[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone, JJ Cooper, Carlos Glosa, the weekly draft podcast is back, and today we are asking you to hop in a time machine with us, because while we are busy updating, keeping updated, the 2026 draft list, and we are working on expanding that, and it will be at 400 before long and then 500 and senior signs and all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But while we're doing that, we also just dropped our update of the 2027 college top prospect rankings.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have 100 right up now or 100 rankings of the top 100 college prospects for the 2027 class.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the time you are listening or watching this, we will be dropping the 2028 college top prospects list as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a lot of fun work on that looking at what next year's class and the class after that looks like.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Carlos, as we did that, the thing I think that we just couldn't get over, over and over was just how good the pitching, the college pitching for next year looks to be how excited should fans be some 15 months, like obviously we are, we're looking at you know, like we're looking too far in the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know a lot can happen in between, but how exciting could the college pitching in next year's class?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's very exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you've got Dax Whitney at the very top.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's the player in next year's class that most people are probably the most familiar with at this point.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's been exceptional his first two years.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's looking like a very solid one, one candidate a year from now, but it's not just Whitney and then a fall off.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the college pitching.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the 27 class right now looks exceptional.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a fun contrast.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like to the current year's draft class because everybody's gotting 26 is looking around.
[SPEAKER_01]: And after Jackson, Florida, it's like, OK, who are the definite top 20 college arms?
[SPEAKER_01]: In next year's class, you might have 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 pictures that you feel like are definitely top 20 talents.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like on the top 30 of this 27 board,
[SPEAKER_01]: velocity and performance from underclass arms that are already pitching in prominent roles.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like it is, it's fairly common for pictures to progress with the roles they're assuming in college staffs, maybe your reliever, maybe your split starter yourself and we're then finally as a junior you get a chance to really prove what you can do as a starter.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not really the case for this 27 class.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of these guys are already running SEC rotations and if you just look
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of getting into the weeds of what we're talking about today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just how, outlandishly good this class looks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the cumulative performance of these pictures.
[SPEAKER_01]: is outstanding.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like it's just stuff and flashes of potential.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just performance with pitchability guys who don't have the stuff that's going to translate to pro ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a combination of everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's size, it's velocity.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like lights out breaking stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think if you're going to get excited about something for next year's class, for me right now, if it's not Dylan Stewart, it is the college pitching in this group.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's exceptional.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are more pitchers on our 2027 top 100 college prospects list, pitching Friday nights for key teams than there are on our 2026 list, which is backwards because, right, as you get to your junior year to your draft year, that's when you send the only picture that we have is healthy and pitching on Friday night right now as we record this.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the first round and our first round projects is Jackson Florida.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone else is either been bounced from Friday night or is not healthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we were talking about this in a recent podcast, like we were saying like where all the Friday night starters, where all the pictures, well, I guess the answer is they're in the 27 class.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's your answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So okay, like when you look at this, I think it's clear that if you took Dax Whitney and you plopped him into this draft class,
[SPEAKER_00]: He would immediately become the best pitching prospect in this class with that question.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he actually, it would be then become a, like, to give an idea just how good this guy is, it would then become like, the worst he's going is too.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there would be like a discussion of, hey, Rochalowski at one, or do you want tax Whitney?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you could make a case like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so we're going to talk about these two names in tandem a lot, but I really wonder if it would be like a Paul schemes versus Dylan Cruz versus White Lankford at the top of the board sort of scenario because it's it's easy to forget this now, but we had Dylan Cruz number one on our board in that 23 class.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had Paul schemes too.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was difficult to decide which of those to put there, but we leaned with the college hitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think while
[SPEAKER_01]: a majority of people, maybe would still lean towards the college shortstop, which that defensive element is just another level of security and excitement that you might have.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think Dax Whitney is talented enough to really, if you were eligible, challenge rock for one one, I think this is a legitimate.
[SPEAKER_01]: ace sort of upside pitching prospect who checks all the boxes JJ I mean we had him as a very highly ranked prospect coming out of high school in Idaho at the time he had a four pitch of mix in Idaho at the time he had a four pitch mix it a fast way could dream on it could spend two quality breaking balls
[SPEAKER_01]: the delivery looked good enough to feel confident about the strike throwing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he didn't everything you wanted to see of him and more at Oregon State.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a full-time starter as a freshman, 17 starts 3.4 ERA, 120 strikeouts as a freshman.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then this year, he came out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all the sudden after topping out in the upper 90s, he's sitting 98 miles per hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's been up to 101 miles per hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's currently leading the country in strikeouts.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has a near 50% strikeout rate, which is towards the elite rates we saw from guys like Chase Burns.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hagen Smith, it's maybe three or four percent higher than what Paul Schenz did as a junior all these guys in their junior season.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you put it all together and aside from just the fact that he is a pitcher and there's injury risk associated with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are not a lot of questions with the profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's lights out stuff he's getting a ton of miss on all of all his arsenal right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's tremendous.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you took him and popped him into the big leagues today, the quality of his stuff, he would not look at a place like he would be one of the hardest throwing starters now he's doing it on a seven day schedule not a thought, you know there's differences and all but he is right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost we're almost underselling it to say he's the best college pitching prospect since Paul schemes, which is I think undoubtedly true, but I would say even more so you could argue he's in that rare group of pictures who like you said there is a more certainty more comfort level with college position players and pictures and also I think we're in an era now where.
[SPEAKER_00]: as much as teams like college pitching, they like to kind of push it down the board a little bit because that is the part where I feel like that the industry, there is a feeling that on the hitting side, that to all skills, timing, those aspects of hitting, you either have them or if you don't, it's very hard to manufacture them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you have athletic players, up the middle players who
[SPEAKER_00]: Those guys go off the board first because it's like there's so few of those that we're going to run out of them very quickly, you need me
[SPEAKER_00]: And on the pitching side, there is a countervailing feeling.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like we're like, we can find pictures in the second, third, four, seventh.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does feel like teams feel like they're greater.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have a greater ability to coax more out of arms than hitters.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you said, it's hard to kind of make a peer hitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: You either can hit or you can't ultimately.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're seeing things you can do to maybe.
[SPEAKER_01]: improve weaknesses or accentuate strengths of a hitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think defensively there are a lot of a lot of things you can do developmentally but change your defensive evaluation does not move the needle quite as much as like can you hit or can you not hit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And JJ you pull it's an interesting number is looking back at kind of
[SPEAKER_01]: The expectations for arms at the top of the class in recent years, and it does feel like in recent years in the first round in particular, it's become more hit or heavy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if this 27 college class is just so talented on the pitching side, that sort of bucks that trend, and it's just a case of, hey, ultimately these teams are trying to find the best talent they can.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would like to have hitters, but if you've got a lot of, I don't want to say mediocre, but if the pitching challenge is more exciting,
[SPEAKER_01]: You're still going to see a lot of those guys go early and I'll be really curious to see like if we're setting a new, a new high in terms of pictures going in the top 10 or the first round, but as of now, I think there are far more arms who I would look at right now and say, hey, they could easily go in the first round, then we typically see like it's it's shockingly deep.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the numbers we have is if you look at the draft bonus puller and I was just looking at top 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the normal year, you see three college pictures taken among the top 10 picks in the class.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen this few as one in 2018, 2019.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've never seen zero.
[SPEAKER_00]: That, I don't know, I don't think we ever will.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like even in this year, I think Jackson Flores.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully Jackson Flores, they sell them.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have that.
[SPEAKER_01]: No pictures in the top of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think if you wouldn't, then it would be like Camp Lucchi would even with injuries and all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that there is just this thought that at some point you're going to take, the first call was pictures going to go off the board at the top.
[SPEAKER_00]: The max we've had in the DRAPOTE's Polara is four, which was 2012 and 2014.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's the number, if you put an over under, if you're saying where would you set it and say like where are you going to put that number where it's going to be hard to say above or below that number.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that number is four.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think if you said three and a half, I think that would be easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to take the over on this.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is four for inside the top 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: Top 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take it.
[SPEAKER_01]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: which I think even being able to say, I'm going to set it there and feel confident taking the over is a testament to how talented this class.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we talked about DAX Whitney, but moving down the list, I'm curious, Thomas Valentius at Mississippi State, Crystal Wellness at Wake Forest, and then the two LSU right handers, case in Evans and William Schmidt.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have all of those inside our top 10 on the college board right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think you could make a case for all of those pictures to potentially be top 10 talents in 2026 if they were eligible or could reclassify them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they would all have a case, which is crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, okay, we have more pictures, college pictures on our 2027 draft rankings who are pitching currently on Friday night among our top,
[SPEAKER_00]: our first round talents on here, didn't we do on our 2026 list?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, as we are talking, Jackson Flora is the only college pitcher on our 2026 top 30 in the rankings, who's actually pitching on Friday nights.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have Cam Fluke, who has missed the entirety of the season so far.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while he made one star first and then hopefully he's coming back soon.
[SPEAKER_01]: So hopefully we'll be able to see him, but it does feel like he is approaching a return, which will be good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then
[SPEAKER_00]: Liam Peterson, who's been, when you say erratic, like, if you were comparing these guys we're talking about, I think you would easily say that you take these guys overly impetus and Liam Peterson has got really good stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does not have the track record of consistency that we're seeing from some of these softwares.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the one thing that's always kind of given me some pause with Liam Peterson, and he was trending in the right direction prior to the spring, and then it feels like he's taken a bit of a step back, but is the walk rate.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was a 13.5% walk rate as a freshman, improved to 10.5% as a sophomore, like, OK, that keeps trending.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to get into that 78% range where you feel a lot more comfortable, especially with your top of the draft starters, but that's balloon to 15.2%.
[SPEAKER_01]: So far this spring, then you compare those numbers to just the career college numbers of all these top pictures in the class I pulled just the career performance for all of our top 30 so first two rounds sort of projected college arms in 27.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Whitney's career walk rate, 10.3.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thomas Valinches, 6.1%.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chris LaVona's 10.1%.
[SPEAKER_01]: Case in Evans, 9.8.
[SPEAKER_01]: William Schmidt, 11.1.
[SPEAKER_01]: Landon Mack, Ryan McPherson, 6.4, 7.0.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get to Josh written out on Ethan Lund, who are your kind of erratic, huge stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are they going to throw enough strikes?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's at pitchers.
[SPEAKER_01]: eight and nine on the board and this year it's picture number three.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I just feel like the comfort you can feel with this 27 class again when it comes to strengthening and proven proven starter role in college baseball is at another level in terms of impact depth at the top of the draft.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah it's very odd to to see because I feel like the typical path is
[SPEAKER_01]: come into college, maybe throw in a bullpen, maybe get a few starts, sophomore year, split starter, relieve a roll, and then junior year, it's very common for a lot of the top arms in the class to be going into their first season where they're getting a chance to start full time.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not gonna be the case.
[SPEAKER_01]: For a vast majority of these 20, 27 arms at the top, they've already kind of locked down these roles and in many cases pushed 20, 26 eligibles out of the weekend rotation or further down the pecking order that we can rotation.
[SPEAKER_00]: when we talk about like Whitney, I think that Whitney is going to lead to very interesting discussions, essentially, I think Paul Scheme's success.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll do DAX Whitney very well, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when we were talking about Paul schemes at the top of the class a couple of years ago, there was all the worry about the concern about, okay, but he's a pitcher, the injury risk and all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And seeing what Paul schemes has done and the impact he has made, where he went basically from the ace of the LSU staff to one of the aces of the major leagues in one season, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if anything,
[SPEAKER_00]: The pirates actually moved him slower than they probably should have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he did not necessarily need, you know, we saw two or three starts in AAA and we were like, okay, what are they going to promote him?
[SPEAKER_01]: It took seven, think seven total, but in hindsight, you probably could have said, hey, if you we started Paul schemes directly in the major league, so you would have been just fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Dax Whitney, the thing about him is is beyond the fact that he sits 98 and touches 101.
[SPEAKER_00]: to have two breaking balls and a change up, all of which are effective pitches right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it doesn't mean, again, it comes in a pro ball, it very well, maybe, hey, what about this pitch?
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen this with Paul Scheme's, Paul Scheme's, he's adding pitches, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But...
[SPEAKER_00]: You have that, and also you have that Dex Whitney has not been in that as a freshman.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was in the bullpen throwing 22 innings, and then it's a sophomore he worked his way into the, no, Dex Whitney was the guy they were giving the ball in key postseason situations last year, and then he's like, hey, how about I'll strike out 12 today, is that good?
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, can I do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's career strikeout rate JJ is 40% which would for most pictures is representing like a career best season in your draft, your platform here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, hey, I pushed the strikeout rate to 40%.
[SPEAKER_01]: If his dips below it would be like, oh, that's what he's had at a bad few weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's only striking out 39%.
[SPEAKER_00]: he just strikes out to go back to the very tail end of his freshman year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you go to like May of freshman year, like May 10th, he struck out the Levington style.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since then, there was a May 16th starting his Long Beach State as we record this is a freshman where he didn't strike out nine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then his first start of this season when he was shaking the rust off,
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't strike out night.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every other start going back to last year, Jackson Flora, who again, we really like, but this is a nine case strike out to out start for Jackson Flora is a really good start.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like, oh, we didn't have it tonight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've said this a few times and I don't want to, I don't want to do it too often because I just, you're not getting a tax Whitney in every draft class, but I do think my reservation for Jackson Flora at the top,
[SPEAKER_01]: Is he just does not dominate in the same way that I feel like you tend to see from the guys who are going to be the first college pitchers off the board to your point.
[SPEAKER_01]: A nine strikeout game is a really good one for Jackson Flora.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's only had three double digit strikeout games this season.
[SPEAKER_01]: First against Utah where he struck out 10 against UC Davis.
[SPEAKER_01]: He struck out 11 against Hawaii.
[SPEAKER_01]: He struck out 12.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then he also has five strikeouts against Southern Miss.
[SPEAKER_01]: Six strikeouts against Portland.
[SPEAKER_01]: Seven strikeouts against Long Beach State.
[SPEAKER_01]: and then nine against Cal Poly most recently as we're watching this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just does feel like DAX Whitney provides
[SPEAKER_01]: the electricity and dynamism that is lacking in the current year draft class.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's maybe part of what makes him, I don't know, quasi-generational sort of pitching prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, like, what sort of label he's going to get and it is a bit odd because we're saying best college arm, a sense of Paul schemes and Paul schemes really wasn't that long ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when you look at, you know, if Paul schemes didn't exist, Paul schemes is so good that we would say best college arm coming into
[SPEAKER_00]: We're, when we're talking about this, we're not talking about what they became.
[SPEAKER_00]: Terri Scooble is an incredible pitcher who was a foul pitcher.
[SPEAKER_01]: His perception at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perception at the time, if Paulsky's didn't exist, I think we would be saying best since Steven's dropper.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a lot longer ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it would be, okay, so if you said in the 21st century,
[SPEAKER_00]: And you said, perceived, again, there are 15 months we wanted the healthy, we want him to keep doing what he's doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you said, perceived coming into their draft, into the draft, college pitchers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is prior,
[SPEAKER_00]: It is strawsburg and it is schemes and now decks with the I think he is in that grouping this far out like usually Paul schemes moved himself again Paul schemes he came into the year his draft year we ranked him top 10 or maybe right outside the top 10 I think we had to rank eight on our preseason list and it was hey
[SPEAKER_01]: two way player at Air Force, a ton of power, there was a lot of chatter about how good he looked as a hitter in the fall and then thankfully, LSU exclusively is pitching enemy makes a huge leap in power on the fastball, the slider adds a ton of power, adds a lot better shape, not better shape, just different shape and then he proceeds to dominate, but to your point, that's what he has made this leap as a sophomore.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has made a
[SPEAKER_01]: I think pretty stuff, at least fastball velocity, equivalent jump as a sophomore, and JJ, we haven't gotten into the weeds on tax when you stuff here, but as we sit here and talk right now,
[SPEAKER_01]: Just take a guess.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think is overall misrate is across his pitch dives.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know the strike out rate is near 50%.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you had to guess, I don't know if you have this up now or if you know I have it up, I would say that I'm guessing that he throws all four pitches for in zone for like, oh, your thing is with rate.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just overall mystery overall with rate for all pitch types.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and I'll get into like specifics of the pitches here, but it's okay with rate with his okay, it's going to be something really stupid because again, like when you say a fastball with rate if you've got a fastball with rate of 25% that's really good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, anything over that's good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I feel like in college, once you're over that 30% mark, it's like, okay, this is like a elite fastball.
[SPEAKER_01]: But just overall, combine all pitches.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think is overall?
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to say 30%, I'm not going to be low.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you're so low, JJ.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're so low.
[SPEAKER_01]: His overall misrate.
[SPEAKER_01]: Currently.
[SPEAKER_01]: through this 8 games in 2026, he has a 48% mystery across all pitch types.
[SPEAKER_01]: The fastball has a 44% mystery, which is utterly absurd.
[SPEAKER_01]: The slider, the change up the curveball.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of those pitches have width rates of 50% or more.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a 53% on the slider, 53% on the change up 50% on the curveball.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and by the way, the strikes are also better this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just insane, I don't know what else is going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another version of this, he leads, he has the best strikeout rate in the vision one as a sophomore, which is again, just something you do not see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you just, I'm now gonna try to find what Paul schemes with rates were at LSU in his draft year and I don't, again, now I wanna acknowledge, there's one other thing about Dax with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oregon State is doing the best they can about who they schedule, but the challenge with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they are scheduling reasonable teams, but they are the...
[SPEAKER_00]: utterly rare independent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so because of that, I do not want to in any way say that you are comparing, yeah, don't just take these numbers off to the right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think it illustrates just how dominant he's been across the board, but I wanted to pull up.
[SPEAKER_01]: I pulled this up quickly and as you can get your numbers, but just a year ago, Liam Doyle his caring card was the fastball it's just an outlier fastball.
[SPEAKER_01]: Crazy swing and miss like and then questions about basically everything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Liam Doyle's fastball mystery a year ago was 40% tax Whitney currently 44% like the fact that the fact that in in terms of power maybe maybe you wouldn't say fully shaped but at least effectiveness in college baseball that is equivalent or even better and then he has all those other secondaries in a much more typical starter profile it just an absurd combination of stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pulled up thanks to synergy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pulled up Paul schemes from 2023 at LSU.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he had a 62% with rate on his slider and a 57% on his change up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are really good, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I always wanted him to throw his change up more frequently, because it looked so good in college.
[SPEAKER_00]: And an 80% 80% on his curveball, but at the same time, like he only had five swings that his curveball, the entire season.
[SPEAKER_00]: He only threw like 41 of them, right?
[UNKNOWN]: All year.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you had a 30% with rate on this fastball.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, and that's what poor fastball shaped Paul schemes.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's getting 98 and a half, 98.6, sitting 98.6, touching 100.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that was still like it was a, it was not a just beat you in the zone over and over pitch.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was, you know, it was not, it was not a slider.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Whitney, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do want to ask one more question with Whitney and just to kind of just throw this out as good as we just made him out to be the depth of this class is I want to ask the question of Could he be surpassed in this class by someone else even if Whitney's healthy and we'll get into that right after it's quick break.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Carlos.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we're looking, though, with this class, is it possible to construct a case where another one of these pictures could surpass a healthy backswitting?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's possible, yes, JJ, I wouldn't want to ever say it's not possible, but it's really hard for me to think through how someone could overtake him if he's healthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: because of everything we've just talked about.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I just don't know that you would ever get to a point where you feel the same comfort level with another picture as you would with a guy like Dax Whitney, but maybe there's a guy like Thomas Villinches who because he's left handed.
[SPEAKER_01]: that that trait allows him to to maybe move up there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But even as I'm talking about it, it feels like I'm kind of forcing myself to give a best case for someone.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think if the qualifier is Whitney's healthy, it's it's very hard for me to actually believe that's going to be the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: To lay this out, Crystal of Onus, who is not even our number two on this, but to just give you an idea of how good the pitching for this class is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chris Levonis is sitting 97 to 98 has touched 101 himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has also kind of like five, you know, he has five pitches to the throws, a solid slider, he's got a cutter, he's got a change up, like he's got a curve ball,
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a truly, pretty polished, starting pitcher who is dominating in the ACC, who has a track record of himself and to go back to what you're saying, like he is someone who you're not saying, oh, you're hoping that he'll ascend to that kind of role, as a, you know, like, but he was a little bit more traditional in that he was kind of more in that pen role as a freshman whereas Whitney was like the ace of the staff.
[SPEAKER_00]: second round pick like talent out of high school like he has all this track record as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that I don't think anyone can pass a healthy backs with me unless decks with me backs up, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you could, if just decks with me, if you said he has not improved one eye out of for what he is right now to this time, I mean, to draft a in 2027.
[SPEAKER_01]: Essentially, if he does, we'll rock to Laoski seems to be doing in 2026.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that Rock is made a huge stride this year, but he's been basically the same player he was a year ago, and that's going to be enough to cement himself into one one this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the same is probably true for Whitney.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he just comes out again and is the same picture, it's very hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, someone would have to take a massively, I don't know,
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe like a multiple grade jump in command for crystal bonus because like you said he's throwing incredibly hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does have a ton of second areas that are all swing and mispitches for me right now as I look at that sweet and crystal bonus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like the command piece for Whitney is a little bit ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: So maybe maybe for Chris if you're making the case for me say okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: The control has been fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like maybe a little bit erratic.
[SPEAKER_01]: A year ago, now it's gotten quite a bit better.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the secondaries and the fastball command, I'll just take a huge jump.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you have two pitchers who are kind of at the decks with any level.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, okay, which one you're going to take the one with more track record, or the one who's made these gains.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, for me, I think it's more like, at some point, we'll probably just have to work down the list and talk through why all these other guys are so exciting because even if they're not going to surpass,
[SPEAKER_01]: DAX would need it's it's got it we're looking at like a chance to have a historic college pitching draft next year.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like Chris Levonus is our third rated college pitcher in next year's class and I could absolutely
[SPEAKER_00]: multiple years where you could say if you put him in that year's draft class, he would be the number one college pitching class.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think you could go down the list like it William Schmidt, Landon Mack, Ryan McPherson at Mississippi State is a workhorse starter who's locked down this Friday roll.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had he missed a few starts with I'm not sure what the specifics are of the injury, but like his strike throwing, his power, the diversity of his pitchmix is exceptional,
[SPEAKER_01]: Jackson Barbary of Florida again right now or in Ethan Lund at Florida Oklahoma state in the middle of this list like all these guys are archemenists I really do think you can go down the list Maybe Ryan McPherson would be the last name.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say but the top seven on our board I feel like in a typical year all have the talent where they would have had a case as the top college arm going into their draft year and then also JJ I know this has been a very pitching heavy focus, but that's what okay one to ask you that question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, which is
[SPEAKER_00]: at the same time, just and we're just focusing on the college class.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you said, there's also some very interesting, especially one very interesting high school prospect in this class.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to go back to the way we talked about the Whitney versus Rock Chalowski, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two on our board.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had of most of these, most of these very fascinating pictures is Florida Shore Stop Brendan Lawson, who
[SPEAKER_00]: is leading the SEC and on-base percentage and is far from slugging percentage in the SEC as a sophomore short stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it possible because just of, for all we just talked about with Whitney, could this be an interesting debate of who's the first college player off the board between those two next year because you do have this up the middle long track record of performance short stop
[SPEAKER_00]: like he's a really fascinating prospect too, is he not?
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Brennan Lawson, I feel like on the first few iterations of our college list was the top prospect in the class and part because there's just a lot of comfort we have with his offensive profile with that hip power combination.
[SPEAKER_01]: As a left-hand a hitter who we thought could play the infield.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's really crazy is Brennan Lawson has
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, taking a pretty huge jump, at least in terms of performance, he's done that while moving to shortstop.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was not floored as every day shortstop in 2025.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think entering this year, there were a lot of questions about whether or not he just was a shortstop at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moving forward, him playing that position throughout the spring.
[SPEAKER_01]: This year is going to really help teams add conviction to their defensive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Reviews, I'm still not sold on whether he's definitely a short stop moving forward, but if you feel confident that he can move to third and be a really good defender, which is where I've been on him for probably a few years now after seeing him in high school that's still a tremendously exciting package of power, patience, pure hitting ability.
[SPEAKER_01]: He currently has a 352, 556, 802, slash line.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a 13, 508, OPS, 11 home runs.
[SPEAKER_01]: inverted his strikeout and walk rates this year the strikeout rate down it the strikeout rate excuse me is down a little bit and he's walking a ton more.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably because I wouldn't want a pitch to to Brennan Lawson if I was a team game planning against him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's done everything you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: to see from him, and he's not moving down because of any bad performance.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's only looked with Dax Whitney because basically, everyone we talk to is like, yeah, Dax is the guy right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do think it should be an interesting conversation, because he could be a middle of the lineup left in a hitting shortstop, and that is a very rare profile to have.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was going to say, I was going to add in the left hand and hitting component.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, we just came off of the World Baseball Classic and as someone who's covered with World Baseball Classic every iteration of it, team Canada always had this long-running problem where they didn't have short stops.
[SPEAKER_00]: They actually, now we saw this, you're like, it was better, but Brendan Lawson, who's from Ontario.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brendan Lawson should be team candidates shortstop for like the next 15 years in international play.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, they have never had a guy like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, do you remember, Russ Martin, Russell Martin,
[SPEAKER_00]: As a catcher as a big league catcher was like, I play shortstop for team candidate because he was their best option.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pete or guys like that Brendan Lawson is going to be like, what have we done.
[SPEAKER_00]: We actually have because, you know, this Every Canadian hitter feels like this left hand hitter, but because they all play hockey, but this left hand hitting shortstop, we could be at the middle of the order bat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, who has a track record now and the thing about him is
[SPEAKER_00]: You said, the hitting is improving.
[SPEAKER_00]: The power is some of the best.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a sophomore, he hits the ball as hard as consistently as basically anyone in the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot find a,
[SPEAKER_00]: and you cannot find a 2026 college draft prospect in this class who is clearly at a great above when it comes to productive college power.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what Brendan Lawson is doing right now and he's still got another year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this, we don't want to get over, like you said,
[SPEAKER_00]: We're at the point where you're looking at, though, you know, your, your new place and you're like, you haven't seen any of the flaws yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just the shiny new toys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the honeymoon period for the 27 class.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the shine, the toys are really shiny in the 2020.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're really, really impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: I does feel like the other thing I would say about this is we've talked a little bit up pictures.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a so much more.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoy this, go to baseballamerican.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got right up for the top 100.
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing that stands out to me though is when you talk about the college hitters in this next class versus the pictures, past Whitney, I feel like that there's this group of pictures who can all move all around and all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like
[SPEAKER_00]: is probably more at kind of like a little bit of a separation from a Gavin Kelly from a Landon Harrison.
[SPEAKER_00]: Landon Harrison, by the way, having a landon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Incredible season.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're talking about a guy who's, again, maybe he's not a pro shortstop, although as we just said, teams feel really good about their ability to improve
[SPEAKER_00]: middle of the order bat, you think who can play, provide a lot of defensive value versus Harrison, who's a pure outfielder, and maybe a corner, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's to me where there's like a definite separation here that we don't see as much post after Whitney on the pitching side.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, that's all fair.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think Landon Harrison is maybe one of the more impressive disc hitters.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen this year folding in the 26s as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll be really curious to see how much scrutiny is placed on his defensive profile and how much the battle just overwhelmed as concerns because he is a tremendously impressive hitter.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, that's something a perfect way to wrap this up, which is to say, let's just do, I'm putting this completely on the spot, but we'll just do this real quick, which is, OK,
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's look at colors.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take the high school guys out of it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but let's just draft a top five and we're saying that we're rolling this year's class and next year's class both into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: One one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you picking?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are we back going back and forth?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be picking.
[SPEAKER_00]: You make a pick and I'll say if I agree with you or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go rock one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, I would agree with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, you are talking about, okay, two.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we both know who's two.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Whitney's two, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two, three, Brendan Lawson.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to think too much about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even think like the best other college hitters we have in the class are Justin LeBron, Vaughn, Lackey, Ace Rees, Chris O'Copian, Brendan Lawson at a different, I feel like he's at a different strata than those guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he is, like we're talking about two SEC short stuff, Justin LeBron and Brendan Lawson,
[SPEAKER_00]: Brendan Lawson is a year younger, but he has a much longer track record.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say of hitting, then LeBron does.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, we got Rock.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got Dax.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got Brendan Lawson.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's for you?
[SPEAKER_01]: My for is, I probably go Von Lacky.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm going to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this is going to be wrong because I would make
[SPEAKER_01]: I was not wrong with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, go with a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit more okay, but you know, but okay, so I'd say that what about five for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Five for me is, so if I took Lackey, I would either be taking Valentius or Levonus, probably, I'd probably take both of those over Jackson's Laura.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would take that over.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would, I think what I'm saying is is like, so basically if you have officially gasped up the 27 class, JJ, we've sufficiently hyped it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now next year at this time, I'll be talking about how 2021 looks so great compared to 27.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will tell you right now if it does something has changed because I know like this was maybe that is what you should underline because every year things change.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything but okay we're just putting in a little time capsule.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's great thing about doing a podcast right is that we can say we can go back and look and say what was the feeling at the time?
[SPEAKER_00]: I will tell you right now the feeling of the 28 class right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: is a wonderful reminder of how this does change because there are, it is like, okay, that's actually a useful other way to wrap this up, which is to make the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we are doing our 26 list, we are lining it up with an incredible amount of feedback from industry sources, right, because that's what they're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're having to evaluate and
[SPEAKER_00]: when it comes to the 27 and the 28 classes as we do this, we have to take a little bit of a different approach because we get feedback.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're getting industry feedback, like you said, especially at the top of the list, it's not hard to find people who have opinions about DAX Whitney and Brendan Lawson and all.
[SPEAKER_00]: But,
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a little bit different from a standpoint of like we kind of they're more getting well getting feedback much more in ranges I would say right like well these guys are just none of them are really focused on those players so like they're seeing them they're taking notes on them the areas cause want to have history but the that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The emphasis is on 26 players and so unless you're talking to a scout who and not all teams have these roles now and some of them have been cut, unless you're talking to a scout that's specifically trying to line up under class players, there's just not a lot of people who have been focusing on that everyone's just focused on 26 that's kind of how it works and so we have less feedback from scouts with the sort of granularity and specificity that we do with 26 and so for us that does mean that what we personally think is driving the list a little
[SPEAKER_00]: Dan or current in your class it, but we've got a lot of data to work with we do talk with people like you said There's a lot of performance names this names and ranges and then we say okay, now let's try to line this up Right, but what's to say about it is is that the useful part of doing this is is when you get to the 28 very few players because that that is the freshman right now, right like that is the and
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to go very down, look, far down a list to where you are either talking about you were lining up players who are in very small roles for major programs or players who are getting more playing time at smaller programs, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that is something where you are in the 40s and 50s on this list.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were talking about guys who's like, they have not taken that step yet, where it's like, okay, that's a weekend rotation guide.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to be there one day, but they're right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are the guys who's pitching either a midweek starter or much more often, like a bullpen guy right now who will then blossom into that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or it's the DH right now who's going to be their catcher next year kind of friend where there's a lot more of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, we are kind of gassing up like I think when we just did that, we would say that if you said you could put the college players from this year's class
[SPEAKER_00]: We would take either between three and four of the 27's out of five compared to one to two of the 26's.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's that's interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is a useful exercise.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think if we went further, I don't think it changed much because I do think that we would be like getting to the case in Evans and the William Smith's pretty quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like some of the 26 hitters I think on my college side a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I do think that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you said, like, Gavin Kelly versus, again, I'm taking Bond Lacky, I'll take, you know, like there's more, yes, there are more bats at that point.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you're going to talk through, though.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's fun to talk to through.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the other thing about all of this is,
[SPEAKER_00]: It is useful to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is useful to look ahead, not because what we're saying right now is going to be how this looks 15 months from now.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it does, it is useful to be thinking about the fact that, okay, like when you're looking at this 26 class, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: When we're talking about that, there's a lack of college pitching.
[SPEAKER_00]: It kind of does like teams, organizations, you don't want to force things.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do want to take guys who you think you can develop and all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a year for now, like if you said over the next, like these drafts affect a decade of an organization, not just a year,
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing you've got this much pitch in coming next year, maybe it is even a little bit more of like if you like the bats in this class go a little hit hit or heavy this year, knowing don't worry we can come back and and be a little picture of the next year again, just an idea just a fun talk about anything else we haven't covered on this Carlos so you want to roll into.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I think we kind of covered it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just encourage people again.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got our 27 colleges out with reports.
[SPEAKER_01]: Really great work from the whole team, Jeff Ponce, Jacob Rudner, pitching in to help with this.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got the 28 top 50.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you want to just get a picture of just where the college talent is at this stage, they're both up to this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: So enjoy those reports for PSP, where's we?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that was,
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the draft podcast for this week looking at the 2027 class.
[SPEAKER_00]: Four Carlos Colazzo, I'm JJ Cooper, so long everybody.