Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - FIRST REACTION: The 2026 Seattle Mariners Draft Class

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Ty and Colby react to the Mariners' 2026 draft class, breaking down a few of the names selected and naming their favorite picks.  Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club! Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server! Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Amazon This Back To School Season, spend less on your kids, with Amazon. With Amazon’s low Back To School Prices, just spend less on your kids. Because every dollar you don’t spend on them, is a dollar you haven’t spent on them.    KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDON to get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started now.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The 26 MLB draft is in the books. We'll break down the Mariners class coming up. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It is Monday, July 13th, 2026.

My name is Tadding Azales, and I'm joined as always by my co-coes Colby Patnode. This episode is brought to you by Fandul. The biggest stage in world soccer is here. Let there be goals. on Fanduel. Visit fanduel.com to get started now. The 2026 MLB draft has concluded. The Baron has made 20 selections. 18 of them are expected to sign.

We'll talk about the two who won't a little later on. But over the next 30 or so minutes, we're just going to go down the list here in order and give you our initial reactions to a few of these picks. Now, obviously, we haven't seen the majority of these guys. So we're only basing our opinions off of what we've read so far. But we are hoping to have Joe Doyle of Overslot baseball join us again here sometime this week to give you guys a better feel for the Marrace class as a whole. But yeah, let's just dive right in here.

The Marys basically went college exclusive with this entire class. But at Pick 24 specifically, you know, we heard nothing but college arms and college outfielders linked to the Mariners in the lead up to this draft. But instead, they go college third baseman and Ace Reese from Mississippi State, who is, is a very polarizing prospect in scouting circles. Some viewed him as one of the 10 to 15 best prospects in this draft. Some viewed him as kind of a fringe first rounder. It's a power above all else profile here with Reese and the likely outcome defensively for him as that he is probably going to wind up at first base or left field,

which it's not a very mariner profile here specifically for a first round pick of theirs. but hey the dude hits tanks and there's belief that even with some of the chase issues he's displayed that he'll hit enough that he won't be so reliant on the long ball it doesn't necessarily feel like a lazro montas situation here with ace rice and you know i'm really curious to know though if you know Cameron fluky and kate towns and a couple of college arms we had heard link to the mariners fluky really like the day of the draft we had heard linked to the Mariners. If those guys go in back-to-back picks right before pick 24,

if that at all had an impact on the Mariners winding up with Reese and the end. Yeah, certainly possible. Also, Hughes from Texas Tech, the outfielder that we had heard them linked to. He went a couple of picks before. So that's, you know, one of the obvious downsides of picking 24 is that you're at the mercy what the other 23 teams do in front of you. And you can't trade up. There's no trading in the major league.

like draft. So for now, that might be something that changes in the next CBA, but whatever. Like, you just kind of have to draft whoever the board says you get to draft. And, yeah, I don't doubt that Fluky and Townsend, I think them going back to back, cause the Mariners to pivot would be my hunch. Now, they might not say that, but whatever, it doesn't matter. So, you know, they go get Reese, who, you know, certainly has an interesting profile, because, like you said, he's a corner guy. And the Mariners haven't drafted a corner guy in the first round since Evan White back in 2017. And that was Scott Hunter's very first draft with the Mariners.

Like that's how long ago it was. Nine years ago. That's crazy to think that that's been nine years since they drafted Evan White. And by the way, even Evan White was like a freaky good athlete. Like not just as a first baseman, but like, no, there were people who legitimately thought he could play center field. So like this is kind of the first time the Maris have taken. taking a non-athlete. I guess Logan Gilbert's not a great athlete, but, you know, pitcher or so whatever.

They haven't, this is the first time they've taken kind of a non-athlet, non-up-the-middle player, ever in the Scott Hunter era, at least. So it will be interesting to see what it was about Reese that they like so much, because there is some swing and mess issues. There is some in-zone contact rate issues, not as, you know, big as, as Las. Now, Laz is doing that in the pros. Reese is doing it in college, but, you know, the SEC, I think most people will tell you is probably somewhere between high A and double A in terms of talent level, and Reese performed

in the SEC. So, yeah, there are some interesting parallels between him and Lazz where it's power. It's a corner outfield only, and there's some big questions about how much swing and miss, but Reese is probably, you know, going to swing and miss less than last. He's a little more polished, I would say. But he doesn't have the raw power, although he's got plenty of it. So Reese is a really interesting pick because, again, he kind of breaks trends for the Mariners. He is not a typical mariner pick.

But there's still plenty of upside here. He hit lefties and righties equally well. He's not a platoon guy. He might be able to play third. We don't know. It doesn't seem like it. The Mariners might think he can because he was dealing with some kind of leg injury or something like that. That may have, you know, limited him a little bit.

but most likely he's going to play first base or left field. He does have an arm, like enough of an arm that he could play right field too. But his ideal fit seems to be first base or left field. Yeah, left field is the one that I've heard the most. Right. Just like reading some reports and all that. That's where scouts think he's ultimately going to wind up. So we'll see.

Sure. But you're drafting the power is the tool you're after here. And it is easy pole side power. 25, 30 home run pop, you know, seems likely. And I think the hit tools is probably a full grade above Montez. So I think you'll see him hit for power, hit for enough average. And then it kind of comes down to his swing decisions. You know, does he draw walks in the minor so that he can buoy his on base percentage?

Or is this going to be a, you know, average, average guy with low OBP who you're hoping slugs his way into the everyday lineup. I don't know. We'll see. Again, there are things you can clean up and can you teach, you know, discipline and contact rates in the zone and all that? I mean, without completely, you know, taking away his power, which is his number one tool, I don't know. So Reese is not a profile I love. It's why I'm consistently lower than, you know, the average person on Las Montez. Just not a profile I'm in love with, so I don't absolutely love this pick, but you can certainly see why they would be interested in this player. And, you know, there's really no question about it.

He went about in the range that he should have. It's not like they reached dramatically for him or anything like that. It's not like they left a ton of talent on the table to take this guy to save $300,000. They really didn't. And, you know, they took a guy that they like, obviously, and they were able to save a little money in case they were able to do something later in the draft. And it kind of seemed like the board just didn't fall the correct way for them to do that. But, you know, it's an interesting pick.

But I wouldn't say it's a bad pick. It's just not my favorite pick. It's not a profile that I love. But Reese probably, I mean, almost certainly sees Inland Empire this year, but maybe even Everett. Yeah, they might just put them in Everett right away. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see where the assignment ends up. But, you know, I think a big chunk of these Mariners draft picks are going to play in the minors this year.

So that's a little bit of a change from, you know, recent draft classes. So we'll see how it goes. But Reese, interesting pick, not my favorite pick, but I don't really have a big complaint about it. It kind of reminds me, the profile reminds me a lot of Gavin Sheets, who's, you know, carved out a pretty nice career for himself in San Diego and absolutely has destroyed the meritor. So, yeah, yeah, we'll see how it goes. But I'm not concerned about him at, like, Team Mobile Park or anything like that. The swing will work just fine at Team Mobile.

It's just a matter of where is he going to play and how much, of the hit tool. Is he a 40 hit tool or is he a 50? Because that'll make a huge difference in his overall impact. And like you said, we'll see him in the miners at some point this year. The Mariners typically hold off on their pitchers right away, but they're hitting prospects that they draft. They usually throw right into the mix right out of the gate. So we'll see on that.

But, yeah, Reese this past year with Mississippi State, 336, 432, 721, the slash line 24 home runs, 12 of those coming during. SEC play. He also has some wood bat experience. He was on the Cape last year in 2025 went 10 for 33 and eight games with a couple bombs. But yeah, depending on who you ask, the mayor is either got a steal here with Ace Reese or it's kind of an underwhelming pick. Yeah. A lot of different opinions on Ace Reese race around the circuit right now. My favorite part of the draft is that it's not just the people who know who have opinions. Everybody has an opinion on whether or not this is a

despite seeing zero at-bats from A's Reese in his entire life. But it's the beauty of baseball, man. Everybody who's ever played in any thinks they know everything. Now, their second round pick might be, I would venture to guess, your favorite pick of this entire draft for the Mariners, because he's a guy that you brought up to Joe Doyle when we had him on the show a couple weeks ago.

That would be LSU outfielder, Jake Brown, who the Maris took 60, fifth overall. Doyle raved about him when you asked about him, especially after seeing him at the MLB draft combine down in Arizona, where Brown apparently had the second and third best 30-yard dash times at the event of everyone who attended. Brown, he's got the best mustache in the draft.

I can say that. And he's a really, really fun athlete. And again, I know you're very excited about the selection. Yeah. My preliminary top 30 mariner prospect list after the draft, Brown is ranked well ahead of ACE. So, yeah, again, profiles, I like guys who are multidimensional. That can help you in multiple ways.

He might be able to play center field, but even if he doesn't, he's going to be a very good to elite corner outfielder. He's got a plus arm. So right field, left field can both work for him. And again, I think he'll be able to play some center field. It just won't be your primary, like, option. Like, but he can if you need them to type of thing. Obviously, the straight line speed speaks for itself.

This is the guy who I think if he didn't break his handmade bone in April. He probably goes late first round, maybe even around the place that Reese went. But, you know, so the Mariners possibly you could argue get two late first round talents here out of this. and the dude produces, again, really good athlete, explosive. It's just, does he have the action to play center field? I don't know. Joe doesn't seem to think so. But remember Joe also told us when we asked about him, like,

if this guy slid to the Mariners in the second, he thought that they would, like, abandon their plan to go prep arm at two because they like him this much. And so when the Mariners have a player that they're willing to kind of scrap the plan for, and again, we don't know if that's what happened. some of the names that we had heard maybe going to the Mariners in round two, they also went right before the Mariners got on the clock. So we don't know.

We'll probably never know. The Mariners are going to share that with us. But Brown is a plus athlete with plus tools across the board. There's 20, 25 home run, maybe 30 home run pop in there. I think he's going to hit for a pretty decent average. He's going to get on base. Tremendous pole side power really knows how to get to his pole side. Kind of a running theme for this draft class.

Samarans drafted a ton of guys who put the ball in the air to their pole side. So Brown, I really like this pick. I think he's probably going to end up being the best player in this draft class. Again, I have him ahead of Reese in my initial prospect ranks. Obviously, as we talk to more people, that could change. But I really like the pick. And I think if everything goes really well, and this is like the 100th percentile cop, right?

Not what I'm saying he's going to be. But just the profile in general kind of reminds me of Carlos Gonzalez Gonzalez. Mariner's legend, Cargo. Of course. He is in the binder.

So, yeah, cargo, you know, just that 2020 consistently, really good hitter, cross the board, played a really good corner outfield too.

That's kind of what I see here, again, as the ceiling. But yeah, it is a very interesting comp. We'll see if he wants to sell out for a little more power. See if he makes that decision.

Like, you know, sure, Kel looked good. But, yeah, I do. I do really like the pick. I think he's going to be his floor.

His floor seems like Jake Fraley, who also won't tell us you. Yeah. So, yeah, I am a big fan of the pick. Yeah, just reading the write-up here on Overslaught baseball, that Brown shows more bat speed of raw power and batting practice than he's willing to show in games. So that's interesting. So maybe there's a little bit more untapped power there in the bat with Jake Brown. So we'll see if maybe the mayor's.

can get to that without sacrificing some of the other tools that make him such an attractor prospect here. There's a sweet spot they're going to try and find. Oh, and again, by the way, just like Reese, SEC. So, performed at the highest level that you can in college baseball. So I imagine we'll see him in Everett or Inland Empire as well. So I'm excited to watch him play. All right. Our 2026 MLB draft breakdown for the mayor's draft class,

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draft class here. We've talked about their first two picks, Ace Reese and Jake Brown. Now let's talk about their third round selection at Pick 101, Cincinnati right-hander, Nathan Taylor. First of only a few college pitchers the Mariners took in this entire draft. And again, this was basically a college-exclusive draft for the Mariners. Taylor, mostly fastball slider right now. And it's a low to mid-90s fastball at the moment. moment that plays up a bit more with his extension.

The slider, though, is really, really, really good, according to reports, Elise. Yeah, it's very marinary profile, elite extension, seven feet of extension, really gets down the mound very well. And again, it is a very, very nasty slider. I know Joe's a big fan, so whenever we have him back on, he'll give us a full breakdown of this pick but I know he's a huge fan of him particularly with the Mariners so this will be interesting it's it's you know is this Griffin Hugis again another player who was kind of viewed as

an underwhelming selection last year and then as we learned more about him and we kind of understood the traits a little bit more became one of our favorite prospects and then unfortunately the tj this year but yeah this is pretty prototypical for the mariners to draft a guy like this and think that they can help him achieve his next level. And again, he's already got one plus pitch, which is a great start. He throws enough strikes. He's got plus extension, which you know the Mariners really like. And as is usually the case, the Mariners are probably going to find a way to add a couple

ticks to the fastball that's just kind of natural as you get into pro ball for just about anybody. So yeah, 6,5, 2.30, big, well-built dude. And then there are some that seem to like the change up. They think it could be a real third offering, but it is. been pretty inconsistently I think he was second in college It's a newer pitch for him so Right right

I think he was second in college baseball And strikeouts on his slider Like it is a legit 60 65 Maybe 70 pitch so Yeah over slots Overslots model here They have kind of a baseball savant

type of model here His slider ranked in the 90th percentile Among college pitchers Yeah It's past season It's a really good pitch So can you get basketball value out of him? Can he develop that third pitch?

Those are the questions. But again, you already have one plus pitch. You have plus extension and you throw enough strikes. That's a pretty good place to start if you're a Mariners farm hand. So coming up here at pick number 129 in the fourth round, we got the first of two Seahawks turned Mariners. That would be UNC Wilmington Seahawks. Of course. Third baseman

Jake Bo. That would be third baseman Trevor Lucas. Lucas admittedly don't know a ton about here. Not really sure what's the thing about the pick. You got anything on Lucas? I mostly just wanted to make the Seahawks joke.

That's what I brought about. Just that he's a really good athlete. Sounds like he should be a well above average third baseman. There's some versatility there. There are some good things he does at the plate. he does get to his pole side he does have kind of underdeveloped pop so yeah i mean i think pretty easy to look at this and be like oh you know it's a dillon more maybe less power more contact or it's like a cross between dillan more and ben williamson not quite the glove of ben

williamson but he hits the ball much harder than ben ever has so that kind of leans towards dillan more but he should make a lot more contact than dillan more so that kind of leans towards Williamson. This just feels like a, you know, I think they save some money here on this pick, a little bit of money as well in case I wanted to use that. But this just feels more like a profile that's like, yeah, this is a kind of a utility guy. It's, it's, you know, maybe Brock Rodden type. And he will see what happens. He's got, again, we'll see the athleticism. We can extract a little bit of extra juice out of the bat. And we'll see what happens here. But yeah, this is, you know, just kind of a utility upside guy who they really like at third base. They think he can play

legit third base. So take the shot on. them see what happens. If not, you probably have a utility guy on your hands, back and forth utility guy. But if he hits, who knows, maybe you have, you know, plus shortstop, plus third base, plus second base defense in the next four or five years. Who knows? Yeah. The slug did climb this year from where it was last year. And he was 97th percentile and barrel percentage this past season as well. Yep. So I imagine we'll see him in Inland Empire.

Then in the fifth round, the mayor has taken. Hayden Yost outfielder out of Florida, who I don't think many people really had much on, even Joe. I know he has his like percentile rankings on overslead baseball, but he didn't even have a, or they didn't even have a write-up on Yost. I've seen a couple of notes here on Yost that his bat speed has started to tick up over the last year or so. really pulled the ball last year. But that's about it. It's about all I got on Hayden Yos right now.

Yeah, the swing kind of reminds me a little bit of Kyle Seeger's, just the profile. I actually haven't seen a video of him yet, so I'll think you were for it. Yeah, perfect game, college baseball. Okay. Yeah, it's a little Kyle Seegerish. I'll send you the tweet.

You can tell me if I'm insane or not. But yeah, Yost centerfielder. I don't know much about him either. I'll be interested to hear what Joe has found out about him, if anything, since then. So kind of an interesting profile, but he's a centerfielder, played in the SEC. Bat speed is getting there. He finished the year, you know, just insane. Had a huge last couple of weeks of the season.

Good athlete from what I can tell. And then it's just kind of, hey, I think the Mariners probably feel like they got an ascending player, like somebody who has not yet even reach their what they can do. So this is one of those guys I want to learn more about because I could see him being, you know, a guy who ends up in our top 30 as we learn more about him. But just based on what I know right now, he's kind of a player that the Mariners think they got a, you know, a good deal on because he hadn't quite reached his peak. Like if he had done what he did over the last few weeks over the course of the entire season,

he probably would have been, you know, top 250 type of guy. And so the Mariners took a shot on him. But yeah, center fielder plays in the SEC, performed, bat speed continues to improve. He's becoming more polished. His brother was a first round pick of the Tigers, I believe, also. So some, you know, pedigree there. So, yeah, I don't know much about him. Unfortunately, I'm hoping to learn more.

But certainly an interesting profile based on what we hear. And it does kind of seem like it is a player that the Mariners think they caught at the beginning of his climb more so than towards the top of it. So maybe the most interesting pick here from day two, at least, is Henry Ford, third basement out of Tennessee, former Virginia transfer at Virginia. He actually broke Mark Reynolds's freshman home run record with 17 homers as a freshman. That's pretty impressive for Henry Ford. Obviously, you had Harry Ford.

now you have Henry Ford it's pretty funny Ford played a little bit of Cedarfield on the Cape this is another third basement like Ace Reese who's probably not going to wind up playing third base he's I know there's some that

think he might wind up in right field I don't think center field even though he played it in the Cape is an actual possibility here for Ford but he's a pretty good athlete and the power is legit that this dude hits tanks. Yeah, it's a pretty raw skill set here.

He's been a name in prospect circles for the last three or four years. He was a pretty highly touted high school kid who was on the board for a lot of teams, but he had a strong commitment to Virginia. Oh, by the way, another SEC guy, now only one year in the SEC, but still, SEC guy for him. yeah he is a guy who puts on a show in batting practice he insane exit veloes really gets to the pole side well 30 home run power but he does chase he will expand the zone he's a very

aggressive hitter 29.7% chase rate this season yeah but an average strikeout rate yeah like right down the middle set uh just under what 19%? Yeah, just under 19% strikeout rate, which again, we'll go up in the pros, but he does expand the zone, but he doesn't whiff an egregious amount. He's fine in the zone stuff. He doesn't swing and miss an outrageous amount either. So it's a little more polished, but he will expand the zone. Would like to see him take a few more walks, especially considering the power threat that he is. Teams will pitch around him a little bit. But yeah, this is a really interesting profile. The merits had taken him in the third and taken Nathan Taylor,

in the fourth and then you know blah blah blah whoever i've already forgotten his name the seahawk in the fifth and whatever lewis yeah nobody would bat an eye so uh ford is a really good get in the sixth round uh of this draft and and he there's a non-zero chance he ends up being the best player they get in this draft class because he can hit it's just a matter of you know can he kind of clean it up a little bit be a little more discipline makes some better swing decisions if you can do all that, then he's probably, you know, probably a right fielder, like you said. But again, he's, he's kind of a sneaky good athlete. So we'll see what happens with him. Maybe he can't stick at third, but right field's probably more likely. And there's, again, you know, I don't love the comp game,

but it is just kind of a shorthand way to tell people, you know, who we think this guy is. There's some Mitch Hanager here, like late Mitch Hanig, not, not the, you know, 280, 450, or, you know, 450 slug, on. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, probably, you know, $2.60. It's probably, you know, $3.20-ish on base. And then could you get to, you know, 30 home runs? Yeah, yeah, I think he could. So we'll see if you can clean it up and whatnot. But yeah, I do like the pick. It is certainly a, I would say certainly the most exciting day two pick. Yeah, 98th percentile on average exit velocity of the season. Ninety first percentile and 90th percentile exit velocity, 94th percentile barrel percentage pulls the ball. Again, that's, that's, that's, That's a big trend here with a lot of the marriage draft picks. A lot of guys who pull the ball in the air at elite levels. A lot of us is you guys too. Yeah, 293, 36603.

The slash line this season at Tennessee, his only season in the SEC at Tennessee, 20 homers, 15 doubles. Good year for Henry Ford. And yeah, very excited to see what the Mariners do with them once they get them into the organization. All right. So we'll go over some of our other favorite. kind of standout picks from day two of the draft in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the Lock Time Airs podcast, it's brought to you by Fandible.

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So talked about the Mariners first six picks of their 2026 MLB draft class. Now we're at the point of the class where there are varying levels of information on guys. So I'm just going to go down the rest of this list here, Colby, and you just stop me if you want to talk about any of these guys. So in the seventh round, the Marys took Ryan Wynn shortstop out of Georgia. MLB.com didn't even have the right school for him initially when he was drafted. They said that he was drafted out of Georgia. to tech. So, yeah. Mason Ecclman,

the eighth round pick, catcher out of Ohio State. Pretty solid shot that he will stick behind the plate, so that's pretty interesting. Got a, you know, one or two I don't want to call them tools, but like, you know, he's got some stuff at the plate too, so he might be able to develop into a solid backup catcher.

And you never know, the Mariners. Pretty good at developing catchers, if I do say so myself. So we'll see what, if anything, comes that. But yeah, with all these college guys, it'll be interesting to see who goes to Everett, who goes to Inland Empire and who maybe sticks around in Arizona. So yeah, but yeah, we should see a lot of these guys play. And I imagine we'll probably see some promotions coming up here. But yeah, that's one of those guys that's like, hey, let's track them in the minor, see how you performs.

Because anytime the Mariners take a catcher, it's probably worth noting. Yeah, I should also mention back to the Ryan Wynn pick that I did hear that the Mariners went slightly overslot on Ryan Wynn. So that's where some of the savings that maybe they had on Hayden Yose and who was the other that they saved on Trevor Lucas? See the other guy that they saved quite a bit on? Yeah. So that's where some of those savings potentially went there. Ninth round, Drew Whalen, right-hand pitcher out of Auburn. His season was cut short back in March.

and he's recently had Tommy John surgery, so it'll be a while before we see Whalen and the mayor's organization. Yeah, he's 2025 Conference USA Pitcher of the Year. Fastball was 91 to 94, touch 96 at times. The change-up seems to be the pitch that, you know, most people are really excited about, tunnels it really well. So it's four-seam, two-seam, change-up, curbaul, slider. And there is some, I've read that he spends the ball well.

I'd be interested to see like the actual rates on those pitches. But again, you can spend the ball. It's a pretty good athlete. You know, not the biggest guy, but pretty good athlete. So there might be more Velo there. But yeah, it's an interesting profile because he sounds like, at least to me, again, I haven't gotten to watch very much of him. I've only seen a couple of videos of him.

Has a really good change up to work with. And it tunnels really well off of the fastball. You don't have to throw, you know, 98 if you have a plus change up that comes off of that fast fall. And Whelham, at least as far as I can tell, seems to have that. Kind of Jackson Steensma coded, who they also took in the ninth round last year, who was coming off of a, who had a surgery that he needed to recover from. So yeah. Yeah. Interesting pick.

And then to wrap up the first 10 rounds, the Maris took Eric Giann, pick 310, second baseman out of Stanford. this is another guy that I wouldn't be surprised to see the mayor has spent a little extra on here and use some of those savings on to get him away from Stanford and get him away from NIL money. Gian is a very annoying out at the plate. What was it, 27 strikeouts to 26 walks this past season? I might have those numbers flipped. Dude could really, really hit. Yep.

And it sounds like there's very little concern about whether or not he can stick up the middle. It doesn't sound like he's going to be a gold glover. by any stretch at second base, but it does sound like he can play a legit, solid second base, which is obviously going to help his profile quite a bit. So, yeah, there's some sneaky pop here.

There is a feel for hitting. He does not strike out. He'll put the ball in play. And he can, you know, stick at second base. That's a pretty interesting profile to get in the 10th round, which is, again, I'm assuming why the Mariners, or part of the reason why the Marriers took him,

is because they did have some extra bonus pool money. And we've already heard that, like, they've essentially agreed to terms with 18 of the 20. And he is one of the 18. So, yeah, he is, I mean, I really, he's one of those guys, like, I want to see this guy play. Like, I want to see him at Everett. I want to see him because this is a really interesting profile for a 10th round pick.

Then in the 11th round, the mayor is to take Oregon State reliever White Queen, who attended Lake State. Evans High School was at Everett Community College and then transferred to OSU. And he's got some stuff. He's pretty interesting. 95th percentile slider here. Yeah, a 40 percent strikeout rate as the Beaves closer last year. Like, this is, this is interesting now.

Also, by the way, a plus curb ball. two plus breaking balls, two distinct plus breaking balls for Queen. And there's a thought that they might send them out as a starter. Also, pretty good cutter. Like, you look at overslots, I don't know what they call it, but their pitch quality and their percentile ranks here, 82nd percentile on the cutter, 91st percentile on the curveball, 95th percentile on the slider, 53 percentile on the fastball.

so there's some work to do there. But again, the cutter is his fastball. Joe seems to think he can start the year or start his pro career as a starter. We'll see how quickly the Mariners want to put him in the bullpen. But yes, 78 innings or 78 strikeouts and 47 innings. That's pretty interesting out of the pen. And with two plus breaking balls already, this is a really interesting arm. Easily my favorite day three, what used to be day three pick, kind of in, we'll call it the last 10 picks.

here. Wyatt Queen is certainly one of my favorites. And he almost certainly will find his way into my top 30 when all of a sudden. This is a really interesting. I really like the 10th and 11th round picks. And then the 12th round pick, the second Seahawk that the Marys took out of UNC, Wilmington. Connor Marshburn, right-handed pitcher, who is 6-6-250. So that immediately caught my attention, right?

And then I read the write-up. that oversawed baseball had. I don't know if Joe specifically wrote this right up or who did, but there's a paragraph here that really caught my attention. It says, quote, he begins his delivery upright, gathers upright, breaks his hands up near the letters,

and then hinges like any prototypical six-foot-six-inch righty would. He brings the arm up behind his head, but suddenly, as if calling an audible at the last second, drops his arm into a slingshot, low three quarter pocket and whips the baseball to the plate. So I texted Joe. I was like,

this sounds insane. I couldn't find any footage of him. Like I could find footage of him as a high schooler, but he changed his arm action this year. So Joe sent me a video. And yeah, it's cracked. This dude,

especially at that height at that build. This dude can be fun. Like, I'm really intrigued by him. have. Yeah. Again, like my guy in the last 10 rounds is Wyatt Queen. It sounds like yours is Marshburn, not Mashburn. Marshburn. So yeah, I saw the video too. And it is it's something. Like it's really weird. It's not as like crazy as that right up makes it sound. Like once you see it in motion, it kind of looks fluid a little bit more. And you're like, okay. Yeah. But it's, it's freaky looking.

So it's noticeable. You're like that's not. Okay. Sure. So yeah, that that's certainly interesting. But yeah, I don't have a lot on any of these other guys.

My favorite pick, aside from those two is I believe it's Chris Torres. Because he went to a school called USC upstate. Right. That's the only reason. And it's also not the USC that we all think, you know, that we all kind of equate to.

USC right it's South Carolina yeah but University South Carolina very good baseball school they're also USC but yeah this is yeah this takes directional schools to a whole new level yeah like I think it's South Carolina upstate like because that's two that's like one direction and then like it's it's it's south but not it's south but not that south right it's up it's north South. It's like it's the second best directional school I've ever heard of, uh, right after, uh, Northwestern because that's two, it's two directions. Like, we technically one, but you know what I mean. Yeah, it goes northwestern USC upstate. Uh, and then like, obviously like, you know, West Virginia. I mean, there's also a pretty good one. Isn't there like South Eastern state or something like that?

Yeah. Southeastern or something like that. Yeah. Uh, sure. Directional schools are awesome. But yeah, USC upstate. That caught my eye. But yeah, you know, unfortunately the two big names that kind of went here in day three, they are the two names that are not going to sign. And I say day three just the last 10 picks. Yeah, yeah. Santorelli, not going to sign.

They knew they weren't going to be able to sign him when they drafted him. So again, I don't know why teams do that. Something about building some kind of relation, whatever, doesn't matter. He's going to. it's insurance in case something unexpected falls through with yeah like reiss all of a sudden's like i'm not going to sign with you it's like okay i guess we'll just offer the money to santa really then but yeah scott hunter specifically acknowledged both of these picks as as insurance picks um after the draft yesterday

um yeah so so just real quick just to go down the rest of the list here anthony treto was the 13th round pick right-hand pitcher out of tarlinson state that's apparently a school Chris Diaz, right-handed pitcher out of Florida Gulf Coast. Charlie Sutherland, left-handed hitting outfielder from Minnesota. The best gopher the Mariners have ever employed. Back. Sure. Chris Torres, the lefty that you mentioned, out of South Carolina, upstate.

Matthew Mathis, which has a J at the end of the last name. It's M-A-T-T-H-I-J-S. right-handed pitcher out of UNC. That is the absurdly high college ERA draft pick of the class this year. Yeah, and then Dominic Santorelli, who you mentioned, he was the only prep pick

by the Mariners in this entire draft class, left-handed hitting an outfielder, but he's an LSU commit, and they just drafted him as insurance in case something at the top end of their draft falls through, and then Michael Petit, the right-handed hitting

an outfielder, yeah, from Virginia Commonwealth. There's actually some excitement about Michael Petit. So that's the name to keep an eye on there. And then their 20th round pick, Connor Schauser Shuzi, not exactly how you're going to really like for him to be signable. As I learned more about him,

I was like, this guy's, he's a player. Like he's legit. But unfortunately, yeah, just an insurance. Unfortunately,

he's a sophomore, third basement out of Texas Tech. Yeah, like you said, an insurance pick. He's going to, go top five rounds next year. But hey, you know

what? Ask Troy Taylor if you can escape the Seattle Mariners once they like you. Exactly. So just keep... They're at the major league level. Kendries Morales. Yeah. So, yeah, just keep Connor Shoes or whatever, or Shouse, whatever we're calling

him. Keep his name in the back of your mind filing cabinet for next year, because the Mariners are probably going to be very interested in him. But yeah, that would have been a really fun one. But yeah, so all in all, like you said, 19 college players it's kind of

with their first six picks they took three third baseman like that's how they were announced so we know Reese probably not going to play only one of whom is probably going to stick right right but still even with Lucas there's like

and even with Lucas there's concerns about like is the the hitting profile actually going to match with the position you know so he might have to move elsewhere just because of the bat right yeah so this draft class is going to be 18 players. Eight of their first 10 picks were bats. Yeah. And then six of their last 10 were armed. So it's a 12-8 split or sorry, a 12-6 split. I'm trying to do math on

apply. My mistake. It is a 10-8 split. So yeah, I mean, kind of a balanced class, all college guys like we talked about, which is unusual. So it would be interesting to know, like, did you have something you wanted to do in round two and that either the guy got taken or did you have to pivot because Jake Brown fell to you, you like him that much and, you know, where you want to go. I think, you know, Scott Hunter acknowledged that there were some things they thought they were going to be able to do. And for whatever reason, it just didn't land that way. Santa Raleigh was one of them.

They tried to get him early on in the draft, Scott Hunter said just didn't work out. So, yeah. So again, you know, just kind of one of those things. I do wonder how much, I do wonder how much of it is NIL. and you know the fact that they didn't and you know and and how they didn't have any additional bonus pool so like yep yeah you can go out and spend a ton of money on a on a prep guy but is that is that basically just going to waste the rest of your draft i think at that point especially because they're already probably going to have to spend some extra on some of these college guys because of nil you know again win and i'll is yep like nil is is change the the game because obviously you don't you know if you're santorelli you're making more than a million dollars going to lSU next year so like what's the point if you're not going to get exactly what you want okay i'll just wait a couple years into the draft and go higher

and then i'll and i'll still make money at ls u so yeah and i and i l ls completely changed uh how this works uh scott hunter said as much yesterday as well that like You know, there are some guys. It's just these players, these high school players, they have more leverage than ever now because you could say, like, well, we're going to give you $2 million bucks. And they said, okay, well, so what? I'm going to make 1.8 at LSU. And then next year I'm going to make another million when I enter the transfer portal or whatever. So, yeah, the NIL world is something that is hitting the Major League Baseball draft.

We saw it really for the first time this year. Or maybe we saw it last year, too, and we just didn't notice because the Mariners had the number three. the number three pick and they also had an extra pick at the end of the first round and this is the first year in a minute where the mayors haven't had multiple you know or a one extra pick like they've had 10 picks in 10 rounds this year as opposed to 11 or in the extreme case of 2023 they had 12 so they had some extra bonus pool money that they could play around with and they could kind of distribute it how they want they didn't really have that this year so that they had to try and you know thread a needle and again not only did they not have the extra pick they were picking 24th it makes

much more difficult to draft when you don't have those extra benefits. And so the Mariners, I think did, you know, as, as, you know, well as you could reasonably hope for. I just don't think there was ever a path to them having a super exciting draft when you're picking 24. And in this draft class with, you know, no extra picks and just all the questions that were involved. So overall thoughts on the draft class? I think for what it ultimately is, it's fun. I think there's some fun names in here. I think there's some probability in here. I think there's some guys in here that we'll see maybe in the next year,

year and a half, two years. You know, so that's also fun, you know, when guys are fairly close, when there's proximity with, with some of these guys,

where you don't have to wait so long and just kind of talk about them and talk about them and talk about them year in and year out like we do. And, you know, especially with some of the more recent Mariners ref classes with a lot of these prep guys. I mean, you know,

Cole Emerson's kind of the exception, right, because he was just so special that, Like, yeah, he was a prep guy, but he rose to the ranks so quickly. That typically, you know, that isn't the case. And, you know, they're, I mean, again, like Johnny Farmello isn't all that close. And he was drafted three years ago, right? And we're just going to continue to talk about Johnny Farmello year in and year out.

Whereas, like, with some of these guys, like, yeah, it might not be that long until we actually get to see them at the major league level. So that part of it is fun. Right. And so, yeah, there's some interesting profiles in here that I really like. I would say my favorite picks of the draft, Jake Brown, Henry Ford, Eric Gianne, Wyatt Queen, and then Connor Marshburned. Yeah. I think the thing that stands out about this draft is that they took a lot of corner guys who get to pull side power with ease, and that does not seem like an accident. So, you know, again, is it just because of the pick they have?

had and kind of that's what the class was a lot of and and blah blah blah sure i again the one thing we learn with the mariners is that like if you try to like prototype them like oh they they go college arm in the first well then they'll go three straight years drafting prep bats and then you're like oh so they're a prep bat team and then no we're going to go back to college arms again and like you know we just don't know we they're going to draft according to their board and what the strength of the draft class is um i it's not i'm not going to to say like it's definitely this is the case but when I look at the number of corner guys they took in particular you know Reese and I look at Ford and a little bit lesser extent Jake

Brown because he's like a legit athlete who could play center but he's probably going to look at those guys and I go you know that's been an area of weakness for the Mariners they don't have a ton of outfield prospects in the system but one of the ones they do have is Lazaro Montes who is in the same kind of build of Ace Reese. And, you know, last year they took Luke Stevenson and we know that they were trying to trade Harry Ford at the deadline and they ended up trading them in the winter. So is Ace Reese kind of here to replicate the profile of a player that they're getting ready to trade or they think they might trade?

Maybe. I give it like a 15% chance that's the case. But I just think it's interesting. They took a lot of, you know, pole side power corner. you know, corner types early in this draft. And I don't think that's an accident. I think that was a deliberate plan they had this year. And we'll see if it works out for them.

But yeah, certainly an interesting draft class. There's some fun names here. I don't think there was ever going to be a scenario where this was going to be like, oh, wow, look at what the Mariners did down at 24. They just didn't have the extra picks. They didn't have the bonus pool to really do that. So they just had kind of an almost workman-like draft. and you know ask the Seahawks and workmen like drafts are a good thing if they can if they can produce stars still because yeah and also just selfishly like this was more fun to keep track of the later it went on from the Mariners perspective just because you know last few drafts they've gone overslaught like significantly overslaught on someone early on and then they've kind of had to punt picks later on in the draft and gone you know down the senior sign route a lot

And like it's just like, you know, it's a lot of like reliever types. And then like occasionally you get like the, the Brody Hopkins who pops. But like for the most part, it's, you know, Ryan Hawks and guys like that. And this year it's like, hey, you know, seventh round Ryan Wayne, that's an interesting dude. Mason Ecclman, that's an interesting dude. Drew Whalen, that's an interesting dude. Eric Gian, that's super interesting. If they had gone significantly overslaught in the second, you wouldn't have, you know, Henry Ford,

who's a fun place. you probably wouldn't have Gian who's a really fun piece. So yeah, I mean, again, each draft is different. You kind of have to take it as, as the board falls you,

especially when you're picking 24. So all in all, like I, I see a lot of people like this draft was mediocre. This draft was mid. This draft was well-mean. And it's like, yeah,

okay. So what? I think it's expectedly, well-man, right? Yeah. I mean, it's just like,

yeah. I mean, this is, I look at the, And again, I don't have the perspective of like a Joe or Tyler or Arum who like, you know, see the entire board and all that. But like when I look at who the Mariners took and where and who was around, who was available when they took them, you know, on the player pool that I was somewhat familiar with, which is like the first five rounds, give or take. I didn't see anything that I'm like, oh, man, I wish they had done that instead of this or that.

So it's just tough to say. And again, at the end of the day, the Mariners, I would say they got. With their first two picks, they got two kind of top 30-ish players. That's my opinion of Jake Brown. And then they got some fun lottery tickets and some guys that you definitely seem, you can definitely see as very marinary in Nathan Taylor and Henry Ford. So, yeah, we'll see what happens here. But I think you're going to see a lot of this draft class make their professional

debuts this summer. And that is also kind of a neat little change over what the mayors have done in more recent years because they don't send their pitchers out, you know, typically. And then they, they usually don't send their prep guys out either. Well, this team, this draft didn't have a lot of prep guys, none, actually. And very few pitchers that you're like super excited to go see. So was Taylor going to pitch this year? Probably not.

So, you know, and obviously, you know, now I'm blanking on the name. The ninth round pick, he's hurt. True well. So, yeah. But you're going to see Henry Ford? you're going to see Ace Reese. Probably. Probably going to see them in some form or fashion,

either in Inland Empire or Everett, and that will be pretty fun. All right. Well, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day for Colby Pat. I'm Tadine Gzalus. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners.

You can follow me at Tadding Azalus and Colby at C-Pat-11. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB. Colby and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.