2025 Draft: Day 1 Live Blog

7:30 PM ET

So, we are underway.  I wanted to wait until halfway through the first round before I started this live blog.

• Tyler Bremner was the big surpirse so far.  I love this guy.  He is as much like Shane Bieber as I can imagine.  I hope the Angels have a great pitching development program because that would make this guy a multi-time all-star, IMO
• Ethan Conrad at #17 was a surprise.  As I have said before, I wouldn't have picked him at #27 so I can't believe, with the uncertainty of his shoulder surgery, that a team this early would take that gamble.  It IS very much like DeLauter and, as we can tell now, that can be a real issue, no matter how talented the player is.
• The Brewers selected my first overall pick projection, Andrew Fischer at #20. That hurts for me.  
• Right now (after pick 20) we have #16, 17/19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 29.  still left on the board. 

8:00 ET

• So, we are up to pick #22 and we have the first overdraft.  ESPN has been pushing Tate Southisene to us at #27 but the Braves selected the #39 prospect at their slot. So, on my board, the Guardians would go after Laviolette, Neville or Taylor but, with my model, as Gage Wood is dropping, they could pop a college pitcher, as well.  Again, I hope they stay away from HS guys or college hit-over-power guys.  
• The Tigers just selected Jordan Yost at #24. ESPN had us picking at #70.  Phew.  We may had dodged a bullet there as this is the first big overdraft

8:15 ET

• Well, we are up to Guardians first pick at #27.  The top ranked guys who are left include LaViolette, Neville,Taylor  and Forbes from my board.  It scares me a little bit that there are 2 HS guys (de Brun and Hammond) who have been projected to go to the Guardians.  A hit-over-power college OFer (Summerhill), a college SS (Aloy), two college catchers (Bodine and Stevenson) are also available.  
• Harold Reynolds talks about the Phillies having a window. The Guardians have a window, too.

8:20 PM

• OK, the pick is in and the Guardians select Jace LaViolette.  He was #2 on my big board at this spot.  He has 65 grade power and can play CF.  I think Mason Neville was very similar to LaViolette.  Thus, this makes it an upside pick.  There is more risk than with Neville but the reward, if he makes his ceiling.  So color me happy...but also color me standing with my fingers crossed.  One thing this means is that we need to get better hitting coaches all through the organization.

9:00 ET

• The draft is proceeding slowly (as it will for a team that has no picks between 27 and 64,  Guys are going off the board/ It's interesting that Taylor, Neville and Belyeu on the board.  Oops, Taylor just went off the board to the A's.
• AJ Russell, my pick at #64, is gone to Texas at #52.  Big FB.  This is why I wish they allowed draft pick trading...and Ted Stepien was the owner of every ML team except Cleveland.

10:30 ET

• Sorry, if anyone is out there reading this, I had to do a couple of things so I am playing catchup.   Let's talk about the Guardians' picks
• #64 - Dean Curley SS - Tennessee - A number of college pitchers on my big board went right before our pick at #64. Maybe this had to do with them taking a college SS.  Curley has shown power-over-hit capability.  I have to ask why we didn't take Mason Neville, Gavin Turley or Mark Belyeu.  I thought it was probably because they took a college OFer in the first round and were looking for another college position player who was hit-over-power.   That was until their pick at #66 where they took...
• #66 - Aaron Walton OF Arizona.  who was their first overdraft.  At this point I realized that both Curley and Walton were right-handed batters so it is extremely possible that they overdrafted Walton to give them another right-handed power-over-hit bat.  I still don't buy this philosophy as you had to pass on a 65/70 power RFer (Turley), a 65 power CFer (Neville), a 60 power CF (Belyeu) to  take Walton, whose power is only 50 with a 45 hit tool.
• #70 - Will Hynes RHP HS - Again, Hynes was a significant overdraft but he is from Canada, as are a number of other pitchers in our organization.    I don't necessarily like this pick It's a little scary that the Guardians saw him in April in Arizona when he pitched for the Canadian Premier team against professional extended spring training participants.  I hope they were on him before that but the level of overdraft makes me wonder how many looks they really had at him before the draft.
• #101 - Nolan Schubart, OF Oklahoma St. - I expected them to go for junior college pitcher Matt Barr here as Barr had made quite the buzz at the combine after being the best JUCO prospect all season.  Taitn Gray (already selected) was my backup plan if Barr was gone but right behind him was Schubart, who was a late riser in the draft.  He is a 60 power guy, taking a little sting out of not taking Neville (highest available prospect left starting day 2) but all Schubart's other tools scream DH.  I would have rather had Neville (#35 ranked prospect) but obviously something is going on with him.  

Immediate Thoughts and Thoughts About Monday

•   The Guardians, as I requested, prioritized college power hitting with 3 of their top 4 picks.  The way it stands right now, if Laviolette pans out, this could be an above average draft.   If he doesn't, all the other picks so far are blah picks and we may be looking at low ceiling prospects only.  
• That gap between #27 and #64 was really pretty damaging to the Guardians as most of the solid-to-above average college pitchers have been selected.  
• What's up for Monday?
• Round 4 will be interesting.  Three of my favorite guys, Neville, Turley and Barr are still on the board.  Unfortunately we will be picking 29th, which might mean we have to overdraft a mediocre college player or pick a difficult to sign HS player as 8 of the top 9 prospects left are all HS kids.
• Rounds 5-10 would also be problematic if I hadn't already planned to take guys who might fall under the radar.  
• A path still exists where we can get Barr, Turley or Neville in the 4th round and any of them would be fine with me, especially Barr. I don't want any more HS kids in the top 10 rounds and we can do that, if luck falls our way.

More will come a little later tonight when I post my Day 2 big boards for each of rounds 4-10 and also a big board list for rounds 11-20.  After we complete 10 rounds I will redo the final big board list to incorporate guys who I think are signable but who have not been drafted yet.