2025 MLB Draft Speculation and Discussion

[owaistabish]

Best slider in the draft and sixth year senior - should move quick per Jim Callis

[saycheese]

Yeah at 24 he almost has to move quick.

[andyb]

If the phillies make the decision they are not going to get the bullpen issue solved and they are letting Ranger walk I would HOPE they at least test the waters.

No?

But that has absolutely nothing to do with the drafting strategy of college arms to rebuild system depth. Trading Abel would as he could factor in the rotation for the next 6 years. Trading Ranger might be about putting together the correct pieces to win this year and maybe rebuilding depth overall in the system.

I think this draft is about building our pitching depth because it is a clear weakness. Frankly trading Abel has lots of risk because we have exactly 2 starting pitching prospects who look like big leaguers at the moment.

[el-pietro]

Gage. Cade, Cody, Sean and Gabe. Maybe the theme is 4 letter names. Any college pitchers named Jack or Paul or Cole, or Coby they could draft?

[andyb]

Yeah at 24 he almost has to move quick

And likely sign for a big discount. Maybe they are saving some money for round 11 unlike last year.

[owaistabish]

This seems like the 2023 Angels draft when they drafted only pitchers in 20 rounds.

[andyb]

There is a 1-hour break between rounds 10 and 11, so while they don't have the whole evening to work out deals with potential 11th round picks, they do have an extra hour.

[julio]

[schooldoc]

I wonder what the deal is with Matthew Fisher. Not yet drafted.

[andyb]

I wonder what the deal is with Matthew Fisher. Not yet drafted.

If I had to guess, major league teams could not come close to his NIL money guarantees.

[phillyfn]

Signabilty maybe. He's an Indians commit so maybe NIL playing in to it

[zambonir]

I would think you also just have to want to go to college, surely first-round money or second-round overpay can still complete with NCAA baseball NIL money at a school like Indiana. But if you want to spend three years in school you know you can just do it again... and we know a lot of MLB teams are perfectly happy for you to do it these days.

[andyb]

surely first-round money or second-round overpay can still complete with NCAA baseball NIL money at a school like Indiana.

Maybe not. Remember if he is looking at slots in the 40-60 range it would be bonuses in the $1.5 to $2.5 million range. That means $500K-$800K of yearly NIL money. One has to think that a bunch of players get more than that yearly these days. Big disadvantage of course are the lack of multi-year deals, but imagine that schools and agents are working on some version of that with insurance guarantees.

I think bonuses over $3 million can generally sway HS players easily, but the level below that is much less certain these days. 3 years of NIL money can be more than midlevel MLB single time bonuses (and they would still get a bonus out of college after 3 years in addition).

[phillyfn]

So if he just wants to go to college it seems that would be known and if teams still haven’t selected him the money in NIL may be better than you are assuming. How else do you explain it?

[zambonir]

That just seems like a lot of money for Indiana, versus a Texas or an Oklahoma. I guess I'm thinking about how the Maryland basketball coach left his Big 10 school for Villanova because football gets all the money there. I think they were only talking about $200K per basketball player in that case, and those are smaller rosters. Plus baseball is still #3 everywhere.

Granted, that whole situation is more about the revenue-sharing than the private money. Certainly I have no idea what Indiana's NIL collective's budget might be. It only takes one or two donors [as with Texas Tech in both football and softball].

[julio]

All right, blast it... I just moved the Matthew Fisher discussion here, from the Draft Picks thread, because it wasn't about our draft picks. So... three minutes later, the Phils select... Matthew Fisher!

[zambonir]

lol perfect.

[phillyfn]

Perfect timing lol

[julio]

Stuff happens.

I should argue that the Phils took Fisher because I moved the discussion here!

[Florida_Sunshine]

Nice work Julio. But can he be signed?