Latest / Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast / SATP Ep. 34 feat. Jake McKeever

Transcript

SATP Ep. 34 feat. Jake McKeever · Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast

• 0:27
  Welcome to another edition of the Sports Ave.
• 0:29
  Twisted podcast. We have a guest here today, and
• 0:32
  he's here to talk about the SEC and some other prospects in this
• 0:37
  year's draft and perhaps next year.
• 0:39
  And he's an expert at it. Jake McKeever, welcome to the
• 0:43
  show. We're honored and privileged for
• 0:44
  you to be here. Just let the world know what you
• 0:46
  do and everything else. Really appreciate you all having
• 0:49
  me. I'm a SEC content lead for SEC
• 0:52
  Unfiltered, but I also do a little bit of high school
• 0:54
  recruiting, little bit of elite, elite level prospect guys, if
• 0:58
  you will. So I'm really excited to talk
• 0:59
  some ball with y'all. Thanks for having me.
• 1:02
  Thanks for joining us today, man.
• 1:03
  We're excited to have you. We're honored.
• 1:05
  And we're, me and Rocky love, love diving deep into the
• 1:09
  prospect stuff. So we're, we're just, we're
• 1:12
  super excited to have you today man, and talk some SEC ball with
• 1:16
  you. It's the best thing to talk
• 1:18
  about. Best conference in the country.
• 1:21
  Everybody hates us. Everybody wants to be us.
• 1:23
  We get the best players. It's just a fight at the bat
• 1:26
  racket, if you will, at some of these schools in the SEC.
• 1:30
  Absolutely, because they're the talent and the SEC itself is
• 1:34
  very deep in. I like to throw out the first
• 1:37
  question here and how would you look at the conference in the
• 1:42
  SEC itself compared to last year?
• 1:44
  If you look at the records right now, you see Texas has the best
• 1:46
  record when it comes to the in conference and then you have
• 1:49
  Arkansas, Tennessee right after that and Georgia.
• 1:52
  Like how would you look at it as a whole compared to last year?
• 1:56
  It's it's a very deep conference.
• 1:58
  It's pretty top heavy. Obviously we have Missouri,
• 2:01
  who's definitely worse than last year, but I mean, the SEC as a
• 2:04
  whole has really never been better.
• 2:06
  You know, we got another year of NIL.
• 2:08
  Even other guys where people are spurring the draft to go to some
• 2:11
  of these schools like Corielle and Air BD at LSU.
• 2:17
  So you're far to some extent at A&M that are spurring the draft
• 2:20
  to come to college, to come and play the SEC.
• 2:24
  You're having guys like Colby Shelton stick around a little
• 2:26
  bit longer 'cause they're getting lots of NIL.
• 2:29
  It, I think the conference has never been better than it is,
• 2:31
  which is really almost an outrageous thing to say because
• 2:34
  we just had, you know, probably one of the best teams ever in
• 2:36
  Tennessee last year who won it all.
• 2:40
  Like to touch a little bit on on the on the down seasons of
• 2:45
  Mississippi State and Florida, you look at them and you look at
• 2:48
  their records and you know Florida's 25 and 14,
• 2:52
  Mississippi's 23 and 14 doesn't sound too bad, but their
• 2:56
  conference records are just 4 and 11, five and 11.
• 3:00
  You look at even Alabama, you know the 30 and 9, but their
• 3:04
  conference records 8 and eight, eight of their losses have come
• 3:07
  in conference. Does that just speak to the, the
• 3:11
  strength of the conference and how tough it is to be for, for
• 3:14
  life in the SEC? How would you, how would you
• 3:17
  rate and, and what, what is the issues would you say with, with
• 3:21
  Mississippi State and Florida off to slow starts?
• 3:23
  Even A&M's off to slow start, but they're there's kind of
• 3:26
  heating up right now. So.
• 3:28
  Honestly, A&M and Mississippi State are quietly having, you
• 3:31
  know, the exact same seasons, you know, everybody really
• 3:34
  freaked out, you know, in Houston when A&M struggled and
• 3:37
  Mississippi State did the exact same thing.
• 3:38
  And then the flip side of that, everybody's freaking out that
• 3:41
  A&M's kind of back. Mississippi State's quietly kind
• 3:43
  of worked their way back into it.
• 3:45
  They have a big one tonight against Florida as they're
• 3:47
  they're kind of running out of chances.
• 3:49
  But you know, they wouldn't maybe they high high quality
• 3:51
  Alabama team last weekend. I think that they took a little
• 3:54
  bit to figure out who that they were.
• 3:56
  They had a lot of guys that really over performed early in
• 3:59
  the season like Aaron Downs and Sawyer Reeves, if you will, that
• 4:02
  you didn't know if that's what you were going to get the entire
• 4:04
  year. And Lemonis is obviously
• 4:06
  coaching, I think for his job and the players are playing in a
• 4:09
  good way like they're trying to keep Lemonis job.
• 4:12
  But for Florida, I mean, they had a few guys in the portal
• 4:15
  that I think that they thought would be a little bit better
• 4:16
  than they are. And then they've had the injury
• 4:19
  bug pretty pretty heavy too as well.
• 4:22
  But eventually, and I know you're probably not going to
• 4:25
  want to hear this wrong because you're a Florida guy, you have
• 4:28
  to pay the the the piper, if you will.
• 4:30
  I mean, nobody has won more games than Florida in the last
• 4:33
  10 years. Nobody's going to Omaha as much
• 4:34
  as Florida's had. So I mean, they they're still an
• 4:37
  unreal talented team. But at the end of the day, they
• 4:40
  had White Lankford, who was on the team two years ago when they
• 4:42
  went to Omaha, immediately breakthrough and go in and and
• 4:46
  make that Rangers opening day roster.
• 4:47
  You have Cags last year, you know who's really pushing for
• 4:51
  playing time. I know he's probably had a, he's
• 4:52
  been struggling, lost two or three games, but he's really
• 4:55
  pushing to kind of get up there too as well.
• 4:57
  I think that that's just what it is for Florida.
• 4:59
  I mean, I think they're a super talented, talented team.
• 5:02
  I mean, the injury bugs, like a very real thing.
• 5:04
  Like we've seen it with Kaden Sorrell, we've seen it with
• 5:06
  Braden Summerhill at Arizona, with him being out of the
• 5:09
  lineup, they've really struggled.
• 5:10
  I think that that's just what it is.
• 5:12
  Just Florida has a little bit of that injury bug.
• 5:17
  Since you mentioned about Texans A and MI, want to talk about
• 5:20
  them a little bit here. And the reason why I say that
• 5:22
  because they were ranked number one prior to the season start
• 5:26
  and they had one of the toughest schedules to start and they've
• 5:29
  been struggling. But just recently before, before
• 5:33
  today's game, they were on A8 game-winning streak.
• 5:35
  And you know, they hired a new coach and Michael Early and they
• 5:39
  hired Jason Kelly and Caleb Longley and Will Fox's assistant
• 5:42
  coach. It's like, how would you look at
• 5:44
  the team's whole? How do you look at the
• 5:46
  situation? Is there a way that they could
• 5:48
  compete for the College World Series?
• 5:49
  Like how would you look at it all together?
• 5:51
  I mean, if you would have talked to me, you know, after that
• 5:53
  Kentucky series, it probably would have said, you know, hey,
• 5:55
  they're dead to the water. This is this.
• 5:58
  I think Michael Early is still learning how to be a head coach,
• 6:01
  and he's definitely a much different coach than he was that
• 6:04
  first game back at Elon in a good way.
• 6:06
  He's learning his team. He's learning how to push the
• 6:08
  right buttons. He's getting animated in the
• 6:11
  dugout. I think that's another really
• 6:12
  underrated thing. But I was talking to another SEC
• 6:15
  coach that actually ended up beating him, and he was like,
• 6:18
  yeah, he was. A&M is a really talented team
• 6:21
  and they're going to figure out. I'm really glad it's not figured
• 6:24
  out against us. I mean, they just have too much
• 6:26
  talent, I think for the way that they were playing.
• 6:30
  I had a theory that everybody after the whole thing with Jim
• 6:32
  Sloss, Nagle, that everybody was like, oh, they're going to come
• 6:35
  in with a chip on their shoulder.
• 6:36
  I felt like that kind of got said a little bit too much and
• 6:39
  that the adversity that they face, they actually have a
• 6:41
  massive, massive chip on their shoulder.
• 6:43
  I mean, they went and took two of three from Tennessee go ahead
• 6:45
  and lost the game in a year. They wouldn't beat Arkansas on
• 6:48
  Friday night and a Zach Roots start.
• 6:50
  I mean, they are a supremely confident bunch.
• 6:53
  And for reference, for as good as they were last year at
• 6:56
  hitting, they have, I think it's about 20 points higher batting
• 7:00
  average and SEC play this year. If they can figure out a few of
• 7:03
  the bullpen pieces and stuff like that, they can get some
• 7:05
  longer starts from their starters, which you know, Justin
• 7:10
  Lampkin last year, I think he's going to go pretty high in the
• 7:12
  draft. Ryan Prager's a guy that turned
• 7:14
  down, you know, a bunch of money from the Angels.
• 7:16
  So it's, it's a really interesting pitching staff.
• 7:18
  And if they can figure it out, I mean, the hitting doesn't seem
• 7:21
  to slow down at all. I mean, Kaden Sorrell is
• 7:24
  probably going to go in the top five next year.
• 7:26
  When they get Rehovic back, he's going to go in the top five.
• 7:29
  You know, Jace, you've seen everywhere, Jace everywhere from
• 7:31
  2 to 30 to 50. He's kind of working his way
• 7:34
  back up. Kaden Kent's another really
• 7:37
  underrated draft guy. I think he has the potential to
• 7:39
  play the game at the next level as a second baseman if they can
• 7:43
  figure out some of the other pieces too, as well.
• 7:46
  I mean, they're they're just an Uber talented bunch.
• 7:49
  They probably have seven or eight guys that said this at the
• 7:51
  beginning of the year that can hit twenty home runs.
• 7:53
  I still think that that's the case.
• 7:55
  I mean, they have a lot of guys that are figuring stuff out at
• 7:57
  the plate right now in a good way.
• 7:59
  Do you think when when Rehovic's injury was cast catastrophic, do
• 8:05
  you think it affected the clubhouse?
• 8:06
  Because he was, he was one of the best players in last year's
• 8:11
  squad and and this year you know, he's out for the year and
• 8:14
  he probably will be back last year.
• 8:16
  But did it affect the clubhouse in any aspect?
• 8:19
  I think it did and it didn't. I mean, obviously I will say
• 8:23
  this, he's been injured since at least this time last year and
• 8:25
  he's been playing through it. Obviously that they thought it
• 8:27
  would rest up a little bit like he didn't play at Team USA for
• 8:30
  reference and it was just he needed to end up having surgery.
• 8:34
  He his last game was the one right before Houston.
• 8:38
  They really struggled to find his replacement.
• 8:40
  You know, they had Sawyer far in there.
• 8:41
  They had Jamal George and it's really been Roya who came over
• 8:45
  from Rice that's been, you know, kind of a nice surprise for them
• 8:48
  because you're supposed to be a defensive replacement.
• 8:51
  He's another supremely talented kid that really got put in a bad
• 8:53
  situation at Rice. His freshman year.
• 8:56
  He breaks Jose Cruz's junior's RBI record.
• 9:00
  He's second for freshmen in home runs.
• 9:02
  And then a sophomore year, he just can't find the field.
• 9:04
  So he transfers to A&M again, accepts his new role.
• 9:07
  He's probably one of my favorite players and he's just a great,
• 9:09
  great teammate. But they needed somebody like
• 9:11
  him to step up. And it took a little trial and
• 9:13
  error, if you will, to find who it's going to be.
• 9:16
  And I mean, they're a really cohesive group.
• 9:19
  I know that like early in the year, I kind of got a lot of
• 9:21
  Flack for saying they're really quiet in the dugout.
• 9:23
  They are so loose right now. It feels like it's a summer
• 9:27
  travel team, if you will, in a good way.
• 9:29
  Like they just love to hang out with each other now.
• 9:35
  Which positional players would you say have been the most
• 9:37
  impressive in in the SEC? You know, you got guys like
• 9:40
  Ryland Zambrowski, Jared Jones, Kuzio Eloy.
• 9:46
  I hope I pronounced that right. Justin LeBron with Alabama, Like
• 9:51
  who? Who are some guys that really
• 9:52
  have stood out to you as the most impressive players to
• 9:55
  watch? It's it's definitely got to be
• 9:57
  Justin LeBron. I haven't had a chance to see
• 10:00
  the Arkansas shortstop Alloy as I'll be seeing them in two weeks
• 10:04
  when I go up during that Texas series.
• 10:06
  I haven't had a chance to see LSU as I'll be seeing them next
• 10:08
  weekend. But it's definitely Justin
• 10:10
  LeBron. I mean, I saw him the week after
• 10:12
  I saw Arquette up at Oregon State, who's another really
• 10:16
  supremely talented guy. And everything that Justin
• 10:20
  LeBron does is just like the coolest thing you've ever seen.
• 10:22
  Like I always tell the joke, he looks cool striking out, but I
• 10:27
  mean, he just has so much or so much swag that when you watch
• 10:31
  him take in and out, he just kind of flicks the ball and it
• 10:34
  just shoots off of his fingers with everything that he does.
• 10:37
  I actually saw him when he was sick too.
• 10:38
  That's the even crazier part is I haven't even really seen him
• 10:40
  as speak. He's been a really impressive
• 10:43
  guy. Britton Summerhill at Arizona, I
• 10:45
  got to see him earlier in the year, and then some of the high
• 10:48
  schoolers got to see Casey and Cunningham a few weeks ago.
• 10:51
  He's another guy that's really, really impressed me.
• 10:53
  And you know, looking on down the road to class of 2027.
• 10:58
  Tyler Bell from Kentucky, I think is another name to watch
• 11:01
  him, actually. Him and Coreal both struggle to
• 11:04
  hit in summer circuits and a lot of scouts kind of knocked him
• 11:07
  for that. Both of them are just having
• 11:08
  incredible, incredible years. I remember talking to one of the
• 11:11
  recruiting coordinators about, you know, hey, like is is Tyler
• 11:14
  Bell struggling? Is he doing this?
• 11:16
  He goes, no, he goes. I don't know what those scouts
• 11:18
  were thinking. He's like this kid just
• 11:19
  absolutely Rakes. And I'd have to go and double
• 11:21
  check. But I know as of last weekend,
• 11:24
  he still had hit and reached base every single game that he'd
• 11:27
  played as a true freshman. So looking down the line, I
• 11:29
  mean, I could talk about these kids for hours.
• 11:31
  Kayden Sorrell is another guy. I mean, he put on like probably
• 11:34
  15 lbs of muscle. It's going to be him.
• 11:37
  LeBron, I think for one, one in class of 2026.
• 11:40
  Cam Canarella is another guy. As I just looked down at the
• 11:43
  list of all the players that I've seen.
• 11:46
  I mean, I've, I've been very blessed that, you know, I'm in
• 11:49
  Houston. So I get to see a ton of these
• 11:51
  guys that come in like if I'm looking at the top 30, I've seen
• 11:55
  probably 25 of these kids. And I mean, you could say
• 11:58
  something good about every single one of them.
• 11:59
  I mean, they just play the game the right way.
• 12:02
  They're they're really great people.
• 12:03
  They work their asses off. It's it's really an impressive
• 12:07
  spot to see where college baseball is right now.
• 12:09
  Let me mention a couple names for you.
• 12:11
  What about Jared Jones from LSU and Kobe Shelton?
• 12:13
  Like those was what? What do you look at those guys?
• 12:16
  Because those guys were like ranked as top offensive players
• 12:19
  in the SEC itself. Yeah.
• 12:21
  Those are both two guys that came back as Jared Jones was a
• 12:23
  draft eligible sophomore Kobe Shelton.
• 12:26
  It's rumored that he told a few MOB teams, hey, this is my
• 12:29
  number that I'm getting at Florida.
• 12:31
  If you can't reach that, don't bother drafting me.
• 12:33
  So he was back. I think the thing that's the
• 12:35
  most impressive part is the adjustments that Bear Jones has
• 12:39
  met. I mean, he played in the SEC as
• 12:40
  a true freshman and was really good, but he had a hole in his
• 12:44
  swing. He couldn't hit left-handed off
• 12:45
  speed very well. And he comes back a year later,
• 12:49
  last year and just demolishes, you know, off speed pitching.
• 12:53
  And then there was like, OK, does he pull the ball a little
• 12:56
  bit too much? He doesn't have a lot of power
• 12:58
  to all the gaps. I mean, this year he's he said
• 13:00
  some of his furthest states have been, you know, backside bombs
• 13:03
  into the gaps. That's been the most impressive
• 13:05
  thing with me with Brad is Bear Jones, the ability that when he
• 13:09
  recognizes, because that's the other thing.
• 13:11
  I mean, a lot of these kids have never really struggled.
• 13:14
  So it's it's really challenging to want to go in and want to get
• 13:18
  better as a prospect, to understand that you have holes
• 13:20
  in your swings and to make yourself uncomfortable.
• 13:23
  I think that that's the most impressive thing about Bear
• 13:25
  Jones for me. And then for Colby Shelton, I
• 13:27
  think it's his arm strength. I mean, he's just a monster on
• 13:30
  the field. He's not your prototypical
• 13:32
  shortstop, but he makes up for it with his athleticism.
• 13:36
  He's a really big leader for the Florida Gators, too.
• 13:39
  I know when you talk to Kevin O'Sullivan, that's the one thing
• 13:40
  that he really harps on. But I mean, both of those guys,
• 13:43
  you know, college baseball's in a good spot where both of those
• 13:45
  guys are back playing. Absolutely.
• 13:49
  Now I want to, I want to ask you on a pitching aspect, like who
• 13:52
  has impressed you? I can give you a couple of I
• 13:54
  know Kyson Witherspoon is the well known name that's out there
• 13:58
  and and Liam Doyle who's been rising for this year's draft
• 14:01
  stock itself. Like you could talk about those
• 14:04
  two. And then there's Sam Dahl and
• 14:05
  Justin Lampkin. Like mentioned, some names that
• 14:07
  you believe that's been impressive on your aspect.
• 14:11
  I mean, I I'll say this, the one that's been the most impressive
• 14:13
  that you didn't mention was probably Chase Shores at LSU,
• 14:17
  OK. Two years ago he was a true
• 14:20
  freshman. He pitched on the Sunday that he
• 14:23
  sat on a Friday night. Paul Skins pitched and he was
• 14:26
  running it out to 100. Obviously he had some Tommy John
• 14:28
  issues. Didn't pitch at all last year
• 14:30
  and is comes back in as a Friday, as a Sunday guy, he's
• 14:33
  been really good. Liam Toyle is is just a monster.
• 14:38
  He I don't know what they have in the water up there at the
• 14:40
  Tennessee River, but he's adding four mph to his fastball and
• 14:44
  it's not even really his best pitch.
• 14:46
  That's the craziest part is he has some really good ones.
• 14:50
  I can't remember the kids name and I'll I'll look it up here.
• 14:54
  I will kind of cheat, but their Clemson Friday night guy.
• 14:58
  He has probably been one of the other impressive ones that I've
• 15:00
  seen his change up. I had a scout tell me that it
• 15:03
  was the single most impressive pitch in all of college
• 15:06
  baseball. What's his change of Aidan
• 15:07
  Kanak? Oh.
• 15:10
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Aiden is a last year guy I.
• 15:13
  Think he's he's in. Yeah, he's a.
• 15:16
  He's a sophomore, just a sophomore this year.
• 15:18
  He's been a really impressive 1. James Ellen Wenger up at Dallas
• 15:24
  Baptist, I got to see him on a Friday night and this feels
• 15:27
  weird saying as an underrated guy, but they have so many Good
• 15:30
  Friday Night guys in the SEC. JD Thompson up at Vanderbilt,
• 15:33
  he's been one of my favorite pitchers to watch too as well.
• 15:36
  Hitching factory up there. Yeah, yeah.
• 15:38
  I mean, he struck out 14 last night against a quality, quality
• 15:42
  Georgia team. He has really good whiff on his
• 15:45
  fastball. Tyler Jennings at prospects or
• 15:49
  just baseball. He mentioned that he had 21
• 15:51
  whiffs on his fastball last night.
• 15:55
  Somebody like him. Gabe Davis at Oklahoma State is
• 15:58
  another guy that has, you know, next level electric stuff.
• 16:02
  I'm trying to think of another one.
• 16:03
  Patrick Forbes at Louisville, I get to see him pitch against
• 16:09
  Texas on Friday nights open the year.
• 16:12
  He's he's another really, really impressive talent, probably my
• 16:17
  favorite. I know he hasn't looked good the
• 16:19
  last two weeks, but Zane Adams is another guy that I'm really,
• 16:21
  really high on. I think he has the potential to
• 16:24
  be the next one at Alabama. He gets a little bit
• 16:26
  overshadowed by Riley Quick, if you will, because Riley Quick
• 16:30
  throws 100 off of Tommy John. But Zane Adams, he reminds me a
• 16:34
  lot of Ryan Prager where his stuff isn't really off the
• 16:36
  charts. There's not a single pitch that
• 16:38
  you can point to, but he knows how to pitch.
• 16:41
  He's been trained to pitch. He knows how to work people
• 16:43
  backwards. He knows tunneling Zane Adams.
• 16:47
  If you were to tell me somebody outside the top 50 that I would
• 16:49
  pick and probably be Zane Adams right now.
• 16:51
  Well, obviously you've mentioned Prager is a known guy that's
• 16:54
  going to be in this year's draft.
• 16:56
  But there's one guy that was impressive yesterday was Dylan
• 16:59
  Volantis. Like what do you think about him
• 17:01
  as a as a player? Like I know he's a freshman
• 17:04
  right now, but like he looks like he's a promising player
• 17:07
  long term. Yeah, I'm a big fan of Dylan
• 17:10
  Volantis. He was a guy that want to talk
• 17:12
  to some of the Texas coaches at the beginning of the year.
• 17:15
  They really wanted to move him into that Sunday role.
• 17:18
  But you know it, it's really hard to play college baseball
• 17:21
  just from a body standpoint and especially from a pitching
• 17:24
  standpoint. A lot of these kids are used to
• 17:26
  pitching maybe once a week, throwing 6070 pitches, not
• 17:29
  really having to exert yourself because you're playing so much.
• 17:33
  So they had Rugu Riojas in that Sunday role and they were going
• 17:35
  to move Dylan Volantis into that Sunday roll.
• 17:38
  If one of the pitchers ended up struggling, they ended up never
• 17:40
  struggling. So they used Dylan Volantis
• 17:42
  multiple times in a weekend. He has just supreme, supreme
• 17:46
  confidence well beyond his age. You almost kind of forget at
• 17:49
  times he's a freshman. I know that a lot of coaches,
• 17:52
  when you talk to that the tournament is when you're a
• 17:54
  freshman, aren't freshman anymore.
• 17:56
  Dylan Volantis, just an SEC play, has been just an unreal ad
• 17:59
  for the Texas bullpen. I got to watch him pitch at the
• 18:02
  alumni game, and he's another guy that every time you watch
• 18:06
  you kind of get a little bit giddy because you're like, this
• 18:07
  kids going to keep getting better and better.
• 18:09
  He gets, you know, two years under the Max Weiner system.
• 18:12
  If Max Weiner ends up deciding to stay, he's probably going to
• 18:16
  be the first pitcher taken. I mean, it's very, very early
• 18:18
  with freshmen, but he's probably the best freshman pitcher in the
• 18:21
  country right now. You've mentioned probably every
• 18:26
  name that I could even think of imagine mentioning, but but what
• 18:33
  are some of the more well-rounded?
• 18:35
  Like what are the most well-rounded pitching Staffs
• 18:38
  pitching rotations in the SEC right now as a whole?
• 18:42
  That one's really tough because there's a lot of guys who have
• 18:46
  usually one or two really good bullpens arms like LSU with Zach
• 18:49
  Cowan. I mean, if you're looking up and
• 18:51
  down, I think it's got to be the Texas Longhorns.
• 18:55
  I mean, they can run out five 6-7 guys out of that one.
• 18:58
  It starts at the top with Jared Spencer coming out.
• 19:01
  I mean, I know that he kind of had a little bit of an injury
• 19:03
  bug last night. I think that coach Schloss Nagel
• 19:07
  said it's not going to be anything long term.
• 19:09
  They're midweek guys. I'm a big fan of Bryce Navarre
• 19:11
  from Montgomery High School coming over.
• 19:13
  There was a big get for them as he was committed to Texas A&M
• 19:16
  forever. He flips.
• 19:17
  Follow Schloss Nagel. He's a real throwback type of
• 19:20
  pitcher. Reminds me a ton of Tom Clavin
• 19:22
  where the off speed stuff just dances like crazy.
• 19:26
  You know he's a high 80s, low 90s guy if Max Grubbs, Ruger,
• 19:31
  Riojas is another one coming over from UTSA.
• 19:35
  And then you know, the underrated guys like Grayson
• 19:37
  Sonnier, who hasn't pitched in a month, immediately comes in on
• 19:41
  Sunday against a really pesky Kentucky lineup and it really
• 19:45
  just dominates the zone, doesn't walk a ton of people.
• 19:48
  I would say Texas has a really good one.
• 19:53
  Tennessee. I mean, Tennessee is another one
• 19:55
  where they can run out 6-7 arms. If they can get AJ Russell back
• 19:59
  and and healthy, I think that that would go a long way for
• 20:01
  them. Texas A&M with with Weston Moss
• 20:04
  is another one where they kind of figured out.
• 20:07
  Then get a few more both and then I can't believe I've got
• 20:09
  this long without mentioning it. Arkansas.
• 20:11
  I mean, they got Pagewood come back today.
• 20:13
  Gackles coming out of the pin. Gackles.
• 20:16
  Really good too. Gackles.
• 20:17
  Good. Yeah, Yeah.
• 20:18
  He was, he really struggled to make that jump from bullpen guy
• 20:22
  to starter and then he pitches today and he goes what, like 5
• 20:26
  innings and only allows one extra base hit.
• 20:29
  Vital Cheese as their Sunday guy.
• 20:31
  He's another top 100 prospect. And then Zach, who just eats
• 20:35
  innings. They're a really good one.
• 20:36
  Well, McIntyre, Carson Wiggins. Carson Wiggins is, by the way,
• 20:41
  is somebody that you all should get on your radar.
• 20:42
  He's another two freshmen that's really kind of not struggled to
• 20:45
  carve out a role, if you will, at Arkansas.
• 20:47
  But Arkansas just has so many arms that they can trust.
• 20:49
  Carson Wiggins is going to be a very, very good pitcher in the
• 20:52
  SEC sooner rather than later. That's a lot of Staffs right
• 20:56
  there and they're all competitive too.
• 20:58
  Like it's awesome. If you look at the competition
• 21:01
  that's going on, especially now that's going with the series,
• 21:04
  right, because everything is becoming pivotal, right?
• 21:06
  So and. They can all hit.
• 21:08
  That's the part that's crazy is I was talking to a a mid major
• 21:12
  coach and he was saying he goes, yeah, he goes every single
• 21:15
  pitcher in the SEC, you roll them out and there would be a
• 21:18
  Friday night guy and all these mid majors and then they get
• 21:20
  banged around a little bit. Like there's so many guys that
• 21:24
  you're like, oh, I really like this guy's stuff.
• 21:25
  And then he, you know, he has a six CRA in the SEC.
• 21:29
  It really is just such a meat grinder of a conference.
• 21:34
  And that's where a lot of these pitchers are coming from, like,
• 21:36
  you know, when they when the MLB scouts draft him as well, right.
• 21:40
  So, and that's also important part like for this year, next
• 21:42
  year, year after, like, like teams are looking for starting
• 21:45
  pitching now, especially for the college arms because they're
• 21:47
  more ready and polished compared to drafting a high school
• 21:51
  player, right? So that's yeah.
• 21:53
  It's a good balance too, because you have to have, you know, a
• 21:57
  pitching coach that you really trust.
• 21:59
  He knows working these kids out, it's monitoring their innings
• 22:02
  too as well. So that's why some of these
• 22:04
  quote UN quote factories come out like Wake Forest, Nate Yeski
• 22:08
  and Jay Johnson down at LSU, that they do a great job caring
• 22:12
  about the health and the well-being of the athletes.
• 22:14
  So you know that there's still going to be a ton of tread on
• 22:16
  that pitching tires because I mean, there's a few guys like
• 22:20
  who was the guy that pitched at Stanford?
• 22:23
  He's with the Cardinals now. Gosh, it's going to bug me now.
• 22:27
  Let me see if I can look it up. It's going to bug me too, yeah.
• 22:31
  It's on the tip of my tongue. I'll just Google it here really
• 22:37
  quick. But he, he threw like 200
• 22:43
  inning, 200 pitches for him. And then I, I didn't exactly
• 22:48
  tell me. Quinn, Matthews.
• 22:49
  Quinn. Matthews.
• 22:50
  That's why I said yeah, exactly. He's Quinn.
• 22:52
  Matthews, I mean, he, that's it. He he, I had one scout tell me
• 22:56
  he's like, yeah, he goes, this kid's not going to pitch, you
• 22:58
  know, an entire season the rest of the year.
• 23:01
  Yeah. He didn't log a single inning in
• 23:03
  2023. So it's kind of a right balance
• 23:05
  if you want people that which I mean, I will say this in in
• 23:08
  Quinn's defense, he almost has a like a softball esque type of
• 23:13
  movement where there's not a lot of strain on his elbow or
• 23:15
  anything like that. He he has a really good feel for
• 23:19
  his body. He's a really mature guy.
• 23:21
  He's a smart guy, so somebody like him gets a little bit of a
• 23:25
  pass. But some of these other guys, I
• 23:27
  mean, they're just throwing, you know, 100 pitches every single
• 23:29
  weekend. So a lot of the MLB teams really
• 23:32
  care about the programs some of these guys are into as well,
• 23:35
  right? Yeah, like, like we drafted a
• 23:36
  guy last year actually on the SEC, Mississippi State, Cal
• 23:41
  Steven, then he's really taken off this year.
• 23:44
  He's pitching, pitching real well.
• 23:46
  So. But you look at, you look at
• 23:49
  guys like even like like, well, I mean, I, I guess Paul Skeens
• 23:54
  is on another level. But I mean, you look at them and
• 23:57
  they're pitching 160 pitches and outing men.
• 24:00
  It's like, damn, Paul. Paul has probably the best
• 24:05
  understanding of his body of any college athletes, such
• 24:11
  professional athlete I've ever been around.
• 24:13
  He is obsessive about his body, about his stretch.
• 24:17
  I mean, for reference, the average, I think gym time is
• 24:20
  what, you know, I'm a Big Joe Rogan guy.
• 24:21
  He says, you know, you don't need to be at the gym all day,
• 24:23
  get in, get out in an hour. I bet you it takes Paul Skins an
• 24:26
  hour to stretch with everything that he does.
• 24:29
  And he's obviously the, you know, the exception, not the
• 24:32
  rule, if you will, but a lot. I mean, Justin Parker at
• 24:34
  Mississippi State, like you mentioned, he came over from
• 24:36
  South Carolina a few years ago. He's a guy that, you know, gets
• 24:39
  these pitchers ready. He took a really big jump with
• 24:43
  D'Angelo Sutrell, who's now with the Mariners.
• 24:46
  He's a switch pitcher. They they did a ton of work with
• 24:49
  him, getting him to find the zone repeatability with his off
• 24:53
  speed. I mean, yeah, he's fun to.
• 24:56
  Watch too. He's incredible to watch.
• 24:58
  Yeah, my favorite thing. About Durangelo is, you know,
• 25:02
  they have like the the rigs, if you will, out in the outfield at
• 25:06
  Mississippi State where they cook up all these intricate
• 25:08
  meals like, like brisket, all this.
• 25:12
  And they asked him like, oh, like, you know what, what do you
• 25:15
  want us to cook? You like, what's your favorite
• 25:16
  meal? And he said chili dogs.
• 25:19
  It's just like a very easy throw away food.
• 25:23
  But he's like, Oh yeah, I love chili dogs.
• 25:27
  That's the baseball. Fan in a man?
• 25:30
  Yeah, he that kid. That kid breathes baseball.
• 25:35
  He's he's another guy that's really easy to root for.
• 25:37
  Hopefully he he cut it's up sooner rather than later for the
• 25:40
  Mariners. Absolutely.
• 25:44
  All right, the next. Question I want to ask you, so
• 25:46
  who would you say would be the mid season player of the year,
• 25:48
  mid season pitcher of the year and mid season freshman of the
• 25:53
  year so far? The freshman ones, really tough.
• 25:57
  I'm going to be honest with you, my my favorite player who I've
• 26:02
  seen this year is probably going to win the Golden spikes.
• 26:04
  For reference is Justin LeBron at Alabama.
• 26:08
  Minority kind of touched on him. He's been just unreal for them.
• 26:12
  I mean, he's the, I know that they're kind of struggling a
• 26:15
  little bit right now, but everything that hat that goes,
• 26:19
  it goes through him. But in another under the radar
• 26:23
  guy, if you will, that I've really enjoyed watching too as
• 26:25
  well, is Luke Hill an Ole Miss. He's another guy that thinks
• 26:30
  invaluable to his team. He's a guy that doesn't really
• 26:34
  get talked about enough. So I'm a big Luke Hill fan.
• 26:37
  Picture of the year, though I'm going to go off the radar a
• 26:42
  little bit. Jack Omen up at Yale, if you
• 26:45
  have a chance to watch Yale baseball, they usually play
• 26:48
  during the day. This kid absolutely shoves.
• 26:53
  He's an ERA under .2. That's not 2.
• 26:58
  That's like .2. That's every deal.
• 27:02
  Yeah, it. It's like it's MLB The Show type
• 27:05
  numbers and he's going to be in an SEC school really, really,
• 27:09
  really soon. But Jack Omen up at Yale, I get
• 27:12
  to watch one of his starts. Unfortunately, I don't live on
• 27:14
  the Northeast, so I can't go see him in person.
• 27:16
  But last weekend against Columbia, he does a complete
• 27:19
  game, strikes out 14. He's an incredible, incredible
• 27:24
  talent. He's probably, I know that's
• 27:27
  probably what you want me to say, somebody in the SEC, but
• 27:31
  but him or Weston Moss, I, I did want to pull the stats because I
• 27:35
  looked them up today. I'll read them off to you.
• 27:39
  Weston Moss in the SEC he has 8 appearances, 25 innings, 20
• 27:47
  hits, ERA of .1 or sorry, 1.44 and 31 KS.
• 27:54
  That's pretty damn good. Yeah, that's.
• 27:55
  Insane, Obviously. Kysten Witherspoon's another guy
• 27:58
  that you could really name. Tommy Lepore at TCUI, got to see
• 28:02
  him pitch a couple weekends ago against Paul Schmidt was Paul
• 28:05
  Schmidt is another really good guy too as well.
• 28:09
  It's Carson Byers at Miami of Ohio.
• 28:12
  If you're going to make me do some of these other mid majors,
• 28:16
  there's just so much good pitching and then for freshmen.
• 28:20
  It's got to be Dylan. Volantis, I thought that sounds
• 28:22
  really weird because pitchers usually don't do it.
• 28:25
  Dylan Polytus or Tyler Bell, one one of those two are supremely,
• 28:28
  supremely talented. Bob Terrell and Auburn's another
• 28:31
  really talented guy. He's one of their outfielders.
• 28:35
  I'm actually going to get to see him on Saturday, this weekend
• 28:37
  for the first time. So hopefully he kind of passes
• 28:39
  the eye test, if you will. Yeah, that's.
• 28:43
  Yeah, that's fascinating because if you look at the freshman, I
• 28:46
  think isn't there a player from A&M that's a freshman that's
• 28:49
  actually pretty good? Terence Keel, is it?
• 28:52
  Yeah, Terence Keel, the second. His dad actually played at A&M
• 28:58
  back in like 1015 years ago. He has yet to hit a single home
• 29:03
  run. So a lot of his teammates are
• 29:05
  kind of giving him crap about that.
• 29:06
  But I mean, he reminds me a ton of like a Ricky Henderson that
• 29:11
  you can hit, hit all over the field, run all over the field.
• 29:14
  Every single time he's in the in the game, you got to worry about
• 29:17
  him. He's he's a really impressive
• 29:19
  guy to watch to as well. I can be honest with you.
• 29:22
  I actually forgot he was a freshman because of the way that
• 29:24
  he plays. That's why I'm seeing him so
• 29:25
  much. Yeah, and.
• 29:26
  And he's his average is astonishing for a freshman too.
• 29:30
  Like you don't see freshman? Yeah, and.
• 29:32
  And yeah, maybe the power will come over.
• 29:35
  I mean, for a freshman, I mean, probably by next year, you would
• 29:38
  say. But that, like, he's a kid that,
• 29:40
  you know, I, if I watch a game, he's he's impressed me a lot.
• 29:43
  Yeah. Adrian Rodriguez, I know that
• 29:45
  he's kind of been a little bit injured, so I haven't had a
• 29:47
  chance to see what he's going to do in the SEC play.
• 29:49
  I mean, he added 30 lbs of pure muscle in the offseason as a
• 29:55
  true freshman. He's he's dealing with a hand
• 29:58
  injury right now. So if he can get healthy, it'll
• 30:00
  be interesting to see how quickly he can rise.
• 30:02
  But I mean, that's another one that's just a supremely
• 30:05
  talented, talented freshman. I'd like to touch on some.
• 30:09
  Of the top players in that might hear their name well that will
• 30:13
  hear their names called in in July.
• 30:16
  You know, you got your your Jamie Arnold's your Jayce
• 30:19
  Laviolettes, of course, Ethan Holiday.
• 30:22
  A name that's rising is Seth Hernandez high School
• 30:27
  right-handed pitcher Tyler Bremer from Santa Barbara.
• 30:31
  What are some of the guys that you've heard about and some of
• 30:34
  the movement within the top, you know, that's in the the, let's
• 30:38
  say, the first round of the draft, Yeah.
• 30:42
  Obviously you you never really know what these MOB teams are
• 30:45
  going to do because you don't really know what they value in
• 30:47
  terms of under slotting over slotting.
• 30:50
  If money wasn't an object, I would take Jamie Arnold 11.
• 30:54
  He reminds me a ton of Chris Sale with his movement, his
• 30:57
  really good feel. He's got 6 pitches.
• 30:59
  I think that he can throw every single one for a strike and a
• 31:02
  strikeout. Eli Willits is another kid that
• 31:05
  I've really got to see, kind of because his dad's the hitting
• 31:10
  coach at Oklahoma. So he travels with the team and
• 31:14
  it's weird to watch him and his brother.
• 31:16
  And keep in mind his brother started as a true freshman at a
• 31:19
  Power 5 school and is probably one of the better short stops in
• 31:22
  the SEC. Eli Willis has a stronger arm.
• 31:25
  He has better feet. He looks like an everyday pro.
• 31:29
  So Eli Willis is probably one guy who's you'll expect to see.
• 31:32
  Obviously, I think he's going to put on a little bit of muscle,
• 31:34
  get into a good training program.
• 31:36
  Ike Irish, I think is another guy that I think could really
• 31:38
  kind of shoot up boards as he can play in the outfield.
• 31:41
  Now. I know there was some question
• 31:43
  marks about him behind the plate and being just DH only.
• 31:46
  They've moved him out to left field.
• 31:47
  Devin Taylor and Indiana is another guy that definitely
• 31:51
  flies under the radar that I think could be a next level guy.
• 31:55
  And then somebody like Dean Curley, he is a shortstop at
• 31:58
  Tennessee, but he's not a true shortstop.
• 32:00
  I think he's going to move either the third or second.
• 32:02
  He's almost a little bit too big for a second.
• 32:05
  So I think he probably sticks at 3rd, but he but he's one guy
• 32:08
  that that really kind of stands out is is Dean Curly?
• 32:11
  I mean, the ball just shoots off his bat like it looks like he's
• 32:15
  he's, you know, doing one of those like gorilla era bats when
• 32:17
  he swings. Ethan Petry I think is another
• 32:21
  guy. Him and Schubart are pretty
• 32:23
  similar where they're big, they're not very good fielders,
• 32:27
  next level, but they both have really good basketball skills,
• 32:31
  really good power. I don't know when Schubart's
• 32:33
  numbers are down, but I mean, his house caught on fire, so I
• 32:36
  think he kind of gets a little bit of a pass there.
• 32:39
  But Schubart and Petri are are two of my favorites too as well.
• 32:45
  I do want to talk about. Some of the SEC guys playing
• 32:49
  playing right now that could be first draft, first round
• 32:53
  eligible in this year's draft class.
• 32:55
  I could mention a couple names. I could mention the what he what
• 32:59
  he what Alloy, Zach Roots, another name, Ike Irish from
• 33:03
  Auburn's another one, Liam Dole. Of course, you could mention a
• 33:07
  few names itself. So those are the examples that I
• 33:09
  look at that that fit on mock dress that's been first round
• 33:12
  potential. Like what are your thoughts on
• 33:13
  that? Yeah, I mean, they're all.
• 33:16
  Supremely, supremely talented. They all, like I said, they're
• 33:18
  from really great programs. What he, what LOI is, is
• 33:23
  probably one of the best shortstops.
• 33:24
  And it's weird that he's not talked about in the top 10
• 33:28
  range, by the way, because like he made a play yesterday where
• 33:32
  he was going into the hole and he threw a guy out by three
• 33:35
  steps. He made one where was like a
• 33:37
  tweener over a pitcher's head. And he he is built like a tank.
• 33:42
  I mean, he's got really. Strong shoulders and he swings
• 33:45
  just out of his shoes. He's a really good approach to
• 33:47
  at the plate, somebody like him. His brother's actually a pretty
• 33:50
  good athlete too. But we'll we'll talk about him
• 33:52
  in a few years as as it's not coming up for him yet.
• 33:56
  Liam Doyle, I think is another guy that's shooting up draft
• 34:01
  boards. It seems like every time he goes
• 34:02
  out, he just shoves. But I mean, you really can't go
• 34:06
  wrong with any of these players. Gavin Keelan, who's kind of a
• 34:09
  new guy, he's added some kind of unreal pop numbers.
• 34:15
  I mean, we just have an embarrassment of riches at the
• 34:17
  SEC. And it's funny, We're probably
• 34:19
  going to have, you know, 1520 of the top, you know, 100 picks, if
• 34:23
  you will. And the SEC is going to reload
• 34:25
  next year and have 20 more right there to take their place.
• 34:29
  Who are some of the the? Guys that you wouldn't call top
• 34:32
  prospects, some kind of sleepers, I guess you'd call
• 34:35
  them in the SEC who are draft eligible for for 2025.
• 34:42
  That one's pretty tough because everybody's definition of like a
• 34:46
  sleeper. I really like Richie Bonomolo at
• 34:50
  Alabama. I'm not sure from a prospect
• 34:52
  standpoint, just because I'm unaware of his age, but he's
• 34:55
  somebody that really plays the game the right way.
• 34:57
  Bryce Fowler and Kate Snell at at Dama 2.
• 35:02
  Luke Lawrence up at Kentucky. I'm absolutely infatuated with
• 35:05
  his swing. He's a transfer coming over from
• 35:09
  Illinois State. I think he's another guy where
• 35:12
  he's just a prototypical short second baseman that that bangs
• 35:16
  the ball to all gaps the field. I think he needs to kind of get
• 35:18
  talked about more. Colby Shelton, obviously, age is
• 35:21
  such a big factor in a lot of these models.
• 35:23
  She don't know how much age is going to affect some of these
• 35:26
  kids, but I I would say those three are kind of sleepers, if
• 35:30
  you will. What about?
• 35:32
  What about? RJ Austin or Kaden Kent?
• 35:36
  I think it's also draft eligible.
• 35:38
  This year's Yes, Kaden is. Draft eligible.
• 35:42
  He's an interesting one because he didn't play a ton last year
• 35:46
  just for whatever reason. I'm going to be honest, I don't
• 35:48
  really know why I didn't play more last year, right?
• 35:51
  He comes in in a super regional or in a regional game after not
• 35:57
  playing all year and just immediately goes on just an
• 35:59
  unreal heater. This year, obviously in the SEC
• 36:03
  has really kind of struggled to find his stuff.
• 36:05
  Obviously, I think that teams have found a glaring weakness in
• 36:08
  his swing and they're kind of exploiting it.
• 36:09
  And it's up to Kaden Kent, you know, to work through some of
• 36:12
  the issues that he has or but I mean, he had he started to get
• 36:16
  hot. I was watching it bad he had
• 36:17
  today against Gabe Gackle and you know, he he had a MO 2
• 36:21
  fouled off 3-4 pitches and just like poked one opposite field.
• 36:26
  I don't think he has the arm strength to be a shortstop.
• 36:29
  I think honestly, I think he's he's probably going to profile
• 36:32
  as more of a second baseman like his dad, dad.
• 36:36
  He's he's not as not as strong as his dad, if you will, but I
• 36:41
  think that he has really advanced back to ball skills.
• 36:45
  He's obviously a lefty bat. I think he's a little bit more
• 36:47
  athletic than his dad was. I don't have somebody that let's
• 36:50
  a lot older than me tell me if Jeff Kent was really athletics.
• 36:52
  I just remember him as an old man.
• 36:54
  But he, you always wonder about, you know, kids of professional
• 36:59
  athletes, if they're going to have that X Factor, that grit.
• 37:03
  Kaden Kent has that like he has a monster chip on his shoulder
• 37:07
  in a good way. He's hungry.
• 37:10
  I'll say this about Kaden Kent. Last year I one time got to the
• 37:14
  field by accident because it was a rain delay.
• 37:17
  So I got to the field 4 hours before the game and it was just
• 37:21
  me and nobody else. In about 3 1/2 hours in Kaden
• 37:24
  kit comes out, has a coach hit some ground balls for about an
• 37:28
  hour and he's just working on ground balls at third, ground
• 37:31
  balls at short, ground balls at second.
• 37:33
  He took fly balls. I mean he just works his ass
• 37:36
  off. I've heard rumors, I don't know
• 37:38
  how true these are, that he stays after and hits in the
• 37:40
  cages after games. Win or lose.
• 37:43
  He's probably the hardest working college player on a on
• 37:46
  A&M this year and he just works his ass off.
• 37:50
  He's somebody that I really hope they gave a baseball rewards.
• 37:55
  There are a couple names I've. Come across, there's Colton
• 37:58
  Smith of Georgia, pitcher AJ Russell, Tennessee and and your
• 38:02
  guy Ryan Prager, He's not he's not really rated the highest
• 38:06
  among, you know, the draft prospects.
• 38:09
  But like you said, that can all differ in in due time, right.
• 38:13
  So do you know anything about those guys?
• 38:15
  Yeah, I will say. This this is not a shot at Ryan
• 38:18
  Prager, but I I have a scout that I'm, I'm pretty good
• 38:21
  friends with and they had them test their models early last
• 38:25
  season. And he said that Ryan Prager
• 38:28
  rated the last in terms of advanced analytics out of 200
• 38:32
  pitchers at their profile. But I don't think that tells the
• 38:35
  story of Ryan Prager. I think that, you know, you
• 38:38
  can't. I mean, I always joke that it's
• 38:41
  one of the worst baseball movies ever is trouble with the curve.
• 38:44
  But Clint Eastwood has a line in it where he says, you know, you
• 38:47
  got to get out and see these players.
• 38:49
  You can't just stare at a computer spring.
• 38:50
  I think that's the best way to describe Ryan Prager.
• 38:53
  He he battles even when he doesn't have his best stuff.
• 38:57
  He grinds through 5 innings and gives you a good chance to win.
• 39:02
  He's a superb teammate. I think he's going to make a
• 39:04
  great, great coach down the road.
• 39:07
  Somebody like him, AJ Russell, obviously the injuries, as he's
• 39:11
  only pitched I think 1 inning all season and they really
• 39:13
  haven't been any rush to bring him back.
• 39:16
  You just always wonder about age and injuries, how they affect
• 39:20
  how the way some of these scouts view them, because every single
• 39:22
  team has a little bit different philosophy.
• 39:24
  Like I had a buddy that was with the Rays and he's like, yeah, I
• 39:26
  guess we don't take, he's like we, we don't care about
• 39:30
  injuries. He's like, if a computer likes
• 39:31
  you, a computer likes you because we're willing to wait
• 39:34
  3-4 years while you figure out your injury stuff.
• 39:37
  And then there's other teams where like the A's, for example,
• 39:40
  I've heard that they refuse to take anybody who's ever had any
• 39:43
  long term injuries. So it's it's kind of just a
• 39:46
  different philosophy with some of these teams.
• 39:48
  The Angels aren't really big analytic team, which ironically,
• 39:51
  that's where I'd Prager ended up getting drafted.
• 39:53
  But you just never know how some of these MLB teams are going to
• 39:56
  think. Right?
• 39:58
  Yeah. It's it's, it's interesting
• 39:59
  there so 2 important matchups that's been going on this
• 40:04
  weekend in baseball and. It's been talked about a lot.
• 40:07
  It's Texas versus Auburn and Texas A&M versus Arkansas.
• 40:10
  You could talk about it, you could elaborate like how would
• 40:13
  you see these situations breakdown and how how how are
• 40:16
  the matchups fair for both both games or both series they.
• 40:21
  Do they do play next week just depending on when this comes
• 40:23
  out? So AM and Texas haven't played
• 40:25
  A&M, obviously, if they can figure out they're having to do
• 40:29
  a doubleheader right now. So if you can kind of timestamp
• 40:32
  this, when this comes out, they they're playing a really
• 40:36
  talented Arkansas team that has the pitching advantage.
• 40:39
  It's one of the few times I think the season where Miles
• 40:41
  Patton's throwing and he's the quote UN quote worst of the of
• 40:45
  the guys pitching. It's like every single time he's
• 40:47
  the best Texas. Every single time they have an
• 40:52
  injury, they have some kid come in and step up.
• 40:54
  I think that that's for the most incredible stuff.
• 40:56
  Like they're starting Jonah Williams tonight, the five star
• 41:00
  kid out from Galveston Bowl who's going to be on the
• 41:03
  football team in in left field tonight.
• 41:06
  He is a freak of an athlete. He's a really infectious
• 41:09
  personality that really kind of loves to be there.
• 41:13
  Evan Mendoza coming over from Arizona State and then I can't
• 41:17
  believe we've gone almost 40 minutes without talking about
• 41:19
  him. But will Gasparino, just the
• 41:22
  impressive strides that he's made.
• 41:25
  Just, I mean, for reference, this is a kid.
• 41:28
  His freshman year, for lack of a better word, sucked.
• 41:32
  He had no power at the plate. He had no approach.
• 41:35
  He was in his head, you know, his dad's, you know, I think
• 41:39
  he's a either a hidden coach or some, something with the minor
• 41:42
  leagues, with the Dodgers, that he had so many people in his ear
• 41:45
  telling him to do this, telling him to do this, that, you know,
• 41:48
  Troy Tulowitzki after so went up to the Cape and struggled.
• 41:52
  They immediately flew him home. He meets with Troy Tulowitzki,
• 41:56
  and Troy Tulowitzki tells him, you know, he goes, I don't, he's
• 41:59
  like, I don't really care what you do.
• 42:00
  He goes, but we're going to find something and we're going to
• 42:02
  stick to it and we're going to get you into some repetition.
• 42:04
  So I did that. I think he said that he ate 8000
• 42:07
  calories, puts on 2030 lbs of muscle.
• 42:11
  He was a frequent flyer at Chick-fil-A, is what one of his
• 42:14
  team mates said. And the results from Will
• 42:18
  Gasparino, I think, just speak for themselves.
• 42:22
  He's just been on an unreal heater with his buddy Max Balu
• 42:24
  down. He, he hit like he had so many
• 42:30
  home runs over the course of that Missouri weekend that you
• 42:32
  weren't even counting games like, oh, he's hit 4 home.
• 42:36
  He, he hit like eight home runs and 12 at bats or something
• 42:38
  ridiculous like that. He's he's an unreal, unreal
• 42:42
  talent. He's actually, it's funny that
• 42:46
  all these Texas guys at A&M in Texas, which you know, are
• 42:49
  baseball hotbeds, Gasparino is a Cali kid, gal Gavin Grijovic's a
• 42:56
  Cali kid. Jacob Galloway is a as a Cali
• 43:00
  kid. So it's kind of funny how well
• 43:02
  they recruit California because I mean, Will Gasparino, I was on
• 43:07
  him last year because I could see him in the fall camp when I
• 43:09
  talked to Coach David Pierce, David preach to rave about Will
• 43:11
  Gasparino. Will Gasparino, I got to talk to
• 43:14
  him after the Houston series. He's he's a supreme kid.
• 43:19
  And it's really great to see the adjustments that he's made at
• 43:22
  the plate really come to fruition.
• 43:24
  It reminds me a ton of of Skyler Messenger from a few years ago.
• 43:27
  From a swing perspective. I mean, obviously there's very
• 43:31
  few teams in the country that have the luxury of, at least for
• 43:35
  me, and I'm sure y'all are Blue Jays guys, y'all probably don't
• 43:37
  have as fond of memories, but George Lewitzky's, you know, a
• 43:40
  top five shortstop of his ERA. Oh, yeah.
• 43:43
  And he went absolutely. He gets to.
• 43:46
  He gets to train these kids. He gets to talk about their
• 43:48
  approach. It's just some of the drills
• 43:52
  that they do. He does a good job mellowing
• 43:54
  them out. They have unreal analytics.
• 43:57
  I mean, it's a luxury that no team in the country has because
• 44:01
  they have him. And then they have Cantu, who
• 44:03
  was another big leaguer for a little bit.
• 44:04
  Max Weiner, obviously, you know, the stuff that he did with the
• 44:07
  Mariners. I mean, it's an it's an unreal
• 44:09
  coaching staff. The upside of that is ASM has a
• 44:12
  really good coaching staff to it as well.
• 44:13
  I mean, Michael Early was Spencer Torkelson's hitting
• 44:15
  coach in Arizona State. He's the architect to probably
• 44:19
  one of the best offenses of the last three years of Texas A&M.
• 44:22
  Caleb Longley was the hitting coach at Texas last year who
• 44:26
  again architected the greatest Texas lineup in terms of home
• 44:30
  runs. Ivan Melendez was one of his
• 44:32
  guys. Jason Kelly was a head coach at
• 44:34
  Washington last year, which by the way, I think that that's so
• 44:38
  crazy that people would rather be a pitching coach in the SEC,
• 44:43
  the be a head coach at a big school.
• 44:45
  I think that that just speaks volumes to it's it's wild.
• 44:49
  There's no other sport where that would be the case.
• 44:51
  Yeah, I know. Rocky can attest to this as Blue
• 44:55
  Jays fans, when when Alex Anthopolis traded for Troy
• 45:00
  Tulowitzki in 2015, it was it was, it was a game changer, man.
• 45:05
  It drove us hit. Not only that trade, the
• 45:08
  multiple trades, he made it like he was the reason that we had
• 45:12
  those two playoff runs. You know, the play like he is
• 45:15
  definitely a top shortstop, 5 shortstop.
• 45:18
  But I'm with you there, 100% Rocky.
• 45:21
  You can agree to that, right? I mean.
• 45:24
  Like you said, Jake, is that when he was in Colorado the
• 45:28
  first four years of his career, he was the best shortstop in the
• 45:31
  game? Yeah, he was shortstop in the
• 45:33
  game. He gets a lot of, you know,
• 45:35
  criticism, which, by the way, I think it's so funny that he gets
• 45:39
  all this criticism about playing up at Cougars.
• 45:41
  And Nolan Areanado doesn't, like, Nolano is probably going
• 45:44
  to be a Hall of Famer and Tulo's, you know, off the ballot
• 45:46
  already. But he's too low, too low.
• 45:52
  And Brett Wallace, if you remember him for the Astros and
• 45:54
  Padres. Yeah, Yeah, he was.
• 45:56
  He was. A Blue Jays prospect who at one
• 45:57
  point, believe it or not, so. He's the the hitting coach.
• 46:01
  Now, Cal, he's another guy that's that's a really, Yeah, I
• 46:05
  know it's a very random thing. I I think he's from that area,
• 46:09
  but he's another guy that's a really, you know, advanced
• 46:11
  analytics guy, really big feel for the game guy.
• 46:14
  So are a few kind of MLB guys still kicking around in the
• 46:17
  college ranks? You talked about some of the.
• 46:22
  Games that were pivotal. What are some other upcoming
• 46:25
  marquee matchups? I know Tennessee's facing us you
• 46:30
  soon and and Texas and Texas A&M.
• 46:33
  Those are always fun matchups, so they're playing for us,
• 46:38
  they're playing next. Weekend, depending on when this
• 46:40
  comes out, obviously LSU in Tennessee, I'm going to be at
• 46:43
  that 1A and M in Texas is another one that's everybody's
• 46:47
  circled. ANMLSU is another one, but I'm
• 46:50
  going to go a little bit off the radar here, if you will.
• 46:54
  There's a few. Oregon State, Hawaii is another
• 47:00
  really big one that's coming up as both of those teams are just
• 47:03
  supremely, supremely talented. We really, I mean, you could
• 47:08
  talk about some of the other stuff.
• 47:11
  Sorry, I'm just pulling up the schedule here because I wanted
• 47:13
  to, I didn't want to tell everybody wrong about when it's
• 47:20
  it's Cal Poly who says, yeah, Cal Poly and Santa Barbara are
• 47:22
  playing tonight. That's what it was.
• 47:25
  Cal Poly and Santa Barbara is another really good one.
• 47:27
  Irvine and Cal Poly, if you're, you know, into staying up really
• 47:31
  late. Brooks Lee's dad, if you know
• 47:34
  the prospect for the, I don't know if he's still considered a
• 47:36
  prospect, but Brooks Lee's dad is the coach at Cal Poly.
• 47:41
  He's he's got the boys rocking and rolling right now.
• 47:44
  They said 15 and one in conference play after their win
• 47:47
  last night against Santa Barbara.
• 47:51
  I want to dive a little. Bit deeper into the 2026 draft
• 47:56
  class, some early candidates for preliminary guys like I know
• 48:00
  Drew Burris has been a name that's been talked about.
• 48:02
  You mentioned about Justin LeBron and then you got AJ
• 48:06
  Gracia who's outfielder from Duke.
• 48:09
  There's a bunch of names out there you could mention.
• 48:11
  We could also talk about Rob Chalowski from Shortsop, UCLA.
• 48:15
  Who are the names that's out there that you think that could
• 48:18
  be talked about in 2026? I forgot.
• 48:22
  There's another kid. Is it George Lombard's younger
• 48:24
  brother? Jacob Lombard's another one.
• 48:26
  The high school kid is actually been braved a lot.
• 48:28
  So you could talk about all those guys and then the ones we
• 48:31
  did not mention. Yeah, obviously.
• 48:33
  I not versed at all with the high school guys, unfortunately.
• 48:37
  I mean it's tough enough to keep up with with them when they come
• 48:41
  up. Kaden Sorrell, I think is going
• 48:44
  to be one-on-one or one one for me, either Kaden Sorrell or
• 48:47
  Justin LeBron. I mean, both of those guys are
• 48:50
  just incredible, incredible talents.
• 48:53
  I know that Rock out at UCLA is another guy that a lot of people
• 48:56
  really, really talk about a ton. Liam Peterson is another guy.
• 49:02
  A lot of his stuff, though, is mental.
• 49:06
  I think that at his peak, he's probably the best pitcher in the
• 49:09
  draft, but he gets in his head I think a little bit.
• 49:13
  Sometimes it kind of gets off of his rhythm.
• 49:15
  Aidan Kanako, I mentioned that change up.
• 49:17
  I had AI had a scout tell me that there was the single best
• 49:20
  change up that they had ever seen.
• 49:22
  Kuvei up at Miami's another one, Sawyer Farr is going to be draft
• 49:28
  eligible next year. He's another guy where I think
• 49:32
  he needs to be a professional and learn how to play college
• 49:36
  baseball because he's A-65 switch hitting shortstop that
• 49:41
  can. He made one play.
• 49:44
  It was still one of the craziest things I've ever seen, but it
• 49:47
  was a comebacker to Weston Moss and Weston Moss kind of threw it
• 49:51
  offline. So Sawyer Far catches it to the
• 49:55
  side and throws it with his feet out in front of him and just
• 49:59
  whips it across and gets the guy by his step.
• 50:01
  Like it was the single most athletic thing I think I've ever
• 50:04
  seen. Obviously, you know, his bats of
• 50:06
  all skills I think leaves something to be desired.
• 50:10
  He's another guy where his angles in the outfield, his
• 50:12
  angles on ground balls at times. I think he just needs to play.
• 50:17
  That's the only thing with him. Tegan Coons is another really
• 50:20
  talented guy. And then Gavin Grijovic, if he
• 50:24
  can be half the player that he is.
• 50:30
  He hit lead off for Texas A&M last year.
• 50:32
  He got protected a time with Jason Lavallette.
• 50:35
  He had an I mean, for reference, he was hitting home runs with an
• 50:38
  elbow injury that sidelined him for an entire season.
• 50:42
  For reference, I know that he gets a lot of crap for not
• 50:46
  being, you know, as good on the bases.
• 50:49
  He's a fantastic, fantastic base runner.
• 50:51
  I'll say he he gets really good jumps.
• 50:54
  He reminds me of kind of like a Jeff Bagwell on the bases where
• 50:57
  he's not going to steal 40 bases by any of the imagination, but
• 51:00
  he steals steps on his secondaries.
• 51:02
  He steals steps on his jumps for reads off of the bat.
• 51:06
  I think he's another guy where he gets a lot of as being, you
• 51:09
  know, this big bulky guy. You can't play anywhere.
• 51:12
  I don't think that's Gavin Grahovic at all.
• 51:14
  I think he can play a corner infield, corner outfield and be
• 51:17
  one of the most athletic players on the field and and he can hit
• 51:21
  the ball a country mile. The width rate, I will say this,
• 51:26
  he's another guy where he had a ton of width rates, but he he
• 51:30
  really did change his approach about midway through last season
• 51:32
  in terms of chasing off speeds and stuff like that.
• 51:35
  So if you can continue to grow as a player and as an athlete
• 51:39
  and get a good understanding of his body, I think Rehovic's the
• 51:42
  guy that can kind of talk his way back into the top five.
• 51:45
  Can I? Mention one name I.
• 51:47
  Think he was a popular name and he goes to Stanford.
• 51:50
  It's when Tara Szaki like, what do you think about him?
• 51:54
  That one is a little bit interesting because he has sky
• 51:59
  high expectations that have been placed on him and they are, as I
• 52:03
  would say, warranted. His power numbers aren't as
• 52:07
  crazy as you would think for somebody his size.
• 52:11
  I always worry that when you put, I always call it the Jason
• 52:15
  Bay paradox, where you talk people up in your head and they
• 52:20
  end up just not being that player.
• 52:22
  Like if you remember, Jason Bay was like a 260 hitter with the
• 52:25
  Mets. Everybody loved him.
• 52:26
  He had a little bit of pop. And then the Red Sox signed him
• 52:29
  and he does the exact same stuff and all the Red Sox fans are
• 52:32
  telling him he's a bomb, telling him he sucks.
• 52:34
  So it's like, you know what you were signing up for.
• 52:36
  That's how I feel with Ritaro Suzaki.
• 52:38
  Like, he's not going to be a 40 home run guy.
• 52:42
  He reminds me a ton of. Do you remember James Loney from
• 52:46
  the Dodgers? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 52:48
  That's who he. Reminds me of or a Mark.
• 52:51
  Mark Kotze. Yeah, yeah.
• 52:55
  He might be a Mark Kotze a little bit, yeah.
• 52:58
  He's but he, he's a big guy. He doesn't move very well.
• 53:02
  Like I said that he has unrealistic expectations like I
• 53:08
  think the way that people talk about him and I'm sure y'all
• 53:11
  y'all see it all the time on you know, Instagram or TikTok of
• 53:15
  like oh, like this guy's going to be in the major sooner or
• 53:17
  later. I don't think that that's when
• 53:19
  Tara suzaki. I think that kids going to have
• 53:21
  to grind to get into a Major League team.
• 53:23
  I think he's capable of it. He has the talent, but he's not
• 53:27
  the white like for Paul skeens, we're drafting this guy.
• 53:30
  See him in six months up at the Major League level.
• 53:33
  No, because like, I know that. He's been talked about so much
• 53:36
  like, and the fact that he's been hyped up so much and like I
• 53:40
  said, there's a lot of holes to his feet, but he started to hit
• 53:43
  for power, right? So that's why the name's been so
• 53:46
  popular that he's been talked about so much, right?
• 53:48
  So yeah, I mean it's he's. He's a he's a good kid, too.
• 53:52
  He loves The Cheesecake Factory. That's why he said his favorite
• 53:56
  restaurant is is The Cheesecake Factory.
• 54:00
  Who? Who is the catcher?
• 54:01
  From Florida State that's eligible for for the 2026.
• 54:06
  His name is Hunter Karis Karis I think or.
• 54:11
  I, I, I haven't been following Florida State as closely just
• 54:15
  because Monty Taylor, who writes for us, which by the way, if, if
• 54:19
  you are a big baseball fan, you need to go follow Monty because
• 54:23
  he's, he works his ass off. He he knows.
• 54:26
  Yeah. He knows the ACC so much it's
• 54:28
  not even funny. Like he knows.
• 54:31
  Like he he regularly text people on them.
• 54:36
  The everybody loves Monty. He's a really good guy.
• 54:40
  Miles Bailey. Is that what you were talking
• 54:43
  about? Maybe I I don't know.
• 54:45
  I don't. Think he's a catcher?
• 54:46
  He's the. First base, but he's talking
• 54:47
  about Hunter. Carnes, I believe.
• 54:50
  Hunter Carnes, yeah. RNS yeah, probably.
• 54:54
  Yeah, yeah. I actually don't know a ton
• 54:56
  about him, I'm going to be honest with you.
• 54:59
  Just because he's a freshman in money kind of keeps me away from
• 55:01
  the ACC. A lot of my ACC stuff is like
• 55:05
  elite, elite guys or guys that I happen to see.
• 55:08
  And unfortunately with Florida and Florida State, they rarely
• 55:11
  leave Florida. So I don't get to see see them a
• 55:13
  ton. So Florida have to watch them on
• 55:15
  TV. I'll be seeing them in Texas.
• 55:17
  But yeah, so I see like when Miles Bailey cranks 1600 feet or
• 55:21
  stuff like that. But I'll ask Bonnie about Hunter
• 55:25
  Carnes though. What are some guys in the?
• 55:29
  SEC that are 2026 eligible that we haven't talked about like
• 55:34
  maybe like Gabe Gecko or yeah, Gabe Gackle.
• 55:37
  They actually just made him into the bullpen.
• 55:39
  Oh, did they? Yeah, like Ethan Mckelvin and
• 55:43
  Kyle Jones, guys like that. Yeah.
• 55:47
  Ryder Helfrich's another guy. I think that's that's another
• 55:49
  one that could really shoot up and shoot up boards as a true
• 55:52
  freshman. He hit under, he hit sub 200,
• 55:57
  sub 700 OPS. But he goes up to the Cape and I
• 56:02
  don't know if it was just confidence getting away, you
• 56:04
  know, maybe staying away from, you know, just the drama of
• 56:07
  being in a college town. He goes up and dominates at the
• 56:10
  Cape and I think he's sitting over 3330 right now in the SEC.
• 56:14
  He's a supremely talented guy. He does a good job managing the
• 56:17
  staff. I think that he projects to be a
• 56:19
  catcher too at the next level. Kyle Jones is another one coming
• 56:23
  over from Stetson that's really impressed me when I've watched
• 56:26
  him. But I mean, you could talk.
• 56:29
  I'll have to double check some of these kids birthdays too as
• 56:32
  well because I think Tyler Bell's a 2026 guy.
• 56:37
  Ethan Mcilvain, yes. I think he's a 20. 26 Ethan
• 56:42
  Mcilvain's another guy where you where you don't know where he's
• 56:46
  going to do. Ryan Farber.
• 56:50
  At Texas State's, another guy that I got to see a little bit
• 56:52
  too as well. I don't he's either going to,
• 56:56
  he's an interesting one because he can either stay at Texas
• 56:59
  State, which is probably one of the best college campuses in the
• 57:02
  country. He could probably get a big NIL
• 57:04
  deal from a very large SEC school, or he could get drafted,
• 57:08
  you know, in the top 50. Ryan Farber's another one.
• 57:12
  I think that if you're looking for an under the radar guy, he's
• 57:15
  he's a really supremely talented kid too as well.
• 57:21
  Next question I want to ask. You is that who?
• 57:24
  Who will have a strong recruitment class for 2026?
• 57:27
  I know Texas and Texas A&M were the top 2 recruits out there.
• 57:31
  Would you say it's the same 2 or would you say it's LSU or
• 57:35
  Vanderbilt? Like who?
• 57:36
  What do you think? What do you think about that?
• 57:39
  It's almost a little. Bit too early because a lot of
• 57:42
  these kids like Grady Emerson at Texas, like, you know, he's not
• 57:47
  going to go to Texas. Eli Wilts, Jackson Holiday, you
• 57:52
  know that they're not going to honor those commitments.
• 57:55
  It's an interesting one because they're not recruiting like they
• 58:00
  do for football where it's like, OK, we need 60 freshmen.
• 58:04
  Like they're like, for example, Lamar University, they took 0
• 58:08
  freshmen this year. So it's always an interesting
• 58:11
  thing with how they kind of manage it.
• 58:13
  You know, LSU is going to get the blue chip guys, you know,
• 58:15
  Tennessee, Texas, if they can get all those guys to campus.
• 58:20
  I think Texas is far and away the number one.
• 58:22
  But again, I'm not plugged in enough to know where the honest.
• 58:25
  I say that no one knows where these kids, if they're going to
• 58:28
  go to the draft or they're going to come back.
• 58:30
  Like I remember there was a kid when I was in high school, his
• 58:33
  name was Jake Jarvis, who's committed A&M.
• 58:37
  He flips and takes like, like he was like a 15th rounder or
• 58:42
  something, and he flips and goes and takes the money and kind of
• 58:44
  shocked everybody at A&M. So you never really know where
• 58:47
  these kids are going to fly. But as it sits right now, I
• 58:49
  mean, Texas, it's just been killing it on the recruiting
• 58:53
  trail. I mean, Nolan Cain's probably
• 58:55
  the best, best recruiter in the country.
• 59:00
  So with everything we've. Talked about today about the
• 59:04
  college landscape, the draft, everything else, all these
• 59:07
  teams, the SEC, of course, Who do you project to win the
• 59:12
  College World Series this year? At least be in it in the hunt,
• 59:15
  you know? See, that one's A.
• 59:17
  Tough one because you really don't know if he was going to
• 59:21
  figure it out. I think from a storyline
• 59:24
  standpoint, I would love for Florida State to get it done
• 59:28
  after the whole tragedy that happened.
• 59:30
  A but even before that, I mean link Jared in Omaha last year,
• 59:34
  he told us a story that he still talks to Mike, the ghost of Mike
• 59:38
  Martin, and he still relives the the games that he lost in the
• 59:43
  1990s when he was a player at Florida State.
• 59:47
  Brian O'Connor. I think it's Virginia know that
• 59:49
  they're kind of struggling. And then the ultimate, ultimate
• 59:52
  redemption arc is of Texas A&M, you know, hoist that trophy, if
• 59:56
  you will. I think that would be I'd be,
• 59:59
  I'm very biased because of an A&M fan and everything, but just
• 1:00:02
  what that team has gone through outside of their control, inside
• 1:00:07
  their control. Arizona, I think has a chance
• 1:00:11
  that they can get healthy with Summerhill.
• 1:00:13
  They they've looked the best against Tennessee outside of A&M
• 1:00:17
  has been them, but they're on the struggle bus right now with,
• 1:00:20
  with Summerhill being down. Mason Whites.
• 1:00:24
  I think he's going to project as a second baseman, but he's a
• 1:00:26
  certain shortstop. He's another guy that's kind of
• 1:00:28
  carried the load. But dude, they're they're a
• 1:00:30
  completely different team with Summerhill out.
• 1:00:35
  So I'll ask the last question. Of this episode and which guys
• 1:00:39
  who have been drafted in these last two to three years that's
• 1:00:42
  impressed you Obviously Christian Moore and and Chris
• 1:00:44
  Cortez have yet to be Yelp even though they faced each other
• 1:00:47
  last year in the in the College World Series and there were some
• 1:00:50
  animosity but like like mention some names I I I know Paul
• 1:00:53
  Skeens is a popular name. Are you surprised like a guy
• 1:00:55
  like Dylan Cruz is off to a horrendous start or or just
• 1:00:58
  mention other name that you. That's where I mean it's it's
• 1:01:01
  hardly it's. Hardly.
• 1:01:02
  I think I always kind of need a, there's a lot of, you know,
• 1:01:05
  content creators out there on Twitter and everything where a
• 1:01:09
  guy goes, you know, 3 for four and everybody freaks the hell
• 1:01:12
  out like, Oh yeah, this guy's going to be an All Star.
• 1:01:14
  This guy's about to have a puy gas run.
• 1:01:17
  It's very early with Dylan Cruz. Dylan Cruz, he's he's another
• 1:01:22
  great kid. Kags was really, really
• 1:01:25
  impressive when he was coming up at Florida.
• 1:01:29
  I've had a chance to interview him a few times.
• 1:01:31
  He's just a mammoth of a man. Like, I'm 61, probably 220, and
• 1:01:36
  he dwarfs me. Why?
• 1:01:40
  Lakeford when he was at Florida, I know that he's really not a
• 1:01:42
  prospect anymore because he's been up for so long.
• 1:01:46
  Kate Horton at Chicago Cubs, he was another one of my favorite
• 1:01:50
  guys who's actually a college shortstop.
• 1:01:54
  Trey Richardson from TCU was another guy that I was really
• 1:01:58
  blessed to talk to her that my under the radar 1 is a Jackson
• 1:02:03
  Appel from Texas A&M. He's in the White Sox system
• 1:02:06
  right now. He's a switch hitting catcher
• 1:02:09
  that that's lead off. He can probably steal 30 bases
• 1:02:11
  if he can come up and, and move through the system.
• 1:02:15
  But I mean, there's just so many guys that, you know, I've had
• 1:02:17
  the privilege of talking to that are really starting to kill it
• 1:02:20
  at the pro level. It's it's good to see people
• 1:02:24
  leaving that I still played with, like keep Ryan Hayes with
• 1:02:27
  the Pirates, that they're still kind of rocking and rolling,
• 1:02:29
  right. It makes me feel a lot younger
• 1:02:32
  that because me and him are the same age and we played together
• 1:02:35
  on a few travel teams, but there's just so many.
• 1:02:38
  I mean, you, you could literally, we could probably
• 1:02:40
  talk for three hours about what? About what about Bryce Miller,
• 1:02:43
  man? For Seattle, man, you can't
• 1:02:44
  forget him. Texas.
• 1:02:45
  Yeah. Bryce Miller, he's.
• 1:02:47
  Been good man so. Braden Montgomery's been.
• 1:02:50
  Having a pretty hot spring. I love Braden Montgomery, man.
• 1:02:52
  I I still think I. Still I.
• 1:02:55
  Still think the Red Sox way overpaid for that package for
• 1:02:58
  crochet. That's just me, because Braden
• 1:02:59
  Montgomery's a really good player with Kyle Teal and Chase
• 1:03:03
  Metaroth, right? Like, like, yeah.
• 1:03:05
  Oh yeah, forget Kyle Teal's. With the Red Sox, his brother
• 1:03:07
  Aiden's another really good prospect coming up.
• 1:03:09
  He's a center fielder for him. He doesn't have the pop that
• 1:03:13
  Teal has. The Galloff brothers, too,
• 1:03:17
  they're another really good one that I had a chance to meet.
• 1:03:19
  Jake's absolutely killing it. Him and Jacob Wilson, I think,
• 1:03:22
  are going to be, you know, monster duo up the middle.
• 1:03:26
  So there's Jacob, there's another brother.
• 1:03:27
  Yeah, Jacob. Jacob's tearing.
• 1:03:29
  It up this year? Yeah, she has like the lowest.
• 1:03:33
  There's two geloffs. There's two geloffs.
• 1:03:35
  Yeah, I know, Zach. Geloff your time.
• 1:03:37
  Was Zach? Yeah, Zach and Jay the younger.
• 1:03:39
  Brother ones the. Younger brothers with the
• 1:03:40
  Dodgers. So, yeah, they.
• 1:03:41
  They drafted a couple years ago. Yeah, I know what you're talking
• 1:03:44
  about. So Jack Jacob Wilson has
• 1:03:46
  another. There's another brother and his
• 1:03:47
  sister. Jack.
• 1:03:48
  No, No, no, no, no. I was.
• 1:03:49
  Saying Geloff, Geloffs, brother. OK, Geloffs.
• 1:03:52
  OK. Dalton Rushing.
• 1:03:54
  Was another guy that a few years ago when when Louisville played
• 1:03:57
  at the A&M. Rest like that is still probably
• 1:04:00
  one of the hardest hit balls I've ever seen.
• 1:04:04
  I'm a big fan of Dalton Rushing's if he can kind of get,
• 1:04:07
  I mean, the doctors don't have any spots for these kids.
• 1:04:09
  That's the issue. I just don't understand.
• 1:04:12
  The Dodgers sometimes, because The thing is like you have all
• 1:04:15
  these prospects like like talented prospects and like I'd
• 1:04:19
  rather have him over a guy like Comforto or someone like like
• 1:04:22
  take advantage of these guys while they can.
• 1:04:24
  Let them play every day. Like that's that's one thing I
• 1:04:28
  question the Dodgers organization.
• 1:04:29
  It's like they have a Michael Bush.
• 1:04:31
  They had, what's his name, Gavin.
• 1:04:33
  Gavin Lux. They had Miguel Vargas all
• 1:04:35
  traded away like they were all like top 100 prospects and mad
• 1:04:39
  their value diminished. They traded.
• 1:04:40
  Yeah, they get Mike. Sartoria too as well.
• 1:04:44
  Yeah, he's with the yeah. They Yeah, that's right.
• 1:04:47
  Mike Sartoria. Yeah, Yeah, he was with.
• 1:04:50
  The Reds, I think. No Northeastern.
• 1:04:53
  Northeastern, that's right. Northeastern, sorry, OK.
• 1:04:56
  I'm making a mix up with someone else, yeah.
• 1:04:58
  Mike Bovey with the Brewers is another really good one that's
• 1:05:02
  coming up. He absolutely Rakes Brock
• 1:05:06
  Wilkin. Brock Wilkin.
• 1:05:10
  Yeah, I think. He was injured though, for a
• 1:05:12
  little bit. Yeah, he was injured.
• 1:05:13
  Yeah. He's he's another supreme that
• 1:05:16
  kids a monster or he just dwarfs people around him.
• 1:05:22
  I mean you really can't go wrong with Max Clark.
• 1:05:27
  A big Max Clark fan to it, like every Bazana.
• 1:05:32
  Yeah, Bazana is another. Really good one that I had a
• 1:05:34
  chance to see a few times. He's a super, super humble kid.
• 1:05:40
  He's another one where he is so professional.
• 1:05:43
  He was basically like coach 2.0 last year at Oregon State in a
• 1:05:46
  good way. It's funny because he has this
• 1:05:49
  weird twitch with his bat where not like with the pitchers in
• 1:05:54
  the wind up just to keep him loose and every single person
• 1:05:57
  Oregon State has the same like twitch that Bazana does.
• 1:06:01
  JJ Weatherholt from West Virginia is another really good
• 1:06:03
  one. I think he's a good player I got
• 1:06:05
  to see. Him a few.
• 1:06:05
  Times he's he's a really good player for him too as well.
• 1:06:10
  Charlie Condon. It'll be interesting to see
• 1:06:14
  because there were some balls that that Charlie Condon hit
• 1:06:17
  where you're like, OK, that's not going to go out with a wood
• 1:06:19
  bat. But the flip side that he's so
• 1:06:21
  he's 6/6 and I think he can still grow into his body a
• 1:06:25
  little bit. Rhett louder.
• 1:06:27
  I got a buddy with the Reds. They are very, very excited for
• 1:06:30
  Rhett louder. I think he would got that team
• 1:06:34
  with Rhett louder. Nick Kurtz, Brock Wilkin was
• 1:06:37
  just loaded that Wake Forest team when they played LSU.
• 1:06:42
  What about Chase Burns? Like, what do you think about
• 1:06:44
  Chase Burns as a player? Because some people think that
• 1:06:47
  he has like the second most upside in that division after
• 1:06:50
  Paul Skees. I don't know if that's a wild
• 1:06:52
  tape, but he was like the third. Like the third, yes, and, and.
• 1:06:56
  They were the the Reds, because everybody, like I said, that's
• 1:06:58
  what the Reds. They were very, very excited to
• 1:07:01
  get to Lander. As they said, as they joked,
• 1:07:03
  he's like, yeah, because we got three guys that were really high
• 1:07:06
  on he goes the top 2 are probably going to go above them.
• 1:07:09
  And and then I forget who went second after Bazano, but they
• 1:07:13
  were like, wait, we get to draft Burns.
• 1:07:15
  They like I said that same scout Burns was the number one guy
• 1:07:21
  that they tested and all their stuff.
• 1:07:23
  He has, you know, tremendous upside.
• 1:07:25
  He's been, he at the pitching factory at Wake.
• 1:07:28
  He he learned how to attack hitters.
• 1:07:30
  He learned about his body and his mobility.
• 1:07:33
  He's he's just going to shoot through their system.
• 1:07:37
  Yeah. Absolutely.
• 1:07:39
  This was a great episode, man, and we really enjoyed this man.
• 1:07:42
  We talked about prospects for the future, talked about college
• 1:07:45
  players, man. Jake, we thank you for being in
• 1:07:49
  this episode. Where can we find you in social
• 1:07:51
  media and everywhere else? Twitter.
• 1:07:55
  CBC, Jake MCK and then on YouTube with College Baseball
• 1:07:59
  Central and then I also do some stuff with SCCN filtered.
• 1:08:04
  That's on Friday night's Friday night spike.
• 1:08:05
  So I'm actually about to go get on that here in about an hour
• 1:08:09
  where we just go on and just talk baseball kind of like this.
• 1:08:12
  Very casual, but I really appreciate y'all having me on.
• 1:08:15
  Hopefully this one tops Brians episode.
• 1:08:17
  Did I listen to Brians episode? Fries is going to be tough to
• 1:08:21
  beat. Yeah, his was top five.
• 1:08:23
  So and, and, and we're just, we're, we're rapidly growing.
• 1:08:26
  We're not even one year in this pod.
• 1:08:28
  So yeah, I mean, hopefully, hopefully.
• 1:08:30
  But you, you provided some great content regardless, right?
• 1:08:34
  So we appreciate, yeah, I really appreciate y'all.
• 1:08:36
  Having me on it was awesome man. Thanks for joining us.
• 1:08:39
  Thanks for coming. Rocky is so good at finding
• 1:08:43
  finding people like yourself. They're willing to come on the
• 1:08:46
  pod. And I want to give him a shout
• 1:08:48
  out to finding you, man, because you've been you've been awesome.
• 1:08:52
  This this episode was great and it was it's been fun, man, just
• 1:08:56
  talking baseball with you. It's been awesome.
• 1:08:59
  This. Is what we do all the time.
• 1:09:00
  We just talk baseball, so it's all about.
• 1:09:03
  It Yeah. That's all.
• 1:09:05
  That's, that's what we do man. We'll place the description
• 1:09:08
  below where you can find Jake McKeever, but until next time,
• 1:09:11
  take care, be kind to each other.
• 1:09:13
  Signing up for the Sports Ave. Twisted Podcasts on Friday,
• 1:09:16
  April 18th, 2025.