We are now just under a month away from the 2025 MLB Draft, with the Draft Showcase being held from June 17-21 at Chase Field in Phoenix. There are two prospects from the Mountain West, both from Fresno State, in Phoenix for the next four days trying to elevate their stock and prove why they deserve a spot on one of the 30 organizations. Here’s what each of the two Bulldogs need to do in order to make their cases.

Jack Anker, P, Fresno State

One of the members of the dominant Fresno State pitching staff, Anker had a standout year, earning an all-Mountain West First Team honor for his work. Through his 16 appearances, Anker had a great 9-5 record, going at least four innings every single time he got on the mound. Continuing on about his endurance, the junior from Tulare, Calif. only had two games where he didn’t throw under 100 pitches (which is both a good and bad thing, we will discuss that in a bit). Anker is currently slated in the 194 spot in the Top 200 MLB Draft Prospects list.

Gaining the second-most number of strikeouts on Fresno State (109) right behind Mountain West Pitcher of the Year Aidan Cramarosa, Anker also had seven games with eight or more strikeouts. Of those eight games, he finished four of them in the double digits, including his career-high 16 strikeouts against San Diego State on April 11. Given everything, Anker should be a mid-round draft pick as it stands today, probably going somewhere between rounds 9-19, maybe falling into the last round depending on how the rounds before go.

However, there is one fatal flaw with Anker’s game, and it’s his tendency to allow hits, coinciding with his ERA. Out of 399 at bats, Anker gave up 112 hits, the most on the team by a country mile. That, mixed with his 68 runs (64 earned), and he had a questionable 5.98 ERA, which was one of the highest among qualified pitchers this year. When someone almost always goes five or more innings, the chance of giving up hits will obviously go up. However, ending with near or over double digit hits through four-five innings, like against Nevada on March 15 (nine) or San Jose State on May 9 (11), is a worry. Anker will need to show off that strikeout ability that earned him his honors while also working on not allowing every game to come down to a shootout if he wants to be drafted.

Murf Gray, 3B, Fresno State

The co-Mountain West Player of the Year is taking his shot at the show. Gray is currently the 135 prospect on the top-200 list, and it’s mainly thanks to his performance in the box this year. Gray was a beast in the batter’s box, posting the third-highest batting average (.324), fourth best on base percentage (.398), best slugging percentage (.639) and best OPS (1.037) of those qualified on the Diamond Dogs this year. The third baseman did chase the ball from time to time, which he will need to work on, but when he got a hold of the ball, it was screaming off the bat more times than not. Gray’s arm power is a gem as well, with MLB scouts agreeing by giving him a 60 (above average) arm score on his scouting report.

While I truly do believe we will hear his name be called out during the draft in a month, there are a few things Gray really needs to work on in order to solidify his pick, that being his speed and fielding. Being a 6-foot-4, 230 pound slugging third baseman, Gray hasn’t necessarily needed to have a lot of speed for his role. However, posting up in the hot corner means you will need to have a good amount of speed and reaction time, and the ball speed off the bat will only get faster and faster as he goes up in whatever organization he signs to. Gray has also been inconsistent fielding wise. While he does boast a .971 fielding percentage, Gray had the same amount of errors from last year (four) despite having 20 less chances to get an out.

The big events (on-field workouts with strength and conditioning evaluations) will take place through today, June 17, through June 19, with medical evaluations and team meetings going on the entire five days. The workouts will be covered on the MLB network and streamed on MLB.com, MLB.TV and the MLB app.