In the present day is the primary day of the 2025 school baseball season, and to rejoice, we’re slicing the ribbon on our 2025 Draft prospect rankings and scouting reviews. They’re now reside on The Board, so head over there for all these gamers’ software grades and reviews. On this piece, I’ll contact on a number of particular person gamers who I feel are amongst this 12 months’s greatest and most attention-grabbing prospects, and focus on the category as an entire from a expertise standpoint, in addition to which groups are in place to have an enormous draft.
First, some fast housekeeping on the rankings. I’ve bought simply shy of 100 gamers on The Board proper now. I’ve hard-ranked the gamers with a 40+ FV and above, whereas the 40 FV gamers are clustered by demographic beneath them. At this stage within the draft course of, gamers are extra in “neighborhoods” or clusters. It’s too early to have a whole bunch of gamers ordinally ranked, as a result of the deeper you go, the extra these rankings will change between now and draft day. On this replace, I’ve tried to incorporate gamers who’ve the most effective probability to take a leap throughout this season and climb The Board. That is positively a ceiling-heavy listing at this stage, partly as a result of so lots of the higher-floored gamers are inclined to reveal themselves through the school season. New prospect contributor David Gerth, whose debut piece will run later immediately, helped produce the reviews on the gamers within the Huge Ten convention. Clearly, there might be far more to come back within the subsequent few months as guys separate themselves from their friends, and new standouts emerge.
I’ve talked about this a few instances in chats and on podcasts, but it surely bears repeating: I feel this can be a enjoyable, deeper-than-average class, particularly on the highschool aspect, and so far as the hitters (each highschool and school) are involved. If there’s a niche within the class proper now, it’s the general high quality of the pitching, particularly within the mid-first to mid-second spherical space. The excellent news is that, particularly with fashionable coaching and pitch design, pitchers have a tendency to enhance fairly rapidly at many school packages. If there’s a participant demo we will most fairly hope will enhance as an entire this spring, it’s the arms. Hopefully it’s sufficient to counterbalance accidents to the blokes who’re already good. The pitcher who I feel is in pole place to do that is ASU lefty Ben Jacobs, who carved Staff USA throughout scrimmage exercise within the Fall. He was 92-94 with plus carry, and two plus secondary pitches within the video you see right here. I’ve him ranked in the midst of the primary spherical.
There are lots of huge-framed energy hitters on this 12 months’s draft class, fellas with hit software threat who may drive themselves into the primary spherical combine if they will foster confidence of their contact capacity this spring. These hitters are ranked from no. 38 on down; peeking at their software grades will tip off who they’re.
This is perhaps a fantastic 12 months for groups to discover spreading their bonus swimming pools out the way in which the Brewers, Diamondbacks and Braves did final 12 months, and there are sufficient good highschool gamers to help a number of groups taking this method in the event that they need to. Groups whose decide positions within the high 100 (indicated in parentheses) give them a fantastic alternative to do one thing like this embrace:
- Baltimore Orioles (19, 30, 31, 59, 71, 94)
- Milwaukee Brewers (20, 32, 33, 60, 68, 95)
- Kansas Metropolis Royals (23, 28, 62, 73, 98)
- Tampa Bay Rays (14, 37, 42, 53, 67, 87)
- Cleveland Guardians (27, 66, 70, 72, 102)
Let’s speak about some particular person gamers. I at present have six gamers with a grade of fifty FV or higher; that’s six guys who’d be on the Prime 100 listing had been they in professional ball. Texas A&M outfielder Jace LaViolette leads the group and is at present in a tier of his personal on the high of the listing. LaViolette enters his draft spring as a profession .297/.433/.683 hitter with 50 homers in two seasons at A&M. He has huge left-handed energy and controls the zone, however he does swing and miss at a fairly good clip (24% strikeout fee in 2024), particularly at fastballs up and away from him. LaViolette’s swing and method are geared for energy; he had a 23 diploma common launch in 2024. He’s robust sufficient to go away the yard from pole to pole, however most of his harm is completed to the pull aspect. LaViolette additionally has a sneaky shot to remain in heart discipline. He has hung out in heart and proper, and he seems to be snug going again on balls over his head, however his dimension is perhaps a prohibitive issue as he matures and fills out.
My second-ranked prospect is Arkansas shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, who transferred from Sacramento State to Arkansas after his freshman 12 months with the Hornets. His offensive manufacturing took a little bit of successful (he slid from a 1.089 OPS to a .841) as Aloy transitioned from Sac State to Fayetteville, however then he crushed on Cape Cod, the place he hit eight homers in 21 video games with wooden bats. Except for a considerably regarding quantity of chase at Arkansas (which I’m chalking as much as the big leap in competitors high quality), Aloy does the whole lot else properly, and he has a few of the loudest energy of an up-the-middle participant within the class. He’s a plus athlete with a plus construct and arm, above-average vary, and common palms, mainly a lock to remain at shortstop. If he can enhance his plate self-discipline, I feel he has a sneaky shot to go first general, as viable shortstops who’ve this sort of energy and likewise carry out within the SEC are uncommon.
Following Aloy I’ve the category’ first two pitchers, lefty Jamie Arnold from Florida State and righty Tyler Bremner from UC Santa Barbara. Arnold is a low-slot lefty with an uphill, mid-90s fastball and an enormous mid-80s slider, however he doesn’t have a well-developed third pitch proper now. Bremner has a three-pitch repertoire, however his mid-90s fastball performs down a tad attributable to its downhill aircraft. You can alternate which of those two you like, however they’re the 2 gamers who I’d rely on reaching the bigs essentially the most rapidly.
I’ve Kayson Cunningham, who I feel is the most effective pure hitter within the draft, ranked fifth. Cunningham is a squat-bodied, 5-foot-8 Texas highschool infielder who rakes and demonstrates explosive lower-body athleticism throughout his swing. There’s an opportunity his physique goes the way in which of Willie Calhoun (he’s just like U of A freshman season Willie), but when he can keep fast sufficient to play second base properly, he ought to have a very good on a regular basis hitter’s hit/energy mixture.
Lastly, Corona Excessive College (CA) shortstop Billy Carlson is a good shortstop defender with a plus-plus arm. He carried out properly from a contact standpoint towards his elite friends, and there’s room on his body for power and energy. A few Carlson’s teammates (most importantly right-handed pitcher Seth Hernandez) are additionally good prospects.
I’m a bit of apprehensive about, and due to this fact decrease on, Stillwater Excessive College (OK) shortstop Ethan Holliday. To run by way of some positives, Holliday is extremely bodily and robust, and he’s a giant time rotator, completely electrical for a man his dimension; his swing has big end within the filth behind him and pure carry towards the oppo hole. He has plus uncooked energy proper now and nonetheless has room for power on his gigantic body. He’s going to have particular energy.
However there are some alarming, pause-giving indicators right here. Per Synergy, Holliday hit .246/.446/.346 mixed in 2023 and 2024 towards his most proficient friends. I can guess what you’re pondering, and I agree — that’s surprisingly low. Holliday could be very usually late attending to pitches on the outer third of the zone. His swing is tremendous lengthy and makes it robust for him to drag fastballs in any respect, which is a crimson flag at this stage (see: Jones, Druw). The quantity of whiffing, mixed with the dearth of precise in-game energy manufacturing, means I’m not snug windmill slamming Holliday as a high two participant on this class.
As a result of most groups care a lot about how hitters carry out towards the cream-of-the-crop pitchers from their grad class, it’s going to be robust for Holliday to make these considerations go away when he’s going through guys who sit 83-85 mph throughout spring varsity play. Holliday’s particular energy and upside justify a excessive decide, however he isn’t a no-doubt star. The group that drafts him ought to have some concept of how they could assist him be in higher place to cowl the up-and-away quadrant of the zone and, typically, pull fastballs with energy.