Baseball America’s Hot Sheet ranks the 20 hottest prospects from the previous week. This week’s installment considers how minor league players performed through May 11. Contributing this week were BA staffers Josh Norris, Geoff Pontes, Jesús Cano and J.J. Cooper.
The Hot Sheet simply recognizes how the hottest prospects in the minors did in the past week—it’s not a re-ranking of the Baseball America Top 100 Prospects.
We host our weekly Hot Sheet Show on YouTube at 3:30 p.m. ET on Mondays. We’ll also be answering prospect questions in our weekly Hot Sheet chat on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. ET.
The Scoop: Understandably, Montgomery wrecked shop in Low-A for the early portion of his professional debut before earning a bump up a level. If he keeps performing like he has so far, the Texas A&M alum might need to book a ticket back to Southeastern Conference country for his first test at the upper levels. One of the centerpieces of the trade that sent ace lefty Garrett Crochet to Boston, Montgomery has been overwhelming and unrelenting in the first month and change of his career. He smacked three home runs against Bowling Green last week, equaling the total he’d produced in 18 games with Low-A. He’s gotten on base in all but one of the 11 games he’s played with Winston-Salem since the promotion. (JN)
Why He’s Here: 1-0, 0.00, 6.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 SO, 0 HR
The Scoop: Tong’s outing this week was not only the best of his minor league career, it was the best of any pitcher this season. The righthander manhandled Reading for 6.2 perfect innings and 99 pitches before handing the ball to Wesley Moore, who struck out the only hitter he faced and completed the seven-inning perfecto. Tong racked up 13 strikeouts and got 18 whiffs, one shy of the season high he set two weeks ago in just four innings against New Hampshire. His 51 strikeouts are the most in the Eastern League, the most in all of Double-A and just four off the minor league lead. (JN)
Why He’s Here: 1-0, 0.00, 9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO, 0 HR
The Scoop: It was a memorable week for Ritchie, as he made the best start of his professional career on Saturday and was promoted to Double-A on Sunday. In his Saturday start against Greenville, Ritchie threw a complete game shutout on 95 pitches, as he faced the minimum. He did allow two baserunners, but both were thrown out attempting to steal second. Ritchie sat 94-95 mph in the first inning but settled in at 92-94 later on in the start. He mixed two fastballs styles in a four-seam and two-seam while showing three different secondaries in a sweeper, curveball and changeup. He showed feel for all of his secondaries, and the introduction of the sinker at higher usage rates had led to excellent results. Ritchie’s next start will come with Columbus next week. (GP)
The Scoop: Quintero has done nothing but win since signing with the Dodgers out of Venezuela in 2023. He played a crucial role on championship-winning clubs in both the Dominican Summer League and the Arizona Complex League, and now he’s swinging a hot bat for a first-place Rancho team in the Cal League South Division. His dominant week was highlighted by a 3-for-5 performance on Thursday night when he went deep twice, showcasing his power to both the opposite field and his pull side. The 19-year-old also swiped three bases, flashing his 60-grade speed. (JC)
The Scoop: It’s been a pretty quiet start to the season for Young, but the underlying data is better than his .236/.349/.368 line may indicate. Young continues to be a very tough out who makes excellent swing decisions, plenty of contact and rarely gets beaten by pitchers. His modest power has been even more subdued so far, but his ability to be a very pure hitter should help get that slash line much closer to his normal numbers by June. (JJ)
The Scoop: Rojas held his own following an aggressive assignment to High-A South Bend to begin 2024. He returned to the level to begin 2025 and has enjoyed strong results. Last week, Rojas torched Fort Wayne pitching, racking up a pair of three-hit games and reaching base in all five games in which he played. Rojas’ best performance came on Sunday when he slugged two home runs in a 3-for-4 showing. On the season, he is hitting .300/.387/.513 over 21 games. At 20 years old, Rojas is still one of the youngest players in the Midwest League. (GP)
The Scoop: McCusker mashed a 115-mph home run this week that ranks as the third hardest-hit homer in Triple-A this year. He also hit a 114.7 mph homer that ranks as the fifth hardest-hit homer of the year. McCusker combines big power with just enough contact to make it work. He’s pretty limited in the outfield, but for a former indy ball star, there’s now a pretty clear path to maybe getting a big league callup, which seemed unthinkable just a couple of years ago. (JJ)
The Scoop: During spring training, Misiorowski seemed to be struggling with the same control and command issues he’d battled for years. Just two months later, that seems hard to fathom, as Misiorowski has found the control that long eluded him while also throwing harder than he ever has before. His 102.3 fastball this week is the hardest pitch from a starter in the majors or Triple-A this year. Coming into this season, Misiorowski had posted a well-below-average 59% strike percentage in 2023 and 2024. This year, it’s slightly above-average at 64%, and it’s 66% for the past four starts. (JJ)
The Scoop: When Caglianone was drafted, there were real concerns over whether his swing-happy, power-hungry approach could be exploited by pro pitchers. There’s a lot less worry about that now, as he rarely finds a ball in the strike zone he can’t hit, and when he does connect, he does it with top-of-the-scale raw power. Between last week and this week, Caglianone hit four home runs in a three-game stretch, and he’s also working on an eight-game hitting streak. (JJ)
Why He’s Here: 1-0, 0.00, 6 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO, 0 HR
The Scoop: The bulk of the Yankees’ pitching talent is clustered on the roster of the Hudson Valley Renegades. There, you’ll find a group fronted by Hess, their first-round selection from a year ago, and backed by high-end righties Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, Bryce Cunningham and Carlos Lagrange. Hess led the way this week, punching out nine Jersey Shore hitters in his lone start. The outing marked the third time in five turns that he’d racked up nine punchouts and boosted his season total to 39 in 25 innings, good for a tie for fifth place in the South Atlantic League. (JN)
Why He’s Here: 1-0, 1.13, 8 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 SO, 0 HR
The Scoop: After being featured as a helium name a few weeks ago, Jump has made the Hot Sheet each week since. This week, he tossed an eight-inning gem, allowing one run on four hits and no walks. He generated 15 swinging strikes and a career-high 23 looking strikes as he punched out eight batters. Jump has exhibited an outlier combination of velocity, movement and release traits on his fastball and has ridden it to excellent results. Jump’s overall arsenal has improved in just a short time as a professional, and he is pitching like a promotion to Double-A is potentially just weeks away. (GP)
The Scoop: Clifford’s offensive approach is all about wearing a pitcher down. He has fringe-average contact skills at best, but he prides himself on knowing the strike zone, rarely chasing pitchers’ pitches and taking advantage whenever a pitcher makes a mistake. It’s a combination that will always lead to strikeouts, because he can be beaten by quality stuff, but then there are weeks like this one where he feasts. Two of his three home runs this week came on pitches in the middle/upper third of the zone over the heart of the plate. The third came when he stayed on a breaking ball. Clifford was hitting .195/.313/.354 when Reading arrived in Binghamton. He’s now hitting .248/.345/.475. (JJ)
The Scoop: It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Sirota may have already outgrown Low-A. Entering 2024, he fit the mold of a top 10 pick in the draft, but a regression in his swing caused his stock to drop. The Reds ended up selecting him in the third round last year. The Dodgers, however, had been tracking Sirota since his prep days—drafting him once before in 2021—and finally acquired him this past offseason in the Gavin Lux trade. General manager Brandon Gomes has praised Sirota’s “high-end talent,” signaling the organization’s strong belief in his long-term potential. His seven home runs this season currently lead the California League. (JC)
The Scoop: The Mets’ system is radiating good vibes so far this season—three of its prospects landed on this week’s Hot Sheet—and Benge has been one of the group’s steadiest performers. He swatted two home runs this past week, tripling his season total. He’s failed to reach base just once since April 23 and has collected multiple hits in four of his nine games in May. He’s racked up nearly as many walks (19) as he has strikeouts (26) for the season, producing positive marks in both categories. (JN)
The Scoop: Crisantes’ rise through the D-backs’ system has been powered by his polished hit tool, which remains consistent one month into the season. He’s displayed great plate discipline and rarely misses in the zone, even with an aggressive swing rate. His strong week was capped by a career night on May 7 in which he homered twice in a single game for the first time in his career. (JC)
The Scoop: One scout described De Paula as having a Ken Griffey Jr.-esque swing. That kind of comparison brings some Bigfoot-sized shoes to fill, but so far, De Paula is backing it up by dominating High-A with a mature, polished approach. He’s building on his success from last season, laying off bad pitches and hammering the ball with top-tier exit velocities. At just 19 years old, he’s already considered one of the most advanced hitters in the Dodgers’ system, with plenty of room to grow as he matures. (JC)
Why He’s Here: 1-0, 0.00, 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 SO, 0 HR
The Scoop: After a pair of tough starts in mid April, Ullola has turned a corner over his last two appearances, exhibiting improved command and swing-and-miss stuff. Ullola tossed arguably his best start of the season this past week, as he struck out 10 batters over five innings, generating a whopping 22 whiffs. Ullola shows above-average ride and heavy cut on his four-seam fastball, which allows it to play above its 92-94 mph velocity. Ullola is just a call away from helping the Astros at some point this summer. (GP)
The Scoop: You know the Great Lakes Loons are a special team to watch when two of their three outfielders crack Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list. We already covered De Paula—now it’s time to dig into Hope. His hard-hit rate isn’t just one of the best in the Dodgers’ system; it puts him among the top performers across all of the minors. A big part of that leap? The Dodgers have worked closely with him to better recognize and attack hittable pitches, which was an area he struggled with as an amateur but has now turned into a strength. (JC)
Why He’s Here: 1-0, 1.29, 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO, 0 HR
The Scoop: Over six appearances this season, Wiggins has pitched to 1.71 ERA and showed swing-and-miss stuff. On Thursday, Wiggins threw the longest start of his career, tossing seven innings while allowing one run on three hits and striking out seven. Wiggins generated a season-high 20 whiffs on 87 pitches as he earned the win for Fort Wayne. His fastball sits 95-97 mph with plus ride and above-average run, and he also mixes a changeup, slider and curveball. Wiggins is fighting the relief questions that have plagued his prospect status since college. (GP)
The Scoop: In the lead up to last year’s draft, Jordan’s tools were mostly unquestioned. He could run, throw, defend and put a charge into a baseball. The only box left unchecked was whether he could hit. So far, so good. This past week against a Lake Elsinore team that featured high-end arm talent like Kash Mayfield and Boston Bateman, Jordan added nine more knocks to his ledger, including a pair of doubles and a longball. His strikeout numbers are a touch high, but the impact he’s produced thus far is hard to dispute. (JN)
The Dodgers’ 2024 eighth-round pick had quite the opening week of ACL play. He slugged his first home run on Tuesday, a day after recording his first multi-hit game. Tunink was an overslot signing for $412,500 at 250th overall and was an athletic testing standout. He comes from a cold-weather background and has less experience than other preps in his signing class. Despite this, he’s looked like a potential breakout name from the first week of ACL play. (GP)
SIUE, UT Martin and the Ohio Valley Conference mourns the loss of Lindsey Schmidt, who passed away on Tuesday, December 23.
Lindsey has served as an Academic Advisor at SIUE since 2008 and graduated from OVC member institution UT Martin, where she was a standout volleyball student-athlete and helped the Skyhawks to two regular season conference championships. She was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2002 OVC tournament.
“This is heartbreaking for all who knew Lindsey,” said Andrew Gavin, Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics. “She has long been a beloved member of our athletics family, because of her infectious energy, positive attitude, and incredibly helpful and loving heart. She has provided so much support and love to countless current and past Cougar student-athletes.”
Lindsey was a member of the student-athlete success team at SIUE, working hand in hand with Deputy AD Jaci DeClue for nearly two decades. Lindsey’s support and passion helped student-athletes at SIUE achieve incredible results academically, with 39 consecutive semesters posting a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher. In November, SIUE was recognized as having the top Graduation Success Rate nationally among Division I public institutions.
“Lindsey was a source of light and warmth to all who knew her, with the remarkable ability to make everyone feel seen, valued, and special through her kindness, humility, and genuine care for others,” DeClue shared. “During her 17 years at SIUE, she played a vital role in building an academic support program that served thousands of student-athletes, leaving behind a legacy of compassion, excellence, and lasting impact.
“It was truly an honor to work alongside Lindsey for the past 17 years and to witness firsthand the difference she made every single day. She will be deeply missed by her colleagues, students, and all whose lives were made better by knowing her, and SIUE Athletics will not be the same without her.”
In 2024, she was awarded the Thurston Banks Award by the Ohio Valley Conference, an award that recognizes individuals for their outstanding contributions to OVC student-athletes’ academic success and learning and development.
MINOT, N.D. – Earning a conference championship definitely deserves a place on the best moments of the year, so it is no surprise that a second individual title earns this runner a spot in the top 5 in our countdown.
No. 4 on Buckshot’s Best of 2025 is two-time NSIC champion Bailey Wride, who raced to the conference crown in the women’s 1,000 meters at the NSIC Indoor Track & Field Championships.
A standout distance runner from Kalispell, Montana, Bailey made her mark as a freshman at Minot State as she set a new all-time school record and won the women’s NSIC 600-meter title at her first NSIC Indoor Championship meet, in February of 2004, clocking a time of 1 minute, 36.76 seconds.
A reigning NSIC champion, the sophomore headed to the 2025 NSIC Indoor Championships having broken her own school record in the 600 with a time of 1:35.74 earlier in the 2024-25 indoor season, but she would not defend her title, instead stepping up to the 1,000 meters.
That change didn’t affect Wride one bit as she once again broke an all-time Minot State record and raced to a second NSIC title, winning the 1,000-meter crown in 2:55.63 to become a 2-time NSIC individual champion.
BUCKSHOT’S BEST OF 2025
No. 10: Minot State soccer finishes 4th in NSIC, hosts playoff game
No. 9: Minot State men’s hockey claims MCH Tournament title in 1st season as an MCH member
No. 8: Beaver women’s hockey goalie and freshman Jillian Ackerman earns All-American honors
No. 7: Jace Carlisle shoots school-record 7-under 65, finishes 4th at NSIC Championship to earn NSIC All-Tournament Team honors
No. 6: Jaxon Gunville sets career 3-pointer record with 316 made 3s, and ties the single-game 3-pointer record
No. 5: Haleigh Lematta earns return to NCWWC Nationals Tournament becoming 1st Beaver women’s wrestler to qualify twice for Nationals.
No. 4: Bailey Wride races to 2nd NSIC title, wins 1,000 meters at 2024-25 NSIC Indoor Track & Field Championships.
AUSTIN, Texas – Jody Conradt, who built University of Texas Women’s Basketball and Texas Women’s Athletics into a respected, enviable broad-based collegiate powerhouse, is retiring from fulltime appointment. She most recently served as special advisor to Longhorns Vice President and Folger Family Athletics Director Chris Del Conte.
Effective December 31, 2025, she will continue as a department volunteer, providing input and support as requested or needed. She also will complete a nine-year tenure on the NCAA Infractions Committee in August 2026.
Conradt completes 49 notable years after joining UT in spring 1976 as the first fulltime women’s head coach in two sports – basketball and volleyball. Prior to moving the Longhorns’ women’s programs into the NCAA championships structure in 1982-83, she coached in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) era, had teams that dominated the Southwest Conference for most of two decades and coached teams for 10 years in the Big 12 Conference. Her teams won a staggering and historic 183 consecutive games against SWC opponents from January of 1978 to February of 1990.
She retired from coaching following the 2006-07 season with 900 career victories, 10 SWC and two Big 12 Conference regular season titles, nine SWC postseason tournament championships and one Big 12 Conference postseason tournament crown, one AIAW Final Four and three NCAA Final Four appearances and the first perfect season (34-0 in 1985-86) in NCAA women’s basketball history. That 1985-86 team captured the only national basketball title at Texas.
Prior to Texas, she was an athletics administrator, coached volleyball, basketball and other sports and was a physical education instructor at Sam Houston State (1969-73) and UT Arlington (1973-76).
Conradt was the first women’s coach not required to teach collegiate classes upon joining UT. She coached volleyball for the first two years and then served former Texas women’s AD Donna Lopiano as basketball coach and associate athletics director for all women’s sports for the next 15 years. She conceptualized the academics support structure for women student-athletes, hiring fellow Baylor graduate Dr. Sheila Rice to head those services in 1977 and then Dr. Randa Ryan in the 1990s. She also insisted upon important career readiness/life skills programming and mentorship as part of academics services, along with behavioral/mental health and intervention for disordered eating.
In the late 1970s, Conradt sought the services of former NCAA shot put champion Dana LeDuc to develop her team with strength and conditioning programming as he was doing with men’s sports. She also was instrumental in recruiting first Becky Bludau Marshall and later Tina Bonci (1985) to oversee sports medicine/wellness services specifically designed for elite female student-athletes. The protocols in these units were considered best in class and eventually expanded under the direction of Conradt and legendary men’s athletics director DeLoss Dodds to provide services for all men and women student-athletes.
As conference realignment altered the college athletics landscape in the early 1990s, Conradt was named director of UT’s eight-sport separate women’s athletics department in spring 1992 when Lopiano became executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation in New York City. In the same month, undergraduate women on several UT club sports teams filed a Title IX lawsuit against the University, seeking more scholarship and participation opportunities for women.
Conradt and Dodds worked with UT administration and UT System Board of Regents to settle the lawsuit in May 1993, which resulted in adding three varsity sports: women’s soccer (fall 1993), softball (fall 1996) and rowing (fall 1998). Conradt hired accomplished hall of fame caliber coaches, including Chris Petrucelli in soccer, Connie Clark in softball and Carie Graves in rowing. She also performed both basketball coach and AD jobs for nine years (1992-2001) before returning to basketball coaching solely in April 2001. Her 2003 team reached the NCAA Final Four and won both Big 12 regular season and postseason tournament crowns. Texas also won the 2004 Big 12 regular season title.
To date, eight of UT’s 11 women’s sports have won national championships, and the three others (golf, soccer, beach volleyball) are well positioned to vie for one in the near future.
Texas Athletics emphasized class attendance, graduation and career readiness long before NCAA governance required “life skills” programming. Conradt’s basketball team members were media personalities, brand ambassadors, polished public speakers and ultimate representatives of the University and attracted deserved attention and fan support from UT faculty and staff, government civic leaders, politicians, artists and musicians and authors.
Texas women’s basketball attendance soared to 8,000-plus in the mid-to-late 1980s, creating a model that many other institutions and athletics departments sought to emulate. Schools sent representatives to Austin to learn about Texas Women’s Basketball frameworks for media coverage, tv and radio exposure, fundraising, sponsorships, marketing and community engagement.
Donors, keenly interested in the academic futures of Texas women student-athletes, eagerly established endowed scholarships at then UT-established levels to underscore the emphasis on the importance of student-athletes attaining a college degree to launch their career sustainability and personal success. Conradt and her fellow coaches structured mentoring programs for successful and high-profile female professionals to meet with female student-athletes and encourage them to pursue careers in areas considered ground-breaking for women.
Intuitively sensitive to her team’s burgeoning public profile after winning the national championship in 1986 and achieving the first sold-out NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four in Austin in 1987, Conradt worked with Dodds, Lopiano and former men’s basketball coach Tom Penders to establish the Neighborhood Longhorns Program in 1989. More than 5,500 fifth-through-eighth grade students from more than 30 grade schools and middle schools from Austin Independent School District and other districts participate in NLP programming, which includes after-school tutoring by UT students and student-athletes and emphasis on class attendance and good grades, which lead to such rewards as UT campus visits for museum and college department tours, Texas Longhorns men’s and women’s sports events and a scholar award event that honors high achieving students with savings bonds for future college education.
The NLP returned to Texas Athletics’ department structure in 2025 after being administered for several decades by campus operational units. Conradt continues on the NLP Advisory Board, citing the program as one that allows the University to reach across the community and impact and incentivize youngsters to work toward attending college someday. An official credit hour course in service learning was launched in fall semester 2025 within the College of Education, with more than 30 students tutoring students in a pilot at Gus Garcia Young Men’s Leadership Academy. The course will continue under leadership of Dr. LaToya Smith, executive senior associate AD for student services in athletics and NLP advisory board longtime member and UT graduate Howard Nirken.
Conradt is in nearly every athletics hall of fame. She was just the second woman after Delta State legend Margaret Wade to be inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. She is both an inductee and emeritus board of directors member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville. She has been a trusted Women’s Basketball Coaches Association leader and led its ethics committee during her years as head coach.
In March 2026, she is being honored along with higher education notable Ruth Simmons with the History-Making Texan Award from the Bullock Texas State History Foundation as part of annual Texas Independence Day celebrations.
PELLA— Recording a pair of top-10 national marks at two different competitions over the weekend yielded the American Rivers Conference Male Athlete of the Week honors for Gunner Meyer on Monday.
Meyer also was Men’s Track and Field Track Events Performer of the Week. Ava Parkins was tabbed as Women’s Track and Field Track Events Performer of the Week.
Meyer ran Division III’s fastest 60-meter hurdles time at the Jimmy Grant Alumni Invitational hosted by the University of Iowa at 7.92 seconds. It was also an American Rivers Conference record time. He also high jumped 6 feet, 7.5 inches at the Dutch Holiday Preview, the seventh-best mark in Division III this season.
In the women’s 60-meter prelims at the Jimmy Grant Invitational, Parkins clocked in at 7.70 seconds to share second place on the program’s all-time list. It also makes her No.8 nationally. She didn’t run the finals after qualifying in seventh. She also finished third in the 300 meters in 39.35 seconds.
Next on the Dutch track and field schedule is the Dutch Athletics Classic on January 16, 2026.
Drew Bonifant covers sports for the Press Herald, with beats in high school football, basketball and baseball. He was previously part of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel sports team. A New Hampshire…
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