Aram Leighton breaks down White Sox's, Cubs' draft classes , Bears' Caleb Williams makes ESPN's Top 10 NFL Quarterbacks list (Hour 4)

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Rahimi & Grote Show 41 min 7 speakers 6 chapters transcribed 2 months ago

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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Vinny Rotino 0:02

This hour is brought to you by Vasectomy Clinics of Chicago.

Unknown 0:07

With the first pick of the 2026 MLB draft, the Chicago White Sox select Rock Chalewski, a shortstop from UCLA. It's pretty surreal. You know, it's something that everyone dreams of. You know, it's going through the process and, you know, finally getting there. Hear my name called today was, you know, something that I'll always have with me and, you know, be able to look back on it, you know, something to be a part of. You know, I got to connect a lot with Phil Nevin in the offseason.

Why did the White Sox pick Rock Cholowski first overall in the 2026 MLB draft?

Unknown 0:34

You know, I met him before the season started and got to sit down and have lunch with him. And, you know, he was just telling me about, you know, how special it is to be the first overall pick. You know, there's only one every year. There's been 61, you know, in the history of baseball. So, you know, being able to be a part of that brotherhood and, you know, being able to call myself the first overall pick is something that always holds tight to me.

Vinny Rotino 0:55

That is the voice of Rock Cholowski. And then there was also Rob Manfred announcing the pick. This is Rahimi Harrison-Brody on 104.3thescore.com. And we go to our hotline and also our Twitch channel, twitch.tv slash thescorechicago to connect with Aram Layton, the co-founder and executive editor of Just Baseball. He's the co-host of the Just Baseball show and the Call Up podcast. Aram, how are you today? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on. We are happy to have you on. And we were just talking earlier about how there was a lot of discussion, not just in the days, but really weeks leading up to whether or not the White Sox were going to go ahead with Rock Chilowski. What did you think about the chatter versus Grady Emerson?

Vinny Rotino 1:40

And then what ended up happening, them taking Chilowski overall?

Aram Leighton 1:45

Well, and first of all, it's funny you hear Chalaski say it was so nice to hear his name called. He kind of heard his name called there. But no, on a serious note with it kind of was down to the wire ish. You know, I think not to the degree that we saw last year. where Eli Willits went to the nationals and from everything I understand that was literally down to the final minutes there, but there was a lot of back and forth. I think that Cholowski was always the guy that I think was the favorite and for good reason. And it seems that Cholowski very much wanted to be a White Sox and wanted to be the number one overall pick. But as you know, this is also a rare opportunity for the White Sox who had 20 plus million dollars in their bonus pool to accumulate as much talent as they can.

Aram Leighton 2:26

And the MLB draft is very unique where it's, it, It's very creative-oriented where you're going to be looking to overslot some players in the third round that you think are first-round talents and try to buy different players down and get creative and maximize the amount of talent that you can bring in. Cholowski's the biggest piece of that puzzle, but it did seem like there was a little bit of back and forth there. Ultimately, though, it seemed like both sides wanted this to happen, and they made it happen.

Marshall Harris 2:50

When you look at the decision, do you feel like we're going to know in how long Which guy should have been the number one pick between Emerson and Cholowski?

Aram Leighton 3:02

You know, I think with those things, it's funny. We joke about it sometimes on the show because you could almost play playback snippets of us talking through the years. And you could have us almost arguing against ourselves with the way it just flips and flops back and forth when it comes to the MLB draft. Because Maybe Cholowski gets off to a better start in the minor leagues and gets to the major leagues quicker. But then Emerson, as he reaches age 21, 22, starts to grow into more power. Now he reaches another plateau. So with those types of things, when you have two really good players and somewhat different players. Right. I think with Emerson, the hit tool and the ability to just consistently drive the baseball, how polished the swing is for his age is so exciting.