Speaker 1: Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros MLB.
Speaker 2: This is a Leading Off Live special MLB Draft edition.
Speaker 2: It is me Joey p Joepi's appear with me as
Speaker 2: the Welsh and we're here on our twitch Twitch dot
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Speaker 2: Never miss a moment of fantasy Baseball action and Welsh.
Speaker 2: A few days ago was the MLB Draft and we
Speaker 2: are going to start picking it apart. And this is
Speaker 2: becoming something, you know, more and more important every single
Speaker 2: year as it passes, because it used to be just
Speaker 2: the dynasty managers who are interested in the MLB Draft
Speaker 2: for the most part. You know, back in the day,
Speaker 2: we went from all these are guys that will be
Speaker 2: in the big leagues in a couple of years too,
Speaker 2: All these are guys I should stash for the second
Speaker 2: half to oh my god, if I don't know who
Speaker 2: these guys are, I might be behind in my draft.
Speaker 1: Going forward into this season.
Speaker 2: And no, the names already who have already graced their
Speaker 2: presence or grace us with their presence, I should say
Speaker 2: on the MLB stage already, Jack kagleon Nick Kurtz has
Speaker 2: been terrific. Cam Smith, Ryan Johnson, Christian Moore, and Chase
Speaker 2: Burns all guys from last year's draft.
Speaker 1: Which I thought was a spectacular cast.
Speaker 2: We went over and over last year, we did this
Speaker 2: special last season, and I thought this was a class
Speaker 2: that was incredibly talented. I likened it to the nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty six draft that was just littered with superstar talent.
Speaker 2: I feel validated because a lot of that talent's already there,
Speaker 2: and some of that talent is still on the precipice.
Speaker 2: But this was a much, I would say, younger draft,
Speaker 2: especially with position players, not as many college bats at
Speaker 2: the top, a lot more high school bats, a lot
Speaker 2: of high school shortstops, and nobody I don't think really
Speaker 2: like I would say the best college hitter in this draft,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have put him in the top ten.
Speaker 1: Hitters from last year. Would you agree or disagree?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I know, I think that's probably correct. And this
Speaker 3: draft lacks college bats and in a record setting short style.
Speaker 3: Fourteen of the twenty seven picks were shortstops, which is
Speaker 3: heard of, and you know, also from like a fantasy perspective,
Speaker 3: it's not great because you're lacking college so it's gonna
Speaker 3: be And you know, I was saying this on CBS broadcast.
Speaker 3: One of the really telling things is baseball is a
Speaker 3: repetition game, not just obviously of just swing, swing, swing,
Speaker 3: but like you know, you see something, you repeat it,
Speaker 3: torpedo bats, everybody's doing it. Well, what was last year
Speaker 3: massive success with college players getting to the major So
Speaker 3: you would think, Okay, here we go, We're going to
Speaker 3: have more college players drafted, We're gonna have more position players,
Speaker 3: high school guys are gonna get pushed even further than before.
Speaker 3: It's exact opposite of what happened. And the reason behind
Speaker 3: that is because of the talent pool. Clearly, the talent
Speaker 3: is not remotely close on the college bats to what
Speaker 3: it was last year. So what was the rub? What
Speaker 3: was the change? I think you had multiple teams looking
Speaker 3: at taking deals and you had teams just saying screw it,
Speaker 3: playing high upside taking that battle. So we're not going
Speaker 3: to see the same amount of players we saw this
Speaker 3: year go into making the majors next year it's not
Speaker 3: to say that we're not going to see some because
Speaker 3: I think the I think the evaluation process and the
Speaker 3: prospecting build up process is going quicker and quicker, especially
Speaker 3: for college base hitters, even high school guys. They're just
Speaker 3: getting pushed up to levels faster and faster because they
Speaker 3: want these guys to the majors. Because, like you said,
Speaker 3: there was a time where it was like, all right, cool,
Speaker 3: that guy got drafted, see you in five years. That's
Speaker 3: not the case. I think timelines are like they want
Speaker 3: to see high school advance high school guys in two years,
Speaker 3: you want to see college guys in one year. So
Speaker 3: I thought this class was really weird and interesting and
Speaker 3: it was very telling because there was just so little
Speaker 3: college hitting. And yeah that college hitting, especially based on
Speaker 3: what we know now, would rank a lot lower. But
Speaker 3: I think the guy I have would probably at best
Speaker 3: be seventh or eighth at best versus the college hitters
Speaker 3: that we see last year. So there's a lot of
Speaker 3: depth here, but it is lacking the top end meat
Speaker 3: that we had in twenty twenty fours draft.
Speaker 2: All right, we're going to break down the first round
Speaker 2: and then Welsh is going to go through some of
Speaker 2: his favorite prospects from the draft, and maybe you talk
Speaker 2: about some ETAs, but look for me at the top.
Speaker 2: You know how I feel about the college versus the
Speaker 2: high school guys, especially the college versus high school arms.
Speaker 2: You know, I am always away from the high school arms.
Speaker 2: I want nothing to do. So much can happen in
Speaker 2: development over that time, and the stats are not on
Speaker 2: their side basically. You know, there's so many injuries, so
Speaker 2: many things that happened in those years as they grow.
Speaker 2: Where the hit rate of the high school pitcher has
Speaker 2: not been very good, the hit rate of the high
Speaker 2: school hitter is a little bit different. And Ethan Holiday
Speaker 2: to me, was the guy that if I had the
Speaker 2: number one pick, can't miss. That's where I would have gone.
Speaker 2: I've heard the Corey Seeger comp. I actually like the
Speaker 2: Cory Sieger comp. I tend to like to come up
Speaker 2: with my own, but I think that's kind of spot on.
Speaker 2: I like him more as a prospect than his brother,
Speaker 2: to be on with you. To me, I just think
Speaker 2: he's going to fill out a little bit more. I
Speaker 2: think he's got a little bit more of his dad's genetics.
Speaker 2: Just physically looking at him as a young player, because
Speaker 2: I'm old enough to remember his dad when he was
Speaker 2: a young player.
Speaker 1: So to me, that's where I would go.
Speaker 2: Now, this is not a knock on Eli Willitts, who's
Speaker 2: the first pick, and if we can look at the
Speaker 2: top ten here, will Its goes first overall to the Nats.
Speaker 2: To me, if I'm the Nats, though, I'm a team
Speaker 2: that's got James Wood, I've got a lot of good
Speaker 2: players here at the precipice of the major leagues.
Speaker 1: CJ.
Speaker 2: Abrams another good young player. You hope that you can
Speaker 2: get Dylan Cruz to turn things around. I would have
Speaker 2: taken Kate Anderson first if I was them, because Anderson.
Speaker 1: Might be able to get you.
Speaker 2: I would say, I don't know, in the next two years,
Speaker 2: potentially contributing, if not, maybe a year in change. And
Speaker 2: will It's I think is still a couple of years away.
Speaker 2: I really like Eli Willis as a player. He's a
Speaker 2: strong kid, much stronger than I think people realize. Had
Speaker 2: a really good left handed swing. To me, Ethan Holliday
Speaker 2: was the hey can't miss and that kid so well.
Speaker 2: The top four here was Eli Willetts and then Tyler
Speaker 2: Bremer goes to the angels. You have Kate Anderson, the
Speaker 2: number one pitcher on a lot of boards, going to
Speaker 2: Seattle falling to three, and then Holiday falling to four.
Speaker 2: We'll get to Doyle in just a second, but let's
Speaker 2: talk about these top four, how they landed in these
Speaker 2: spots and what it means for their future. Let's start
Speaker 2: with Willets at the top.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Willetts was a really interesting one because this,
Speaker 3: in my mind was clearly was clearly an underslot deal.
Speaker 3: This was them saving some money not dealing with Scott
Speaker 3: Boris and being able to cut a deal for a
Speaker 3: little bit later, which we did end up finding out
Speaker 3: that they took some guys later in the draft. That
Speaker 3: or high school that you know, can be some high value. So,
Speaker 3: Eli Willets is a very good shortstop. I think there's
Speaker 3: five tools in there. I even threw a comparison out
Speaker 3: that you know, there might be a Trey Turner in there,
Speaker 3: because dudes.
Speaker 1: I agree, one hundred so forty six.
Speaker 3: Bases in high school batting average, great contact skills, really
Speaker 3: good defender. He can do everything. So you know, in
Speaker 3: real life, like I can see what we're doing here,
Speaker 3: I can see why they would want a player like that,
Speaker 3: but there's still some power projection, you know, long term,
Speaker 3: what's going to happen. You also have CJ. Abrams that's there.
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, like this was,
Speaker 3: they didn't have to deal with Scott Boris. I believe
Speaker 3: he's one of the only clients and non Scott Boris
Speaker 3: clients that was out there. And Eli Willitts is just
Speaker 3: a nice, good, complete player. But I would have taken
Speaker 3: ethan holiday at one and I think that's where it's
Speaker 3: my problem is. And then Jim Bowden agreed with me
Speaker 3: on this, and I would have said, this is that
Speaker 3: usually you take a deal because you are going to
Speaker 3: spend that money or you're going to convince another really
Speaker 3: good player to fall. That's what they do. They want
Speaker 3: to spend that they didn't happen. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 3: all the guys that you would have tried to make
Speaker 3: fall to over pay for later they went.
Speaker 1: They all went.
Speaker 3: It was all high school shorts up. So I kind
Speaker 3: of thought they like, maybe overplayed their hand a tiny bit.
Speaker 3: But I like Eli Willetts. I think he's a solid player.
Speaker 3: But it started the kind of chaos of this draft
Speaker 3: because going in everybody thought it was Kate Anderson. Liam
Speaker 3: Doyle three was a little bit of a question in
Speaker 3: Ethan Holiday, but taking Eli Willets at one kind of
Speaker 3: set off a weird little cascade of a couple picks here.
Speaker 3: But you know, he's the number two high school shortstop
Speaker 3: on my board. Ethan Holiday is number one. We'll talk
Speaker 3: about the fantasy side a little bit later in the
Speaker 3: show where they go on first year player. But again,
Speaker 3: solid pick. It's a floor pick in a very scary draft.
Speaker 3: It was a really nice floor pick for them to
Speaker 3: build on, but it doesn't help them for the near future.
Speaker 3: And that's why Kate Anderson would have made a lot
Speaker 3: of sense as we're going to step into two pitchers
Speaker 3: that are dropping here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Anderson reminds me of like almost a Cole Hamill's
Speaker 2: kind of guy. You know, he's got that lefty, big curveball.
Speaker 2: He's got that I mean, very repeatable delivery. This is
Speaker 2: the lot that I like about Kate Anderson.
Speaker 3: Agree, let me give you a different comp Okay, Max Freed.
Speaker 3: There's a Max Free because he's got a big Buckley
Speaker 3: curveball that he throws. This, by the way, is like
Speaker 3: my favorite landing spot. I thought Kate Anderson dodged a
Speaker 3: bullet because he didn't go one and oh my god,
Speaker 3: the angels are on the clock. That's the most terrified
Speaker 3: the angels. They're not going to develop anybody. They're going
Speaker 3: to throw you up there. Kate Anderson has got a
Speaker 3: slew of solid pitches. It's a good fastball. There's some
Speaker 3: you know, some good shape. It's it's not like an
Speaker 3: elite fastball like Liam Doyle or anything, but it's a
Speaker 3: really really good fastball. At the end of the day,
Speaker 3: like you know, where there might be some developmentally things
Speaker 3: that they're going to have to end up doing. This
Speaker 3: is a guy that led Division one in strikeouts. You know,
Speaker 3: he's got good spin numbers thirty I think thirty something
Speaker 3: k minus walk percentage, and he's going to pitching. He's
Speaker 3: going to go to Seattle now where all they have
Speaker 3: done is properly developed pictures and they've got, you know,
Speaker 3: just a host and a class of guys, whether they're
Speaker 3: all following track and doing their splitters and stuff or
Speaker 3: Brian Wo Brian Woo, George Kirby Logan, Gilbert Luis Castillo.
Speaker 3: It's an incredible class on and on and on. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so this destination works really well. And this is
Speaker 3: where again we'll get into fantasy. The rubber meets the
Speaker 3: road of like do you want to invest in pitching?
Speaker 3: But yes, this is like my favorite destination outside of
Speaker 3: holiday for any of these like top picks.
Speaker 2: I like the Freed comp too. Gef somewhere in the
Speaker 2: hybrid between Hamils and Freedman if he can land there.
Speaker 2: And I do think he's gonna be a guy that
Speaker 2: goes quickly through this organization too, I really do. And look, Bremmers,
Speaker 2: it's funny if I gave a comp to Bremmer. And
Speaker 2: I don't want to stir the pot here, but like
Speaker 2: he reminds me of Trevor Bauer when he was young
Speaker 2: a little bit in terms of physically how he throws,
Speaker 2: in terms.
Speaker 3: Of his Actually, that's interesting you say that I saw
Speaker 3: that same thing.
Speaker 2: You see that little Trevor Bauer And oh yeah, I know,
Speaker 2: I saw that watch, very similar delivery, similar arsenal. He's
Speaker 2: got a little bit of a fire in him, you know,
Speaker 2: hopefully he's got less of a.
Speaker 1: Fire in him than Trevor Power.
Speaker 2: But speaking of guys with fire, and then Liam Doyle
Speaker 2: at five, another guy with you know again, arguably the
Speaker 2: best fastball. Right he goes to the Cardinals. But Liam
Speaker 2: Doyle is a kid that has a lot of maturity issues.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, you watch him pitch. I love a
Speaker 2: guy who's fiery, Don't get me wrong, I really do.
Speaker 2: I love a guy who is intense and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Liam Doyle to me, reeks of too much. It rereaks
Speaker 2: of immaturity. It reaks up a little bit more of
Speaker 2: John Rocker syndrome than it does of Randy Meyer syndrome.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I do think he'll be an closer at some point.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he's going to stick as a
Speaker 2: starting pitcher, to be honest with you, I just don't
Speaker 2: know if he's built for it.
Speaker 1: He might be built as a closer. He has the
Speaker 1: screw loose.
Speaker 2: So if you can harness all of that attitude and
Speaker 2: all that demeanor, but the fact that he was a
Speaker 2: college kid and still with the antics on the mound
Speaker 2: and talking to the opposing coaches and doing It's like, bro,
Speaker 2: you're twenty years.
Speaker 1: Old, now stop it.
Speaker 2: Grow up a little bit and bad on the Tennessee
Speaker 2: manager for not being able to wrangle him. I know
Speaker 2: he had some other issues too where he was out
Speaker 2: of shape, and they were able to work with him
Speaker 2: on that, but that took a lot of doing too.
Speaker 2: So I did not love this selection here by the Cardinals,
Speaker 2: to be honest with you, Seth Hernandez. Another interesting selection
Speaker 2: here by the Pirates as they continue to look forward
Speaker 2: more pitching for them.
Speaker 1: I want to say it right, Is it iv a arquette?
Speaker 1: Am I saying it correctly?
Speaker 3: I have a arquette?
Speaker 1: It is Iva?
Speaker 2: Okay, now I've arquette. Everybody said it's the best college bat.
Speaker 2: That's not a guy that jump off the page to me.
Speaker 2: I watched him a ton. Jojo Parker also didn't really
Speaker 2: jump off the page. Steele Hall, Billy Carlson, all these
Speaker 2: guys I think are projects. I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 2: To me this first round, if you're looking dynasty wise,
Speaker 2: Holiday Anderson, that's where I'm putting my capital behind Welsh.
Speaker 2: What'd you make of the rest of this top ten
Speaker 2: here five through ten?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll just give you just a couple like quick
Speaker 3: little anecdotal things. Liam Doyle best fastball in the draft.
Speaker 3: He led college baseball in k per nine thirty four
Speaker 3: K minus walk percentage seventy five grade fastball a nineteen IVB,
Speaker 3: so that's that vertical break you know, throws like high stuff,
Speaker 3: got a splitter with big swift rate. So I actually
Speaker 3: think he's interesting. He'll be one of the top ish guys,
Speaker 3: whether there's maturity or not. Seth Rnandez is one of
Speaker 3: my favorites, but he's super risky just because, like he's
Speaker 3: a high school pitcher. But he has got probably the
Speaker 3: best changeup in this entire draft, him or Brimner, they're
Speaker 3: kind of similar. Brimner's maybe the college's version, but you've
Speaker 3: got three to four pitches for seth Rnandez, and he
Speaker 3: goes to the Pirates who do really, really well. So
Speaker 3: that's interesting, but it's risky. I've Arquette is the guy
Speaker 3: I told you I talked with Travis Bizana about. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he lacks some of the upside, but he is like
Speaker 3: six foot five, two twenty, he has power, he makes contact.
Speaker 3: You worry about some of the chase stuff out there.
Speaker 3: I think at the end of the day, he's still
Speaker 3: a really solid bet and he might be a better
Speaker 3: Colson Montgomery. So I like him. I've got him pretty high.
Speaker 3: Jojo Parker is probably the most well balanced of the
Speaker 3: high school guys that where Eli Willitts has a lot
Speaker 3: of the tools but lacks the power. Jojo Parker has
Speaker 3: that power, but he doesn't quite have the speed. Ethan
Speaker 3: Holliday has the power, maybe not the contact, So he's
Speaker 3: pretty good. I'm not as high on Steel Hall and
Speaker 3: Billy Carlson. Billy Carlson's a plus defender. I think his
Speaker 3: bat lacks So this is where when you get into
Speaker 3: fantasy things are going to start to unravel compared to
Speaker 3: where they went in the draft. But yeah, I think
Speaker 3: Ethan Holliday, Kate Anderson, Eli Willett, Seth Hernandez like those
Speaker 3: are like really main targets. And I would frankly say
Speaker 3: I have a Arquette. I might move I've Arkette down
Speaker 3: a little bit when we get to first year player.
Speaker 3: But as a college bat, like, he's a dude, he
Speaker 3: is a real okay like, but he's not Nick Kurtz's
Speaker 3: Nick Kurse.
Speaker 1: He's not Caglio, and he ain't Cam Smith.
Speaker 3: He might be Cam Smith, though I disagree. I think
Speaker 3: he could be Cam Smith.
Speaker 1: Well, there's a respectfully disagree there on that one. But
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's bad.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, like I saw Cam Smith, he jumped
Speaker 2: off the page to me, and Arquette just hasn't done.
Speaker 3: Ninety three point four average exit veloss city one oh
Speaker 3: eight on the ninetieth percentile, which is a huge, huge,
Speaker 3: really good number. Pulled the ball in the air, barrel
Speaker 3: the ball over thirty percent of the time, one of
Speaker 3: the best barrel rates in college, great launch angle. Like
Speaker 3: I think he could be Cam Smith. I'm just throwing
Speaker 3: that out there to people.
Speaker 2: All Right, there is a guy, though, who did go
Speaker 2: in the next grouping here that I really like. So
Speaker 2: let's take a look at the guys here outside the
Speaker 2: top ten. You have Arnold going to the athletics. The
Speaker 2: guy for me here Witherspoon, interesting pitcher, guy that I
Speaker 2: think is one to watch. But it's number twenty that
Speaker 2: I like the most personally, Andrew Fisher Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: I think got themselves a dude here. I love this kid.
Speaker 2: He has the ball hard, he's got a major league physique,
Speaker 2: already played for Tennessee last year if he didn't watch
Speaker 2: any college baseball last year. But like this guy, hits it.
Speaker 2: You know, it's out. I love that left handed strokes.
Speaker 2: He's got a ton of power. I don't know, man like,
Speaker 2: I don't know if he's going to stick at their base,
Speaker 2: if that's like his long term thing. But to me,
Speaker 2: this is like, you know, you talk about what they
Speaker 2: look like. I watch Andrew Fisher, and I watched it
Speaker 2: with Tennessee, and then I watched a lot of highlights
Speaker 2: of him, you know, trying to get ready for this
Speaker 2: show in the last couple of days. And let me
Speaker 2: tell you something, dude, that's the guy that I went.
Speaker 2: Wherever this guy lands, I'm going to be investing in
Speaker 2: fantasy because I do think he's going.
Speaker 1: To rise through the ranks pretty quickly.
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear your thoughts on Fisher and this
Speaker 2: group here, in this next ten through twenty group, and
Speaker 2: who stood out to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Fisher is super interesting. I'm kind of torn
Speaker 3: on one hundred percent where I want to go with it.
Speaker 3: He's spoiler. He didn't make to my top fifteen, but
Speaker 3: I think he's run on the press office. I think
Speaker 3: a lot of people like him because he was one
Speaker 3: of those huge, one of those few college bats, great
Speaker 3: bat speed, good power. Data Wise, in college, he had
Speaker 3: the best of the first rounders EV ninety five plus,
Speaker 3: so he had a sixty two percent rate where he
Speaker 3: was hitting the ball ninety five or harder, which is ridiculous.
Speaker 3: His contact in the zone was around eighty four percent,
Speaker 3: that's well above average. He also pulled the ball in
Speaker 3: the air almost more than anybody and had the highest
Speaker 3: barrel rate. So, I mean, all of those things really
Speaker 3: do work out. Frankly, talking about it out loud again
Speaker 3: does make me think that's a guy that you do
Speaker 3: need to consider pushing even higher.
Speaker 2: He has advanced physically, Like you look at some of
Speaker 2: these kids, you know, you see the high school kids
Speaker 2: for instance, You're like, Okay, there's a lot of growing
Speaker 2: left to do into the frame. He's gonna have to
Speaker 2: put on, you know, twenty pounds of muscle over the
Speaker 2: next two years in order to get to where he
Speaker 2: needs to be physically to play in the major leagues. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this kid looks like he plays already for the Milwaukee Brewer.
Speaker 2: I mean yeah, and not like in a big way
Speaker 2: where he's like, oh, he's an overwaker. He is strong,
Speaker 2: he has got strong lower half, He gets great hip
Speaker 2: rotation through the baseball, a nice left handed swing. When
Speaker 2: he like I said, when this guy hits a ball,
Speaker 2: it stays a hit.
Speaker 3: I wish, yeah, I wish I had his batspeed data because
Speaker 3: it's pretty sick. The rest of these guys just some
Speaker 3: quick nuggets. Jamie Arnold is like a spin monster. At
Speaker 3: one point he was seen as a first overall pick.
Speaker 3: He went to the Athletics. He's got a problem. It's
Speaker 3: a lefty throwing sweepers into righty, so they might have
Speaker 3: to figure that out. But some people think he might
Speaker 3: have been one of the steals of the draft. Kaisan
Speaker 3: Witherspoon going to the Boston Red Sox. He has got
Speaker 3: like four highly graded pitches. He's got low, he's got
Speaker 3: a weird release point, he doesn't have great extension, and
Speaker 3: maybe some command issues, but his stuff is really great.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna just give you a preview case on Cunningham
Speaker 3: to the Diamondbacks high school shortstop. I'm just throwing it up.
Speaker 1: He could be.
Speaker 3: He could end up being one of the best in
Speaker 3: the class. So you're just not homer aside, like.
Speaker 2: I let all that I'm not a diamond I don't
Speaker 2: disagree with you, I'm not a Diamondback stand at all.
Speaker 1: You know that.
Speaker 2: I agree with you. I think that's another one where
Speaker 2: somebody somebody screwed up.
Speaker 3: I love this little bit. He looks like Jose Ramirez
Speaker 3: a little is but a little bit better body and
Speaker 3: a funny story. He was interviewed after drafted being drafted
Speaker 3: by the Diamondbacks. He said the Diamondbacks worked him out
Speaker 3: in June and they had a pitch simulator machine there
Speaker 3: and he asked to go against Paul Skeens in that
Speaker 3: he hit some bombs off of Paul Skeens And he
Speaker 3: told us that he was on this simulator hitting one
Speaker 3: fourteen's and one fifteens maxx velocity. That's ridiculous. That is
Speaker 3: elite power. And that's the question about him because he's
Speaker 3: got big bat speed. So I really really love that.
Speaker 3: Irish I thought was also a really great pick at nineteen.
Speaker 3: The Baltimore Orioles ended up having one of the best drafts.
Speaker 3: They got four players that I think were top twenty
Speaker 3: to twenty five valued over thirty seven picks. So those
Speaker 3: are a couple of the guys that stand out. Again,
Speaker 3: case on Cunningham, I Irish obviously Andrew Fisher, Witherspoon and
Speaker 3: Jamie Arnold in that what eleven to twenty range.
Speaker 2: Yeah, some definite names there, and I agree with you
Speaker 2: that Witherspoon, Cunningham, those are two guys that also stood
Speaker 2: out to me. All right, let's take a look at
Speaker 2: the latter part of the first round as well. Xavier
Speaker 2: Naans goes first, and then we have all the way
Speaker 2: down to Jace Lovelata twenty seven.
Speaker 1: Gage Wood, who put up a huge performance not that
Speaker 1: long ago.
Speaker 2: Was it the twenty strikeout no hitter or something to that,
Speaker 2: nineteen strikeouts whatever it was.
Speaker 3: Strikeout again.
Speaker 2: I love this guy, competitor when he went to the Phillies,
Speaker 2: I went yes, because you talk about a guy in
Speaker 2: a landing spot in terms of a town that's going
Speaker 2: to embrace him if he gets there.
Speaker 1: That sort. See, gage Wood has the intensity I love.
Speaker 2: Whereas if you look a little earlier here, you know,
Speaker 2: when I go back and talk about Liam Doyle, he
Speaker 2: has the intensity that worries the hell out of me.
Speaker 2: And I think there's just a it's a different sort
Speaker 2: of animal, it's a different sort of dude you're dealing with,
Speaker 2: and intensity is good, which you got to.
Speaker 1: Be able to focus it a little bit.
Speaker 2: I thought the Phillies got to steal here, not just
Speaker 2: because of that performance, but when you look at some
Speaker 2: of the other data that he had, it was all
Speaker 2: very good there. So they have a bright young future.
Speaker 2: They've got Painter, they've got Mike Able and now would
Speaker 2: coming in this rotation the years ahead, the Phillies have
Speaker 2: had some great starting pitching, and they've been able to
Speaker 2: acquire a bunch of starting pitching. And I thought this
Speaker 2: was a great job by the Phillies. What other picks
Speaker 2: stood out to you here in this draft in the
Speaker 2: latter part.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got a couple. I do just want to
Speaker 3: say on gage Wood, I completely agree. The only thing
Speaker 3: is I took the him going twenty six as a
Speaker 3: health issue because he should have gone higher. His stuff
Speaker 3: is ridiculous. He had a forty five percent with rate
Speaker 3: on his fastball, tons tons of strikes he gets with
Speaker 3: a good spin. He's got a great hard curveball, big slider.
Speaker 3: Lance Brasdowski had compared him as like a Hunter Brown
Speaker 3: type of comp But there's an injury Warriors in there,
Speaker 3: so this might have meant medicals. So I'm with you
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 2: I think he's a little physical, I would say a
Speaker 2: little bit stronger.
Speaker 1: You know, Hunter Brown not.
Speaker 3: Quite the strong bol He's a bookier guy.
Speaker 1: He is a bulkier guy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know physically if that's the best comp. But
Speaker 2: in terms of approach, I actually that that's a good
Speaker 2: comp In terms of approach, he almost comes off as
Speaker 2: like when you watch him pitch, he feels like the
Speaker 2: toughest guy in the locker room.
Speaker 1: They just like, Hey, why don't you go try to
Speaker 1: you know, why don't you go pitch? Gage looks like
Speaker 1: I could do it?
Speaker 3: Kind of looks like a full back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he felt like a Yeah, he's absolutely built more
Speaker 2: like a football player, and he kind of pitches like
Speaker 2: a football player, which I think is a tremendous thing.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I think he's a great fit for
Speaker 2: Philadelphia in the future. But that's another guy that I'd
Speaker 2: be circling on the dynasty charts here and circling and
Speaker 2: redraft you. I think he's going to get to the
Speaker 2: major leagues in a quick fashion.
Speaker 3: Two other guys that really stand out that I am
Speaker 3: high on. Xavier Naan's going to the Houston Astros. He's
Speaker 3: a high school shortstop. He's going to be a third
Speaker 3: baseman at the end of the day. Tremendous power some
Speaker 3: of the best. We're talking like similar ish power to
Speaker 3: Ethan Holliday. He's a feisty kind of dude too. I
Speaker 3: like the hit tool. I think he's going to thrive there.
Speaker 3: A lot of people are trying to comp his swing
Speaker 3: to Jordan Alvarez, but I love NaN's I think I'm
Speaker 3: going to be aggressive on him and jas Lavolette. That's
Speaker 3: going to be the most controversial of players here where
Speaker 3: people are going to end up ranking him because this
Speaker 3: is a guy that was seen as a potential number
Speaker 3: one overall player, but then he got hurt and he
Speaker 3: is this mixture of strikeouts versus big power. I think
Speaker 3: he's like a baby CAGs with the type of power
Speaker 3: that he's got. He's got ridiculous stuff. If I can
Speaker 3: pull this up here with some of the at a
Speaker 3: Lavolette here, low contact rate, but one of the lowest
Speaker 3: chase rates, so when you're worrying about those strikeouts, that's
Speaker 3: kind of floating out there. He had an over fifty
Speaker 3: ninety five plus EV so you know he was consistently
Speaker 3: getting to that one oh seven almost one oh eight
Speaker 3: nineteth percentile exit velocity. So that's just really good if
Speaker 3: you're wondering where it is the best pull rate of
Speaker 3: all the guys, almost a twenty degree launch angle, So
Speaker 3: he is pulling the ball with massive power, which that
Speaker 3: is going to do really well in Cleveland. We know
Speaker 3: that little right handed side in Cleveland, that little wind
Speaker 3: tunnel that's happened that's created this new power potential for players.
Speaker 3: So yes, there's some strikeout issue. There was an injury
Speaker 3: at the beginning of the year that held him back
Speaker 3: and why his batting average was down. I think people
Speaker 3: are going to be really torn on him. I'm very
Speaker 3: high on him. Uh In my first year player, he
Speaker 3: fell all the way down to twenty seven, and it's
Speaker 3: very reminiscent to Chase the latter because the latter was
Speaker 3: an almost first overall pick. He was hurt, Cleveland jumped
Speaker 3: in on him. I really really like Chase Lavalette in
Speaker 3: a weird, bad college class. There is risk with it,
Speaker 3: but this is going to be one of those where
Speaker 3: he is the last pick in the first round, you know,
Speaker 3: the twenty seven picks, and it's compensatory, but I'm going
Speaker 3: to value him a lot higher. So when we get
Speaker 3: to the fantasy board, you guys are going to see
Speaker 3: where I differ. But those are two guys that stood
Speaker 3: out that went late that I have quite high.
Speaker 2: I'm where you are with Lavallette, to be honest, a
Speaker 2: little bit of that matt Olsen kind of thing where
Speaker 2: he's very still and then he has almost like that
Speaker 2: big long Dolfy swing when he hits the ball.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: When he hits home runs, you know that you're just like, oh,
Speaker 2: where'd that come from? So there's like a little like
Speaker 2: matt Olsen kind of vibe that he gives me when
Speaker 2: I watch him play.
Speaker 3: And also it's two straight years. I just want to
Speaker 3: point out that Cleveland clearly has something they're targeting high,
Speaker 3: high pole rate fly ball guys, because Travis Bazana was
Speaker 3: that Travis Bazana pulls the ball like crazy, gets the
Speaker 3: ball in the air and maximizes too. Right field is
Speaker 3: a left handed hitter, exact same thing. Number one pole
Speaker 3: guy almost twenty degree laun Shingle and lava Lette. They've
Speaker 3: got a system they're working with for guys that are
Speaker 3: going to be optimized at the major league level. So
Speaker 3: I think he's why. I think he's kind of like
Speaker 3: wildly underrated. You might see some fantasy people put him
Speaker 3: like in the twenties or something like that, simply because
Speaker 3: of the strikeout worries. I will not.
Speaker 1: I'm with you.
Speaker 2: Look, that's something you can fix and approach. But the
Speaker 2: upsides there clearly. The power is there, clearly. Like I said,
Speaker 2: the stillness reminds me of Olson and then that explosive,
Speaker 2: almost like golfing swing sometimes where he just gets under
Speaker 2: one and it just it just goes for miles.
Speaker 3: Like some think they might have to fix it. Some
Speaker 3: are out there maybe thinking they have to fix the swing.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that they will either.
Speaker 1: It's you know what, it's not long. It's just graceful.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I think there's some kids you look at when you
Speaker 2: watch them, you have a long swing. His is just
Speaker 2: he's got you know, it's just a graceful swing, like
Speaker 2: Daryl Strawberry for instance. Like that's a guy that people
Speaker 2: would say, oh it's a long swing. It's not a
Speaker 2: long swing. It's just an incredibly easy, graceful swing. And
Speaker 2: you know, guys with longer arms sometimes just have longer
Speaker 2: swing paths. It doesn't mean they're not getting to the
Speaker 2: baseball quickly. Believe me, Darrel Strubber, I got to the
Speaker 2: baseball very quickly. But I think that's something people tend
Speaker 2: to forget or confuse sometimes when you're watching. There were
Speaker 2: some kids that I watch in this high school grouping
Speaker 2: that I thought were, you know, had a long swing
Speaker 2: that I just think, we're, you know, not real quick
Speaker 2: to the baseball. But I want to get to some
Speaker 2: of Welsh's favorites here. So Welsh walk us through this
Speaker 2: next board. Here we're going to talk about some of
Speaker 2: your favorite prospects, because again, you know, this is real
Speaker 2: baseball draft. Here we're talking fantasy and how they equate.
Speaker 2: You've got Ethan Holiday up at the top. I could
Speaker 2: not agree more. I think he's gonna get there quickly,
Speaker 2: and I do think he has the upside even greater
Speaker 2: than his brother, who's starting to realize some of his
Speaker 2: potential this year.
Speaker 3: So this is my first year player board Top fifteen.
Speaker 3: You guys are listening on an audio. Go to the
Speaker 3: YouTube if you want to see it. I'll also have
Speaker 3: an article on fantasy pros up in the next twenty
Speaker 3: four hours where I'm doing some written form, but if
Speaker 3: you do your first year player drafts, I put fifteen
Speaker 3: representing a top first round. So these are the top
Speaker 3: fifteen guys. I'm gonna listen them all out real quick,
Speaker 3: and then we can pick a couple names. I have
Speaker 3: Ethan Holiday at one. I have an Arc headed to
Speaker 3: Kate Anderson at three, Seth Anderson or Seth Hernandez at four,
Speaker 3: Eli Willets at five. I believe that is a tier.
Speaker 3: Those can all move around. Number six, Liam Doyle seven,
Speaker 3: Jojo Parker, Jays Lavallette at eight, so I mentioned I'm
Speaker 3: very high on him, Jamie Arlin at nine, and Xavier
Speaker 3: Naan's is ten. Tyler Bremner, who could be the first
Speaker 3: guy to the majors at eleven, Cason Cunningham with the Diamondbacks,
Speaker 3: I absolutely love him, Gavin Fiends with the Texas Rangers
Speaker 3: at thirteen, Ike Irish at fourteen, and Gavin Keeline at fifteen.
Speaker 3: So that's my top fifteen board. The thing to remember
Speaker 3: is these tiers are bigger. There's a whole lot other
Speaker 3: players that are, you know, like that fifteen. I think
Speaker 3: it extends out to probably like twenty more players. Andrew
Speaker 3: Fisher is a player that they could jump into there,
Speaker 3: but I have them blocked into tiers. So I personally
Speaker 3: think Ethan Holliday is the top pick. I think I've
Speaker 3: already talked to two different people. Chris Cleig likes Eli
Speaker 3: Willetts air A Cross likes Jojo Parker. So there's no
Speaker 3: consensus right now. We're all over the board. I'm going
Speaker 3: with the power, going with the Colorado back, and I
Speaker 3: think it pairs out with the rest of those that top.
Speaker 3: So again, that Tier one is Eli Willis is your
Speaker 3: safe pick. Holiday is your dream pick. I have our catch,
Speaker 3: your college proximity pick. But he might lack the upside
Speaker 3: and he might need to come down a little bit.
Speaker 3: And then if you like pitching, I wouldn't care if
Speaker 3: someone took Kate Anderson one because the destination is incredible
Speaker 3: if you're in a points league set as Hernandez might
Speaker 3: have some of the best stuff. He's just a high
Speaker 3: school guy that's that kind of block. Anything you want
Speaker 3: to hit in that little Tier one block real quick
Speaker 3: or we move on to the next.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I like I'd go Holiday one.
Speaker 2: I think he's the guy you could build this rebirth
Speaker 2: of the Rockies around, like I honestly do.
Speaker 1: I think he could be that good.
Speaker 2: But again, that's going to be a couple of years
Speaker 2: away because he's a high school kid, so I'm looking
Speaker 2: out of a three year window for him.
Speaker 3: To remember, Jackson Holiday did do it in about a
Speaker 3: year and a half. Yeah, I don't think he will,
Speaker 3: but I'm just pointing that out.
Speaker 2: It was too soon, and I think there's something to
Speaker 2: be learned from that. It's like, look, let's not rush
Speaker 2: it too much a little bit necessarily. Plus, I don't
Speaker 2: know what's going to be around him. I think the
Speaker 2: reason that the Orioles are rushing is because, well, you know,
Speaker 2: we can compete, and he can help us compete, and
Speaker 2: we've got all this other young talent. I don't know
Speaker 2: what the Rockies have. You know, Tolio will see how
Speaker 2: he goes. It's a couple other guys that are intriguing.
Speaker 2: Anderson is the safest of the two, like Andrews' is
Speaker 2: the quickest, He's the safest at Seattle.
Speaker 1: The question is where's he fits the rotation.
Speaker 2: I assume Castillo won't be there sooner than later, and
Speaker 2: that will be the opening spot and he will get there.
Speaker 1: The only look, I think it's a good list.
Speaker 2: The only thing is I think Fisher should be on it,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna pound the table for him.
Speaker 1: I like gage Wood too.
Speaker 2: I think both of those guys, and of course the
Speaker 2: Orioles did take another catcher, so we can only assume
Speaker 2: that Cayden Bodein will also be called up this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah before Basayo, Well.
Speaker 3: They technically took like two ike Irish played catcher and outfield,
Speaker 3: so then real quickly if we jump off of it,
Speaker 3: I want to just get through the rest of these tiers.
Speaker 3: Of these guys, Tier two is Liam Doyle and Jojo
Speaker 3: Parker to me again, Jojo Parker's another safe, kind of
Speaker 3: does a little bit of everything. Bet Liam Doyle. I
Speaker 3: know you don't love him, but he should be quick
Speaker 3: to the majors. It's a really big fastball splitter. Tier
Speaker 3: three opens up. I do have Jayce Lavallette as a
Speaker 3: top ten pick for college. I'm betting on power. I'm
Speaker 3: not afraid Jamie Arnold Xavier Naan's with the power. Tyler Bremner.
Speaker 3: Tyler Bremner is the one we didn't like talk a
Speaker 3: ton about, but you know he's got a big fastball,
Speaker 3: big change up. I think they don't feel he needs
Speaker 3: a lot of work, and that's why he could be
Speaker 3: with the Angels soon. What things really open up is
Speaker 3: My last guy in this kind of tier three range
Speaker 3: is case On Cunningham, who I mentioned, who has got power, contact,
Speaker 3: doesn't strike out, probably some of the best bat speed
Speaker 3: of any of these guys. And I think, and by
Speaker 3: the way, it's he's a shortstop, not a starting pitcher,
Speaker 3: which is listed on here and it's Arizona, but Keseon
Speaker 3: Cunningham is like full full of potential, and I think
Speaker 3: he might be one of the sneakiest, like having a
Speaker 3: teens pick of all these guys. And it's not just
Speaker 3: Arizona would have been wherever he would have gone. I
Speaker 3: liked him. Gavin Fien's is a bunch of power with
Speaker 3: the Rangers. I know Claiy has got him like top five.
Speaker 3: And then you end it with a couple of college
Speaker 3: bats ike irish whether it's catcher outfield, really good exit velocities,
Speaker 3: really solid college bat in a pretty hitter friendly environment.
Speaker 3: And Gavin Keelin was mocked many times to the Red Sox.
Speaker 3: I've got him at shortstop or they drafted him at shortstop.
Speaker 3: I've got him on this list and the guys that
Speaker 3: just fell out of it, as you mentioned, you got
Speaker 3: Andrew Fisher, Kayson Cunningham, a bunch of the high school shortstops.
Speaker 3: And I think that's the biggest thing that stands out, Joe,
Speaker 3: is people are going to see, you know, Steel Hall
Speaker 3: and Daniel Pierce and Billy Carlson. Billy Carlson went ten
Speaker 3: and they're not in my top fifteen, and I'm lower
Speaker 3: on them, and it's just I don't know if I
Speaker 3: feel great about a lot of the upside. But the
Speaker 3: most important thing out of this is this is a
Speaker 3: very evolving process. This is the initial rank set if
Speaker 3: you're a cycle path and you're out doing your first
Speaker 3: year player, because I know some people are doing the
Speaker 3: first year player like this week, which is absolutely crazy.
Speaker 3: But this is an evolving process where some of these guys,
Speaker 3: these high school guys are going to come out here,
Speaker 3: some of the college guys are going to get run.
Speaker 3: Andrew Fisher comes out and just goes to Low A
Speaker 3: and then it finishes the year at High A and
Speaker 3: then goes to the AFL. Guess what that's going to
Speaker 3: be like our version of Dick Kurtz this year. He
Speaker 3: could fly up board. So understanding the players that could
Speaker 3: really fly up boards I think is also important. Guys
Speaker 3: like Fisher, guys like Gage Wood, Ethan Conrad is in
Speaker 3: that list, and there's just a boatload of high school
Speaker 3: guys for potential. So my last piece here, as I'm
Speaker 3: going to kind of write in this article, is that
Speaker 3: I don't think this is a year where you need
Speaker 3: to have or trade up into a draft. Like if
Speaker 3: I can get Ethan Holiday, I'm going to take Ethan
Speaker 3: Holiday in first year player for Fantasy.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 3: If I want pitching, I really want to probably focus
Speaker 3: on Kate Anderson. If I had the fourth or fifth pick,
Speaker 3: this is a decent year to trade back. If I
Speaker 3: had picks eleven and fifteen and I traded out of
Speaker 3: four or five, I think I'm getting talent that is
Speaker 3: on the same general range. If I'm getting case On
Speaker 3: Cunningham and then let's say Andrew Fisher with those two
Speaker 3: picks and I traded out, I think you can do it.
Speaker 3: So acquiring the middle round of picks is important because
Speaker 3: just because I gave you fifteen, I'm looking here, I
Speaker 3: legit think the next fifteen to twenty guys could easily
Speaker 3: be top ten to fifteen players. So having as he
Speaker 3: picks as possible in a depthy draft that lacks this awesome,
Speaker 3: awesome upside for fantasy, it's just something important to kind
Speaker 3: of go into. But we'll see how things, you know,
Speaker 3: materialize and how we get to see some of these
Speaker 3: guys in the majors. And that's why I also firmly
Speaker 3: believe you should do your first year player drafts in
Speaker 3: February next year, just so you've got a much better
Speaker 3: idea of these guys. Because LOO look at Jack cag Leon.
Speaker 3: Kag Leon had such a bad rep coming into the
Speaker 3: draft and then a bad Bridge League and then he
Speaker 3: became amazing. AFL changed him Nick Kurtz Afl. So you
Speaker 3: just want to see that taglone.
Speaker 2: If you watch this show, I mean you were you
Speaker 2: knew very well my love with Jack Caglio last.
Speaker 1: Year, and I wasn't hearing any of that noise. And
Speaker 1: that's what I mean.
Speaker 2: I tend to push some of that noise away because
Speaker 2: I think some of that stuff is just a lot
Speaker 2: of the nonsense that comes in the evaluation process.
Speaker 1: Sometimes where you get a.
Speaker 2: Lot of team speak, a lot of agents speak, a
Speaker 2: lot of nonsense, a lot of this and that it's
Speaker 2: about money and other things. I'm using the eye tests
Speaker 2: whilst's using the data. Hopefully we come to a good
Speaker 2: agreement on some of these quality players.
Speaker 1: But we want to hear from you.
Speaker 2: Who is your favorite pick of the twenty twenty five
Speaker 2: MLB draft. Drop your comments below, subscribe to the channel
Speaker 2: bring the Bell to Licos Ding, and check out Welsh's
Speaker 2: work on Fantasypros dot com where he breaks down the
Speaker 2: entire draft and patience. That's the one thing I would
Speaker 2: mention here.
Speaker 3: Patient, especially with this class.
Speaker 2: Patients with this class is not going to be the
Speaker 2: instant gratification of last year.
Speaker 1: It's just not going to be.
Speaker 2: So take a deep breath, enjoy your dynasty league drafts.
Speaker 2: And there's a couple guys that I think could be
Speaker 2: quick risers in the major leagues that'll do it for us.
Speaker 1: But the story of the game goes on for the Welsh.
Speaker 1: I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time, Gidz.
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