Let us start by saying we are also well aware this is overdue.
Either way, better late than never! The Prospects Live Amateur Scouting Team is back on the horse, proudly presenting our third exercise predicting the outcome of this summer’s Major League Baseball Draft.
Our amateur team came together to prepare this predictive exercise which will, in the course of two months (or less), become increasingly more difficult to justify; of course, players’ output on the field ebbs and flows, and new talent emerges or shifts daily, so this may not be an incredibly accurate assessment come July 2026. Still, we have fun, and it gives us all something to talk about, too!
It is important to note two things before enjoying this exercise:
We completed the mock prior to Logan Reddemann missing two weeks of pitching. Assumedly he will slide slightly, but if the team held its opinion on true talent, this would likely not shift much.We completed the mock prior to the SFG-CLE trade which resulted in the Giants acquiring the 29th selection and apologize for any inconvenience there.
We went all the way to the end of the second round of the draft in this mock, giving you 75 selections to peruse here; the team considered the teams’ recent drafting trends, bonus pools (predicted by our own Will Dodge), pool strength, and other intangibles to provide a look at what could be this summer.
…betcha can’t guess who’s number one.
Pick 1.1: Chicago White Sox – Roch Cholowsky
A little more than two months out and the song remains the same for the Chicago White Sox at 1.1. It has become a little ridiculous in trying to continue one-upping ourselves in describing Roch Cholowsky’s potential, but I think we could throw some water on much of it by saying he is not only incredibly polished and incredibly talented at shortstop, but has credible, above average hit, power, and run tools to go alongside his play in the dirt. For my money – and until we are given a reason to suspect anything different – we’ll project the White Sox to snap up Chowlowsky, who upon putting ink to paper as a professional, should enter Top Ten Prospect status. Still – there’s been a ton of chatter, especially recently, regarding both the White Sox’ potential preference to make the most of their strong pool as well as some concerns about Cholowsky’s hitting against Friday-night arms. In the full interest of fairness (or is it thoroughness?), I would rank the most likely alternative pick the White Sox would take (as of now) as Fort Worth Christian prepster Grady Emerson, though athletic Georgia Tech Catcher Vahn Lackey could make sense, depending on whether or not either of them would accept less-than-slot at the first overall selection. – Drew Wheeler
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Director of Amateur Scouting | Host, College Baseball Now | Grateful for God, my family, my team, and the Prospects Live readers who make this possible.