Baseball America

Baseball America national college reporter Jacob Rudner is joined by BA national writer Carlos Collazo to discuss reigning national champion LSU's stunning fall out of the Top 25 for the first time since 2024. Rudner and Collazo also give insights into how the Baseball America Top 25 is decided, break down at teams on the rise and look ahead to the draft.

(3:19) What's happening to LSU

(8:55) Explaining BA Poll Mechanics

(14:29) The challenge of ranking Big Ten teams

(22:56) Southern California stock booming

(29:47) Florida State enters the top 10

(39:21) Things we're looking forward to this weekend

(48:10) Lingering thoughts

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On this week's Hot Sheet Show, Jacob Rudner, Ben Badler and Carlos Collazo talk about prospects in the World Baseball Classic finals spotlight, Spring Breakout players to watch and the NCAA Top 25.

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

Time Stamps

• (0:00) Introduction
• (0:45) U.S. vs. Venezuela in the WBC—Nolan McLean on the mound
• (6:25) More standout players in the WBC
• (9:45) Championship predictions
• (12:00) MLB Spring Breakout—who we're excited to see
• (16:30) First 2025 draft pick to make MLB
• (19:30) Breakout picks for 2026
• (23:05) LSU out of the Top 25

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We're going deep on each of the top prospects in the NL East. We explain how each respective player climbed to No. 1 in their system, run through their scouting reports and lay out what you should expect in 2026.

Time Stamps

(0:00) — Cam Caminiti, Braves

(8:10) — Aidan Miller, Phillies

(16:35) — Nolan McLean, Mets

(27:05) — Thomas White, Marlins

(35:25) — Eli Willits, Nationals

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The Baseball America Fantasy podcast returns for the weekend with another divisional prospect preview. After running through the American League over the last three weeks, we jump to the National League and the talented NL West division. Hosts Geoff Pontes and Dylan White breakdown all the Phillies, Mets, Braves, Marlins and Nationals prospects to know for 2026 and beyond.

Phillies

(2:00) Justin Crawford

(4:00) Andrew Painter

(7:00) Aidan Miller

(9:00) Cody Bowker

(11:00) Cade Obermueller

Mets

(13:00) Nolan McLean

(14:00) Carson Benge

(15:00) AJ Ewing

(16:00) Jonah Tong

(18:00) Will Watson

Braves

(21:00) JR Ritchie

(22:00) Didier Fuentes

(23:00) Diego Tornes

(25:00) Garrett Baumann

(26:00) Lucas Braun

Marlins

(28:00) Robby Snelling

(30:00) Thomas White and Kevin DeFrank

(33:00)Fenwick Trimble and Andrew Salas

Nationals

(35:00) Harry Ford 

(37:00) Jarlin Susana and Travis Sykora

(39:00) Devin Fitz-Gerald and Christian Franklin

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On this week's Draft Podcast Carlos Collazo and JJ Cooper take an in-depth look at a pair of fascinating and famous college outfielders. LSU outfielder Derek Curiel and Georgia Tech's Drew Burress are the top two college outfielders on our draft rankings, but both draw varied responses from scouts and front office officials. We take a look at why.

(0:00) Eric Booth Jr. vs. Kevin Roberts Jr.

(4:00) Derek Curiel convo begins

(10:00) Why JJ is skeptical

(17:30) The college outfield demographic is scary

(23:30) Drew Burress enters the fold

(31:00) Why the right-right OF demographic is critiqued

(34:00) A shifting bias for short hitters

(48:00) On being OK with uncertainty

Scouting 101 on Derek Curiel: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/scouting-derek-curiel-a-polished-pure-hitter-with-power-questions/

Scouting 101 on Drew Burress:

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/scouting-drew-burress-a-tooled-up-college-bat-challenging-first-round-norms/

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Baseball America national college reporter Jacob Rudner and prospect writer Geoff Pontes look back at an upset-filled week in college baseball, including LSU's 1-4 showing that caused it to slide from the top 10. Rudner and Pontes also consider whether the SEC's grip on the top of college baseball has loosened.

(1:49) LSU's big blunder

(9:18) Florida drops back out of the top 20

(16:42) Mississippi State and Texas look elite

(21:52) Is the SEC losing its grip

(33:00) Southern California pitching

(38:21) Wake Forest cracks the top 20

(39:49) What we're looking forward to in Week 5

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With USA Baseball's WBC hopes completely out of their own hands, Carlos Collazo, JJ Cooper and Geoff Pontes gathered for an emergency podcast to discuss what happened in Team USA's loss to Italy, how it happened and what it could mean going forward.

(00:00) Setting the stage on a shocking evening of baseball

(03:15) Looking through what happened in the game

(10:00) What did Mark DeRosa know and when did he know it?

(16:45) 3-1 = 3-1 = 3-1. That's not complicated math

(21:15) Explaining the tiebreaker permutations.

(25:00) Looking the USA managerial choices

(31:45) This has been a systemic issue for Team USA

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Geoff Pontes and JJ Cooper are getting ready to head down to spring training to watch the Spring Breakout games and prowl the MiLB games on the back fields. So what do we hope to get out of the trips and what should prospect watchers glean from spring training performances?

(01:00) How Shohei Ohtani and Khalil Watson taught us to not over-react

(06:00) MiLB spring training assignments can offer useful info

(08:45) The back fields give a useful sense of organization depth/talent

(11:00) Previewing how we will build our April Top 100 Prospects update

(18:05) Looking at our 2025 April Top 100 Movement. Some successes (Kevin McGonigle/Konnor Griffin) and one to regret (Colson Montgomery)

(21:30) Why you can get more out of pitchers changes in spring training than hitters

(27:00) Things we are looking forward to seeing on our trip

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On this week's Hot Sheet Show, J.J. Cooper, Geoff Pontes and Carlos Collazo discuss players to know from the World Baseball Classic before breaking down our first full mock draft of the 2026 cycle.

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

Time Stamps

• (0:00) Introduction
• (1:15) KBO & NPB players who have stood out in the WBC
• (7:30) HS pitcher Joseph Contreras pitches against the U.S.
• (10:00) Why the Angels are a WBC winner
• (11:45) Olympic baseball vs. WBC and our tournament picks
• (13:50) Breaking down Carlos' first 2026 mock draft
• (17:45) Roch Cholowsky overreactions
• (18:50) Thoughts on college pitchers
• (20:45) Cade Townsend vs. Joey Volckho—who's getting better feedback?
• (23:25) Zac Veen has bulked up and is performing in spring training
• (25:15) A's prospects who are standing out this spring

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We're going deep on each of the top prospects in the AL West. We explain how each respective player climbed to No. 1 in their system, run through their scouting reports and lay out what you should expect in 2026.

Time Stamps

• (0:00) — Leo De Vries, Athletics
• (8:15) — Xavier Neyens, Astros
• (17:30) — Tyler Bremner, Angels
• (26:40) — Colt Emerson, Mariners
• (34:50) — Sebastian Walcott, Rangers

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