It’s the most wonderful time of the year. We’re approaching the release of the third and final product in the 2025 Bowman season and that’s Bowman Draft which is often the best one of them all. I’m especially excited about this checklist for anyone who participates in ‘Pick Your Team’ breaks because there are legitimately 20 teams that I wouldn’t mind having if the price is right. The 1st Autograph checklist is extremely deep so there’s no shortage of potential hobby stars and sleepers you should be looking for. Here’s how they stack up in my opinion.
For a full list of over 20 hitters to chase visit Big Bob’s Cards Substack.
Top 5
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Eli Willits (WAS) SS – 6’1” / 180 (Age: 18.1)
- Hit: 60, Power: 45, Speed: 60, Field: 60
- Bonus: $8.2 million
This is a classic case of “don’t overthink it”. After the 2022 MLB Draft I can remember how some people in the hobby (I sadly admit I was one) wanted to chase Druw Jones over Jackson Holliday because he was a much better athlete, with better power and speed potential, and his tools felt like those of a hobby superstar. Well, sometimes the best player is just the best player, and that’s true again this year in my opinion. It feels odd for the #1 player in a Bowman product to not have big power projections but similarly to Jackson Holliday he could be such a good prospect that it won’t matter. Aside from the physical tools Willits has two things working heavily in his favor in terms of his collectability, he was the #1 overall pick which almost always carries a tax in Bowman, and also he’s the youngest of the 102 players on this 1st autograph checklist. In fact, he didn’t turn 18 until about a week ago and when he was selected by Washington he was the youngest player to go #1 overall since a guy named Ken Griffey Jr. almost 40 years ago. What he lacks in power he makes up for in essentially every other category, with plus projections for hitting, speed, and fielding. The switch-hitting shortstop has an incredibly impressive hit tool for his age, routinely finding the barrel and making hard contact although it’s mostly geared for line drives currently. He has a great baseball IQ as the son of a former Major League player and current collegiate coach, and that along with his speed, arm, and work ethic give him a good shot at being a plus defensive shortstop and base stealer. Unlike many of the players on this list who have yet to see their first professional action, the Nationals threw Willits straight into Single-A after he was drafted and the top pick did not disappoint. Although it wasn’t a huge sample he played 15 games and in his first 58 PA hit .300 with a .397 OBP and 127 wRC+. He showed off those impressive bat-to-ball skills by posting a 85.2% contact rate and 6.9% swinging strike % on the 248 pitches he saw and just a reminder, he was still 17-years-old. There were only six prospects who got 50+ PA in Single-A at age 17 last year and his 127 wRC+ was 24 points higher than the next best in Juneiker Caceres, a prospect I’m extremely high on. It’s not a big enough of a sample to freak out yet and say he’s a top 10 prospect, but with his skillset and way he plays the game I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s there by the end of 2026. Don’t overthink it. Eli Willits is the best hitting prospect on this checklist.
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JoJo Parker (TOR) SS – 6’2” / 200 (Age: 19.4)
- Hit: 50, Power: 55, Speed: 40, Field: 40
- Bonus: $6.2 million
The great thing about this checklist is that if you don’t want to pay the premium that the #1 pick will command in both singles and break pricing, there are so many other good prep bats worth holding. My favorite one not named Eli Willits is the 8th overall pick JoJo Parker. The Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Mississippi actually has a twin brother who was drafted in the 19th round by the Diamondbacks but chose to accept a scholarship at Mississippi St. instead of signing. JoJo has an offensive profile that could be extremely Bowman friendly, and though FanGraphs has his hit tool at 50 there are others who have graded it at 60, which would give him a hit/power combo similar to that of Twins prospect Walker Jenkins. You often don’t see hitters excel in both of those categories at this age but Parker has a beautiful lefty swing and saying that he has a good understanding of the zone could be an understatement. In his Senior campaign at Purvis (MS), Parker finished the year with a .665 OBP in 37 games thanks to his 45 walks versus… 4 strikeouts. He did that while hitting 13 HR in 158 PA and slugging over 1.000. This wasn’t a one year wonder either, as he had a .657 OBP with 44 walks to 8 strikeouts as a Junior, and again slugged over 1.000 with 15 HR as a Sophomore. He rarely chases outside the zone and when you come into the zone he makes you pay, hitting it hard to all fields and seldom whiffing. As he continues to add strength I think this could be a profile that the hobby goes crazy for, and he’s on the right path already posting a max exit velocity over 115 mph according to Rapsodo’s readings. The only tiny negative I see here is the age which may not matter to most people but it is worth noting. Being born in August of 2006 he should have been a young member of the 2024 class with the standard age cutoff dates that schools typically use, but instead he is old for the 2025 class. I can’t help but give him a slight decrease being that he’s 19 and will turn 20 during his professional debut season. Aside from that it’s hard to find anything in the profile not to love, and from strictly a ‘hobby tools’ standpoint JoJo Parker’s could end up being the best in this product.
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Steele Hall (CIN) SS – 6’0” / 180 (Age: 18.5)
- Hit: 45, Power: 50, Speed: 70, Field: 60
- Bonus: $5.75 million
Three prep shortstops in a row! If you’re a fan of chasing athleticism then 9th overall pick Steele Hall may be the player for you. Hall has had quite a few things go right for him in the last calendar year. He reclassified to make himself eligible for this year’s draft, put on more than 10 pounds of muscle, improved tremendously in his last High School season, and got drafted in the top 10 receiving a $5.75 million signing bonus. There are a couple of things going in his favor here too from a Bowman standpoint. Since he reclassified he’ll still be 18 for the first half of his debut season in 2026. Also because of that he didn’t have as much time to polish his game since he was drafted after what was technically his Junior year so there’s tons of untapped potential. He also lands with a team in the Reds that I have been drawn to lately in terms of their prospects. With Elly De La Cruz, Sal Stewart, Alfredo Duno, Tyson Lewis, Cam Collier, etc. etc., they have a laundry list of great Bowman names from the last few years. I remember doing my 2024 Draft rankings and Tyson Lewis was a fairly controversial prospect in that he had the tools but there were more than a few questions from scouts about if and when it would all click. Then he had a great debut, his cards doubled in price, and we all went “damn, should have seen that coming”. I don’t think Steele Hall is all that different and people inside the Reds organization have already noted that he is the best athlete in their entire system. The speed is easily 70 grade and some evaluators have even called it 80, giving him big time stolen base potential. That gives him great range on the dirt too, and when you pair it with his plus arm he has a shot at being a plus defender at shortstop. In his Junior year Hall showed a little bit of everything offensively hitting .484 with 8 HR, 14 2B, 5 3B, and 33 SB in 37 games. His hit and power might not grade higher than average presently but neither did Tyson Lewis’s this time last year. I suspect I’ll be higher than anyone on Steele Hall but between his elite athleticism and how much I like what the Reds have been up to, I’m totally fine with that.
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Gavin Fien (TEX) SS – 6’3” / 200 (Age: 18.8)
- Hit: 40, Power: 60, Speed: 50, Field: 55
- Bonus: $4.8 million
Four prep shortstops in a row! Texas used their 12th overall pick on Gavin Fien out of Temecula, CA, the younger brother of A’s catching prospect Dylan Fien who just so happened to be one of my “Deep Sleepers” in 2025 Bowman. He’s a big righty with a quick swing that regularly leads to hard contact and though FanGraphs projects his hit tool at 40 I’ve seen it at as high as 55. After batting .410 and .411 his Sophomore and Junior years respectively, he hit .358 as a Senior and saw not only his average drop but also his OBP and SLG. What did stay consistent however was his ability to put the bat on the ball. In his Junior and Senior years combined, Fien had 21 walks and 20 strikeouts in 216 PA. Putting a ball in play in over 81% of your trips to the plate is very impressive but a walk rate under 10% also leads me to wonder if he’s a tad aggressive. Then again it’s hard to fault some of these kids for swinging at everything when they know they’re much better than most of their competition. What really got everyone buzzing though is what we saw prior to his Senior season. Fien was a member of the 2024 USA under-18 national team, whose roster had multiple players that went on to be first round picks in the 2025 MLB draft including Eli Willits (1st), Ethan Holliday (4th), Kayson Cunningham (18th), and Josh Hammond (28th). At the World Cup Americas Qualifier he led all hitters there with a .727 slugging percentage in a field that featured Josuar Gonzalez (now a member of the Giants) who was the #1 ranked international prospect. Following that Fien was named to the High School All-American Game where he won the MVP after driving in two runs on two hits and registering three batted balls over 100 mph. According to Rapsodo they had him measured at a 118.79 mph Max EV which was the second highest reading they got of any prep hitter who went in the first round this year. Though I admit his Senior season regression felt odd there’s no denying what MLB scouts saw in the year leading up to that, and he repeatedly showed out against the best amateur competition every time he faced it. I’m interested to see how aggressive his approach looks as a professional next year, I think worst case scenario he’s 40 Hit 55 Power but there’s also a possibility he’s 55 Hit 60 Power, and that ceiling alone makes him worthy of being a top chase.
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Dax Kilby (NYY) SS – 6’2” / 190 (Age: 19.1)
- Hit: 45, Power: 60, Speed: 60, Field: 55
- Bonus: $2.8 million
Five prep shortstops in a row! Sensing a theme? Dax Kilby is an interesting one because he wasn’t nearly as high of a draft pick as everyone else in this top tier (39th overall) and his signing bonus was less than half of some of them, but I don’t know that anyone had a stronger professional debut. Now as a disclaimer I will say that I don’t think Kilby’s arm will allow him to stick at shortstop long-term, but let’s be real, we’re mostly here for offense anyways. The 6’2” lefty was considered to be one of the most polished hitters in this prep class and like Fien he had no problems hitting against great talent when it came to showcases. As with many of these young bats there is disagreement among evaluators on what their tools will look like once they’re fully developed. FanGraphs has him at 45 Hit, 60 Power, and 60 Speed while MLB Pipeline is much more bullish on the hit tool at 55, but thinks the power is 50 and speed is 55. From what we saw in the debut I’d personally take a mix of both and call it 55’s across the board. If his professional debut at age 18 was any indication of what we will see in 2026, this hit tool will have no problem grading above average. In 81 PA at Single-A, Kilby hit .353 with a .457 OBP and 159 wRC+ while going 16 for 17 on stolen base attempts. Now I will say his .421 BABIP suggests that average may have been a touch lucky but I wouldn’t be too too worried about regression. That’s because the 18-year-old posted a 16% BB rate, 13.6% K rate, 86.9% contact rate, and 4.5% swinging strike rate. I know it’s not even 100 PA but more walks than K’s and a SwStr% under 5% from a teenage shortstop wearing pinstripes? These cards could do numbers early on. I guess my only concern is that I don’t know if Kilby has a plus tool. I don’t think his great debut was a fluke by any means so I do believe we will continue to see that great approach and bat-to-ball ability, but will the power and speed be enough, especially if he has to move off short? Then again, years back I said my biggest beef with Anthony Volpe as a hobby prospect was that he was average to above average across the board but didn’t have a plus tool and his cards sold pretty damn well leading up to his debut. If he gets to the plus power projections some have for him he could easily end up a top 3 chase in this release BUT… of the 16 prep bats taken in the 1st round this year, Rapsodo had Kilby’s Max EV as the second lowest. Regardless, I do think he’s probably the most well-rounded HS hitter in his product not named Eli Willits. Combine that with the Yankees premium his cards will carry and you get what is arguably the safest player in this product to hold for 2026.
Want the full list of over twenty 2025 Bowman Draft hitters to chase? Visit Big Bob’s Cards on Substack.
