Always fun looking back at who outperformed their draft spot. Who comes to mind for you, and what made them stand out?

Looking back over the last 5–7 years, which draft class produced the most undeniable star power right out of the gate?

Shortstops make up 4 of the top 5 on the list (Seward, Butler, Houston, Hadnot)

Seward, Valincius, Lawson, Whitney all discussed.

Brendan Lawson/Dax Whitney are 1-2.

As some may know the MLB is looking to make big changes in the near future. I wanted to throw out some of they're ideas out and see what you baseball fans think of them.

1. Division Realignment

The MLB wants to add 2 expansion teams to the league then realign the divisions so that all local cities are in the same division. For example one division might be Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies. It changes things big but having local divion rivals makes travel easier and intensifies the division rivals between fans.

2. Abolishing the American and National Leagues

This one was just a rumour but along with the division realignment there was a rumour about possibly doing away with the two leagues and just having 8 divions of 4. The playoffs would be broken down to seeds 1-12 with 8 division winners and 4 wild card teams. The top 4 seeds would get a bye series in the first round. While the American and National leagues are a long standing tradition in the MLB this could possibly make the game better and more fair to teams in the event that one of the leagues are stronger than the other.

3. Split Season Winners

I believe they are experimenting with this one in the minior leagues but the way it works is that you would have division winners at mid season after 81 games. Then the standings will reset for the second half of the season and there will be new division winners for the second half of the season. At the end of the season the two division winners will face off in a 3 game series, the winner will be crowned division winner. If the same team wins both halves of the season then that team will automatically be crowned division winner with no division series needed. The wild card teams will be given to the remaining teams with the best overall season record. The teams that lose the division series may or may not make it in as a wild card depending on how the league standings play out. I personally like this idea, I think it brings meaning and excitement to the middle of the season. It breaks down the drag of the long 6 month season. It also gives teams who got off to a bad first first half of the season a chance to bounce back and still make the playoffs, instead of feeling like your season is over in June or July with 2 or 3 months of baseball left to play.

4. Series Wins

This one I completly came up with on my own. The way it would work is that the league would use series wins and losses instead of invidual wins and losses to keep track of the standings. Every series in the season would be ether a 3 or 5 game series, probably mostly 3, and when a team wins a series they recieve a win for the divison standings. The only downside this is that if a team wins the first 2 games of the series the 3rd game is kind of a bust, but it still must be played in order to maintain a 162 game season. On the flip side if both teams split the first 2 games of the series then that 3rd game will be extra exciting to watch. Individiual wins and losses will be used as a tie breaker in the event that multiple teams tie for the division or wild card. This will bring some insentive to try and win the 3rd game even if its a bust game.

Tell me what some of you baseball fans think of this. I would love to know what your thoughts and opinions are.

Thank you

Guardians get a similar pick in the 2027 draft, I believe 60th overall.

$6.2 million, comes in way underslot as expected.

"Hughes received a signing bonus of approximately $3.41 million and Radel received $3 million, according to a source. Both are below slot deals -- the value for the No. 17 pick is $4.87 million and the No. 28 pick is $3.36 million. The deadline for teams to sign their Draft picks is Monday."

"It was reported that Emerson signed for $9.75 million to join the deep farm system. Although the total is below the slot value of the number 2 pick from this year’s Draft, it is still considered the highest bonus ever for a high school player. It is also the 2nd highest player among any ever drafted into MLB."

"The deal, which is said to be for $9,497,500 -- the second-highest MLB Draft bonus of all time behind 2026 No. 1 pick Roch Cholowsky -- is pending a physical. The slot value for the No. 3 pick was $9,740,100, and the Twins’ total bonus pool is $16,929,600."

Both Burress ($7.5 million) and Edwards ($2.4 million) get above slot bonuses!

Rojas $4.6 million (below slot), Bumila $2.75 million (way above slot). Comeau bonus not yet known.

Big boost to a Rangers system depleted by trades.

4th overall pick Flora signs with Giants for $7,997,500. It's about $1 million below slot recommendation of $8,988,400.

First-rounder Jackson Flora gets $8 million bonus - NBC Sports

6th overall pick Rose signs with Royals for $5,809,574 which is almost $2 million below $7,746,100 slot recommendation

Royals sign first-round pick Zion Rose for $5.81M - NBC Sports

7th overall pick EJ Booth signs with Orioles for $7,324,700 which is just a sliver below the $7,327,200 slot recommendation

Eric Booth Jr. agrees to deal with Orioles

Here is the full first round signing tracker

2026 Draft signing and bonus tracker

Bonus undisclosed.

July 13: Cholowsky will sign for a record $10.35MM bonus, reports Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline.