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Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up!

What makes you a fan of a player? Is it their skills? How about their toughness? Or what about their entertainment factor? The truth is, almost anything can draw you to a player, something will undoubtedly leave an undeniable imprint on you and you will become entwined with them. More often than not, this leaks into dynasty baseball as well. We draft and roster players that we genuinely and wholeheartedly want to root for and succeed, even if it comes at a detriment to our teams. I’m certainly guilty of this a lot and I am not ashamed or shy about it. I really don’t think any of us are. We all want to enjoy following our players, teams, and leagues. So much so, that at times it can hurt them, at other times it can feel like a grind, but we often lose sight that the names on the screen are real people. They are living their lives just like anyone of us, only more publicly and with much higher stakes on the line than most of us can imagine. The amount of hard work it takes behind the scenes to make it from the lowest levels of the minor leagues to the bright lights of the big leagues is truly immense. It takes a really special person to take on the task and succeed at it. Not only have I found one of those hidden gems, I’m going to let you all in at the ground floor. There is just one catch, to get in on this, you have to embrace the famous words of the late Jim Valvano, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” If you can do that, it will count as the price of admission, so to speak. If you are wondering why that’s the cost, it’s because the player hasn’t given up, so neither should you. Just pay the cost and become a fan of Talon Haley now, you won’t regret it.

In the 12th round of the 2025 MLB draft, Haley was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels, out of Lewisburg High School in Mississippi. What stood out at that point in his career were the numerous obstacles he had to power through, just to make it there. He was diagnosed with stage three Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, had surgery to fix the growth plate in his elbow, and endured the dreaded Tommy John surgery. Then, because those weren’t enough for a high school kid to go through, he suffered through a second Tommy John surgery. As you could imagine, he was probably more raw than some of the other high school pitchers getting drafted, possibly resulting in the usually aggressive Angels to have held him out of action the rest of his draft season.

This year has been an entirely different story, with the Angels throwing him into the fire at Low-A Rancho Cucamonga. He has pitched in eight games (seven starts), amassed 30.1 innings pitched, and sits with an ERA of 5.93. In those innings, his FIP of 4.39 shows he has, in fact, pitched much better than his ERA would suggest and opposing batters are hitting .250 off of him. His WHIP is a little high at 1.52, which is probably inflated by his 11.6% walk rate. However, the umpire strike zones he has had to pitch with haven’t exactly been of professional quality at times. The encouraging aspects of his game have been the strikeouts, he has struck out hitters at a 31.2% rate (86th percentile).

Haley seems to have a more deceptive delivery than first thought, because in numerous games, hitters just haven’t been able to pull his fastball. Broadcasts of his games have had the pitch around 92-93 mph, but they seem to call out the velocity at 95 mph more than the rest. His biggest weapon in his pitch arsenal, in my opinion, is his big curveball. It sits in the lower 80s and has been a big out pitch to both lefties and righties. He also has a decent slider that can look like a cutter at times (unless they are two distinct pitches). While he doesn’t use it often, he has a changeup that I feel could be really good, if he can use it a lot more in games, especially to right-handed batters.

With Haley missing a ton of development time when he was younger, I think he will provide dynasty players and Angels fans a pitcher that will make leaps and bounds in both prospect value and skill level between now and the start of the 2027 season. The crutch of the matter though, is he will be slightly behind other pitchers on the development curve, so be patient as his skills grow.

While a good looking future projection, current strikeout skills, and a backstory worthy of a comic book hero are all valid reasons for becoming a Haley fan, they aren’t my biggest reasons. Back in the offseason, I happened upon an interview he did on the In Off The Bench Podcast (below) and one of his answers reeled me in and sold me on him from that moment on (8:05 minute mark).

In today’s baseball, you see so many players half-ass plays, taunt, showboat, and so much more. Why can’t there be more players like Haley? The answer he gave had me saying “Wow! That might be the best answer I’ve heard since Tim Tebow was at the University of Florida.” Not only that, it hits a nerve and I’m sure it does with all of those that have made it this far. We all have undoubtedly been affected by or seen others affected by cancer. It is a terrible disease that comes in so many forms and touches everyone from the old, to the young. To stare it down and have the maturity to know who you are out there playing and fighting for, well, I’m inspired.

Haley looks to be a special person and player. He’s got the talent that is ever improving and the maturity to know who he’s fighting for. Now you know why the price of admission to his fan club was to embrace Valvano’s, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” I think we can all do that and help encourage others to do the same.