Ben and Carlos talk about Baseball America’s new top 500 high school player ranking, as well the new star rating system we are unveiling to help further contextualize high school recruits. The two talk about what separates a five-star, four-star and three-star high school player and then talk through some of the top recruiting classes in the country. After that the two hit on a few notable Top 100 risers and the different ways that UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey ended their 2026 seasons.

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Time Stamps

• (2:30) Top 500 High School list and new star system ratings
• (7:30) Why the star system ranking is different from BA grades
• (11:40) What is a BA five-star recruit?
• (18:30) Four-star players are the backbone of premier recruiting classes
• (23:40) What does a three-star prospect entail?
• (29:00) How the star scale applies to underclassmen
• (32:55) The schools with the most exciting recruiting classes
• (40:40) Top 100 talk
• (41:00) Travis Bazzana
• (44:00) Ryan Sloan
• (46:30) Ethan Salas
• (49:30) Theo Gillen
• (51:30) Mike Sirota
• (55:10) Luis Hernandez
• (56:50) Alfredo Duno
• (59:00) Roch Cholowsky vs. Vahn Lackey

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Future Projection Twitter: @FutureProPod

Ben's Twitter: @BenBadler

Carlos's Twitter: @CarlosACollazo

Baseball America Website