2025 MLB Draft Room ~ Thread, Mocks, Discussion, Draft Boards

[NYCardsFan]

Prep Baseball released their midseason mock last week, and their new Top 200 board this week.

Enjoy!! Top 200 Draft board

https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/news ... rch-update

and

last week's mock (which I posted last week, but let's put both together)

https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/news ... rch-update

"I noticed, LaViolette is slated to go #13 overall in the entire draft in this mock . . ."

"Remarkable. IMO."

I was able to Finagle a Mock Draft to do my nefarious bidding and rep my dastardly agenda

So even though they really need a power hitting young outfielder, there is no way the Cardinals should take LaViolette if he's there at #5. Is that how you feel? He's still at 1 to six, overall, in some draft mocks I've seen, fairly recently.

So you credit the mocks that say what you want, and dismiss those that don’t? Seems like an intellectually honest, balanced, and unbiased approach . . .

[Shady]

I, too, am concerned about LaViolette's K rate. Isn't there also some strikeouts concerns with Holliday? Right now, I see this
1) Arnold, Nationals
2) Holliday, LAA
3) Bremmer, Seattle
4) LaViolette, Colorado
If that would play out, what do the Cardinals do at #5?

[craviduce]

Baseball America released their midseason Top 300.

It's behind a paywall so a link won't work here.

New Top 10 board is

Jamie Arnold, LHP, FSU
Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon St
Dean Curley, SS, Tennessee
Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
Ethan Holliday, SS/3B, Stillwater HS, OKla.
Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS, Calif.
Billy Carlson, SS, Corona HS, Calif
Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara
Jace LaViolette, CF, Texas A&M
Kruz Schoolcraft , LHP/1B, Sunset HS, Oregon

Holliday, Bremner, and LaViolette biggest drops from their preseason Board. Arquette, Curley, Houston are the biggest jumpers from their preseason board

[Shady]

Baseball America released their midseason Top 300.

It's behind a paywall so a link won't work here.

New Top 10 board is

Jamie Arnold, LHP, FSU
Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon St
Dean Curley, SS, Tennessee
Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
Ethan Holliday, SS/3B, Stillwater HS, OKla.
Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS, Calif.
Billy Carlson, SS, Corona HS, Calif
Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara
Jace LaViolette, CF, Texas A&M
Kruz Schoolcraft , LHP/1B, Sunset HS, Oregon

Holliday, Bremner, and LaViolette biggest drops from their preseason Board. Arquette, Curley, Houston are the biggest jumpers from their preseason board

It would be very interesting if Holliday, Bremmer and LaViolette would all be available at #5 for the Cardinals. I'd like to see at least one of the three available. Having both Winn and Wetherholt in the organization. The Cardinals really don't need a SS with that #1 pick.

[craviduce]

Baseball America released their midseason Top 300.

It's behind a paywall so a link won't work here.

New Top 10 board is

Jamie Arnold, LHP, FSU
Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon St
Dean Curley, SS, Tennessee
Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
Ethan Holliday, SS/3B, Stillwater HS, OKla.
Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS, Calif.
Billy Carlson, SS, Corona HS, Calif
Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara
Jace LaViolette, CF, Texas A&M
Kruz Schoolcraft , LHP/1B, Sunset HS, Oregon

Holliday, Bremner, and LaViolette biggest drops from their preseason Board. Arquette, Curley, Houston are the biggest jumpers from their preseason board

It would be very interesting if Holliday, Bremmer and LaViolette would all be available at #5 for the Cardinals. I'd like to see at least one of the three available. Having both Winn and Wetherholt in the organization. The Cardinals really don't need a SS with that #1 pick.

having 10 or 11 great SS in your Minor League system isn't a problem. SS is the easiest position to move from, b/c it's the most demanding. All 3 of those College SS are very tall, and athletic enough to move off the position.

Falling in love with one player you don't know anything about is a losing strat. The Cards have done this several times before....most recent was Cooper Hjerpe...he fell to 35-40th on most draft boards before the draft, the Cards didn't care, they fell in love with him and ignored the injury concerns....

Baseball Scouts use the term "Warts" when discussing possible red flags with a player....LaViolette discussions/synopsis are loaded with the word "Warts".

Read the tea leaves.

[Shady]

Baseball America released their midseason Top 300.

It's behind a paywall so a link won't work here.

New Top 10 board is

Jamie Arnold, LHP, FSU
Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon St
Dean Curley, SS, Tennessee
Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
Ethan Holliday, SS/3B, Stillwater HS, OKla.
Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS, Calif.
Billy Carlson, SS, Corona HS, Calif
Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara
Jace LaViolette, CF, Texas A&M
Kruz Schoolcraft , LHP/1B, Sunset HS, Oregon

Holliday, Bremner, and LaViolette biggest drops from their preseason Board. Arquette, Curley, Houston are the biggest jumpers from their preseason board

It would be very interesting if Holliday, Bremmer and LaViolette would all be available at #5 for the Cardinals. I'd like to see at least one of the three available. Having both Winn and Wetherholt in the organization. The Cardinals really don't need a SS with that #1 pick.

having 10 or 11 great SS in your Minor League system isn't a problem. SS is the easiest position to move from, b/c it's the most demanding. All 3 of those College SS are very tall, and athletic enough to move off the position.

Falling in love with one player you don't know anything about is a losing strat. The Cards have done this several times before....most recent was Cooper Hjerpe...he fell to 35-40th on most draft boards before the draft, the Cards didn't care, they fell in love with him and ignored the injury concerns....

Baseball Scouts use the term "Warts" when discussing possible red flags with a player....LaViolette discussions/synopsis are loaded with the word "Warts".

Read the tea leaves.

Already having Winn, Wetherholt, Saggese and Gorman. I would still prefer a collegiate starting pitcher or collegiate outfielder with power at #5. Wouldn't LaViolette have likely gone in the top five last draft? His apparent drop in status is noteworthy.

[craviduce]

Baseball America released their midseason Top 300.

It's behind a paywall so a link won't work here.

New Top 10 board is

Jamie Arnold, LHP, FSU
Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon St
Dean Curley, SS, Tennessee
Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
Ethan Holliday, SS/3B, Stillwater HS, OKla.
Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS, Calif.
Billy Carlson, SS, Corona HS, Calif
Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara
Jace LaViolette, CF, Texas A&M
Kruz Schoolcraft , LHP/1B, Sunset HS, Oregon

Holliday, Bremner, and LaViolette biggest drops from their preseason Board. Arquette, Curley, Houston are the biggest jumpers from their preseason board

It would be very interesting if Holliday, Bremmer and LaViolette would all be available at #5 for the Cardinals. I'd like to see at least one of the three available. Having both Winn and Wetherholt in the organization. The Cardinals really don't need a SS with that #1 pick.

having 10 or 11 great SS in your Minor League system isn't a problem. SS is the easiest position to move from, b/c it's the most demanding. All 3 of those College SS are very tall, and athletic enough to move off the position.

Falling in love with one player you don't know anything about is a losing strat. The Cards have done this several times before....most recent was Cooper Hjerpe...he fell to 35-40th on most draft boards before the draft, the Cards didn't care, they fell in love with him and ignored the injury concerns....

Baseball Scouts use the term "Warts" when discussing possible red flags with a player....LaViolette discussions/synopsis are loaded with the word "Warts".

Read the tea leaves.

Already having Winn, Wetherholt, Saggese and Gorman. I would still prefer a collegiate starting pitcher or collegiate outfielder with power at #5.

don't draft by what you have now....that's a strategy that doesn't work and shouldn't be implored anymore....regrettably we've done that before in 2022...again with Hjerpe, Mautz, Hansen....LHP, we were short on them, and we didn't care what we drafted as long as they were LHP....wasted 3 picks in 4 rounds.

Best Player Available. Draft that every single time.

I'm afraid they (Cards Brass) probably have fallen in love with Holliday, and will ignore his struggles this summer vs. better competition than Oklahoma kids and his lack of power with a Wooden Bat

[craviduce]

and Saggese and Gorman aren't blocking anyone. Try to get out of that mind frame.

[NYCardsFan]

Baseball America released their midseason Top 300.

It's behind a paywall so a link won't work here.

New Top 10 board is

Jamie Arnold, LHP, FSU
Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon St
Dean Curley, SS, Tennessee
Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
Ethan Holliday, SS/3B, Stillwater HS, OKla.
Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS, Calif.
Billy Carlson, SS, Corona HS, Calif
Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara
Jace LaViolette, CF, Texas A&M
Kruz Schoolcraft , LHP/1B, Sunset HS, Oregon

Holliday, Bremner, and LaViolette biggest drops from their preseason Board. Arquette, Curley, Houston are the biggest jumpers from their preseason board

It would be very interesting if Holliday, Bremmer and LaViolette would all be available at #5 for the Cardinals. I'd like to see at least one of the three available. Having both Winn and Wetherholt in the organization. The Cardinals really don't need a SS with that #1 pick.

having 10 or 11 great SS in your Minor League system isn't a problem. SS is the easiest position to move from, b/c it's the most demanding. All 3 of those College SS are very tall, and athletic enough to move off the position.

Falling in love with one player you don't know anything about is a losing strat. The Cards have done this several times before....most recent was Cooper Hjerpe...he fell to 35-40th on most draft boards before the draft, the Cards didn't care, they fell in love with him and ignored the injury concerns....

Baseball Scouts use the term "Warts" when discussing possible red flags with a player....LaViolette discussions/synopsis are loaded with the word "Warts".

Read the tea leaves.

Already having Winn, Wetherholt, Saggese and Gorman. I would still prefer a collegiate starting pitcher or collegiate outfielder with power at #5.

don't draft by what you have now....that's a strategy doesn't work and shouldn't be implored anymore....regrettably we've done that before in 2022...again with Hjerpe, Mautz, Hansen....LHP, we were short on them, and we didn't care what we drafted as long as they were LHP....wasted 3 picks in 4 rounds.

Best Player Available. Draft that every single time.

I'm afraid they (Cards Brass) probably have fallen in love with Holliday, and will ignore his struggles this summer vs. better competition than Oklahoma kids and his lack of power with a Wooden Bat

Super-scout Shady is playing 3-D chess, already drafting for need to fill out his projected 2030 active roster . . .

[Shady]

Baseball America released their midseason Top 300.

It's behind a paywall so a link won't work here.

New Top 10 board is

Jamie Arnold, LHP, FSU
Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon St
Dean Curley, SS, Tennessee
Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
Ethan Holliday, SS/3B, Stillwater HS, OKla.
Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS, Calif.
Billy Carlson, SS, Corona HS, Calif
Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara
Jace LaViolette, CF, Texas A&M
Kruz Schoolcraft , LHP/1B, Sunset HS, Oregon

Holliday, Bremner, and LaViolette biggest drops from their preseason Board. Arquette, Curley, Houston are the biggest jumpers from their preseason board

It would be very interesting if Holliday, Bremmer and LaViolette would all be available at #5 for the Cardinals. I'd like to see at least one of the three available. Having both Winn and Wetherholt in the organization. The Cardinals really don't need a SS with that #1 pick.

having 10 or 11 great SS in your Minor League system isn't a problem. SS is the easiest position to move from, b/c it's the most demanding. All 3 of those College SS are very tall, and athletic enough to move off the position.

Falling in love with one player you don't know anything about is a losing strat. The Cards have done this several times before....most recent was Cooper Hjerpe...he fell to 35-40th on most draft boards before the draft, the Cards didn't care, they fell in love with him and ignored the injury concerns....

Baseball Scouts use the term "Warts" when discussing possible red flags with a player....LaViolette discussions/synopsis are loaded with the word "Warts".

Read the tea leaves.

Already having Winn, Wetherholt, Saggese and Gorman. I would still prefer a collegiate starting pitcher or collegiate outfielder with power at #5.

don't draft by what you have now....that's a strategy that doesn't work and shouldn't be implored anymore....regrettably we've done that before in 2022...again with Hjerpe, Mautz, Hansen....LHP, we were short on them, and we didn't care what we drafted as long as they were LHP....wasted 3 picks in 4 rounds.

Best Player Available. Draft that every single time.

I'm afraid they (Cards Brass) probably have fallen in love with Holliday, and will ignore his struggles this summer vs. better competition than Oklahoma kids and his lack of power with a Wooden Bat

Arquette has my attention. At 6'5", 220 lbs he could move positions. What kind of power potential does he have? Any current player comp?

[craviduce]

Arquette has 6 HR's this season...line drives, level swinging is his forte. He K's more than Walks....but right now it's not that big of an issue. His misses are in the zone, not out of the zone.

Marek Houston is the best athlete of the SS's, with the best power and speed.

I'd go with Houston, Curley, Arquette and Wehiwa Aloy (Arkansas) ....that order as the best SS/Hitters in the draft....as of now . This stuff changes all the time, but the way things have trended all season, those are your 4. Gavin Kilen , too, from Tennessee should be grouped with them, but he needs to come back from a Hamstring injury first.

Summerhill from Arizona hits well for a lead off man, so does RJ Austin from Vanderbilt. Devin Taylor has power, but is a bad defender....even though he's trying his best to play all of the OF this spring....it's embarrassing and funny to watch...Lonnie Smith Junior in the OF

[craviduce]

Kyle Schwarber was drafted 6th (IIRC) and he couldn't play defense at Catcher, 1B, nor RF/LF...his Bat carried him to the pick. Maybe Taylor can vault into the Top 5? He has a ways to go, but the season still has quite a bit left to play

[Cranny]

Prep Baseball released their midseason mock last week, and their new Top 200 board this week.

Enjoy!! Top 200 Draft board

https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/news ... rch-update

and

last week's mock (which I posted last week, but let's put both together)

https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/news ... rch-update

"I noticed, LaViolette is slated to go #13 overall in the entire draft in this mock . . ."

"Remarkable. IMO."

I was able to Finagle a Mock Draft to do my nefarious bidding and rep my dastardly agenda

So even though they really need a power hitting young outfielder, there is no way the Cardinals should take LaViolette if he's there at #5. Is that how you feel? He's still at 1 to six, overall, in some draft mocks I've seen, fairly recently.

So you credit the mocks that say what you want, and dismiss those that don’t? Seems like an intellectually honest, balanced, and unbiased approach . . .

Instead of being a jerk, NY, you should be thanking craviduce for the value he brings to this forum. Probably the most value of any poster on here.

[Alex Reyes Cy Young]

Kyle Schwarber was drafted 6th (IIRC) and he couldn't play defense at Catcher, 1B, nor RF/LF...his Bat carried him to the pick. Maybe Taylor can vault into the Top 5? He has a ways to go, but the season still has quite a bit left to play

Love bat first approach.

Is this the player Crav?

https://www.justbaseball.com/mlb-draft/ ... in-taylor/

[craviduce]

Kyle Schwarber was drafted 6th (IIRC) and he couldn't play defense at Catcher, 1B, nor RF/LF...his Bat carried him to the pick. Maybe Taylor can vault into the Top 5? He has a ways to go, but the season still has quite a bit left to play

Love bat first approach.

Is this the player Crav?

https://www.justbaseball.com/mlb-draft/ ... in-taylor/

yeah, ARCY....if you go all the back to the beginning of this, he was one of the ones I liked....but so were Stevenson and Petry and they've stagnated a bit.

Taylor is really good with the bat. Has been since HS...but that's it...just the bat.

As much as I like him, at #5 we can do better.

And Schwarber was the finishing piece on a 3-4 year tank job. They had Bryant, Baez, and Happ drafted already in previous years.

Taylor is the type of player the Angels will draft at #2...b/c they do dumb "Fecal matter" like that all the time.

[craviduce]

Sean McCormack.... Marlin's Beat Blogger...I think?

not often you see a mock from a fan/beat blogger that doesn't center around their own teams's pick (cough, cough, Bleacher/Cubbie guy), but this isn't half bad. He totally missed out on Liam Doyle, but other than that, It's a pretty decent representation of what's the Draft Boards currently look like on average...maybe Forbes is too low, too.

ENJOY !!!

I like Billy Carlson, I'm hard pressed to skip on him if he's available, but Marek Houston would make me do that.

https://fishonfirst.com/news-rumors/mia ... ening-day/