Matt, before we get into the draft, you did a little research here that is going to be relevant for our exercise about just kind of the makeup of the catcher position and how that's shifted, particularly on, like, the handedness side of things.

Yeah, I was digging into the trends on catchers in the major leagues right now.

In the pool of players we're going to be discussing in this draft, there are several notable left-handed batters.

So I looked to see how common that is in history.

The record for 400 plate appearance seasons by left-handed hitting catchers is six.

It's been done a couple times, most recently in 1988.

In the 30-team era, it was done in 2009.

So I think, like, 20-plus homers, bunch of playing time, and you're, you're buying him, like, at the beginning of his prime.

Uh, Matt, before we get into the draft, you did, uh, a little research here that, uh, is gonna be relevant for, for our exercise about just kind of the makeup of the catcher position and how that's, uh, shifted, uh, particularly on, like, the handedness side of things.

Yeah.

I was, I was digging into the trends on catchers in the major leagues right now.

Um, in the, the, the pool of players we're gonna be discussing in this draft, there are several notable left-handed batters.

So I look to see how common that is in history.

Uh, the record for 400 plate appearance seasons by left-handed hitting catchers is six.

It's been done a couple times, most recently in 1988.

It's, it's really impressive what Flewelling's doing.

Which one of these do you think could be, like, the next, like, Weninger or Taillon type range, where we're talking, like, Santucci, Thornton, Will Watson?

Oh, yeah.

I like all three quite a bit.

Um, Thornton to me is, is perhaps the most undersold, just because his fastball velocity and ability to miss bats has come on extremely [laughs] well.

Like, you ...

He was ...

I think his strikeout rate rose, like, 10 percentage points year over year, and he's got this, uh, he's more deception and command than he is, like, outstanding stuff, but, you know, that plays with left-handers, and I think he's kind of a deeper sleeper name.

What are the Mets doing to possibly help these hitters, and is this something that seems like it's transferable and might continue to happen similar to how we view Mets pitching development?

I think the Orioles may have topped that.

But one of the highest bonus pools, they spent it almost exclusively on high school players who have high upside potential.

And they graduated a number of quality players like Dylan Cruz, Brady House.

Kate Cavalli, Daylon Lyle, all these players, Brad Lord, all graduated.

So they had a large graduating class.

But despite that, I do think this group has more upside.

We may see it this year with Rock Cholowski, but with very few exceptions, even if you give that guy decent money, you're still going to have a lot of money to spend elsewhere.

And the Nationals spent most of it on some high school talent, including North Carolina high school shortstop Koi James.

I was going to ask you about Wenninger and Santucci, but I think I'll ask you this question first, and this will kind of tee that up, which is, what is this organization good at developing?

Well, over the past few years, pitching.

Without a doubt.

The 2023 draft group, you know, you get Brandon Sprote.

They've already used in a trade.

Nolan McLean, Zach Thornton and Jack Wenninger are legitimate prospects.

And those guys were later like three, four or five round guys.

He's interesting.