The following is an excerpt from this week's Pipeline Podcast, in which Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis talk to Tim McMaster about the Rookie Career Development Program, prospects ready to jump into the new Top 100 list  and more. To listen to the show in its entirety, go to the MLB Pipeline Podcast page.
Tim McMaster: I know we talk about it every year here on the podcast, but the RCDP, because I don't think a lot of people know it even happens or what it's all about, so Jonathan, I'll let you lay the groundwork on what the Rookie Career Development Program is.
Jonathan Mayo: It's a great program, a joint effort between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association. The general idea is to help players on the brink of establishing themselves in the big leagues, deal with being in the big leagues. So much of the focus for professional players is between the lines, learning a craft. This program was developed to try to help them avoid the stumbling blocks that players sometimes run into. So it'll be media training, they'll have sessions in financial planning, how to deal with difficult situations in the clubhouse with veterans when they first get up. So all the things that could potentially trip a young player up along the way, the idea being they want these players to make it or not make it based solely on their performance on the field and not hit any obstacles, especially if they're obstacles they could have avoided easily, and this program helps them avoid those.
McMaster: So the teams each send a handful of players, three or four each, from their organization. Usually guys that are getting pretty close to the big league level, where this stuff is going to be a bigger factor for them in the near future. Some of these guys actually made their Major League debuts in 2017. Jim, I attended one of these a few years ago and what stood out to me, because you go into it expecting to see something, which is meetings, and talking, and players maybe drifting off. It's not like that at all. I was impressed with the amount of humor that's incorporated into it and the way that Major League Baseball makes this into, what could be a dreadfully boring weekend, a really fun weekend for these players.
Jim Callis: You're exactly right. We talk to the guys every year about their impressions and the guys know what it is, but I don't think they necessarily know what to expect when they get here. It would make for a long weekend if you arrive on a Thursday afternoon and when you leave Sunday, all you're doing is sitting in these dull meetings for long periods of time and not interacting. There's a lot of interaction. They have skits. They have comedy. They try to keep it light at times, but there is a serious nature to it. I think the thing that strikes me just about every year is there's a number of former players here. I haven't looked at the agenda in great detail, but Dave Winfield is almost always here. You'll see guys in their spare time, group of four or five guys grouped around Dave Winfield, picking his brain.