Baseball America

Ahead of our next big rankings update for the 2027 draft class, JJ, Carlos and Jacob try to make the case for three of the favorites to be the first overall pick. Unlike a year ago with Roch Cholowsky, there’s not a slam dunk 1-1 favorite—but which player has the most compelling, iron-clad case to be the first pick? And whose minds are changed after the cases are made?

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Time stamps:

• (0:00) What our next draft update is capturing
• (7:00) Explaining our case for 1-1 exercise
• (10:00) The case for Dylan Seward
• (25:00) The case for Tomas Valincius
• (38:00) The case for Brendan Lawson
• (50:00) The Dax Whitney factor

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With the recent release of James Anderson’s Dynasty Top 500 Prospects list on Baseball America, we kick off the 2027 rankings season in style. On this week's show hosts James Anderson and Geoff Pontes talk through the updated 500 rankings with an eye on the youth at the top, the clear pitching tiers, 2026 rookies to buy in on and some undervalued players to target in dynasty this offseason. 

(2:00) Young Stars Ascending

(5:00) Konnor Griffin

(8:00) Jackson Merrill

(11:00) Top Pitchers

(16:00) 2026 Rookie Battle: Sal Stewart vs. McGonigle

(21:00) Victor Mesa Jr.

(27:00) Jackson Jobe for 2027

(31:00) Bulk-Reliever-To-Starter Pipeline

(33:00) Grant Taylor

(35:00) Didier Fuentes

(37:00) Hagen Smith

(39:00) Gage Wood 

(42:00) Curtis Mead—Breakout Hitter To Target?

(48:00) Isaac Paredes

(54:00) Cam Cannarella 

(59:00) Kane Kepley

(62:00) Bryan Rincon

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On this week's Prospect Podcast, Geoff Pontes, Ian Cundall and JJ Cooper discuss the pitching prospects with the best fastballs and breaking balls as measured by Baseball America's Stuff+.
(00:00) Explaining Our Stuff+ model
(02:00) Why It's Useful
(05:45) Reinold Navarro's fastball
(10:00) What Makes A Good And A Bad Fastball?
(16:15) Brody Hopkins' fastball
(19:00) Jacob Kuhn's fastball
(20:45) Tanner Franklin's fastball
(24:30) What Makes A Good Cutter?
(27:30) Tanner Franklin's Cutter
(31:15) Brody Hopkins' Cutter
(33:30) What Is A Slider, And What's A Good One?
(37:15) Luke Gabrysh's Slider
(39:40) Sandro Santana's Slider
(43:00) What Makes A Good Curveball?
(46:00) Pierce George's Curveball
(47:45) Gage Wood's Curveball
(50:00) Josh Knoth's Curveball

Best Fastballs: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/best-minor-league-fastballs-per-stuff-in-2026/

Best Breaking Balls: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/best-minor-league-breaking-balls-per-stuff-in-2026/ 

Best Offspeed: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/best-minor-league-changeups-splitters-per-stuff-in-2026/

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On today's Baseball America Hot Sheet show, Jacob Rudner, JJ Cooper, and Geoff Pontes dive in to the top 10 rising MLB prospects on the National League side. We talk about what makes the Brewers consistently successful and Cardinals outfield prospect Tai Peete joins the show.

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JJ and Carlos dive into the 2026 Draft Report Card series. Which teams have classes that stand out more today than they did on draft day, and why is that the case? Who are the players who have already impressed us in pro ball? Who are the players who are showing they might be better than we thought? That, plus non-obvious picks to move quickly and highlighting a few of the late-draft (or undrafted) sleepers we are most excited about. 

See our complete Draft Report Card series here: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2026-mlb-draft-report-cards-for-all-30-teams/

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Time stamps:

• (0:00) Intro
• (3:30) Why we don’t grade drafts
• (6:00) More under-the-radar Brewers high schoolers
• (13:11) A ton of strong performers with the Yankees
• (19:08) Uncertainty with the Rays
• (21:45) Non-obvious players who could move quickly
• (28:40) A handful of late-pick names to know

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This week on the Baseball America Fantasy Podcast host James Anderson is joined by Ian Cundall to discuss the recently released Top 350 rankings for 2027 redraft leagues. They go through each positional group, discussing tiers as well as names to know.

• (2:00) Liam Hicks

• (5:00) Leo Bernal

• (7:00) Who's No. 1 At First Base

• (9:00) Rafael Devers

• (12:00) Who's No. 1 at Second Base

• (16:00) Bryson Stott

• (17:00) Javier Sanoja

• (18:00) Who's No. 1 at Third Base Rankings

• (22:00) Who's No. 1 at Shortstop

• (27:00) Who's No. 1 in the Outfield

• (37:00) Who's No. 1 Among Starting Pitchers

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On the latest Baseball America Prospect Podcast, Geoff Pontes, Ian Cundall and JJ Cooper hold another draft. After drafting home runs last week, this week we're each picking eight pitching prospects with the goal of picking the most MLB strikeouts from 2027-2030. See who we picked.

• (00:00) The Rules
• (04:00) Round 1
• (06:55) Round 2
• (11:45) Round 3
• (17:10) Round 4
• (22:10) Round 5
• (26:30) Round 6
• (32:00) Round 7
• (35:30) Round 8
• (39:00) Talking about other prospects who could have gotten picked
  
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On this week's Hot Sheet Show, we react to the ongoing MLB playoffs with thoughts on the Rays' success in the AL, the Yankees' homegrown players, the rise of the White Sox, young NL stars and more.

• Top Prospects Coming For Eliminated Playoff Teams

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
• (0:30) Why the Rays have been successful
• (2:00) The Chandler Simpson effect
• (4:05) Ben Rice is carrying the Yankees
• (6:00) Cam Schlittler and George Lombard Jr.
• (7:45) The rise of the White Sox
• (9:45) Chicago trades that paid off
• (12:20) Can other teams copy the White Sox model?
• (15:00) Thoughts on the NL playoffs
• (17:00) Jackson Chourio & Ethan Salas
• (19:30) Dodgers vs. Braves
• (21:45) Answering viewer questions

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Baseball America national college reporter Jacob Rudner and Editor In Chief JJ Cooper discuss BA's latest reporting on MLB strengthening its relationships with college baseball conferences in a joint effort to advance the game. You can read our reporting here.

(0:41) Summarizing our reporting

(2:35) Examples of MLB's influence

(6:48) A change coming in 2027

(9:00) The MLB Draft timing

(16:30) A disconnect with the NCAA at large

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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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