Baseball America

In this episode of Baseball America's draft podcast, J.J. Cooper and Carlos Collazo continue their draft retrospective series with a look back at the 2020 MLB draft.

How did COVID impact our ability to line up the class? How did teams figure it out? Who was in the conversation for 1-1 and which players and picks have aged best? Is there anything we can learn from the COVID draft or was it such an anomaly that we can only place the asterisk and move on?

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Time stamps:

• (0:00) Setting the stage with covid
• (9:00) Overall thoughts on the class
• (12:30) The Spencer Torkelson and Austin Martin debate
• (19:00) Asa Lacy
• (26:00) Garrett Crochet
• (30:00) Heston Kjerstad
• (34:45) Pete Crow-Armstrong
• (40:00) Austin Wells
• (43:30) The Rangers' draft
• (47:00) Masyn Winn & Spencer Strider
• (55:00) What are the lessons we can learn from 2020?

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The Baseball America Fantasy Podcast returns for another week with hosts James Anderson and Geoff Pontes. The duo dive into the upcoming Arizona Fall League and the top prospects to follow, as well as few sleepers to follow for dynasty prospecting. 

• (2:00) Sebastian Walcott
• (7:00) Aidan Miller
• (10:00) Jarlin Susana
• (16:00) Caleb Bonemer
• (22:00) Zyhir Hope
• (26:00) Arjun Nimmala
• (30:00) Tate Southisene
• (32:00) Braylon Payne
• (34:00) Charles Davalan
• (38:00) Zion Rose
• (41:00) Eduardo Quintero
• (45:00) Nathan Flewelling
• (47:00) Dax Kilby
• (49:00) Angeibel Gomez
• (51:00) Tai Peete
• (55:00) Max Williams

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We love to rank prospects, and we also love drafts. So today on the Baseball America Prospect Podcast, Ian Cundall, Geoff Pontes and JJ Cooper drafted current prospects with one simple goal: Pick the players that will hit the most MLB home runs between 2027-2030.

To make it more challenging, we each have to pick two prospects inside the Top 50 of the current BA Top 100 Prospect rankings, two more from 51-100 on the Top 100. Two non-Top 100 prospects ranked in top 15s of team Top 30s, and two more who don't meet any of those criteria. Let us know what you think about our picks. And if you have an idea for a future draft, we'd love to hear it.

(00:00) The Rules

(03:30) Round 1

(07:00) Round 2

(15:20) Round 3

(19:30) Round 4

(25:00) Round 5

(30:30) Round 6

(36:30) Round 7

(40:15) Round 8

(45:00) If we did this 5 years ago, who should you have picked

(48:00) Our strategies, what picks we question and which ones we like

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On this week's Hot Sheet Show, we break down BA's 2026 award selections for MiLB Player and Pitcher of the Year. What went into our choices and who else was considered?

We also welcome James Anderson to the show to discuss our latest FYPD rankings.

The Hot Sheet Show airs live on the BA YouTube channel every Tuesday at 3 p.m. Give us a sub, and we'll see you then!

Time Stamps

• (0:00) Introduction
• (1:00) BA's MiLB Player of the Year: Andrew Fischer
• (6:30) BA's MiLB Pitcher of the Year: Kade Anderson
• (11:30) James Anderson breaks down his FYPD rankings
• (20:30) Answering viewer questions

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Baseball America National College Reporter Jacob Rudner and Draft Writer Carlos Collazo take their first in-depth look at the top of the 2027 draft class with breakdowns of Mississippi State lefty Tomas Valincius, Florida infielder Brendan Lawson, West Virginia catcher Gavin Kelly and Oregon State righty Dax Whitney. Rudner and Collazo also look beyond the first round with sleeper picks.

(1:48) What matters to us in the fall

(14:49) Can Tomas Valincius take a bigger lead in SP1 race

(19:12) Brendan Lawson's defense

(25:12) Will Gavin Kelly take on more catcher reps

(31:33) Dax Whitney's recovery from elbow surgery

(34:07) Why make up matters

(37:02) Players who can make a move toward first-round rankings

(41:45) Sleepers to keep an eye on

(48:14) Final thoughts

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In the third series of our draft lookbacks, JJ and Carlos go back to the 2019 draft. What was the conversation surrounding Adley Rutschman and Bobby Witt Jr. at the time? What about the rest of the top tier? How has a massively critiqued college pitching class panned out? What are the lessons we can learn? All that and more. 

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Time stamps:

• (0:00) Intro and overview
• (5:00) Adley Rutschman vs. Bobby Witt Jr.
• (12:00) The rest of the top tier
• (18:00) Andrew Vaughn and right-right first basemen
• (22:00) Hunter Bishop and valuing high-caliber competition
• (30:30) College pitching
• (35:00) Alek Manoah’s strange career
• (40:00) Savvy late-round picks
• (44:00) The Keoni Cavaco pop-up story

—

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This week on the Baseball America Fantasy Podcast hosts James Anderson and Geoff Pontes are joined by National College Writer Jacob Rudner. The three dive into the tiers within the most recent update to the First Year Player Draft rankings. The trio discusses a total of 20 players, diving into targets within tiers and players to avoid. It’s an extensive deep dive on the 2026-27 FYPD crop. 

(2:00) Roch Cholowsky

(4:00) Jackson Flora

(6:00) Drew Burress

(8:00) Jared Grindlinger

(9:30) Bo Lowrance

(10:30) Zion Rose

(12:00) Ben Blair

(14:00) Kevin Roberts

(19:00) Elliot Lascelles

(21:00) Martin Shelar

(23:00) Connor Comeau

(24:00) Jace Mataczynski

(26:00) AJ Gracia

(28:00) Justin Lebron

(33:00) Ty Head

(35:00) Luke Williams

(39:00) Jack Radel

(41:00) Owen Hull

(43:00) Will Brick

(44:00) Tre Broussard

(45:00) Players we're fading

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On this week's Prospect Podcast, JJ Cooper, Geoff Pontes and Ian Cundall discuss the challenges and potential solutions to evaluating players after the most offensive MiLB anyone has seen.

(00:00) The Scope Of The Challenge

(06:00) It's Not Just More Home Runs

(09:00) Rely More On The Eye Test?

(15:00) How We Plan To Adjust Our Evaluations

(18:45) There Will Be Mental Impacts From This For Prospects

(22:00) Learning From Past Unusual MiLB Environments

(27:00) What Worked This Year May Not Work Next Year

(31:30) Prospects Who Are Difficult Evaluations

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/just-how-much-did-milb-offense-increase-in-2026/

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On this week's Hot Sheet Show, Jacob Rudner, J.J. Cooper and Geoff Pontes look ahead to the MLB playoffs with a breakdown of top rookies and second-year stars in the field. We also analyze big league strike zone changes in 2026.

The Hot Sheet Show airs live on the BA YouTube channel every Tuesday at 3 p.m. Give us a sub, and we'll see you then!

Time Stamps

• (0:00) Introduction
• (0:45) Young stars to watch in the postseason—Misiorowski, Schlittler, De Paula & more
• (15:30) The MLB strike zone shrunk in 2026—why?
• (18:12) What comes next for the strike zone evolution & fallout?
• (20:15) Why aren't hitters dominating then?
• (23:40) Answering viewer questions

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Baseball America national college writer Jacob Rudner is joined by former MLB pitcher and Texas A&M alumnus Ross Stripling to talk about changes in amateur baseball over the last decade, which arsenals are suited to benefit from ABS in college and advice for college pitchers hoping to make the jump to the pros.

(1:40) Welcoming Ross Stripling to the show

(4:18) How college baseball has evolved since Stripling played

(5:53) Caden Sorrell vs. Tyler Naquin

(9:04) How amateur pitching has changed beyond velocity

(20:42) ABS in college

(23:49) Could breaking balls benefit from ABS?

(27:43) The benefits of ABS in college

(29:20) The college ball

(32:24) Advice to amateur pitchers

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