Ben and Carlos take some questions from last week’s draft chat and expand on them in the podcast. The two discuss their favorite college pitchers in the class, talk about the questions with Jacob Lombard’s contact ability and also talk about the changes they would make to the MLB draft.

—

Time Stamps:

• (0:45) Our favorite college pitcher in the class
• (9:55) Concerns with Jacob Lombard’s contact ability
• (18:00) The changes we would make to the draft

Do you have feedback for the show or want to ask us a question? Email us: futureprojection@baseballamerica.com.

Future Projection Twitter: @FutureProPod

Ben's Twitter: @BenBadler

Carlos's Newsletter: Fringe Average

Baseball America Website

Ben and Carlos talk briefly about the demographics and depth of the 2026 draft class, before getting into a conversation about high school recruiting and the power dynamics and changes in the space over the last few years. After that they break down some of the top PPI eligible prospects and discuss which players might be best-positioned to help their clubs add extra picks with strong 2026 performances.

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Time Stamps

• (0:00) Intro
• (3:00) The depth of the 2026 draft class
• (6:00) Strength of the Southeast
• (10:00) West coast colleges losing players
• (17:00) Power conference recruiting factors
• (21:00) The importance of high school recruiting
• (23:00) The number of high school players signing
• (31:00) PPI eligible player conversation

Do you have feedback for the show or want to ask us a question? Email us: futureprojection@baseballamerica.com.

Future Projection Twitter: @FutureProPod

Ben's Twitter: @BenBadler

Carlos's Newsletter: Fringe Average

Baseball America Website

Ben and Carlos open up the Future Projection listener mailbag and talk about some of their favorite prospects who didn’t make the top 100 but could be there shortly. They also hit on a handful of Braves prospects who could be in the same camp, plus talk about potential IFA signing day implications that could come (or not come) from a lockout after the 2026 season.

—

Time Stamps

• (1:00) Favorite prospects who didn’t make the Top 100
• (17:50) Braves prospects who could join the Top 100
• (22:30) IFA signing day implications with a lockout

Do you have feedback for the show or want to ask us a question? Email us: futureprojection@baseballamerica.com.

Future Projection Twitter: @FutureProPod

Ben's Twitter: @BenBadler

Carlos's Newsletter: Fringe Average

Baseball America Website

Ben and Carlos discuss the recently released Top 100 prospects list for the 2026 season. The two work their way down the list and discuss players they like at every stage, as well as players they are split on, players who are more polarizing and players who they are more skeptical of. The two also give their reactions to the Freddy Peralta trade, and at the end of the show react live to the MacKenzie Gore trade that broke on air.

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Time Stamps

• (1:30) Freddy Peralta trade reactions
• (13:30) Top 100 talk starts
• (16:50) The top pitchers in the class
• (21:30) Colt Emerson
• (26:00) Walker Jenkins & Max Clark
• (30:30) Carter Jensen
• (35:20) Carson Benge
• (37:00) Bryce Eldridge
• (39:45) Thomas White
• (43:00) Sal Stewart, Dylan Beavers, Josue De Paula, Josuar Gonzalez
• (49:30) Bryce Rainer
• (53:05) Moises Ballesteros
• (55:00) Seth Hernandez, Eli Willits
• (57:00) Brody Hopkins
• (1:01:00) Mike Sirota
• (1:04:35) Franklin Arias
• (1:08:00) Jonah Tong
• (1:13:00) Luis Peña
• (1:17:00) Ryan Sloan
• (1:19:30) Lazaro Montes
• (1:23:00) Elmer Rodriguez
• (1:25:30) Caden Scarborough
• (1:28:20) Arjun Nimmala
• (1:30:10) Justin Crawford
• (1:36:00) Rhett Lowder
• (1:37:40) Kendry Chourio, Braylon Doughty
• (1:45:40) Luis De Leon
• (1:47:30) Billy Carlson
• (1:48:00) Marek Houston
• (1:50:00) Live MacKenzie Gore trade reaction

Do you have feedback for the show or want to ask us a question? Email us: futureprojection@baseballamerica.com.

Future Projection Twitter: @FutureProPod

Ben's Twitter: @BenBadler

Carlos's Newsletter: Fringe Average

Baseball America Website

Ben and Carlos hop on the podcast for a Jan. 15 focused edition of the show where Ben provides all the details on every team in the league. If you want to know about your team’s 2026 international signing class, this is the podcast for you.

—

Time Stamps:

• (2:30) Guardians
• (7:40) Tigers
• (11:05) Royals
• (16:25) Twins
• (19:25) White Sox
• (23:30) Brewers
• (27:30) Cubs
• (29:45) Reds
• (32:45) Cardinals
• (36:45) Pirates
• (40:15) Mariners
• (43:30) Astros
• (45:55) Rangers
• (48:48) Athletics
• (52:45) Angels
• (55:25) Dodgers
• (1:00:30) Giants
• (1:05:15) Diamondbacks
• (1:09:05) Padres
• (1:12:40) Rockies
• (1:15:05) Red Sox
• (1:17:55) Yankees
• (1:20:40) Blue Jays
• (1:23:30) Rays
• (1:27:45) Orioles
• (1:30:50) Phillies
• (1:33:40) Mets
• (1:36:00) Marlins
• (1:38:50) Braves
• (1:41:00) Nationals

Do you have feedback for the show or want to ask us a question? Email us: futureprojection@baseballamerica.com.

Ben's Twitter: @BenBadler

Carlos's Newsletter: Fringe Average

Baseball America Website

Ben and Carlos open the mailbag in today’s episode. The two answer a handful of questions including: how do prep pitchers change their stock during the spring? Which prospects do we like to the same level as Trey Yesavage? Whether or not Roch Cholowsky and Grady Emerson are the clear 1-2 players in the class. And where Wandy Asigen and other top international signees would fit if they were draft eligible.

Time Stamps:

• (0:50) How do high school players change their stock in the spring?
• (8:00) Which college prospects do we like as much as Trey Yesavage?
• (15:00) Are Roch Cholowsky and Grady Emerson a clearcut 1-2?
• (23:00) Would Wandy Asigen go inside the top five picks of the draft?

Do you have feedback for the show or want to ask us a question? Email us: futureprojection@baseballamerica.com.

Ben's Twitter: @BenBadler

Carlos's Newsletter: Fringe Average

Baseball America Website

Ben and Carlos talk about how deep and talented the high school pitching crop is for the 2026 draft class. The two try to contextualize where this class of prep arms stacks up with some of the best in recent memory, and then discuss why pitchers across the board seem better today than they were five, 10, 15 years ago. The two talk about the general risk of pitching prospects vs. hitting prospects, how there are tools today that give us more precision in our pitching evaluations and then hit on a few of the different pitcher archetypes available in the class.

After that Ben gives a rundown and update on the upcoming 2026 international signing period, which opens on January 15.

Time Stamps:

• (0:00) Intro
• (5:35) Kaiden McCarthy reclassifies
• (8:00) Contextualizing the 2026 prep pitching class
• (12:00) The additional risk of pitching prospects
• (16:00) Misses from the vaunted 2018 class
• (18:30) Pitchers are better today in absolute terms
• (22:30) Better ability to evaluate pitchers
• (26:00) A variety of pitching styles
• (38:00) 2026 International Class thoughts
• (41:00) Luis Hernandez as the top bonus player
• (45:00) The status of an international draft
• (50:50) The state of international pitching
• (53:00) Notable names to keep in mind

Do you have feedback for the show or want to ask us a question? Email us: futureprojection@baseballamerica.com.

Ben's Twitter: @BenBadler

Carlos's Newsletter: Fringe Average

Baseball America Website

Ben and Carlos have a conversation about pitching development with Paul Davis. Davis has spent years in the game and was most recently the Braves director of pitching. He’s also spent time with both the Cardinals and Mariners organizations, and coached and played baseball in college.

Davis talks about what it’s like to be a pitching director and how pitching development has changed over the years. He talks about movement patterns, delivery checkpoints, injuries, the importance of having a competitive mindset, the development path of Spencer Strider, breaking ball development, why fastballs are more than just velocity, the importance of making hitters swing, stuff vs. command, how to train strike-throwing, developing deep arsenals and more.

—

Time Stamps:

• (2:30) An overview of a pitching director’s job
• (6:10) How much collaboration does a pitching director have with draft picks?
• (9:15) Delivery checkpoints, movement patterns and injuries
• (14:50) The difficulty of changing movement patterns
• (23:00) The importance of a competitive mindset
• (31:30) Spencer Strider’s development path
• (46:30) Developing a breaking ball
• (53:00) Why fastballs are more than velocity
• (55:00) The importance of making hitters swing
• (1:03:00) A pitcher with stuff vs. a pitcher with command
• (1:11:30) Training command and strike-throwing
• (1:16:20) Thoughts on stuff+ and granular pitch data
• (1:20:00) Combining force plate metrics with pitch data to reverse-engineer stuff
• (1:24:30) The next wave of Braves pitchers

Do you have feedback for the show or want to ask us a question? Email us: futureprojection@baseballamerica.com.

Ben's Twitter: @BenBadler

Carlos's Newsletter: Fringe Average

Baseball America Website