Game 1: LSU’s ace Kade Anderson finished off his college career with a 1-0 3-hit 130 pitch shutout that was both amazing and concerning for his arm health.
Game 2: LSU finally got to CCU’s ace Jacob Morrison, putting up 4 runs in the 4th that stuck and they held on for a 5-3 win.
Your 2025 College World Series Champion: LSU, winning their 2nd since we started hyper covering the CWS and their 8th title since 2001.
Here’s some links to past years of CWS coverage here. I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years now! Each link below is the blog post covering that CWS final.
That’s it for the 2025 CWS tournament. I think its safe to say that it was an odd year for college baseball, seeing a mid-major cruise relatively untested into the final and having the all-powerful SEC win the event but (frankly) disappoint with its overall post-season performance.
We now get to focus entirely on 1-1 watch for a while.
We get one more look at Anderson in the CWS final. Photo via MLB.com
After a couple of frenetic weeks of tracking CWS play-in games, we’re through the pedestrian-paced group play in Omaha and have reached the final of the 2025 CWS tournament; here’s a recap of group play in Omaha.
In the Top Bracket ( Louisville, Coastal Carolina, Arizona, #8 Oregon State )
In the opening games, Coastal continued on its current 24-game winning streak, scoring 3 in the 8th to break open a tie-game to top Arizona. They havn’t lost since April 22nd. Meanwhile, Lousville tied it in the top of the 9th only to have Oregon State walk-it off in the bottom, with 1-1 candidate Arquette scoring the winning run, to cap an exciting day for the top bracket.
In the first elimination game, Louisville blew open a close game with 6 in the eight to make Arizona the first team eliminated.
In the winner’s bracket game, Coastal’s saturday starter Jacob Morrison spun a gem, shutting down OSU for nearly 8 innings to put CCU in the driver’s seat.
In the play-in game, OSU’s Arquette did his best to help his team, but Louisville walked it off in a 7-6 back and forth affair to eliminate Oregon State and move into the group final.
In the group final, Coastal Carolina kept its win streak alive with a beat down of OSU 11-3 to win the group unblemished and return to the National title game.
Final Group standings: Coastal Carolina, Louisville, #8 Oregon State, Arizona
In the Bottom Bracket (#15 UCLA, #3 Arkansas, #6 LSU, Murray State)
In the opening games, UCLA got to Murray State’s starter in the 5th for enough runs to make it stick to move on. In the night cap, probably the best game we’ll see in CWS featured the two SEC teams and two best ranked teams battle, with LSU’s Kade Anderson putting up the best possible line you could expect in a CWS game: 7ip 3 hits, 1r (on an inside FB that Arkansas’ light-hitting 1B turned on), 7/2 K/BB. Just 100 pitches to get through 7.
In the first elimination game, Arkansas’ Gage Woods threw probably the greatest game in the history of the CWS, a 9ip no-hitter with 19 Ks (!!) to send Murray State home. He had a perfect game into the top of the 8th and only let five balls even get into fair territory. 119 pitches. Amazing.
In the winner’s bracket game, LSU bashed their way to a rain-delayed 9-5 win over UCLA to take control of the group.
In the play-in game, Arkansas scored early and often and were in control throughout, downing UCLA 7-3 to setup an all-SEC group final.
In the group final, Arkansas certainly made it interesting, with 2 in the 8th and 2 in the ninth to take the lead, but then LSU’s middle of the order came through, with 3 in the 9th to walk it off for a shot at the title. What a game.
Final Group standings: #6 LSU, #3 Arkansas, UCLA, Murray State
Analysis/commentary
I suppose its fitting that this year of regional upsets gives us a national powerhouse back in the title game in LSU, along side a team from a mid-major that probably should have been a National seed had the committee sniffed their noses at Coastal Carolina’s pedigree, and now they ride a massive 26 win game winning streak heading into the final series that they have no doubt they can win.
Projected 1st Rounder Performance:
We’ll throw this into the next 1-1 conversation, since there’s only a couple 1-1 candidates left in CWS play.
CWS Preview and Prediction:
One big plus here for neutrals: neither of the groups went the “extra game,” so none of the star pitchers got burned. This is in contrast to two years ago, when LSU threw its stud Skenes just to get into the final, and then the national spotlight never got to see him (except for an inning at the end).
Here’s the best i can make out for pitching matchups in the final, based on how the pitchers were used in the playoffs to get here so far. Everyone below is basically on full rest, so no usage concerns here.
The CWS national series starts on Saturday 6/21:
6/21: CCU’s Cameron Flukey (7-1, 3.29 ERA, 109/22 in 95ip) versus LSU’s Kade Anderson (11-1, 3.44 ERA, 170/30 K/BB in 110 IP)
6/22: CCU’s Jacob Morrison (12-0, 2.08 ERA, 102/22 in 104 ip) versus LSU’s Anthony Eyanson (11-2, 2.92 ERA, 143/35 in 101 ip).
6/23 CCU’s Riley Eikhoff (7-2, 3.10 ERA, 71/11 K/BB in 90 ip) versus LSU’s Zac Cowan (3-3, 2.94 ERA, 60/12 in 52 ip).
If you recognize the Eikhoff name, its because he is from NoVa, went to Patriot HS, and is the brother of Nate Eikhoff, who starred for UVA just before Covid.
LSU doesn’t really have a reliable 3rd starter; they’ve given starts to six different guys in that #3 spot this year. They have a super reliever Casan Evans (5-1, 2.05 ERA, 71/19 k/BB in 52ip) who could also slot in to that third start, if necessary.
That being said, I don’t think this series is going three. I think Anderson shuts down CCU in game one and wins a close one in game two to take the title. With all due respect to Coastal, they have not seen a starter like Anderson all year and has managed to make it all the way to the title game without facing a top prospect starter who can easily tame their bats.
You can’t ask for a better pro debut from Luke Dickerson. Photo via mlb.com
Lost in the CWS and draft content shuffle, we got an updated top 30 from Baseball America last week. We don’t get too many mid-season revampings of the top 30 Prospects, especially from some of the main pundits (who have lots of other stuff to cover mid-season, like draft scouting), but Baseball America has made it happen. So here’s their 6/6/25 updated Nats top 30.
This is worth a recap post, because there’s a huge amount of change and churn here. They haven’t just graduated a couple players and moved everyone else up a slot. They’ve really given some thought to moving players around, enough so that I’m going to list where they’re ranked now and where they were back in January.
Rank
Jan 25 Rank
Last Name
First Name
Position
1
2
Sykora
Travis
RHP (Starter)
2
3
Susana
Jarlin
RHP (Starter)
3
4
House
Brady
SS/3B
4
6
Clemmey
Alex
LHP (Starter)
5
11
Dickerson
Luke
SS/CF
6
10
Lile
Daylen
OF (CF)
7
7
Cavalli
Cade
RHP (Starter)
8
5
King
Seaver
SS
9
8
Lomavita
Caleb
C
10
12
Hassell III
Robert
OF (CF)
11
13
Bennett
Jake
LHP (Starter)
12
22
Morales
Yohandy
3B
13
15
Feliz
Angel
3B/SS
14
40+
Henry
Cole
RHP (Starter)
15
29
Lord
Brad
RHP (Starter)
16
9
Wallace
Cayden
2B/3B
17
14
Bazzell
Kevin
C/3B
18
17
Cortesia
Brayan
SS
19
25
Stuart
Tyler
RHP (Starter)
20
36
Kent
Jackson
LHP (Starter)
21
26
Hernandez
Daniel
C
22
19
Lara
Andry
RHP (Starter)
23
40+
Riley
Cornelio
RHP (Starter)
24
35
Tejada Jr.
Yoel
RHP (Reliever)
25
40+
Mota
Jorgelys
SS
26
16
Pinckney
Andrew
OF (Corner)
27
40+
Davian
Garcia
RHP (Starter)
28
23
Green
Elijah
OF (CF)
29
28
Vaquero
Cristian
OF (CF)
30
24
Cranz
Robert
RHP (Reliever)
So, lets get into it:
Jan 2025’s #1 Crews has graduated, of course.
2-3-4 from January just moved up a spot each, making Sykora our #1 on their list. It’s the first time Sykora has officially been #1 on any list that I track or am aware of.
Seaver King, despite being promoted recently takes a dip on their list, dropping from #5 to #8. Fair. He’s not had the glitzy pro debut we were hoping for.
Dickerson gets a huge bump with his impressive pro debut, which has already resulted in a promotion.
Lile gets credit for his excellent 2025 season, which has resulted in his graduation to the majors, and gets ranked at #6, the highest he’s been on any list either. He hasn’t been hitting necessarily awesome in his majors stint, but lots of players struggle in their debut.
Morales, as we discussed ad naseum during the off-season, had been relatively unfairly dropped on a lot of lists for a hand injury that we know takes a while to come back from … well he’s back. He’s now in AAA, and BA jumped him 10 spots from January to June.
Cole Henry! Outside BA’s top 40 six months ago, now he’s firmly in the MLB bullpen and listed at #14 here, one spot ahead of Lord, which … well, come on, who is more valuable to the MLB team? A guy who throws an inning every other day or a guy who has proven he can pitch in the rotation or in relief at the MLB level? Honestly, it won’t matter in a couple of months b/c both seem set to graduate from the prospect ranks soon anyway.
Wallace gets dumped a slew of spots. Fair. He’s struggled this year and has done nothing to show any improvement or any push upwards.
Bazzell only dropped a few spots: surprised he’s not penalized more for his slow pro start
Jackson Kent gets due recognition for the solid start to his pro career in High-A.
Riley Cornelio makes his debut on any prospect list anywhere, coming in at #23. After years of mediocre ERAs and stats, he’s put it together so far in 2025, and is now in AA.
Yoel Tejeda, the FSU draftee from last year, is dealing in Low-A. The above table lists him as a Reliever initally, but he’s proven to be a solid starter so far in 2025. He may get a promotion to High-A at the mid-season at this rate.
Davian Garcia is another Low-A 2024 starter who’s holding his own. His numbers aren’t quite as good as Tejeda, but the FGCU 6th rounder certainly has promise. Also as with Cornelio, this is first time on any prospect list.
Pinckney and Green take understandable dips on the rankings. Though Pinckney is in AAA, he’s struggling. Green has been mysteriously non-transacted to XST, perhaps the team finally fed up with his 2K/game rate.
Super reliever prospect Cranz, inexplicably ranked #24 in January, hangs on to the last spot at #30. I’m not sure why they dumped him so far: he’s got a .108 BAA so far as the closer in Low-A.
Highest guys on my ranking not to be mentioned here:
Hurtado our big 2024 IFA bonus guy, still in DSL. Its early.
Glove-first SS guys like Ramirez Jr., Made; still not really hitting.
Armando Cruz, our big 2021 IFA bonus guy, struggling in Wilmington.
Alvarez; may have been opening day starter in AAA but seems not to really be a prospect.
Brzycky: BA had him #21 earlier this year and he’s been promoted; why dump him based on 11 MLB innings? He hasn’t graduated. I dunno.
4-A types like Baker, Nunez, Chapparo. I think BA thinks of them as spare parts as opposed to prospects.
Millas: #18 in January, not out of the top 30. Interesting. I know theres plenty of people who think Millas is better than Adams who read this … he’s basically done nothing this year.
Lastly, most of the guys in the BA 31-40 range from January are nowhere to be found on the new list; probably still treading water in that range on their internal lists.
Louisville vs Miami: Louisville dominated visiting Miami (note: I thought Miami would get the host) 8-1 in a game where all the scoring happened in the first few innings. Miami took back game two to force the tie-breaker game Sunday. In game three, Louisville clawed back to take a close 3-2 win and advance.
#8 Oregon State v #9 Florida State: FSU let one get away in game one, giving up 3 runs in the ninth to send the game to extras, then watching an RBI single allow OSU to walk them off. Brutal. FSU turned around to win game 2 and force the decider. In the final, both teams ran out of pitching and played to an old-school pre-BBCOR aluminum game score of 14-10 as OSU advances.
#5 UNC v Arizona: UNC Destroyed AZ in game one 18-2. AZ fought back to win game two in a slugfest to force the 3rd game. In the final, Arizona shocked the national seed and top ranked UNC with three runs in the 8th inning to steal a 4-3 win and to claim the CWS spot.
#4 Auburn v #13 Coastal Carolina: Coastal Carolina shocked Auburn in game one, edging them with a run in the 10th to win in extras. They followed it up with a 4-1 game two win to be the first team to punch their ticket to the CWS and to prove naysayers wrong.
#3 Arkansas v #14 Tennessee; Arkansas got a close game 1 win 4-3, got to Doyle easily in game two and cruise into the CWS.
#6 LSU v West Virginia: LSU battered their way to a game 1 win 16-9 and was never troubled in game two to advance easily.
Duke v Murray State: Host Duke opened with a win, taming Murray State’s bats 7-4. Murray State got back to bashing in game two, winning 19-9 and force a Monday finish. There, Murray State persevered, even with a crazy overturned call at the end that forced them to win twice, to advance as a #4 seed, a rarity in the college game.
UT-San Antonio v #15 UCLA: UCLA won 5-2 in the first, then blanked UTSA in the second to move on.
My predictions were awful: I went just 3 for 8 after going 8-for-8 last year in the supers.
Stats/Observations of the 8 Super Regionals.
5 out of 8 Super Regional Hosts to advance.
4 regionals went to the 3rd/deciding game.
Conference Breakdown of the eight Advancers: 2 SEC, 1 ACC, 1 Big10, 1 Big12, 1 Independent, 1 Sun Belt, and 1 MVC. wow. What great distribution. If we were playing by the old rules … there’d be three Pac12 teams here.
Murray State to the CWS as a #4 regional seed is super rare: it’s only happened three other times since the CWS expanded to 64 teams in 1999. Fresno State (2008, who frigging won the CWS), Stony Brook (2012), and most recently, Oral Roberts (2023).
So, your 2024 CWS Field (with original national seeds driving the teams):
Group 1 (1,4,5,8): Louisville, Coastal Carolina, Arizona, #8 Oregon State
Group 2 (2,3,6,7): #15 UCLA, #3 Arkansas, #6 LSU, Murray State
So, we have a pretty lopsided CWS field. Group 1 features just one national seed in OSU, while group two features three National seeds plus the crazy Cinderella Murray State.
RPIs of the CWS field: Here’s the Live/updated RPI of the field, plus the pre-CWS tournament RPI for those teams who were seeds.
Arkansas: #1 (started #5)
Coastal Carolina #3 (Started #8)
Oregon State: #5 (started #7)
UCLA #9 (started #15)
LSU #11 (started #10)
Arizona #19
Louisville #29
Murray State: #53
CCU was pretty underseeded going into the tourney and probably should have been a top 8 seed, and now they’re vindicated with a live RPI of #3, making them the favorite in the group 1.
Performance of 1st Round projected players in the Super Regionals:
I’ll summarize the performance of the few 1-1 candidates we care about in my “check-in” post coming soon.
My CWS Predictions
Top half: I think it comes down to Coastal versus Oregon State, with Oregon State heading to final.
Bottom Half: Hard not to go with an all SEC final here, with things setup for the SEC teams to be on opposite sides of the group. LSU beat Arkansas at home in a series in early May, but on a neutral field I sense Arkansas bashes their way forward. LSU only has one Kade Anderson.
Could Kade Anderson push his way into 1-1 discussion all of a sudden? Photo via MLB.com
Here’s our eighth check-in on the 1-1 candidates this spring. This week summarizes the post season play for our top prospects (conference tourneys, regionals, and super regionals) and talks about the mocks and other draft content that’s popped up lately. High Schoolers are done, with zero new news to report about the top prep candidates.
Important Draft related news and notes, plus Mocks and Draft rankings that have published since our last posting, are listed below:
Keith Law at the Athletic released his 2025 Draft board top 100 ranking on 5/21/25. He ranks them Holliday, Doyle, Arnold, Arquette, Houston. He has Hernandez all the way down at #21.
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel posted his latest mock draft on 5/28/25. He goes Holliday, Doyle, Anderson, Arquette, and Willits. He has Hernandez falling to #9, but also admits he could go anywhere inbetween.
Baseball America released their 2025 Draft Top 500, adding another 100 names from their April edition. This is probably the last draft board they’ll release. They’ve updated their ranks, which i’ve cross-correlated in the player block below. They now go Holliday, Hernandez, Willits, Arquette, Arnold.
MLBPipeline updated their Draft board on 5/28/25, expanding it to 200. There’s been significant movement in the top 10, with Anderson flying up the board from #9 a month ago to #3 now. Top 5: Holliday, Hernandez, Anderson, Arnold, Willits. As with the BA update, all the MLB ranks below are updated to be current.
MLBPiepline’s Jim Callis came out with a new mock draft on 5/29/25: he claims the Nats are following 7-8 players but also seems confident with Holliday at 1-1. His top 5: Holliday, Doyle, Anderson, Arnold, Willits.
MLBPipeline’s Jonathan Mayo then popped up with his latest mock on 6/5/25 with a big shocker at the top: He thinks Washington is now going LSU’s Anderson 1-1. top 5: Anderson, Doyle, Arquette, Holliday, Arnold. Very college heavy, all four major D1 players off board by 5th pick. Interesting.
Aggregation Stats for College Baseball for Reference:
Eli Willits, SS, Fort Cobb HS (OK). MLB (#5), BA (#3), ProspectsLive (#9)
Here’s some updated commentary on the players seemingly in the running; all four had significant post season stats to discuss:
Arnold got knocked around a bit by Duke in the ACC tournament ( 5ip, 5runs), then got the win against Mississippi State with a 7ip 13K 119 pitch appearance in the Regionals. FSU won their regional, so we got one last start from Arnold in the super regional losing effort: 6.2, 1R, 6 hits, 9/1 K/BB on 113 pitches. Can’t ask for much more than that.
Arquette had two weeks off thanks to Oregon State’s lack of a conference tournament, then went to town in the Regional, going 9-23 with a homer in the finale as OSU got stretched as a regional host but advanced. In the super regional: 5-13 with a walk and a bunch of runs scored; not bad.
Doyle had an abbreviated start in the SEC tournament against Texas, going just 3.2 and giving up 6 hits/4 runs. He needed 79 pitches to not even get out of the 4th. Then in regionals, Tennessee threw him in the first game oddly, where he predictably dominated Miami of Ohio with 11Ks over 6.2 innings for the win. Ok, so far so good … but then Tennessee puts him BACK on the mound in the regional final to close it out and he’s throwing 99 on two days rest in basically the highest leverage situation he’s ever faced as a player. Not. Good. I’d be scared to death he just did serious arm damage to himself. He’ll get another start in four days. Finally in the Super Regional he had to go against Arkansas, a team that shelled him earlier in the year … and he got hit again in his final start: 3.2 5h 5r, 2WP, 1HBP, and yanked in the 4th. Not a great look for evaluators getting their final look at the guy, and I think his chances of going 1-1 are finished.
Anderson got the start in the SEC tournament opener and dominated Texas A&M, 6ip, 12Ks and got lifted with just 84 pitches. Then in the regional he went game 2 against Dallas Baptist and threw an absolute gem: 7ip, 4hits, 0 runs 11/2 K/BB on 106 pitches. In the super Regional game one, Anderson got hit: 7r (6 earned) on 9 hits in 7ip .. however its worth noting that LSU was up 10-1 by the time Anderson gave up these runs. It’s entirely possible he just cruised through the last two innings to give the bullpen a break. He’s the only one of these players to make to Omaha.
Prep kids:
Holliday: season complete.
Hernandez: season complete.
Willits: season complete.
The Race for 1-1 status: I still think we’re on Holliday. Anderson has clearly supplanted both Arnold and Doyle in the “big three college lefties” ranking, but I don’t think its enough to get past Holliday.
So my current top 5 prediction: Holliday, Anderson, Hernandez, Doyle, Arquette.
Bravo to Lile for his promotion. Photo via District on Deck.
Here’s the two month check-in with all our top 20 (and some) prospects. All stats as of 6/1/25. I dove a bit deeper into any starter in my 6/1 rotation check in, but i’ll repeat some of the info here. Note: all stats were as of 6/1 and I know some stuff has happened since so i’ll add in last three days updates.
#1. Dylan Crews OF (CF): was slashing just .167/.308/.352 in May to lower his already poor seasonal numbers when he tweaked something in his left side and hit the DL with an oblique injury. This is the kind of injury that can derail a season. So much for that Rookie of the Year hopes. How concerned should we be long-term? I really was hoping for him to hit the ground running and he just hasn’t. Temperature: on ice.
#2 Travis Sykora RHP (Starter): off the DL, inexplicably started in low-A, so far unhittable in High-A too. He’s now 21, so its time to get him out of A-Ball. Temperature: red hot.
#3 Brady House SS/3B: Continuing to hit in AAA; .284/.339/.500 slash line for May. Would like to see abit more OBP, but he’s definitely starting to get the team to ask questions about the sh*t-show they’re throwing out at 3B in the majors. Temperature: hotter.
#4 Jarlin Susana RHP (Starter). Hit the DL with a “grade 1 UCL strain.” Which in Nats parlance probably means two months off, an attempted start, and TJ surgery. Temperature: on ice.
# 5 Seaver King SS. King has been improving. His May slash line: .291/.321/.408. Not bad. Still not where we’d like to see him based on the performance of some players we passed up to take him. All that said, just after we wrote this we learned he’s reportedly being promoted to AA (perhaps by the time you read this). Mentioned in the comments is a reminder of how hard it is to hit in Wilmington. Here’s King’s home/road splits so far in 2025: home: .214/.275/.286. Road: 305/.337/.463. Ok, well that’s pretty clear. Maybe we need to keep reminding ourselves not to judge Wilmington hitters too harshly, again. Temperature: warming a bit
# 6 Yohandy Morales 1B/3B: Earned a promotion to AAA. .326/.396/.463 in May. That’s awesome. Maybe he continues to mash in AAA and lets the Nats sunset our ridiculous .150-hitting DH Josh Bell. Temperature: pretty warm.
#7 Cayden Wallace 2B/3B: struggling in AA. He had a marginally better May than April, but still only hit .212 for the month. That’s not good enough for a top-10 prospect, nor is it one that’s going to push for a promotion. He continues to split time between 2B and 3B, though honestly after watching him earlier this spring he seems like a 2B longer term. Which is good, if House turns out to have a years-long lock on the position. Temperature: still cold.
# 8 Cade Cavalli RHP (Starter): he’s back, he’s embarrassing hitters in AAA ( 25/6 K/BB in 16 IP) and I think we see him in the majors inside of a month. hallelujah! Temperature: Warming fast.
#9 Alex Clemmey LHP (Starter): He’s starting to heat up. 1.59 ERA, a ton of Ks, but too many walks in May. You’re not going to keep a starter with a 1.59 ERA in the league for long. Temperature: heating up.
# 10 Robert Hassell III OF (CF): Really started to hit the ball in AAA in May (.330./.356/.500), then got a callup to cover for the injured Young and has held his own in his MLB debut so far: .268/.268/.351). Can’t ask for much more there. Lots of naysayers are eating crow on him right now. Oh, and man he’s fast. Temperature: hot
#11 Caleb Lomavita C: Continuing his solid pro debut; his average and OBP dipped in May, but his power spiked up. Remember, he’s a catcher; if he can mainitain a .800 OPS figure and have plus defense, we’ll be ecstatic. Temperature: Staying Warm.
# 12 Luke Dickerson SS/CF: quickly got promoted out of the FCL and is now hitting well in Low-A: .293/.403/.466 so far playing exclusively SS for Fredericksburg. Great debut so far. I’m so cynical on prep kids that we draft not working out … that i’m shocked he’s this good this quick. Temperature: Red Hot.
# 13 Andry Lara RHP (Starter): He hit the DL in late April and spent the entire month of May there. I have no idea what the injury is, nor is he appearing on the Nats official injury report. Temperature: cold.
#14 Tyler Stuart RHP (Starter): My last-month worries about a TJ are gone: he’s made four rehab starts and has dominated in them. As he should, as someone who solved AA last year and who needs to be in AAA. Great news that he’ll be back soon. Postwriting; he’s been taken off DL and optioned to AA for the time being. Hopefully not there for long. Temperature: hope to warm up soon.
#15 Daylen Lile OF (CF): His hot hitting continued in AAA after his promotion last month, which earned him a MLB call up, where he’s been covering for the Young/Crews injuries for weeks now. He’s not lighting MLB on fire, but he’s 22 in the majors. All due credit. Temperature: red hot.
#16 Kevin Bazzell C/3B: after hitting .115 in April, he’s improved a bunch; he hit .245 in May. Still not the .280/.380/.450 slash line i’d like to see out of a college slugger. Definitely a disappointing debut. Temperature: cool
#17 Jake Bennett LHP (Starter): Bennett made 3 starts to open the month, but now hasn’t pitched since May 11th. Uh oh. Would love to know what is going on here, if anyone has intel. Temperature: very cold.
#18 Brad Lord RHP (Starter): continues to be a multi-role pitcher in the MLB pen and he’s holding firm with a 95 ERA+ for the year. Temperature: red hot for the development, decently warm for production.
#19 Angel Feliz 3B/SS: promoted stateside for the FCL 2025 season and is cruising so far: .333/.420/.467 in a month in Florida. That’s great to see. Temperature: hot
#20 Andrew Pinckney OF (Corner): holding steady with mediocre slash lines playing RF for AAA. He’s officially been passed on the OF depth chart by both Hassell and Lile, and the next time they need an OF call-up it might not be Pinckney even then. Temperature: cold
Notables #20 and above by the Level they started 2025:
in AAA:
#28 Andrew Alvarez LHP (Starter) saw his AAA numbers fall. I feel like, when the time comes for a real prospect to rise and needs a AAA spot, he may soon be in trouble. Right now there’s three AAA starters on the DL (Stuart, Ogasawara, Lara) and all three are “better” prospects than Alvaraz, as much as I like him. Maybe he can find a home in the bullpen, especially as a lefty.
#31 Andres Chapparo 1B has been optioned to AAA post injury stint thanks to a squeeze on the MLB roster; he’s still a “prospect” and has been (unsurprisingly) tearing up AAA. If Rizzo parts ways with millions of dollars of unproducing relievers, what’s to stop him from parting ways with millions of dollars of unproducing DHs (Josh Bell)?
#35 Jackson Rutledge RHP (Starter->Reliever) has stepped back for the MLB bullpen, but has been a better option than the three veterans they’ve now released (Sims, Poche, Lopez).
In AA:
#36 Cole Henry RHP (starter->reliever) has become one of the best relievers in the MLB bullpen. Can’t say i saw this coming.
#41 Marquis Grissom RHP (Reliever) has been shelled in AAA and isn’t anywhere close to knocking on the door.
#47 Phillip Glasser SS has cooled from his hot start.
#50 Max Romero C is making the team forget about its younger Catching depth with a .339/.386/.519 May in AA.
#75 Seth Shuman RHP earned a promotion to AAA, where he’s struggling to hold onto it.
In High-A:
#23 Elijah Green has been unofficially demoted to rookie ball in an undocumented move probably meant to not embarrass him. He has no official ABs since May 17th.
#26 Jackson Kent continues to pitch well and won’t be a #26 prospect for long.
#27 Armando Cruz continues to struggle at the plate.
#51 Brenner Cox had the lowest OPS for Wilmington for the month at just .387.
In Low-A:
#21 Christhian Vaquero is not really improving at the plate.
#42 Robert Cranz had a solid month; 9ip, 2hits, 14/3 K/BB. Still would like to see him in the rotation.
#43 Randal Diaz only hit .194 for the month.
In FCL:
#44 Jose Feliz, a 23IFA RHP has been FCL’s best starter so far: 24/4 K/BB in 5 starts with a near 3.00 ERA.
#45 Dashyll Tejeda, also a 23IFA and with Feliz the two best players out of that class so far, has started out hot: .300/.488/.367 with his move stateside.
#72 Sir Jamison Jones: slow out of the gate at .214 for the month.
Quick Regional Recaps of the 16 regional action, ordered by National Seed super Regional matchup. that means, the pairs of regionals being reviewed (#1 Vanderbilt regional and #16 Southern Miss regional) will determine that Super Regional. The eventual winning team is bolded.
#1 Vanderbilt Regional Recap: Vanderbilt failed to advance to the Super Regionals as the #1 overall seed for the 2nd time in recent memory (they were #1 overall seed with David Price as their ace and also fell at a home regional), losing twice to Louisville to go home early.
#16 Southern Miss Regional Recap: host Southern Miss inexplicably lost to Ivy League champ Columbia to open the regional, got back to the final and even forced an extra game, but the strain on their resources was too much as they fell to Miami.
#8 Oregon State Regional Recap: Oregon State got upended in game one by a #4 seed in St. Marys, but clawed their way back, crushed St. Marys 20-3 in the loser’s bracket, then beat USC twice to advance. Phew.
#9 Florida State Regional Recap: Florida State advanced in a relatively straight-forward regional, cruising past eventual regional finalist Mississippi State twice, once behind top-5 pick Arnold’s 7ip effort.
#5 UNC Regional Recap: North Carolina got stretched to an extra game but persevered versus Oklahoma to move on.
#12: Oregon Regional Recap: Host Oregon went 2-and-out to finish last as the seed and host, while Arizona beat Cal Poly twice to win the regional and advance. Props to Utah Valley for the win as the #4 seed.
#13 Coastal Carolina Regional Recap: ECU ousted Florida, but Coasal Carolina beat them twice to win the region and advance as one of the few mid-majors remaining.
#4 Auburn Regional Recap: Host Auburn beat all three teams in its region to advance, crushing NC State 11-1 in the regional final.
And, the eventual CWS Bottom Half:
#3 Arkansas Regional Recap: Arkansas handled Big East’s Creighton twice to advance with ease.
#14 Tennessee Regional Recap: Tennessee got stretched by Wake Forest to an extra game but moved on, as 1-1 draft candidate finished off the finale to the horror of the GMs drafting in that range.
#11 Clemson Regional Recap: West Virginia came out on top of a crazy regional that saw host Clemson get whacked by last-team-in Kentucky before WVU topped the SEC team in a wile 16-15 regional final.
#6 LSU Regional Recap: Arkansas-Little Rock as a #4 seed gave LSU everything they could handle, but the Tigers advanced to get another super regional.
#7 Georgia Regional Recap: Everything started great for Georgia, then it fell apart; they lost the winner’s bracket game to Duke, then couldn’t even get back to the regional final, losing to Oklahoma State, to finish 3rd as a national top-8 seed. Not a good look. Duke took out OkState to win the regional.
#10 Ole Miss Regional Recap: holy cow, how about #4 regional seed Murray State?! Beat the hosts 9-6 to open, then score 13, 19, and 12 against SEC and ACC royalty to win the regional and move on. Bravo!
#15 UCLA Regional Recap: UCLA won an offense-first regional by beating all three teams to advance.
#2 Texas Regional Recap: UT-San Antonio shocked the field with two wins over #2 overall seed Texas to win the region and move on.
Thus, your Super Regionals are ...
Louisville vs Miami
#8 Oregon State v #9 Florida State
#5 UNC v Arizona
#4 Auburn v #13 Coastal Carolina
#3 Arkansas v #14 Tennessee
#6 LSU v West Virginia
Duke v Murray State
UT-San Antonio v #15 UCLA
Stats/Observations of the 16 regionals.
9 out of 16: Seeds/Hosts to advance. Three of the top 8 seeds are out, including #1 Vandy, #2 Texas, and #7 Ole Miss.
6 regionals went to Monday extra game; lots of close regionals this year.
Conference Breakdown of the 16 advancers: ACC 5, SEC 4, Big12 2, Big10 1, others 4.
How about the ACC? 9 teams in, 5 going to supers. Versus SEC: 13 teams in, just 4 moving on.
Murray State; holy cow. Usually we’re ecstatic to talk about a #4 seed getting a win, not moving on.
UT-San Antonio; a #2 seed who took out a power house.
Performance of 1st Round projected players in the Regionals:
(we’ll put this content into our 1-1 candidate review post, coming out later this week)
Super Regional predictions: Here’s what i think happens when these Regional champs meetup next weekend:
Louisville vs Miami: two teams with .500 records in ACC conference play are now going to give the CWS a representative from between them. I would guess Miami gets to host based on pedigree. These teams didn’t meet at all this year so no history. Prediction: Miami had a slightly harder SoS and may have a slight advantage here.
#8 Oregon State v #9 Florida State: I’m going FSU just based on having a better arm to throw game 1. FSU faced a better slate of teams all year.
#5 UNC v Arizona: hard to pick against UNC in this position. I think these former Pac12 teams are overrated generally.
#4 Auburn v #13 Coastal Carolina: Auburn will outclass the mid-major former CWS champ here.
#3 Arkansas v #14 Tennessee: They played late in the season, at Arkansas; Tennessee won the first game, then lost the 2nd when Doyle pitched (Arkansas lit him up for 11 hits and 8 runs). I think Arkansas repeats the feat and moves on. If they can get to Doyle that easily, they’ll be tough to beat.
#6 LSU v West Virginia; with all due respect to WVU, LSU isn’t going to lose at home with a top 5 pick throwing one of the games.
Duke v Murray State: Murray State played, nobody, I mean, nobody this year; SoS #222. But they showed up in the Regional and I’ll bet they show up again. Murray State to CWS!
UT-San Antonio v #15 UCLA: UTSA is big-time. Top 20 RPI, 8-4 record against Q1. I think they’re going to beat UCLA.
We’re two months into the 2025 full seasons, so here’s my rotations/pitching staff deep-dives for the month.
Each team section analysis will have the same items: current rotation, changes in the last month, observations, next guy to get promoted (if its in the minors), next guy to get cut, and then a few comments about relievers.
Opening Day 2025: Gore, Irvin, Parker, Soroka, TWilliams
End of April 2025: Gore, Irvin, Parker, TWilliams, Lord
End of May 2025: Gore, Irvin, Parker, Soroka, TWilliams (back to the original)
Changes sinceend of last Month: Soroka came off D/L, sent Lord back to the bullpen.
Rotation Observations: We have an ace (Gore), we have a #4 starter (Irvin), and we have three guys pitching their way out of the rotation (Parker, Williams, Soroka). Soroka gets a pass b/c he’s guaranteed $8M. Williams gets a pass (for now) because he’s guaranteed even more. Parker Is just looking hittable right now. His best start in the last month was a 5.1 IP 3run effort against Atlanta; otherwise every one of his outings is a bunch of runs year, fail to get out of the 5th, tax the bullpen, etc. Every time Cavalli looks unhittable in AAA, Parker is one step closer to a demotion.
Next guy to get cut/demoted: Parker, as per above.
Bullpen comments: The team just cut ties with Lopez ($3M off-season signing) after jettisoning Sims ($3M) and Poche ($1.4M) earlier in the month. All money well spent. I think its safe to say Rizzo’s “throw money at a bunch of FA relievers” strategy for the 2025 bullpen has officially failed. On the bright side Finnegan has looked solid, Henry has been amazing, and five of the eight bullpen arms are home grown. Finally.
AAA Rochester
Opening Day 2025: Alvarez, Lara, Ogasawara, Choi, Solesky
End of April 2025: Alvarez, Lara, Solesky, Shuman, Cavalli (rehab)
End of May 2025: Alvarez, Solesky, Shuman, Cavalli, Sampson
Changes since end of last month: Lara hit the D/L, and basically saw his starts picked up by Cavalli and then eventually MLFA signing Sampson. Cavalli ended his rehab stint and was optioned.
Rotation Observations: Alvarez, Shuman, and Sampson all had a full month in the rotation, and were all mediocre to bad. ERAs in the 5-6s, Whips in the 1.5 range. Solesky has improved from last month and has earned himself another month in the AAA rotation. Cavalli’s back; in 4 May starts as he builds up arm strength going about 4IP each, he’s got 25/6 K/BB in 16 IP. Once he’s stretched out someone’s making way in the majors. They now have 3 starters on the DL (Stuart, Ogasawara, Lara), all of whom would be preferred to most of this crew.
Next guy to get Promoted: Cavalli as per above.
Next guy to get cut/demoted: Sampson; he’s a 33yr old MLFA who will either push for a MLB promotion or exercise whatever opt-out is inevitably in his contract.
Bullpen comments: There’s just nobody in the AAA bullpen right now pushing for a promotion; they’ve moved up Rutledge, Henry, and Brzycky at this point and they seem to have exhausted internal options for fixing the MLB bullpen.
AA Harrisburg
Opening Day 2025: Shuman, Luckham, Saenz, Susana, Atencio
End of April 2025: Luckham, Saenz, Susana, Choi, Soroka (rehab)
End of May 2025: Luckham, Saenz, Choi, Cornelio, Conley (with multiple Gomez openers)
Changes since end of last month: The biggest news of the month is Susana going down with a Grade 1 UCL sprain. Grade 1 is supposed to be mild, with “microscopic tears” or a “slight stretch.” We’ll have to see what happens next. Susana and Soroka’s rehab starts have been replaced with the promoted Cornelio and the MLFA signing Conley (with rubber-armed Gomez doing a slew of spot starts/openers).
Rotation Observations: the AA rotation looks solid. Choi had a great month: 1.65 ERA, 1.06 WHIP. Maybe he’s got the confidence to return to AAA. Luckham has been solid but not as dominant in the K/9 range. Cornelio’s rise to AA has been merited and he’s holding his own so far, to my surprise after complaining about him for years. Conley, a 30yr old signed from a Mexican team, hasn’t been bad. The only guy still struggling in Saenz, same as last month.
Next guy to get Promoted: Choi.
Next guy to get cut/demoted: Saenz
Bullpen comments: Powell didn’t give up a run last month. Peterson was excellent and got promoted mid-month. Cuevas has really shined since moving to the pen. Davila remains too old for AA and needs to get moved to AAA. Maybe our MLB bullpen solutions are actually a bunch of guys dealing in AA right now.
High-A Wilmington
Opening Day 2025: Clemmey, Cornelio, Kent, Sthele, Tepper
End of April 2025: Clemmey, Cornelio, Kent, Sthele, Arias
End of May 2025: Clemmey, Kent, Sthele, Sykora, Bennett, Stuart (rehab) plus a bunch of spot starts
Changes since end of last month: Cornelio moved up, and the team have a slew of guys spot starts: 10 different players got a start in May for this team while they waited for Sykora and some stability.
Rotation Observations: Clemmey had a great month; 1.59 ERA, a ton of Ks, but too many walks. If he can get his walks down he may be a 19yr old in AA. Stuart’s rehab has gone well; he may force a bump in AAA soon. Kent has been solid, if a little unlucky. Sykora’s High-A debut has been laughably good: 2 starts, 8IP, 15Ks, 2 hits. Bennett made 3 starts to open the month, but now hasn’t pitched since May 11th; uh-oh. Sthele was the worst full-time starter, though some of their SS/LR types (Arias and Caceres) were awful.
Next guy to get Promoted: Sykora. There’s zero use of having a guy with a 16 K/9 rate stay in a-ball for any longer than he needs to. Clemmey after that; i don’t care how young he is.
Next guy to get cut/demoted: Sthele
Bullpen comments; Amaral had a nice month. Not much else to report; when most of your best WHIPs belong to starters, it tells you your pen needs work.
Low-A/Fredericksburg
Opening Day 2025: Polanco, Meckley, Tejeda, Roman, DGarcia
End of April 2025: Polanco, Meckley, Tejeda, Roman, DGarcia with Bennett making his 2025 debut
End of May 2025: Polanco, Meckley, Tejeda, Roman, DGarcia with two “rehab” starts from Bennett, Sykora
Changes since end of last month: Again, none really. A couple of these guys had their starts pushed or did tandem starts to give bigger names a couple of starts, but the Low-A rotation remains basically the same from opening day.
Rotation Observations: Tejeda and Polanco looking good. Solid months, ERAs in the 3s, good K/BB rates. Polanco looked the best in terms of keeping runners off base. Garcia had a nice ERA but had 17 walks in 25IP; that’s got to improve. Meckley had more walks than Ks and had his turn skipped at the last day of the month, so maybe something’s there. Roman was the real struggle for the month, with an ERA nearly 9.
Next guy to get Promoted: Polanco, as he was last month.
Next guy to get cut/demoted: Roman, as he was last month.
Bullpen comments: Last month’s highlights have all been promoted: Bloebaum, Amaral, Mejia. Good for the team to push these guys and not was their bullets in low-A. Cranz (finally) had a good month: 9ip, 2hits, 14/3 K/BB. Bruni had 22Ks and 11 walks in 11 innings; interesting.—
End of May 2025: Feliz, Portorreal, Farias, Johnson, Lunar
Changes since end of last month: This is the first month of the FCL; no real major changes occurred in the first month other than to see a bunch of rehabbers return home.
Rotation Observations: At the end of last year, the rotation was Sanchez, Romero, Colon, Portorreal, and Moreno. Sanchez went straight to Low-A’s full season DL, Romero is on the Low-A DL but doing rehab starts in FCL, Moreno is still in FCL but hasn’t pitched an inning since 2023, and Colon is in the FCL bullpen putting up a 12 ERA so far, so only Portorreal returns.
So far in 2025, Feliz (a 23IFA) is doing great: 24/4 K/BB in 5 starts with a near 3.00 ERA. Lunar (a 24IFA for a bonus amount small enough not to be reported) is doing great: sub 3.00 ERA but more importantly he earned his way off the island. Portorreal is struggling (2.00 whip), as is Farias (13 walks in 11 innings). Johnson is way too old to be here (age 23) and it shows: in 18IP so far he’s got a 21/3 K/BB and has given up just 9 hits and one run.
Next guy to get Promoted: Johnson.
Next guy to get cut/demoted: Farias. He’s 22 and can’t find the plate. Put him in the pen and give one of these over-performing relievers a shot.
Bullpen comments: We talked about Johnson; Kane (a 23-yr old MLFA) needs to move up for the challenge as well; zero runs allowed during May.
That’s it for May 2025. Lots of intriguing updates after diving into the stats for the month.
