[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, and welcome to Baseball America's Draft podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am Carlos Clause, a joined by Jacob Rudner.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here to talk about week one of actual baseball.
[SPEAKER_00]: How you doing, Jacob?
[SPEAKER_00]: Doing well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actual baseball makes me happy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does, it does it does.
[SPEAKER_00]: And although I feel like for the last two episodes, including this one, we're kind of starting out with some bummer news.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some notable injuries to some notable prospects in the 2026 class that I at least feel like we need to mention and talk about briefly to make sure everyone is up to speed who's following along in the podcast, so maybe hasn't seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Either the news that you've broken on Twitter or the stories that we have on the site kind of highlighting these names Then we'll get into some fun stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: I promise because there's some fun on field action to talk about some players who stood out for us I mean Jacob got to see a ton of really talented players
[SPEAKER_00]: Opening weekend, we were both in Texas at Glob by Field for the Children's Schriners College Classic.
[SPEAKER_00]: We also got to see Grady Emerson, the Top High School Player in the class, so we will dig into some of those names.
[SPEAKER_00]: But first, let's get the bad stuff out of the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like the most notable injury news we had opening weekend was Kentucky Shortstop Tyler Bell.
[SPEAKER_00]: he injured his non-throwing shoulder on a diving play on opening day the very first game of the season and he's out indefinitely.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't sound like we have any clarity right now on a timeline but I'd say this one just kind of reading the TV sounds like the most worrisome injury at least in terms of like how long we're going to have to wait to see Tyler Bill in action and obviously Tyler Bill is a prospect we think very highly of we haven't currently ranked number 14.
[SPEAKER_00]: on the board, one of the better switch hitting prospects in the class.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jacob thoughts on this injury news.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it stinks.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that we have grown reasonably fond of Tyler Bell.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a good hitter, a good shortstop.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he does everything just well.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of how I would summarize Tyler Bell as a player.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it sucks to lose him this early on in the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a shoulder injury.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't exactly know the specifics of that shoulder injury.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also don't know 100% yet that he's out for the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that that's
[SPEAKER_01]: is somewhat encouraging if you want to try and turn this into like the best case news that we can.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have had some conversations in the aftermath of learning about this that have indicated that he's in really good spirits.
[SPEAKER_01]: That Kentucky still have in conversations with doctors.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that there is still something to be learned here about exactly what the severity of this is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the nature of the injury is specifically all we know right now is that it's a shoulder.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were some rumors that he broke his collarbone.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you that's not true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we'll just see, I think that, you know, we'll see what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's encouraging that it's not his throwing shoulder.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, from a draft standpoint, but just overall obviously super crummy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we wish that it didn't happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and Tyler Bell, I feel like any draft eligible sophomore this year was super important for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's important for every draft eligible player because you want to have a strong platform season, but even beyond the injury, if we can just assume a no-for-sure that he'll be back fully healthy in X amount of months or weeks or days, or however long it actually is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just adding to his resume was always going to be important for him this season.
[SPEAKER_00]: His 20 25 year was strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had 296, 385, 522, 10 home runs, 17 doubles, still 11 bases, played a solid short stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: But just adding more to what he's able to do at the college level, I think, would have been really important.
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of his peers in this draft class and it's a really good draft class.
[SPEAKER_00]: It got better today as we're recording this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll hit on that at the end of the show as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that teams would just feel more confident having more IBs and more played appearances from Tyler Bell, having him get the chance to sort of refine the areas that aren't necessarily weaknesses, because like you said, I think he does everything on the field pretty well, but just take a step forward in this season would have been important.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as much as like the injury is a concern,
[SPEAKER_00]: The collegiate track record, the volume of ABs is something that I would imagine teams are maybe going to be a little hesitant about now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think the skill set is reasonably clear and it helps also that he was such a good prep prospect like this isn't somebody who broke out as a college freshman and then was going into a draft eligible sophomore season and that was going to be You know his opportunity to really break out and and secure that first round status we knew already that this was kind of the range that he belonged in for this this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably the right guy for it to happen to, just because it feels like it's a reasonably secure profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, for as much as it would have been nice to see him improve this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that we had a ton of questions about Tyler Bell.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a very known profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a good hitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got great makeup from everything that I've heard.
[SPEAKER_01]: Super hard worker.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like one of the things that I...
[SPEAKER_01]: heard recently was that he was charting every swing of batting practice, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so he's like, yeah, he's super involved and so I think that it's a it's a pretty unfortunate situation that goes without saying, but at the same time like for for the exact player that it happened to, I don't know that it's going to be terribly damaging even if it ends up being that he doesn't play another rap bat this entire season.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that is a good point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think worth just reinforcing here that Tyler Bell was very prominent coming out of high school.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's drafted the second round.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was big news when he didn't sign with the raise out of the second round.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's played with Team USA last summer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He spent time at second shortstop third base with Team USA.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a little stint in the Cape
[SPEAKER_00]: Like huge collegiate riser who is maybe a little under the radar unknown coming out of high school and literally just has one year with eyes on him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has been scattered for a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully that won't impact him too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got two pitcher injuries also get to today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sounds like these at least hopefully they'll be a little bit less, less impactful for these players, but Cameron Flooky.
[SPEAKER_00]: through his opening day start, he's dealing with a non-arm injury in his day-to-day, and it sounds like he's going to miss the second start, but Jacob correct me if I'm wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't sound like we need to be too concerned about this one, hearing that it is a non-arm injury for our top ranked pitcher in the class is very encouraging, but what have you heard on camera fluky?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this one I would chalk up to the least concerned category.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't really have long-term fears for fluky here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, it's a minor injury.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't really get into the specifics of it just because that's how some of these things work sometimes, but it is not an arm injury.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not even close to an arm injury.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll, I'll, I'll go step further and clarify.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not talking about like a shoulder or a neck.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not as serious as a back.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it is truly a minor injury.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is actually day to day.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not, you know, coach, speak and try and calm the masses here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think that we'll see him in reasonably short order, even if ends up being that he misses another start.
[SPEAKER_01]: Teams will be cautious as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that that's important to clarify.
[SPEAKER_01]: Coastal Carolinas are really good team.
[SPEAKER_01]: We haven't ranked 11th in our poll right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no reason for them to rush them out there to make starts against teams that they should be beating anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he's going to sit on the sidelines for this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it happens again next week.
[SPEAKER_01]: One thing that I'll say, and I'm curious for your thoughts on this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've heard this in my conversations with Scouts.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't have some violent mechanics about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a huge playback.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is built like the wacky and flatable tube men that you see outside of tire shops, like just the way that the guy moves is unique to say the least.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wonder,
[SPEAKER_01]: If small injuries like this and again, I will reiterate this is a small injury, but if these are the kinds of things that are going to start to stack up, you know, I'm not somebody who lives in the camp, we can predict injuries, but I do live in the camp of we can also be afraid of certain mechanics and I'm wondering I'm not there yet, but I'm wondering if Cameron flookie belongs in that category.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I probably wouldn't put him in that category, but there's no denying that his mechanics are just super unusual.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was going back through after week one and like watching a lot of our top pitchers and watching Jackson Flora pitch before Cameron Flooky.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, there is a significant difference in how these two move on the mound.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if you're drawing up a delivery and how you want to pitch it to look, you're definitely going to be more in the Jackson Flora camp.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just buttery smooth and powerful and flooky, like you said.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has this unconventional, lanky, long arm extension, high leg lift.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just looks like a delivery that you maybe wouldn't design.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's hard for me to say, like, oh, that delivery in particular is gonna lead to more injuries in the future because he has been pretty durable in the past right now and I think like you said it's very hard to predict injuries, mostly just say he's a pitcher.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I was very good that he's gonna get hurt at some point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's also worth noting too like week one stuff looked just as good as we would have expected for him like fastball with solid curveball look like it's it's usual hammer curveball self.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean he did let up two home runs but he struck out seven watch one over five point two with fairfield.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just like to back to back home runs for him to start that game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe not how he wanted to start the year but in terms of stuff
[SPEAKER_00]: then how he was looking control command.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it looked like like Cameron flookie.
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully he can get over this week and get back and kind of be the same guy we expected him to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and we're high on him for a reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would also just like one more time reiterate.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not about injury and I think that he's gonna be fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's concerned.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let's move on to our third injury of the day is the picture that we actually got a chance to see this weekend Tommy LePore TCU right hand a picture one of the hardest throwing pictures in college baseball I think opening weekend at least the numbers I've been looking at he was one of the
[SPEAKER_00]: just harder, college, throwers from week one in general.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to see him, he pitched, the stuff was loud, but he's dealing with some arm soreness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he won't be starting at UCLA this week, sounds like this one maybe is a little bit more concerning.
[SPEAKER_00]: What have you heard on the poor Jacob?
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I'm not going to be the alarm polar here and say that this is the most concern because he's not out out, but this is definitely up there on the concern chart as far as early season injuries go.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't want to hear our arm soreness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I would say that the track record of guys that have arm soreness and then end up being completely fine is not great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so yeah, we got to keep an eye on this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that the early returns are that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is just experiencing arm soreness and they're not panicking and they're going to wait and see Exactly what's going to happen and that's why he's not going to pitch this week and they're going to continue to evaluate him all the normal stuff that that you would expect
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, I just think that most pictures that end up in this camp don't have great long-term outlooks.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this is it's circled on my list of things to keep a very close eye on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's also why I will not be at UCLA on Friday night.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, I'm going to go make the drive from my Southern California home to go see Mr. Jackson Floor taking on Portland.
[SPEAKER_01]: So unfortunate.
[SPEAKER_01]: We really like TCU.
[SPEAKER_01]: You and I, we've talked about it now on the Hot Cheecho and on the college podcast, super impressed with how the horn frogs looked on opening weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a really big blow.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just in terms of the college board's race as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So draft stock standpoint, obviously very significant from a college standpoint, arguably just a significant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so yeah, this is a big one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we had the poor ranked number 43 entering the season.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was not in the same tier as guys like Tyler Bell and Cameron Flooky who feel like no doubt same dunk first round talents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know that my opinion changed on that evaluation after seeing him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Week one, very good arm.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think there are some questions that I have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just in terms of how this stuff actually plays e-thru, five innings, a lot of five hits, two on runs, two walks, five strikeouts on 92 pitches.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, he was one of the hardest during college pitchers on opening weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: He averaged 96.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was up to 99, a few ticks down out of the stretch.
[SPEAKER_00]: But change up looked pretty good.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was his best swing and miss pitch on this outing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also threw a hard cutter, a low eddy slider.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all the stuff looked there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It looked like his typical self.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do think Tom of the Poor is in this sort of range where
[SPEAKER_00]: he's not a consensus first round arm.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of guys in front of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's some reasons that he's not in that range now and would need to use a strong season to get into that range.
[SPEAKER_00]: So being healthy and continuing to post is going to be important for him obviously because of that saying for any player and in particular pictures health is going to be important.
[SPEAKER_00]: So figure across that it doesn't turn into anything more serious.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you mentioned, I always do get a little bit queasy when you hear arm-sourness or elbow-sourness or any sort of sourness for pictures because I mean often times it's just a indicator of something that's happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully it's just days arm-sourness and he'll get back on the mount.
[SPEAKER_00]: But any more thoughts on LePore or any of these other guys before we get into some Texas names.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, that's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'll say just as a kind of a blanket statement in this extends well past the first round names that we're going to talk about now and the ones that we just mentioned on the injury front, this is kind of the part of the year where we hear a lot about this kind of stuff, I think the injuries crop up significantly right at the beginning of the year guys just like aren't right, but I will caution our listeners don't panic if you don't see somebody making a start.
[SPEAKER_01]: that there are a lot of guys who will not appear in a game where we'll get held out or we'll make a really short abbreviated start early in the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not always related to injuries.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that college coaches have their own designs.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of these guys will limit their best arms early in the season if they're playing competition that they think they can handle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so while there is some merit to the fact that you don't want to be missing starts, and
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, some of these guys actually do have injuries and that will happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are also a fairly large amount of guys who are just out because they're getting their load managed or there's a number of different reasons and so when it comes to college baseball if you see guys missing starts don't panic and it just is what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is this is kind of the nature of the beast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I would imagine for a lot of pictures around the country to guys are still dealing with pretty strict pitch count limits at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully, that is the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the ramp up period for pitching is always pretty scary.
[SPEAKER_00]: This happens for college baseball.
[SPEAKER_00]: This happens in spring training for the professional guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just...
[SPEAKER_00]: it's typically when you see a ton of injuries.
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully we can avoid more moving forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's get into some of the names we were impressed with, some of the the notable prospects we're there to see in the first place, even if maybe they weren't impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jacob, we got to see a ton of prospects.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got two pieces on the site kind of going over a lot of the names who stood out and just the prominent names in general.
[SPEAKER_00]: both current year class players to be aware of.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also a number of underclass players to be aware of Jacob has written a lot about just the college content from the weekend as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also really appreciate the new kind of top 25 explainer Jacob is doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you guys are maybe more tuned into the draft and are not following our top 25, I would encourage you to do so and it's cool to see a kind of Jacob's thought process in a behind-the-scenes look and how that gets made up.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_00]: Jake, we got a ton of names to talk about one high school player, maybe we talked about him and get that out of the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But was this your first time seeing Grady Emerson live in person?
[SPEAKER_00]: We got a double header before college started, so that was fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are your initial thoughts of Mr. Grady Emerson?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I like the word that you and I heard from an evaluator while we were seeing Mr. Grady Amerson and how is he is he's just so safe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there are some players and draft classes that you know, you can just feel good about and like you don't have to ask a lot of questions.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that Grady Amerson really falls into that bucket.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a sweet left-handed swing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's as good as it was advertised, we saw him go six for seven with a
[SPEAKER_01]: a number of extra base hits.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a really good athlete.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that you and I agreed as the night went on that maybe he's not a plus runner, but if he's anything less than plus, it's at least average.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good athlete, the makeup is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: We actually had a chance to talk to him, which was cool for a couple seconds and he seems a great kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that there's
[SPEAKER_01]: what the future position is like for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that there's probably room for him to get bigger and stronger, and it will cause him to become maybe a little bit more of a physical thicker player.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see tries to get to more power, and if that causes him to move over the third base, it wouldn't surprise me.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a great arm.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't necessarily have like shortstop footwork to me or at least like a very obvious stand-up shortstop footwork to me I thought that maybe as he gets bigger it would make more sense to have middle-based like their base where he can just kind of let the arm eat And continue to get you know more physically developed and stronger, but if he's a shortstop long term wouldn't surprise me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really like the bat
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, just, sometimes you watch a player and there's just not a lot to pick apart and anything that you've heard is true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that, Grady Emerson really embodied that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything that you hear and we have talked about at baseball America prior to me actually laying eyes on him in person felt very true throughout the two games that we saw of him and I was impressed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's fun to be able to get a high school look, have a multi game high school look because those games are shorter often when you're dealing with the elite hitters on a high school team.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're getting pitched around so it's a lot of walks or intentional walks or just they don't have much to hit and the good hitters are.
[SPEAKER_00]: pretty good at not forcing things they don't want to expand the zone and take a bad cut just because they're bored of standing there, but I think me and JJ were talking about this, you and I were talking about this to the teams credit that Grady was facing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They pitched him really every AB and give him a chance to show what he can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he essentially was the great Emerson that we expected him to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be surprising to me for anyone who've gone into those games and may be changed their valuations of him significantly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's just also an interesting contrast of profile compared to some of the college hitters surrounding him in this draft class, because
[SPEAKER_00]: Most years, your top end college players, your top end college hitters, you're going to think of them as the safe, proven, polished, well-rounded sort of prospects that you don't have to worry too much about, and then the high school demographic, you're typically just getting a little bit more upside, a little bit more of a tool set, but that's going to come with some risk.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like that's the inverse for both gradie Emerson and a number of the top college hitters in this class.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I could see some scouts saying the greedy Emerson doesn't have a single plus tool on the card, but everything he does is saw to average your better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I think the arm is plus, I think the hit tool is plus, but if you're a little bit more skeptical and you think it's more, above average arm, you think it's more, above average hit tool, then like you could look around and say, okay, there's not a single plus tool, but it's just a profile.
[SPEAKER_00]: That I think you're going to have a lot of confidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this guy who's hit everywhere, he's been, I think, if I was to gun to my head, who's the best peer hitter in this class, high school, or college.
[SPEAKER_00]: Greatie Emerson's probably my pick.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe that'll change as we get to see some more of these college players perform this spring against better competition.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I thought it was a really representative.
[SPEAKER_00]: I still expect him to go very quickly off the board, but maybe the conversation around safety and security versus upside and risk will be interesting to continue to monitor with him in contrast to college players throughout the year.
[SPEAKER_01]: To me, at least, and I'm sure other people have different opinions, but in my look, I felt like the only areas that you could really question were the fielding and exactly what that means for his defensive positioning future and the run tool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the run tool to me was actually probably the bigger one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did not think he was a plus runner.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've heard some people say that he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that doesn't, that doesn't move them out of the range that we have him in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that it's a pretty safe player to project in the top three picks in this year is that I think that rock to ask me is maybe not as good a pure hitter, but I think, Charlie at the same age.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I think Rock still has a safer profile in terms of like where he's going to go in the draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that I don't.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it would stun me if the white socks ended up taking greedy Anderson over rocks.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can like rock one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that if there's a player who's the most likely and I've talked about this on the college podcast and, you know, I'm becoming.
[SPEAKER_01]: a huge fan of this individual with Jackson Flora to me is going to have a chance to make some noise on draft day.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the stuff is just like outrageously good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, to use a a Peter Flairtyism chat up Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter will live on on this podcast with his, uh, yeah, with his phrases, the ball of clay phrase, I think is most applicable to Jackson Flora, because it's like really one of those guys where with the way that he spends the baseball and the athleticism that you mentioned earlier in the podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can kind of do anything with him like that's the kind of guy to get into a a pro camp and it's like what kind of pitch do you want to add or let's talk about doing this in that whatever and he's probably capable of doing all of it and if you want to picture and you're the white socks by the way who do a very good job developing pitching that maybe is intriguing to me right going to get somebody who could be a contributor in the big leagues out of my rotation within six months a year.
[SPEAKER_01]: But at the same time, I think that Emerson is like in that group.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if we're going to create a pot of three at the top of the draft class in February, which is just a way too early, right now to me, it's probably rock Emerson and Flora.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's stick on Flora for a second here because I think what we saw her memet of week one is very interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't see him in person this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are other Texas names I want to get to in this show.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure you'll have more to add on Flora after this weekend when you see him in person.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one of the things we talked about entering the year with him was just the diversity of the pitch mix and in particular how he was going to attack lieutenant hitters.
[SPEAKER_00]: I watched
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... the entirety of his outing uh... after the fact and it was funny to see because first a b fastball to a left-handed hitter it's a double into the gap and i was like okay like it's jackson florist so it would be like sixty percent fastball to lefty is he's going to show more of these pictures we broken out he did he in fact did against lefty isn't his first alting he was almost seventy percent change up usage with this new kick change he's been working on and i got to say that pitch looked
[SPEAKER_00]: legit I'm very excited to actually see it come out and and obviously that that first double was not like indicative of anything that was going on further like the fastball look tremendous throughout the outing but it really does look like he just has a greater depth of arsenal that he showed in game one and I think that's encouraging to see the change up was a second most used pitch the slider which he actually is used and I'm not exactly sure what his.
[SPEAKER_00]: specific pitch tags are but his slider sometimes looks more like a cutter, the tag that gets a curve ball in that like 80 mile prior range, it looks more like a sweeper at time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So whatever you want to call them, the harder breaking ball, the slower breaking ball, those were his two least use pitches, but he used everything 16% plus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was really excited to see like a balanced pitch mix from Jackson, Florida and I'll be curious to see if he maintains that this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I
[SPEAKER_01]: I had said I think even on this podcast it like way way back that I like in my October November Yeah, there were a lot of people who had seen that change up in the fall and thought that it was a plus pitch I actually got to see the change up in the fall and immediately texted in our Slack channel That I thought it was it no worse than a 60 on the scouting scale
[SPEAKER_01]: And it looked apart, I mean, it is a really good pitch.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it goes back to what I was saying earlier, like I do think that he's the kind of pitcher where you get him into your organization and you can kind of do whatever you want with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he's got a really good feel for the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know this because I've talked to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is extremely invested.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the analytical data breakdowns of what he's doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants to understand how everything works and kind of fits together how he can influence at bats and how he can shape his arsenal based on the shapes of things and how things spin.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a picture who's that invested is always intriguing to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I like athletes that want to know what
[SPEAKER_01]: why it is that their stuff works and how it is that they can make it better and he is definitely at the top of the list for me among the pictures in this class in terms of just sheer investment in his own improvement.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other thing is that one of the questions that we had and you kind of touched on this was
[SPEAKER_01]: out of the fall, we had heard that there were a lot of changes to his pitch mix.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had a new grip on the fastball because they wanted it to play differently to lefties.
[SPEAKER_01]: He added the change up that you mentioned that we had heard was plus but hadn't seen it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, to answer your question about the sliders, there are three different pitches.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a shorter slider that he can use kind of in that like...
[SPEAKER_01]: Slider.
[SPEAKER_01]: Slider mold.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can throw a little bit harder.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a firmer tighter pitch.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a sweeper that he throws his a true sweeper and then the new addition and this is kind of the thing that I think people may be missed because he didn't throw too much in his first start is he's throwing a hybrid pitch.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's throwing a slurve.
[SPEAKER_01]: that kind of fits in between those two offerings.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a larger breaking, more two-plane pitch that isn't kind of a, it's a curveball-ish look and it looks really good at it is like very wide, lower three-quarter, slinging arm slot.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, and he's intriguing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it was at the most amazing statline at a week one.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, he hit three batteries, he only struck out four over six innings, but they were shut down frames.
[SPEAKER_01]: I personally thought that he was very clearly the best player on the field.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought Southern Miss looked completely outmatched about that outing, which is not an easy thing to do, because that's a good lineup.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like I said, I mean, I
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't feel as strongly about there being a gap between rock and everybody else because Jackson Florida exists and I just think that if you are the white socks there is an absolutely fair conversation to be had about exactly what it is that you want to be buying exactly what it is that you develop best and I kind of think that Jackson Florida checks more boxes for them as an organization than maybe rock does just from a developmental standpoint and I'm curious at that
[SPEAKER_01]: Rock is the number one prospect in this class.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not the guy who's given you're given a white socks for his heart attacks you're doing that and I want to be clear like I'm not arguing the order that we have the perceived you know rock is the guy tank for rock whatever you want to call it that this is that year, but I just think that there's more of a conversation to be had maybe.
[SPEAKER_01]: people are thinking about at this stage in the game because Jackson Flora is that good.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think rock is the best prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Jackson Flora belongs in this really elite tier that rock exists in right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pivot back to Texas.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have no shortage of names that we can hit on here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, there's a lot more on the site we have if you guys want to get just as many players as you can that that we saw and that stood out to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd encourage you
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, I want to talk about some of the names who we're exciting to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to see two first round college names.
[SPEAKER_00]: Saw your straw Snyder and outfit at TCU.
[SPEAKER_00]: He showed us what he can do in his first set back other weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, we want to talk about some of the names who we're exciting to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to see two first round college names.
[SPEAKER_00]: Saw your straw Snyder and outfit at TCU.
[SPEAKER_00]: He showed us what he can do in his first set back other weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, we want to talk about some of the names who we're exciting to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to see two first round college names.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, for me, Jacob, saw your straw snider, was the most exciting player.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't have the best performance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I thought it was a rock solid performance, particularly in the first day and half, his A.B.s were really strong and I think stronger than I expected them to be, entering the season because straw snider's big thing a year ago is he's just very aggressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He chases a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: We started to see a little bit more of that towards the end of the weekend with some of his
[SPEAKER_00]: chase rates and just aggression, but we got to see basically all of Sawyer's tools.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to see the power.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to see the speed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to see, I don't think he had too many super challenging defensive plays, but he moved around the outfit well.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to see his arm.
[SPEAKER_00]: The arm for me is like easily plus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, and this is the player I was thinking about most when when I was thinking of contrasting profiles with Brady Emerson.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Sawyer's draws kniter,
[SPEAKER_00]: is a tool shed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he has a number of 60s, easy 60s on the card and it's just going to be a matter of what is the pure hitting ability look like for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does he take a step forward with his approach?
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought we saw some glimmers of that week one and he feels like a no doubt top 15 sort of talent to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he was maybe the second best player.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought we saw this weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: How about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm pretty much there with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said this on Hot Cheetah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that there are a lot of guys in this draft class that bring the breadth of tools to the table that sort of throw signer does.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a very clearly plus runner.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think that it was one thing last year to see him do his thing, and he led the country in triples.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he plays a really good, like, Rangie brand about field.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then it's like, get in front of him and see the size of the human being and then the breaking moves.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, man, this guy isn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: crazy athlete and so I was really impressed by the athleticism in the run tool and those are things that I expected to be impressed by.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that he's got more power than maybe people are aware of or recognizing at this stage in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that he actually has some pretty natural pot to be swing and it's a great way to.
[SPEAKER_00]: If people don't think he has power, he has monstrous raw power.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean even in high school he was one of the more impressive power hitters and he's only got
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the level of that power is something that people need to be like aware of, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it is, it's real.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it kind of like, you know how people talk about all the time, it's like, oh, it sounds different.
[SPEAKER_01]: Coming off of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: They kind of sounds different.
[SPEAKER_01]: Coming off of his bat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he's one of those guys for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was impressed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that he is exactly where he belongs on our draft board.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's one of the more impressive outfielders in this class.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel very confident if I was a team,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like I'm looking at I feel like I like him.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got in our preseason top 200 board.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got some feedback to push both Sire stress and our anagagross you down a little bit more into the middle of the first round, but if it's me picking and I'm looking at guys like
[SPEAKER_00]: Eric Becker, Tyler Bell, Tyler Spangler, these short stops who I think have really well-rounded games, but just less exciting tool sets.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could really see taking Sawyer's draw center over those guys, like shooting for the moon or the pick, Sawyer's draw center is a guy who, I mean, if the hit tool,
[SPEAKER_00]: is as good as you think it can be.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to be a star.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the kind of like explosive tool set and athleticism that he has.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's one of more, you're good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you walk away feeling like he got placed under field?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would have liked to see maybe some more challenging balls in the gaps, but
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he can run, he can throw, I thought the routes, again, to the extent that I saw challenging routes from him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought those were good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like he's a player who could be a solid or above average centerfielder.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then if you move them to a corner, I think you could have a plus defender who could be really impactful.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's kind of one of those like.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how long we're going to talk about, and he's not even that big.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, six, two is what he's listed at.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would guess bigger than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be sticker.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he is bigger.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just feel like we see so many of those center field body types these days.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like if you can run enough and I think he can run, there's no reason for me to think you can't if the other defensive instincts are there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'd say yes unless he's playing in an outfield with like a pico arm strong or a sadonite rafaela type, I wouldn't move him at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're in the same bucket.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: There we go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got a number of other names to get to, who do you want to go to next?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is most impressive to you, most exciting, most interesting to you after straw snider.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... i got a talk about cam johnson and they're all the guys so i think are up there on the list but feels like it's been a really long time of cam johnson talk in the draft world and that goes back to his high school days that goes back to when he went to lsu and released struggled then he goes to oklahoma and last year was like
[SPEAKER_01]: fine at times, but most times he was not not a terribly good strike throw over the last couple of years and then it comes this new and improved cam Johnson where the deadzone fastball has kind of dissipated.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a really good looking fastball now.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just that velocity that I think he carried pretty well from his prep days into the start of his college career, but like just didn't play the same way that the velocity might suggest that it would for a lefty it look really good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the thing that I and I was everything about this now a couple
[SPEAKER_01]: the change in usage for him, where he went, it was like 20 rough roughly, 20% changeups and 10-ish percent sliders, which is the direct inverse of what he was doing for the majority of last season, really fit him well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that was a great looking changeup.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would go as far as say it was a plus changeup.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was talking to Skip Johnson after his start, where he struck out a career high 11 batters over six things in which he didn't allow him to run just three hits and Skip Johnson told me, if the best start to he made last year,
[SPEAKER_01]: mirror the usage that we saw in Arlington.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he has been change up heavy in his best games and even if the overall usage results didn't look like that from last year, that is how he's been at his best.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so to see him kind of get back into that groove and to show the potential that we have like,
[SPEAKER_01]: long been talking about with Cam Johnson kind of gave me some hope that maybe we're going to see him shoot back up the draft board and I was impressed but I want to see more before I really lock in how I feel about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a great start to the year for somebody who's very intriguing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he just is a player who has always been like talent and we've never seen the performance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, in high school, there was a really good chance he could have gone in the first round.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a very buzzy name leading up to the draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: That didn't happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: He got to LSU.
[SPEAKER_00]: He threw just nine innings, really struggled to throw strikes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was 16 walks, 13 strikeouts.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that maybe shows you the sort of at-bats players are facing if you have those strikeout walk totals and just nine innings very wild, but also kind of unhittable if you was in the zone.
[SPEAKER_00]: similar deal in 2025 with Oklahoma, just 21 innings, continued to walk more batters than he struck out, 25 walks, 24 strikeouts, and so coming into this game, I feel like there was huge air bars in terms of the performance we were going to see.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that the talent is great, we know we can throw over the hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do think that the slider change up.
[SPEAKER_00]: dynamic is fascinating because when he was in high school, it was all about the big fastball and it was all about this big potentially plus sleepy breaking ball like he was a huge breaking ball pitcher at the time and I agree with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You had a better look on Cam Johnson behind the plate.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was open side for basically the entirety of the weekend, dialing down on hitters, but even from the open side like the swing as he was getting on this
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe like eight to ten miles per hour off his fast ball.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he both located that pitch more consistently than the slider and just generated a ton of ugly swings.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was really effective down into his glove side versus righties.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think for him, both the change up and the slider command need to still come a bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's probably the case for him across the board, like fastball slider change up.
[SPEAKER_00]: He needs to throw them off for strikes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still a little bit optimistic about what the slider can become because I think the shape of it is really intriguing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if you were excited with the potential of that pitch flash, but he just had no feel to land that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do think like at this stage,
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe just dial in more to the pitches that you can throw a little bit more frequently around the zone and that certainly seems to be the fastball and change up, but it's six foot six, 255 pounds, really unique arm talent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I was ever too concerned with like fastball shape with him, but he certainly missed a ton of barrels with the fastball this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it's encouraging.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is a talent that could easily be top three rounds with performance.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's hope you can just kind of continue stacking effective starts because it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the best we've seen of Cameron Johnson's in high school.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that it was definitely the best we've seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's never struck out more batters than we saw against Texas Tech on that game.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then to your point, I think that if there's one thing that's like really high up on my list of things that I need to keep watching before I establish and a true opinion on Cam Johnson, it's probably how he's going to continue to deploy that slider.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got to have an offering that he's able to attack lefties with and that's not just the fastball.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we need to see an off speed pitch that's going to be effective.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he did throw his change up to left handed hitters and it actually was like,
[SPEAKER_01]: reasonably effective in those at that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, that's just not something that's going to work long term for him, especially against pro hitters that are left handed.
[SPEAKER_01]: So
[SPEAKER_01]: The questions for me are off speed control and then is there something with spin that he's able to to throw a little bit more frequently and effectively, especially the lefties that is going to be a third offering because it felt to me at least in this outing like he was really good relative to what we've seen, but I didn't feel confident that there was a third pitch in there for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's a question for me and to your point, I think that that probably lands in somewhere outside of the top three rounds at the moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, I also will say that I think Skip Johnson is one of the most brilliant, you were talking about this in Arlington.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Skip Johnson is one of the most brilliant pitching developing head coaches in the country.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if there's one coach that I would have a lot of confidence in kind of bringing the best out of somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that Cam Johnson is in the right place to maximize his value.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's an exciting combination of location and coaching.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just pure stuff and I do believe that Cam Johnson has the potential to fly up into the top three rounds of people can continue to perform.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was that that was an exciting performance to kick off.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be a cool year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, seeing what Tyson with her spoon did a year ago, making real strides with his death of arsenal control strike throwing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it happens again with Cameron Johnson, I think a lot more people are going to be aware of just the pitching development over there at that program.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we've got a number of other players we can get into.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oklahoma had a ton of guys who stood out.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had another Cam Johnson Camden Johnson third baseman.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's also talk about the names here because
[SPEAKER_00]: We got Cam Johnson and Camden Johnson at Oklahoma and then Vanderbilt has about a billion John Stone or Johnston's on their team.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need a little more name diversity for these squads, but let's get into some of the hitters.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'll just mention briefly because we're kind of running up here on time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Colin Barcy was tremendous.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned this on hot sheet, but anyone who saw the three home runs that he hit opening weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were jaw-dropping, he's a player in the past who was just struck out a lot, missed a lot, been a little bit too aggressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if he's able to tap into his power more consistently this spring, I think that's a really interesting prospect to be aware of.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really like him a lot out of high school and I actually like to more for his kind of defensive work and work ethic behind the plate.
[SPEAKER_00]: I definitely am more excited about just a raw power and arm strength at this stage and I have some concerns about just overall approach.
[SPEAKER_00]: contact skills and receiving ability from barxy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's definitely named to kind of watching be aware of.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got other catchers here who stood out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who else impressed you Jacob.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we could talk about Camden Johnson for a second, just the speed, hitterish combos really encouraging sometimes like, I don't know if it's the same for you, but like sometimes I'll watch a player and I go man, I can see that I play in the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that Camden Johnson was one of them for me this weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not necessarily the most powerful player, just kind of a little like speedster type, but we did see him leave the yard.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like when he puts the ball in the air, there's some natural pop to the swing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's getting the slider.
[SPEAKER_00]: He got his hands out inside and yanked a slider down the line that was pretty impressive and kind of surprising to me because I do think he's like Definitely more hit over power so seeing him sneak that ball out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, okay, you can't hear a punishment mistake and take it down the the pull side.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's good to see
[SPEAKER_01]: And it just speaks to how hitter it she is, like it just such a good a clean approach.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's got him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He makes great swing decisions, uh, really clean feel for getting the ball, the barrel to the ball, um, and then the speed, like the speed was outrageous.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we had, I had several three nine low three nine times home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of his run times on the turn were like outrageous for a turn time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, like,
[SPEAKER_01]: high four ones on the turn.
[SPEAKER_01]: Low three nine's when he was going through the bag.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're talking about somebody who's like very easily when it comes cross back hand book time and his name is involving that conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could see 80 runs put on him for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it's a seven right now, but like in the future I can absolutely see him being at the top of the skill from a run standpoint.
[SPEAKER_01]: The question I would have is is third base.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if that's the
[SPEAKER_01]: a move to the outfield in the center field would make a lot of sense to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would kind of imagine that with his speed, the range to the alleys would be phenomenal.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that the arm was okay and probably better suited to move away from a position where that's really important and like into a position where you can kind of make up for it with the way that you move.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so yeah, I could see him being a successful center field or other than that, it's probably a second baseman.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, he was intriguing and the bat to me matters more than
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the arm maybe is just a little bit light for third base based on the looks we got, but just the way he moves in the field is body control.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be unsurprising to me if he could play a number of other positions well enough to either profiles like a utility type in some capacity or you just dig about center field, let him run around, but definitely an interesting player with some loud tools on the card.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about Logan Hughes here, Jacob.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, not all the players were mentioning today or players who really like let us up or excited us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think Logan Hughes is
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the most prominent name, who had kind of a disappointing weekend, at least for me, Alfred or Texas Tech, we had him ranked number 53, seem to be like a consensus top two round-type entering the year, big and strong, excellent, underlank battle ball data, entering the year, his 2025 season was exceptional.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just thought his approach at the plate was a little lacking to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He felt, or he looked uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: And most of that, his at-bats, he went one for 11.
[SPEAKER_00]: One single three strikeouts, a pair of walks.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no doubt about the power in the impact.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a number of balls that were basically routine flyouts, but really loud, high flyouts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you could just see the strength he can impart on the baseball when he does connect.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he whipped a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was nine whiffs on 26 swings.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's at 35% misrape, which is solidly in the, OK, that's concerning range.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think more than anything,
[SPEAKER_00]: I expect to see better pitch recognition, then I think he showed it really felt like he struggled picking up spin and there were a lot of uncontrollable check swings and just felt like throughout the weekend, he was kind of behind in A.B.s and never looked in control in the way that a great Emerson, for example, always looks in control as a play again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm comparing very different levels of competition and pitching, but that's kind of the view I had on Logan Hughes.
[SPEAKER_00]: How about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I won't back off how we feel off of a three game look just because it's just small sample size and 11 at bats 11 at bats.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think one of the things that I was concerned about even before we were going into the season with Logan Hughes was that there is an immense strength potential here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the EVs from last year at the top of the scale in terms of what regular players were doing with the ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me, I think that the swing decisions were underwhelming.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought that he,
[SPEAKER_01]: Is going to be somebody who potentially struggles against pro pitching because of what they're going to be able to do to him with spin and you touched on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would something that I'm going to want to have an eye like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just how I would put it for now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's not a center fielder.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not like he has a non offensive tool to really kind of do the profile for when the bat isn't necessarily going the way that it should he's very clearly a left fielder.
[SPEAKER_01]: He isn't an incredible mover, and you're basically banking on the that speed and the strength to translate into somebody that's going to be a well above average player at the plate, and I wasn't convinced that that's who he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And granted, there's so much time to change my mind, but it was not like a super flattering opening book.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it wouldn't have also prized me if we just kind of got the worst look of him of the season.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very common to see hitters just kind of getting their timing at the beginning of the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember opening weekend chased a lot or going up against a really talented FSU left-handed pitcher staff and he he's throwing a missed a ton.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was shocking to see that from DeLater because his profile and his overall track record prior to that, it says that he like never swings and misses.
[SPEAKER_00]: And with Logan Hughes, the swing and miss was kind of jarring to me because this is a hitter who in his college career, it's a year at Stetson and then one full season at Texas Tech for just discounting what he's done so far in 2026.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's actually walked more than he struck out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's never struck out more than a 13.9% strikeout rate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are really impressive plate discipline numbers and so
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I just expected to see a hitter who was far more in command of the zone and made a lot more contact.
[SPEAKER_00]: So to your point, I think it's a little aggressive to get too crazy over three games and it's worth keeping in mind just what he's done in the past and I don't want my one quick look to overwhelm that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, that's kind of where I'm at now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be very curious to see if it is just a matter of him getting the timing back because I could easily be the case.
[SPEAKER_01]: And last year, I mean, last year is a much bigger sample size and he hit a basically a 24% chase rate, which is not elite, but it's far from bad, especially for the profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he's kind of like a, you can fairly put him in the free swing or category, basically a 45% swing rate last year, he is aggressive on pitches in the zone.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he makes contact, it's loud, which I think he lived up to, even if it wasn't an impressive stat line.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: The contact you said, the contact was loud.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the number of hard hit balls that were just a little bit too under and kind of routine catches, but I mean, I think at least four over a hundred and four miles per hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will say, one thing that if you want to like iron out some of the concerns here from last year where the sample is much bigger, it probably is the bad at ball profile like his angles from last season were not outstanding.
[SPEAKER_01]: reaching a little bit to like get the ball into the air more aggressively and it turned into under contact that was just not good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like you said, it was just like way up in the air.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was almost as if he was like,
[SPEAKER_01]: trying to get the ball in the air more than he did last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it almost, maybe to me, the best way to describe it would be like he wasn't in the approach that we saw last year, which is the same to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so concern, no, but it's he on the list of like guys that I want to go and continue to keep an eye on because I have questions out of opening weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's probably where I would say it's at right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any other names to mention, I also want to note on a quick reclassification piece of news that we had in the draft class, but before we do that, if there's anyone else you want to just tag or mention here, please do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also in there, Dayton, the chance to catch her at Oklahoma.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, really intriguing Framer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought that he looked much better than he has in the past as a defender, receiving was clean.
[SPEAKER_01]: The pop times were really good.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were like mid-18s, consistently.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a super strong arm throughout a runner from his knees on
[SPEAKER_01]: not a great hitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is definitely a below average hit tool.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that he's got well above average if not plus raw power that it's going to be hard for him to get to in games at his current hit rate.
[SPEAKER_01]: But catchers are catchers and if you're going to be somebody who's going to frame a game real well and be a good receiver and blocker and have a strong arm like he has, you're going to go well on the draft.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a name that I would have an iron.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, that was a good one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, really quickly, before we get out of here, half to mention the Jared Grindlinger Reclassification.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jared is a legitimate two-way player, pitcher, and hitter who ranked as the number three high school player in the 2027 class.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we're recording this the day of, we got news that he is reclassifying to 2026.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ben Badler has a full piece kind of
[SPEAKER_00]: the move going into more of what he does on the field, but the rich get richer in the 2026 class is a tremendously deep high school pitching class, grindlinger, kind of jumps into really this this first round group of arms in the Carson Bulamon, Gio Rojas, Colman Barthwick, Jensen Hirschkorn, Logan Schmitt,
[SPEAKER_00]: sort of tear of pitchers.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he jumped right on to, we'll have to like solicit some feedback and see exactly where he's going to rank on our 2026 board, but if he jumps straight into first round range, I don't think that would at all be surprising and thinking about like him as a legitimate two-way player versus Coleman Borthwick as a legitimate two-way player, which one of those players you'd
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether you prefer him as a hitter pitcher, I think it's going to be really fascinating to see kind of what the industry is thinking about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is a player who's been on the national radar for a long time now.
[SPEAKER_00]: He plays a Huntington Beach High, which is one of the most prominent high school programs in the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: his brother was an notable draft prospect ahead of him Trent Greenleger.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's now freshman at Tennessee.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a member of the 2025 class and was a very notable player who seems to see at the NHSI and just at that so-called program for years.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's always a bit odd when players are reclassifying at this late of a stage in the process because I think in general you probably want to just have the full summer where teams can bear down on you, but
[SPEAKER_00]: As a Ben notes, he's a super prominent player who everyone has kind of seen in his aware of, so just adding more talent to this class is exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not much to add there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's an exciting player in a great class, so you know, wouldn't surprise me to see him in the first round, curious what the feedback we get from evaluators is going to look like to see exactly where you should rank.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if he survives the first 30 picks of the draft, it would be surprising to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so I'll just point to Ben's piece on that if you want more and as we continue to move forward throughout the spring we'll be updating our board regularly so it'll only be a few more weeks until we kind of officially get a re-rank we might have to actually just throw them in there before that I'm not sure exactly how we'll handle it but the 2026 class got better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, week two, coming up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully you guys enjoyed week one.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back next week to break down all the players.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get to see a fair excited to see Jacob's first live.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look of Jackson, Flora this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: That'll be a lot of fun to break down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be kind of manning it from the office, looking at a bunch of stuff on TV and on the broadcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully I'll be able to see a huge array of draft talent throughout the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: So thank you guys for hanging out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for supporting baseball America.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: all the work that Jacob and myself and everyone else on staff are writing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We really do appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for Jacob, I'm Carlos.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you guys next time.