MLB Dynasty Rookie Mock Draft II Fantasy Baseball

James Anderson, Chris Clegg, Chris Welsh, and Eric Cross conduct a dynasty mock first-year player draft featuring this year’s draftees.

00:00 Intro
00:50 Who to take No. 1 overall
04:25 How good is Ethan Holliday?
09:15 JoJo Parker top 3?
14:00 Perfect landing spot for Kade Anderson
16:35 Aiva Arquette’s high floor
18:20 Seth Hernandez has the highest ceiling
22:40 Chasing Steele Hall’s upside
23:50 Gavin Fien Love
25:35 Jamie Arnold best value in the draft
28:25 A loaded college pitching class
30:40 Ethan Conrad’s upside
33:10 Liam Doyle’s slide ends
35:00 Kayson Cunningham’s hit tool
37:40 Ike Irish, best college hitter in the class?
40:20 Kyson Witherspoon’s upside
42:00 Buy low on Brendan Summerhill?
44:00 Gage Wood’s crazy upside
46:35 Andrew Fischer
48:00 Marek Houston
50:40 Buy low on Chase LaViolette?
55:30 Big power for Xavier Neyens
57:40 Chasing upside with Quentin Young
01:00:10 Charles Davalan better in fantasy
01:01:20 Mason Neville
01:04:00 Final thoughts on the class

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Welcome to the Rotoire Prospect podcast. I’m your host, James Anderson, and I got a great show for you. As always, the week of the draft, we’ll be doing a mock dynasty first year player draft. Uh we’ll be having my top 400 prospect rankings updated on Friday. Use the code YouTube 15 to get 15% off Roadire if you want to check those out. Uh but I got Chris Kle with me. I got Eric Cross with me. And we are going to pick uh 24 players or so. So um you know roughly two rounds, one and a half rounds or so of a first year player draft. And Chris Kle, you have the first pick here. So um the board is yours, man. Who Who are you going to go with? Let’s preface it by saying that think this is the worst year to have the first overall pick. There’s just no consensus. So uh it’ll be interesting to see. have not looked at anybody’s uh FYPD rankings other than my own, but you know, putting mine out, I got a lot of feedback and people don’t love who I have number one, but that’s okay. And I have Eli Willlets there. I had him there before the draft, so this is not a decision that I made because he was taken number one. I put out the rankings Friday before the draft, had Willlets there. It’s interesting because I think you can go so many different ways with Willlets. it feels like the safer bet. But again, we are talking about a 17 and a half year old. So, he’s very young. He I think he’s the youngest player ever to be taken 11-1. One of the youngest players drafted in general. But I look at Willlets, I see safety in the hit tool. I see plus speed and seen him already get to some power and I think you see a frame where he has still room to add some strength. The differentiator for me with Willlets is like what he did on the showcase. Last summer, 16-year-old on the showcase circuit. He ran a 90% contact rate. He rarely chased. The end zone was great. He pulled fast balls galore. That was something that Holiday, Ethan Holiday did not do. He didn’t pull a single fast ball on the showcase last year. And the contact gap is substantial. Now, obviously, Willlets doesn’t have the power, nor will he ever have the power of some of the other players in the class, but you look at plus speed, you see the aggression on the base pass. He’s going to steal bases with ease. To me, when I look at Eli Willlets, I see a lot of what I saw in Kevin McGonagal like when he was drafted. Now, obviously, Willlets is bit taller than McGonagal and maybe McGonagal has more present power. He is a couple years older. We’ve seen McGonogal pop several 112s, quite a few over 110. I don’t expect that from Willlets out of the gate, but I do see Willlets being a potential 2020 player. the really good hit tool that runs high OEPS and in a prep class and even a class in general where there’s risk like I just follow on Willlets and see safety. So that’s why I have him number one in the class. Yeah, I think that that all makes sense to me. Um, as you said, it’s not a not a class where I would love to have the number one overall pick. Um, and and honestly just it’s it’s a it’s a class that I like. It’s just not a class I like up top. Um, so it’s I feel like kind of almost from like the sixth or seventh best FYPD prospect on down, it’s it’s pretty nice relative to a normal class, but the like top five or so is really lacking for me. Um, Kle, where where are you gonna is is Willitz like what is he debuting at for you? Like a top 25, top 30, top 40? Like where where do you Yeah, I slotted him in Let me pull it. I think it was in the 30-ish range, but do I think I had him and Kate Anderson. I’ve got Kate Anderson as my next guy, and they were both in that 30 range. Right around 30 if I’m not mistaken. I do want to pull up and confirm if my sheet will load. Um, yeah. So, I have Willlets at 27. So, and then that just outside the top 25 right now. Nice. Um, well, I am on the clock now and uh I just got word that we’ve got a a fourth joining us here. So, I’m going to re uh rejigger the board here a little bit, but definitely late. Before I do that though, I I am uh I’m gonna take Ethan Holiday um who obviously went fourth to the Rockies and um I you know I don’t feel all that confident in taking anyone in this class like this high. I have like a tier of five guys up here. Um, but I, you know, I kind of think, um, of all the players, like I think he’s going to be hurt the least, um, by the Rockies having bad uh, player development just because I think he’s going to do so much of his work in the off season with his his family and uh, friends of the family and, you know, it’s it’s a a power centric profile uh that I that again I think can can benefit from the Kors aspect. Um because I think if you know if he goes to just a random team he’s probably hitting uh like 260 if it all comes together. Um but if on the Rockies that could that could be better. Um I know that there’s there’s length in the swing. I know not everyone’s sold on it, but um you know, I feel like there’s there’s issues you could point at with a lot of these guys, whether it’s just not having a ton of power potential or questions about the hit tool or um questions about the the body or, you know, where they’re going to slide on the defensive spectrum. I at least think Holiday is going to stick at third base. I at least think he’s going to hit for power. uh it’s not going to be hard for him to break in on this team as unless he’s just a complete bust, which you know, like he’s he’s not as good of a prospect as um like Drew Jones was and and Drew Jones has had a good couple of weeks here, but um like it’s possible for Ethan Holiday to be a complete bust, but I I think that that could happen with most of the guys in this class other than Willlets. I do think Willlets has the the highest floor. Um but yeah, Ethan Holiday for me. Uh, which, uh, Craig, do you want to respond to that because I know you’re you’re a bit lower on on holiday. I guess I’ll be I’ll probably be the uh holiday hater in in the FYPD circles. I’ve already been dubbed that. But, uh, yeah, for me, and I acknowledge like this could have changed and and still could change. So, with Holiday, like we saw what he did last year on the showcase circuit. I mentioned he didn’t pull a single fast ball and he struggled mightily with anything that was 92 and above. Like the numbers were horrific. And those are major question marks. Like he’s only going to see better pitching in pro ball. And yes, he had a great spring. I acknowledge that. You look at the surface numbers are great. But honestly, like go pull up any player drafted in the first couple rounds of prep player and look at their high school slash line and they all kind of tell a similar story. So, you know, for me, like I just want to see Holiday actually prove it against better pitching. I’m still not sure he can handle the fast balls and have a good enough hit tool. And I do believe in the power, but I also think that there’s risk. And for me, like I just can’t get there on him at the top personally. But that’s just my outlier take apparently. I mean, that’s that’s totally I I think that’s great. like um we shouldn’t all just be thinking the same thing. And if you look back at any top 10 FIPD rankings, there’s busts all over the place. So, y um you know, even if we all agreed on who the top four were, someone in that top four would would probably bust if not multiple players. So, um love to get that perspective from you. Uh now Eric Cross, uh got time for you to make a pick number three here before we’re potentially joined by a fourth FYPD mocker. All right. Yeah, you know, you both have said it’s a very bad year to be up the top. I would love to be like the six to nine 10 range because I think you can get, you know, a good name that you might like as a top five dude following. And I think that could be the case with this guy whom I’m about to take who is my 1-1. And are we got there? He is. Oh, Chris Welsh just joined the broadcast. What a diva. I am so sorry. I had the time wrong. I uh cost myself Ethan Holidayiday. That’s why you show up to your drafts on time. I am You did. You You definitely cost yourself in the in the pecking order. I had the first pick. I cost myself Ethan Holiday. Shame. I feel so bad. Please, Air Cross, let me not take away from your pick. Please don’t take my guy. I’m so sorry, guys. Time was wrong. What a diva. Fashionably late. That’s what you are, Welsh. But uh yeah, I’m gonna go with uh my number one, Jojo Parker, who went to the Toronto Blue Jays at pick eight in the draft. Again, there’s no clear-cut number one this year. I went back and forth between like three or four guys as my number one, and I don’t even feel I like Parker a lot, but it’s like he’s not my slam dunk one by any means. But, you know, I settled on him as my 1-1 simply because I felt personally that he had the best combination of, you know, hit, power projection, and speed out of all the, you know, the kind of the top names. And, you know, he’s not as as fast as, you know, Eli Willlets, but I think he could have more power than the Eli Willlets. And I think it could come down to, you know, who has the better hit tool long term between, you know, between these two. So, um, yeah, Parker, I think there’s more power projection there with Parker. I think he’s already got a solid frame. Not like the biggest dude. He’s not like one of like those 6’4, you know, buzzy, you know, projection, oozing projection short stops, but there is some power projection there. Some more, you know, you know, uh, projection left on the frame to add some more bulk. So, think you could be, you know, potentially 55 to 60 hit, 55 to 60 power and still have enough speed to give you like 10, 15 steels a year, something like that. So again, I don’t feel great about it. I think you could actually get him, you know, I think, you know, ADP for FYPD for him probably end up being like six or seven if I had to guess. So I’d love to be down in that range, but I guess I’ll take Jojo Parker here. I don’t think I’m going to get him back at six knowing Welsh, but I don’t know, maybe I could have. Before we go to you, Welsh, um, do you guys have any feel for the these first three guys? Will it Holiday Parker? Do you think we see all three of them uh make their pro debuts before the end of the season or do you think one or or more than one of them might not debut until 2026? Well, there’s rumors that Willlets Camp put out that he wasn’t going to go anywhere that was going to put him at the complex. His demand was to start in full season ball. So, you know, if that’s true or not, that’s that’s what I had heard that he had that was a demand on their part. So, we’ll be curious to see if he does come out with the FredNats you pretty soon or not. So, that would be interesting. You know, I think the Bridge League throws a weird wrench into things like nobody has a clue what’s going on around the Bridge League or or where they’re being played half the time or what’s even going on. So, it’ll be interesting. I think that Parker will be fascinating just given the Blue Jays and their track record. Like, I don’t know. I would guess Willlets if one does, but they all might not. It wouldn’t shock me if none of them did debut in full season ball. Yeah, I don’t have a good feel for it, but I will say, you know, Namala did, you know, go you only had nine games at the complex, but after he was drafted, but he did play the same year. You know, maybe, you know, maybe you see Parker get a little bit of time at the complex, but yeah, the complex complex is almost over though, so that’s the difference. They only got a week or a week and a half left. So, year was different. Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, it would only be for a handful of games and I don’t I don’t think Toronto would put Toronto doesn’t think they’d push Parker to full season ball right away. So, yeah. Yeah, I think it’s it’s possible we could get to the off season and um a lot of the people in a lot of people’s top fives won’t have even made their pro debut. So, that’ll be interesting. Um all right, Welsh. Uh here you go. Uh picks four and pick five. All right, with my dunce hat on again. I’m so sorry, guys. I feel so I feel so bad. And I also screwed myself so much. You know how slick I was sitting when I was getting Ethan Holiday at one and then I got to come back around and that like n I was sitting so pretty. So this is going to put a test uh to what I’m going to do. And I just want to point I just want to add in real quick that like I uh I think the majority if that Willlets thing is true that’s fascinating. I think almost all of them you’re not going to see. I think it throws a huge wrench into first year player stuff because you’re going to have this battle of these college guys. You’re going to have college guys that are going to be at low A high. You’re going to have most pitchers not pitching and then you’re going to have more than not the high school guys not playing at all because look at the Reds. The Reds have kept Tyson Lewis at rookie ball the whole year. He’s hitting almost 350. He did not. And guess what? He was in the Bridge League the whole time last year. So was Slade Caldwell. So I think maybe Willlets will be a special case, maybe Holiday gets pushed. I think the majority of these guys will be there. So it is going to throw a huge wrench into everybody because it’s like what do these guys do? No one’s going to know anything about it. So hopefully I can get as much info as possible. So uh putting myself at uh five and six. I you guys took the fun stuff and I think I called this with you Cross where I said like the first three picks are going to be all different people’s number one overall picks. The only difference would have been I think James, you and I are the only ones with Ethan Holiday at number one. Uh, everybody’s got a different pick, but I’m going to go on the college side and I’m going to take the first pitcher off the board. I’m going to take Kate Anderson. I probably would not have done this had he not gone to Seattle. I probably would have avoided, but I again, this draft is so weird because it’s like, look at these high school guys. Um, look at the lack of college hitters that are out there and look at just the unsustainability of like what we feel comfortable with. Well, here’s one thing I do know. Kate Anderson has four plus pitches. Maybe his fast ball has some questions. You know, it’s like decent shape and stuff like that, but maybe there’s some questions there. Nice hammer curve and everything. Well, then go put him in the best spot possible. I know we all hate to take pictures, but put him in Seattle. incredible place for the him to develop. Luis Castillo could be gone next year. He could start in the rotation soon. You got I’m I’m not the biggest proximity guy on the planet, but when I’m surrounded by a bunch of question marks in fantasy right now, and you can at least throw me a college pitcher who led division one in strikeouts, has got plus pitches, and goes to Seattle. Guys, I’m gonna do it. So, I’m gonna go uh Kate Anderson with pick four. Do you want me to jump right into five? Yeah, unless anyone has anything to add on Anderson because we all have I think we all probably feel a little bit different too. Like I think Oh, actually I I did want to say something. Um like do you guys like to me I really struggle to think of like a better player to team landing spot than Kate Anderson to the Mariners in terms of just um really sort of solidifying a player’s value in the top five of FYPD rankings. You could have said Holiday in Colorado, but their development sucks. So, yeah, like that’s why that answer is like 100% correct. It’s just basically it’s like one of the best matches I’ve I’ve ever seen. And uh especially just because they don’t have any depth behind their top five guys. Like they, you know, they’ve got Logan Evans and Emerson Hancock as like their six and sevens. So, uh they need Anderson and they’re they need him next year and I think he’ll be up for most or all of next year. So, pretty great. Yeah. Um, all right, Welsh, go ahead for for number five. All right. And and by the way, I I I could have flipped this if I wanted, but I’ve got Kate Anderson at two in my first year player because of what we talked about. Okay, good. So, we both do. Um, I’m going to go with the college bat. Give me Iva Arquette. So, this is about the only college bat I think that I feel like really good and consistent about if I were taking there. Are there some question marks? Like, yeah, sure. There there definitely is. He had a high percentage of like miss on sliders, but he made a bunch of contact. One of the best contact rates or at least above well above average on 92 plus VO. Good uh inzone contact. He had a 108 90th percentile which was better than like pretty much everybody but Aloy I think as far as some of the data I’m looking at. Pulls the ball in the air. Had one of the best launch angles. Lowks 346 slash this past year. Big projectable body. I said this a million times, so I apologize for people roll their eyes, but like I got to talk to Travis Bazana a week ago and he was just raving about Iva Arquette and not just his physical tool set, but just his mentality. He was talk he was on the phone with him talking about the draft and it’s like this draft is so weird because we just had all these amazing college guys get there. You would think the teams would want to repeat, but it’s so telling why they’re not because the talent is not there. The closest version of that I think is uh Iva Arette who like I said most of his underlying metrics are well above average. He’s got body projectability. Like this is this is one of those bets that I’m going to take. This is kind of safe by the way, not exactly what you love to go like pitcher and uh hitter, but I’m taking the college proximity guys. These might be two of the top four players that get to the majors first. So that’s why there’s a little slight advantage here. So I have Arquett’s my pick. All right. Uh, Eric Cross, over to you for the sixth pick in our mock first year player draft. All right. I I don’t want to go to high school players. Uh, but I’m going to go with Seth Hernandez, uh, who went to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who I have is my favorite pitcher in the draft. You know, I think obviously, you know, he’s it’s risky to go with a, you know, high school arm early in the FYPD. Yeah, you can it can hit and be great, but you know, more often than not, it does not hit. So, definitely safe to go Kate Anderson or, you know, any of the other top collegiic arms, but I think you can make a strong argument that Seth Hernandez has the best or the highest upside of any pitcher. Like, if if everything clicks and he turns into, you know, what people think he can turn into, I think he’s the one where I’m like, you know, there’s ace upside. I don’t like throwing on the ace term very often, but there’s ace upside there with Hernandez and I think that could be scary rotation for Pittsburgh down the road like potentially having a five, you know, of skins, Jared Jones, you know, Bubba Chandler, Hernandez, and like a Hunter Barco or something like that. You know, you can joke that they’ll all have like three wins or something like that. You know, Cass only has four this year, but that upside with Hernandez, you know, it’s a legit four pitch mix. you know, fast ball mid to upper 90s. You can he’s already hit a hundred with that fast ball. You know, maybe the best change up in the draft or it’s at least in that discussion. You know, it’s already I love especially like high school arms already have such a great change up and it’s not like he’s a change up only guy cuz he’s got a couple good breakers as well and obviously has the velocity on the fast ball. So, it’s not like a you know, you know, Gavin Stone situation where it’s like change up heavy or something like that. But, you know, definitely a phenomenal four pitch mix. You know, advanced feel for his age, much more polished than most high school arms you see when they get drafted. So, yeah, you know, not as you high of a floor pick as a K, you know, Kate Anderson, but Seth Hernandez, I think, is the, you know, could be the dude from the pitching side from this draft class where everything clicks. So, I’ll take him here at pick six. Yeah, I kind of think uh this is maybe the best class, the best combination of class and top prep pitcher for the top prep pitcher to potentially go top three in some FYPDs. Like I I think yeah, you people typically don’t go that high on whoever it is, even if it’s like a job or um I mean Painter wasn’t even like a consensus first rounder. Um, but I think like the weakness of this class because you could make a pretty compelling argument that Hernandez has the highest ceiling of anyone in the class. Um, so I think there will be cases where people take him top three in this one. Yeah, I could totally see it. Uh, okay. Uh, up to me for pick number seven or pick number uh, yeah, pick number seven. Uh, but first a quick message from our sponsors. The NFC Rotoire Fantasy Football Online Championship is live. Play fantasy football against your favorite Rotoire experts on NFC this football season. Jeff Ericen, Nick Whan, and more will compete in the Rotoire NFC online championship for a shot at 200 $250,000. Uh, sign up for a draft today at roar.comhistakes. That’s rotorer.com/histstakes. Can the weather really help a baseball travel further? Turns out yes. The air can affect how far a baseball carries by up to 20%. Home run forecast uses real-time weather data to rate each game’s conditions for ball flight, assigning every matchup a 1 to 10 score based on how home run friendly the air is. On the premium site, you’ll get game bygame, hourby- hour index values, 24hour forecasts, wind direction, roof status, and more. All for less than $6 a month. Check it out at homerunfor.com and gain a weather edge before first pitch. All right, so we’re back. Uh, got Chris Clag, Eric Cross, and Chris Welsh with me. We’re doing a mock first year player draft uh with just the 2025 drafties. And, uh, Eli Willlets went first overall to Kle. I took Ethan Holidayiday second overall. Jojo Parker went third to Cross. Then Welsh at the turn. Grabbed Kate Anderson and Ava Arquette. And then Cross took Seth Hernandez, six overall. And I will take uh Steel Hall shorts stop for the Reds. Uh high school shorts stop for the Reds. And this is an upside pick. Um you know, Holiday is is an upside pick, too, but this is kind of the the reverse of that where it’s just the speed, the athleticism. Um, Hall, not as young as Willlets, but one of the younger top prospects in this class, and he’s got just so much room to fill out his frame. I I don’t really know where the power ends up or where the hit tool ends up. Um, but I just think he’s such a good athlete and trending in the right direction that if he’s just kind of an an average hitter with fringe average power and he sticks at shortstop, I think he could be a 30 to 40 steel guy. U double digit homers won’t hurt your batting average. So, uh, give me Steel Hall at the seventh overall here. Um, and that will send it over to Cle for picks eight and nine. All right. So, I want to try to float this guy a little bit to see how far he would fall, but I don’t think he’s going to make it to my next pick. So, taking Gavin Fiend. He lands with the Texas Rangers. I love Fiend personally. I think that was a tremendous pick and value there. He’s one of my top prep players in the class. I think Fiend checks kind of every box you want out of a prep hitter. He’s tall, he’s strong, and he’s still projectable. It’s very broad upper half, strong shoulders, really good bat speed, explosive through the zone. Natural uppercut for Fain. It’s very line drive oriented right now, but he does get enough loft to get to home runs. Last year, he was the showcase best performer among his peers in the best competition on the prep showcase. So, that stands out a lot to me. And I know there was some divided takes about his spring this year, but talking exit velocity is already up to 111 with Woodbat consistently over 100 miles an hour. Very good approach, good contact rates. I like the well-roundedness of the profile cuz he is a good athlete still despite being big and having that kind of power. So Gavin Fi like I’d love to try to float a little further. Just not sure if he would make it back to 16. So gonna go ahead and take him here. You know, he may move off short and may play some third base. He’s played some corner outfield at times. Didn’t really matter to me. I think the bat’s going to play with Fiend. So my next pick, I’m debating several pitchers. I do think that Jamie Arnold in the athletics or votes really well. I thought they got probably the best value in the I won’t say the entire first round, but it was a good value pick where he fell to them. And obviously Arnold is unique. We haven’t seen a lot of pitchers have the kind of traits he does be successful, but that’s just because there’s not a lot of pitchers that can throw like Jamie Arnold does. So, you know, you look at his seasons at Florida State, 2025 and 2024 were identical with a 298 erra. this season. He did miss a couple starts, but 84 innings, 119 strikeouts, and 27 walks. It’s about as unique of a release as you’ll find. A 4 foot7 release height, extension up to seven feet, though, so that’s something to talk about. You know, the the floor is like you look and you say like, okay, like it’s Cooper Jerpyesque several years ago that hasn’t panned. But Arnold does throw much harder than Jerpy ever threw. Like he’s sitting 93 94. It’s really good IBB from that release height. It’s armside run, a negative 3.7 VA, which is like about as elite as they come. He’ll throw a sinker with 20 inches of armside. That change up, that kick change up grip that he played with this year. Plays really well. Good depth, seven inches of fade on it. Yeah, there’s the breaking balls that still could probably use a little bit of work, but you know, ultimately with Arnold, I think you look at it and honestly like the Athletics have done a pretty good job like with developing what they’ve had before them. So, I know people like look and they’re like, “Oh, this is a terrible or I don’t actually agree with that.” And you look at some of the strides that guys like a Luis Morales have made, a Gage jump have made and I think it’s a great fit for the organization who also like a light comp could be like a JP Sears and there’s some similarities between Arnold and Sears and the athletics have done a good job there with developing. I know Sears isn’t like a a world beater or anything of that nature, but Arnold does have the traits to be a solid in the rotation guy. Command’s good. Feels like a very high floor type. I think this is kind of a tier of arms here and he could go several different ways, but I do like the fit for Arnold with the athletics. So, I will take him in my second pick. Yeah, I definitely agree with what you said about Arnold being one of, if not the best values on draft day. Um, and I mean, the A’s have as good a, you know, top 15 pick track record as anyone in recent years. So, um, and like they’re going to be, uh, I think the park in Vegas, I know it’s not going to be for another, uh, year or two, but I think the park in Vegas is going to be I think it’s going to play closer to kind of like, uh, the the Diamondbacks Park like some kind of crazy hitters park. Uh, I’m going to So, I’m I’m up here for the uh 10th pick. I agree there’s a tier of arms. Um, my first initial thoughts about this draft class when I started doing my work was that the strength of the class was these four to six college starters depending who you like the most like Kate Anderson obviously Jamie Arnold obviously but I also thought Tyler Brenner um belonged in that mix um before the Angels took him number two overall. I know that was surprising, but um like I think he 100% belongs in this mix just based on his merits. He finished as well as anyone. He struck out double digit batters in six of his last seven starts. Uh I love the combination of velocity and movement on the fast ball. Um love the change up. You know, obviously the the slider lags behind a little bit, but uh really just the the quality of the slider is the only thing I could nitpick with with Brener. Um maybe the caliber competition, but I think uh he was he was at UC Santa Barbara, but I think he was just so dominant uh and the the fast ball and the the change up are so good and and Brener also performed very well um as a sophomore, too. So, uh, I know it’s not like an organization that we we fully trust necessarily, but, um, I think he could be the best pitcher in this class. I think he probably is going to be one of the first two pitchers to get the big leagues from this class. I think him and Brener and Kate Anderson, I I think are both going to spend most, if not all, next year in the big leagues. And, uh, maybe not Anderson, but like Brener, I certainly think, will be competing for a job in spring training next year. So, um, yeah, I’m happy to get him a 10 and, uh, I just love the the top five to six arms from the college ranks in this class. So, that will send it over to Cross. I actually heard that the Angels are having Brim their pitch on Friday night coming out of the break. So, never gets old. Yeah, that that on a tea. That that joke is always there. But, uh, so I’m going to go after going two high school players, I’m going to go with my first collegiate guy and who I actually have as my my favorite, uh, collegiic bat in the class. I’m going with Ethan Conrad, who went to the Chicago Cubs. You know, they already have a ton of outfielders, but uh, you know, Conrad, I absolutely love the just a blend of offensive skills that he brings to the table. You know, the big red flag is, you know, durability has been an issue. Now, he was limited to just 21 games for Wake Forest this spring. Had a dislocated shoulder, but he balled out in those 21 games. He had 15 extra base hits. Seven of those were home runs, four steals, more walks than Ks, you know, 372, 495, 74 slash line. You know, offensively, he brings, you know, above average blend of of contact. You know, you could say he’s plus power. He’s a good runner as well. you know, he’s got that kind of big strong like corner outfield frame, though he has played some center, too. I I think he’s more of a corner outfielder long term, but you know, offensively, the skills are there. It can it feels he Conrad could be like I’m not this is not like a direct comp like skills-wise, but like how Montgomery last year, Brandon Montgomery fell because of his injury, you know, he probably would have been taken five, six picks higher than he did when he went to 12th to the Red Sox. I feel like Conrad could have been, you know, more of like a, you know, backend top 10 pick as opposed to going, I think it was 17 or 18 to the Cubs. So, I think you get a little bit of a discount there. He’s probably not going to be a top 10 pick for many. Uh, but I have him as my number five overall player and I feel really good about that. Maybe this is just me falling in love with another chase to Louderer type profile. As everyone knows, I’m super high into Louder. Always have been, always will be. But, uh, offensive skills are there. if he can stay healthy, you know, the upside is very very high uh for Conrad and guy has had success with wood bats, too. He hit 385 uh in in the Cape last year. Only had two home runs in 30 games, but still hit 385. So, he’s got some success with wood bats. All the skills are there. Keep your fingers crossed that he can stay healthy. Um but yeah, a lot of good offensive skills there with Conrad. So, I’ll be happy to take him at the in the back end of a top 10 here in any FYPD this year. All right, Welsh, you uh you got the lay of the land. You’ve been here for a few minutes. You you’re getting settled in. Um only a few minutes. I will tell you this is 100% like the space where the the top end of the draft and the chaos of our valuations are just staring me in the face. Like because I’m sitting here using Kle’s word, I’m wondering who can I float because we got all different valuation. I see seven different guys that I want to take right now. Uh so this is a really tough tough one. I’m gonna There’s I know one I’m going to take. So I’m going to do that and then I’m going to figure out what I can float and see what I can get by you guys. I I got to take Liam Doyle here. Uh I’m digging another pitcher in here. You guys have talked about the class. I think he’s kind of the if you want to throw and and I assume you’re probably throwing um Kasein in here. I’m going to throw throw Liam Doyle in there. There is some relief risk. I thought about maybe um passing kind of based on what I’ve done, but I also want to maybe kind of stick to the ranks and the valuations that you know the biggest thing with Liam Doyle is this is the best ball in the entire draft. U there were some like body comp. There was some like little argumentative things at Tennessee that maybe worry you. Uh is he only fast ball is what you can think about. I I kind of think I can look past that, especially with the value I’m getting right now. Uh betting on the best fast ball, incredible shape, incredible whiff uh rates. Boom. He’s also got a splitter that got crazy whiff rates. He’s got three pitches as long as he’s developed properly. I kind of am cool with the destination with the Cardinals. It could have been a much worse spot. So, there was a time where I was really struggling between like Cade and Liam Doyle and um and uh Cade Liam Doyle. Oh, and Jamie Arnold about like the three that I really wanted to put at the top and Brier belongs in there. But this is just kind of value. So, I’ve got him quite a bit higher. So, I’m going to snag Liam Doyle here. So, here is where things get really difficult for me because I I’m gonna float a player to see if I can uh get by on this because I want to take this guy. God, am I talking myself through it? I’m going to take this player because I’ve been talking this up and I don’t think he’s going to float past me and you’re going to call me a homer. Give me Kan Cunningham with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Uh I am absolutely yeah it kind maybe you could do that but I’m in love with Kesan Cunningham and I was pre-draft uh I’m gonna put to rest this this story that I’ve told multiple times but one of my favorite things is that he had uh talked to the Diamondbacks. He did a a workout with them. He they wanted him to do a pitching simulator and he they asked who do you want? He said Paul Ske. So they put up the Paul skins on the pitching simulator hit some bombs against it. That’s all cool and dandy. The thing that I was excited about was they said he registered 114 115 max EVs. And the importance of that is that Kesan Cunningham, a little bit smaller of a guy, like 5’9, 5 foot 10, thicker bodied guy. He’s added some of that weight because I saw him at the Dream Series this past year. He has some of the best bat speed I think in the draft. High ability to make contact, barrels up the ball, doesn’t make a ton of bad decisions. Power was the question. Well, guess what? He’s already putting up raw EV numbers. the guy can run. I think he’s got the potential to be as high as six on my board. I don’t think it’s out of pocket that we could look at taking any of these shorts stops over him. Uh that it looks crazy. Also, the Diamondbacks are uh heavy analytics, you know, like they’ve been heavy into like really good data stuff, big hard hit numbers. Uh they want guys that are barreling, getting the ball in the air. I’m in love with his swing. I think he’s got tons and tons of upside. I have taken all college guys here, but I will tell you I floating a couple players that I really, really like here, and this is just such a cool range. If I could have traded my next two picks for Cross’s next one, I’d have felt really good. So, give me Liam Doyle and Kesan Cunningham. All right. Yeah. Um, Cunningham definitely uh a player where I’m just not sure which way it’s going to go, but I I agree that the hit tool is uh is really strong. Um, and uh I also I I think the Diamondbacks do a pretty good job of uh of scouting and so I I am intrigued by the fact that he landed there. Uh all right, uh Cross, over to you for the 14th pick. Man, Welsh. Uh your Dbacks love them some short kings, don’t they? They do, man. They If you’re over six foot, you’re not for them. I know. Especially when when they’re drafting you. So, no. Um, all right. I’m going to go back to the college bat here. Another college hitter I’m very, very high on. I’m going Ike Irish, who went to the Baltimore Orioles late in the first round. Uh, they listed him as a catcher. I don’t I mean, I’m not 100% saying no to it, but I I don’t see him catching longterm. He played a lot more, you know, right field than catcher this past year. Plus, obviously, they have Adley Rutman, but you know, Basile’s not gonna be a catcher long term, but they also drafted Katum Boddine, you know, later in the draft as well out of Coastal Carolina. So, really don’t see Irish being behind the plate long term. We’ll see. But, you know, as a corner outfielder, I think he’s one of the better pure bats in the draft class. You know, three-year guy at Auburn, hit well every year. You know, showed more and more power every year. Had 19 home runs, 55 games. this past season, you know, 364 average, almost as many walks as strikeouts. You know, not like a big speed guy, and he’s probably only gonna be a guy gives you like four or five steals or something like that, but the blend of contact power and approach is really solid here. You, a guy that could hit, you know, like a 270, 280 type of hitter, you know, 25 to 30 home runs and get on base at a high clip as well. And you you can joke all you want about how Baltimore has handled their guys, but this is still one of the best player development organizations in baseball. And even if they had a few misses recently or, you know, you don’t like the way they’ve handled it, you know, I love the talent here with Ike Irish. I like the landing spot as well. Oh, and he’s a guy I think you can get at a, you know, much, you know, maybe five to 10 picks later than this because, you know, where he went in the draft. And I don’t think that draft slot should affect any ranking. But it does it keep it it trickles into people’s minds like, oh, this guy was drafted, you know, 27th or or whatever it was, you know, maybe I can get him a little bit later. So, I don’t think he’s going to be a guy that’s gonna be near the top 10. Maybe he’s like a, you know, in the 15 to 20 range. So, I think that’s where you could get him. But, I like him a I have him as a top 10 guy in my FYPD rankings just based on that blend of, you know, contact, power, and approach. And I think he’s a guy that gets to the system pretty quickly and maybe one of the first collegiic bats to to make it up to the majors. So, Ike Irish is my pick here. Yeah, I think if Irish had gone to like the Reds or something, he might have been more of like a consensus top 10 pick, but I think just the fact he went to the Orioles probably, you know, everyone’s had some oral prospect in the past year or two who’s let him down or that the Orioles have let him down. So, absolutely. Uh I will take Kyson Witherspoon. Uh he’s I think he’s right there with Jamie Arnold and Tyler Brener. Um and and really not that far behind Kate Anderson. And uh I just think the the Red Sox, like I don’t like the park, but I just think they’ve become one of the truly great pitching development teams and they’ve got a lot to work with in Witherspoon. And I think like what they could do with his cutter specifically could be could be pretty great. Um, he had a 5.9% walk rate this spring. Like just really awesome stuff for for a guy with his his, you know, electric arsenal. So, uh, yeah, I’ll take Kaisen Witherspoon of the Red Sox here at number 15 overall, which sends it to Cle for a pair. Oh man, it kind of falls off after this a little bit. I feel like uh like Witherspoon a lot. Tell you the Red Sox internals were beyond thrilled that he fell to them. I know this like their third straight draft that they’ve just had someone fall in their lap. They didn’t expect to. So as a Red Sox fan, I’m I’m thrilled with Cunningham with a Witherspoon. I I loved getting him for the Red Sox. Yeah. And their pitch dev, I know it hasn’t materialized in the MLB pitchers yet, but it’s uh what they’re doing on the minor league side. It’s just it’s materialized by the fact that I got to add like three Red Sox pitching prospects to each update of my rankings. Yep, that’s true. Yep. Absolutely. All right. So, I’ll take a bat that I’m pretty high on in Brennan Summerhill, outfielder goes to Tampa Bay. I think he’s one of the best pure hitters in the draft. The power took a step back this year. if he had not seen that power regress. There was talks of him going top five just given the well-roundedness of the profile. Eight home runs last year his sophomore season and 279 trips to the plate. Just four this year and 207 trips and the exit velocities were down. He was down about three ticks like which is kind of notable. You almost wonder if there was an injury involved there. A 103 and a half 90th is not great. Like that’s MLB will be average, but with a metal bat that’s not great. But I look at a frame that’s 6’3 200 lb. I watch his barrel control. I watch his launch angles and the ability to pull the ball in the air. And I just really like the potential for Summer Hill to get to some power. And I don’t really need him to get to a ton of power because hit tool fantastic. 87% contact, 92% end zone. It was a chase rate of 16% which is near elite. He makes a lot of contact, gets fast balls and spin plus runner, so it kind of will be something to watch. He was an efficient stealing bases this year, but there is speed there clockwise. I think if all clicks, you’re looking at plus hit and speed with potential average power. Like if he hits 15 home runs and steals you bags with a good batting average, then I’m pretty happy because I feel like the floor is just so high with Summerhill. In some ways, I don’t like him in the Rays or it’s kind of frustrating because, you know, we know how raised their with prospects are, but also like they do have good development. They’ve got a great eye for talent. We see it year over year. So, you know, it’s kind of a blessing and a curse the the landing spot for Summer Hill. So, we’ll see how that pans out. But, uh big fan of the bat with Brennan Summerhill and the potential that he brings. So, the next pick’s a little tougher. Uh there’s several ways you can go. I feel like the tier drops down with pitchers at least. There’s a couple bats and I’ve kind of debated them all. Man, I think I’m going to take Gage Wood and not overly confident. The stuff is there. Like I don’t think we can argue with Gage Wood’s stuff. He threw 37 innings this year and his career high is 40. So like from that standpoint, you look at it’s like yes, that’s a little bit concerning. But when we’re looking at pure stuff, like it’s there. So Wood’s his kind of meteoric rise reminds me a lot of what happened with Kate Horton and you know his rise from the great postseason that he had several years ago. And the shoulder impingement is the biggest question like how will that affect him? But it’s outlier fastball. It’s 96 like up to 19 inches of vert from a 55 release height. So negative4 vaa like those are elite fastball traits. I’d put the fast ball pretty close to Liam Doyle. I still think Doyle has the better fast ball, but I think Wood is close. Had one of the highest foreseen whiff rates in all of college baseball. Curveball is pretty devastating. Negative 16 17 inches of IVB and 10 inches of sweep in the low to mid 80s. And while he’s predominantly using those two pitches, change up had good whiff rates sitting in the upper 80s, 10 13 inches of armside, had a gyro slider. it sits in that similar band of the change up, but you know, Wood has the stuff where he can just dominate. So, you it’ll be kind of fascinating to see like he fell pretty far and what do the Phillies do with him? Like, it feels like a guy they could push pretty quickly out of a bullpin, but you can’t argue the stuff and I think at this range like you got to take some risk and you could take a risk here and walk out with one of the better pitchers in the class pretty late. Man, I love that pick. I I was really hoping Wood would would be there for me. Um I actually like Wood just a tiny bit more than Liam Doyle. Uh but I think I think like that’s those are the six. They’re all gone now, but uh Kate Anderson, Jamie Arnold, Tyler Brener, Liam Doyle, Ka Witherspoon, Gage Wood. Like I I think that’s like a as good of a top six of college starters as you’re going to see in a draft. Um, maybe not like Kate Anderson might not stack up with some of the best number one uh college starters in a class, but just one through six right there. I just think it’s a loaded college starter class. Um, I’m going to take Andrew Fiser here at at 18, uh, Brewers first baseman, uh, by way of Tennessee, by way of Old Miss, by way of Duke. But, uh, Fiser is like he’s just such a good hitter. Um, you know, he he didn’t like that Tennessee team was just so loaded. I I feel like, you know, some of the guys kind of went a little under the radar, but um, like I think you can make a case Fischer’s the best college bat in the class. Uh, I think he’s I think it’s like him and Ike Irish for me in terms of just like hit and power. Um, and I think the Brewers will will do well with him. Uh, probably probably sits against lefties his first couple years, but we’re we’re in that stage of the draft. Like that’s probably true of like Summer Hill, too. That’s probably true of most of the lefties who are going to be be taken at this point. But, um, yeah, I just think I think Fiser is just a really good bet to hit for a good average, good OBP. It’s probably not going to be like 35 homer power, but like I think it’s 25 plus homer power for Fiser. So, uh, pumped about that one. Uh, Cross, over to you for pick 19. Yeah, you snipe me there. I I was all set to take Andrew Fischer there, uh, at pick 19, but I’ll have to pivot. I’ll go with another, uh, I’ll go with the Wake Forest guy here again, my second one, and go Merrick Houston. Short stop. uh went to the Minnesota Twins. So, you know, not the biggest power guy, though. You know, it’s it’s not like he’s not a slap hitter by any means. There there’s some power there and some projection left in the frame. We’ll see if he he adds to it. You know, he’s already 21. Who knows? Maybe this is the frame he has, but you he’s 6’3, like 180, 185, you know, and just really good all-around player. you maybe you say power is, you know, below average or fringe average, but this is maybe one of the better, you know, defensive shorts stops in the draft. A guy that I think has no issue sticking at shortstop long term and obviously they have Korea there now, but he’s, you know, injuryprone. Royce Lewis obviously isn’t going to, you know, stay healthy ever. So, they needed some, you know, we talked about this on the Bleacher Report stream when it when it happened. Like, I thought this was a good pick for the Twins, kind of give them more insurance and long-term options on that left side of the infield. And just outside of of the power being fringy, I think the rest of the profile for Houston is really good. I mean, he’s got a great approach. He walked as much as he struck out last year with Wake Forest. You It’s a good field to hit. He’s above average. Maybe you could maybe say plus runner. You know, I feel com more comfortable saying above average, but it’s a guy that could hit, you know, higher up in the order, you know, give you a 20 plus steals annually, maybe like a 15 home run bat, something like that where it might not wow you. He doesn’t have like any big loud offensive tool, but just a really good pure hitter with a little bit of power and a good runner as well and a good, you know, very high bet to stick at short stop long term. So, you no real concern with him moving out of the position. He’s he’s got the range. He’s got the arm. You know, this could be a really good player for a long time, even if he’s only like a 15 homer guy. So, I will go with Mick Houston here at pick. What is this? 18, I think. 19. 19. Nice. Well, uh, Welsh, were you able to float anyone here to to pick? Uh, I did. I I know you’re I know you’re floating, Welsh. I Everybody know Everybody knows the first one that I’m floating and I’ll do it. I will say the only guy and this is what’s so fascinating about this was the only guy in that whole time in between that I really wanted was Fischer and I think I’m I think I could have taken Fiser and floated Kase and Cunningham back. Uh you guys could tell me otherwise, but I think I’m the high guy there. So that that’s the crazy thing. That’s like the cool thing about this. This is going to be the wild west unless things start to um you know kind of materialize and we all start to come into some type of agreement. So, I had uh three players I was floating. One went in Fiser. The other two are there. I I said this with Cross the other day. I’m guaranteed I’m the high guy on Jace Lavallet. So, I’m going to be the the number one guy on Jace Lavallet who ended up dropping a bit in the draft. He ended up going um what did it ended up end up being? Now I’m looking. I’m completely drawing the blank. 27. Yeah, there it is. He was the last pick in the first round. Uh Jayce Level out of Texas A&M. So, I think he’s super polarizing. I think he’s probably the most polarizing guy out of this class because this is a guy was seen as like the top guy coming into this year. So, um there’s positives, there’s negatives, and then there’s some caveats. The positives are just, you know, big power numbers. 112 max EV. He had the best pull air percentage rate of all these college guys. Really good barrel. um uh over 50% EV uh going 95 plus. The negatives uh contact rates were stinky and he struck out a lot. So those are definitely staring you in the face and that is the problem. He only hit like 256 or something like that this past year. High OBP. So you’ve got and this kind of a classic me thing. You got we’ve all done this enough, you know, like I’m I’m a little bit more wild west. Like I’m still loving Spencer Jones, which looks a little good right now, but has looked plenty crappy. Here’s the caveats. So, I give you the good, give you the bad. The caveats to this are uh he hurt his wrist, which massively could have affected uh his season last year and some of the results. And then here’s the other thing. We focus on the strikeout rate. He had a super low chase rate. And I’ve said this a bunch. I think there’s some similarities uh in across the board in how the Guardians approach like Chase. Chase, same thing. potential first overall pick. Uh had a bad season. Obviously, some injury history stuff. He doesn’t have the inzone contact issues that Lavallet does, but they both don’t really chase. They’re both six foot five, six foot six outfielders, both lefties. Like, there’s just a lot to it. I think Lavallet has some of the best upside in this because it’s some of the best power. Ike Irish is safer. Fiser is safer. Fischer has huge hard hit numbers, too. just at first. I just think and I thought I could float him here and yeah, I’ve got him at top 10. I I don’t think there’s a whole lot of guarantees in this draft. So, I couldn’t be more excited about getting him in what would be like the second round of a 15 team, but you got to know what you’re getting into. There’s a lot of inherent risk. Um, do you want me to go to my next one or do we want to talk about Lavallet? Because he, you know, he’s he’s polarizing. He’s the one I knew you were floating. I knew you were floating him and I I knew I was going to get him. That’s why I did it. I almost I was debating it really hard like after James took Fischer. I was like, “Oh crap.” Like I was gonna see if you would to take Lavallet here, but I was gonna take Fischer, but then I had to pivot to Houston. But yeah, he’s Lavallet’s got to be like the most polarizing guy in this draft for sure. But this is a good value on like it’s good. I have him 22, so like it’s a fair value and like if you can sit here and wait on him that long then, you know, I think if you’re chasing upside then that’s what you want. He was he entered in February the slam dunk 1-1 like he was above everybody else in the draft class. I know it didn’t pan out that way. It got better in SEC play which you like to see but guys with those strikeout rates just haven’t worked. And I don’t know it’s it’s interesting like Cleveland’s like the ant like the last team would have expected to take him. Like he was a Baltimore mold. Like look at the college hitters Baltimore’s drafted like it’s all like Jay Lavallet profiles. So, it’ll be interesting to see what they could do with that hit tool and if they can develop any. You know, ultimately like the contact rates weren’t terrible by seasons in 75% overall is I mean, while it’s not great, it’s below average for the college crop, it’s still not horrific. I mean, Viva Aoy, who everybody loves is like lower contact. So, I don’t know. I mean, that’s interesting. That’s why that’s why the Orioles didn’t take them. They had to take Aloy. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, they already got their guys. They’re we’re golden. Yeah, he’s just he’s massively polarizing, but you know, you also take the like there’s a million ways to take your approach in fantasy, like I’d love to get high contact floor guys. That’s why Willlets is like super fascinating, but also like we’re spending a lot of time chasing big power. So, if it can work out and I can have the payoff, I think this is a huge value. And I just really figured just with you, I I figured I could get him later. So, that’s one of those guys we’re like, I’m gonna have a higher valuation. I think we’ve all kind of done that. We’ve taken our guys a little bit higher to start and then we’ve all had some situations where things have kind of floated. You know, James, you like the Gauge Wood thing. You were like, I don’t I don’t float guys. I don’t float guys. That’s you. You guys are all about the floating. I just I get my guys. Yeah. And but I had too many guys and that was the thing. And that’s sometimes the game. I had too many guys that I wanted in that next range and I made that commitment and I think it could have worked out either way. All right. So, moving past that, uh, the other guy that I did float and I’m a little bit higher on is, uh, Xavier Nans. So, that’s where I’m going to go with this one. High school. Uh, another, this is kind of another one of those where it’s like he had this really good run of, you know, oh, this is an elite hit tool. Maybe some regressiony type of things that kind of were looming around for him that made there be some questions, but like this guy’s, I think, got a pretty sweet swing. uh high uh launch angle stuff, big power. I think the raw power could be 2530 plus. I I love him in Houston. I love this destination. We’ve seen a lot of comps out there throwing out like Austin Riley, which I think is pretty interesting. And I’m into these guys where there’s been these like floating opinions on, you know, oh, this guy was really good and then he kind of kind of tapered back down. There’s some guys that went later in uh in the draft and that, but I’m just chasing elite power, you know, in these. Like if I can chase elite steels, that’s why I’ll give you credit on Steel Hall. Like I’m not the biggest Steel Hall guy, but like tremendous contact and stolen bases. If he developed powers, he’s going to be a monster. So if you can give me like elite areas in guys, I I kind of want to like jump on that. If you give me whether it’s pitches, pitchers, hey, I got an elite fast ball or this is Seth Hernandez’s elite change up. Give me elite power, elite stolen bases or elite, not just average. And I think Nyens is like in that spot where he’s touching especially from a high school perspective like elite power. So this is a very power centric thing for me with I think one of the tippy top uh big power little baby Kags type of guy in Lavallet and Xavier Naens. Very productive turn for you there Welsh. And uh yeah, I mean those like Lavallet and Nens are maybe like two of the most sort of uh boomer bus power bats that I would expect to go in the first couple rounds of an FYIPD. So uh if you just go kind of one for two on those, not that you’re going to get both of them in the same FIPD, but um but you might I’d be happy with going one for two on those, too. Yeah, you might. But you might get them both. That’s the crazy thing. All right, Cross. Uh what are you gonna do at pick number 22? All right, this is actually the guy I thought Welsh was going to go with until I remembered how high he is on Nions and that he was still available. I’m going This is like super upside. This guy’s an beast. I’m going Quinton Young. Uh this guy is just a physical specimen. I mean, he’s already up to like I think it’s six I think he was listed on on MLB 66 225, right? He’s high school short stop out of California. I mean, the upside with him is massive. It’s, you know, he’s already showing this massive massive like you you maybe could say double plus raw power. You know, let’s see how much of it materializes and if he’s more like a plus game guy or you know, 30 plus hormone guy. The upside with the power is huge. And he’s he’s a good athlete, too. You got to wonder does that kind of tape taper down a little bit, you know, with the big body as he gets older? Does he even get bigger? I mean, the fact that he’s already like 66, 225 at age 18 is just it’s ridiculous. So, does he get even bigger? Does he 245, 250? Does he grow even more? Is this like an O’Neal Cruz situation where he’s be like 67, 68? Hard to say. But I love the upside with Quinton Young. Like at this point in the draft where it’s like you fall off like we talked about the collegiic arms. I think there’s a massive massive fall off. I think my next collegiic arm after those guys, the big six is like 30 spots down or something like that. So, it gets to a point where you’re probably either going with high school arms at that range, you know, maybe a crew school craft goes in this kind of range of your FIPD, but you it’s kind of a you a lot of differentiating opinions in this range of the draft. So, I I’d love to go super upside. You know, who knows? The hit tool obviously is the big question mark here. You know, with how raw Quinton Young is, you know, the longer levers, you know, always leads to a little bit of swing and miss. So, that’s the upside play. Also, a low floor here with Young. But, hey, if this hits, this is going to be a really, really fun player for fantasy. And if I can get him, you know, somewhere in the 20s, I’ll be happy with that. So, I’ll go Quinton Young here at pick 22. Very nice. Yeah. I mean, I don’t think he’s going to stick at shortep, but uh No. Yeah, absolutely not. Probably third base one. Um, yeah. So, this has really fallen off for me. Like I after like I just there’s just a big bunch of guys that I like about the same here. Um, but I’m going to take uh Charles Dalon of the Dodgers. uh 41st overall pick in the draft out of Arkansas and a draft eligible sophomore. I think he’s a better fantasy prospect than a real life prospect because he’s probably limited to second base or left field. Uh which is true of a handful of guys in this class. But um I think for fantasy he could be a five category guy. He he runs pretty well. Uh, I think he’s got one of the better hit tools from the college class. And honestly, like I just don’t I don’t love the landing spot with the Dodgers just because it’s going to be so crowded there and I you’re almost like hoping for a trade. But um I just I I there were some high school bats I was considering, but uh I kind of went with the college guy to sort of break the tie there. Uh but I’m not not passionate about the pick. Um, but Charles Dalon at number 23 and that sends it over to Kle for the final pick here. All right, let’s wrap it up. There’s so many different ways to go, but um I’m going to go with Mason Neville, the Cincinnati Reds. I talked to several Red Scouts today about this guy, and I I liked I wrote him up yesterday and spoke pretty highly, but about half that org had first round grades on Mason Neville, which is pretty interesting. They drafted him out of high school. Word I got was he was the best player at the National High School Invitational in his senior year of high school. That’s what those scouts told me that saw him there. And this year at Oregon, I mean, put up a fantastic year. Like we’re like the term I got from a couple people was a potential five tool player. And I look at this guy and say like this looks like this year’s Mike Ceroda, fourthrounder that really takes off just given all the traits. And we saw the contact rates take a huge step forward this year with Mason Neville, which is huge because last year the contact rates and the strikeout rate were so high like you wouldn’t want to consider this guy. And yet we saw the improvements. Can he take another step? Because the strikeout rate was down to 23 and a.5% this year. Contact rate from last year was 67% jumped up to 76% this year. It’s a very good approach. It just reminds me a lot of Serotaa like very low chase respectable contact and there’s power. I mean Neville ran a 108 mph 9th percentile EV which is very good. He had a 31 and a half% barrel rate, one of the highest marks of the college crop. So really good launch angles consistently. It’s a very athletic outfielder who could stick in center. Not that we need him to for fantasy, but the traits are there. It’s just super well-rounded. And when you see a guy go in the fourth round, people look at it in fantasy, they’re like, uh, you know, whatever. It’s not it’s not somebody to consider. But I really do believe that Mason Neville will be a guy worth taking in this kind of range of an FYPD just given all the traits and the potential upside. And we’ve seen kind of how Serotaa has transformed his value obviously with a different org now drafted by the same or Cincinnati Reds. We’ll see if the Reds decide to hang on to Neville. Hopefully they do. They obviously like him a lot given drafted twice now. And you know when you hear scouts say they had first round value in this guy when the or liked him that much. I’m going to be in too when all the underlying data backs it when you watch him and he just looks the part. So very much in here. I think this is a really good spot to take him at. I was g I was going to take Neville if Young went to to Welsh. I was debating Neville there, too. I I have both Young and Neville back in my top 20. So, I love that pick, too. Very good, guys. Um just briefly before we sign off, how about we just go quickly around the horn and uh I’ll we’ll pick a a pick that we didn’t make that we liked and then um maybe just some quick thoughts about the class. So, I I mentioned this earlier, but like I thought Gage Wood at pick 17 was uh one of the better values in the class. And um I think the the strengths are are obviously the high school position players. I know a lot of them were announced as shortstops. Only a handful of them will stick at shortstop, but just the guys that were announced as shorts stops from the high school ranks. And then the college starters. Uh the problem is we’re with it being college starters and high school hitters, we might not see many uh we might only see like three or four of the the top guys um from those two subsets play this year. So I just think it’s going to be the ultimate kind of wild west FYPD environment come January and February. And it’s really exciting and uh this was a lot of fun. Uh, how about we throw it to uh Kle really quick? Yeah, I don’t have that dissimilar of an opinion of you. Like I think that the college starters are solid. You can kind of wait. You don’t have to take, you know, Kate Anderson at the top. Even though I have Anderson as my second ranked player in the class, you don’t have to take him there, but you can wait and take a college starter later. As we have seen the board, you know, kind of give and take. And so you look at that and you can get some options later. Also, the prep ranks are are really interesting where who knows how it plays out, how guys are pushed. We’ve learned over the years that prep players are incredibly hard to evaluate. And you know, the hit tools, we just don’t know. Remember a few years back, Tamar Johnson was given 70 great hit tool and one of the best prep hitters in, you know, the last 20 years is what scouts threw out. And then you come out and he’s like a 40 hit now. So, it’s so hard to judge that and it could go a lot of ways which makes that demographic so risky. But at the end of the day, I think that you have to draft differently. You have to open your mindset and go with what works for your team because it’s so easy just to get caught up in in rankings and even the draft board of how teams actually drafted. But know your league type, know the settings because like some players are going to be more valuable in a points league or whatever type of format that may be a little different. and know what works for you. Look at maybe look back at your past FYPDS and what’s worked out. Personally, like I’m trading out of the first round. I’d rather have picks in like the 2030 range. So, yeah, I’m certainly trading out of the first round if I can and getting more picks or just trading the picks straight up for MLB talent if possible. All right, Cross, uh, what are any any picks you like or or any thoughts on the class? Yeah, collect this is something I was going to mention is I’d rather have a pick, you know, if you can trade down like I’m I’m definitely not trading up and if I had a pick in like the top five, I would definitely, you know, throw it out there in your league message board like, hey, you know, pick, you know, three is available, whatever. So, I think you you always get somebody that’ll overpay for that. So, if you can move back, get another pick or get a good prospect that’s already, you know, in the minors, I think that’d be a really beneficial thing to do this year because, you know, I don’t think there’s like a big separation between the guys that are taking like, you know, 5, six, seven and 2022 to be honest with you. There’s not that big separation. So, uh, and I like, you know, the the lavallet pick. I think like at this point, the upside is so massive. If it doesn’t work out, it’s like you invested like, you know, top five overall pick in them. So, I like I like that pick. I like the Mason Nettle pick as I kind of alluded to. I was debating him with Quinton Young. A lot of upset there. You know, obviously love the Cincinnati landing spot with that ballpark. Um but yeah, this is definitely a an interesting class. We all kind of talked about we all have different guys at the top. You probably can get your number one like I think I get my number one Parker down in the seven eight range possibly. So definitely a good year to maybe your crew picks in the in the following year. Trade down, trade out, whatever it might be. You know, it’s there’s a lot of good depth in this class. So, if you want to trade a top five pick for, you know, picking the teens and, you know, picking the 20s or something like that, I think that’d be a good thing to do. So, I think I think there is good talent and depth, just not a lot of those sexy names at the top this year. So, kind of interesting class. It’ll be fun to see how it shapes up, you know, when we do this again in the offseason. Welsh, I’ll throw it to you to to wrap things up. I think um you guys also brought up something that I think is important to talk about is I think it’s going to be really important to pay as much attention as you can to this class. Find comfortability. We we joked about and said float 400 times. Uh you know, we’re doing an experiment here and we’re playing around and trying to understand the class. But I think it’s more important for for everybody else to really pay attention because if every single person is giving the advice to trade out of the first round, you will never be able to trade out of the first round at value. Clay’s saying it. Cross is saying it. I don’t disagree with it. Every human being that you listen to is going to say trade out of the first. Trade out of the first. Well, guess what? No one’s giving you 12 and 22. So, you’re not going to be able to trade out of the first. So, you’re going to have to find be comfortable. I’m not saying you won’t be able to, but like the likelihood is going down. As every analyst says, trade out, trade out, trade out. Make sure that you understand your valuations and you’re really comfortable with your guys. And it’s like, who cares where the ranks are? So many people are in different spots. You know, like for me, if this isn’t a real draft, I probably like a real real draft and I’ve got a little bit of time to process some of these picks and I see some of these guys and if Lavallet like, you know, he he’s at least 85% of what I’m looking for and, you know, he’s hitting for average and he’s healthy and stuff like that, like I’m not going to float him in those draft. I’m I’m going to make sure I get that guy. So, make sure that you’re also comfortable with your guys instead of thinking you’re going to be able to get 30 picks for your second overall pick because we’re all saying that. Uh, and we all like again I understand why we all agree in that sense. Uh, from a pick perspective I James I loved yours Andrew Fischer. I thought that was just such a great pick. I considered him in that pick beforehand. So that one that’s one that really stands out. I also think he’s going to be a high riser. Some of the best data just in general just a first base guy. And um, you know, Cross alluded to I really love Quinton Young. I thought I was getting Quinton Young in this draft but I have Naens and Lavallet higher. So that’s why it didn’t happen. And I would have taken Quinton Young, but awesome experiment. Great, great guys. And I think it sets such a good baseline for people in understanding because this board is going to probably look quite a bit different if we do this in three months. And our opinions as we get louder and louder, maybe we stop wanting to trade out or like I said, if we all keep saying we want to trade out, it’s going to make it uh tough. But uh it’s it’s a class that has a lot of depth in it and you’re probably going to get some really good values this year. Very well said. Uh my thanks to Chris Welsh, Chris Kle, Eric Cross. Uh YouTube 15 if you want 15% off road to our subscription. Top 400 rankings are getting updated Friday. And I will talk to you all next week.