Not five miles an hour, ratting to his head. He hopped down first
with the Mount Bonius face, and on the very next pitch he up and
stole second face with gretest. He wasn't born, he had yes uniform.
So episode twenty seven of the Prospect B Sides podcast, I am Nate Handy
joining me Rook. However, I'm good, my friend. I am still
a little stuffed up from the cold I had last time. It's sort of
never ending when you have young kids and they go to daycare. But I'm
human, and I couldn't really have said that last week. So I'm glad
we've given ourselves a little bit of a break and some time to take in
all of the action of MLB's real opening weekend, right And it's awesome to
have some games, some real games that count both a Major League and some
Triple A action. I don't know what your biggest takeaways on the weekend have
been, but for me, it's just like so refreshing and so nice to
watch some games and get like the sense of baseball that you know, looking
at all these spreadsheets and numbers that we've talked about all off season and trying
to paint a picture of these players, like actually just getting to see it
and getting to see a baseball game and how that story the story. Every
game in and of itself is a different story, and how that translates or
can look. Box score can be so different and varying, and sometimes the
lines don't tell the good stories. Sometimes they do. Right, just being
reminded that you know you can you can pitch well and not have great results.
You can pitch maybe not the greatest and have good results. You can
swing the bat well, have nothing to show for it. You can swing
the bat okay, have something to show for it, et cetera, et
cetera. Right, And I know you and I like to talk about or
we have talked about WPA, right, how situational baseball is and how interconnected
all of the parts of the team are and how they can affect each other.
Right, I mean starting pitching, relief, pitching, your offense,
your defense, like those all very much affect each other. And just getting
to see that story again has just been really fun and refreshing for me.
I don't know, I'm with you and I got up to Seattle and saw
the Mariners opener with a bunch of buddies from high school. We've been doing
this for a few years, some fun little tradition and get some nosebleeds and
watch our boys take on the home opener. And this year Mayor's lost their
home opener. But it was just so much fun to be at live professional
baseball again. And I love Safecoa. You know, I'll defend it as
my favorite of all of the stadiums set I too in the bigs, and
you know, just going watching some baseball with some buddies and talking shop fucking
crap is just it's what we do this for. It's like, it's that's
the silly little games that we play are just a one layer of it.
But something about being in that stadium and seeing the Mariners, and there was
lots of excitement even if the Marrits didn't win, So I was like it
it was so fun. I mean, such a great opening weekend, just
like I'm thankful that real baseball's back. Man, It's great. Yeah.
Definitely. One thing that I think, I don't know, stats don't like
paint a great picture of or maybe when we play this fantasy game, like
things that don't get accounted for, like very well is game situation, right,
you know, the Rockies got had that third inning which was just an
insane you know, string of hits right, went through the lineup twice,
and like what that does to an offensive player when you're down fourteen to one
before you take your second at bat, you know, and you could just
you could see in that game, you know, the first couple of innings
after that, I thought the Rockies, you know, there was more fight
in there at bats, and then as that game goes on, it's just
the quality of that bat just gets less and less, right, And also
like seeing the sort of juxtaposition for me of that game and freeland pitching to
today's game with Dakota Hudson going and like, man, man, I don't
know, I mean, I don't have any way to like quantify this.
This is just eyeballs, but I didn't feel like the quality of Freelan's pitching
that first game to Hudson's pitching today was very different at all, like and
just such drastically different results. Right, It'll be easy to poke fun at
the Rockies and how horrible that half inning was, but that kind of sucks
to me because it takes away the amazingness of the hitting that was going on
by the Diamondbacks and that half inning, man, like there were good pitches
that they put good swings on. And just how outlier that is that you
can string together that many hits in a row. That's amazing, man,
that doesn't happen, you know, And it isn't like, oh, yeah,
you know, Freeland's just like this school pitcher throwing seventy miles bro or
well, like we see position players all the time come in, they can
lob some stuff, and then teams aren't getting three hits in a row,
you know. So I just I just love it. Every game, every
situation, it's a it's a different story and the same inputs can have different
outcomes, and I love it. And it makes this game both fun,
challenging and maddening. Well, and you also see the skill of the big
leaguers, and then it's always helpful for us then to try and comp at
or at least have that reference point in mind when we watch minor leaguers.
And you know, when you see the upper level minor leaguers in double A
and triple A, the gap in size, speed, power, velocity,
that's it's not as stark, but it's still pretty helpful to see, like
one Soto take a pitch that was ninety eight up and away out of the
strike zone and get the go ahead RBI single for the for the Yankees the
other day yesterday, and like that stuff is crazy hard to do and you
don't see that very often even in the major leagues, and then down into
like the minor leagues, like that's pitch is a whiff every time for minor
leagues, you know, and it's cool to just see that kind of talent.
Yeah. Another thing that kind of hit me in the face this weekend
was just how good major league hitters are. Man. We spend most of
off season, I was watching minor leaguers right other than spring training or whatever.
But watch a weeknd of major league baseball. I'm like, man,
these hitters put some really good swings on some really good pitches, man,
that you don't see. You don't see you guys doing in the minor leagues
that often at all. There was just a lot of moments I was like,
Damn, that hitter is good. Then watching minor leaguers watching some Triple
A and you're just like, yeah, you don't really see the same sort
of swings and tough pitches. But AnyWho, Rook, congratulations, my man,
you are on the board. Your first B side. Kywait sang what
three inning of relief last night? Yeap, yesterday? Yep? It runs
yep. Yeah, I didn't watch it. Did you watch it? I
watched like I skipped through a couple of innings, didn't watch it closely.
And man, you were I think you were real close to getting a couple
more B sides in the bigs. If it were not for a couple of
trades, you might have got Caleb durban In there, Meldonado. Yeah,
both. I think we're victim to last minute trades, maybe keeping them off
with the opening day rosters. But I think we're going to see both those
guys at some point this season. I agree. And Durbin has continued to
look good. I mean he's at Triple A, Like that's impressive in and
of itself. He's hitting I think in the two hole for the Yankees Triple
A affiliate. It's one weekend, but I think his ops is over nine
hundred, like stealing bags, got a couple of steels, already played a
couple of different positions, I mean, doing his thing doing his thing.
That versatility and that skill set, I think it's gonna it's gonna benefit somebody.
Like we've talked about before, I think it's safe to say we're probably
running like a thirty three percent rate of you know, former B sides over
the last three years, at least just making the bigs. I know that
doesn't say very much for fantasy, but I think with you now and the
types of players that you've been picking, I think we're gonna up that percentage
a little bit. Here Matt jor Barossa got the call I saw. I
don't know if you played in today's tonight's game or not. I haven't seen.
That's another former B side. And I think we had five total on
opening day rosters, and then Von Grissom on the IL with Gobs, Moore
and Triple A and hopefully on the way what last week we did the Spring
Breakout series and we had one more game to maybe discuss. So I wanted
to get into the Seattle San Diego Spring Breakout game briefly. Here. I
watched it. I think you watched it right, Oh yeah, this was
my favorite, one favorite one to watch. I mean, I like and
have watched a lot of the Padres prospects that were on display, and of
course the Marias being my ale favorite team and a bunch of my favorite prospects
from them were playing, although not Revent Scooter, which we got to talk
to Jerry and Justin about that's unacceptable to leave him off the roster, But
we did get to see your Maritors B side prospect lead us off with Logan
Evans on the bump. Yeah, man, the hype train is taken off
out of the station. Mighty quick. Here man flirting with some top one
hundred lists I see, and getting picked up and bid on in leagues and
people thrown some fab down. Now, obviously when we picked him for the
B side, like we got to see what like ten innings last year on
in his draft year, then we got to see another not even two innings
in this game. So I mean, I think there's still a lot to
be learned on Logan Evans here. But my initial thoughts watching the game,
you know, first inning, I think he looked really good. Right when
he strike out to you could see there's definitely some some nasty and our arsenal.
I think he's got the ability to play games in all directions. Now,
what I've been most interested in right is execution of pitches, and I
think that could have gotten a lot better. I think I got roughed up
a little bit in the second inning. There's six runs, two of them
earned, But I think you could see some things to be excited about with
him. One thing that I didn't notice the first time that I saw him
was like, it doesn't strike me as the most athletic looking fella, although
his delivery and whatnote seems repeatable athletic in that way. I'm curious anxious to
see a lot more of him this season. And are these folks putting down
these aggressive bets on Evans, you know, just super wise or is this
getting a little silly? I don't know. We will see, but what'd
you think? Yeah, I mean it was the clearest look that I had
a name. Obviously, the broadcast for this one was quality production, and
we get to see quite a bit clear the velocity, the movement, with
the shape of his pitches, and he definitely looked a tick or to firmer
with his fastball than he was last year. And that matches up the reports
that we've gotten on a spring training slider had really solid sweeping movement. Certainly
in the first inning, he chopped up what was a very very good top
of the Padres lineup. You know, hit Jacob Mercy, but got Marcus
Gatagnon on a strike out looking, struck out Ethan Salas, and struck out
Nathan Martarello as well. So I mean that first inning, like you get
one look at a guy and you're like, wow, that that was loud
stuff, and he just got some really good hitters out. But I think
we saw in the second inning something that we preach a lot is that you
got to watch a guy more than just the highlights to really get a sense
for him. And I don't think that the development on Evans is done.
I think that was one thing I thought when we talked about him before that
you know, he definitely has to show a lot more for me to be
like, oh, wow, this the next Mariner's pitching prospect. And you
know, a couple of walks, a couple of lucky singles, obviously terso
Ornelli's got him pretty good. That was a nice homer. Ornellis had a
great game that game, But you know, Evans like put some guys on
and then the wheels kind of came off and he got pulled out and then
a bunch of his friends came in. But I thought it was encouraging though
with him, Like there's different kinds of I don't know, quote wildness,
quote command issues. Right. I felt like if if you're like judging gymnastics,
right, you get you get points for level of difficulty, and I
kind of felt like his his sequencing and what he was trying to do and
his plan of attack was a lot more difficult than I don't know, a
counterpart in that game, Dylan LESCo, Right, yeah, so and and
and I didn't feel like Evans was like wild, he was just it was
loose, right, I mean he just ya. I mean there were there
was some there was Yeah, there was some that was that was loose,
but I think that there were some that he was missing by a decent amount.
And while LESCo just to jump ahead to him, Yeah, he was
wild on right, Like every pitch like he was not executing you could tell
that he was just something is off with him or that like its just kind
of his game. I'm not sure there were some shadows of that with Evans
that I want to I want to see more like I want to see that
this was sort of a spring breakout blip and he's more like his first inning
self. But there were definitely some some nibbles that just missed, some just
missed execution, and a little bit of wildness in there too. Like I
think the the hit by pitch against Marci, if I remember correctly, I
think that was like a he tried like a back foot slider and like hit
him in the back foot, right, I mean, that's yes, that's
a miss, and yes you don't want to do that, but that's not
a that's not a fastball just flying off or whatever. Right. My point
being was just the juxtaposition of these two pitches. Not all walks were the
same, right, total, you could see that very drastically with with those
two guys. I was very unimpressed with Dylan LESCo, as I have kind
of always been when I watch him. That not that there's been a ton
but some folks getting real excited about Lesco's season and you know, very talented.
Maybe that happens, but I've always had a foot on the brakes a
little bit with him. Yeah, I mean it was all bad. I
you know, he got through one inning but he had six walks, three
hits, give up some loud contact. It was just not close. And
so I'm sort of willing to give him a little bit of the benefit of
the doubt, push it out and say, like, let's see how he
performs this year, because what are they slotting him at hya Where you think
he's gonna start? I believe so well wherever it is, Like, let's
see him as he's turning the lineup over and gets into starts. You know,
there are some things you look at, and I think one of the
things that he's lauded for is he's gets great extension down the mound, and
when he was hitting his spots, like you could see he was a little
bit of a tough some glimpses of that. There were tough balls to square
up, but so many just were non competitive that it got to the point
of, like, I don't think the Mariner's prospects were even like they were
just auto taking, because these these balls weren't close for a lot of the
inning that he was in there. I mean, Snelling looked great. I
really liked both how he pitched and obviously the results were solid. Snelling,
I think, just as my kind of guy, you know, lefty that
executes a bunch of different pitches and has good command. Like I think those
guys are fun, and he seems just like a very high probability version of
that typology. Austin Krabb Snellings. That's like that. I don't want to
call any pitching prospect safe per se, but like you can feel good and
solid about Snelling's future in my opinion, Like, definitely that's a that's a
big league pitcher, you know, yeah, could be with those skills,
could stick around for quite a while, I think, yeah. And you
know, I'm not sure he's going to be like a number three or number
two, but when he executes like that, you can see it, like
you can see that that's a strong possible outcome on his outcome distribution. You
know. Just briefly on CROB, who is my San Diego b side arm,
he didn't look great. You know, he walked a guy, which
is unusual for him. He's got pretty good command, and then just gave
up some contact that found some holes. But it seemed like more like he
was kind of amped up for the outing that I had seen him. But
otherwise, no, no real change of opinion on him. The guy for
the Padres that I was interested was the Rodriguez, but I think it seems
like Bradley Braggly. It's kind of a funky first name. But he'd only
pitched in the DSL. He's a little older for a DSL guy, but
he pumped a hundred struck out Ford, and I think threw a fastball by
Ford, and Ford's a pretty good hitter, especially competing in the zone.
So that was interesting, like looked relievery to me. Just also twenty years
old already like he might be a fast mover, reliever, but the stuff
looked interesting for him. And then Jeter Martinez. What did you think of
live? Look at at Jeter Martinez? Oh yeah, uh yeah, okay,
I mean I wasn't like, it's a big kid. It's a big
body, you know. Okay, I got to see him on a mound.
I can see why someone would be pretty interested in someone that young with
that kind of look, But it didn't drat down much of my Jeter Martinez
narrative. After that one, look some more. But I'm not, you
know, over the moon that this is some wlack future stud. Yeah,
I mean I kind of was saying that when we had Matt on the other
week, Like those DSL guys, you gotta be careful. It's a super
super high risk demographic and doesn't take much for their development to get delayed off
track, turn into something that you're not quite doesn't quite look very good.
It's just, I mean, pitching is so much I mean, there's so
much more to learn. There's so much smarter than hitters, and like there's
just developing into a major league pitcher is quite difficult, thinks folks. Sometimes
still they're thirty years old to figure that all out, so steep learning curve.
Geor Martinez was facing still some of the better Padre's prospects, and mostly
they were getting the better of him. You know, he walked Defrees,
walked Marci Castagnon, doubled and that was hit pretty hard. That was I
thought, a really good swing from Castagnon, struck out Martorella. It's good.
But even the ground up before that was like smoked right at Michael Royo,
walked Kai Murphy. I mean, it just was a devree. We
got to see a single up the middle. Did he pull that one?
I think he might have pulled a line drive on that one. Yeah,
it's like he was maybe a little overmatched in this game. Maybe he was
just a little amped to I can see like why people are excited about this
stuff because he's very young and he was popping upper nineties and fastball. I
think it was for me or like real slow play. Like if all it
took was thrown hard to be a good major league pitcher, teams would have
no problems finding good pictures. Yep, there's more to it than that.
On the hitting side. Did you see anything you liked? I mean it
was our first look at Debris and he had a good game. What did
you What did you think? Yeah, I mean anytime you get these young
guys, wow, what was he seventeen eighteen years old going up against probably
some of the best pictures they've ever faced. When they just hold their own
and look like they belong in the box. That's that's impressive to me.
You know, I think Debris did that. Yeah, I mean Walk twice
had that hit against Like he's Soliday right right? He and Celestine though,
like and this is what's tough. I mean I try to what when minor
league season kicks up, I probably watch a ball the most just because that's
the newest names to me, and I just curious like that some of them.
Sometimes maybe it happens earlier in the season, but there's a moment where
you're like, ah, okay, I think as I think I get what
to be excited about here, and you know, both those guys seeing this
one game, like I don't think I really had that moment where I'm like,
oh, yeah, these guys got to be pushed way up prospectless.
You know, there's just not enough, not enough input, not enough information
for me to be there yet. But you know, it's a it's a
projection type of type of prospect to both of them. But yeah, I
thought they I mean, cool, thumbs up, good, But I'm not
like right, like super impressed, like over the moon, like gotta get
these guys, you know. Yeah, yeah, it was good. Good
to see him both and you know, we got to see a couple of
defensive players from each and that was nice degrees put together like two three weeks
of him looking like that very often at the plate and then all right,
that's a that's a different score, absolutely, and I imagine that could very
well be coming well. And you know that the Potteries are going to be
aggressive him like they did with Salas too, So I wonder if he's going
to skip the DSL, like we'll see anybody did impress you on the bat
side. I mean, obviously Ornelli said the best of day, but we
know he's awesome, so right, we know we know about that. I
thought that ball that Emerson hit the double was was super pretty Marci Man,
he got kind of turned around and he did not play that that ball very
well and all got over his head. I think we talked a little bit
about that online and like the way that Emerson just like kept extending his hands
through the ball on that one, and then like they really back spun it,
and yeah, that's what Harry pretty well. They had Emerson in the
booth for what two winnings in that game chatting with him, which I found
to be those guys in the booth really annoyed me during that interview. I
don't know if he felt that way. They asked him with the same question
like fourteen different ways, like so yeah, he did really well with it,
though, Yeah he did. He did. He did a pretty good
job. Come on, guys, you got like a great opportunity to ask
some good stuff here and you're just like whatever. But uh, he was
talking about how the wind was blown out, and I was like, man,
I think you just had a ship town of backspin on that ball and
it just kept going and it definitely fooled Marci. Yeah. Yeah, he
continues to look good. I think I had mentioned this, But did you
see where they had the Mariners prospects, Like, if you could have dinner
with one famous person or whatever, who would you pick? Did you see
what Montes said Bob Marley? Nice? Yeah, Montes seems like a cool
dude. He's he's very Yeah, and and we're on the street, and
what they were talking about is he puts the work in. So that's nice
to hear. Always like to hear when coaches or whoever involved might might say
that about a player. Don't hate that. I thought Ben Williamson kind of
impressed me. I think he looked a lot better than I looks in the
past, just a lot cleaner at the plate. Yeah, I don't,
I mean, nothing nothing to do crazy. I don't think if anyone's like
opinion or anyone got a little bit more interesting to me, it was probably
Williamson from this game. They hate a couple of balls Hard Smith too.
I mean Smith looked like he had a slightly different setup than we saw in
the playoffs last year. So that'll be interesting to follows. It's those sort
of like little visual changes that you can pick up and you know, just
to segue out of the breakout game a little bit and into the first weekend
of the bigs. Jared Kellnick is off to a hell of a start this
year. And you know this is after he had a quote unquote awful Spring
training. But as someone who watched like ninety percent of his Major League at
baths thus far, he looked way different in spring in like a positive way.
He was way quieter with his hands, way quieter with his leg kick,
He was making better swing decisions, and he was just hitting the ball
right at people. I think he was maybe hitting the ball on the ground
a little too much in spring. For the most part, I would like
really encouraged by what I saw, even though he had like three hits all
spring. I'm kind of not surprised that he is lighting the world on fire
so far. You know, I think he's got like seven hits already,
and that's with not starting a game. Got a couple more today. I
mean, he's just like he looks like a different hitter. And even some
of the hacks that he took today when he missed, they were good misses,
like he was looking to put a charge in the ball and just fouled
it off, you know. And you know, I heard a couple of
people say like, oh my god, Derek Kalnick, you know, he's
going to be a total bust and all this and whatever little hope that they
had of a rejuvenation with the trade. I think that those people just didn't
have the context to see how much had changed with his swing, and it's
visually very different, and I think that that's going to pay dividends. Like
I think that there is some signal to this hot start because he has changed
some stuff, and also he's a different guy, Like hitting ninth for the
Braves is very different from like you and Julio have to save the Marritors,
you know what I mean. So removal of some of that pressure has to
be good for Cale. Yeah, I don't hate to hear that. That
was I mean, probably the most anticipated Wisconsin prospect maybe ever, definitely pulling
maybe a change of scenery, some changes there will help, but definitely pull
them for culin A Well. I did want to mention just one more player
from the breakout game, Matt, Uh. It was nice to see Nerwilliams
Sadanio on the padre side, just on the field. He's a B side
selection of mine a couple of years ago or whatever it was. But it
remains kind of an interesting switch hitting infield prospect to me, who just hasn't
been able to stay healthy. So I just want to see what a full
season looks like for Sadanio. But on the on the major league side,
Matt, I watched we had talked about Cody Bradford. I'd watched his start.
I don't know if you saw an then I did. I watched it.
Yeah, I mean I thought it was you know, we talked about
his fastball that he likes to play over the middle. I threw through it
like forty seven percent of the time. He had a thirty three percent with
rate and that's an average velo of ninety point three miles per hour. Yeah,
he is just different and other than we had talked about the propensity for
him to give home runs up on that, which he did, but that
was it. That was like the only blemish in five innings. So far,
so good with Bradford. I think the homer was on just a middle
middle fastball. I think he just missed his location and Swanson put a good
swing on it and hit a line drive and put it out of the park.
But he was finding the top part of that zone with the fastball pretty
consistently and getting whips. And I'm I'm a fan, like I do think
that he's he's an underrated arm and I showed it against a pretty good Cubs
lineup. Didn't take Jake Myers very long to hit a home run. So
Placios got his first home run, Yeah, tonight. So it was just
a couple of the major league B side guys that brought up. Then can
zone he just hit a homer. Yeah, we might hairirer this point home
a few times over the next month or two. But I you just shouldn't
be changing your opinion about a player after one bad star or a slow start
for a hitter, or like their lineup position as like as a hitter like,
these things just change, and it takes a really long time for any
of this to be meaningful as far as showing a person's true talent. So
when people are like, should I be worried about Brandon Neimo because he's had
a slow start to the season, Like, no, you haven't even gotten
you through the start of the season. Great, it's like it's four or
five games. I mean, if you're using a four game sample to tell
you anything about any player, like, you're doing it wrong. The only
place where that might be you might tweak that a little bit is with bullpens.
Like bullpens change pretty fast, and especially for some of the unsettled bullpens,
Like it seems pretty clear that Foley is the closer in Detroit, and
that was obviously everybody said it was Alex Lang coming into the season. Folly's
nasty and I've had him in a couple of leagues as like a good setup
guy the past couple of years. But he was popping one oh one and
that fastball just has so much movement and sync that he's he's really good.
So you know, I think smart choice by Detroit to put him as as
a closer. But like those things, maybe you might jump on he might
be like, oh yeah, I should bump this guy up because there seemed
to be the preferred eighth inning guy, or you know, reading something into
the usage of the late ending relievers in those teams that have committees like that
can tell you something. But beyond that, like, man, I just
don't get Ronel Blanco just threw a no hitter. The guy's like a thirty
year old pitcher who hasn't really been very good and maybe he's reworked his change
up. I guess, like that's what they said. It had like a
forty plus percent with rate during the game and throw no no in his first
start of the year. Like everybody's gonna be so excited to grab him.
But I'm just gonna say, like I'm going to be skeptical of his talent
level going forward. Like awesome accomplishment to throw a no hitter, It just
doesn't change my view on him very much. So like that'll be my answer
for any valuation question about it player for the next month or so. But
yeah, it's just like I see these these wild takes from people like is
this player better than noted superstar? Like no, Like t had a bad
opening four games, then he hit two homers tonight and I saw somebody complaining
in the discord about Tucker yesterday and I was like, come on, like,
what are you doing. I'm just happy to be your first round talent.
I'm just happy that those sort of bombastic, reactionary takes are in the
fan and dynasty fantasy player like world and not in the world of managers and
players. I know it's cliche, but every game is independent of each other.
Every day is a different story, and every day can be drastically different.
I have different outcomes. But one player that I do want to feed
the narrative if it starts, I don't know if it's out there or not,
is that Nolan Jones sucks. Dude, Nolan Jones has suck. He
had such a rough couple of days, so just let just across the board
and he is, and he admits this and talks about this like a very
slow starter. Now, I won't lie in my Dynasty leagues. I hope
that he has a horrible first month and everybody just gets scared off because I'm
gonna try to prowl. Then yeah, I'm with you. I hope that
he does keep sucking for the next few weeks. And I made a really
like I thought overpay trade offer for him and wasn't told no, I was
told like, I want to see him start the year and so maybe I
can make a similar offer and snag him that way. But I just he
had another tough day to day, like oh, dude, with that ball
of left field and Chris Barrell hit the little little league homer. But yeah,
that was that was tough. But it's just small sample stuff. Like
I know Tobar is an awful defender now too, just he had a tough,
tough couple of games, like he was he was kicking the ball a
bit. Yeah, I think that's going on there in Colorado not playing winning
baseball. I mean, you need to call Ron Washington and have him hold
a team meeting after the first two games, right. You know, there
is one thing with the Rockies that I think that they have a great understanding
of and a great manager to set this tone is like you're going to be
a Colorado Rocky, you've got to have some stones and you've got to have
some some wherewithal to not to hang tough. I mean to put it generically,
but I think they have some really mentally strong players there, and I
think you see that often if you're a glutton for pain and watch the Rockies
as closely as I does Chris Bryant, Yet he had a hit today what
they called it an air, which I didn't think was correct anyone, no
one in the world is like, hey, they're championship caliber right now,
Like this is this is a process and they just have to get to playing
good baseball and learning how to do that. And I think there's this might
be against the general opinion, but I've actually kind of thought that they're pitching
over the first four or five games, like, there's been a lot of
encouraging good signs. I think despite the four team run inning and everything,
like, I'm actually kind of pleased with with the pitching staff as a whole
thus far. But you know, you watch games, it's a it's a
different story than back scores sometimes. Yeah, I don't know what. What
about the minor league weekend Triple A season started. I think they've got but
yeah, three games in now would you watch? Would you would you take
away anything? I watched no minor league games this weekend. I watched only
major league games. Like again, I just kind of injecting it into my
veins the major leagues, and so I watched, as my wife can attest,
I watched a lot of baseball this weekend, so, like you know,
out of out of the five levels that I watch, I definitely watch
the least amount of Triple A. Okay, in part because it's like part
waiting room holding cell some older players. And also too, we're going to
talk a little bit about watching minor league baseball. I don't know if it's
just coincidence or if there's some purpose behind it, but most of the Triple
A broadcast have horrible angles to watch pitching, so that plays into part of
why I don't watch a ton of that. And but also too, you
could do get like the stat cast stuff with a lot of it, so
that's kind of a nice supplement. And I didn't watch a ton this weekend,
but I did watch Your Boy Will Dion versus David Festa on Saturday.
Dean got roughed up, you know how, because we're interested in how that
fastball might play right, and I don't think it played very well. But
I also think that was in part because I don't think my man was mid
season form executing that pitch as he typically can. Like Infesta, I think
I was like one hundred percent Dynasty shares a Festa at one point very early,
and I think made the mistake of kind of trading off all those shares
probably a little too early. But I'm still kind of reluctant on him.
It's just like it's just loose man, Like you can throw hard and he's
got good stuff, but I don't know, I don't know if that ever
gets like really really clean and sharp, like major league level kind of shark,
you know, And just that little look of a couple of innings just
kind of reiterated that suspicion for me. But I'm going to take too much
away from from like one one outing. I didn't watch Lighters start, which
from the sounds of it was very impressive. Well, he came out in
relief. I think he came on in like the fourth inning or something,
and then finish the game. Yeah, I want to get into the archives
and watch that. I just didn't didn't fit that in. I was impressed
with watching some of the isotopes and Jordan Beck. I don't know what your
opinion was of me putting him as the top Rockies prospect for fantasy, but
I'm kind of still feeling that. Man. Yeah, man, I buy
it. Like the tools the A lot of his performance has been really impressive,
Like I don't think that that's a wild take, and I thought your
reasoning for it was great too. He's going to steal more and has more
power, Like those are the things that, especially in your category leagues,
you should care about. And I know their brass was very impressed with him
this spring, just across the board, his work, his performance. I
think we're gonna see him sooner rather than later. Probably this season sometime would
be my guess. But he had like a four hundred and fifty footer a
four hundred and thirty nine footer off of like what a slider and a cutter.
But he's looked good. You know that. That was like a wild
finish to that game. Yeah, did you do you see this? I
didn't watch the game, but I like saw I was, you know,
scrolling through box scores and triple A and saw that what was it like they
scored eight in the top of the ninth yeah, right, and then in
the bottom of the night they scored was it like the isotopes or something,
Yeah, scored like seven, and so it was just like I don't know,
like sixteen runs in the ninth inning, alone like that that game was
crazy. Yeah, that series was like six' five and then six five
the other way and then like eighteen to seventeen or whatever. It was like
yexteen sixteen fifteen wild some PCL action for you. That's like another thing just
to remember about Triple A pitchers is like, that's a It is a tough
environment to pitch in, very much so. I watched a little Bits' start.
He gave up like three home runs in Vegas. Horrible looking line,
but watching it, nothing super concerning in my opinion, Like just another guy
who's just trying to learn how to be really aggressive in the zone and you're
probably going to give up some home runs in Las Vegas doing that. Obviously,
he could have been better in different areas. But first start of the
year, man, no one's looking that great except for Blanco a couple others.
Yeah, I saw Brent Herder didn't have a great start yesterday. He
h mud hens right after I was saying, like, they're one of my
dark horse candidates for best team in the minors, just as far as like
top to bottom talent, especially in the pitching side. Yep, Herder went
three, walked four, which is like the most surprising thing about it,
and gave up five runs. But that's also, like I was saying to
somebody, like, you know, I don't really care. It's one start
that is exceptionally unlucky to give up five runs on seven base runners, Like
that's nearly all of your base runners come home. Like again, it's there's
a lot more to be told about the season. But like that he's in
Triple A, Like that's that's good. Really seems like he dominated Double A
and is one of their options. There are many, many, many options
in Detroit. He's something that he was the third starter, Like, you
know, he's the third guy on that rotation right now, so he's he's
in a good spot. I think that's where he needs to be. Like
maybe we've talked about this before, but I think it's very different for hitters
and pitchers as far as like the challenge as you move up from Double A
to Triple A. Like I think it's way different for pitchers than it is
for hitters, especially with the abs, right, Like that's yeah, well,
lineups, man, you're the quality of a Triple A lineup is so
much better than the quality of most Double A lineups. And to me,
that's a big part of starting pitching is working, you know, especially once
you get to the bigs, and then when you get to a good lineup
in the bigs, like you don't get any breaks, man, you don't
get from room for from making too many mistakes. And but now you know,
if you've got a PC team, I think that could be a different
story too. I don't know if you want to mess with that with some
of your pictures, but I think Herd is in a good spot. I
think that's where he needs to be. We had one FQO this weekend.
Matt QO is just this kind of silly thing that I like to look for.
It's going six innings, what striking out at least six, walking no
more than two, getting up no more than three runs, not getting up
a home run, and having like a whip under one point three. And
obviously it's early in the year. Not a lot of pictures are going to
go six innings. But we had one FCO in the minor leagues. Do
you want to take any stabs at who that was this weekend? Matt not
a prospect, but not an old guydol oh No, he gave up a
Homer didn't he I think he did. I don't know if he did.
I don't think he went six, did he. I don't think he went
six. I thought maybe he did. Maybe he went five. But he
had a good outing regardless, so not. I don't know who was it.
He's on one of your teams. Really, yeah, he was an
All Star last year too, I think in the majors. Bryce Elder,
Oh, that's right. There's a very surprising right. Yeah, probably we're
gonna get to see his uh competition, his replacement fifth starter for the Braves
tomorrow and one. The weather in Chicago right now is miserable. It's supposed
to be I don't know. I know it's supposed to be snowing at game
time. But I really want them to play. I want the weather to
hold, obviously, just like to see the baseball. But also I really
am curious if Ronaldo Lopez as a starter is a real thing. I mean,
I'm not holding my breath. But they never know. I mean,
dude, Jordan Hicks, Man, Jordan Hicks, did you you didn't trade
them? Did you? I did? I did. I was looking to
trade Hicks. I had Matt Thias as a catcher and a thirty teamer,
and I just picked up Dias for because I have Sean Murphy in one of
our leagues, and he went on the aisle too, So I had too
much Matt Diyas. You can't have that much Mat Matt Thyas. I was
looking for catching help. I've been after the guy who had Wilson Traire's like
all off season he had too many catchers and I kept trying to get him
from it. He traded him to somebody else. And then that guy like
all off season has been trying to get me to send Jordan Hicks to him,
and I was like, you know what, Hicks, I kind of
buy what he's been doing his last start in spring training. I watched all
of it, and I think I told you, Nate that the way Hicks
was putting the four seam up hie, the splitter, down low, the
slider, and then of course his bread and butter the two seam, he
really was pitching well, I thought, And it was a tough sell.
Like Wilson Contraris, I think should be the move long term, but I
almost I definitely lost the matchup that he would have thrown in for me,
because like I lost by a point and he scored a lot of points in
that matchup that would have been so you know, we'll see, we'll see.
It's a long season, he's I think the other concern is he's to
be valuable in as a pitcher, like you gotta do it repeatedly over a
long period of time, and I don't know if he's going to be able,
like he's had some injury concerns over his career. So that was the
other thing that tipped over to the hitter for me. It's like, you
know, I'm just not sure about his durability. But I do think that
that pitch mix is is going to play. I think I think as long
as he's on the mound, that looks pretty good. We got to mention
when we're talking about the Saints and Dion's start, there was some B side
on B side crime there. Did you see that Fajardo took Dion yard?
Oh yeah, that's right, that's right. Yeah. And in the in
the breakout game, Tursto took Evans yard, right, yeah, And we
got yeah, yeah, a couple of your bats getting some arms there.
Yeah. The other one, just because again I didn't watch any of the
games, but I trolled stack cast later boards and I liked to look at
up player breakdowns in Triple A, just just like you have the stat cast.
It can tell you a lot when you kind of watch those time over
time. But the guy who led Triple A in Exit and Filo maybe Saturday
was my guy for the Phillies, Matt crun He's played a few different positions,
you know, he's outfielder, has played some infield, and I keep
saying that he's he's gonna play in the bigs and yeah, maybe he's gonna
be the Phillies left fielder before too long, because I just don't think Rojas
is ready and they're gonna play Marsh in center, Cassidy and right, and
I mean I see a spot for him. I think he's a better hitter
than Rosas is. And you know, if Rojas keeps like roass looked miserable
that first opening weekend against the Braves, and that's a tough matchup, like
Braves have a really good pitching staff, but he looked so overmatched, and
that is on the back of him looking pretty overmatched at times last season too.
So I wonder how long the Phillies are going to roll him out there.
You've got me on the train, like I On the surface, I
think he Kroon very much looks like, oh, this is like a quad
eight air, But I kind of feel like his talent is more than that,
or has the potential to be more than that. So you've convinced me
there. I've got my eye on him definitely. Yeah. And again I'm
not projecting like a regular role for him just because I tough. It's going
to be tough, but there is a path there, and I think that
one of the things I said when we talked about him in the off season
was he's got versatility, which the Phillies do seem to prioritize. They like
having that kind of a guy, and when they have that guy, they
like to play them like. They move him around. You know, they
picked up with Maryfield right for that exact purpose. They've moved Home around,
They've moved Harper around like they seem like, if you can hit and then
you can like kind of make it work on defense, that's their kind of
guy, and I think I think Kroon fits that bill with a chance at
being actually quite good at defense. I've seen some good looks at him in
an outfield at least where he looks pretty good. Yeah, agreed. Now,
Matt, I wanted to do a minor league preview show. And I
have tried to do minor league preview stuff in the past, but it's hard
because we don't know, especially hya a ball, we don't know, we
don't have the information of like who's on what lineup. You get bits and
you get pieces, but my experience over the last since MiLB dot TV,
you don't know a lot of the answers to those questions until the games start.
A lot of times you don't even know who's pitching and what the lineup
is until the game starts. So I wanted to just kind of run through
if you're gonna watch some minor league baseball and share some things and perhaps some
lineups in different leagues or rosters in different leagues that might be kind of interesting
and who I might be watching some more and stuff of that. ILK.
Are you down for something like that? That sounds awesome, And you've got
one of the best research tools out there for anybody that's interested in minor league
baseball, which is who has a good feed you know what teams actually broadcasts
and who's a good broadcast to turn into to tune into, because you know,
as people who spend a lot of time watching minor league baseball, a
a bunch of these teams. Their broadcasts are horrible, their cameras terrible,
the you know, no offense to the announcers, but they're of questionable quality.
I think your list of who's got the cameras and who's got the good
ones, like that's such an invaluable resource. It could be a little bit
data now because I put this out right before the twenty twenty two season started,
but if you want to look this up, it's still up there on
pitcher list, MiLB dot TV preview. And at that time, I shared
every camera angle on a spreadsheet and then got into some of the better ones.
Now, since then, some teams have started to broadcast. I think
a few of the angles may have changed, but for the most part,
that is what you're going to get when you tune in to different broadcasts.
Just to run through quick, you're gonna if you want to watch, you're
gonna get all the Triple A and all the Double A affiliates broadcaster games.
In high A. It starts to get less. The Sale League, you
got what. It's a twelve team league and two of the teams don't broadcast,
Hickory Rangers affiliate and Ashville Astros affiliate. So if you want to watch
those two teams, you got to catch them on the road. In the
Midwest League, that's a twelve team league, all twelve of the team's broadcasts.
In the Northwest League, which is just a sixteen league, it is
probably the second hardest league to view because two of the six teams, Spokane
and Tri City, do not broadcast, and Everett does now, but I
believe Matt, they're mostly just press box, right, Yeah, I think
they are. Yeah, I don't think I've seen a center field. So
really it's like Vancouver, Eugene or Hillsboro is where you want to watch those
guys. And Vancouver's broadcast is new. I think last year was the first
year they started broadcasting. So tougher league to see there. We'll have you.
We'll have you on the ground for some Everieck games though, so that'll
be nice. Yeah. Yeah, then when you get to a ball The
Florida State League the toughest league to watch. It's a ten team league and
only two teams broadcast Saint Lucy and Bradenton throughout the course of the year,
I will be giving I'll share every episode. I'll share like some matchups from
every league that I'm probably going to be tuning into, maybe something interesting to
watch. You could just count on me just sharing who's playing in Saint Lucie
that week and who's playing in Brandon that week, because the way that the
schedule works and stuff is it's a four team league or fourteen division and a
sixteen division. And there have been times when it was like just Bradenton that
like you didn't even get to see Palm Beach at all all year yep.
But now that with Saint Lucy broadcasting, you're going to get I think at
least two series two weeks series and minor leagues are one week long of every
team. That's the tough one. Shout out, shout out Bradenton for not
only being the longest running Florida State League team to broadcast, but their camera
view is phenomenal, Like it's zoomed in to the pitcher and the hitter better
than even big league broadcasts, Like you're right on top of the pitcher and
the hitter. You can get great looks. So anybody that goes through Bradenton,
like I watch a lot of Brandonton games, and hat tip to their
announcer too. He does a he does a pretty good job. I think
they've they've put together a pretty good outfit there in Bradenton. Yeah, the
broadcast quality of the angle quality, plus you get stat cast stuff with Bradon
probably the best. It really is the best minor league viewing experience with everything
involved there. And then in the Carolina League, it's a twelve team league
and everyone broadcast there except for down East, which is the Rangers affiliate.
So it's interesting with the Rangers because both they're the only team that has two
levels that do not broadcast. They're High A and they're A do not,
so it can be tougher to get eyes on. Made it kind of frustrating
when you wanted to watch more Evan Carter and why some of his months were
so hot and some of them were less than so. And then the third
A ball league is the cal League, which I happen to watch quite a
bit of. It is an eight team league. Six of the team's broadcast.
The two that do not are Stockton and Rancho Cucamongo, which is the
A's and the Dodgers affiliates. I heard, I think it was Beck or
Veen talking about this and something that I maybe didn't really think a ton about.
Oh they were talking about the Northwest League. I'm sorry, but such
a small league. You see so many of the same pitchers, you know.
And it's interesting too, you know, since they consolidated and went to
this format, you play the same team for a whole week, like you
get to see the relievers more than once, and I don't know, this
is kind of an interesting little wrinkle to it. As far as the best
broadcast angles, like I said before, Triple A is tough man, there's
really not I don't think there's like one good like straight on centerfield camera.
The best angle to watch some pitching in the Carolina League is probably augusta pretty
nice straight on angle. That's probably one of the best viewing angles in all
minor league Minor league baseball, like we mentioned, Florida State League's braydonon in
the Eastern League Hartford is pretty nice and you get like v low at least
the I don't know if that's probably the stadium gun. Also in the In
the Carolina League, Charleston has a pretty alright angle. Also in the Eastern
League, Erie has a decent angle. In the Midwest League, I think
South Bend probably has. It's not the greatest, but it's probably the best.
Down in the KL League, Modesto's angle isn't too horrible. In the
Eastern League, Somerset isn't so bad. Also in the Carolina League, Myrtle
Beach is pretty decent. And then in the Texas League, Midland is probably
the best angle to watch. But those are those are probably the best ten
spots to watch some pitchers. Now, Matt, I don't know, Uh,
you've got your eye on some teams or some some players or certain rosters
that stick out to you. I've got a few If you don't, Yeah,
I mean, like we said, we don't know all of the ross
just yet, and a lot of the ones yet are I mean, a
lot of the ones that are the most interesting for us to like see are
those lower level ones that start, you know, in a couple of weeks
and then and I actually it's kind of a funny thing. I was looking
over my couple of my deeper Dynasty League teams and this year, I've skewed
really young on a lot of them because a lot of my major League side
of teams are firmly in contention, and you know, I've got a couple
of like upper level depth arms, especially, but most of my hitters are
projected to be at A or even on the complex this year. A lot
of my personal rooting interest in some of these prospects, I'm not gonna be
able to see him for a while. I was thinking about that too,
trying to take advantage of early season jitters from some owners that like want to
get rid of you know, whoever's the slow starter of the week. But
I don't have a lot of like sexy prospects to offer them anymore, because
all my guys that I think are going to be really good by the end
of the year, they know their season doesn't start for a while. So
yeah, that's a strategic faux PA by me. Yeah. So Double A,
Hya, and A will all start Friday. Mm hm. Triple A
has got they did a weekend series, but then they'll have a full week
series this week. But I've got some some teams that I'm kind of it
probably will definitely be tuning into now Florida State League. I want to pay
attention to when Clearwater Saint Lucy well Saint Lucy. I'll be able to watch
all their home games, but Clearwater in particular because I want to see Aiden
Miller up Waka Grego, TJ Walton, Saltaban. I'm thinking we'll all be
there, and they happened to play at Bradenton the first week of the season,
so that is definitely my That is definitely my Florida State League series of
the week to watch. Obviously, we know the Triple A rosters right now.
If you go on the Double A roster pages, the guys that are
on there, Okay, they're probably on the Double A roster, but a
lot of them are incomplete. Still, when you get to the A levels,
it's a lot trickier right now and a lot harrier. But I think
though it's safe to say that those players will be with clear Water now.
Matt two. Going through the MiLB transactions log I have noticed that, Nah,
I got just some guys that I was some my B siders, and
some guys I was really interested to watch this year have been hitting sixty day
ils and full season ils. I saw that too, Dude, like Dylan
Ray sixty day already, like, well, that was interesting. It seems
like all through every league. I was just looking at the Tampa right here.
You know, interesting that jose coleman aias to me he's on IL for
full season. My Yankees arm tyrone Yuli full season IL. But Tampa's still
I think will be a little interesting. Whenever they're visiting. We can see
Lombard Reggio first year player bat that I was interested in, Kobe Morales kind
of a deeper cut there. Lakeland is going to be interesting too, is
Prisania Personna might be in hi A. I don't know, but Kevin McGonagall,
Max Clark will be in Lakeland, and then uh was in was in
a ball for chunk of last always a catcher, Maybe they want him to
get more catching reps. So yet to be determined. Jupiter, I'm guessing
we'll probably have Noble Meyer and Thomas White. Carolina League. Lindsburg's got a
couple interesting pitchers I want to see, kind of early Clemmy Jackson Humphries.
Their first series is at down East, so won't be broadcast. I think
Down East has some interesting bats, potentially Chedrie Vargas, Anthony Gudurerez, some
of their DSL guys might get in there this year. Salem. Miguel Bliss
probably going to be in Salem. I'm thinking, I don't know, that's
my guess. He'll be interesting to watch Knnapolis in the Carolina League. Noah
Schultz, Peyton Palette potentially, although I'm guessing he might be high A.
Maybe we'll see Walkyle there. I think he's on the he's on the roster
right now. I'm really interested to see Fayetteville the Astros e tem their lineup,
especially, I mean, Bloss will probably be there on the pitching side.
I don't I don't know if Flurry will be there. But they're young
bats. That flurry. I think they're well flurry. I think they said
they were gonna assign to double A. Okay, okay, but they're young
bats. Is one I'm most interested in there. Guessing we'll probably see Wayne
or Luciano, Neil mar atoa Kenny gome As. Those are three what teenage
bats I'm interested. I saw a tweet with those three guys on the rosters.
That's that's safe to say. And them at Myrtle Beach is my Carolina
League matchup of the week. I want to get eyes on call league.
I mean, to me, the call league is always pretty interesting. Logan
Evans is on the Modesto lineup right a roster right now, but I doubt
he starts in modesto right But who knows. I don't know. It's hard
to say. Yeah, I'm not sure. Fresno. The Rockies like to
stand up, you know, skip complex more or less for a lot of
their younger guys, So I imagine they'll have some interesting bats and probably like
Cole Carrig will still be there. I don't know if I think Sean Sullivan,
the interesting lefty they drafted in the second round, I think will be
with Fresno to start. San Jose is interesting to me because they have a
slew of just kind of deeper first year player bats and a couple of arms,
A couple of arms kil Lansville's Joe Whitman. I think we'll start there,
some bats, Cole Foster, Qui McDaniel, Justin, Justin Wishkowsky,
just the name a couple got very not a lot of name recognition, but
I think some inter rest the offense there. I do think Inland Empire will
have a couple of interesting arms, maybe my B side, Carlos Espinosa who
got traded over there, and Barrett Kent. Theyre prep first year player.
I think Peyton Martin will probably be pitching for Kuckamongo, and then I don't
know if Vassalia, I mean, Drew Jones will probably be there, Christopher
torren a first year player, back Kevin sim that's a little interesting to me.
You got any thoughts on Modesto. Yeah, I'm just looking at Modesto
might be an interesting rotation. It looks like Teddy mcgrab might be there too.
Logan enselists at their resource as well. And I haven't seen that minor
league transaction for that yet, but yeah, there's going to be a lot
of minor league transactions. With shifts, like the day of the season starts,
there will be a lot of movement. Yeah, yeah, for sure
they'll you'll see most of the run too, But that could be a pretty
interesting rotation, so especially early in the season, like if that's if that's
what they got there, a lot of those guys could see moving up to
Everett pretty quickly. And I'd say ritz rotation is the worst of the Mariners,
minor leaguer ones like that Minesta one that's pretty interesting, like an interesting
bunch there. And I really only like Michael Morales a very tiny bit and
he's the only one of the five listed starters on Ruster resource that I have
any interest at all. So that's I could see Evans McGraw and even Ford
pitching in the ever rotation before too too long, so that one will be
interesting. You know, I'm gonna be tune it into Arkansas and see reedvan
Scooter hopefully dominate. Moving on to the High A level the South Atlantic League
Sale League, I've got highlighted Jersey Shore in part Jersey Shore is a pretty
decent spot to watch some pitching because they do have v Loo not the greatest
angle, but Eldegari I think will be there. Matt. I don't know
if you saw this, but when Hoopon is on the sixty day il Oh,
I did not. I'm guessing Brian Raccone will be there, justin Crawford.
Also, I think Rome be kind of interesting. Matt. I don't
know. You tell me you're more You're Braves guy, but I'm thinking,
uh, Lucas bron Blake Burholter, d Grand Prix, Gian Carlos, Laura
Munjos, Owen, Murphy, Spencer, Schwellenbach Like, that's a that's a
slew of interesting arms that I think will we'll be there. On the bat
side, I don't know it's not going to be there. You think they
move him up to double A. Oh, I'd be surprised if he wasn't
in double A. Yeah, right, me too. But I think Isaiah
Drake will probably be there. Yeah, I think, yeah, so that's
kind of interesting, but some good arms there. I think Winston Salem might
be kind of an interesting watch too. Pitching side they got. I think
Juan Corella will be there, Connor McCullough, my guy, Tyler Schwartz,
Schweitzer, I think he starts there because a double A rotation I think is
pretty set. I think Brooks Baldwin, you're a little mini guy. Trapelli
I think will be there Asheville. Ashwell is always kind of interesting, I
think with their arms. Not a lot of big names, but I'm anxious
to see my guy Dinson Batista get back. I think he probably starts there.
I don't know if Palma still starts the season there I'm guessing maybe they
have some interesting outfielders Sernie Cole and Whittaker the Midwest League. I think if
it stays as they have the roster now, I think Dayton's gonna have some
interesting bats or at least some fun bats. And Sal Stewart, Hector Rodriguez
and then my guy Ruben Ibera Vogels guy. Actually you ever watch him that,
He's like, he's huge, dude, He's like an offensive lineman,
but like, but he's athletic though, and he's got I mean, I
don't think he's I mean, this isn't like prospecting, so just a fun
guy to watch hit. Great Lakes might be interesting with the Dodgers in there,
I think project Arms. I think Bronze and Farris will be there,
maybe Huarterback. I think my guy Rosario is there. I don't know if
Robleski is still there, but I don't think they have him on the double
A roster yet. Ro think it'll be a. I thought I saw something
about that and I don't know there. I'm still kind of interested in Junior
Garcia, who I think will be there. Yeah, Dulton Russian also like
uh, I think Cedar Rapids is kind of an it could do you have
an interesting roster. I think Culpepper will still be there. Corey Lewis is
fun to watch. Zebby Matthews. I think Kisha will be there. Gabby
Gonzalez, Jose Salis Rosario I think could still be there. You don't think
Gabby Gonzalez is gonna be from Double A Maybe? Maybe it's tough to say.
Peoria, I think we have some fun arms. Potentially if Beadell and
Serpe and Austin Love and Piniagua all stay on the roster there, I'll be
tuning in watch some my guy, Alex Decernia quad Cities. We think you
think Werner starts with quad Cities. I was gonna ask you where you thought
Warner starts. He was one that I was pondering what his early season might
look like. I could very well be wrong, but I'm gonna guess he
starts a quad Cities. Well, do you think Carter Jensen will be there
too? But maybe a couple of interesting bats. Yeah, probably they got
some arms like I don't know on Borderline, interested in tuning into and like
Kundra and Masokato and Benzini potentially moving on to the Northwest League. Of course,
Everett's gonna be a super interesting watch, right, I mean, yeah,
who are you most excited to see in Everett? Well, Everson for
sure, and I think that's where he's gonna start. I saw, I
thought I saw a tweet her somebody shared something that Arroyo maybe was gonna stick
in Modesto, Michael Arroyo, and I thought that was a little bit of
a surprise. And then they would leave, like Pete and Smith and Farmelo
in Modesto again to start the season. I'm not again, all this is
subject to change, and I think can move pretty quickly. I'm curious which
of the young outfielders makes it up to Everett first. I think Montes probably
is gonna be at Everett with but I haven't heard where Farmelo, Smith or
Williamson or Reat are going to be. And I wonder if all those guys
go back to Modesto at least to start the year and see, ye see
who shows out. So that'd be fun. It'd be fun if we knew
that, like you know, before the game started. A lot of the
times, but if you follow on Twitter and follow some of the minor league
clubs, sometimes they get that information out to you beforehand. But Matt in
the Northwest League, dude, we I think we get the best, the
most fun matchup the first week ever it visits Hillsboro, and it'll be on
a decent broadcast. I think Hillsboro. I think Hillsborough's lineup is going to
be pretty fun at least from like the side standpoint, I think what we
might have Serda Conticello or Countaicello, Gino Groover, a guy who I'm really
interested in watching, Emmanuel Pana, Tommy Troy, Jack Hurley, Wildered Pettino,
Andrew Pinta. That's a lot of just from a watching interest standpoint,
a good slew of interesting bets for Hya. I think, yeah, definitely.
And I saw a few of those guys there last year. So like
Hurley and Groover, I think are both going to be you know, Groover
are both going to be back there. Troy, I'd be surprised if he
was there. I think they're going to I think they're gonna push him to
double A. I don't think they have anybody else there because he didn't get
he didn't get a lot of run, right, I mean he didn't,
I mean he went, he went like, I think maybe a high A,
but it was like, not that much after this season, you know,
so who knows? Who knows what the plan is? There could be
a bazillion different reasons that players get placed in certain places. But I'm a
lot of hoping that Drew Jones was going to be there to start the season.
But I haven't said anything about that either, because that would be fun
to see Drew Jones live, Like I would go out to see that one
for Do you agree that those are probably the two most fun lineups in that
league are going to be? Certainly? The problem is like, are they
going to be the most fun lineups to start the year? They certainly could
be, Like you could stack two fascinating lineups on both of those And I,
like I mentioned, I think the Everett pitching staff is going to be
not very good, so it could be fun to watch Hillsborough hit against the
ever pitching staff. But I'm just curious where they're gonna slot everybody at this
point. And if you haven't watched a lot of minor league baseball, I
think it's it's worthwhile to note, like there's the first half of the season
and the second half of the season and rosters can be very different. This
is just a starting point of players are moving around a lot and stuff.
But just keep that in mind. The rosters are going to change as the
season moves on. I think Try City kind of an interesting rotation. Now.
I don't mat did you notice this, but they got Caden Dana on
the Tri City roster right now really, which is interesting me because he finished
the season on the Double A. I don't know what that is. Well,
I mean that could be just like they wanted him to get an extra
start in with the Double A or an extra couple starts with the Double A
team, and then they just want them to just because I think Salas is
doing the same thing. He obviously made it up to Double A, but
I think it was just to get another week of at bats or whatever.
Like you know, it wasn't like, hey, the seventeen year old should
be playing in Double A. And I'm thinking my Angels B side on from
last season, Ryan Gusteau is back from injury and I think he will be
starting there. This Hamilton Mendez that I'm really interested in. And then a
couple of bats Andy Blake and Joe Redfield and I want to see more of
and cool should get a chance to when they're on the road. For the
Cal League, I think Fresno at San Jose might be the most interesting watch,
but it's kind of splitting hairs this week. I think in the Salle
League, I want I'm going to tune into Hickory at Rome and see what's
up with some of those pitches pitchers versus the bats that we're not going to
see a lot of. And then the Midwesley League, I think I'm probably
most interested in Peoria at Wisconsin, just because I want to see some of
the arms or Wisconsin has. I think it's going to have a slew of
arms that I'm not really familiar with. You might have a couple that are
higher brown names, and Wisconsin has a decent angle to watch pitching. I
didn't mention them before, and they have a gun and I think Laura will
be there for Wisconsin, who is really kind of the the only real interesting
bat at least to me right now at this junker for Wisconsin. But then
double A Eastern League, I think Somerset will be kind of fun with Augustin
Ramirez, Ben Rice Spencer, Jones, Chase Hampton, Jack Neely, that's
a slew of interesting players. He'll be on a bit. Okay, Binghamton
is going to be fun to tune into. Of course, Leander Suarez,
I think we'll be there, Blade Tidwell, Tyler Stewart, Williams, Chett
Williams. Yeah, that'll be a fun one. I think Hartford will be
fun. I know people don't care about Rocky's pitching very much, but I
think pom Quist starts there. Of course, Amador, Ritter Sirlan Thompson,
Yeah, at least to start. Yeah, I think we can be pretty
confident here because these guys aren't on the Triple A rosters, so yeah,
I think it's safe to say that they're there. So you know, I'm
just a fan of Hunter Stowall, Rocky middle infielder, just a fun guy
to watch play. But they he like got demoted. Man, he was
getting into some major league games, but they sent them back down to Hartford
after playing in Triple A last year. It's kind of interesting to me,
Richmond. I'm definitely going to be tuning in to watch some Trevor McDonald and
some Barracodo. But I gotta say Eastern League has been like kind of one
of the funnest leagues for me to watch the last couple of years, but
I'm not quite as excited this year, at least to start. I have
a feeling in the Eastern League is going to hot, be hot middle of
the season, and that is true a lot of the time. Like the
guys that perform at high A, yeah, double A is like yeah,
double A, step up, Yeah, double A in the second half of
the season is so much fun. Yeah, Yeah, definitely, because there's
a lot of guys that I think are targeted for hya that are gonna see
We're going to see them in double A before like maybe a month, maybe
two. Yeah. And so I think like the summer in the Eastern League
and the Southern League is going to be pretty hot. I think there's gonna
be a lot of fun people to watch. Yeah, And I think you
gotta you gotta note too, some of these leagues, like the you know,
the Northeast Division of the Eastern League and the Midwest League like this pretty
crappy weather in the beginning of the year. Perhaps part of that plays into
some of the assignment is like we just don't want this guy playing in the
crappy April Weather. Yeah league, Yeah, and that might be in the
Southern League. I think Birmingham could be, even though it's White Sox and
I hate them so much. There's I think there's gonna be an interesting rotation
there. Mason Adams, your guy, Erie Arteky Bush, Jake Eater,
Jared Kelly, Threw Thorpe, and then I think they got Edgar Kira and
Bryan Ramos on that roster right now. Yeah, I was. I was
kind of surprised that Ramos isn't in Triple A right and Jose Rodriguez, who's
been in the BIGS. They had Telko there, Wilfred Veres, who you
like. Kind of I think that that might be the most interesting team in
the Southern League to me, especially right now. I mean like that,
I don't think that's going to be their team for all that long. I
think a lot of those guys are going to be up in Triple A pretty
quickly in Charlotte, and then I think, I mean the poor White Sox,
man, they look absolutely atrocious. They got curb stumped by the Braves
today, Eloy is already hurt. I don't know what they're gonna do but
like, does Robert make it through the year with the White Sox, like
I mean, and then if they do that, like, okay, clearly
we're full tank. Job are they just going to bring up a bunch of
those guys? We see Montgomery, we see Ramos, we see Caro,
you know, like it'd be interesting. I don't know, ye see what
they do. I have to say, I've watched zero second of any White
Sox game so far this season that I don't know. The Crochet starting.
Yeah, he looked good too, actually, and it's held up through the
outing. You know, I was, I was pretty skeptical because I just
think he's his command I think is not quite good enough to start. But
he looked great in the Texas League. I mean to me, Wichita is
always kind of fun, always have interesting bats there. I think my guy
Ben Ross will be there showbol of course, your guy Emrod's starting there the
backup a little bit. I was surprised Julian agu Are still Double A.
I kind of thought that he would have been starting in Triple A this season.
But yeah too, Yeah he's not on Louisville's roster, you know,
he's on he's with Chattan Nugas. Still, I wonder if that's like because
of the all the rehabbers, because they've got a few injured guys that are
coming up to like Lodolo and Brandon Williams and I think are both rehabing there.
Yeah, I think San Antonio will be fun crabs there. Maser Snelling,
I think the sound is still on the roster, but he will be
starting in high A couple of interesting bats and Casinone and Martorella are still on
the Double A roster, and they still Marci is on the Double A roster,
which is interesting. I thought he'd be with El Paso. Yeah.
Yeah, Triple A. Like I said before, Triple A is kind of
it's just a little bit different than the other levels to me, for for
our purposes or what I like to watch. But I think Buffalo is actually
kind of interesting with the arms. Ricky Titeman's there, counter cook, that
Cuban guy, the ari L Rodriguez. I'm interested to watch some of him.
Chad Dallas is interesting to me. I think he's probably more suited for
bullpen roll in the long run. But nonetheless, Addison Barger, Leo Yemanez
or Elvis are there. Rochester I think is a little interesting because Mitchell Parker
and James Wood. I think Syracuse might be kind of as fun as it
gets for a triple A roster, and like sort of prospecting. They got
Jose Budo, Dominic Hamill, Christian Scott, Mike Vasil. Then on the
back side they Gotuna and Drew Gilbert. You see they went back to back
in the game. Yeah, Charlotte might be I think Charlotte's interesting just because
Colson Montgomery's there, and then they got a couple of arms that might be
kind of interesting. I'm curious when Sean Burke might get back, and I'm
curious if Oscar Colis is anything that we should still pay attention to. And
then of course we've talked about Toledo. Toledo's just that's such a fun team
to me. Man, Yeah, the mud Hens, Yeah, mud Hens.
But like you got Engler, who I mean, I'm still curious about
Flores Herder, Kader, Montero Manning is there right now. On the bat
side, you got Dylan Dingler, Cassin, Hira, Jace Young, Kridler,
Leonard Justin, Terry, Malloy, Wentzel, Perez, big b Madras
and bid like that's it's about as fun of a Triple A team as it
kind of gets. I think, Yeah, a lot of those guys either
have been in the big leagues are going to be in the big leagues.
Yeah, real soon, Like that's a big league quality team, you know.
Yeah, And it's not like and it's still guys who who's career trajectory
is still pointing up, you know, for the most part. I mean
there's like Kira do or who are You? A little bit of Madras to
a certain extent too, like a little bit of reclamation projects. But there
are a lot of the rest of those guys like Henry malloy and Young and
a bunch of those other guys, like they're all arrow up. So I
like that rest a lot. I think I'm going to turn into tune into
a bunch of those games. Yeah, and then the PCL, like obviously
I have a bias, but Albuquerque, I think is one of the more
fun rosters. Keep an eye on Drew Romo, Beef Goodman Beck's there,
your guy, Jimmy Harron, he had a home run the other day.
John Bouchard is there. So some bats to keep an eye on that might
get some MLB run this year. Las Vegas is interesting to me as well.
Joey Estis Domingo, Roebliss is there, who we've talked about, Saderstrom,
Jordan Diaz, Brett Harris, excuse me, Max Munsey, lazarro Arminteros,
some bats that might get some MLB run this year. And I think
Sacramento's pretty fun too. I feel like Sacramento is always kind of fun.
Mason Black Blaine, Enlow's there, Carson Seymour, Carson wizen Hunt, your
guy, Trenton Brooks. Yeah, I saw Dario Lopez. I think is
on their Triple A ross or might just be kind of a formality, but
I saw he's on the sixty day il. He must have really jacked up
his knee last year, man, but that was a bummer. Luciano's there,
Casey Schmidt, David vr Brett Wisely, Wade Meckler and Ishmael Menguia.
Yeah, I don't know, man, that's a little rundown. Lots of
good highlights, and we'll see. We'll see more of those announcements later this
week when we actually get the get close to the opening day for a and
and for a kind of a matchup of the week. New Hampshire's at Binghamton.
I want to see, uh mostly I want to see when Johander gets
to throw day he'll be throwing. In the Southern League. Got Chattanooga at
Birmingham. Like we mentioned, I think Birmingham is the most interesting look there
right now. And then Frisco at Wichita. I want to see Ross and
the Wichita bats versus some resting arms for Frisco, and Frisco has a They
got a good slew of some of some arm like like bullpen arms that I'm
interested in seeing. Mostly Syracuse plays at Scranton. That could be fun.
Durban Gilbert be some decent pitching there. And then in the PCL, I
got Las Vegas had sugar Land, Estes, Dies Harris and those guys versus
lots of interesting arms for the what are they called the Space Cowboys now and
the sugar Land's got a lot purfeito. They had a great weekend. Yeah,
great weekend. Yeah yeah, Quincy Hamilton, so that could be a
fun one. Imagine some runs will get put up on the scoreboard there.
We are going to try to report on Monday nights for the rest of the
season, and I will try to get the podcast out the next day.
I think we'll kind of run down the week's action, whatever Matt wants to
talk about and what he was watching and interested in, and I'll probably have
like a picture of the week or a start of the week sort of thing
that I'll get into. I'll again share matchups coming up. Then I'm going
to be tuning into the next week, try to We'll probably try to do
a rundown of prospects that are getting picked up in leagues whose roster percentages might
be spiking for whatever reason, and maybe sharing a couple of cents on those
guys, or maybe finding some assignments and some guys that we should start tuning
into. Does that sound good to you, Matt? Absolutely, the minor
league season is here, the major league season is here. Welcome back Baseball.
Yeah, Friday morning, just clicking on all the roster pages and whatnot
and seeing who's going where. Yep, Yeah, No, I think that'll
do it for episode twenty seven of the Prospect B Sides podcast. You can
follow me on Twitter at pitching Specs. You can find that, and I
in the Dynasty Dugout Discord and yeah, I don't know, man, anything
else you want to say, you feeling good about your fantasy teams to start
or what? I had a tough luck loss in the show. I think
I put up the seventh most points and lost to the guy who put up
the most points or the second most points or something. It's hard to beat
those guys who put up the most points. You know, it is difficult.
It is difficult. I had, Yeah, I had that in another
of my leagues. I put up the fifth or fourth most points and lost
the guy who put up the most points. Head dead leagues. You know
that happens. Didn't love that Sean Murphy got injured on the first day,
sucked in the show That wasn't wasn't great. What do you think? Is
this your first run at doing half week periods and what do you think of
it? It is interesting. I think the question I asked you the other
day about, oh, it's daily moves, but we just have shorter periods.
It makes some of the other team's rosters make a lot more sense,
Like there are some teams that had a lot more relievers than I thought made
sense just given the scoring format. I was like, I don't know why
you would do that, like you want to hit your four starts, and
so you want like a decent number of starters to make sure that you can
hit that. But then a lot of teams, like I was like,
why do they have all these middle relievers on their teams? But I think
it's because you have a middle reliever, go, you just PLoP in the
next one for the next day. And like I noticed some teams were kind
of churning that, and that seems like a good use of roster spots.
And then the other thing on the show, at least because I inherited these
two teams, one of which then I did a dispersal draft in the other
was just a straight inheritance. And then the one that I inherited. When
I first looked at this roster, I was like, this, this roster
is so weird. It's got like a couple of great players like Akunya and
Robert Junior and a couple others that are like really good, and then a
bunch of like crappy role players. This is such a weird roster for a
contender. But I kind of get it now because it's a daily moves league.
When guys are in platoons like I've been like trying to pick and choose
the right ones on the given day in WGM, and like, you know,
it's like a little bit of an edge that maybe you can find in
that league. So they're both interesting leagues. And the four starts thing is
going to be interesting, especially in WGM for me because I have like four
actual starters. So I did better week one than I think I'm going to
do in week two. And you know, yeah, that could be a
little tricky too, because you can get stuck. I had this one season
I just could not get out of it. But I had like my seven
guys would start one half of the week and then I'd have like one start
the other half. So I started just making trades just to change up the
rotation. Like, well, we'll see. It's it's fun to it's like
fun playing in these different formats and trying to keep them all straight. I
finally moved all my leagues over to fan tracks. Did I tell you that?
Congratulations? Yeah, like my long running home league that I have just
dominated, Like I don't know why these guys keep playing with me. I'm
already in first place again, Like I don't know these guys this is a
super shallow twelve team mixed league that we'd run on ESPN for like fifteen sixteen
years, and yeah, we finally moved it over to fan tracks this year,
which was was no effort, like, it was really easy to do.
It was great. I was I was sitting around waiting at the end
of my workshift this morning, and I decided just to put a cumulative batting
average together for all of my fantasy to over the first four days or whatever,
and total my batting average was point zero nine to seven. Oh my
god, that's bad. That's your cold, that's your coold to start.
But good news is we're like one percent of the way through the season or
something like that, so long ways to go. Yeah long season four.
Sure, quit overreacting, everybody, stay calm, Everything's fine. But you
guys be well and we will talk to you next week later an hour.
Riding to his head, you have him down first with the long, bonius
face, and on the very next pitch he up in stove second face with
gretest be he wasn't born. He had yes uniform