[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: J. J. Cooper Carlos Closso, a baseball American draft podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We took a week off last week, but we're back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we had a little bit of rest in recovery time.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll not really, but we did, we were covered and did other stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we were back this week and it's important week because
[SPEAKER_00]: The 2020 sixth draft is officially in the books now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had the signing deadline.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're recording this a couple of days before it releases, but Monday of this past week that we recorded this, we had the signing deadline.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna kind of just hand this over to you because you've been doing the crunching the numbers, pulling out the tip of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll just start with,
[SPEAKER_00]: It was very similar to normal expectations, which is, we've been saying it now for really the entirety of the kind of feel like the 2020s battle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously the 2020 draft will be the only draft probably for a very long time where you say everyone signed, but five round draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we say every year, don't get too caught up on, oh, is this player going to decide?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just assume they will, almost without fail, they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Logan Schmidt, Adenak, only two players in the top 12 rounds who did not sign.
[SPEAKER_00]: Carlos, like, big picture what did you kind of take away from this and what are kind of some of the interesting nuggets that you learn from it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, big picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I will say with that signing rate that you mentioned, there were at least some elements this year that could have created some changes there.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about some of the reasons for that the NIL increased college eligibility, how that would factor out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nope, it's more of the same teams are doing their homework on who they're signing.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are connecting with the players before they make them the pick largely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Teams know exactly how much money is going to teach player before we get close to signing deadline and Getting close that deadline is just making the deals official Maybe a few players haggling for a little bit more here and there Teams deciding how much into their pool if they want to go, but this year
[SPEAKER_01]: team spent more than 400 million on bonuses on players who were selected in the first 20 rounds more than that if you include all the money that is going to the undrative for agents which we had a huge other update for that tracker.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once we got the official numbers like you mentioned just two players in the top 10, top 12 rounds who didn't sign, but top 10 rounds is the the round range we're focused on for for not signing players where that actually comes as some
[SPEAKER_01]: penalties or some limitations for the teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then beyond that, I thought it was interesting to see this year 23 teams, spend at least 4% over their pool.
[SPEAKER_01]: So vast majority of the teams, if you, if you want to look at the draft, almost every single team understands the value that is created here, they maximize their pool.
[SPEAKER_01]: This year 11 teams spent to the full 5% overage if you're
[SPEAKER_01]: We had one team who spent their exact pool.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was Pittsburgh to the dollar.
[SPEAKER_01]: They spent their exact pool.
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't go over it Six teams didn't spend their full pool.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess I can mention those specific teams the Marlins the twins the Mariners the Cardinals the Royals and the debacks did not hit 100% of their pool And then maybe the most interesting team in terms of like how are you spending in the draft this year?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think are the Rockies
[SPEAKER_01]: This year, they spent 4.9% over their pool.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is not full.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, celebrate for the Rockies, very clear.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm calling you out, Twinschains.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm calling you out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, JJ is talking about now, the twins are now the only team in the bonus pool era that has never spent north of their pool.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just to reiterate here, if you spend up to 5% over, the only penalty you pay is additional tax on that overage, so it doesn't come with pick penalties.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's essentially, are you willing to spend as much as you can possibly spend on the draft?
[SPEAKER_01]: Almost every team, as you just heard, 23 teams at least 4% over.
[SPEAKER_01]: do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not doing it is essentially giving away value, and the twins are the only team now that the Rockets have gone over to never go over their pool and the bonus pool era.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are my top level takeaways.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just going to emphasize again, I called this out before that's like what I would say about that is, is like, look.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess, I'm calling out twins on her ship early.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I say that, not the twins, like the only people are deciding that are generally the people who are cutting everyone in the draft room would like to spend as much money as they possibly can to be clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, and let me be clear, we're not talking about, oh, you're going to get an extra three players out of this for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what we're talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we are talking about, you've tied one hand slightly behind your back because you are not
[SPEAKER_00]: You are basically saying we are going to unilaterally disarm by 4.9% of our bonus pool.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the 4.9% overage compared to other teams.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we just, as you just laid out, not every team does it every year, that's not what we're talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: But 29 out of 30 teams have done it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, the only penalty for it is, you're not just gonna pay, if you go over by 150,000, or by 500,000, or whatever that 4.9% is, then you're gonna pay a tax on that on top.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing else.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no draft penalties, no, you lose the ability to do this or anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is just, no, we don't spend that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I did want to ask one other before we kind of get into the bigger picture stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: The two who did not sign, I would say let's especially focus on Logan Schmidt, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Adenacs a little different, a little later round.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that I've gotten like questions from viewers,
[SPEAKER_00]: asking like so they really screwed up here right and I just want to kind of lay out for like that I just don't follow the logic here because if you said they lose the pick I would completely agree with you right like yes everyone else figured out signing they didn't and so wow they really screwed up.
[SPEAKER_00]: If this was you know like well we just failed to sign our second round
[SPEAKER_00]: but the way that the draft rules work.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I'll lay out the scenario and you kind of tell me how, you know, like, there comes a point with players where sometimes you could just say, like, the example I'll give on this is, hey,
[SPEAKER_00]: But the example that really stood out was J. Groen years ago, where it's like, there was a team, you know, we knew that the pod rays were trying to float J. Groen down the board and then a team, the red sock just said, okay, we're taking them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they had no idea about signability at that point, but their logic was the talent here is such.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think we'll be able to sign them and they knew in the back of their head if we don't, we'll get one pick later next year.
[SPEAKER_00]: So no real significant penalty.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like was Schmidt here, yes, they clearly did not establish a number for everything we understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: There wasn't like, there was an agreement and then something fell through and he liked that.
[SPEAKER_00]: They basically looked at and said, on talent, this guy is better than this spot, this guy we can get, they took a chance, it didn't work out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because of that, they didn't sign their second round pick.
[SPEAKER_00]: but as we just laid out, okay, so they get another pick next year, this one pick later.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the penalty to them is a time penalty of you won't have access to that player for this year, but beyond that, it's just like not really a long term, like big hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there anything I'm mistaking there, or that viewpoint of it, like, how do you see it?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the only way something like this can be super negative for a team is if you mess up this pick with unprotected picks that don't come with beneficial picks and I believe it's the top three round picks are all protected.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you don't sign those round players, you get a pick next year, this spot after you're drafting.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is set up in a way to wear really for teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a low risk scenario.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because, like I said, you get a pick next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a time penalty, maybe you did really like the player and you really would have like to sign them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in terms of the value you're getting next year, you'll recoup that value.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think there are scenarios where
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are creating overslot savings for a specific pick that you don't sign, you need to have fallback options or else you've just created more money that you don't have anywhere to spend.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what happened with the Metz when they drafted Kumar Rocker several years ago, not only did they not signed Kumar Rocker,
[SPEAKER_01]: because of the medical situation, but they created savings in the first place in order to sign him and then they did not have fallback players later in the draft to push that savings towards.
[SPEAKER_01]: The way Cleveland operated this year is picture perfect for how you would want to do it if this wasn't going to happen because they did have an 11th rounder, Jacob Bean,
[SPEAKER_01]: who they were able to push extra money towards.
[SPEAKER_01]: They signed him for $200,000, $50,000 over, and they still excuse me, spent the full 5% overage on their pool, which now comes less their second round-picked value, which is 1.59.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in terms of the players, they were able to sign and the money they were able to spend, they maximized what they were able to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's the scenario from the team side, where you're
[SPEAKER_01]: you obviously wanted the player you would have liked to be able to sign him there because Logan Schmidt at 59 as you said JJ would have been a tremendous value first round talent for Logan Schmidt it will be interesting to see what he decides to do moving forward sounds like he's still debating on whether or not he wants to honor the original commitment to LSU that would be three years later for him to be draft eligible again or go to the Jukeau route I think that will be fascinating for for it's own reasons but yeah that that's kind of how I'm using the pick now
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the other point I want to make with that is like you just lay that right like yes you are completely right Clearly the guardian is kind of approach this
[SPEAKER_00]: And you could say, like, either way you want to say it, they basically just took a chance on the possibility they could sign Schmidt to what you just said.
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't line up.
[SPEAKER_00]: They lined up money to make sure they could sign Savion Sims in the seventh round, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, they same gave him a million dollars.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they knew that they were gonna have to create bonus pool, you know, about to sign him for a mill.
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew they needed 50k to go to being.
[SPEAKER_00]: However,
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing about this is they were taking a chance, but clearly they also kind of probably knew the way they structured this.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's also a pretty good chance they're not gonna sign him because they were essentially saying, your choice is you can sign with us for slot at 59, or you can go to school.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't, hey, I don't know what your number is but we can give you slot at 59 plus X, it was slot.
[SPEAKER_00]: The minute you're doing that, you're just saying, like, hey, there's a chance.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if not, what you just said, now next year's pick if I remember my draft rules correctly, will be a unprotected pick for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think you can do it two years or you can't put your pick twice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Correct, correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is not a problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because what they will do next year, I promise you with pick 60,
[SPEAKER_00]: is they will take someone at pic 60 who they have already agreed to a deal with.
[SPEAKER_00]: As they did, they sign every other draftee that they had this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not going to be a problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a minor thing, but I did want again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that there's a misconception out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get it, like if you're used to other drafts that that would seem like a giant whiff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, the the Rams failed to sign their second round pick in the uh, and if I do still think and some, I don't think it's all clear for Cleveland to be clear.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like,
[SPEAKER_01]: If they had taken a different player at that pick, you may be wind up with a better draft.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it is still a bit of a loss.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not entirely, oh, no negatives.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just the way the draft is set up.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is very much to protect the teams for these situations.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, okay, so to go into a little bit more of this, we now have the final, the draft is done, which also means
[SPEAKER_00]: the draft bonuses are all in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would kind of ask with that in either way, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we're trying to as best we can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we're not gonna say that talent lines up exactly based off of bonuses, because obviously, if you were a college senior, you're not in the same leverage.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a draft eligible sophomore, you can maybe make a little bit more sometimes at a junior.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's all kind of a little bit of caveas to this.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, as you've noted before, as you've mentioned on the pod before,
[SPEAKER_00]: How the draft lines up bonus wise is a little bit more of a read on how the talents lined up than where they're picked because we saw it again this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you have, you know, there's leverage and all that, but when people say, well, Zion Rose was a shock that he went where he went.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you look at his bonus, he got paid.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there are a lot of, there are a number of players who went after him who got paid a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got paid more.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what surprised you either way and from the bonus pools?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there are a couple that I want to go to quickly, but I think the Zion Rose one is actually a good one to start with because when he was selected Sixth overall, we'd heard some whispers of his name.
[SPEAKER_01]: I assume this was going to be a significant underslot deal It was an underslot deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was not an underslot deal anywhere close to the degree that I expected it to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was the toughest bonus
[SPEAKER_01]: exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, and for some context too, here, he was paid $5.8 million, AJ Grossia, who went a couple of picks later, who felt like much more of an on-the-board selection for where he was taken.
[SPEAKER_01]: He signed for just $4 million.
[SPEAKER_01]: That gap doesn't make any sense to me in terms of like where we viewed the talent, where we ranked the players, the deal I was expecting Kansas City to get
[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, the Royale's really valued sign rows at a high level.
[SPEAKER_01]: Much more than just, hey, we're trying to create savings here.
[SPEAKER_01]: They like the talent.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, they're going to take the first overall pick.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're going to like the talent, if whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: They take even if it comes with some savings.
[SPEAKER_01]: But,
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very fascinated by Zion Rose now because of that money.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the opposite end, I wouldn't say the opposite end.
[SPEAKER_01]: But another pick that surprised me pretty significantly and this was the quote unquote worst value in a piece we did earlier this week, looking at the best and worst values.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you layer on MLB slot values to our draft rankings, I go into the details of like,
[SPEAKER_01]: how this works some of the caveats, how it is a little bit crude, but Carson Wiggins for me, the Metz first round pick at number 27 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: When this pick happened in real time, it was surprising to me because Carson Wiggins was not a name.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had heard and mentioned much at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: around the first round.
[SPEAKER_01]: We ranked him just outside of the top 100 for us, and so when it happened, I was like throwing a little bit, I was like, huh, there are a lot of other college pitchers still in the board.
[SPEAKER_01]: I expected to maybe go in this range, check or Dell who went just after, Taylor Raeib, Tegan Coons, all those names would have made a ton of sense to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Carson Wiggins goes in front of those players.
[SPEAKER_01]: He also signs.
[SPEAKER_01]: for more than all of those players.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gets slot value at that pick with the signing contingency.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was shocking to the 24th largest bonus in the class.
[SPEAKER_01]: The pick was surprising, but I could rationalize it in my head in real time, because the stuff is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're taking a big shot on the upside.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get that, I expected it to be an under-slot, the all expected it to come with a lot of savings for the Metz.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Kudos to Carson Wiggins, doesn't throw a single pitch this spring.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he has 14 collegiate innings under his belt to get that signing bonus as a massive win for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then in the opposite direction, the other big one I want to point to, and I'll maybe throw out two.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just because I feel like it'll be an interesting conversation to start with you, but Saw your Strow Snyder for $2.1 million is far in a way the biggest value in terms of our board where we rank Strow Snyder where he actually was selected and was signed for, I mean, $2.1 million is a lot of money.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our board would have valued him at $5.6 if you were just slapping on slot values to our rankings.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a $3.56 million difference more than anyone else.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've talked about a lot on this podcast to how I'm really excited about so you're Strosanite, part of me is like questioning whether I should be, but I also just still buy into the athlete and the tools enough to think this is a great deal for the brewers and then I'll also add in here and you can pick on whichever one of these you want to go in, JJ or throw out any other ones that surprise you, but Jacob Lombard, I think we have to mention as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: We heard of him as a potential slider,
[SPEAKER_01]: But when he went to the marlins, I think a lot of people probably expected this to be an overslot deal, just given where he was ranked on consensus, the talent, he goes into the middle of the first round and then signs for stealing underslot deal at 5 million, but that's the second biggest
[SPEAKER_01]: value for us if you're you're slapping slots onto rankings.
[SPEAKER_01]: So take that wherever you want to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to take that a couple directions including the topic we want to say like what we've learned from this draft trends we saw on this draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is kind of the key part of this and we'll get to that
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that this kind of hives into the biggest trend, I would think that we've recognized from this draft, which you could also throw into, we always try to learn from the draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we're not gonna have everything perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we did right, we looked at what we did right, what we did wrong, we're gonna get in some of the more that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of those players, though, I think are tied to the component, which is, I think this is smart on team's part.
[SPEAKER_00]: Teams, if you ask for what was a big picture flashing red signal from this, you know, siren, whatever, it was, yeah, if you've got a hitter, hit tools over power, if you've got a hitter and you're like, I don't know about the power, but you can really hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was thumbs up in this draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: The flip side, I would say, Stroke Snyder and Lumbard.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about on the podcast, like risk factors with draftees, and we talked about Lumbard.
[SPEAKER_00]: How Lumbard if we basically said, like if Lumbard is going to fall in this draft, it will be because of his contact rate concerns, and you listed off a list of somewhat frightening comparisons with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stroke Snyder, overall contact rate.
[SPEAKER_00]: His contact rate and his chase rate were the concerns, really, with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so clearly teams, if you say, OK, well, even if you say OK, compare that to the other out filters and where they went, one of the things I would say with that is in hindsight, some of the players who were surprised by Zion Rose,
[SPEAKER_00]: Strowstider is a tool like tools-wise is just a different type of player than Rose, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But Rose does have a better bat to ball skills than Strowstider, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes a lot higher than obviously he's not the only one, but we saw Drew Burris go quite like we saw guys who
[SPEAKER_00]: The overall thing it seems like we saw now and kick it back to you is over and over in this class.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way I would say it is is when you saw guys go higher, get more money than we expected.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was almost always position player wise.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was, they love the hit tool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if there are questions about it, it would be tools, but a lot of times it would be, how much is the power of there?
[SPEAKER_00]: The flip side of that is the guys were like, that guy's still on the board, that guy hasn't gone yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those were generally guys, I would say, who it was like, yep, that guy's still on the board.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you say, well, why is that the answer would be because there's contact concerns, the hit tool might not be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't want to bring up a couple other examples.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we heard that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was about to go through them if you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kai had one is one that comes to mind for me as a weird one.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like, because his performance numbers don't even match it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like, obviously we saw like Jake Shaftard.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jake Shaftard got one hundred thousand dollars less than Sawyer Stroke Snyder.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we'd have ever imagined that coming into the draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Nick go through some of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think so.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if you look down our board and this happened in real time on the draft, we were kind of waiting for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when it was happening, it was pretty clear at the profiles that were falling and the profiles that were going earlier.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had inverse skills and offensive traits that you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Ryder Hellfrick,
[SPEAKER_01]: He's in our top 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: He slips to 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jacob Lombard, who we mentioned, he slips to 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: So your Stroke Snyder slips into the second round, Daniel Jackson, a guy who had a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't say Daniel Jackson slipped, but he had some, mentions that potential first round.
[SPEAKER_01]: He went around where we ranked him, which is why has a day say he slipped because I think this is more true.
[SPEAKER_01]: We maybe were more on top of his question marks and like relatively where he was going to, here's why he's list.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, correct.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of this, too, is that it's regular for a lot of the high schoolers to get paid more because you kind of have to pay them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I've said, even though in college guys, he got less than, you know, like you would expect at that spot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Going beyond them, Caden Cerrell was another one 62 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would strike out rate concerns.
[SPEAKER_01]: He slipped a lot further than we expected him to.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other one I want to mention here and I haven't even gotten to him on the board because he fell so far, but Aden Robbins third round.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're looking at service level stats, even a strikeout rate for his career, it's not really too jarring and hate for a high average.
[SPEAKER_01]: She didn't strike out a ton, but there were underlying contact questions that didn't help him model super well and led to more pure hit tool concerns and risks.
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are the ones that all stand out to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: potentially there could be a few others.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about, but I do think the overall trend of this use draft is that more than any other draft we've seen, universally, teams seem to covet, prize and value and pay hitters with contact skills and they were scared of hit tools in a way that I don't know that we've seen
[SPEAKER_01]: to this level because in previous years, we've had some teams like the Orioles, take a shot on a Vans Hanika.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had some of these polarizing profiles get selected and maybe you could even say, oh, that's still happened this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jacob Lombard goes in the first round.
[SPEAKER_01]: Justin LeBron doesn't fall too far and I do think part of this is,
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of the hit tool risk that was taken high, they play shortstop and they play catcher.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I do wonder if there is just a bit more tolerance for teams to take those profiles, if you're a shortstop or a catcher because the difference in defensive value for those players compared to a college outfielder is fairly significant.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think moving forward the takeaway is,
[SPEAKER_01]: while I think we've mentioned this and been aware of it and I think personally are quite scared because we've done the studies in the research.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we're reflecting these players on our board, we should be more skeptical of hit tools and hit concern and hit risk than we have been in the past.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even for split decisions like an Eric Booth and a Jacob Lombard, part of me internally throughout the spring was like, oh, I personally like Eric Booth, but that's not enough to warrant him going higher.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in kind of deciding some of these players who are in the same tier, in future years, leaning towards the player that makes more contact, I think is probably a safe take away from how teams operated this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: To give you an example, I'm going to kind of spring this on you and let you kind of just, I'm looking at this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So going to our, we do the tools grades for everyone in the top 200.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just slaughtered it by outfitters to kind of go to your point, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So here are the outfielders
[SPEAKER_00]: sub 50 hit tools, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So our number of one ranked one with Sawyer Stroke Snyder.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just talked about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our number two is Caden Sorrell.
[SPEAKER_00]: You talked about him and Eden Robbins, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Andrew Williamson was at 48.
[SPEAKER_00]: Noah Willes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He goes 68.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blake Bowett.
[SPEAKER_00]: Noah Willes and Blake Bowett.
[SPEAKER_00]: Will Gasparino at 80.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did Gasparino go?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a little later.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he went in the fifth round.
[SPEAKER_01]: So no Wilson, not drafted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, again, obviously they're getting paid too, but okay, correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Roberts, Jr. 94, I think that one actually we're kind of at least in the range as we're the.
[SPEAKER_01]: He went in the fourth round, one ten, a couple, I mean in that would, yeah, that one makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another guy that we got, all the questions, why did Colin Richie not, you know, go, why did he not, one of nine on the list?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, again, you just go down the list like other guys who were like, okay, we had Brady Harris at 154 that guy, yeah, kind of expected him to get to college.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the other 35 Caden Bogun pool, I think he actually went recently, well, do not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he went in a good spot.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was 64th overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, to the fillet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was taking a couple of these guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: But so the overarching point of this being, though, is that that is, I would say that's the biggest trend we saw this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that especially when you come to that first position, it's like, hey, the bar is higher.
[SPEAKER_00]: The bar is higher.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I will go back to.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think teams are right on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that this is a trend that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: The problems of all of this is we talk about so over and over.
[SPEAKER_00]: The draft is a slow feedback loop, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You draft players and you'll see what they do for the next two, four, six, eight years and then you realize what you're going wrong and what directions, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're always looking backwards, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would say with that, that one of the things that we have absolutely found is when you take those chances on that power, a lot of times it doesn't work out, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you say like, if you go back a few drafts and I'll kind of, you know, like, I think this is the thing that we're going to probably spend more time kind of camped out on than anything else in this, you know, kind of as far as the topics.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'll ask you, you've done a lot of these drafts for us now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I feel like every year we get a little bit more hesitant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I will tell you right now, I was more worried about Jason Flavio that last year than I would have been about that guy in 2019, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, just from a, here's what I think kind of way, here's my viewpoint on it, having looked at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can even like when we talked about the minor league side, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just worried about Nolan Schubart, who was a power dude, a couple of years ago in the draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: It, in the minors, guys who produce even gotty and just leave some minors at Homer's right now, and I'm still worried about him because of his contact race, which are, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll just feel like we have a better way to more.
[SPEAKER_01]: granularly 0.2 Y players strike out and it mostly just comes down to are you capable of making contact or not and we have a much wider dataset of that for college players for high school players even at this stage for minor league players we have now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Had a few years to see, okay, what do the players who struggle as amateurs in this department?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do they improve improbable and it does seem to be like largely teams are operating under the assumption that they can help improve bat speed, they can help improve strength, they can help improve approach, they can help.
[SPEAKER_01]: improve angles like bad at ball angles that can help improve a lot of that and it does feel like contact is kind of the one area that is more innate.
[SPEAKER_01]: You either have the hand-eye coordination, either can make contact or you can't and it's a lot harder to build up that skill and develop it at the next level.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like, hey, if you're not making contact in college against this
[SPEAKER_01]: either maintain your current rates or improve them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very hard sell.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the players who do make those jumps are probably extremely rare.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so teams are going towards profiles that they just feel more comfortable with, who have weaknesses that they feel like they can more easily develop at the next level.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's my large type.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just called up our 2023 draft board.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best player in the top 200
[SPEAKER_00]: Star, he's a star, no one McLean, he's a star, but he also is a star pitcher now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You should have stopped hitting in college.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's a picture now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chance to make contact.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you said, like, okay, well, who are the guys who were in the top 100 from that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Eric Potonti, Mac Horvath, Grant Gray, Malia, who in a George Wolko.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brandon Winnaker, Cole Carrig, Will Gasparino.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cole Carrig, I would say, has improved that hit tool.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would say, as a general rule, I would say that that's a list where you're like, I don't know about those guys now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like most of those guys, there's still a lot of tools there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let's flip it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ready?
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the 40 or sub power from that group.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, that list, but guys before you were the power
[SPEAKER_00]: 60 hit 40 power we're good in recay Bradfield was to triple I but Dylan had Adrian Santana Luke key show was fifth six of that list I'll go through Mike Bovy, Mitch Jab Roman Martin, Ryan Lasko, Tray Morgan, Alex Mooney, Homer Bush Jr looks slicker, Cole Kerrig also there, Dylan Cup
[SPEAKER_00]: and Boston Barrow in the top 100.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, again, I'm not saying that that's Cooper Engels on the list in the two hundreds.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that everyone after that, you know, everyone who didn't have power ended up being great either.
[SPEAKER_00]: But some of those guys were like also, like defense guys without a hit, like a plus hit tool too.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would absolutely take that list right there, much more than I would take the list of in hindsight, the power guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any other trends that stood out to you as we as, you know, from this draft like anything on the pitching side, the scene different.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think so.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, nothing jumped out to me on the pitching side.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think probably looking into that would maybe be forcing the issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: Little, I do think that would happen, like, you know, yeah, teams have enough differences.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in what they're selecting for pitching wise is kind of interesting to look at like what specific teams seem to be targeting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have a clear overwriting theme for pitchers now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next question I wanted to ask, we'll start with the positives, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We like to examine, and this is not back padding, but we want to learn from each draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we just talked about one of the things that we got.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't even say wrong, but like, it's a trend that is changing, and we're gonna try to adapt to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we get right about this draft, when you look at how the draft lined up, how it's sorted out,
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and I'll throw out some things too because again, it's a little I'm kind of asking hey Carl well draft one you do a good job when a one we got right is we had a rock to last game great Emerson one two in our way to early mock and I think I mean for me and we look we say with the signing bonuses we see how the actual picks went I feel like and it's it's difficult.
[SPEAKER_01]: for me here because for me, I felt like Rochilask is very clearly the top player the entire draft cycle and I didn't feel like there was another player that was better than him and any time that I was deciding between rock or gravy or like the feedback we were starting out, it was always like rock is the number one player.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think there was a lot of noise that we had in the lead up to the draft, either because a prospect for TIG for Rock to Lowski, because he didn't improve significantly on his sophomore season, which was a college player of the year season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are exceedingly rare for sophomores.
[SPEAKER_01]: He came out and was the same player again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I feel like avoiding prospect for TIG with Rock to Lowski was probably an area where
[SPEAKER_01]: We did a good job this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, this is not me patting my back.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, that's just absolutely true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, Rochalowski, you were saying all along.
[SPEAKER_00]: You did, and again, the funny thing about this is is, I will say also a big picture on this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were also at him at all way around that it was not like, but this is,
[SPEAKER_00]: where there is Bryce Harper at one and like anything, or Steven Straussburg at one, where you're like, no one's even anything other than you're taking him one one is just window dressing to try to bring down the bonus.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was like, there was a real debate, there was a real discussion, but at the end of the day, Rock was one.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would also kind of, if I look at it like bigger picture in all,
[SPEAKER_00]: We said that we felt like that this was a draft that no one ever ascended.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, floral is the clear SP1, and then it was like, who's gonna take this, this SP2 crown, and the answer was no one at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, and we saw that in the draft, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we said, this was not a draft or you're gonna see a lot of pictures go high, I was still say I'm surprised it was as much as it was, which was like basically,
[SPEAKER_00]: you really saw, it was a very hit or heavy draft at the top.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's something I think we kind of expected and we saw.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, like at the end of the day, we also, I feel like, I'll throw this out to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we kind of said like that this felt like that it was a group that after you got
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we'll get to the what we got wrong, but once you got past that top tier, it was going to be very jumbled because there just wasn't a lot of separation.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if someone wants to say we got wrong and Zion Rose will own that, like that we did not have them rate as highly as clear the royals did.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the other things I wanted, that group is all kind of really close together.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing I mentioned that, I think we got right.
[SPEAKER_01]: this maybe it's just like how you should read our content in the run into the draft that I do feel like a lot of the pieces, mock drafts, what we're hearing, a lot of that stuff panned out and I think a lot of the big surprises that maybe if you weren't reading our content,
[SPEAKER_01]: would have actually been surprises to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably wouldn't have been if you were reading all of our content.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of what we said has a chance to happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jacob Lombard has a chance to slip a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So your Stroke Snider has a chance to slip.
[SPEAKER_01]: We maybe got wronged the degree that Stroke Snider would have slipped because I didn't think he was going to fall as far as he did.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we were on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were on, hey, don't be surprised if Zion rose go higher than you expect.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we were on the the royals are interested in him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think like general general trends.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're watching the draft on draft day,
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of the big picture movement we were even in Logan Schmidt like being a vault at more volatility with Logan Schmidt that's something we wrote about and in mostly it's just like hey we're continuing to talk to people who are making these decisions we're continuing to have conversations I think where
[SPEAKER_01]: We can transition now until some of the things we got wrong, if you want, unless you had any final comments here.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do think one of my takeaways personally from this year, that I'm going to try to be on top of more moving forward is, there is still a lot of real player movement in the final month.
[SPEAKER_01]: leading up to the draft, even after seasons are over, because evaluations are still happening from the team side.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for my perspective, a lot of my conversations in the run up to the draft in that final month are very targeted to the first round, to top 40 picks, to top 50 picks.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot of mock draft reporting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think there are players beyond that range, we're still moving their stock.
[SPEAKER_01]: pretty significantly that I would like to better capture in our final rankings down the stretch.
[SPEAKER_01]: A few of those players who stand out to me, trait-ebel, 25th to the brewers.
[SPEAKER_01]: We heard him as a consistent riser.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some of these players are just tricky because I do think trait-ebel was straight up a split camp player.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some teams, some teams, and others, he was just not gonna go to, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some teams had him ranked as a potential top 50 type clearly.
[SPEAKER_01]: The brewers had him ranked in that range.
[SPEAKER_01]: They took him 25th overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're trying to get a monopoly on the evil family.
[SPEAKER_01]: The maybe the player that this makes more sense with because throughout the entire cycle, he was a split can't play or but Taj Mahshan.
[SPEAKER_01]: Taj Mahshan is interesting because we ranked him in the
[SPEAKER_01]: second to third round range and pretty consistently mocked him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number 33 to the raise because we just heard the raise were all over him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They take him 33, but he's another one where like half the industry seems to like him in that range.
[SPEAKER_01]: Half the industry is like we'll take him in the third round if he gets there, but he's not going to get there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So ranking those players appropriately is always going to be a pain regardless of like
[SPEAKER_01]: When we're updating the other player that I think had a lot of really strong up era helium that I think in hindsight I would have liked to capture more in our final rankings, but Jack Slidham
[SPEAKER_01]: we did move him up a little bit, I think I would have even like to move him up higher than where we did.
[SPEAKER_01]: But for me, that's a takeaway in a lesson for moving forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is when we get close to the draft, don't miss out on players in the second, third, fourth, fifth round range on our board.
[SPEAKER_01]: That still weren't a lot of movement because it's just hard to
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess have the volume of conversations you need to have to make sure it's all buttoned up as perfectly as you can possibly get it and it'll never be perfect But I wanted to be closer to perfect next year than we were this year along those lines A couple of things with that like as you said like this is hard like I didn't want to ask Oh, Mason Edwards would be the other obvious name.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought Mason Edwards was gonna go higher.
[SPEAKER_01]: He went 47th.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking my him moving up That'd be like a specific player.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that that we got wrong this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay
[SPEAKER_00]: with the guys move up in the final month.
[SPEAKER_00]: How much of that is second looks of what they've done over the season?
[SPEAKER_00]: Does the combine performance do you think play a role?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, when I think it's, well, I think it's all of those.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's combine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's interviews.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's teams getting the time and space away from the season to go over all their profiles and line players up and they're just coming back to one player and they're like, hey, we really like this player with the totality of all these seasons.
[SPEAKER_01]: We still like him better.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they kind of keep getting moved up with their conversations.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think on field at the combine is important.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think summer leagues, there are a lot of high school players that are playing in summer leagues, LA at the cells.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a great example of a player who performed well and just kind of gave teams more confidence.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, being able to react to early Kate performance, early MLB draft league performance, other summer leagues where high school players, college players are taking part in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Any sort of data that teams are able to get on pitchers on hitters.
[SPEAKER_01]: This could be injured guys like Carson Wiggins or Logan Redmond who are able to get on the mountain throw like
[SPEAKER_01]: Those can really move the needle.
[SPEAKER_01]: So really anything and everything that you still, and even if it's no new information, I do think there is still something to the idea of teams having meetings.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there are players who are same with how we talk through players and once we're able to look through everything and have a conversation about the player, we're like, hey, you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we really don't have a lot of flaws or question marks with this player.
[SPEAKER_01]: We like him better after having the conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that element can also be helpful.
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing along those lines that I also think is a thing I learned, you know, what we got wrong or want to adjust for next year is I've got to change something that's been kind of my driving force of like, hey, we're going to have reports for everyone at the top 10 rounds.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as someone who then kind of wrote up the 10th round of all the guys that we're missing in the 10th round, yeah, we're going to change that approach because
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing against guys, congratulations on being drafted in the signing, but like, if you flip it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: When we say the bonuses at the top and how that shows you what teams really think about the talent.
[SPEAKER_00]: The flip side of that is, is that there are a whole lot of guys who got drafted in the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth rounds who are not considered at the same level of prospect as guys who did not get drafted and signed as undrafted for years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so going forward, I don't think it makes sense that we're going to
[SPEAKER_00]: really work hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are the guys we're missing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm not telling you don't miss anyone in the top 10 rounds, but the guys we're missing the top 10 rounds, the vast, the way I would say it, JJ is a lot of those, so our policy currently is like anyone in the top 10 rounds is going to get a report.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in previous areas that made a lot of sense and we're seeing why it doesn't because to JJ's point here, a lot of these players taken in the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th round, they are taking specifically because they are going to take a huge,
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of the times those players are not legitimate prospects, they're more organizational fillers, which no shade to them getting a chance in pro ball, they'll have a chance to change that reputation.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some guys who go on to become legitimate prospects.
[SPEAKER_01]: But basically anyone taking in the 11 to 20 round range,
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say not, I would all have to run the numbers, but I would say 95% of those players are signing for $150,000 or more.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so almost as a blanket rule, you could say any of those players are more legitimate prospects than the senior signs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so our focus and energy spent on adding reports should be towards more of the 11 to 15 bucket probably I would say this right again, like if you said what is a policy we're going to change is like if it's a senior sign we do not have in the fifth round on We're not going to write that player up at that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll let it be because I will tell you right now Again, I'm not trying to pick on a players.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote up players where I'm like
[SPEAKER_00]: This player does not feel like a draft prospect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote up first basement without power who don't hit for average I wrote up pitchers who don't have a standout pitch who are poor performers like things like that and it's like if we said that our new rule like We've really probably should say that we will are going to if we have anyone in the 11th and 12th round that we're missing We're gonna that's where our first emphasis anyone right and 11th round on because every year
[SPEAKER_01]: Team every year seems like the brewers to are the best at this so far.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure they're going to be more teams that do well here, but they're always these high-ed out high school players in that range who are Signable and maybe not every team knew they were signable, maybe not every team scout at them, but those players are
[SPEAKER_01]: just more interesting, more exciting, more tools, even more upside, almost across the board than a lot of the senior sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I also think just from a value ad perspective, for most of the senior signs of plans of teams, really want to know about the senior signs.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of data in surface-level information that you can get on those players yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think
[SPEAKER_01]: creating some more context on who are these high school players in the 11 to 15 range it will probably be more meaningful for the EA readers and that's an area I would like to get more guests upon too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking at it right now as we're doing this I see a couple of guys that are probably worth us still going back in Ryan report on because it's like there's Blank Bain Barker that Barland's 12th rounder got 497,500 sandalwood high right in or out of Florida.
[SPEAKER_01]: It almost should be like it would be nice to have this
[SPEAKER_01]: prior to the signing deadline so we could already get to start working on it but almost like hey anyone who signs for X amount of money is that's the writing part so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Carson Hart, 380k outfitter from Mancato East in Minnesota with with the brewers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like those are guys where it's like
[SPEAKER_00]: to what you just said.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's way more valuable to have a report on those guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something that was seen there where it's like, that guy may be something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I wish the best of luck to the guys who signed for 500,000, 1500.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are not the guys that teams are like we really believe that that guy like to be honest again We saw none undrafted for the age of signing for 200k right like so I just I just looked at some numbers really quickly There are 288 players who signed for at least $200,000 Including the signing bonus contingency
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so for us, that means like anyone who shows up for 2500 under that number on the draft database.
[SPEAKER_01]: A vast majority of those players will already have reports for it, but I do think if you're expanding that out, you're getting into a couple of 11 throunders, 10 throunders, like that, that being the benchmark to hit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I guess we could see how.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what's the number you said was like, did that, that would be 200k basically?
[SPEAKER_01]: 200k seems like a sensible number to start at.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then if we could get closer to anyone for more than 150, that would make sense too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which I always say.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, figuring out a better way to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm counting, there's only 15 players that fit the criteria that we've done of reports on right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the good news is we could expand it a little more than maybe.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the good news is the vast majority of those players, which is what you would expect, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just be honest about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no, we didn't get that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't have a pre-draft report on the guy who signed for $500.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not a do you know how many players we had reports on who signed for at least 150,000 because that's the number anything over that.
[SPEAKER_01]: like that one 50 to 200 ranges, essentially, um, I don't know if there's probably a lot more one 50 that we don't have.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you say over 150, then we're at 23 more, so that will be 40, 48, 38, 38, 38, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, uh,
[SPEAKER_01]: while hesitating to implement some editorial policies live on the podcast, it does feel like one fifty or more next year would be something to make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That makes a whole lot of sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even if we say like, hey, you know, that means that some of them there will be a couple guys who are going to sign, we're going to write up, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And for the deadline, that's fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we also are going to say with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to write up a senior that we, we know is a senior in this draft of the ninth round.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not writing that guy up in less they sign for more money because and we'll hope we'll hope to have a lot of those guys picked off on our senior list because that is still a real strategy teams use and if we can say hey here are the priority guys here are the most interesting college seniors like being able to create value with an interesting player there is still
[SPEAKER_01]: of a gentleman part of the process, but I'm sure getting into the weeds here is probably maybe the place for us in this.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a fun whole draft meeting on the podcast, but but again, I hope the people do understand and I hope you appreciate that we do care about this and that's why we're like,
[SPEAKER_00]: We put a lot of time, there are bags under our eyes, and we are not complaining because this is fun and great to do, but there is a lot of work we put into making sure that
[SPEAKER_00]: we are trying to cover the totality of the draft, not stop when it's pick 50 or pick 100 or pick 150 even.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the whole draft does matter and
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where I would say that it's funny, but we're sitting here and I'm scanning through, and it's like, if you look at past year's drafts and it's like, yeah, if you look at most of the guys that you look at in that 11, 12, 13, 15th round money, you're around to get more money than slot allows.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a lot of these guys, you're like, oh, I don't know, whatever happened to Adler Cecil, the left hander from Tomacula, the podries took in the 19th round in 2023, you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: There's also you go through this, and you're like, oh, but I know what happened to Riku Nishita, who was the 11th rounder for the socks in 2023, who got more than slot and made the majors this year, or Andrew Sears, or Matthew Edsel, or you can just keep going down this list, and there are these guys where it's like, yep, that's, again, as we just said, the bonus is it's not everything because there's leverage, but the bonus amounts do tell you a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, I will say like you're also
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, undrafted free agents who are signed out of high schools still ever known, then, too, which is interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, okay, that is our baseball America Draft podcast for today.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got a little bit of the weeds out at the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hope you don't mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, do check out baseballmerk.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Carlos has all kind of stuff that wrapped up the signing deadline.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in addition to that, like if you're interested in other baseball things, like the Trade deadline, or we have a top 100 update coming next week and top 30 updates coming after that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we got a good sale that doesn't always happen on the website for the trade deadline as well to point a trade deadline sale as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Check that out.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not a subscriber already, there's a way to get in and get in for a little bit less money.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for Carlos, I'm JJ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So long, everybody.