Latest / Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast / Episode 78 feat. Mark Garland - NCAA Baseball Top 25, College World Series Tournament Preview, MLB Draft Prospects

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Episode 78 feat. Mark Garland - NCAA Baseball Top 25, College World Series Tournament Preview, MLB Draft Prospects · Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast

0:25
Music Welcome to another edition of the Sports Ave.
0:29
Twisted podcast and we have a returning guest in here is one
0:32
of our favorites. And you know, this is our
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inaugural version on video. And Mark, you broke the ice.
0:38
You're here. Welcome back.
0:40
It's an honor to have you on and we're excited, especially at
0:44
this time of year when it comes to college baseball.
0:46
Dude, I'm so happy to be back fellas.
0:48
Like thanks for having me. I love this show, love the
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podcast you guys do and, and happy to be the 1st guest on
0:52
video. Like you guys get to see the hat
0:54
wall that I've collected here this year and teams have been
0:56
sending me hats. I got a big collection here and
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it's the podcast back watch and, and you guys got it set up with
1:02
the Blue Jays and I love it, man.
1:04
Let's let's get after it today. We got all sorts of baseball
1:06
stuff to talk about. Yeah, we're so we're so honored
1:10
and excited to have you, man. It's it's, you know, there's so
1:14
much young talent in today's game and you know, it's so
1:18
important to talk about what's going on in college baseball
1:20
because essentially that's a future, right?
1:23
So we're excited, man. Thanks for coming.
1:26
Yeah, absolutely, man. Excited to be here.
1:30
Let's talk about the UCLA Bruins here.
1:33
And they're they're considered the best team in the country by
1:36
far. I mean, look at the team,
1:37
they're established right now. And we talk about a guy like
1:40
Rock Cholowsky, considered to be perhaps the top pick in this
1:43
upcoming MLB draft. And if not top three.
1:47
And you look at the the way that team is built, like they're a
1:51
well oiled machine, like they're they're close to being probably
1:55
the perfect team out there. Like look at their lineup.
1:57
I mean, Roman Martin just came back.
1:59
Dean West, I mean, Will Gasparino, he was a transfer
2:01
from the Longhorns. And then they're pitching stuff
2:05
is stocks. You can't put it any other way
2:07
but talk about how great that team is.
2:10
And are they considered the favourites to to win the College
2:13
World Series this year? Yeah, I mean, I think you have
2:16
to put them up there, honestly. You got guys that are all
2:19
Americans across the board and, and a guy like Mullevi Levoux,
2:22
he gets overlooked. He's great at first base.
2:24
He's leading the team in hitting.
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Like he's got sixteen home runs. Like all this pressure's on Rock
2:29
and he's going to be a first overall pick, which I still
2:31
think Chicago's taking him #1 they're probably posturing, he's
2:34
going to be taking #1 he's the best player right now in the
2:36
draft. But Mullevi Levoux has been a
2:38
huge step for them. Like he's been enormous for this
2:40
team and just been able to lead this offense and the defense at
2:43
first base. They're the most complete team
2:45
by a long ways. And I said this in the offseason
2:47
last year. I go, if there's a team that
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you're picking right now to take to Omaha, it's it's UCLA.
2:51
They're returning everybody. They returned eight position
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players and they got Will Gasparino, a guy who's only
2:55
added, you know, a 300 average with 19 home runs.
2:57
So the team got better with the eight position players they
3:00
returned and they added Logan Redman, who's an All American
3:04
pitcher from San Diego. And now he's been their
3:06
frontline guy. He's raised his stock all the
3:08
way to be a first round draft pick now where he was going to
3:10
be like a late maybe 6 to 10 round draft guy.
3:14
He's all the way up in the first round draft picks and mocks now.
3:16
Like that's how good this team is.
3:18
They have different guys all over the lineup.
3:20
They have different pitchers. Wyland Moss is a guy not enough
3:23
people to talk about. He goes out there and does all
3:25
the things for UCLA pitching wise, like he goes out there.
3:27
He's been excellent this year, 1.89 DRA.
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He's won five games. He can go in as a starter.
3:32
He can come out of the bullpen. Like he gives you such depth in
3:35
what you need and and what Savage is built there this year.
3:39
All these guys were top 100 prospects coming out of high
3:43
school. They were all these top guys and
3:45
everybody's talking about, hey, how are you going to keep all
3:47
them in the in the world of NIL? I'm telling you right now, they
3:51
don't have to give guys money. These guys wanted to play
3:53
together. They the NIL money is a little
3:55
bit there for you Slay. It's not as much as it is in the
3:57
SEC and these guys stuck together.
3:58
They wanted to be there. Last year was kind of a fluke
4:01
that they got to Omaha like Fluky is in.
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I think they were a year early. This is the best team in the
4:05
country. They've only lost one Power 4
4:07
game and it's to Oregon last weekend.
4:08
Like that's how good this team is.
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They've literally lost one Saturday all year.
4:13
What do you think about Issa Hawk?
4:15
The guy's stuff is incredible. Like the guy has a 1.67, Uh, he
4:19
has five saves. I mean, could he be a true, I
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mean when he gets drafted or if he goes to the next level, can
4:26
it transition to the major leagues the way he pitches?
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Yeah, I think the big thing for him is that it's hard for you to
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draft a relief pitcher high, right?
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And that's just kind of the thing you always look at,
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because I don't think Easton's ever going to turn into a
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frontline starter, But he's going to be a guy that can give
4:41
you 3-4 innings of depth and he can get you really good stuff.
4:44
Like 27 appearances in college is a lot like that's a rubber
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arm to go out there and throw 27 different games at the college
4:50
level. He's a guy right now that he
4:52
could be used out of a bullpen scenario and I think that high
4:54
leverage situations are not going to be too high for him.
4:57
His stuff plays at the next level.
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It really does. The spin rates high.
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It's got good swing and miss stuff.
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The WIFF rate is really high at the college level and I think
5:05
that that's going to translate at the MLB level because he
5:07
doesn't have to beat you in the zone, but he can beat you in the
5:09
zone. And that's something that a lot
5:10
of college kids can't do is throw stuff for strikes.
5:13
He throws 3 pitches in the zone for strikes.
5:15
That's not something that everybody can do today.
5:17
And if you can do that out of the bullpen arm for the MLB
5:20
level, absolutely. I think it translates.
5:24
You've talked a lot about UCLA and how there's just this
5:26
powerhouse and I've seen them quite a bit this year on the Big
5:29
10 Network. So I catch games from now and
5:31
then I saw when Santa Barbara, you know, ended their 20 game,
5:36
28 game losing streak. But when you win that much,
5:38
you're going to eventually lose 1, right?
5:40
But talk about the rest of the rest of that conference, like
5:44
you got the Nebraska, USC, Oregon, all pretty good teams in
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Purdue, Michigan and and so on. So how competitive is that
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division? And you know, like, what are the
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other teams in that that group of teams that could possibly
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compete for for something bigger?
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This is the best Big 10 that we've seen in a decade and it's
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it's hands down the best Big 10 conference we've seen in the
6:07
decade. And it's not just because of the
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West Coast teams. But the fact of the matter is
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UCLA being the number one time in the country helps.
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USC right now is number 8 in the RPI and they have only lost one
6:16
game at home and it was to Oregon State.
6:18
Can't really fault him when he lose a game to a national
6:20
championship club like Oregon State.
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Oregon is still bidding for one of the home seeds here for
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regionals like this weekend series between Oregon and USC.
6:30
I said it on last night's show. The winner of this one is going
6:33
to host. They're going to host a
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regional. So this is a big series here in
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Eugene this weekend where USC has to travel up.
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They haven't been as good on the road as they have been at home.
6:41
Oregon's been really good at home.
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I think it's a big series. And then those other teams you
6:45
mentioned Nebraska, what a surgeons by them.
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They got, you know, these dudes that they go out there and play
6:51
and they have a 9000 seat stadium that they've been
6:53
filling out. I wish that they hadn't gotten
6:56
swept a couple weeks ago because if they had won that series, I
6:59
think if they had beat that Ohio State team instead of getting
7:02
swept by them, I think that you'd be talking about them as
7:04
being a national seed also in that conversation of at least
7:06
being a regional host. Now they're kind of on the
7:08
outside in because they don't have the path really to get
7:11
there. If they win the Big 10
7:12
tournament, maybe they can get there to the outside looking in.
7:14
But I think that this Nebraska team is going to be a real big
7:17
problem for somebody as a two seed as I think the loser of the
7:20
USC Oregon series. Whoever doesn't host is going to
7:22
be a problem too. I think this is the best
7:24
conference we've seen in a long time for the Big 10.
7:26
Michigan and Purdue, I had them in on my most recent
7:30
projections. The committee has not always
7:32
taken very many teams from the Big 10.
7:34
But like I said, I think that the RPI and what we're looking
7:38
at overall from these teams, it's a lot different of a league
7:40
this year and I think that they're going to take five teams
7:42
in and possibly 6. So we might see Michigan and
7:45
Purdue. I think that Michigan probably
7:47
edges out Purdue because of the RPI and the record are being
7:50
equal. I think if they take five teams,
7:52
Michigan would be that next team in.
7:55
Let's talk about the top hitters in the Big 10 and there's so
7:59
many great hitters in this in this conference.
8:03
And obviously Rock Cholosky. I mean, I mean, you could talk
8:06
about UCLA guys, but let's talk about other guys like Gabe
8:09
Mitchell and Colby Turn and and Caleb Wolf and Jackson Hodgkins,
8:14
like the list goes on and on. And how competitive is that
8:19
category, especially when you look at their numbers, There's
8:22
such gaudy numbers. And like, who would you say out
8:25
of those guys or even outside the names that I didn't mention
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are considered like top hitters in that conference?
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I think that there's a kid that not in a lot of people are
8:35
taking a look at and it's a kid from University of Washington.
8:38
Jackson Hotchkiss. He missed like 19 games to start
8:41
this season. He's an absolute dude.
8:43
He's going to be in the 2027 draft, so people are not keeping
8:46
an eye on this kid right now. He is really, really good.
8:48
I think that he's going to give a lot of depth to what we're
8:51
talking about here. He has eighteen home runs on the
8:53
season. He's hitting 368.
8:56
They list him as a left fielder. He can play center field.
8:58
I mean, he's a big, tall, strong kid.
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I really like where he's at. Another guy that I think doesn't
9:03
get enough credit are two guys from Nebraska, Case Sanderson
9:06
and Dylan Carey. If you're not putting Dylan
9:09
Carey on a lot more lists for being a senior, being on this
9:11
program for a long time, 357 hitter.
9:14
He's got 15 home runs, 75 RBIs. I mean, there are so many good
9:18
hitters in this conference. I think that they over shadow
9:22
what people are saying, hey, you know, the pitching's down, the
9:24
pitching's down. It's not great in this
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conference. I think there's just so many
9:27
good hitters that people are not giving them enough credit.
9:30
Yeah. I mean, you got a guy like
9:31
Maddox Maloney who's going to be drafted probably in the first
9:33
round from Oregon Ducks. He's not even on the top 20
9:37
average right now. He's not even in the top list
9:39
for any of these categories for the Big 10.
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And he's one of the MLB top first round kind of guys like
9:44
Drew Smith over at Oregon. Also another guy, 339 hitter.
9:48
You know, like these guys have been driving the ball out of the
9:50
ballpark. There's so much offense, the
9:53
averages in this conference. I mean, I think that there's
9:55
something like 37 guys over 300 in the conference.
9:58
That doesn't happen everyday. Like that's usually SEC type
10:01
numbers and you're talking about from the Big 10 that doesn't
10:03
usually put up these kind of numbers.
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So I've been very impressed by a lot of guys and there's just so
10:09
much diversity in this conference between guys that
10:11
have been really, really talented and being able to hit
10:12
this year where I don't think you would have said that a year
10:15
ago. It's funny that you brought up
10:19
about the pitching and people, you know, wonder like, oh, the
10:22
pitching's not that great and you know, do you bring up how
10:25
the hitters are so good? But talk about that pitching a
10:28
little bit and talk about some of the top pitchers like Logan
10:32
Redman and Max Freeze in Iowa and talk about some of those
10:36
guys and, and, and some of the relievers that USC or UCLA has
10:41
is just unbelievable. So talk, tell us a little bit
10:45
about that pitching and and what you think about it.
10:48
Yeah, I mean, we could talk about pitching all day in this
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conference because there is good pitching.
10:52
A lot of them are at USC and UCLA, right?
10:54
Like those two schools happen to have probably the best pitching
10:57
in the country. Mason Edwards has played his way
11:00
up to being maybe the top left-handed draft pick out of a
11:03
pitching stack. Like, he's been really, really
11:05
good this year. 8 No 161 ERA. He's been electric for USC.
11:10
It feels like every time he throws on a Friday, he gives
11:12
USCA chance to win. And that's one of the reasons
11:14
why they have a chance of being a host this year.
11:17
Grant Goval, his second guy, that 1-2 punch is ridiculous. 10
11:21
and one on the season, 259 ERA. Like these guys are insane.
11:24
What they are doing at USC. It's been a lot of things.
11:28
Carson Jassa from Nebraska is not getting hardly any love, but
11:32
this dude is 9 and 2344 ERA. He goes out there and throws
11:36
every single Friday night for this Nebraska team and it's hard
11:39
to go down there and compete like that.
11:40
He's been able to do that at the highest level.
11:42
So I'm more and more impressed by these guys every single week.
11:46
You know, Logan Redman, Wildin Moss, we know what those guys
11:49
are. They're they're MLB caliber
11:50
arms. These guys are very talented.
11:52
We knew that going into the season.
11:54
I think Logan Redman kind of surprised people by how much
11:56
he's grown and how much better he's gotten inside the zone.
11:59
He was really good about making people miss outside the zone.
12:01
But the fastball was hitable last year.
12:03
This year it's moving quite a bit more.
12:05
So he's getting a lot more inverted brake on that fastball.
12:08
He's getting a lot more horizontal brake on that
12:10
fastball. So he switched from kind of an
12:11
over the top 4 seamer to more of a 2 seamer.
12:14
And so it's cutting a little bit more in on those right-handed
12:16
hitters. He's doing a lot of different
12:17
things and he's been really, really quite unhittable.
12:20
And another guy at Oregon that I think is not going to enough
12:23
club love and he'll be in the 27 draft is Will Sanford.
12:26
He's been really good for Oregon going out there on Friday nights
12:29
6 and 2419 ERA. But he competes with the best of
12:32
this conference and I'm more excited to see that guy grow for
12:35
next year. I think he's our next year's
12:36
Logan Redmond where he takes Oregon to that next level.
12:39
And he might be one of those guys you look at being the best
12:41
pitcher in the conference. Let's dive into the Big West
12:45
Conference. And it's unlike previous years,
12:49
it doesn't seem like it's it's much competitive.
12:52
Like we know that UC Santa Barbara is probably the best
12:54
team in that conference, but Cal Par Poly's been up there to UC
12:58
San Diego. But what's been underwhelming
13:01
because a team like Long Beach, great baseball program
13:04
historically hasn't really lived up to their standards.
13:08
Like what are the some of those underwhelming teams?
13:10
That is the reason why they're not competitive this year.
13:14
Yeah, I mean, it's bad because you look at teams like UC
13:16
Irvine, who's coming off of 340 win seasons in a row and this
13:20
year they're not even close. I mean, they're sub 500 team.
13:23
I think that you're just starting to see that these
13:26
rosters are kind of leveling out in that conference.
13:28
One, people can go all up and down in California and that's
13:32
where most of these schools are located is in California.
13:33
So you can play at any of these schools and be noticed and be
13:36
drafted. And I think that that's
13:37
something that was all the way back in the early 2000s.
13:40
We looked at these teams like the Cal State Fullertons and the
13:43
Long Beaches and these were some of the best programs in the
13:45
country. Well, now they're smaller
13:47
schools compared to a lot of these other schools.
13:49
So these guys that used to go and be at these California State
13:52
schools, they're going to the SEC schools now they're going up
13:55
to Oregon, Oregon State, they're playing in these bigger
13:58
conferences and I think that that's kind of hurt them a
14:00
little bit. NIL has also pulled guys away
14:02
from some of these schools. So it almost feels like this mid
14:05
major conference of the Big W is where guys are going to get
14:08
their second chance if they drop out of a big program or they're
14:10
going transferring in from AJC. Like it feels like those guys
14:15
that used to be 4 year guys down there in the Big W are no longer
14:18
staying around because the NIL money has forced guys to kind of
14:21
move on and play at different levels.
14:23
I mean, we're seeing it from the WCC guys.
14:25
All their top 4 pitchers all went to Big 10 programs or big
14:28
programs and they're all aces on Friday.
14:31
Like that's the crazy part is that you see these top
14:33
conference pitchers, they're going everywhere else.
14:36
People don't remember Anthony Ionson who was the number two at
14:39
LSU last year. He was from UC San Diego.
14:42
He he was pitched there as a freshman like, and he
14:44
transferred to LSU. I mean, you're just losing some
14:46
of these best conference guys. Now UC Santa Barbara held on to
14:49
Jackson Flora, which was crazy to me because he's going to be
14:52
probably the highest right-handed pitcher taken in
14:54
the draft. But a lot of these other teams
14:57
had to pick up the pieces every year and you're starting to see
14:59
it in the in the portal. These guys have to go out and go
15:02
get guys also. So they're going to get JC
15:04
players, they're going to get D2D3 guys, kind of fill the
15:06
holes that they're losing from their top end players that are
15:09
leaving them every year. And I think that's the biggest
15:11
difference between where it was 10 years ago even and where we
15:14
are now. With the turnover that you've
15:18
talked about, with all the, you know, the players coming in,
15:20
coming out, you know, guys transferring, getting drafted,
15:25
getting picked up by other, other organizations in baseball.
15:31
Tell us a little bit about the hitting landscape and what it's
15:34
like over there in the Big West. It's definitely a pitching
15:38
conference. There's definitely a lot more
15:41
arms than anything else. I mean, I already mentioned
15:43
Jackson Flora, but Isaiah Magdaleno at Hawaii is putting
15:46
together one of the best seasons we've seen from a college
15:48
pitcher in a very long time. He's got a lot of stuff.
15:51
Cal Poly's got a ton of arms. Like you're starting to see that
15:54
the teams at the top of this conference are all the teams
15:56
that have the best arms. So Cal State Fullerton has one
15:59
of the best Eras, UC San Diego's been able to pitch, and
16:02
obviously UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly being at the top, they
16:04
have the best pitching in the conference outside of Hawaii.
16:06
So Hawaii, while they haven't been able to hit, they've been
16:10
able to pitch. And so you're starting to see
16:12
this across the conference going.
16:13
Where's the hitting at? Why is it not there?
16:15
I mean, there used to be a lot of things and you know, the old
16:17
adage of West Coast baseball where it's a lot of bunting and
16:20
moving guys around and not as much home runs.
16:22
It kind of has really fallen into place this year where we're
16:25
not seeing a lot of power out of this conference.
16:26
We're not seeing a ton of extra base hits.
16:28
We're seeing a lot more hit and run stuff.
16:30
We're seeing a lot more bunting and we're seeing just different
16:32
ways to move guys around versus is it because the great
16:35
pitching? I think that it's a little bit
16:37
of it, but I also think that a lot of these big time sluggers,
16:40
if they're there for a year, they have a great season, they
16:42
move on to the SEC or ACC and they're gone.
16:44
And you're starting to not see the development of these guys
16:47
that could be juniors and seniors in this side where all
16:50
of a sudden those guys can hit twenty home runs like they used
16:52
to. Those guys are gone.
16:53
Now they're going and playing ball somewhere else for
16:54
$500,000. With that being said, because
16:59
you mentioned about pitching being more dominant than hitting
17:03
in the in the big W, like who would you say in your opinion
17:08
has the best pitching staff? Because you could mention about
17:11
Makayla Degrade. I mean another guy, Mason Lerma.
17:13
I mean there's so many names out there.
17:15
You could talk about it. They like you said, pitching, it
17:18
seems like more of a thing than hitting.
17:21
So who would you say has a better pitching staff in that
17:24
conference? Oh, it's it's it's Hawaii.
17:28
Hawaii is the best pitching in the conference.
17:29
I mean, really, they have the best pitching coach in the
17:32
conference also. And and what he's done out there
17:35
is tremendous. I mean, he's a dude.
17:37
He works with his guys and and these guys have been
17:39
outrageously good over the past three years.
17:42
They've been top ten and ERA in the country, not just the big
17:45
West in the country the last three seasons.
17:48
Like that's what he provides for this team like Keith Zuniga.
17:52
Keep the name in mind. Tremendous pitching coach,
17:55
wonderful talent, he develops guys.
17:57
Isaiah Magdaleno, just the newest round of guys who were a
17:59
big bullpen arm firm last year and now is a Friday night ace.
18:02
He's got some alarms that are going to be staying out there in
18:04
Hawaii that are freshmen now watch out.
18:06
Hawaii is going to be good again.
18:08
Now UC Santa Barbara is good because Jackson Flora.
18:10
Jackson Flora makes that really drive.
18:12
He's really good. Cal State Fullerton again,
18:15
Negrady, another reason why they're really good near the
18:17
top. But the whole pitching staff as
18:18
a whole, it's Hawaii. They're they're outrageously
18:21
above everybody else. In April, sophomore right-hander
18:28
for Oregon State Dax Whitney. It'll be not one of the best
18:32
picks in next year's draft. He he left April an April
18:38
contest against Hawaii for six innings to the tightness in his
18:41
right elbow. You know, it's unfortunate for
18:45
him, but how, how big of a loss was that for Oregon State?
18:50
And and and and really like, will it affect him in the draft
18:54
coming up next season? So I've talked about this a lot
18:59
with draft guys and a lot of our draft guys over at just baseball
19:02
media, and nobody thinks it's going to hurt him too much.
19:05
But we kind of saw it this year where Cam Fluky was, you know,
19:08
projected to be the number one pick and all the things he gets
19:10
hurt at the start of this year and he misses 10 starts and now
19:14
he's dropped down below Jackson Flora because we've seen what
19:16
Flora can do. We saw him get better.
19:18
I think that everybody knows though that Dax Whitney is the
19:20
best player in the draft. Now it's going to come down to
19:23
him and Landon Harrison out of Arizona State, whether you want
19:26
a position player or you want a pitcher.
19:28
But everybody right now is still saying it's collectively Dax
19:31
Whitney's going to be the number one guy still.
19:33
He's at that point. He'll be at 14 months ish post
19:38
Tommy John surgery. Whether they do the brace or
19:40
whether they do the full Tommy John, He's already going to be
19:43
having that surgery. So he'll be at recovery time by
19:45
then. There's no real concern about it
19:48
because it's just such a ho hum injury nowadays that every
19:51
pitcher can have and be back in 14 to 18 months.
19:54
So no draft teams are worried about it and they see the
19:57
talent. I mean, he was a four pitch guy
19:58
in the zone over 100 miles an hour.
20:01
He you just don't get that kind of ability from a 19 year old
20:04
kid that can go up there and dominate people.
20:06
And he's 6 foot six. So the body's there like yeah,
20:09
the arm gave out a little bit. He had some tightness.
20:12
He's going to have it repaired. There's zero concern from any
20:14
draft scouts being that he would not be.
20:16
Rwanda #2 pick in the 27th draft.
20:20
I got a follow up question on that.
20:22
So Oregon and state is still one of the best teams in baseball
20:26
right now. And even without them, they're
20:27
still talented. And if you look at the team
20:30
itself, they already have forty wins, right?
20:32
We know that for a fact. But they have guys like Ethan
20:35
Talt, Jacob Galloway, Adam Hayde, I mean Ethan Kleinsman.
20:40
We even talked about it last year when you were on and and
20:43
could they still have enough even without Dax, Dax Whitney's
20:47
detrobetto? That loss is such a big deal and
20:50
it's hard to replace it, right? Because like, he was supposed to
20:53
be like the next Paul Skeens in next year's draft.
20:56
But but do they still have enough to compete for the
21:00
College World Series? Yes.
21:04
So I think that they're going to host still.
21:05
I mean, the 41 wins puts them in that conversation.
21:07
As long as they take care of business this weekend, on
21:09
Thursday, Friday and Saturday against Air Force, they're going
21:12
to host. And they don't have any other
21:13
games until the regional because they don't play in a conference.
21:16
So they have no conference tournament.
21:17
They don't have anything else to do.
21:18
The pitching staff is still elite for Oregon State.
21:21
And we talked about even without Dax Whitney, Ethan Kleinschmidt
21:24
is a top round draft pick. He's going to be drafted high.
21:27
Segura going now on Saturdays for them.
21:29
Like he was the best Sunday pitcher in the country.
21:31
Once Dylan Volantis moved from Sundays to Friday for Texas, it
21:35
turned into Eric Segura being the best Sunday pitcher.
21:37
And now they got that freshman going Morris going on on
21:42
Sundays. Like they're good.
21:43
But what it does is it kind of moves everything else up.
21:45
So if they don't stay on schedule.
21:47
So by that, I mean, if they don't stay in the winners
21:49
bracket the whole time, it kind of puts them tougher.
21:51
Like if they had Dax, they had so many arms that they could
21:53
just play with and if they got the loser bracket was no big
21:55
deal. Now they kind of feel like they
21:57
need to stay in that winner's bracket the whole time and kind
21:59
of hold their own. And being at home in front of
22:02
the Goss faithful in the regional round is big.
22:04
So then they just have to take two out of three.
22:06
And with those that pitching staff that front and pitching
22:08
staff in the bullpen that they have, I think that they're
22:11
really good. I mean, Alberto Robles has been
22:13
the best closer in baseball and people don't even talk about him
22:16
much because how good the starting pitching has been for
22:17
estate. Guy leads the nation and saves.
22:20
He's been nearly unhittable. He's throwing over the top like
22:22
a tray of Savage, throwing a splitter and throwing the
22:25
fastball like he's really tough. And then he got a guy that's 6
22:28
foot 7 and Isaac Jager, like the bullpen arms are there.
22:32
My biggest concern for the state is scoring.
22:34
Can they score enough runs? It's been, you know, a lot of
22:37
just can getting by with the offense where it feels like a
22:40
lot of old school West Coast baseball.
22:43
But they've been able to get by in these games.
22:45
I don't know if they'll be able to do that against the top end
22:47
competition in the SEC and ACC. Let's talk about your list of
22:54
your top 25, because I know everybody has a list out there
22:57
of their top 25. But so when you when you had the
23:01
thought process of putting that list, like did you feel like
23:06
it's feels like this is the this is the pecking order of and we
23:09
know that UCLA, everybody has UCLA as the top team, but then
23:13
you got Georgia, Georgia, it's also consensus usually top.
23:17
And you got UNC Auburn go like I could talk about, but how did
23:21
you break down that list? Said Who in your mind could be a
23:24
sleeper in this year's College World Series tournament?
23:28
And I go through and whether I'm watching every game live, I
23:33
rewatch everybody that plays in the top 25 in my mind.
23:36
So I will go back through and I'll see usually between 90 and
23:39
120 games a weekend to kind of get the feel to see where these
23:42
teams are. The nice thing is I usually have
23:45
4 or 8 up on my TV's. I have two big TV's in the
23:48
living. Room my wife, she.
23:49
Approved it. So I got, I got an 85 inch on
23:52
one wall, I got the 75 on the other wall, and then I got my
23:54
iPad in front of me. So I'm able to watch a lot of
23:57
games at once on weekends, but I'm not out on the road.
24:00
So those home weekends are important for me to be able to
24:02
get eyes on every single team. So the baseball game moves slow,
24:05
right? So you can take a look and be
24:06
able to see what's going on every game.
24:08
So I get eyes on everybody. So it's usually between 90 and
24:10
120 games I watch every single week.
24:12
And so I get an idea of where these teams are and you kind of
24:15
just be able to put it together. The the end of the season is a
24:18
lot easier than the beginning of the seasons because you see
24:20
where these teams have progressed and how good they are
24:23
now. I don't even look at RPI when
24:26
I'm doing my rankings. I know people get really mad
24:28
about that, but I'd look at it as a general.
24:29
I know where they're at kind of in the RPI rating, but that's a
24:32
whole different rating system. That's a whole different
24:34
ranking. If you want to go by RPI, sure,
24:36
use that. If you want to use that as your
24:37
metric, I want to see what they've done the last 10 games.
24:41
I want to see what they've done in conference and I want to see
24:44
when they beat the best teams. Like that to me tells me more
24:46
about a team than anything else. And I think that there's so many
24:49
good teams out there. I mean, the top 25 that we put
24:51
out recently is really, really good.
24:53
I mean those you could say there's 30 to 40 teams that
24:56
deserve to be in the top 25. And I don't know if there's many
24:59
years. You could always say that.
25:00
So I'm very impressed by all the teams this year.
25:03
But I think that there are five teams at the top of the list,
25:05
right? UCLA number one, no doubt #1
25:09
best team in the country. I don't have any arguments
25:11
there. They've been the best team all
25:12
year #2 for me has been Georgia. Georgia is dangerous.
25:17
They have 6 pitchers that they can go to at any time.
25:20
Kaden Aoki, whether he's been out of the bullpen or starting
25:23
games, has been absolutely filthy.
25:24
And he has four years of experience pitching at USC.
25:27
So he's coming in with a lot of experience, a lot of veteran
25:29
leadership. They have tons of offense.
25:31
We mentioned Daniel Jackson being one of the front runners
25:33
to the Golden Spikes Award. He's been unbelievable this
25:36
year. Very, very excited to see what
25:38
he's been doing. Georgia is solid #3 for me is
25:41
Auburn. Auburn is filthy.
25:43
They have 4 starting pitchers that could beat anybody in the
25:46
country. And I think when you're looking
25:48
at over, you go, OK, how do you get to cold World Series?
25:52
Well, you got to win a regional and you might have to pitch four
25:54
games there. If you have 4 starters, you're
25:56
in a much better position. They can hit the road to Omaha
25:59
is going to go through planesman like Auburn's going to be at
26:02
home for all that because they're going to be a national
26:03
seed. I really like their chances of
26:05
getting there too. They have plenty of offense to
26:07
get there. They've been really, really
26:08
good. Georgia Tech, another one like
26:10
you can pencil them in to get to Omaha.
26:12
Also, this team has one loss at home in conference like and
26:16
they're going to get a host for the two weekends.
26:19
Georgia Tech can out hit anybody in the country.
26:20
They're the best offense in the country.
26:22
It's not even close. They have the most extra base
26:24
hits. They have the best team average.
26:26
They have Drew Burris who's going to be a first round draft
26:28
pick. This is a very, very good team.
26:31
So if you're looking at four teams really at the top there, I
26:34
would take those four teams and Texas is close.
26:36
But if you want to, you know, throw in Texas or you want to
26:38
say anything about A&M, those two teams have their holes, I
26:41
think where Texas sometimes just lacks offensively.
26:45
They have plenty of pitching, but they lack offensively
26:46
sometimes, whereas A&M lacks pitching wise where they can hit
26:50
all the time, but they lacks pitching.
26:52
So that's why I don't really put those two teams in the same as
26:54
those other four that I feel like a really good favorites to
26:57
kind of get there. Now, do I think all four get
26:59
there? I don't.
27:00
I think somebody's going to stumble, somebody's going to
27:01
beat them in a regional or super, but I think that those
27:04
are the four teams that have the best odds of getting to the
27:06
World Series. When I, we were, I'm sorry, when
27:12
I was preparing for the episode and I'm looking at the rankings,
27:15
I'm looking at your rankings. I'm looking at their rankings
27:19
and I'm looking at the Big 10 and I see Oregon and, and
27:24
Nebraska. And you tell you kind of touched
27:28
on it earlier with Nebraska and why, you know, but what makes,
27:33
and I think you had Oregon 8, I believe, and they have him 16
27:39
and I think 25 was, was, was Nebraska and I think they have
27:43
him 24. But what's the biggest
27:45
difference between those two teams?
27:47
Because you look at that standings and the, and the big
27:50
and the big 10 and Nebraska is like right there with them.
27:54
Like is it all like and who they played and and like what's the
27:58
biggest like discrepancy or what's the biggest difference
28:02
between those two teams? It's who they played and where
28:06
they played them. So Nebraska's had a lot of their
28:08
biggest games at home and and that's a lot easier to win at
28:10
home. I mean, if we're honest, like in
28:12
college at home, most teams are 80% on Friday night.
28:16
That makes a huge difference for you to be able to win those
28:18
games at home, and that's teams that are even worse ranked than
28:22
other teams that they're playing.
28:22
There are better chances to win at home than they are on the
28:24
road. And so when you play a lot more
28:26
games at home like Nebraska did this year, I think that helps
28:29
them out. Oregon played a lot of games at
28:30
home as well, but they played a lot of their tougher opponents
28:32
on the road. And I think that's something you
28:34
have to look at going down and taking one at UCLA, being
28:37
literally the only Power Four team to take one from UCLA
28:40
speaks volumes on how good this Oregon team is.
28:42
And I think as a collective poll, all my voters here for the
28:46
for just baseball media, we looked at and go, if they can go
28:48
beat UCLA and nobody else has, like, where do we have to put
28:51
these guys? I mean, obviously they have to
28:53
be near the top ten if that's how they're going to compete.
28:56
And if they go out and win this weekend, all of a sudden they're
28:58
in that conversation for hosting.
28:59
So that's the biggest difference between those two teams, I
29:01
think, and the consistency on the pitching side for Oregon
29:04
versus the lack of consistency for Nebraska.
29:07
Now, if Jackson goes out there and dominates, Nebraska has a
29:10
chance because he's so good. But there was a few weeks in a
29:13
row where he really struggled and the rest of this pitching
29:15
staff didn't really step up and Nebraska got beat, as we saw in
29:18
the Ohio State series. That's the biggest difference.
29:20
There's the inconsistency in pitching where I think Oregon
29:23
has been there, done that, kind of understands how to get to a
29:25
regional, understands how to host a regional, has been able
29:28
to win those big games like they did at Oregon or at UCLA last
29:30
weekend. I think that Oregon takes care
29:32
of business this weekend against USC and gets a host.
29:35
And I don't think Nebraska gets a host.
29:36
I think they end up going on the road as a two seed.
29:40
Let's talk about the Dick Hauser semifinalists that got revealed
29:44
today. A long list of guys that's on
29:48
the list. Talented players, of course.
29:49
I mean, we already mentioned a few of them, but we could talk
29:52
about ones that haven't been mentioned.
29:53
Like for example, like Drew Barris, I mean, Georgia Tech
29:56
outfielder, he was consensus to be at this year's draft, right?
29:59
We you mentioned about Mason Edwards, 100 diets from Arkansas
30:04
is a name that's been around Tiger Smith from Louisville.
30:07
Like when you looked at that list, like what what caught your
30:10
eye, what made sense, what didn't make sense?
30:13
And who do you think could could come out like as a finalist or
30:17
could be the favorite? I love Peg Davis and, and you
30:22
guys may not know this, but I actually vote for this award.
30:23
I, I am a NWBCA member so I get a vote for this award.
30:27
So I, I had a kind of an inside knowing who was going to be on
30:30
this list and I was glad that they released it today.
30:32
But for me, Peg Davis is not getting enough credit for how
30:36
great of a hitter he's been because Louisville hasn't been
30:39
that good of a team. Louisville started off as a top
30:40
15 team and then really struggled to pitch.
30:44
The offense hasn't been bad and teg Davis 32 home runs.
30:48
He has more home runs in two strike counts than some teams
30:52
do. He has seventeen home runs in
30:54
two strike counts, which is insane at the college level.
30:56
Like that doesn't usually happen.
30:58
This guy's been phenomenal. I think that he doesn't get
31:00
nearly enough love and I was glad to see him get on this
31:02
list. Von Lackey is a guy that
31:05
deserves more credit for Georgia Tech.
31:06
Yes, I love Drew Burris and Drew Burris is the heart pounding
31:09
that team for Georgia Tech, but Von Lackey is probably the most
31:12
important piece for them offensively and defensively,
31:15
being behind the dish there for Georgia Tech.
31:17
He's a huge number for them, I think doing a lot of things.
31:20
Aiden Robbins at Texas also has been a massive transfer in for
31:25
them. He's been enormous for this
31:27
Texas team to kind of keep that offense rolling.
31:28
And I really like where they're at.
31:30
I think those are the guys that I look at and go, I'd like to
31:33
see some of those guys be in the conversation for this award at
31:37
the end of the year. I think that those are the guys
31:38
that I'd look at and say, hey, you know, if we're looking at
31:41
position players, that's them pitching wise.
31:43
Hunter Dietz from from Arkansas has been a Friday night ace and
31:47
there's no way around that. Jason De Caro, also at UNC has
31:52
been a guy has been so electric for UNC and has them in the top
31:55
five right now because of how good he's been on Friday nights.
31:58
And I think that he needs to get a little bit more love for how
32:00
good he has been on Friday nights for them.
32:02
Mason Edwards, while I love him at USC, I don't think he
32:05
necessarily fits this award because I don't think that he is
32:08
kind of driven everything for USC now.
32:10
He's been really good on Friday nights, but I don't feel like
32:12
he's that hard that kind of pounds this team.
32:14
And for me, the Dick Hauser has to kind of be more of a leader
32:17
and everything else around that. And I love Mason Edwards.
32:19
I think he's a tremendous young athlete, great young man, but he
32:21
doesn't like outwardly lead this team like those other guys I
32:24
just mentioned. We were talking a little bit
32:31
about before the episode started about this question and it has
32:36
to do with this year's catchers in the first round hash second
32:41
round with Daniel Jackson von Lackey and Ryder Helfrich.
32:46
And you look at and I've looked at his numbers with Daniel
32:50
Jackson and they just jump off the page like their video game,
32:54
like the guys slugging eight O 8 like with 25 steals, even as
32:58
speed that he hits a high high average.
33:03
His OPS is like 1.3 something like he's just the numbers are
33:09
just crazy good, like and and he's in a good conference, you
33:15
know, in the SEC and George is a hell of a team.
33:17
He's as you've talked about a lot here.
33:19
But what is the the biggest factor when looking at Daniel
33:23
Jackson and those other two? And then, you know, tell us
33:27
about those other two and just how good they are.
33:31
Yeah, Daniel Jackson, tremendous story, right?
33:33
Like last year had his big struggles gets to Georgia makes
33:36
this big difference in this huge turn around, right?
33:38
Like he has been a massive season and part of the reason
33:41
why George is ranked in the top five.
33:42
I mean, let's not sure code that this guy's going to be up for
33:45
the golden spikes. He's going to be up for the Dick
33:46
Hauser. Like he's been a leader.
33:48
He's been everything that Georgia needs.
33:50
But if you're looking at a draft side, you look and you go, OK,
33:53
Von Lackey might be a top ten pick and somebody's going to be
33:56
real happy to get him. If he drops out of the top 10,
33:58
which I don't think he will, his draft stock just continues to
34:01
rise. Phenomenal athlete.
34:03
He literally played eight positions in one game already
34:05
this year. That's how good of an athlete he
34:07
is behind the dish. And he's a guy also with almost
34:10
a 1.2 OPS and this is a guy that's hitting 386 this year.
34:14
He's got thirteen home runs, He's got 272829 extra base hits.
34:20
Like he's every bit he's the package man, 61 RBIs.
34:24
He does all the things right for this team and he's stolen 12
34:27
bases as a catcher. Like how many guys can say that
34:29
out there? And his defense is is elite.
34:32
He's the top defensive player in the country, probably probably
34:36
probably behind the dish. Like he is so far and above
34:38
everybody else defensively. And I think that's why you have
34:40
to look at the differences between him and Daniel Jackson.
34:43
Is Daniel Jackson can hit now? Is this a one year thing?
34:45
We've seen Vaughn Lackey do this for year after year now and we
34:48
saw him do it at Team USA last summer.
34:51
So we know kind of that that's expected and what he can do
34:53
consistently. Well, while Jackson's a great
34:56
story, this is kind of a one off for him.
34:58
For his first time actually busting out and being this
34:59
electric. The swing's a little bit long.
35:02
Where Vaughn Lackey has this nice compact swing.
35:04
He's got power to all fields. I like Von Lackey to be the top
35:08
there. Ryder Helfrich is a good catcher
35:10
also, right? He's not bad defensively.
35:13
He's probably going to stay at catcher at the next level, but
35:15
he can hit. And I think that that's kind of
35:17
where that difference is, is the defensive side for where are you
35:20
going to put Daniel Jackson? I mean, I think eventually you
35:22
might have to move him to the outfield when you get to that
35:24
next level and corner outfielders just don't get
35:27
drafted as high. Like it's just a thing.
35:28
They just don't get drafted as high at the MLB because they
35:31
want to have more athleticism. Whereas Vaughn Lackey, if it
35:34
doesn't work out for him a catcher, they could put him in
35:36
center field and feel probably just as good.
35:41
Let's talk about the top pitchers in the country who
35:43
should be candidates for pitchers of the year.
35:45
I mean, you mentioned a whole bunch of names already, but I
35:47
mean, we could talk about a couple guys like Ruger Riojas
35:50
from Texas, Dylan Volantis's teammate as well, who's I
35:54
believe he's 2027 draft eligible and tones Valencians, I think
36:00
from Mississippi State. I don't know if I could be
36:03
mispronouncing. You may just be valencis.
36:07
Valencis that's right. Mention other names that should
36:11
be in that, in that fire or in that category because like
36:16
pitching is such paramount in college baseball.
36:20
Well known like teams are like even MLB teams are looking at
36:24
next year's draft and they're like, pitching is such a big
36:26
deal. But who would you say this year
36:27
would be the top pitchers of this year?
36:30
Yeah, I think I mentioned more and Jason De Caro, I think that
36:33
he's a guy that really has been really good for three years now
36:36
for UNC. Now, do I know if that
36:38
translates at the next level for MLB?
36:40
I don't. But I think that he's been
36:42
really, really good and I think that somebody's going to give
36:44
him a chance because of how good his stuff has been at that
36:48
level. I think that he's just one of
36:49
those guys that steps up for a top five team and he's been
36:52
really good. Another guy that I think doesn't
36:54
get nearly enough love is the Friday night ace for Boston
36:57
College and AJ Coloruso. Like, this guy goes out there
37:00
and has put Boston College on the map and given them an
37:02
opportunity to be a top 25 team, which I don't think anybody in
37:05
the country would have picked them.
37:06
I don't nobody had them in the preseason poll.
37:08
I can guarantee that. But then even the first few
37:10
weeks in, you're looking going, this team's getting better every
37:13
single week. How is this even possible?
37:14
And they just keep putting up numbers.
37:16
And AJ Calrusso was a big part of that for SEC Hunter Deets and
37:21
he's been so good for them. Also, Alvarez at at Auburn, if
37:27
you guys haven't watched him pitch, he's got 3 pitches that
37:29
he throws for strikes. He's got a wipeout slider.
37:32
He throws upper 90s in the zone with the fastball and he beats
37:35
hitters up. Like that's hard to do in the
37:37
SEC is to beat hitters above the belt and he does it consistently
37:40
and then he wipes them out with a huge slider.
37:42
So there's a lot of things to like when you're talking about
37:45
pitchers in today's game. I think Dax Whitney going down
37:48
was the big thing because he was obviously to me, the best
37:50
pitcher in the country. And I think a lot of people had
37:52
him as the best pitcher in the country, just saying his stuff
37:54
was the best 4 pitches for strikes.
37:57
And I think that you're going to start to see that even
37:59
consistently carry over into the next level.
38:00
Like I think that Dax is just going to be one of those guys
38:03
that is just going to be so good no matter what happens.
38:06
I think that they're going to be able to look at him and say,
38:08
hey, he's going to translate. This is going to be one of those
38:10
great things that's just going to continue to be great for him.
38:13
And I don't think that you're going to even see a dip off when
38:16
you get to that next level. So I think just what they've
38:19
been able to do has been incredible.
38:21
Logan Redman is also not getting enough lug for what he's done at
38:25
UCLA. So people need to give him a
38:27
little bit more love and how good he's been for UCLA coming
38:29
in there and moving his stock all the way to the top of the
38:32
first round now. There are some other players in
38:36
college baseball that, you know, deserve recognition and there's
38:41
probably a lot of them, you know, it's a lot of college
38:43
baseball. So just just tell us some guys
38:47
that you really like and who you think you know are really good
38:52
and should be talked about a bit more.
38:55
Yeah, I mean, one catcher that we didn't mention yet and I'd
38:57
like to talk to him as it is. Carson Tinney from University of
39:01
Texas, this guy transferred in there from Notre Dame.
39:04
So he had two seasons at Notre Dame.
39:05
He transfers to Texas for his third season and he has been
39:08
really, really good. He's a defensively going to be
39:11
up there. He might be one of those sneaky
39:13
guys that could sneak into the first round because of how
39:15
athletic he is and how good of a catcher he is, but his hitting
39:18
has come a really long way. Gavin Kelly over at West
39:22
Virginia has been the do all. He plays catcher.
39:24
Some days he plays left field, some days he plays second base
39:28
and he's turned West Virginia into one of these powerhouses
39:30
that can be in the talk of hosting.
39:33
He's a guy that does not get nearly enough credit for how
39:35
good he's been. Aidan King, pitcher over at
39:38
Florida. He is been.
39:40
He started off as a Saturday night guy behind Liam Peterson
39:42
because everybody knows Liam Peterson.
39:44
Aidan King has quickly turned into maybe the best pitcher in
39:47
the SEC outside 100 Deets. I think he's tremendous.
39:50
I have him slightly ahead of deets because I think his
39:52
stuff's just a little bit better.
39:54
I really like where he's at. And then you guys mentioned
39:56
Volantis. Like, I know that Dylan Volantis
39:59
is not going to be until next year's draft, but he's another.
40:01
One of those arms that just kind of scares you.
40:03
He's so good and from the left hand side, you just don't get a
40:06
lot of those guys in this game. So I think that he's been
40:08
really, really tremendous this year at the college level.
40:11
And I think that that's one of those things that's just going
40:12
to translate at the next level as well.
40:14
So watch out for those guys, I think.
40:17
So many great days to talk about that, that I can't wait till
40:20
they get to the 2027 draft. So many guys.
40:22
This draft. So many guys, man, like we're,
40:26
we're like savvy draft guys. I'd like this is where we're
40:30
getting to right now. It's like now let's see, like if
40:34
you look at the MLB draft, you look at 7 shortstops that could
40:39
potentially go in the first round, if not the first in the
40:41
early second round. Like we mentioned so many names
40:45
that's already mentioned like like Justin LeBron, we didn't
40:48
even talk about it. We're Chris Hakopian, right from
40:50
Texas A&M, Eric Becker, another name from Virginia.
40:54
And then I believe we talked off air about Connor Cuomo, who
40:58
could potentially be AJ, which is possible.
41:00
But like, how deep? Like is this shortstop class
41:04
itself for this upcoming draft? I think it's one of the deepest
41:08
we've seen in a very long time from the college level.
41:10
Like last year I have Arquette was the highest position player
41:14
taken and and you know, he looked at it overall, you go,
41:16
OK, well that was fine. And there was a few guys taken.
41:19
Waheva Loy comes to mind also. But I don't think he translates
41:21
into a shortstop at the next level where guys like Rock and
41:25
Justin LeBron, they're going to translate right now.
41:27
Tyler Bell, another guy that's going to translate to playing
41:29
shortstop at the next level. Like there's a lot of shortstops
41:32
in this class. Eric Becker.
41:33
I don't know if Becker ends up staying in shortstop.
41:35
I think he ends up moving to second base eventually.
41:38
I think that he's just one of those guys that where we have
41:40
him right now is is listed as shortstop.
41:42
But I think that he'll get moved over to second base eventually
41:44
because I think that's more going to be his natural position
41:47
at the next level. But this is the deepest
41:49
shortstop class we've seen in a long time.
41:51
We talked about it a lot in the offseason.
41:52
We go who's going to go #1 from these guys.
41:54
Like there's just so many guys that could be that top draft
41:57
pick because of how good they've been.
41:59
And there's so many guys that you could take and say I feel
42:02
pretty good about this guy. I feel pretty good to go about
42:04
this guy. I think Rock definitely goes
42:05
number one. But then even down to the high
42:07
school of like Grady Emerson coming out of Fort Worth, he's
42:10
probably going to be the second piss in the draft and he's
42:13
another shortstop. I mean, you're saying you're
42:15
going to take some of these high school shortstops up there and
42:17
they're going to go because of how good they've been.
42:19
And Chris Ocopian, I don't think he plays shortstop at the next
42:22
level. I think he ends up moving to
42:23
third base for second base, but again, a tremendous hitter that
42:27
you're getting at that slot value.
42:28
At some point you're going to say, hey, we feel really good
42:31
about having this guy here. So I think that there's just a
42:33
lot of shortstops that are going to make the move that are not
42:38
going to play shortstop at the next level.
42:40
Well, well, when you look at this draft class and like I
42:42
said, it seems like there's there's a plethora of shortstops
42:45
and we saw a recent trade with the San Francisco Giants and the
42:49
Cleveland Guardians that they got another pick and they get
42:52
more pool money. Could you see the San Francisco
42:55
Giants? Let's just say, because I think
42:57
we're going to see a couple more of that before the draft because
42:59
it's starting to become a thing. I think Baltimore did that last
43:02
year when they traded Brian Breaker should have raised and
43:04
they got they got multiple picks like they got Willie Ohoy, Ike
43:08
Irish and Katie Bodide all in that timeline.
43:10
But could you see San Francisco does this say because like they,
43:15
they got the 4th pick, they go get like a Jacob Lombard or, or,
43:18
or even a Grady Emerson if they fall into it?
43:20
Like, could you see a situation like that more now where
43:23
baseball's at? Yeah, I think it's going to
43:27
depend a lot on what they see at the top.
43:29
So like if I think to me, if a Jackson Flora falls all the way
43:33
to them at 4, they're going to take an arm because they they
43:35
could use another arm right now. But then I think with those
43:37
extra picks they just picked up, they're going to go get high
43:39
school talent, they're going to go get high school position
43:43
players. And at this time in the draft,
43:45
it's shortstops. So you're going to go get maybe
43:47
a Jacob Lombard. You're going to go get who else
43:51
am I thinking of Yeah, I mean maybe agreed.
43:54
Emerson drops. I don't think he drops out of
43:55
that far. If he drops to four, they
43:57
probably take him at 4:00 instead of taking an arm.
43:58
If if Jackson floor is gone, I mean they would definitely take
44:01
him at 4:00. So I think that you're just
44:03
looking overall to say are they going to go get like a Tyler
44:05
Bell if he drops a little bit from them for Kentucky, do they
44:09
take a Justin LeBron? Do they take an Eric Becker?
44:11
Do they take one of these guys that they think they can develop
44:13
into a shortstop? Do they reach out and they try
44:15
to go get Tyler Spangler from De La Salle?
44:17
Like there's so many draft eligible shortstops in this
44:20
class. I don't think they go wrong and
44:21
I think that's why if Flora drops to 4 for them, they're
44:24
going to take an arm first because they know that they can
44:26
go get a shortstop later in this first round.
44:33
So who are some sleepers in in this year's class pitching guys
44:40
even like that could be like a Tyler Bremer was last year that
44:43
kind of just, you know, when it when he was drafted, I believe
44:46
it was 4th to the Angels. Just who could who could fall
44:50
into that category this year? Some guys say you think have
44:53
improved their stock over the course of the college season.
44:57
I think a guy that has been shooting up draft boards, taking
45:00
coons out of Tennessee, like you've seen the great elite
45:04
stuff that he has and I think he's moved his way all the way
45:06
up into the first round. And that was not the case.
45:08
Like 6 weeks ago, we wouldn't have said that.
45:11
Now you look at him and go, that's a first round arm that
45:13
they've got and I think that he's gotten so much better.
45:16
They're going to start to see that.
45:17
I think you could say that with Liam Peterson, 100 deets.
45:19
Also one, if all three of those guys snuck into the first round,
45:22
it's not going to surprise me because of how well they pitched
45:25
in that conference. Like if you're going to pitch at
45:27
the elite level in SEC and be dominant, then you're going to
45:30
get a chance and especially like 100 deets for your left-handed
45:32
pitcher. There's just not a lot of the
45:33
those guys out there that are going to be able to be elite at
45:36
the next level. And I think that when you look
45:38
overall, hey, give them a chance like go out there and go get one
45:41
of these guys that has proven that they can do this at the
45:43
highest level, which is the SEC. Maybe they can do it at the MLB
45:46
level for you. Another another category we see
45:51
a strengthened position as center fielders all of a sudden
45:55
become a thing like we could talk about Trevor Conan.
45:57
That's I think was a Charlie's younger brother, Aiden Robbins
46:01
from Texas, Sawyer Straw Snyder from TC.
46:05
There's so many guys, Derek Coreo, LSU, I mean, who has the
46:09
most upside in that position because outfield is also become
46:14
a need and you can mention Drew Burris as well.
46:16
But like overall, when you look at these outfielders, center
46:19
fielders, it's becoming more of a dire need in today's baseball
46:22
like and and the head tool and all like, who would you say has
46:25
the most upside out of that? Beginning of the season, I
46:29
probably would have said give me Derrick Currie all to make that
46:33
big leap, right? I would have said, hey, he's got
46:35
the potential to be the best hit tool.
46:36
He's got the potential to be the best athletic guy.
46:39
He kind of took a little bit of a step back this year, so it
46:41
kind of made me have to go back through it and like look over
46:43
and be like, all right, is this really where I want to go with
46:46
this? Drew Burris is good, but I think
46:48
he's going to end up moving to a corner outfielder.
46:50
I think that you're going to start to see him move to a
46:51
corner outfielder. I don't think he even plays
46:53
center field at the next level. So I think that that's a big one
46:56
there Overall, when you're looking at AJ Gracia for
46:59
Virginia to me has enormous upside.
47:02
The bat plays, he's got huge contact ball.
47:05
He doesn't swing and miss his in wrote in zone hitting is elite.
47:10
It's it's 99th percentile. That's how good this guy is when
47:13
he hit pitches in the zone. He doesn't chase and he's really
47:16
athletic and he's gotten better each of his three years in
47:19
Virginia. So if you're talking about a guy
47:20
with a lot of upside, he's on that list.
47:22
Sawyer Strauss Snyder also being only a two year guy out of TCU,
47:26
he's going to have a lot of upside because he's young still
47:28
super athlete. He can hit with power to all
47:30
fields left-handed bat. He can play every position, but
47:33
he's going to play center field at the next level.
47:35
So I like Sawyer Strassnyder being probably the best there,
47:39
but at the same time, if you told me that AJ Grassi is going
47:41
to be good, I'm not going to bad night at that.
47:43
I think that he's going to be a tremendous outfielder at the
47:45
next level as well. Let's talk a bit about 2027
47:50
here. And, and you look at, do you
47:53
look at the draft class for 27? It looks deep.
47:57
It looks deep. But the one guy I want you to
47:59
talk about is Landon Harrison. We I know we talked briefly
48:02
about it, but when we talked off there, we thought, and you were
48:06
in our last episode, like last year when you were on, you said
48:10
Dax Whitney would be the clear cut number one pick.
48:13
Like I mean by far, but Landon, Landon Hairston has become a
48:17
player now. And who could you see as as the
48:22
top player in that draft class? Because we could mention so many
48:25
games, Dylan Volantis, 80 kick. I mean the list goes on and on.
48:28
Like in your mind like who would you say would be the top picks
48:31
for the 2027 class? To me, it goes Dax, then it goes
48:37
Harrison and then it goes Volantis, in that order.
48:39
I think that those three guys are probably going to be your
48:41
top three picks the next year's draft.
48:42
Like that's how good those guys have been.
48:45
One they've done at the highest level.
48:46
So you've seen them do it in the SEC, you've seen Dax do it at
48:49
the World Series, you've seen these guys do it all over the
48:52
place. You've seen Harrison do it at
48:54
Arizona State. Now, if he makes a huge step and
48:57
gets Arizona State to a super regional or something, maybe he
49:01
makes that jump and passes Dax. And I think it really depends on
49:04
who gets the first round pick next year.
49:05
Because if they have the 1st overall pick, maybe they don't
49:08
need an arm necessarily, or maybe they want to try to
49:10
undervalue that pick and try to get somebody else.
49:12
Maybe they go high school player.
49:13
But if you're talking about the three most talented players,
49:16
high school or college, it's those three guys right there.
49:18
I mean, it's Dax, Whitney, followed by Harrison and then
49:21
followed up by Volantis. I mean it's those 3 and it's not
49:24
even really close to me. Would you say next year's class
49:30
or this year's class has more upside in terms of the general
49:35
like picks like well, like is there more upside or this year
49:39
or next year? Next year's draft class feels
49:43
really top heavy. It feels like those guys at the
49:45
top are way farther above where we are talking about the top
49:49
guys at this draft. Like the top guys in this draft.
49:51
I can make arguments for everybody outside of Rock and
49:54
say they could go anywhere from 2 to 15 and I'd feel fine about
49:57
it. I could understand that if those
49:59
three guys are not taken in the top five picks next year,
50:01
somebody screwed up and somebody's going to get fired.
50:03
Like somebody's going to lose their job if they don't take
50:05
those guys in the top three, the top five picks next year.
50:07
So overall, I think that you're looking at a much higher end
50:11
next year versus this year. There's so many guys in this
50:13
first round that can help you, which is why I think it's smart
50:16
that San Francisco without made that trade go pile up some of
50:18
these guys that can give you an opportunity to be good right
50:21
now. I mean, we've seen guys make
50:23
that college jump in less than a year and be ready to play at the
50:25
MLB level. Go get some of these guys that
50:28
can give you an opportunity now go draft a high school player.
50:30
Go draft some of these college guys and get yourself ready for
50:33
the future really fast. I mean, you can get guys ready
50:35
right away. There's guys like Bryce Eldridge
50:37
that have already been called up for the and Gavin Keelan.
50:40
We might make the move up here soon.
50:41
Like there's you've seen these guys make that jump and they've
50:44
made an impact immediately. And I think that there's some
50:46
guys in this draft class that can do that all the way through
50:49
picks one through 37, all the way through the comp A.
50:53
If you notice that in college baseball now is pitching has
50:58
become a dire need and you look at guy like Paul scheme, for
51:02
example, or even Trey Savage like those guys made immediate
51:06
impacts. Well, Trey Savage did some
51:08
incredible stuff like we're Jay's fans right.
51:09
So we're, we're just something that we probably will never see
51:13
again from ECU. But like what's so what's so
51:16
important like with pitching? Because when you look at, for
51:18
example, Florida, they got Liam Peterson versus Aiden King.
51:21
Some people think Aiden King might be the ace of that staff
51:24
compared to Liam Peterson. Or you look at UCLA's pitching
51:28
staff for USCS pitching staff, like what's what's more
51:31
important about that? Because high school pitcher, I
51:34
mean, that's like the sexy pick, the name like Seth Hernandez was
51:39
the top pick last year and he's blowing covers.
51:41
But you don't even see those in today's baseball.
51:43
What's so important about college pitcher when it comes to
51:46
like, development talent and what what can accelerate them to
51:51
be in the majors more than just being a high school pitcher?
51:55
Well, there's a few things that go into this right?
51:57
The number one thing is that they get to develop at these
52:01
universities where there's actually probably more resources
52:03
at their fingertips than in the minor leagues.
52:06
Like, do you want your kid riding around in a bus in
52:08
Birmingham, AL for all the summer or do you want them to be
52:11
at like a place like an LSU where they can develop under
52:13
these tremendous coaches? They get one-on-one coaching
52:16
time. They get better facilities than
52:17
any minor league ballpark in the country.
52:20
And you're doing this at like the entire SEC.
52:22
You could say that about every SEC team.
52:23
You could say that about half the ACC teams.
52:25
Like there's so much better development at these places now.
52:28
And then they're doing it in front of these enormous crowds,
52:30
which they're not doing that in high school.
52:32
They're not doing that even in minor leagues.
52:34
Like you might go to a minor league game, there might be a
52:36
few 100 people there, right? You're not ever seeing that.
52:38
There's 14,000 people in Starkville watching a college
52:41
baseball game on a weekend. You're pitching in front of the
52:43
best people. You're playing the best
52:45
competition. I would argue that SEC ball as a
52:48
whole is probably more competitive than minor ball for
52:51
these pitchers. They're seeing tougher at bats,
52:53
at least in that level, and it's teaching them to throw strikes,
52:56
to teach them how to throw stuff in the zone that's going to
52:58
break that, teaching them stuff that's going to be unhittable at
53:01
the next level. And it translates like it does.
53:03
It just translates to the next level.
53:04
When you're talking about pitching in the SEC or pitching
53:07
in the ACC, you're facing MLB quality guys while you're still
53:10
getting one-on-one coaching, while you're getting the best
53:12
treatment, you're getting the best facilities, you're getting
53:14
great meal planning and everything else.
53:16
You can get bigger, faster, stronger, and you're doing it in
53:19
front of enormous crowds. You're not doing that in the
53:21
minor leagues. And I think that that's one
53:22
thing we see is there's a huge miss rate on right-handed
53:26
pitchers that are taken out of high school because they may not
53:28
be able to do it in front of the crowds.
53:30
They may not be able to do it at the next level.
53:31
We don't know. But we've seen it from these
53:33
guys that are doing it in the SEC and the ACC.
53:35
You're seeing it against the best competition.
53:37
And so I think it's starting to give a lot more of these GM's
53:39
that confidence that these guys are going to be good, they can
53:42
do it. And even if they don't end up
53:44
being that top end guy you like, yeah, you may not hit getting a
53:47
one through 3 harder, but you might get a really solid four or
53:50
five guy or a guy that can come out of the bullpen for you
53:52
because you know that you can do it.
53:53
And he's been there, done that. Yeah, environment batters, man
53:59
really does. Huge.
54:00
It's huge. And I mean just being able to
54:02
develop and you used to say 10 years ago, it'd be like, hey,
54:05
take the money, go to the MLB. Now I tell kids I'm like, I talk
54:08
to the parents. I'm like all the time, Hey, you
54:10
what? What do you want from your kid?
54:11
Do you want them to be traveling around on a bus or do you want
54:13
them to be experience something like an LSU pitching on Fridays
54:16
in the box, getting one-on-one development from some of the
54:19
best pitching coaches in the country and having that ability
54:22
to be a first round pick still like, and the NIL money makes it
54:26
so they're getting paid. It doesn't.
54:27
It's not like they have to go make the money immediately in
54:29
the minor leagues. Yeah, because I remember that
54:32
Garrett Cole was drafted with the Yankees.
54:34
I think in no way he was a first round pick, but he goes to UCLA,
54:39
becomes the number one pick. And I think teams see more of
54:41
that in today's baseball, right, because they're a lot closer to
54:45
the majors. They're more developed, they're
54:47
more established, right. And and like I said, like Freddy
54:50
Savage, I mean, what's the prime example?
54:52
Like I think we're going to see more of a trend like that.
54:54
Wouldn't you think that when they make immediate impacts, I
54:57
think Kate Anderson's like close as well, like for Seattle.
55:00
And I'm curious to see what Seattle does with that staff
55:02
because somebody's somebody's going to get traded and Kate
55:05
Anderson is going to be in the major.
55:07
That's probably, if not next year, this year, next year,
55:10
definitely. Like, is that more of a trend
55:13
now in today's baseball, wouldn't you think?
55:16
Yeah, that's the other thing too, right?
55:17
Like you don't get control of these players for very long, so
55:20
you want them to be ready to get to the majors fast.
55:23
So if you have a guy like a Kate Anderson that can get there in
55:25
less than a year, all of a sudden you're not wasting any
55:27
resources. You've had this guy already
55:29
developed. You didn't have to pay anything
55:30
for his development, and now you're getting an MLB quality
55:33
arm up in the majors in a year. Like you have to just fine tune
55:36
something things and get them ready.
55:38
What GM is not going to take that?
55:39
Like that's a huge step for you. You don't have to worry about
55:42
doing any resources or anything. You know, you get 1 offseason
55:45
with them. You get maybe some pitching
55:47
changes, a little bit teeny little like changes, minor
55:50
things. And then they're pitching for
55:51
you at the Major League level. Like every GM signing up for
55:54
that. And you're seeing it more and
55:55
more because these guys are pitching against the hardest
55:58
competition. So the guys that they see at the
55:59
MLB level are not scary to them. It's not like these high school
56:03
kids that come up there going, oh man, like I got to beat.
56:05
I got to go face to Mike Trout. Well, shoot, there's ten of
56:08
those guys that are in the SEC. Like you're seeing them every
56:11
single weekend. Yeah, absolutely.
56:16
Well, Mark, this was fun. Another year of this, man.
56:20
I mean, college world baseball tournaments coming up, man, man,
56:24
we're happy, happy on and we're excited to see this upcoming
56:28
tournament. But like, where can we find you
56:30
with social media and everywhere else?
56:33
Yeah, see Baseball 365 over on Twitter or X whatever you guys
56:37
want to call whatever people are calling these days.
56:39
And then the college baseball show.
56:42
Yeah, we do the college baseball show.
56:43
So now I'm the lead at the college baseball show for Just
56:45
Baseball Media. They brought us over this year
56:47
to do all the things college baseball and I've just been
56:49
having a blast over here for Just Baseball Media and the
56:52
college baseball shows taking off.
56:53
We're doing 3 shows a week and love doing it over there man.
56:56
So anytime you want to have me on, you guys know just hit me
56:59
up. I'll come on and talk baseball
57:00
anytime with you all. Awesome, man.
57:03
I'm envious of your hat wall too, by the way.
57:05
I'm a big hat guy. So I think it's I think it's
57:09
fantastic. Oh and the fact that you get to
57:11
watch like 120 college games every season on like 80 inch
57:15
TV's, man, you got it all. My wife is.
57:19
That was her idea too. And I was like, I'm not, yeah,
57:22
I'm in. She's like, you know what we
57:23
need? We need more TV's in this living
57:25
room. I'm like, Yep, nailed it.
57:26
Done. I'll buy it.
57:27
We're done. We're going to throw them up
57:29
everywhere. So totally her idea.
57:31
She'll even, she even tells people she's like, yeah, I just
57:33
wanted more TV's in the living room.
57:34
Like, yeah, it's great for me. So bad.
57:38
We need, we need more, we need more women like that to have
57:41
more TV's and more games to be played rather than be more
57:44
conservative about it, right, Because we love the sport so
57:47
much and we appreciate this point.
57:49
Even college baseball is so, so much fun to watch because it's
57:51
excited. And with the tournament, it just
57:53
intensifies where baseball's at, especially now that Dolby scouts
57:57
coming in like, and I'm pretty sure there's scouts here on, but
58:00
it gets like more looked at, right?
58:03
You would think at this time of year, which college baseball,
58:06
the tournament starting, the College World Series and all,
58:08
and people are prepping for the draft, wouldn't you think?
58:11
Yeah. And The thing is it's really fun
58:13
because now you start to get a lot of the MLB fans are like,
58:15
OK, we've watched our team now for a couple months.
58:17
We need something. We need new life.
58:19
Tell me who's going to be in my draft class?
58:20
They start watching the college game now because this is the
58:22
time like, hey, I got to see some of the elite level guys.
58:24
I can see them all in one spot. Well, now the games are more and
58:27
more getting televised. And I think it's just growing
58:29
this game so much. I mean, you see every single SEC
58:32
stadium this year added at least 2000 seats.
58:35
That's insane. You're seeing that on a single.
58:38
I mean, the game is growing so fast.
58:39
Every stadium that's in the top 25.
58:41
Drew University of Hawaii sold out something like 27 games this
58:45
year at 5000 seats. The game is growing, people want
58:48
to do it. It's affordable.
58:50
You can take a family of four out to a ballpark.
58:52
It's just great. And I think that it's a good
58:53
thing for a lot of these people are going to go watch some of
58:56
the high talent. You're starting to see more and
58:57
more of those guys make an impact on the MLB right away.
59:00
Go watch the college game. You're going to see some of
59:02
these guys. You're going to see the next
59:03
year at the MLB. Yeah, it's awesome man, and we
59:07
appreciate you once again being in this episode where we have we
59:10
we would definitely want to have you back when talk in the
59:12
future. But we will place the
59:14
description below where you can find Mark Garland and his
59:16
college baseball show. I would recommend you to watch
59:18
it, man. It's a fascinating show and we
59:20
always will retweeted stuff no matter what bad like we we like
59:22
to we like to share all all the credentials and the shows where
59:27
guys like Mark Garland does a phenomenal job of doing what
59:30
he's doing. But till next time, take care,
59:33
be kind to each other. Signing up for this Sports Ave.
59:35
Twisted podcast Thursday May 14th, 2026.