Breaking down the Draft class: College hitters (Guest: Justin Lebron)

(upbeat music) - Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of the MLB Pipeline podcast. I'm Jason Ratliffe with Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo and later we'll be joined by Justin LaBron of Alabama, top draft prospect in this year's class. We're gonna, I'm gonna start off right off the bat by saying there's too much for us to cover. We had, maybe it was at a record breaking episode last week in terms of the length and quality, of course. - Of course, we always, we break every record every week. I didn't see what the total number was. I think it was 90 minutes. - It was long. - That's gotta be a record. - And we have a lot to cover today. - Let's break it today. - We may break it today. Of course, we're within two weeks of draft and futures game. It's getting scary. We're almost there. We decided there was not enough going on. We decided to cram in market corrections and update to the top one at a prospect's list. So Jim and Jonathan led by Sam Dijkstra, who does the, the Yomans work on market corrections, have updated the top 100 lists. So we'll break that down. We will continue our series where we break down each demographic in the draft class. We've done college pitchers and high school hitters this week. We do college hitters and talk to Justin LeBron. Golden Spikes Award was announced. The winner was announced yesterday. The three finalists were on hand in C. Caucus at the MLB Network Studios for the show. They stopped by the MLB offices yesterday. Got a chance to talk to them. We'll talk about that. And we'll answer a question from the mailbag, which comes from one Michael Bradley, and we'll have to get to the bottom of whether that's former US men's national team. (laughing) Remember Michael Bradley, as we were in the midst of the World Cup, maybe he's taken out some time from watching to send in a mailbag question to the pipeline podcast. - I have our research team just handed me a note. With this shock, you, that last week's podcast was not even our longest podcast of 2026. - It would shock me. - Well, you could see yourself shocked then, because last week was 83 minutes, but our very first podcast of the year, what we made all kinds of predictions, which I've already forgotten what they were, was 84 minutes. - I think one of them was that you would have - We'd forget everything. - Be me too, but you beat me to the punchline. - As always, that prediction was correct. (laughing) - Okay. - Market corrections. So what these are, are in season adjustments to the top one of the prospects list. It's not a full re-rank of all the lists. It's not even a full, I guess it's a full, would you say it's a full re-rank of the top 100? - No, no, we revote on the top 15, although this year we did, this time we did 16, as Cold Emerson's gonna graduate, I think tomorrow, but then we only, we didn't wanna be, as Jonathan little chuckle, 'cause he knows me. If we could move guys one or two spots, I'd move everybody on the list, one or two spots. So you could only move guys outside the top 15, if you're moving them up or down 10 spots. - You would do that like every other day, if you could. - Correct, I would look at him, be like, "You know what, I like this guy better." But yeah, so anyway. - It's just not, yeah, good. - I was gonna say just about everybody does end up moving, at least a little bit, but you're not individually moving guys up and down a spot, but because other players move up and down 10 or more spots, in a different industry or four. - Yeah, exactly. - As a matter of fact, only two players didn't, no, no, no, sorry, four players didn't move at all. So we'll talk about a couple of them right off the bat, because numbers one and two did not change. Jesus Made and Leo DeVries, couple of young shortstop prospects for the brewers and the A's, they stay at one and two, was there much or even any discussion, I assume there had to be some discussion about the number one spot, but was that relatively speaking, a slam dunk that Made stays one? - Yeah, I think so. They're both sort of, I'll say holding serve is not fair, because they're teenagers in AA, but they're having very similar seasons. They've been not setting the world on fire, but they're performing well given their age and the level and they're kind of in the same spot. So there wasn't actually much discussion. We voted on the top 16, as Jim said, and we all had Made and DeVries one and two in that order. I mean, they both have OPS almost right at 800 is 19 years old, at 19 years old in AA, they're both drawing a fair amount of walks, they're not striking out excessively. I think it's gonna get interesting going forward, Jonathan. Eli Willitz is a year younger than them, and he's a level behind. He was in single A's start through, now he's in high A, and he's been tearing up high A for about a month. If Eli Willitz continues to perform, he could make this a three man race for the number one spot. - That would agree. - He's doing what they're doing just easy year behind. - Yeah, it's interesting because Counter-Gryphon was number one, and he had a massive season last year. And you look at, you know, you talked about Made and DeVries having OPSs of 7.96 and 7.97 respectively. But neither of those guys putting up, you know, eye-popping numbers, it kind of just kind of feels like the guy who's at number one is often in the midst of putting up really big numbers, and that's just not the case with either of these guys, and Willitz, the 9.46 OPS, 12 homeruns, 35 stolen bases. I mean, that is quite a stark for the, what, 18 year old? - 18 years, yeah, he's still 18. - Well, last fight, he should have been in the interview's draft. And the thing that's, I think most impressive to me, and again, I mean, AA is more advanced than, than HIA, and single A, but if you told me, okay, we're ranked these guys, these three guys, in the order of how many homeruns are gonna hit in 2026, I would have gone to Vries 1, Made 2, and Willitz 3, and I think Willitz would have been kind of a distant third, and he's got more homeruns than both of them. He's at 75% as many homeruns as they have together. Now, Grant, and they are playing higher level, but Eli Willitz, I think the biggest question about him, he wasn't a one overall pick in the draft, it was a little bit of a surprise, but then there were teams who thought he was best playing the draft. Really the biggest question about his game was, exactly how much impact, how much power will he have, and I think I feel pretty comfortable now thinking, okay, I feel like Eli Willitz is gonna give me 20 homeruns, and when you add in the hitting ability, and the defense, and the speed, and the instincts, man, he's an even better player than we realized, I think. I did not have him hitting 20 homeruns in his first place. - I think that those who believed in him most probably would have said, "Well, he's gonna get to some power." It's in there, there's bat speed, there's some strength there too, but the fact that it's showing up right out of the gate is one of the bigger prospect surprises of the year, I think. - Yeah, this early. - And he's homered six times in 15 games since being bumped up to high A. - Very good. - I mean, 12 homers, and what I say, 30-5 steals. - Hey, anyone else? - It's not just 35 steals. - He has 32 extra bass hits also. I mean, he's hit a ton of doubles. I mean, he's, sometimes I wonder, we see guys a bunch of homers not a lot of doubles, maybe it's like a fluke on Runpark. That's not the case with Eli Williams. - He could end up with a really similar season to what KG had last year when he had what he ended up with. - 20-60? - Yeah, 21 homers and 65 stolen basses. I mean, and that vaulted him right up into the number one spot. I mean, this feels very similar to that. - It'll be interesting, because I guess our next update is when we do the full overhaul. And I do think if Eli Williams continues to tear up high A, again, it's not a huge sample size, but he's gotten opts over 1,000. If he continues to do that for the next five or six weeks, he might make a push to be number one the next time we do a top 100 prospect sales. - Well, he moved up one spot, a host way to Paula moved up four spots into the number four spot. - He's followed by Kate Anderson. The Mariners left to you has been the best pitcher in the minors so far. - Yep. - I mean, Seth Hernandez could argue with him a little bit, but it's those two guys for sure. - Okay, so that almost dovetails perfectly into Seth Hernandez. But first, Colt Emerson, another Mariner, is it number six, he's about to graduate. But he's a, he's a number six, he dropped one spot. Now here is Seth Anderson, Seth Hernandez. Seth Hernandez. - Well, we're, he'll be a lefty anority. - Yeah, man. - You have a 199 straight out of the already. That would be quite a prosper. - He'd, he'd almost be a three-way player. - Yeah, yes. - He's a position, so he would be. - Maybe that's what it would take for him to hold his spot in the top 10, you guys dropped him four spots. What is going on? - How did this happen? - He has been absolutely unreal in his first pro season. And he dropped four spots. - Richel. - So it was really more about the players moving ahead of him than him dropping. You know, I know Sam in his story, you mentioned the walk rate since he's been in Greensboro is inflated slightly, you're splitting hairs. I do like that once Emerson graduates having Anderson and Hernandez back to back makes a lot of sense to me. - Yeah, again, Katie Anderson, I mean, and I was, what I said before, Kate Anderson is having the best season of anybody 'cause he's doing it in AA. And he basically has fewer walks and games and he's got almost a 10 to one strike out the walk ratio. - Move him up. - So anyway, we did. - Levels, not on the rankings. - Well, yeah, yeah, I thought you meant move him up the top. - Yeah, that's, maybe, maybe that's-- - No, I agree. I mean, it's been anyway. It's just, I think you have seven very, very good players and somebody had to rank seven. - Okay, number eight, Frank Onerius, he bumped up a couple spots and then you get a couple that the two biggest risers in the top 10, yet another Mariner in Ryan Sloan. He moves up 10 spots to number nine and then Theo Gillen of the race moves up 29 spots to number 10. Jonathan Gillen, the biggest riser in this edition of Market Corrections. - Yeah, and for good reason. I think he's one of these guys that always like the tools always, it's not like he's been a pro for that long, but coming out of the draft. And then the question is, you know, sort of like with Eli Welts in terms of, well, as he can add strength is the power going to show up. Maybe that'll come in a couple of years and that could catapult him and he decided to accelerate the timetable. He's 12 homers and, you know, slugged a bunch of, what, 589 in high A, before getting promoted to AA, he's getting his sort of legs under a minute in AA right now. You know, he chases a little bit too much, but, you know, I think the addition of the power showing up catapulted him because you knew he could hit. Yeah, already had plus speed and he plays good defense in center field, which he is still learning how to play because he was a shortstop in high school. The combination of tools and the fact that he's using all of them now more consistently ahead of schedule is the reason why we wanted to catapult him into the top 10. He had a really good last year, last year too. He just had a couple of injuries that, that gave him a late start and ended his season prematurely. And going back to 2024, I mean, there were people who thought he might be the best high school hitter in the entire draft. And, you know, as Johnson said, now that he's adding the power component, you love him even more. His numbers are almost identical to Eli Willetts, 12 omers, 28 steals, 994 OPS, 20 years old at AA. Yeah. So before we talk about another big jumper, mentioned that Ryan Sloan moved into the top 10, jumping up 10 spots, number nine, that's three mariners in the top 10. Now this isn't, this isn't Apple's apples because this is an in-season adjustment to the rankings, which we don't have archived every list from every point. But there's only been one instance of a team having three top 10 prospects on a pre-season or mid-season top 100 prospects list. I don't remember whether I've talked about this with you guys, but do you know who that was, which team and when? Sounds like no. I do not. As a dress. Nope, 12 years ago, 2014 mid-season list. Yeah, there you go. Ryan. Number four. Addison Russell. Number seven. And between them at number six was one hobby bias. Oh, wow. Yep. So not often that we see a team with so much top end talent, that's pretty impressive. Just outside of the top 10, Sebastian Walcott, who's been on the shelf all year, dropped a couple spots down to 11 and then German other guy who made a really big jump, second largest in this update, Mike Sorota. And he's the second highest ranked Dodgers prospect of nine on this top 100 list. Yeah, and it's kind of like Theo Gillan. I think if Mike Sorota was fully healthy last year, he probably would have ranked higher coming into the year. I mean, we talked about him a lot last year. He put up a 1068 ops with 13 homers and 59 games last year between two class A levels. And then he heard his knee, a right knee on a slide and ended his season July. He didn't need surgery, but he didn't play again. He was pretty much leading the miners in a lot of categories. Well, Mike Sorota's game has really slipped this year, guys, because his ops is now from 1060 to 1057. Yeah, he's addressing to mean and in double A, it's all the way down to 1032. So I don't know what's going to become of this guy. He might get under a thousand by time and get some big leagues. But interesting, just interesting backstory. I mean, he was Jonathan Snuck of the draft in 2024. He went into the year. And I think our question was, OK, could he go higher than Carlos Paine, who went number 10 over on the draft and be the highest prospect in Northeastern history? And he got off to a terrible start, rally late, the one of dropping all the way to the third round, didn't make his pro debut before the red took him to the third round, sent him to the Dodgers and the Gavin Lutz trade. And as we've said many times on this show, don't trade your prospects to the Dodgers. It usually does not end well. And now Mike Sorota is the number 12 prospect in all baseball. He's got all kinds of tools. It's 55s or 60s across the board. The question, and we've talked about this before too, is like, what are the Dodgers going to do with all these outfielders? Because you mentioned Hostway to Paula at four. You've got Mike Sorota at number 12. You mentioned the Dodgers have nine top 100 prospects. Five of them are outfielders. You also have Zaire Hope, Eduardo Cintero, and Charles Davalon. The last time I checked, you can't play five outfielders in the big leagues. I guess you could, but you'd probably give a ball out of ground ball singles. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what they do. They got to probably trade some of these guys. But man, I mean Mike Sorota is looking like the guy. Everybody thought he was in 2023 before he slumped at the beginning of 2024. And he looks like another steal for the Dodgers. We don't have to-- I won't break them all down, but of those nine top 100 prospects for the Dodgers, five of them were acquired in trades, which is insane to me. All right, so rounding out the top 15 after Sorota comes Rainy El Rodriguez of the Cardinals, the top ranked catching prospect in the game. And then a couple of guys whose names we've been saying in the same breath for what, four years now, Max Clark and Walker Jenkins, Tigers and Twins, outfield prospects, both 21 years old, both at AAA. From the same draft, where they go in that draft third-- third, fifth. Yeah, so they're still right there stuck together. All right, and then want to touch quickly on-- there were five players. We talked about Gillian and Sorota making the biggest jumps, 29 and 26 spots. Three other players made jumps of 20 spots, Luis Lara, Brewers Outfield prospect, Felden Celestin, another Mariners prospect, and Carson Milbrand, Marlon's right-hander. Now, let's talk about some of the new faces on the list. There were six players added to the list. Five of them are tacked on right at the bottom, 96 through 100. But one of them is at number 92. Christians, as way to another Dodgers prospect, one of the nine right-hander, Francisco Renteria, Phillies Outfield prospect. You guys want to break these guys down for us, number 92 and 96? Yeah, with Christians, as way to-- I will repeat myself-- don't trade prospects to the Dodgers, because the Yankees signed him out of Mexico and then traded him, along with Matt Gage for Caleb Ferguson. But they'd probably want to have that trade back. And as a way to-- he's 21 years old. [BLANK_AUDIO] 21 all year, he just got promoted to double A. His first start, five innings, one hit, no runs, eight strikeouts, no walks. We did not put him on the list just 'cause that's start. I mean, this guy has tremendous stuff in shapes, like his fastballs, 92, 97, with a flat approach angle and carry and arm side run. He's got an advanced change up, 8385 with a lot of fading sink. He's got the field to manipulate a slider. He can go with a tight slider. He can go to a sweepier slider. He can go with a slider with more depth, that kind of resembles a curveball. He can throw all three of those for strikes and get chases. He's, you know, six three. He gets down the mound well, so it's got tremendous extension. It's advanced command. This guy has a chance to be really, really good. And I would bet a year from now, we're probably be talking to him about him ranking in the top half of the top 100. He's extremely talented and just keeps getting better and better. Although, Jason, I want to say, I was touting him to you for spring breakout. And did he have trouble throwing strikes in the walkathon? You attended between the Dodgers and White Sucks? - Oh, man. I cannot keep track of all the pitchers that were walking multiple batters in that game. Is that right? - I pretty sure he started the game and couldn't throw strikes. Yeah. - Okay, I was gonna say he might have been like the one exception that didn't. - I think it was Zach Rueit was the one exception. - Okay. That's right. I've tried to put that game out of my mind. All right, Jonathan, the son of Edgar Renteria? - No. - I'm kidding. - Yeah, Francisco Renteria. Oh, there have been so many times when we write reports and it's a similar last name that I just want to do that. Those looking at a high school prospect in the Strafkuss name Noah Danza. And I really want to make him Tony's grandson. He is not related in any way, shape or form, but I digress. Renteria was one of the very best prospects in the 2026 international signing class. And I got $4 million from the Phillies to sign. And it's not often that we add an international signing this quickly before they come and play in the United States. The Dominican summer league, the statistics, you know, you take them with the grain of salt. But I think it was a guy that we looked at out of the gate just because he was so highly touted and the Phillies could not stop raving about him. We're talking about five, at least average, if not better tools across the board. He's gonna play center field for a long time. One evaluator compared him to Connor Griffin just because of the loud tools. And he is big, strong, he's athletic. He's gone off to a very good start, not surprisingly in the DSL, an OPS over a thousand. He's not striking out a ton. He's stealing some bases, extra base pop is all coming. They were so enamored with not only his tools, but his advanced feel that I think they did seriously talk about bringing him to the States, skipping the DSL. I know that they were trying to figure out a way to possibly bring him over for spring breakout and just logistically they couldn't make that work. I don't know if they'll be able to figure out bringing him to the complex league before the summer is over. I think he could more than handle it. It wouldn't shock me at all if he skips the complex league and goes straight to Clearwater. I think he's the kind of guy who come to his first United States spring training and just hit the ground running and move quickly from there. And this is, he's 17 for all of this year. So he's even at the young end of what's always a young international signing class. Jim Zasway, it says spring breakout, line ending in two thirds, three hits, three walks, six runs, but none earned. None of that was his fault. Two strikeouts. And I guess three walks in and ending in two thirds was probably above average in that game. Yeah, that was a game that saw, let's see, Dodgers, Pitchers walked 10. That's nothing. White sucks, Pitchers walked 17. I sat through that. Who else is tacked onto the bottom of the list here? I can tell you, you have Josh Adam Cheskey from the Brewer's Outfielder, James Tubs. You know what, I miscounted. I think Dodgers have six outfielder's. James Tubs has played a little bit more for a space but James Tubs is a Dodgers first basement outfielder. Then you have Kate and Bodine, Katja from the race who was in the Sheenboss trade and Braille and Doty, right hander from the Guardians. Josh Adam Cheskey to note, another one of those Brewer's double digit draft picks we always talk about that they hit on. But that is rounding out 97, 99, 100 with those four. And Tubs and other Dodgers trade acquisition. Don't trade prospects to the Dodgers. We're gonna put them on the top 100 if she did. (laughs) All right, let's take a break, come back and we're gonna break down the college hitters in this year's draft class and then we'll talk to one of them, Justin LeBron, that's coming up next on the MOB pipeline topic. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Welcome back to the MOB pipeline podcast, Jason Ratlett, Jim Callis, John Mayo. Gonna talk college bats in this year's draft class. We've broken down the college pitchers and high school hitters on the previous two episodes. It's time to talk college hitters. And then next week, we'll talk about the high school pitchers and we will talk to one of them, Bob Umilla. All right guys, the way we do this, we'll break down the top five, talk about whether any of them have a chance to go one, one. How many first rounders you predict out of this group? The biggest wild card of the group, which of these guys have the most helium? Guys outside the first round that you like and you'll give an overall grade to this group. Top five in the class, we start with number one overall in Rock Chalowski. He's been number one from the start. Will he go wire to wire as the number one draft prospect? There's only one re-rank to go coming up soon. So we shall see Von Lackey. George, you're breaking our procedure here, Jason. Oh, yeah, we're supposed to show that we can be pithy and describe each of these guys in one sentence. Jason was just gonna give a sentence on all five. That's right. Five sentences on rock alone. (laughing) Right, that was gonna rattle off the five, but okay, let's see, yeah. All right, who's got rock? That continues to be me. Rock, rock. You know, really good player, huge spotlight as the top guy didn't run away and hide. Still really good with a very high floor. That's a lot of semi-colons. That is a record for single sentence semi-colons in this segment. All right, Von Lackey. Best prospect in a deep Georgia Tech lineup. Most athletic catcher, the yellow jackets have ever had. And that deep pool of prospects also includes Drew Burst, outfielder from Georgia Tech, Colin, solid tools across the board, safe bet with a high ceiling as well. All right, next up on the list is today's podcast guest, just in the Browne of Alabama. Arguably has the highest ceiling in the draft, but also may be the biggest enigma. Oh, foreshadow. Next, Chris Hacopian of Texas A&M. Based on metrics, consensus among teams is that he's the best hitter in the draft. I should say, I'm gonna rephrase that. Based on metrics, several teams think he's the best hitter in the draft. All five of those guys in the top 10 overall. Now, this question is clearly a yes, but I'll allow you to elaborate. Could any of them go one-one overall? Yes, obviously, Rock Chalowski very much could go number one overall. And as I'm working on the mock for this week, I would say if I were to put percentages on the three players still in the mix, I'd put Rock Chalowski at 50% Grady Emerson, the high school shorts, I have a 45% and Von Lackie at 5%. He's on the outside looking in. I think they're doing due diligence and keeping him in the conversation in case something blows up. But Rock is really the main, the player from this bucket who has still a very strong chance of going number one overall. I would go 48% Rock, 47% Grady Emerson, 5% Lackie. But so I'm pretty much on the same page. I think that qualifies as the same page. I want 48% I didn't go 50. Oh, that's a different page all to go. No, we're on the same page. No, I guess, yeah. I guess it could be on the same page. All right. How many first rounders are we going to have out of this group? Well, I set the over under high on this one at 11 and a half. We have five guys in the top 10 that you ticked off. Derek Curriol, writer, health, Rick, Sori Strassnider, AJ Garcia, Tyler Bell, Ace Reese, Akadens Serella, Aiden Robbins, Zion Rose, Daniel Jackson, all these guys could be in the mix. So with all those names, I decided to set it high at 11 and a half. And I'm going to go slightly under. I looked at this. All those guys are in the mix to be first round picks. The last time I did a solo first round projection, I had 10 college hitters. When we did our combo effort last week on this very podcast, we had 11. I think you're going to see 10 or so guys go on the top 18 or 20 picks. But then I think you're going to see a run of high school hitters in college arms go in the last five to seven picks. So I don't think we're going to go over 11 and a half. I'm going to take the under. But I think you set that extremely well, Jonathan. If I had to pick an exact number, I would pick 11. All right. So last week's over under on high school hitters was seven and a half. Right? Yes. I'll take your word for it. In the previous week when we did college pitchers was five and a half. So we're up to 13. And now 11 and a half, 24 and a half. That doesn't leave much room for high school pitches. Well, but you always have to use that extra half. So it's really like you're projecting around 23. The high school pitcher over on your will be low. Yes. Should we sneak preview it right now, Jonathan? We sure. Well, I think we just did kind of. And you're taking the, you're taking the under, huh, Jim? Well, slight on it. I think we've done, I will give us, Jonathan, I'm going to give us 70s. I think we've set these over under. It's extremely well. And so they make you think, but I'm going to take 11 as the number rather. Yes, that would be obviously under 11 and a half. Jim, you used the word biggest enigma to describe Justin LeBron. So I think he's going to come up somewhere in this little subcategory. I guess wild card of this group. But Jim, he's not, he's not your pick. He's Jonathan. Well, I bet because Jonathan did such a great job setting the over on. I'm graciously going to allow very kind to talk about Justin LeBron instead of just, just agreeing with him, because I do think he probably is the biggest wild card. I'm going to throw out another wild card. And that would be Swirr Strohsnider, Outfielder from you, TCU. We saw him at the combine. One of the best athletes in the college class, it's at least plus Rob Power. It's plus B strong arm. Could play center field, although he with Chase Burns on the team, he didn't play a lot. He played more right field for TCU. The problem or the question with Swirr Strohsnider is he slumped pretty badly last five or six weeks in the season. He has not done a lot of damage against lefties. So there's some question, could he want to be an equal team player? Does he chase too many pitches? How is he going to hit? So I think there are some questions. And he's gone from, I think, being a guy who was probably going to go in the top ten or right around the top ten to now teams in the 20s are wondering, is there a chance we could look up and Swirr Strohsnider could be on the board? I think he's a huge wildcard as well as the gentleman and future podcast, interviewee, that Jonathan's about to talk about. Very near future. Yeah, we've talked about Justin LeBron quite a bit on this podcast. And from a pure tools standpoint, I mean, this was a guy that we were talking about potentially being in the conversation to be the number one overall pick because of those tools. We're talking four sixes. The one that is not is the one that holds him back to most of that is his hit tool. And he still hits 16 homers and stole 42 bases this year. But he hit 277 overall. It was with the 920 OPS. I think the thing that really made teams pause is that he hit 229 in SEC play. So once he got into conference play, he really, really struggled. He chases too much. If he can address that, then whoever ends up getting him wherever he lands, then I think he's been really hard to place in the first round, could end up with an all-star player. But we've also seen tools the college guys with hit tool issues flounder once they get to pro ball. He doesn't swing and miss as much as some of those other guys who come to mind. But I think there are concerns when you have a college player. And I don't know the answer to this, but I don't know the last time a college player who hit 277, I know it's just batting average, but that low of a batting average in college baseball has not typically translated to a top of the first round kind of pit. Most helium in this group, Jonathan, we talked about Eli Willett's having a lot of helium earlier in the episode. Is there anyone else in that family who has any helium right now? Yeah, Reggie. He's coming back. Well, he does get helium. He just won a national title as associate head coach and running the Sooners lineup. So, things are going good for the Willett's. No, I want to talk about Jackson Willett's the older brother who not only won a championship with Oklahoma, but was the most outstanding player of the college world series. He had 500 in the World Series. And he's a good college performer. He's a solid player who probably helped himself with his postseason performance move. What? Third round? Maybe, I could see someone popping him in the second round just because you've got the bloodlines, you've got the performance. He's a steady player. You know, he probably plays second base. It's a super high floor, high work ethic, IQ, all of those things. And those guys end up doing pretty well. So he's a guy who we currently have at 146 on the top 200. And as we're working on rejigging that lineup a bit, he's going to move up. And, Jonathan, you said third round, maybe second. I do think these guys who are college short stops in top conferences and the SEC is the best conference, we make this comment all the time that when teams like lock their boards into place, like you dream about the high school guys, but when it comes time to set the boards, the college guys start looking more attractive because you're more track record and you've a better feel. And there's less projection. And I think you're going to see a lot of college short stops, whether it's Eli Willett's Georgia, Shaftner, UNC, who is also in the college series, Lost in the Finals, Cam Kosul at Arkansas, Carson Kirst, Georgia Tech, all these guys are going to move up. And I want to spotlight Kirst because I don't know if you've heard this, Jonathan, as you've dug around on the mock. But when I did my last solo mock couple of weeks ago, I was staring at rumblings that Carson Kirst could go in the top 40 or 50 picks. Have you heard that at all? I did. I actually heard that a few weeks ago. I haven't gotten down that far this week. Yeah, but it's only way like, like, so he may go, like we have him ranked at 131. And I think it's, it's, it's, it's good back to ball skills, doubles power. He was among the division one leaders in doubles this year. He's got average speed, played more third basis first couple seasons. He's got the arm for the left side of the infield. He's making plays a shortstop. You know, well, again, we'll see. There aren't a lot of college shortstop, you play big league shortstop, but you know, all the stuff you mentioned about Will it's, you know, instincts and high baseball IQ and, and, and, you know, intangibles and work ethic and makeup. People love that about Carson Kirst too. So he wasn't by any means the biggest bopper in that Georgia Tech lineup, but he really grew on people. I top 40 still feel it feels rich to me, Jonathan. But I feel pretty confident that that guy is going to go in the second round based on the buzz we're hearing side by side. Yeah. And I was saying to your point about, you know, college guys like I think you're looking at that board and you're thinking about the guy you dream about and then you see a guy like camera, Will it's anything like that's going to be a big league or like I think there's confidence that guys like that are going to play in the big leagues and often as you get into that, you know, whenever that is, whether it's early second round or a bit higher, that often makes the difference. All right, guys outside of the first round that you like Jim. And I'm going not by our rankings on the top 200. I'm going by guys who aren't getting any mention in the first round because Daniel Jackson may not go in the first round, but he's getting buzz there. And you know, I love to talk about Daniel Jackson. I may get an opportunity shortly, but I'm going to go with a guy who's getting no first round buzz. And that's Logan Hughes from Texas Tech. I had him in our preseason. We always do, I usually do the college top 20 back in September and Jonathan does a high school top 20. And I had Logan Hughes on the end of my college top 20. We moved him down a little bit. He's 47 on the top 200 right now. And I think the thing that he gets knocked for a little bit. bit is he's mainly a bat. He's a blow average runner, a blow average arm. He's going to be a left fielder. You know, you're not going to play him elsewhere. You know, even first, he's five foot 11. So you're not playing first base. But Logan Hughes can really hit. He hit its steps in his freshman. He's hit a Texas Tech for the last two years. And he does everything that you want to see a hit or do. He makes good swing decisions. He makes a lot of contact. He hits the ball hard. He hits for power. So it's kind of like, if you remember last year, Devon Taylor was kind of this profile at Indiana and A's. I think maybe took him with the top pick in the second round, a game of well-buff slap bonus. But, you know, he draws walks. I mean, he tears the Texas Tech. He's got 37 homers, 57 strikeouts, 76 walks. And I just think, I don't think he's going to sneak in the first round. But I do think what teams look at him. Like, sure, you wish he was quicker, bigger, you know, maybe we could play some besides left field. But this guy hits. And he'd has all the metrics, you know, like I said, swing decisions, exit velocities, contact. I think he's not going to be a first rounder. But if he went in that 30 to 40 range, it wouldn't surprise me at all. Jonathan, who you got? I never wanted to miss an opportunity to talk about Mollivailavu. If I can from from UCLA, got a chance to talk to him at the combine, which was great. And listen, this is another guy who just he really, really hits not hearing his name at all first round. Or even comp round, although that wouldn't shock me. Second round, I feel, feels more certain. He's number 79 right now. And I think he's going to move up. Unbelievable bat to ball skills and hand-dike coordination. Got to his power even more this past year, hit 18 homers at an OPS over 1000. Rock Chalowski will tell anybody who listens that he thinks he's the best hitter in the country. He needs to cut down on the chase. He's one of those guys who can make contact with everything. And I think there might be even more offensive feeling to unlock once he learns to be aggressive early in counts with certain pitches and and be a little more patient at the plate and not swing at everything. One of the things that really impressed me at the combine, he's a really good defensive first baseman. And that would be fine. But that does limit his profile. He is very intent on showing teams that he can play 30. He took ground balls a third. He took balls in the outfield during the combine just to showcase his athleticism. Now, I think he probably does end up at first base when all is said and done. But it wouldn't surprise me if it's he sent him out. At third base to see what it looks like. And I love the fact that when we were interviewing him, Jason, do you remember who the player was that he mentioned that he, I don't know if it was who he admires or who he models his game after? Yes. And it was, I think, primarily because he was making the same transition from from first to third. Right. Andrew Fisher. It was probably the only guy who mentioned a prospect in terms of that. But he loved the fact that Andrew Fisher was at first baseman in college and is playing third right now and is considered one of the best third base prospects in baseball. Now, whether or not Andrew Fisher plays third in the big leagues is besides the point. I just like LeVou's attitude about it that he wants to go out and show that he's not just a first baseman only. My neck Jonathan, but I was gonna say every scout loves Moe of I LeVou. Yeah. Like, I think he's gonna go like, if you told me, yeah, I think he's in that Logan Hughes chair. I'll bet you Moe of I LeVou goes in the second round. Yeah, I believe it. All right. Let's wrap this up by having you guys put an overall grade on this group. Curious to see because the first two groups we've done, I've been referring back to an article that we did in May, May 1st. In fact, so two months ago and you guys broke down each group and gave them an overall grade. And for the first two groups we've done, you bumped those grades up since that time for both the college pitchers and high school hitters. I think we might be going the opposite way with this one. Does that sound right to you? Do you think less of this group now than you did two months ago? I don't remember. Is it 20? I cannot remember what I thought of this group two months ago. So I, college hitter, do you feel like the group as a whole has excited you less as the draft season is? I feel like it's been about the same. We've had some guys take steps back. We've had some guys rise. I feel like it's about the same, but I have no idea what grade I put on this a couple months ago. Yeah, I'm in the same boat that, you know, I like the depth. I think the fact that there is a large quantity of first round potential hitters is interesting. But so many of them have question marks with them that it tempers the enthusiasm a little bit. That's by the way, why I ended up giving them a 50 for for great. And I don't remember what I did two months ago. I love that Jim remembers that Zach Routon is the one Dodger pitcher who didn't walk anybody in the spring break. I can't remember what grade he gave this group. But I understand, you know, how his memory works. So I went right at 50, you know, because just that volume of guys who are going to go, even if you want to expand beyond the top 25 and that top 40 picks, there's going to be a good amount of college bats to go off the board. Well, to be fair to Jim's memory, the article on May 1st was done by you. I don't know how much you collaborated on the grades, but I didn't give Jim his grades. I have grades in there. No, no. Yeah. You're all the most Jonathan's great. I don't know how much you talked if at all about those grades, but at that time, you gave college hitters a 55 and you said this, you said, we thought it might be close to a 60, but a lot of guys at the top five in the top 11 come with some question marks attached, which you're saying the same thing two months later, you're you're sticking to the party line. The pool is pretty deep, but the water is a little murky, especially after rock to lousy and long lackey at the top of the overall list. The scouting industry doesn't seem quite as bullish as we were and the scouts take was that the group is a 50 and Jim's take is that this group is I was I was on the harsher end. I went 45 just because of how I don't know if flawed is right word, but just these guys have obvious victories. So I went 45. Jonathan's 50 may be more fair. I guess I'm kind of like 47 and a half and I went 45, but I just don't think like and maybe it's unfair. I'm thinking back to when we had Bessana and Condon and Caglione and Kurtz and Raymond Gumrie and match on Kyle Teal and that was probably like looking back like a 65, but I just I don't know. Like I think a bunch of guys are going to get drafted because there have to be 25 first round picks, but just talking to teams, they're just kind of shrugging and trying to figure out what to make of all these guys. I was harsh and went 45. I was I was more mean spirited than Jonathan. I was I was gracious and letting him talk about Justin LeBron, but I did not show that same grace. That's as far as your grace will go. That's enough grace for me. So I'm being harsh. 45 is pride. I now and I'm giving myself a 45 for my 45 grace. That might be the alarm. Being harsh on your self. It's going to be the I'm going to use Connist endless loop where I can give him 45 still by 45 and I can't get out fast forward to television. The future where Jim's just rocking back in Florida saying 45, 45, 45. That's going to be me. I don't know if you like in psycho or something. And let the endless podcast episode. All right. Well, we'll we'll spare you from that and instead we'll let you listen to Justin LeBron and the MLB pipeline podcast debut of the great Anthony Castro events who got a chance to talk to Justin LeBron at the MLB draft combine. That's coming up next. Welcome back to the MLB pipeline podcast. Anthony Castro events had a chance to talk to Alabama shortstop Justin LeBron at last week's MLB draft combine. Let's have a listen. How do you kind of scout yourself? How do you describe your your game? I think I'm someone who's like tough. I like to be like very competitive. I want to be I want the picture whoever faces me or whoever I'm planning against. But yeah, I didn't I don't want to play against that guy again. Like we didn't really know where we're going to get. Like I didn't know if he was in hit home run if he was in still a bunch of bases. But I knew for a fact that he was just in tough individual. Yeah. How'd you get in the baseball in the first place? Honestly, as far as I can remember, a whole life is in baseball like parents put it, put me in it when I was young kind of just enjoyed playing the game and then they found just evolved into something it is now. Yeah. What was it? What is it about baseball that kind of speaks to you? You're your personality or your competitive side or what is it about this sport? I think it's really just like the relationship you can do. Like how competitive you can be in like baseball so hard and I think that's why I like it so much. Because you have glimpses or times where you're like really really good but then you have your times when you're pretty bad. I think you always chase the high of being good and it's an addicting game but something that's good and that's good to be addicted to for sure. Yeah, definitely. You're up ringers, you're born in the Bronx. Correct. But do you do you remember anything about living there? Um, very. You're like four right? Yeah, I do remember it being really cold like oh my gosh, I hated that most but I mean I can't remember anything bad. I just remember everything good like I have a bunch of family over there. I'm enjoying being with them super big on my family so I just enjoyed whatever. This is the New York blood and you still there in any way? Yeah, definitely instilled in me for sure. Parents were pretty much not born. My mom wasn't born there but pretty much raised their whole their whole life so I mean their ways and their living of being tough and grinding and all that stuff is kind of like kind of what I instilled in it. Were you Yankees fan? Still am. Still are. All right. For a little while, at least. Whatever fate to me is going to be my favorite team. Absolutely. Um, so growing up in Florida obviously you had the advantage of the weather and everything like when did baseball become like something that went from something you did and it was fun to like, oh I have a chance to be what I do. Yeah, it really wasn't until like my senior year we went and I played in a Jupiter tournament and I was coming to the right before then and that's kind of when I was like, okay, wait, I'm actually kind of good at this. Like I think I want to play in somewhere where I can be challenged a little bit more and be a little bit more competitive and stuff like that. And so I kind of opened up the recruiting process and was fortunate enough where Alabama came walking through and said hey, we want you. So went in there and that's when I really like opened my eyes. It was like, I think that I can be a pretty good player. Yeah. Yeah. What has the college experience done for you? Like how are you a different player now than a few years ago? I think I learned how to struggle more throughout my career in college. Like I have struggled at times a lot. I think that really builds up like character kind of how I am. Just I found a way like to just get here and find a way to just bring and help. At least Alabama go to the college world series as much as it and us winning it. But something we haven't done in a long time. That's just kind of how I am. So I think it's helped me mature in a lot of ways. Just like being a better person and just honestly nourishing and building the relationship that I had had in Alabama and just being a better person with me. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to ask getting the program to that level this year. I mean, what did that mean to you? And just what did that experience do for you? Yeah, I mean, it really truly meant everything. I felt like everything that I was working towards besides obviously the drafts. I felt like more of our team goals was pretty much almost met. I'm obviously a bit of a bittersweet ending. But I mean, for the most part, it was something that I had been into a program that hadn't done that in a very long time. And prior two years we kept getting really close and the fact that we would kind of be able to push to get over that rock kind of cement everything. Yeah, great experience for sure. For sure. And bonding experience as well. Regarding your game, so I mean, it's not just about you. I just see a speed and still a lot of bases, but the efficiency really stands out. What goes into that? How do you become such an efficient base dealer? Yeah, really just believing in myself, trusting myself, but can't knock the work that we've done. Just like, on practices and just studying the film, just everything. And just seeing what's guys day to day or pitch to pitch routine of how we can pick a part little thing. And I think that's just what made me a better base dealer. I'm just knowing that I have an ability where I can still a lot of bases, but got to know it's the bits and pieces of where that can really help you. So if a guy is tipping his tendency of when he's going to pick, then when he doesn't do that, you know he's going to the plate. Or just an obvious counter and guy they're going to throw breaking balls or stuff, just making it tougher on them to throw me out. And you're coming up into a professional game that accentuates speed all the more with the rules that have been put in place in the last few years. How exciting is that to be? I mean, that's being rewarded in a way it wasn't necessarily before. Yeah. For me, it's just tremendous. Like, I'm just glad it's part of my game. I'm glad it's one of the tools that I get to utilize going forward. Being that I didn't really do that the past two years. So for me, just the fact that it was there, I was able to show that, I was able to do it and just be consistent at it, just shows that it's going to help in the long run. You got a lot of power for a middle infield or what? Just talk about the development of your power over the course of the last few years. Yeah. I think it just came with like me gaining weight. I came in my freshman year, 150 pounds. It was really hard to really just impact the baseball in ways that you can imagine. But as I put on some weight, put on some little bit of muscle and just really started understanding how my body plays, it kind of just all came by itself really. And so the power tools started coming in and just started to use the lives of me a little bit more. Yeah. I want to ask about your family. So your dad must love the letter J. He's a prominent fan of both the big tests that along. So what is the dynamic there with your brothers and sisters and just kind of competitive or everything? What was it like in that? Yeah. I mean, it's really just like super close. I just got back home two, three days ago and they're already sad to see me go. And so I mean, it's just like when I was there, I was in John Arton where I'll buy the pool, jump in the pool, kind of wrestling, like super competitive when we play. We're all super competitive, but it's always like, let's see who can be the best person. Like, you can be the best. And I think that kind of stems with myself, but also my little sister. She's a gymnast. She's super competitive and I have another brother, Jadilla. I mean, that guy hates losing. And then obviously my one right below me, Jadon, I mean all of them don't like to lose super competitive and I think they get it from it. I saw you said, Janelle's probably the best athlete in family. You're willing to admit that. I think so just because at her age, like for gymnastics, they have to climb up this rope with no harness. And it's probably about 25-inch feet, 30 feet in the air. So it kind of freaks me out that she can do that. I don't think at her age, she did it when she was about five years old. That's how it started. So I was like, I don't know if I can do that. Are there any gymnast skills you've picked up from her? She's taught me how to do a cartwheel. She's trying to teach me how to do like a backhand spring and all those things. But how to afraid to land on my head. She's fearless. Obviously, your brother's been through a lot. What have you learned from him, first of all? Yeah, just really just a persevere and just to push through everything. Like, I mean, with his heart surgery and just the way he was, I mean, it's just, you know, it's hard to, I guess, mesh with a lot of people that just don't understand him. And I think for me, what that allowed me to do is to bring everyone together and treat everyone as if they're pretty much my own. And so what I like to do is when I meet somebody who is kind of like being the outlier, standing out of the group, I like to just bring them in and just treat them as if they're my own because in reality, you just never know what they're going for. And so that's just pretty much like the main thing of what he taught me, treat everyone the same, never stop like giving up on, don't give up on anything because I mean, that guy never gives up on anything and kind of always have a smile on your face. How much younger is he even? Only two years. Three years, three years. So do you, you probably don't have any memory of when you get a surgery? No, I was such a long time ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do remember something and it was just like me holding him on a bed, but that's like, so faint. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm sure, yeah, it was such a scary time for the family, but how's he doing now, first of all? Amazing. I mean, that guy who lives his best life, he loves going into like the video games and stuff like that. He wants to be like a video game engineer. Okay. I think it's like awesome that he kind of found his own thing that he can like relate to and like kind of a, hey, look, I'm working hard on this too. And yeah, I had a challenge where it's like, your challenge would be like, for me, at least going over four. His is like a code in the game that working and he'll go ahead and find a way to make it work. So I think it's kind of cool. Yeah. Well, it's amazing. It's great. He came on the other side of that and I just have to think about your parents and what they're going through a two year old, right? You know, going to surgery like that. Wow. And I know he plays baseball as well. Right? He's still involved in that. Still involved. Where in your hometown? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. What can you say about the Miracle League? I've seen it in action. Yeah. I've gotten to go some events for that. It's a really cool program. I think it's probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. It's a bunch of people with a bunch of different disabilities and they all just go there and have fun. Like they don't even think they have disabilities. They'll go there. They'll mimic the way you walk up to the play. Like I have a video of my brother hitting a home run and bat flipping like I did. And I think it's the coolest thing ever, but I've worked it sometimes. I mean, it's just cool to see all these different people and personalities just mixing and blending together as one. Like, it really does make life worth it. For sure. How does that influence your perspective of what you're able to do out there in the baseball field? Like seeing that. Yeah. I think it just really just puts it into perspective. Like you have, like life is so much harder than struggling in baseball. And so when you think about it like that, you just really go out there and just try to enjoy the moment, the people and just like really because at the end of the day, I'm playing for my brother. Like he's living his life through me. So I know that I got to do everything in my power to make him proud. Yeah. So you said you volunteered at some of those events? Oh, yeah. I have. It's probably the coolest thing ever. Like you match up with one of the kids. Okay. And they'll just ask you, hey, do you want to play catch or if you want to just teach me how to hit or something like that. Often times like there are some of the guys out there. I would say like I say graduated or girls had graduated and so they don't need a person anymore because they have had So I'm a person walk around them and teach them how to be safe with the bats and stuff like that I mean, I'm and by them they're hitting Homer and it's awesome. That's the best thing as your profile grows You hope to have more involvement and stuff like that or yeah, or your brother's condition and that Yeah, I'm giving back I guess yeah, yeah, I think One of the things I'm most grateful mostly grateful for is the fact that I have created a profile for myself And so I kind of want to use that profile to kind of take that and roam within a very positive light So when it comes to miracle, I kind of want to see if I start something of my own or just know donate Some wonder that gloves bats or anything and builds more build more fields because I feel like there's certain areas I don't have those types of fields and that kind of like Community that they need to continue to thrive. So I kind of want to do something with that. Yeah What are your goals for your career your life as you you know move on in the next level? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think I want to obviously get drafted You know, it doesn't really matter who but obviously I just Any opportunity that I get when take it wrong with the plan the big leagues for a really long time Hopefully be a Hall of Famer all those types of things But I think mainly for me is just like I want to leave a lasting impact I'm not just people on the baseball side with just in life like all people to look at me and see that I'm very like generous hardworking and that doesn't matter what background you came from where you came from or just like what life is brought So like I want people to understand that it's all worth it and you can get to anything you want to get to yeah All right, I'm from Cleveland so I got to ask you about the name LeBron. Yeah Obviously, I'm sure people tend to just Reflexively like even when I'm writing it here. I want to capitalize that be How often do you get that mistake in correspondence or yeah, I get it all the time. I actually got today like are you related LeBron? Jen like unfortunately, I'm not that's his first name my last name, but I mean They call me the lowercase b sometimes. It's kind of funny, but I mean I get it all time I just enjoy like it's kind of crazy that I'm being compared to to somebody who's I mean the biggest name in basketball It's wild to me. I think you were born out what year were you born 2004. Oh, okay. Yeah, so you're Born as after he's even coming in the NBA, which is wild. He's still going But yeah, you just you just kind of roll with the mix ups and yeah Comes on jokal about him. Yeah, I actually am related. Yeah, that's actually my uncle or something like that make crack up good stuff man Well, well, he's got the last name starts with a Jake. So look at that. There you go. Jay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like it That's really all I got man. That's great stuff. I appreciate it. All right. Thanks very much Anthony and thanks very much Justin for taking the time out To talk to us guys. I think headed into the season if you had predicted the golden spikes finalists you might have had Very well have had Justin LeBron in that group. He didn't end up being in the finalists Daniel Jackson of Georgia Landon Harrison of Arizona State of sophomore And rock Chalowski the number one overall prospect UCLA shortstop where the finalists the award was the winner was announced on MLB network on Monday night and that winner was none other than Jim, I feel like I should let you do the honors. Okay. I will do the honors at Daniel Jackson from Georgia First catcher in division one history to have 25 hours 25 steals in the same season actually 32 hummers 26 steals third SEC triple crown winner in league history um, I think we're allowed to reveal our votes right John I voted for him. Who do you use those books out there? I also I also voted for It's me equals the best season and one of the things went through the whole process and Jim and I are both Part of the advisory committee to help build the lists and wouldle it down is to remind myself that this is a college performance award and not a draft prospect award and So a couple times that's a Check so even if Rock Chalowski is a better prospect and we obviously have him rank to such Daniel Jackson had the better year and Landon Harrison had a absolutely ridiculous year And I hope we get a chance to vote for him next year. Do you guys uh Know how many catchers have won the Golden Spikes award? Did you catch that by any chance? Catcher, Bryce Harper, Bryce Harper, right? Wasn't Bryce Harper a catcher when he won the award? He was But I don't know Jason Veritech did Jason Veritech win the award. He did win the award. Nice. We don't you're leaving out the most recent Catcher to win the award number one overall prospect. Adley Ruchman. Adley Ruchman. I am So bus to put the number one the award did he? He did in 2008 Okay, and uh in 2012 Mike Zunino so a pretty impressive group of Backstreet that have won the Golden Spikes work Uh, I mentioned that these guys uh were in studio at the network for the show last night and they also stopped into the MLB offices and We had a chance to talk to them and it was pretty fun. We had the three of them together and uh I posed some trivia for the three of them to see how much they knew about each other um And just tried to make it kind of fun for the three of them and I realized as I got into it that Daniel Jackson was probably kind of at a disadvantage because Landon Harrison and Rock Chalowski grew up like 10 miles from each other and I don't know if you guys knew this but they they played each other Basically every year Rock's coach is the father of Landon Harrison's high school coach Rock's high school coach was the father of Landon Harrison's high school coach So they played each other in a home and home series every year and I asked him how that went And uh they said that basically they they won their home games when they played each other and then Landon pointed out he said after Rock left we we won But uh I'll throw some of the trivia questions out to you guys uh that I gave them And I think you'll know most of these but I I didn't know how much they would know about each other Um, but we'll start with I had eight RBI's in a game this year. I'll go Landon Harrison times two both correct uh I threw this one out because and I know you guys know uh this Was discussed at the combine uh but I I love Legos Well, we know the answer is all three of them now Right we at the time we knew that it was Daniel Jackson because he talked about it the combine but when I threw it up yesterday uh Rock's Lowski Rock's Lowski said That's actually all three of us and we bonded over this last night so three big Legos lovers so uh I don't know maybe if all three Golden Spikes award winners or or Lego lovers maybe uh is that maybe a key Sure Maybe we need a Lego golden spikes set I apologize for the public sparking we have Guys removing trees in our backyard which is enraging the dog population or members of the dog population In Alice household your dog really felt that Landon Harrison should have won the Golden Spikes award Yes How about this one I won my my conferences triple crown Um, I got Daniel Jackson Daniel Jackson uh I know you know this one my but this is just this is great anyway deserves repeating my father Grandfather great grandfather uncle and great uncle all played in the very That's Landon Harrison That that blue Daniel that blue Daniel Jackson's mind he was like let me let me let me see that Here was a trick there was a bit of a trick question. I didn't make an error this year The options were either either one of the two both weren't on and in this case it was neither of them that was a question for rock and Landon Harrison was funny. He was like I was I had a questionable throwing error charged to me this year. He had one error at the angel Jackson At two right yeah My middle name is drink Drink Drink as in the musical artist Uh, I'm gonna go make here soon. I'm gonna say Daniel Jackson It was land it is Landon Harrison and that it was funny because you know He and rock know each other quite well and rock was like that you he didn't know his middle name and also funny because At the combine I don't remember this but they were asked like if you could have one celebrity where your jersey You could look up at a game and see once a celebrity wearing your jersey who would it be and rock's answer was Drake But I don't think he meant Landon Drake cares Uh This was a ended up being a trick question. I led my high school football team to a state championship to a state championship And had a scholarship to Notre Dame as a quarterback. I know you guys know This but as it turns out Rock pointed out they didn't actually win the state championship game. They lost They lost in the state championship. They made it to the championship. I think This one was a bit of a trick question as well. I'd led my high school baseball team to back-to-back Arizona state championships It's not Daniel Jackson It is not Daniel Jackson Is it one or both of the others both it is both and that's yeah Daniel was like wait a second How's that even possible and they're like well different levels five I'm gonna say right And you were just flamixing Daniel Jackson with your question. Well, he did get this one. I let off with a softball forum. My nickname is Harry Bond's, which then he referred to, Landon Harrison as Harry Bond's throughout the rest of the race. Second. All right. Let's get to our mailbag question. This comes from Michael Bradley, which we questioned in the intro, whether this was the Michael Bradley of USman's national team fame World Cup fever. It is not. But Michael Bradley asks, what is your guess on how many high school draftees will get four million dollars or more and how many between three and four million if you really want to nerd out? So we were looking at the at the slots four million gets you through pick 22 and Jim, how many do you say? Yeah. How many schools last year got four million? 12. I'm counting the guy who got three million, 997,500 plus the $2,500 discounting is four million. That's fair. There were 12 players, 12 high schoolers who got four million dollar bonuses, additional five who got at least three million. So I think I'm going to take the under for four million. I'm going to feel like we're going to be around 10 who get four million or more. And that includes high school players who will get over slot deals beyond the pick 22, obviously. Right. And you know, it's funny. I independently, I was trying to jot down names and I feel like 10, I would have priced at the over under right at 10 and a half. I'm with you. Like 10 would be mind be I think will be around 10. So a little bit less than last year and maybe I would take under last year's number of five for guys to get between three and not quite four million. Yeah, I could say three or four in that bucket. Yeah. Well, we're in lockstep. I guess you and your business jargon. All right. That's going to do it for this week's episode of the MLB pipeline podcast. Thanks very much to Justin LeBron for joining us. Thanks very much to Anthony Kestremens for doing the interview with us. Ron, thanks everybody for listening. Don't forget to subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. So you don't miss an episode. If you're enjoying the show, have any suggestions, leave us a rating and a review. Thanks everybody. See you next week.