WEBVTT - Draft Podcast: Reflecting On The 2018 Draft 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:01.480 Hello, everybody. 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:05.600 J.J. Cooper, Carlos Colasso, Baseball America Draft Podcast. I say 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:07.160 it every week. I feel like this one really is 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:08.940 going to be a fun one because we are looking 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:13.160 back at the 2018 MLB Draft. The series we're doing 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:15.700 where we're kind of looking back year by year. We 0:00:15.740 --> 0:00:18.430 started last week. If you didn't check out last week, 0:00:18.450 --> 0:00:21.950 we did 2017, which was Carlos' first year helping to 0:00:21.970 --> 0:00:25.970 cover the draft. But 2018, man, this brought back a 0:00:26.010 --> 0:00:28.330 lot of memories. It's almost 2018 now. 0:00:30.290 --> 0:00:32.769 You feel stressed? I feel more excited to talk about 0:00:32.770 --> 0:00:36.529 2018 because like I mentioned last week, 2017 was kind 0:00:36.550 --> 0:00:39.309 of a partial cycle for me. In 2018, I have 0:00:39.370 --> 0:00:42.170 much more vivid memories of these players, kind of the 0:00:42.250 --> 0:00:44.610 cycle as a whole, who I was really high on, 0:00:44.630 --> 0:00:46.309 who I was really low on. It was the first 0:00:46.370 --> 0:00:51.170 year that I covered the draft on MLB Network. John 0:00:51.210 --> 0:00:54.550 and Hudson had left the summer, I believe the summer 0:00:54.570 --> 0:00:57.370 of 2017 or fall, somewhere in that range. So it 0:00:57.390 --> 0:01:00.029 was like me and you Kind of first time, JJ, 0:01:00.610 --> 0:01:04.970 full draft cycle, new people, running the show really for 0:01:04.990 --> 0:01:07.780 Baseball America. And so I have much stronger memories of 0:01:07.810 --> 0:01:10.060 this group. I saw a lot of these players in person. 0:01:11.500 --> 0:01:14.960 And there's plenty of fun storylines to get into. So 0:01:15.020 --> 0:01:15.600 where should we start? 0:01:16.180 --> 0:01:17.780 I'll say, I just want to say like, the reason 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:19.620 I feel stressed is exactly what you just laid out, right? 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.280 Which is that this was the draft. I'll never forget 0:01:22.500 --> 0:01:25.640 right after the draft, day one of the draft ended, right? 0:01:26.500 --> 0:01:29.360 And I think me and you ended up like, struggling 0:01:29.380 --> 0:01:30.720 to find somewhere to eat. I think it was a 0:01:30.780 --> 0:01:32.880 Mexican restaurant we needed. And it was like just the 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.190 relief of like, cause this was the draft. As you said, 0:01:37.230 --> 0:01:39.410 Hudson had been doing the draft for us was gone. 0:01:39.430 --> 0:01:42.230 This was your first year as the lead draft writer, 0:01:43.010 --> 0:01:45.590 John Manuel been editor in chief was gone. And this 0:01:45.630 --> 0:01:48.390 was first year. Like, so I think we both felt 0:01:48.430 --> 0:01:51.760 kind of the enormity of, we can't drop the ball here. 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.820 And again, when the draft was day one was over, 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:57.420 it's like, I don't think we dropped the ball. So 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:02.700 like that, that felt good. But what I would say 0:02:02.770 --> 0:02:07.510 with it is that it also is– I think it 0:02:07.590 --> 0:02:12.489 is both– this draft isn't that far in the background now. 0:02:13.270 --> 0:02:14.889 But I think as we talk through it, I think 0:02:14.930 --> 0:02:17.130 that there's a lot of this draft that if you 0:02:17.169 --> 0:02:20.170 redrafted this now, it's amazing I think how different some 0:02:20.190 --> 0:02:22.660 of this would be. But we should start at the top. 0:02:23.700 --> 0:02:25.860 And if we're going to start at the top, I 0:02:25.900 --> 0:02:28.470 feel like that this was a year– I want to 0:02:28.510 --> 0:02:31.490 get your memories, though, more than mine. So Casey Mize 0:02:31.570 --> 0:02:33.550 was our number one. He was the guy the Tigers 0:02:33.590 --> 0:02:37.169 took him number one. He had a dominant year that 0:02:37.190 --> 0:02:40.850 year for Auburn. Was this a year where we had 0:02:40.910 --> 0:02:43.630 a clear, like, oh, we know who's going number one? 0:02:43.780 --> 0:02:46.940 Or was this more of, is Mize the guy? 0:02:48.260 --> 0:02:50.600 I think Mize became the guy during the spring. It 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:52.700 definitely wasn't a year like 2019 or 2023 where we 0:02:52.740 --> 0:02:59.400 had very obvious college premium position players like Natalie Rutschman 0:02:59.460 --> 0:03:01.410 or Dylan Cruz, who are at the top of the 0:03:01.430 --> 0:03:04.170 board and kind of stuck there wire to wire. We 0:03:04.210 --> 0:03:07.010 didn't have the sort of elite high school player like 0:03:07.050 --> 0:03:09.269 a Bryce Harper, who's like a no doubt obvious. I 0:03:09.310 --> 0:03:12.770 think the summer prior or heading into the summer, it 0:03:12.830 --> 0:03:16.250 was a Bryce Terang is probably this top high school 0:03:16.270 --> 0:03:18.250 hitter in the class. He struggled in the summer. And 0:03:18.290 --> 0:03:20.540 so his stock fell a little bit. We had Brady 0:03:20.580 --> 0:03:23.239 Singer near the top of the board. Throughout the cycle, 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.560 he kind of maintained his status for us. But Casey 0:03:25.580 --> 0:03:29.240 Mize really came out during the spring and established himself 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.100 as sort of the clear top player in the class. 0:03:32.139 --> 0:03:34.370 And so heading into the draft, it was nice for 0:03:34.410 --> 0:03:38.369 me kind of first time mocking it. It felt pretty 0:03:38.410 --> 0:03:40.310 likely that Casey Mize was going to be the player. 0:03:40.330 --> 0:03:42.290 I think we had him projected there. He went there 0:03:43.450 --> 0:03:45.530 and he has panned out reasonably well. Not the player 0:03:45.550 --> 0:03:47.910 you take in hindsight, but if you're looking at one 0:03:47.990 --> 0:03:50.080 one misses, he wouldn't be near the top of that 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.410 list and a number of different demos. And it was 0:03:53.450 --> 0:03:56.450 interesting too, because we hadn't had a draft where there 0:03:56.490 --> 0:03:59.730 was a pitcher going one, one in a few years. Um, 0:04:00.130 --> 0:04:02.130 I think most of the time people obviously want hitters, 0:04:02.170 --> 0:04:04.630 but yeah, I think Casey Mize during the spring with 0:04:04.670 --> 0:04:08.290 his dominance with Auburn that year showing the sort of 0:04:08.350 --> 0:04:10.900 elite wipeout splitter that he had. I remember a lot 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:12.740 of conversations about, Oh, do you want to take a 0:04:12.780 --> 0:04:15.580 pitcher who is so reliant on this pitch? It's like 0:04:15.740 --> 0:04:18.120 more likely to lead to injuries, harder to control. Um, 0:04:18.860 --> 0:04:21.200 but he just had such great stuff, such break, great 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.330 command in such impressive performance that he sort of took 0:04:24.450 --> 0:04:26.730 on that 1-1 role and kept it through the draft. 0:04:28.050 --> 0:04:29.310 I will say, like when you said, like, if you 0:04:29.330 --> 0:04:32.510 did it over, would you pick a 1-1? But I 0:04:32.550 --> 0:04:34.850 think that there's two different ways you can look at that, right? 0:04:34.890 --> 0:04:36.830 You can do the re-rank where you say, now that 0:04:36.850 --> 0:04:39.290 we are here eight years out, who would go 1-1? 0:04:39.470 --> 0:04:42.669 And I think that the more realistic way to do 0:04:42.730 --> 0:04:47.490 that is among the players who were in the consideration 0:04:47.970 --> 0:04:49.890 who would go 1-1. And you could argue on that, like, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.100 We have Brady Singer four on our rankings, and Brady 0:04:53.140 --> 0:04:57.890 Singer has had a better career so far, like less injuries, 0:04:57.930 --> 0:05:03.530 most importantly. You could say that Bryce Terang, who we 0:05:03.550 --> 0:05:05.530 had 14 on our board, but I don't think that 0:05:05.550 --> 0:05:08.830 Bryce Terang really was in any way in the mix 0:05:09.510 --> 0:05:12.520 at 1-1 by draft day. 0:05:12.900 --> 0:05:17.440 So we had Bryce Terang ranked 14th overall. 0:05:20.210 --> 0:05:20.489 Yeah. 0:05:21.050 --> 0:05:23.950 Again, going into the summer, he definitely was in consideration, 0:05:23.990 --> 0:05:25.990 but one of the things that stands out to me 0:05:26.029 --> 0:05:28.230 about this class is, is there something to take away of, 0:05:28.750 --> 0:05:31.610 of the Bryce to ring path and like how aggressive 0:05:31.650 --> 0:05:34.289 should we be in, in knocking players who enter the 0:05:34.310 --> 0:05:37.530 summer as the top and maybe don't live up to 0:05:37.570 --> 0:05:38.010 that hype. 0:05:38.230 --> 0:05:41.299 But the, the other theme here is going to be, 0:05:41.310 --> 0:05:43.440 and also how much do you push up guys who 0:05:43.500 --> 0:05:46.220 seem to be really rising up boards late? We'll get 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.260 into that as well, but, Mize, I would say, I 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:51.300 think you hit on a key part before we go 0:05:51.339 --> 0:05:54.880 on to other guys, is that Mize had the success. 0:05:55.620 --> 0:05:59.030 He took a step forward in his draft year. I 0:05:59.060 --> 0:06:01.970 would say that the biggest knocks on him were concerns 0:06:02.029 --> 0:06:05.750 about the pitch arsenal as far as injuries and concerns 0:06:05.770 --> 0:06:08.370 about the delivery. I think that there were some teams 0:06:08.390 --> 0:06:11.010 who were a little bit more concerned about whether he 0:06:11.050 --> 0:06:14.240 would hold up. And I would say, here we are 0:06:14.300 --> 0:06:18.130 eight years later, I think you could say like, Those 0:06:19.060 --> 0:06:22.380 have been fair concerns. Now, the funny thing about it 0:06:22.420 --> 0:06:24.220 is little did we know, like you said, this is 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.700 where I say the difference of, you say, okay, well, 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.680 who would have gone first overall? Well, Casey Mize ended 0:06:31.740 --> 0:06:34.339 up not being the most important starting pitcher that the 0:06:34.380 --> 0:06:39.210 Tigers drafted in this class. But let's just also be clear, 0:06:39.750 --> 0:06:42.489 like you would have to have perfect clarity, be like, hey, 0:06:42.550 --> 0:06:44.990 this Derek Scouble up at Seattle, who's not pitched a 0:06:44.990 --> 0:06:47.010 whole lot, he's going to be way better than our 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:49.960 number one pick. You didn't know that at the time, 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:56.240 but going kind of beyond one, I feel like that 0:06:56.339 --> 0:06:58.740 this was a top of the class where you had 0:06:58.779 --> 0:07:04.710 a lot of productive college hitters, but a lot of, 0:07:05.690 --> 0:07:08.370 I have the beholder of which one of these guys 0:07:09.130 --> 0:07:11.270 did you want to go with? Joey Bart goes second 0:07:11.310 --> 0:07:16.170 over all the giants. Alec bone goes third. to the Phillies. 0:07:16.390 --> 0:07:19.860 Nick Madrigal goes fourth to the White Sox. Jonathan India, 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:28.020 fifth to the Reds. So that is four college position players, bang, bang, bang, bang, 0:07:28.610 --> 0:07:32.090 right in the row, all of whom have been big leaguers, 0:07:32.630 --> 0:07:39.470 all of whom have had moments. I would say that 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.340 India probably has had the best season of that group. 0:07:42.380 --> 0:07:45.570 Bone probably had the best career so far. I would 0:07:45.630 --> 0:07:50.030 also say, though, none of whom have set the world 0:07:50.130 --> 0:07:50.590 on fire. 0:07:51.990 --> 0:07:52.190 Right. 0:07:52.630 --> 0:07:54.090 What are your memories of this group? 0:07:55.310 --> 0:07:58.570 Yeah, similar. I mean, Joey Bart was maybe the most 0:07:59.210 --> 0:08:02.230 significant up arrow trajectory player that I can remember of 0:08:02.290 --> 0:08:04.150 this group. We didn't start him out in this range 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.830 on the board. Nick Madrigal was always a really fascinating player. 0:08:08.850 --> 0:08:11.070 There were a lot of unique profiles in this class 0:08:11.110 --> 0:08:13.830 and Nick Madrigal, I remember we had really wide ranging 0:08:13.890 --> 0:08:15.850 opinions on him because he was so small and there 0:08:15.870 --> 0:08:18.890 are real questions about his power and those critics of 0:08:18.950 --> 0:08:21.880 Nick Madrigal's power, whether that's going to kind of torpedo 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.220 the sort of value he can have. They've proven to 0:08:24.260 --> 0:08:26.920 be right, I think with what nine years of hindsight 0:08:26.940 --> 0:08:30.400 that we've had now. But he was sort of this 0:08:31.700 --> 0:08:37.570 just really unusual prospect with tremendously impressive contact ability. You 0:08:37.610 --> 0:08:40.270 felt good about the defensive skill and he was always 0:08:40.350 --> 0:08:43.290 near the top. And I think in high, like if 0:08:43.410 --> 0:08:47.270 we had more ability to look at batted ball data 0:08:47.530 --> 0:08:49.880 and this draft, I don't think Nick Madrigal is going 0:08:49.900 --> 0:08:52.679 to go inside the top 10. I wonder if that's true. 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:55.820 That's my kind of hunch. And then the other thing too, 0:08:56.820 --> 0:08:59.560 see Jared Kellinick here is the first player. who's going 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.130 after this run of college bats that you mentioned. The 0:09:03.150 --> 0:09:05.970 thing that stands out to me, maybe the biggest overriding 0:09:06.050 --> 0:09:09.309 theme of this 2018 class for me, and in hindsight now, 0:09:09.350 --> 0:09:13.309 it really stands out. This was a massively well-regarded high 0:09:13.350 --> 0:09:16.500 school pitching class. At the time I was covering it, 0:09:16.550 --> 0:09:19.420 I remember, so it would have been 2017, was the 0:09:19.540 --> 0:09:24.800 summer circuit for these players. The 2017 PG National event 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:29.880 where we saw Kamar Rocker Ethan Hankins, Slade Ciccone. It 0:09:29.940 --> 0:09:34.570 was an eye-opening experience for me. And I remember just 0:09:34.610 --> 0:09:36.170 talking to scouts and they're like, hey, this might be 0:09:36.270 --> 0:09:39.809 one of the better high school pitching classes we've ever covered. 0:09:39.970 --> 0:09:42.930 And if you look at the volume of high school 0:09:42.970 --> 0:09:45.850 pitchers that just went inside the first round and really high, 0:09:45.890 --> 0:09:49.890 you have Ryan Weathers, number seven to the Padres, Carter Stewart, 0:09:49.970 --> 0:09:53.340 number eight to the Braves, Grayson Rodriguez, number 11 to 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:58.910 the Orioles, Cole Wynn. 15 to the Rangers. That's four 0:09:58.950 --> 0:10:03.460 high school pitchers. inside the top 15. That alone feels 0:10:03.510 --> 0:10:07.360 crazy and would be remarkable today. After that, you have 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:09.620 Matthew Liberatore, number 16 to the Rays, who we had 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.400 number two on our board. Both Liberatore and then Brady 0:10:12.420 --> 0:10:15.339 Singer sliding into this middle range was maybe one of 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:19.420 the bigger surprises on draft day. Beyond Liberatore, you also 0:10:19.500 --> 0:10:22.120 have I think we have two more in the top 30. 0:10:22.110 --> 0:10:26.000 Mason Denneberg, number 27 to the Nationals, who Mason Denneberg 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.600 has absolutely not panned out as a pro, but he 0:10:28.660 --> 0:10:31.179 was spectacular as a high school pitcher. I remember being 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.660 really excited about his fastball, curveball, athleticism combo. And then 0:10:34.700 --> 0:10:38.240 JT Ginn, number 30 to the Dodgers. He didn't sign. 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:40.340 One of a couple of players in this first round 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.179 actually who didn't sign, but it stands out to me 0:10:42.890 --> 0:10:45.069 just how much more willing the industry seemed to be 0:10:45.130 --> 0:10:47.830 with taking those players in the first round and probably 0:10:47.870 --> 0:10:51.099 how most of that group hasn't panned out is why 0:10:51.140 --> 0:10:53.380 we don't see that as much anymore. In addition to, 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.600 I think the talent did warrant it at the time, 0:10:56.660 --> 0:11:00.069 but the industry is very hesitant for, for these profiles 0:11:00.490 --> 0:11:02.370 for exactly the reason you see when you line this 0:11:02.850 --> 0:11:08.050 board up in hindsight, who is our most successful outcome 0:11:08.070 --> 0:11:11.219 of that group right now? 0:11:11.270 --> 0:11:13.300 Maybe Ryan Weathers. 0:11:14.059 --> 0:11:14.260 Yeah. 0:11:14.300 --> 0:11:16.679 Ryan Weathers probably would be the guy. Yeah. And none 0:11:16.700 --> 0:11:19.980 of them, I don't think you would take top 30. 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.780 I mean, again, when you say take top 30, if 0:11:22.820 --> 0:11:26.120 you're doing a redraft now with perfect knowledge, yeah. I 0:11:26.220 --> 0:11:29.200 would say like Ryan Weathers has panned out better than 0:11:29.220 --> 0:11:33.780 a number of other guys taken around him from other demographics. But, 0:11:34.490 --> 0:11:36.969 you know, yes, if you said overall, no. And by 0:11:36.990 --> 0:11:38.390 the way, the other thing that is no, like we'll 0:11:38.410 --> 0:11:40.510 get into a lot of other parts of it. This 0:11:40.570 --> 0:11:44.170 is also one of the last classes where players just 0:11:44.190 --> 0:11:49.890 didn't sign. Yep. We have two first-rounders, Matt McClain, JT Ginn, 0:11:49.929 --> 0:11:51.590 out of high school who both don't sign, go on 0:11:51.610 --> 0:11:54.230 to college, and go on to be prominent guys in 0:11:54.270 --> 0:11:58.309 college who get drafted high again. Gunnar Hoglund, same story 0:11:58.350 --> 0:12:03.679 from the supplemental first round. That's Carter Stewart we'll get 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:07.900 into at pick eight. That's a lot more than you 0:12:07.940 --> 0:12:08.640 would see nowadays. 0:12:09.090 --> 0:12:12.270 Yeah, four players in the first 36 picks. If we 0:12:12.330 --> 0:12:14.469 saw that, I don't remember how we reacted to that 0:12:14.630 --> 0:12:16.750 at the time, but like thinking back to that now, 0:12:16.809 --> 0:12:19.189 that's a massive miss rate. And it's also kind of 0:12:19.230 --> 0:12:22.130 surprising because I'm pulling it up now. There were no 0:12:22.190 --> 0:12:24.589 other players inside the top 10 outside of those four. 0:12:24.610 --> 0:12:27.809 So really unusual clustering of like impact players taken high, 0:12:27.830 --> 0:12:33.150 really important for teams draft strategies. Obviously the Carter Stewart 0:12:33.210 --> 0:12:35.429 is maybe the most notable, the most memorable. He's had 0:12:35.470 --> 0:12:38.080 maybe those most interesting. Well, there are two players who, 0:12:38.690 --> 0:12:40.130 actually taken really close to each other. 0:12:40.150 --> 0:12:43.089 I do want to touch on Barton and Bohm and 0:12:43.110 --> 0:12:45.240 all those guys. I do agree with you on Madrigal. 0:12:45.260 --> 0:12:46.819 The other thing I would say about Madrigal, if we 0:12:46.860 --> 0:12:49.340 have batted ball data, and I would say now the 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.840 other thing is he was drafted as a shortstop. He 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.120 was not a shortstop in college, though. Caden Grenier, who 0:12:55.140 --> 0:12:59.260 was taken relatively high as well by the Orioles, he 0:12:59.300 --> 0:13:02.380 was the shortstop at Oregon State. Madrigal was the second baseman. 0:13:02.990 --> 0:13:06.750 And there were real questions about whether Madrigal was a 0:13:06.850 --> 0:13:10.530 shortstop in pro ball as well that's a profile that 0:13:10.550 --> 0:13:13.480 i would say nowadays it's just hard for me to 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:20.280 imagine going top a likely second baseman with if you 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:24.380 read our report from the time real power concerns right 0:13:24.460 --> 0:13:27.500 it was not there was right even without the bad 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:29.439 ball data which we didn't have at the time there 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.620 still was a pretty clear understanding this was going to 0:13:32.660 --> 0:13:34.719 be a if it worked out, it was going to 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:40.460 be a high average, low power, most likely second baseman. 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.800 And I just don't know if that guy goes anywhere. 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:46.960 Like you said, I don't think that guy goes close 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:47.300 to that. 0:13:47.420 --> 0:13:53.340 Now, Nick magical hit, um, nine home runs in his 0:13:53.460 --> 0:13:56.210 three years at Oregon state. He had one home run 0:13:56.500 --> 0:13:59.110 as a freshman. He had four home runs as a 0:13:59.150 --> 0:14:01.969 sophomore and he had, excuse me, eight home runs. He 0:14:01.990 --> 0:14:04.710 had three home runs, uh, as a junior, like three 0:14:04.730 --> 0:14:09.220 home runs as a actively playing second base. He did 0:14:09.250 --> 0:14:11.560 have that hand injury 42 games, but still just the 0:14:11.660 --> 0:14:15.360 overall resume of power. Like it's a completely different power 0:14:15.420 --> 0:14:18.420 question than someone like Travis Bazzana, who was the first 0:14:18.500 --> 0:14:20.900 ever second baseman to go one, one, like there was 0:14:21.300 --> 0:14:23.740 both in terms of the underlying data that we had 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.230 available and just purely the home run results that he 0:14:27.250 --> 0:14:30.750 showed in college, an entirely different level of physicality. I 0:14:30.790 --> 0:14:33.900 do think Nick Madrigal is, stands out as, as maybe 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:38.119 the most, like the 2018 draft feels dated looking at 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.410 Nick magical going there because it just does seem a 0:14:40.490 --> 0:14:44.110 bit unfathomable now in a current era, like next year, 0:14:44.130 --> 0:14:45.770 if a player with that profile went that high, we 0:14:45.810 --> 0:14:47.970 would all look around and, and kind of be stunned. 0:14:48.470 --> 0:14:50.950 Well, okay. Let me put this out. When we talk 0:14:50.970 --> 0:14:54.070 about having hindsight, right. And I don't want to make some, 0:14:54.090 --> 0:14:58.060 we had, we had Nico Horner ranked 42nd. The, the 0:14:58.140 --> 0:15:00.740 Cubs took him in the late first round and he's 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.540 been a, Vastly superior player. And if you read the report. 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.980 He has been the best player in this entire draft 0:15:08.020 --> 0:15:11.500 among players who signed any round in terms of baseball 0:15:11.540 --> 0:15:14.220 reference war. It's Nico Horner and then Tarek Skubal right 0:15:14.260 --> 0:15:17.200 behind him. So in terms of productive big leaguers, he's 0:15:17.220 --> 0:15:17.540 the guy. 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:23.330 And Nico Horner at Stanford was their shortstop. and he 0:15:23.370 --> 0:15:27.570 was all Pac-12 defensive team as a shortstop. He had 0:15:27.610 --> 0:15:29.750 hit six homers in 40 games with a wood bat 0:15:29.790 --> 0:15:33.790 and a cape, which basically almost equals Nick Madrigal's power 0:15:33.830 --> 0:15:39.910 production for his college career. He looked likely to have 0:15:39.950 --> 0:15:42.150 a chance to stay at shortstop or at least be 0:15:42.570 --> 0:15:49.460 valuable defensively at somewhere in the infield and maybe second base. 0:15:49.820 --> 0:15:53.910 But with a power hit profile, as opposed to Madrigal's 0:15:54.390 --> 0:15:58.470 hit no power profile. I just think if this was 0:15:58.550 --> 0:16:02.930 done nowadays, if this draft happened now, I think those 0:16:02.970 --> 0:16:04.870 two would have been much closer together at the minimum. 0:16:05.510 --> 0:16:08.010 Probably so, but even if you look at Nico Horner's 0:16:08.130 --> 0:16:11.480 power production in college, it's not super exciting. He hit 0:16:11.620 --> 0:16:14.220 one home run in 2017 in 58 games, and then 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.980 during his draft year, he only hit two. So he 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.760 still had some power questions as well. The point about 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:21.860 the wood bat, you're really putting a lot of your 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.310 weight of his power production with that 40 game stint 0:16:25.370 --> 0:16:27.630 in the Cape, which also looking at that, seeing 40 0:16:27.630 --> 0:16:29.930 games from a player in the Cape Cod League as 0:16:29.970 --> 0:16:31.650 a hitter, it would be nice to have that again. 0:16:33.390 --> 0:16:36.520 But yeah, I think that's a tremendous pick for the Cubs. 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.080 Obviously one of the most impressive, and it does feel 0:16:39.100 --> 0:16:40.680 like it'd be more likely for those players to be 0:16:40.700 --> 0:16:42.860 a little bit closer together if we did it today. 0:16:43.860 --> 0:16:47.360 So we are going to get into the two craziest 0:16:48.420 --> 0:16:51.220 and two of the wildest stories from the top 10 0:16:51.220 --> 0:16:53.410 in the draft. In a very long time. We'll do 0:16:53.450 --> 0:16:54.290 that right after this quick break. 0:16:56.770 --> 0:16:59.100 Back in the day, Kratzy and I were looking for tickets. 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.580 It was so hard to find a seat or anything available. 0:17:02.620 --> 0:17:04.460 You'd have to go online and there was nothing there. 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.960 But now with SeatGeek, they make it so much easier 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.000 for you. They have the green light special. What does 0:17:10.020 --> 0:17:12.050 that mean? It means when the green light is on, 0:17:12.090 --> 0:17:14.670 you can get some of the best seats available. Go 0:17:14.710 --> 0:17:17.250 to SeatGeek. Kratzy understands how easy it is. 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:19.820 Yeah, I know you used to scalp your tickets, but look, 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.480 it's way, way better now because you get to just 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.270 go right on SeatGeek and find your postseason tickets. I'm 0:17:26.310 --> 0:17:27.960 not even going to fast forward to the postseason. I'm 0:17:27.980 --> 0:17:31.450 going to say the run to October because some teams 0:17:31.510 --> 0:17:33.490 aren't in yet, so right now is the time to 0:17:33.530 --> 0:17:34.909 get it, and those seats are available. 0:17:35.070 --> 0:17:37.740 And it's playoff time, the best time for baseball. And, 0:17:37.770 --> 0:17:39.850 of course, I have a code for you all. You 0:17:39.869 --> 0:17:43.490 can use code TERRITORY10 for 10% off your next set 0:17:43.530 --> 0:17:47.230 of MLB tickets at SeatGeek. That's 10% off MLB tickets 0:17:47.270 --> 0:17:50.570 with promo code TERRITORY10. Make sure you click the link 0:17:50.609 --> 0:17:52.669 in the description to download the app and have the 0:17:52.730 --> 0:17:55.890 code automatically added to your account so you can use 0:17:55.930 --> 0:17:56.389 it later. 0:17:58.609 --> 0:18:01.130 And we're back. So, Carlos, we do have to get 0:18:01.170 --> 0:18:05.950 into pick eight. Carter Stewart does not sign, which I 0:18:05.990 --> 0:18:09.790 believe is the last top ten pick to not. 0:18:10.050 --> 0:18:10.270 No. 0:18:10.710 --> 0:18:12.350 Yeah, I think it is. Kumar Rocker. 0:18:12.369 --> 0:18:13.010 Kumar Rocker. 0:18:13.170 --> 0:18:14.610 Kumar Rocker. Ten. Yeah, ten. 0:18:14.710 --> 0:18:14.870 Yeah. 0:18:15.490 --> 0:18:19.720 And then Kyler Murray picked nine for the A's who 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:26.900 did sign, but never played an official pro baseball game is, 0:18:27.300 --> 0:18:29.550 you know, is a quarterback now for the Minnesota Vikings 0:18:29.619 --> 0:18:32.929 after being the quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals after being the, 0:18:33.170 --> 0:18:37.369 you know, the Heisman trophy winner. Like, so let's start 0:18:37.390 --> 0:18:38.230 with Carter Stewart. 0:18:39.130 --> 0:18:39.290 Okay. 0:18:39.310 --> 0:18:42.360 So if Stewart was, I would say one of the, 0:18:43.390 --> 0:18:49.850 up arrow pitchers that spring. Um, really good breaking ball. Um, 0:18:50.750 --> 0:18:54.210 and Braves took him eighth overall. And then this is 0:18:54.290 --> 0:18:57.880 a case where, and we've seen this before, you've seen this, 0:18:57.950 --> 0:19:00.440 we'll see this, you know, this is one of those 0:19:00.500 --> 0:19:07.660 where there was, uh, disagreement about his medical to some extent. Right. 0:19:08.420 --> 0:19:12.060 And so the Braves wanted to offer him less. Stewart 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:16.040 said no. And, Again, this was something that was seismic 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:20.300 at the time because Stewart instead signed to go to Japan. 0:19:21.380 --> 0:19:26.240 And knowing what the rules were that were already in place, 0:19:26.290 --> 0:19:30.390 the Shoei Otani rule was already in place. So you knew– again, 0:19:30.410 --> 0:19:33.210 Shoei Otani is already signed at this point. So you 0:19:33.330 --> 0:19:38.369 knew that by doing so, to come back as a 0:19:39.230 --> 0:19:41.790 foreign professional free agent, you were going to have to 0:19:41.830 --> 0:19:46.320 spend seven years there, right? and here we are like 0:19:46.420 --> 0:19:51.129 at the time, I would say, I, I don't want it, 0:19:51.170 --> 0:19:53.470 but at the time we did not write this, there 0:19:53.490 --> 0:19:55.950 was a lot of thought out there of, Oh, Carter 0:19:55.990 --> 0:19:58.480 Stewart has found the new loophole, which never made any 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:02.139 sense to me because this isn't a loophole. This is 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:08.540 a very life-changing decision to say, I'm going to move 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:14.689 halfway around the world for a long time for the 0:20:14.710 --> 0:20:17.990 possibility of maybe really cashing in if I come back later. 0:20:18.369 --> 0:20:20.870 And here we are, Carter Stewart is still in the MPB, 0:20:21.470 --> 0:20:25.230 has had some decent seasons, had a very solid season 0:20:25.330 --> 0:20:28.490 in 24, injured in 25, back in 26, ERA those 0:20:28.590 --> 0:20:32.250 above five, sitting in the 93, 94 range. He hasn't 0:20:32.290 --> 0:20:36.750 been terrible recently. But at the same time, he hasn't 0:20:36.850 --> 0:20:39.290 kind of set the world on fire in the MPB either. 0:20:40.770 --> 0:20:45.820 And not coincidentally, we haven't seen that this did not 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:50.380 open any floodgates into a wave of players deciding to 0:20:50.540 --> 0:20:53.310 get around the draft by going to Japan. Why not? Well, 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.570 Carter Stewart is just now eligible to come back to 0:20:56.590 --> 0:21:00.580 the U.S., This is a long time ago. Casey Weiss 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:05.580 is eligible for free agency as just a drafted pro. 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:06.960 Right. 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:11.270 Like you said initially, it is a significant change in 0:21:11.310 --> 0:21:13.430 your life and just the trajectory of your pro career. 0:21:13.450 --> 0:21:16.369 Because let's set down some details of the timeline. It 0:21:16.410 --> 0:21:19.649 wasn't the case where Carter Stewart, I think there was 0:21:19.770 --> 0:21:22.229 questions about his wrist in the medical that surfaced that 0:21:22.250 --> 0:21:24.760 led the Braves to be more concerned. They offered him 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.260