylan Lesko in kind of my tier one of just most talented high school pitching prospects that I've seen personally. And I think if I had to line them up, it would be Lesko one and then McKenzie Gore two, which maybe seems crazy now, just given what Dylan Lesko has gone through with his Tommy John and just struggles to command the ball. So I'm really hopeful that he can eventually work his way back in a similar way that we saw with McKenzie Gore after he lost some feel for the control and improved this year. But I feel like Seth has a chance to join that group or at least get close to that group. I think after that it would be some grouping of Noble Meyer, Andrew Painter, Jackson Jobe. I'm not sure how far off guys like Kamar Rocker, Carter Stewart, Matthew Liberatore would have been at the time in high school. They don't jump out to me as loudly as these guys, although... That could just be some bias in kind of remembering them. But where would you say Hernandez fits into your sort of tier of impactful high school pitching prospects at this age, I would say?
00:38:41
Speaker 2: I think he definitely belongs in the top tier. I mean, how many guys have as complete of a profile as he does coming out of high school? I mean, maybe going back to like, I mean, I don't know. I was going to spring up like Brady Aiken, too, going back. that far when he was the number one overall pick um in the draft and then obviously that situation fell apart um but yeah i i think he belongs in that same same category with a jackson job noble meyer thomas white from certainly from uh you know dylan lesko at least at the time uh before before lesko got got hurt um so he certainly belongs in that same tier.
00:39:25
Speaker 1: Tell me where I'm wrong or what you agree on with this. But for me right now, and again, I've seen Lesko more in person than Hernandez to this point, although I've seen Hernandez a few times as an underclassman. The two biggest differences for me for Lesko and Hernandez would be fastball shape with Lesko. I don't have all of the analytical numbers on Hernandez, but it seems like lesko's fastball maybe played a little bit better i wouldn't be surprised if that pitch has a little bit more carry maybe comes from a lower slot than hernandez does that's like a maybe small difference i think in terms of power and velocity hernandez has as much or more as lesko at the same time and then also just like delivery and command i would say lesko probably was more advanced at the same age although you you speak very highly of his his pitch ability field of mix and match i thought with really all three of Lesko's pitches. And at the time in high school, he was primarily fastball changeup and then curveball. Hernandez has the curveball slider going on as well. But I just felt like Lesko is more consistent in both releasing the changeup and the breaking ball and just spotting his entire pitch mix. He was at a level that for me just kind of puts him at the top in my mind, just given the command he showed with the power stuff that he had. How would you view those two in sort of those contexts?
00:40:46
Speaker 3: In terms of the the command yeah the.
00:40:48
Speaker 1: Command and just what if you have any thoughts on hernandez fastball shape because i i will say that like i've been maybe a little surprised with how some hitters have responded to hernandez fastball and again there's some good hitters in this class too it's small samples but um it wouldn't be shocking to me if there were some analysts who maybe preferred the the fastball shape of lesko compared to hernandez and also i think it's cool that we're being able to break down players with this level of granularity. Whereas in 2018, I would've been like, what are you talking about? Yeah.
00:41:18
Speaker 3: Uh, I don't know.
00:41:19
Speaker 2: People didn't like Paul Skeens is fastball shape either. So I'm not, I'm just trying to pick.
00:41:25
Speaker 1: Nits here and separate a little bit, but yeah.
00:41:28
Speaker 3: I'm not saying it is not going to.
00:41:30
Speaker 1: Fastball in terms of if I had to pick one though, those would be the two differentiators for me. Yeah.
00:41:36
Speaker 2: Uh, I mean, it's tough to, I didn't see Lesko as much as you did when he was in high school at the time, so harder for me to isolate that.
00:41:49
Speaker 1: I think it was his NHSI appearance, which is so dominant. That'll stick in my mind forever. That outing along with Ethan Hankins' East Coast Pro outing in 2017, those are two of the most special and fun pitching performances that I've been able to see.
00:42:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, not bringing up a lot of inspiration for these.
00:42:07
Speaker 1: High school, high school right-handed pitchers. Don't fall in love with high school pitchers, I guess, is the lesson I'm showing you that I don't really want to be telling. So, yeah, if you want to fade Seth Hernandez because of all these other pitching prospects I'm bringing up in relation to him, I guess go ahead. But, no, he's extremely exciting, and I'm pumped for the upside. Okay, I have another one I want to mention here, and I don't know how deep you want to get into the players that week. we touched on, but the other obvious standout to me, and this is one that I did see in person because Landon Harmon, a right-handed pitcher in the 25 class was at East Coast Pro. He's a Mississippi product. I thought he was maybe the single best prospect at this year's East Coast Pro. Great pitching frame, six foot five, 185 pounds. And it was really shocking to me to see the velocity that came out of his hand. He was warming up. I was like, oh, this looks easy. This looks pretty clean. I like the delivery. I like the arm action. Excited to see him. And then it was like 98 out of the hand. I was like, wait, what? That should not be 98 miles per hour. It looks like he's playing catch. It was pretty consistently in the 93 to 96 mile per hour range. He was one of the only pitchers at East Coast Pro to throw multiple times, which I was kind of surprised to see, but he also touched 98 in his second outing coming on like three days rest. Granted, these are abbreviated outings for all these pitchers, but Still, I mean, the fact that he got up to 98 both times with this delivery, there's some video on the site you can see. But man, that was just super impressive to me. And then he continued stacking on traits that I really liked. He had multiple breaking balls. It was like a 79, 82 mile per hour breaker that was maybe more of like a sweeping curve. It wasn't super sharp, but I think just the shape of the pitch and his ability to locate it makes me feel pretty encouraged by its potential as he adds more power and bite. He threw a mid-80s changeup that looked like a solid pitch, and he threw one 87-mile-per-hour, like, harder breaking ball slider-cutter pitch. That was a little bit more scattered, but showing four distinct pitch types with just the ease of the operation, the body, the athlete on the mound. I was pretty blown away with just his upside potential, and then seeing kind of where you had him slotted in this class heading into the summer, I was like, okay, well, It's no surprise why Ben was so excited about him now after seeing that. It was pretty electric. So he's another right-handed pitcher from this class that I'm very much excited about and people should keep an eye on.
00:44:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have him as the number three high school right-handed pitcher in the class. I guess it depends how you want to classify. Billy Carlson, who's Seth Hernandez's teammate at Corona probably more of a, well, I don't know.
00:44:50
Speaker 3: He could do both.
00:44:51
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think, I don't think you could actually play shortstop and pitch obviously in the big leagues.
00:44:56
Speaker 1: But Carlson jumps out to me as maybe the truest two way player in the class where like, it's difficult for me to find out where I prefer him. Whereas with most of the other guys I have like, like Xavier Nines, I prefer as a hitter with Hernandez.
00:45:08
Speaker 3: Definitely.
00:45:11
Speaker 1: But no, it is fun that we've got a lot of, a lot of really talented two ways.
00:45:15
Speaker 2: What about Cruz Schoolcraft? Are you a two-way guy with him?
00:45:20
Speaker 1: I am.
00:45:21
Speaker 2: I think he's basically like a left-handed version of Bryce Eldridge in terms of the profile with him.
00:45:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, so given my history, I'm about to just bang one of his sides and say he needs to do one only. I've heard from some scouts who are just really enamored with his upside on the mound and the fact that he is left-handed I think is going to have a lot of scouts drawn towards that side. I probably don't have enough feel for him as a hitter to know one way or the other, but I'm always excited about guys that you like as two-way players. So far, the feedback I've gotten this summer, I know there are a lot of scouts who are like, man, he should be a pitcher. But maybe with some more history, I'll be inclined to let the two-way thing play out a little bit more. But Billy Carlson and Schoolcraft are two legit two-way guys for you where you could see them doing either. Not necessarily... Not necessarily saying they're going to be Otani to win the big leagues, but you could see legitimate big league paths for them on either side of the ball.
00:46:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably will end up worse than Otani, I think it's fair to say. But yeah, I think Schoolcraft, like Bryce Eldridge, is at a position where he could legitimately play both ways. Like Billy Carlson, is he really going to have a guy come in and pitch be who's throwing you know 96 97 yeah another guy can really spin the ball.
00:46:43
Speaker 1: Is he going to be more mason win or is he going to be more above a chandler that'll be an interesting one.
00:46:48
Speaker 2: Yeah and i i think probably i i think he has if whichever one he chooses i think he'll be or you know what that a team chooses for him whatever the however the situation goes down once he's drafted and uh signs but um either one i think he has a chance to be to, to really excel at. I mean, that's why he's number five in the class, but I think most likely it'll be shortstop for him.
00:47:13
Speaker 3: He's one of, uh, he's.
00:47:16
Speaker 2: Probably the best defensive shortstop in that 2025 high school class. It's just, it's pretty to watch him at shortstop, super athletic, really, really quick feet, really quick mover. Everything is so, so smooth, so easy, uh, obviously, uh, you know, well above average. He's up to, what, 96, 97 on the mound. You can certainly see it the way he throws from shortstop. Everything looks very, very advanced. I think he has a chance to be a plus, if not better, defensive shortstop. And then he's got, you know, I think this year he certainly took a big step forward offensively. I think the spring before in high school, he didn't have a great year.
00:47:59
Speaker 3: This year was better.
00:48:01
Speaker 2: But he's always made a lot of contact, and he's always had So I think you're seeing him start to figure things out more at the plate and started to click more for him this year, which is part of why we moved him up into that number five spot. But yeah, whereas with Cruz Schoolcraft, okay, yeah, he has a huge arm. And I really like him as a left-handed pitcher too. I mean, six foot eight, really athletic, you know, some feel for, or a good feel, I would say, for what he's doing on the mound, being able to, I think the athleticism translates well to him being able to hopefully, you know, coordinate and sync up those long levers that he has on the mound and at the plate, too. So, you know, on days he's not pitching, you just put him at first base or at DH, and he's a good defender at first base. Not that that's, you know, a reason why you're going to take a guy in the first round or in the top. Two rounds at that position out of high school, but it's just another bonus.
00:49:09
Speaker 3: He has huge, huge raw power.
00:49:11
Speaker 2: It probably ends up, I think, with probably 70 raw power when it's when it's all said and done. It's some of the bigger left handed power and in this class and a guy who reclassed to I mean, it was originally, you know, would have been older for the class 2026 guy, but reclassed to 2025.
00:49:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, there are a lot of interesting two-way guys. One of the positions we have on our high school showcase all-star team is two-way. I think we previously called it util, but I think two-way just kind of shows what we're going for there. I was trying to figure out the best way to strategically fill that two-way player spot because guys like Billy Carlson, Seth Hernandez, Cruz Schoolcraft could all fit there, and it was more of a case of like, okay, do I need to get more middle infielders on this team? Are there more pitchers who are going to fall off? How can I get the most players possible that I really want to highlight here on the team. So that was certainly a struggle for me. Um, there were just a lot of players that I was impressed with. I think this year we have maybe a more, uh, balanced, uh, group of high school players in terms of a number of positions, a number of different profiles than a year ago. Um, we also have a really distinct West coast flavor to this year's 25 class. I think 16 of the top 25 players in the list are on the Western half of the country. in some capacity, California in particular seems pretty strong and there's a lot of really impactful West coast, or I should probably say Western half of the country players. Cause there are a lot of like Texas, uh, Oklahoma types, um, that aren't West coast, but in terms of like how I've divided the country in half, um, certainly on the, on the Western half. So that is an element of this year that is interesting, especially after a 2024 draft class where really, I felt like a lot of the talent was clustered in sec territory, um, although that probably has a lot more to do with just how college-heavy that class was. But, no, there are a number of players who are interesting. Check out the Showcase All-Star piece. Check out our piece on the East Coast Pro Standouts. And if you're really crazy and you're listening to this podcast, so you certainly are, Ben will get you started on 26s and 27s as well.
00:51:18
Speaker 3: That's interesting. I hadn't really thought about how.
00:51:23
Speaker 2: Dominant that side of the country is on the 2025 high school season.
00:51:28
Speaker 3: Society.
00:51:28
Speaker 2: I mean, even guys like, like a Dean Moss, who's at IMG Academy in Florida is from California.
00:51:34
Speaker 1: I wasn't even including a guy like Dean Moss. I was literally just looking at, at the school, but yeah, it's, it's something that just came up talking with scouts of these events. People being like, Oh yeah, like area codes, we expect to be a lot better. All the heavy hitters are on the West coast this year. And I was like, Oh, okay. That's interesting. Go back and look. And I see the trio from Corona, Ethan holiday and still water. you got Cruz Schoolcraft, who's in Oregon, Lucas Franco in Texas, Kacen Cunningham in Texas, Omar Serna, who I like quite a bit and was a standout and is on this list. He's from Texas. So there is also something about like a Texas catcher to LSU path that we've got going on because Omar Serna is this really tooled up Texan backstop who's committed to LSU a year ago. Katerin Bide, Texas high school catcher, committed to LSU recently. Blake Mitchell a few years before that, Texas, LSU. So I guess LSU just wants their catchers to come from Texas.
00:52:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they're getting them from, yeah, I guess they're catchers, that's fair. Yeah, they're getting, I was going to say, yeah, exactly, wherever they want.
00:52:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, any other players you want to mention or you want to get into, we got a listener email and then I guess we can talk about whatever you want before we get out of here. Probably this, today's episode probably won't be a two-hour marathon like many of our shows are, so apologies for that if you come here for.
00:52:53
Speaker 2: That, but.
00:52:55
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
00:52:55
Speaker 2: I mean, you've seen the 2025s more recently than I have. I didn't know if there was anybody else who jumped out for you.
00:53:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, we can go for a couple more. One player who I'm fascinated with is Dean Moss, actually. I know you're very high on him. Just his approach, his on-base skills stand out. His pure bat speed stands out to me. He was pretty impressive throughout the summer. I think over... 17 or so synergy log games that include pg national usa east coast area code games and pg's all america game he had a on base percentage over 520 more walks than strikeouts he doesn't expand the zone too often he's an intriguing prospect for me because i do think he might have a bit of a tweener profile he's smaller than you would expect from any corner outfield types and he's also not like a burner he's not this like Slade Caldwell, small, but speedy guy. And I don't think he's as small as like Caldwell is. So I don't want to put that sort of body comp on him, but he's not the most physical hitter in this class. And I think there's a chance that he's going to have to be a left fielder or right fielder in the future. So I'll be really curious to see what sort of impact or power comes from his game. But I mean, of the hitters I've seen so far, he would stand out to me among, among the very best pure batting eyes in this class. And, Just the bat speed that you see in batting practice and in-game is fascinating to me. So he'd be one that I'm curious about what your read on him as a player going forward. I know you were always in on these shorter hitter-ish types. I'm not sure he exactly fits the mold of Kevin McGonigal, but he shares some traits. And I'm curious what you think of his ultimate profile moving forward, because that's maybe my biggest question for him at this time.
00:54:42
Speaker 2: He's always been one of the most disciplined hitters in the class. He rarely expands the strike zone. I think he has a great eye for being able to recognize pitches.
00:54:52
Speaker 3: And then you, you just look at him.
00:54:55
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think he's like as small as you're, it makes it making it out to be, he's probably like five 11, six foot. But he's just not like a big bulky pot. Like he, you know, you're not going to, you look at like Xavier Nines or a crew school craft or, uh, like a Brayden Jackson or like a Quentin young, these guys who are, you know, six, three, six, four, six, five, or six, seven, six, eight in school crafts case. And you're like, yeah, okay. I, that guy should be one of the best power hitters in the class. They look, uh, like a big physical, strong power hitter. Moss is a lot more physically, um, not like he's just like, like less physically imposing. He doesn't stick out as much, but like you said, he has so much bat speed that he's able to generate, to be able to hit the ball with as much power and as much impact as pretty much any of those guys. So I don't, you know, if he does, I know he's playing center field right now.
00:56:04
Speaker 3: It's not true.
00:56:06
Speaker 2: Or prototypical, I should say, center field speed. So for him to be able to stay in center field, I think the instincts would have to be exceptional. That's a hard bet to make on a player, especially coming out of high school. So I think for me, more than likely, he ends up on a corner. But I think the combination of plate discipline and and bat speed to be able to generate power for a corner outfield spot. I think he does have the potential to be an everyday big leaguer in an outfield corner spot. But you're right. I mean, that's going to be one of the questions that teams are going to be asking themselves and kind of keying in on, especially as the draft gets closer.
00:56:55
Speaker 1: I was trying to pull this up while you were talking, but I really wanted to see how many big league corner outfielders. So either left or right as your primary position and then six foot or shorter, just to get a sense of like how often you see a major league corner outfielder of that height, because I got, yeah, he's not like a tiny player by any means, but he just doesn't look like a, a typical corner outfielder in my mind. Maybe I'm being a little too just like, Maybe I'm factoring in height specifically as being more important than it really is, but I will be curious to try and find out what the standard height weight for corner outfielders are just these days. I know players are getting bigger and bigger, but he's certainly a really fascinating prospect, and I think one that will be interesting to see moving forward. Let's see if there are any other guys who are interesting to me.
00:57:47
Speaker 2: How about the USA team won a gold medal?
00:57:51
Speaker 1: Yeah. They were old in the America's qualifier. I think, I mean, Casey Cunningham being the MVP of that event, he, Casey Cunningham feels like the, the absolute Ben, Ben Battler mold of players. So this is, this is your Kevin McGonigal type, right? Like five foot 10, 178 pounds, left-handed hitting shortstop, great bat to ball skills, direct, compact, functional swing can spray the ball to all fields. Um, Yeah, I mean, he led the team with 10 hits. I think he was tied for the team lead, actually, with hits, 12 RBIs. It looks like he's a good runner. It looks like he has a chance to stick in the middle infield of some capacity. I mean, being the starting shortstop on Team USA, I feel like is pretty telling of your ability. There are always a number of players who have had the ability to play shortstop, and the fact that he kind of won that job, I think, is impressive. But yeah, just being this kind of steady Eddie, pure hitter at the top of that lineup, so he was a standout. You know, one guy I'm curious about, too, is Gavin Fien, another California prospect. We don't have him currently ranked on the top 100 on the high school list, but he also was a standout from that event. He led the team in kind of power, total bases, 6'3, 200 pounds, good power. He showed a solid approach, at least with Team USA. So I'm curious, like, if you just... like are a little bit lower on him or what the thoughts are on, on Fien going into the summer, because he'd be another standout from that team.
00:59:19
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:59:19
Speaker 2: I mean, like I definitely would be higher on, on Cunningham with, with Cunningham, especially, I mean, like you said, he's, you know, probably yeah probably that in that mcgonigal mold of players where he's uh five five nine five ten maybe like not that big but everywhere he goes he just consistently hits the the swing is so short and so efficient so uh adjustable so he just has outstanding play coverage probably one of the lowest swing and miss rates i'd imagine in in the high school class certainly was last year um and and just very disciplined hitter. He's a smaller guy with a smaller strike zone. Uses it to his advantage by not expanding it too often. Definitely going to be hit over power with him, but he drives the ball pretty well. I'd probably say McGonigal had more power at the same time. I feel like McGonigal's power got undersold a little bit, but But, yeah, I mean.
01:00:27
Speaker 3: Good athlete. He does run better. He's faster than McGonigal.
01:00:33
Speaker 2: I think the same questions will be there on whether it's shortstop or second base. But I've seen him make some good plays at shortstop, so I certainly run him out at shortstop. Once he gets into pro ball, try to keep him there as long as you can. And if not, put him to second base. I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be able to handle– I think him and Eli Willits are two guys who were on that USA team who were super interesting to me. I mean, Willits, he's still 16 years old because he reclassified. He was our number seven high school player in the 2026 high school class. He was just one of the best hitters in that class. He's one of the best hitters now. in this class where if you stack up his raw tools.
01:01:28
Speaker 3: Against some of the other players.
01:01:30
Speaker 2: For particularly not for now for 2025, it's not going to be as loud. Cause he's just in part, part, part of that's just, that's his profile in part is he's also like a year or like a year and change younger than all these other guys that we're talking about. But he has a great track record of hitting switch hitter. a little bit bigger than some of these other guys, six foot one, but just the strength isn't there yet. Cause again, he's 16 years old, but it's a really short, compact swing makes a ton of contact squares up, you know, fastballs off speed stuff. And then has a pretty good clock for, for the game at shortstop too. I mean, obviously not a huge surprise. His dad is a, is Reggie Willits. Who's the, whereas he's now the associate head coach at Oklahoma, former big leaguer with the Angels, come from a baseball family, so he's just kind of grown up around the game. So, yeah, he'd be another guy I'm pretty excited about from that USA team.
01:02:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, I think those are the main guys I wanted to hit on, at least today. Do you want to go into a listener email we got?
01:02:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, what do we got?
01:02:46
Speaker 1: So we got an email from Travis who asks, with the DSL, the Dominican Summer League season wrapped up, and the most recent class, the approximate age of high school seniors, and now having reports on these guys in game action, if there was a theoretical international draft this offseason, how would you draft Leo Dallas-DeVries with the Padres, Jesus Made with the Brewers, and Emil Morales with the Dodgers and others? Who goes one? Who goes two? Who has the highest ceiling? So a couple of questions in there. I'll kind of let you take whichever one of those you want to start. But I'm pretty excited about Leo DeVries and these other two are getting some really loud feedback in recent weeks based on what I can see from the prospect team. So I'll just let you take that wherever you want to, Ben.
01:03:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think those are probably the three most exciting players from this 2024 international signing class from January 15th this year. I would still have DeVries, number one. in that group um just there's a big jump between you.
01:03:50
Speaker 3: Need to keep the dsl and.
01:03:52
Speaker 1: Me if i don't silence the debris i said debris isn't i always get that wrong.
01:03:56
Speaker 2: So sorry yeah well we're nobody's coming to us for our pronunciations i don't think but um yeah i just the as impressive as my day and morales are i just have a little bit more confidence in The track record of a guy who's already doing this now at 17 years old in low A. He was the best prospect coming into the season. I would still have him there. But I think Jesus Madej has at least closed the gap. I mean, he's been one of the biggest risers in probably just all of any prospect.
01:04:42
Speaker 1: So in 51 games in the DSL, he hit 331, 458, 554, six homers, six triples, nine doubles, 28 bags, and was only caught four times. So just like superficially, statistically, really strong season.
01:04:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of tools with it.
01:05:02
Speaker 2: I mean, when I wrote that story on 30 players generating buzz in the DSL when we were about a month into the season, it was, I mean, I put him at the top of the story, but Luis Pena, who was one of the other Brewers big international signings from this year up there right behind him and I really like Pena too it makes a ton of contact obviously a skill that the Brewers have have targeted both internationally and in the draft as well but he doesn't quite have the same power and he's also a more aggressive hitter in terms of his his approach he will expand the strike.
01:05:39
Speaker 3: Zone more than Madej will but Yeah.
01:05:42
Speaker 2: I mean, my day is just a really complete, especially offensively, a really complete offensive profile with him. It's, it's the, the raw power that he has is some of the best raw power of any hitter in the DSL. And he's 17 years old. And then he's, you know, where I, where I really like, obviously, you know, Emil Morales too. I think his raw power is right up there with, you know, Those two guys, like Francisco Valorio, certainly with the Yankees, belongs up in that group, just in terms of the raw power. Joshua Lugo with the Angels, their big signing. Like Justin Gonzalez with the Red Sox would be up there, too. And another guy who actually doesn't swing and miss all that much, but more of a limited profile with him, probably like first base, left field, D.H., or like a Ryaniel Rodriguez with the Cardinals, who is a catcher, certainly an offensive-oriented catcher in his case, but he can really match. But yeah, where Madej and Morales both have monster raw power, and I think those are the two best, probably the two best prospects in the DSL. Madej, I just have more confidence in Madej's pure hitting ability than with Morales, who, again, I like his hitting ability as well.
01:07:09
Speaker 3: But I think.
01:07:12
Speaker 2: With Madej, you have better bat-to-ball skills, better plate discipline, swing decisions, et cetera. So I think it's a more complete offensive profile where when Morales, as Morales moves up the ladder, I think he will be a good hitter too, but it probably ends up being more of a power over hit profile.
01:07:34
Speaker 3: Ultimately with him.
01:07:35
Speaker 2: And you'll see some of the strikeouts start to tick up with him. With Madea, I think you're going to get a good balance of both hitting ability, the ability to get on base to go with the power that he does have.
01:07:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. I definitely recommend checking out Ben's piece that he mentioned. It's 30 Prospects Generating Buzz in the DSL. That's on the site. You can get a lot more information on all these players that Ben is talking about and 26 more. So that's probably still pretty useful for this conversation. Travis, thank you for the email. Really appreciate that. Love getting emails from you guys. If you want to send us an email for a question you want to hear answered on the show, feedback on the show, or just to pop in and say, hey, you can. It's futureprojectionatbaseballamerica.com. That'll also be found in the show notes below. So, yeah, I think that's all we had on the docket for today, Ben. But, of course, I've got more time. If you have anything else you want to mention, anything else you want to talk through, anything on your mind or anything you want the listeners to know before we get out of here. But I'll just say, glad to be back on the show with you, man.
01:08:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, next episode in six weeks.
01:08:45
Speaker 1: I'll see you then. I'll book it on the calendar right now.
01:08:48
Speaker 3: There you go.
01:08:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I guess that's it for today. Thank you guys for listening. Thanks for supporting Baseball America in general and allowing us to do this. More episodes coming more consistently in all seriousness now that we're, I think, out of the bulk of our travel for the year. I know I'm looking ahead to some big events in the fall, but now we should be back and rolling like usual, whatever that means for us and this show. So for Ben, I'm Carlos. Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you next time.