At Last, The BA 500
"There's going to be a ceiling for each player depending on your physical capabilities, but we're going to max out those physical capabilities as much as possible."
Hello and happy first day of regionals for all who celebrate college baseball.
It’s an incredibly busy time of year, so I’m going to follow the sage words of John Manuel and not “let the perfect be the enemy of the good” with a quick newsletter that will mostly just keep you up to date with what I’ve been doing.
The big item here is the release of this year’s BA 500.
That’s a list of the top 500 draft prospects in the 2025 draft class. It annually represents the foundation of our draft coverage at Baseball America. It’s a behemoth to put together and the culmination of more than a year’s work on the class. This is only V 1.0 of the big board though. We’re still tinkering at tweaking the list as necessary (there’s still more college baseball to be played after all) and we’re now in the process of getting every player an updated and finalized report. We’ll also update and expand BA Grades and tool grades for the top players in the class in addition to plenty more beyond the rankings themselves.
We’ve had so much more on the site beyond just draft stuff recently.
May has been a great month at BA, and it’s thanks to all of you guys for supporting us and allowing us to flood the zone with content at every level of the game. Here are five pieces from others on the staff this week that I wanted to flag for you all and recommend:
Could This One 2025 Stat Hurt Jace LaViolette’s MLB Draft Status? JJ Cooper contextualizes where LaViolette’s .258 batting average sits with historic first round college hitters.
NCAA Tournament Regional Previews For All 64 Teams. If you need a primer to get ready for the NCAA tournament this one from Jacob Rudner will get you up to speed. And it’s only like 9,000 words or something.
Top 25 MLB Draft Prospects To Know In The 2025 NCAA Tournament. If you’re more into the draft than college baseball in particular, check out Peter Flaherty’s list of draft prospects to know. This includes 2025 names and a handful of the top 2026 names as well.
How Models & Data Analytics Are Impacting College Baseball Roster Decisions. Jacob Rudner digs into how college teams now have a ton of information at their disposal when it comes to player development, team building and game prep. It’s well-reported and insightful.
How The Marlins Are Leading A Base Stealing Revolution In The Minor Leagues. I think this sort of piece is JJ at his best. He stumbles upon something different in the game that is interesting to him and then talks to the people who are super passionate about it or on the cutting edge to explain it to the rest of us. Something fun for Marlins fans who could probably use a bit more fun. Plus, stealing bases is just cool.
Here’s a quick ranking of my top five energy drinks to get me through the draft this year:
Ghost Redberry — This could be a daily driver but sadly it is being discontinued. Get it while you can.
C4 Strawberry — It’s a dangerous game when you start to crave the beta alanine tingles.
Monster Zero Ultra — A go-to for us all. A classic. Old reliable.
Reign White Gummy Bear — This is a pinch hitter that’s only used in specific situations. 300 mg of caffeine for when you know it’s going to be one of those long days.
Ghost Welch’s Grape — I’m not typically a grape-flavored sort of person, but this one is shockingly good with the flavor (like most of the Ghost drinks).
These are all zero sugar energy drinks. Therefore they are quite healthy. That’s how that works, right?
Right?
Below is the work I’ve produced for Baseball America since my last newsletter:
Writing
The 2025 BA 500. As mentioned above.
MLB Draft Chat With Carlos Collazo (5/28/25). Another of a recurring series of draft chats in the lead up to July 13. Lots here on specific players, draft strategy and of course a lot of people wondering who their favorite team might be taking. I wish I knew!
MLB Draft Prospects With The Best College Power, Contact & Chase Rates For 2025. In this piece I revisited a preseason exercise where we took at look at batted ball data for college hitters. I think this is the third year we’ve done this exercise. It’s nice to have more information on amateur players. 2017 me would have had his mind blown.
20 Sleeper MLB Draft Prospects To Watch For 2025. Since I know not everyone is going to read through all 500 scouting reports, it was fun to put together quick notes on 20 different sleepers who are outside of the top-200 range. This one was organized by five power bats, five contact bats, five pitchers with big fastballs and five pitchers with control.
Podcasting/Video
Future Projection Episode 126: Jacob Misiorowski, Blue Jays & Rays Prospects. Talk about one of the filthiest pitchers in the sport and names that include Arjun Nimmala, Trey Yesavage, Xavier Isaac, Theo Gillen, Carson Williams and more.
Future Projection Episode 127: New Draft Rankings & Who Should Be The 101. Ben grills me on all things draft and we both take a shot at explaining who we would take with the first overall pick and why.
Draft Pod: The Best Tools In The 2025 Draft Class. Peter and I tackle a fun listener question about the top tools in the draft, and discuss how tough our Golden Spikes voting was this year.
Draft Pod: Draft Prospects Who Could Elevate Their Stock In Postseason Play. Plenty of names to know as you are tuning in for college baseball action this weekend and in future weeks.
"Reign White Gummy Bear" this concerns me