Not five miles an hour riding too his head, he hopping down first with
the limp bonius face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole
second face with gradest. He wasn't born. He had to do yes,
Beautiforn. All right, Hey, hey, hey, Episode thirty seven of
the Prospect B Sides Podcast. We are back. It has been far too
long, but the long lost rookies here, I am here, and we've
got what a month's worth of baseball and happenings in mud try to rehash.
I'm a bit overwhelmed here, Matt. I'm not totally sure what all I
want to talk about. I feel like there's so many things we could but
it is nice to see you, my friend. Well, I'm just overwhelmed
by how long it's been since I've seen this beautiful nug Nate, I miss
buddy. This has been way too long since we since we mudded and talked
about the goodness that is happening all over the minor leagues. And it's trade
deadline season for a bunch of dynasty leagues too. I don't know if you
want to touch on some of that, like how's your how are your teams
doing what's what moves is the big Nate handymaking one of my thirty teen points.
I'm I'm all in, I'm going for it. And then got the
best record in the league. I don't know if I got the best team
in the league, but it made some moves, tried to put the finishing
touches on a hopeful champion, got some relievers, and I was just all
about trading all those b sides and free chips and whatever I could for help
me now pieces. And then the one that the show, the one that
we're in together deadlines tonight. UH just forever have been kind of like borderline
playoff team or just making the playoff team, not one of the best teams
in the league, and just never really able to make the big blockbusters at
the deadlines. So just a couple of little tiny moves there that might help
me a little bit, and I probably will have to get very lucky to
uh to get a championship there. But that's always a fun one. That's
always a competitive league. My division is like a three way race right now.
So yeah, I don't know pretty much other teams are trashed. Well,
the show that that league that we're in is a tricky one. I
feel like my team, like coming into the season, felt pretty solid.
And then I had a bunch of the guys that I was really banking on
being cornerstones. Your Austin Riley's, your Cody Bellingers really were terrible for long
stretches. And I hunted on prospects, like in the dispersal draft when I
joined the league, and even as we were doing the off season free agent
auction, I wasn't really looking for prospects, but I landed a couple.
Bit are in hot supply. What do you think about Debbie Matthews? Ever?
He's asking about him, and I'm really just looking for some relief,
and I can't stomach giving him. Zebbie Matthews, who's already up in Triple
A, still crushing. I hear he's elite. I can't send him for
a stupid reliever, can I? I mean, I think when it comes
to, you know, trying to put together a championship run in a playoff
like that, I think anything goes. Anything that isn't going to help you,
I think is on the table. But yeah, I mean, Zebby's
pretty, He's sort of he checks a lot of the boxes. I think
for both of us and what we like to see with pictures. I mean,
you want to talk about a guy using his tools very well. I
mean, I don't know if there's a picture, a minor league picture out
there that does that quite as well as Zebby right now. So he'd be
a tough one to trade off. But I mean everyone's got their price,
right yeah, And I might consider it for one of the elite relief arms,
but thus far it's more like good holds types relievers, and so I'm
I'm leaning towards holding him, but I might have one or two more deals
to go before we close this deadline out there. And then the WGM,
the other thirty teamer we're in together. That team just got destroyed by injuries
early and I don't think was super well put together. When I took it
over, it was like very top heavy with like eight great players and then
forty terrible are like very middling players. I tried to do a bit of
a retool and that one that team I think is in better position now than
it was, but it's still is that I'm out of the playoff race by
a long shot. So hopefully to play spoiler for some of those other teams
down the stretch. I'm for that. Yeah, you know, so,
I don't know. This last probably month or so, I've got a good
slew of lightly rostered hitters and pitchers that I've been pretty impressed with this last
month, have watched a good amount of and one of them complex pick Up
that we talked about, I think the last couple of times, very briefly,
I was kind of in the same I used him as a trade chip
and a couple of these recent deals here, but I was curious, what
are your thoughts of Demetrio Cryssants might be. I know that we were both
intrigued by his you know, stat line and rookie ball. Now he's up
in Visalia. I think he's got what like twenty three games in now.
I've tuned in, watched a good chunk and it was tough to kind of
send him off. I was trying to send off some different pieces. But
Croissantis here man pretty impressive first month single a yeah, he went three ninety
eight forty one, five point fifty four, striking out and walking roughly at
the same rate. I've really liked the eyeball test him Mechanically, he kind
of will slow it down and happily lays a single, but he can still
like put a charge in one pull one, especially like an inside fastball.
I've seen him hit a couple of those real hard. But yeah, I
don't know. Have you have you tuned into him at all? Have you
seen him? I have watched him a little and have been super impressed.
He's somebody. After we had identified kind of what he was doing on the
complex that I started poking around, picked him up for free in a couple
of leagues, watch listed him in a couple others, and I think I
traded for him in two leagues in smaller deals before he got promoted to low
A, and he's been awesome. He reminds me in some ways of what
I liked about Hansel Luis last year. Just a little bit of a smaller
guy, like slighter, young Latin player, really clean actions, especially his
right handed swing, I think is just I like the contact that he gets
to. I like that he's showing some power at nineteen in the Cow League.
Also for those leagues where you're playing in a Roto dynasty, he's really
showing a propensity to steal and he's pretty good at it. In my couple
of looks. I don't know how you felt about some of his jumps,
but it seems like he's swiping bags like pretty easily. You know, he's
not going a ton, but what when he does. At least what I
saw or a couple of the games, it was like he stole it without
a throw, and I think he's got some skill there. So he's off
to an awesome start and a ball and I'm not sure it's all going to
hold up. Like he's running a pretty high line drive rate that will probably
come down a bit, and it'll be interesting to see whether that goes more
to the flyball side or the ground ball side, because he kind of showed
a bit of flyball tendency on the complex according to his battball profile, and
I think that'd be great. I think he's got enough power to make that
work I wanted to do. I noticed, at least his first couple of
weeks, the pitchers were seem to really be testing him with velocity up in
the zone, you know, which I think makes a lot of sense,
but that could to potentially lead to more, you know, balls in the
air. Just been pretty impressed there, and of course it's what he was
a seventh round prep pick a couple of drafts ago. You're not familiar.
He was kind of on my radar just a little bit and perfect game stuff,
and I didn't even pay any attention to what he was doing last year.
But he definitely has shown up. And I think his roster percentage is
up to like five percent now maybe, so I mean people are taking notice
for sure. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I don't know. That's a
sign. That's a co sign for me. I have really liked what I've
seen out of him and hope he keeps advancing with this kind of skill set.
This is a mix of a lot of things that I really like.
Yeah, another bat Matt that we have talked about before because he was both
of our Red Sox B side selection Alan Castro. Now, it was it
was very slow, you know, potentially rough first couple of months of the
season in Greenville. I did not watch a whole lot of him, so
I don't really know what was going on. But my lord, did he
have the last month. He has just been smoking hot, dude. Nine
home runs in the last twenty games. Wow, two ninety seven, three
sixty six A seven thirty slug and he's got five doubles in the last twenty
games as well. This time of year, Matt, you know, we've
got half a season of ball in right, A lot of names popped up
gotten more popular. I don't know if you remember when we were choosing our
B side selections. A lot of them, you know, season lines maybe
weren't super eye popping, but it was a lot of guys that had great
second halves. Point being, I think we're getting into like the really good
Mutting season here. We're gonna have the draft just took place. There's gonna
be first year of players getting some run. There's gonna be guys like Castro
that maybe nobody paid attention to, but we like the skill set from last
year. Love to see him maybe get challenged at another level. But a
great month from Castro, who didn't really make our selection look all that great
the first couple months of the season, but he has just been smoking hot.
Yeah, it's it's awesome. And the things that we liked about him
were kind of some of those under the radar things that we thought he was
a pretty athletic. In my looks at him, it looked like he had
been making adjustments over the court of the season last year. It was one
of the reasons why I was sort of encouraged even though the overall line was
sort of underwhelming. It wasn't a ton of stuff that wasn't anything eye popping.
What he has done at high A, especially over the past month is
just been one of the best hitters in the minor leagues, which is awesome.
You love it when a B side guy gets to that kind of level.
Mind you, you know, he's still just twenty one years old and
hi a so still I think that's still young for a hitter. Yeah,
and still only one percent rostered. And you know, just like we like
what we were attracted to do. I think he's just kind of all around
just seems like a pretty good hitter and player. So I don't know,
my interest has rekindled here, Yeah, and with I have castro in a
couple of places, but there's I think as one of my Dynasty leagues,
I'm one of the top two or three teams, and I'm shoving chips in
pretty aggressively to pick up a couple more win now pieces, and in doing
so, I'm talking about giving up some of my very favorite minor league prospects,
and so I'm looking for guys to backfill and Castro was available in that
in one of those leagues, one of those thirty teamers that I'm in,
and so I'm trying to push one of those deals through and Castro is on
my short list to backfill it. As I was going through some B side
guys and some other crowdsourced a little bit of who else might might make that
cut, Castro was one that I was like, ooh, he's available,
and he's been really churning things on. And I also wouldn't be surprised if
after the break he gets promoted to Double A. So it was I think
around August early August last year that he got promoted to High A, and
he had like a kind of a month month and a half of High A
at the end of last year, and so I could see him getting a
promotion post All Star break over to Double A with the Socks. That's when
you start to see this performance really translating to major league project arm translations as
well as that's when other Dynasty owners I think, start to take interest.
So this might be a good buying opportunity for mister Alan Castro, Yeah,
definitely. You know a lot of this list, and what I've been watching
is exactly what you said, like starting to backfill all the prospects I sent
in trades, Like all right, what's out there that maybe he's getting unloved,
But uh yeah, Castro definitely kind of in that ilk for me right
now, as soon as some spots for you up here. Might have to
take a look another guy like this. Now, he was a later round,
first year player draft pick for me in several leagues since dropped him just
because they were more interesting, better things I thought I could do. But
Philly's third round pick from last year, Devin Saltaban, has kind of been
on one last twenty games. He's got five home runs, stole four bases,
He's slashed in two seventy nine, four forty nine, five point fifty
nine. Now, mind you, this is a you know, it's a
young prep guy, and the first couple of months of of pro ball for
him. I mean, I think it was a bit of a struggle.
I think he was hitting under the Mendoza line or close to it. But
I think he's figured some things out, and you know, five home runs
in twenty games in the fsl is is pretty impressive. Been tuning in on
him. I don't know if folks out there haven't seen him or whatever.
You can think maybe and this might be a little bit lazy because he's Hawaiian
too, but like you know, maybe Shane Victorino ask a little bit more
physical, a little bigger perhaps, but maybe that's sort of like you know,
long term dream if you will. He's got more interesting to me again.
Another guy that I might go back to and roster Nate. I haven't
watched too much of that Clearwater team of late. Is Walton getting any plays?
Has he been hitting? And how how's the rest of that team doing?
I know they had some struggles early on. Well, so TJ.
He had that injury, but I don't know, a couple of months ago
whatever it was, he came back, got into one game, I think
he swung the bat twice and then was out again and out for a decent
amount of time. But he has just returned. He just got a game
in, maybe two games in right before the break in Clearwater. So not
really much to report on my guy TJ. But a guy was and how
saltim On's k rate? I know it was a little high early. Has
he brought that down during his hot streak. I think, now this might
be half a serious half a week old, but he was on the season.
He was at twenty seven percent over the last twenty games, sixty eight
at bats. He's struck out twenty one times, but has walked seventeen times.
But the Clearwater team, another guy on my list here started there.
And this is why Matt I don't Kemp. I think we might have touched
on him a little bit in the chat room the other day, but I
think kind of a good example of maybe why you don't want to just right
off an older guy in a ball because he's moved up three levels already,
and man, he just torched in double A so far. I mean,
maybe maybe Torch is a little strong. But five home runs in twenty one
games at reading two fifty seven three sixty four five hundred slug. He has
struck out twenty three times, he's watched eight times. What initially attracted me
to camp Well, I mean, besides eyeballs, he's got a pretty interesting
batter ball profile, one that you know might have good home run shape,
home run potential. He popped what he's got six home runs is that right?
In Double A? Four in High A, and then he had one
down in Clearwater this year, So kind of infield guy who you know might
have some power. Now he's older at twenty four, but you know what,
is this his second pro season and he's doing well in Double A.
I think that's that's acceptable. Yeah. I love watching for those fast moving
guys that maybe did start as a little old for their level, but then
they hop a couple levels and you're like, oh, that's sort of now
a pretty interesting performance. There's some real signal to that, that kind of
noise, and for some guys that's like that's just the way, like whether
they were slowed after the draft by an injury, or they were blocked by
somebody else who was higher up the pecking order and they wanted to keep them
getting at bats. Like, there's lots of reasons why a guy might start
somewhere lower down in an organization, and then paying attention to when they move
and keep the performance up I think is pretty important. You know one guy
that has I think along that kind of path that is one that we've talked
about a lot this year is Cjkapas you know like he wasn't an advanced level
last year, but then he just has kept mashing at every level this year.
Macadou too, like he was an a ball only guy for part of
the season last year and then now he's still crushing it in Double A.
And so I think kind of searching for those guys is pretty proper Bowl.
Yeah, and Kemp zero percent roster, you know, deep league. I've
picked him up to backfill and you know, especially a couple of leagues where
I don't really have very many bats in my system at all, just to
see what happens the rest of the season. Here another guy who is maybe
a little bit similar in that what kind of attracted to me. Him to
me was just kind of as bad as ball shape early in the year.
And we've touched on Jared Dickey before, but man, he's this last month
or so has been pretty dang hot as well. In the last twenty one
games, he's three forty two four sixteen five nineteen. He's hit just two
home runs but struck out sixteen times seven walks. Now, he's a bit
how do you say, he's a little bit goofy. Had to play a
little goofy looking a little untraditional looking, but you know, like I said,
if there's a guy who you know, he might be the type that's
really going to maximize his bad at ball profile and bat at shape to you
know, pop some home runs and do some damage with the bat. So
he he's still in high A at quad Cities, but wanted to note him.
He's a guy who's just kind of been on the fringe of some of
my rasters. I just kept an eye on. But he's a free try.
He's zero percent. That's an interesting shout. I like that one one
I wanted to highlight because A his name has just stuck in my head and
and B he's on a bit of a hot streak now. And I remember
this guy because in I think it was my off season like Open Universe Player
Draft in one of my thirty teamers two off seasons ago. Yeah, I
think it was two off seasons ago. I in the like second or third
round. This is like deep where we're one hundred and some picks into this
FYPD, and I was between two catchers that had performed in the DSL and
one had performed on the complex, and I went with Axial plause of the
Pirates and I was like pretty excited. You know, had run a two
hundred and nine WRC plus in the DSL that year, and I was like,
oh, this is a bat that's going to move really quickly. I
think Longenhangen at Fanografts had dropped a nice blur upon Plause, and so I
was pretty pumped about it. But the guy that was my second choice here
and ended up going I think like a pick or two later, was Samuel
Bisseo. So I really regretted that pick for the last like year and a
half, but I wanted to highlight Plause because he was pretty bad all last
year. He spent most of the year as a seventeen year old on the
Complex, was striking out way too much, the power wasn't showing up.
It was just like a really lost season. And then he started at the
Complex this year and in you know, just like a short sample, he
was bad again. And so even though he had SAT, I had dropped
him in a roster crunch and he wasn't on that roster anymore, but I'd
kept him on a watch list. Then he got promoted to a ball like
a month ago, a little more than a month ago, and has been
had been pretty good to start, but has really turned it on of late.
He's mashing homers. He's got twelve homers in the Florida State League in
forty one games. That is mashing there. Overall line good for a one
thirty three WRC plus in the Florida State League, and Plause just keeps banging.
There's more swing and miss than you would like. Still, it's a
twenty five percent k rate and sort of a nine percent walk rate, so
the plate approach doesn't seem great, but I think he can kind of sting
the ball a bit. Pretty interested in the bad at ball distribution. He
seems like a guy who's going to hit a lot of fly balls, and
I think that's a good thing for him. It's a good thing for his
profile. So Actuel Applause, you know, I was so mad at him
for like a good year and a half, but he's coming back around,
and I picked him up in a deep league as a catcher who might hit
for some significant power, even though there's some swinging miss right on Matt.
Both of our Andre's B side selections have had some pretty good months. I
mean they're on opposite ends of the full season ball. But you know,
we we've talked about Urso arnellis but what this last month three ninety five,
four thirty eight, six point fifty one, he's pop seven home runs and
you I mean he's still what, he's still only twenty four years old.
Yep, we know that he can hit the ball really hard. I don't
know what the Padres situation is. I mean, I think they're doing pretty
well and they got some good outfielders. But not to be forgotten, Urso
man, he's uh, he's been on one and he's still sitting at two
percent. And then my young you know, my kind of hail Mary selection
at the end of our draft, and you know, it's been up and
down season. He's still very young. He still strikes out a lot.
But man, Russman Verdugo has had a pretty good month too. I've been
in watching. Yes, yeah, he's about three home runs three point fifty
one, four sixty two, five eighty one. He doesn't steal bases,
but uh, I don't know. I still like just the look, the
eyeball look of this this young Mexican swing, Like I think he has it
in him to hit the ball pretty hard, especially for his size. So
I don't know. I'm still still finding myself a little intrigued there. Yeah,
Verdugo's ks still give me a little bit of pause. But if that
continue, if the power continues to show up, it might not matter quite
so much. And that's been encouraging over the last month. I think he
has been hitting the ball a lot harder and getting rewarded for it. Yeah.
Another guy that we have talked about a little bit and it's starting to
get a little more popular. He's at four percent. But our batwaggle guy,
Arian Amo man he in Mammo four oh eight, four seventy one,
six point fifty eight this last month, four home runs, four stolen bases,
but he has been caught three times hitting for a little bit more Popu.
I thought maybe was in him watching him last year, Matt, you
think that might be true? Agreed? Still only at like what one or
two, I've seen him getting picked up. This might be a little old.
I had him down at one percent, but you might be creeping up
a little bit now. I think one of the things that's causing him to
get picked up too is that he's stealing more bases. I know he's been
not quite as successful as that the last couple of weeks. But he's got
twenty seven on the year already and showing some fairly significant pop at High A.
That's not bad, right, Like that's for my twenty year old at
high A. That's still young for the level. I really love the back
to ball. He is so consistent at this. Check this out across the
DSL the complex Low A, High A over the last three years, strikeout
rates of twelve point six percent, twelve point eight percent, twelve point seven
percent, twelve point four percent, and currently has a strike at rate of
twelve point three percent. And there's some fluctuation here in his swinging strike raate
and he's been a little more aggressive or less aggressive, and it showed up
in his walk rates. But the guy has a good back to ball,
funky swing notwithstanding, and seeing him show a little more power, like that's
pretty interesting to me. When you have that kind of strikeout rate floor.
He kind of reminds me of a little more athletic like Jose Miranda type,
you know what I mean, Like, yeah, good back to ball.
There's gonna be some babbit fluctuations, there's gonna be some hot streaks and cold
streaks, but the good contact skills helped give the their a floor. And
it's not elite power here, and I think the speed is maybe a little
oversold by his twenty seven bags, but he is athletic and that kind of
spraying line drive y hitter that is pretty competent at the plate. I think
there's there's a real hitter here. So and again he toned down the batwaggle,
but there's still some of it there. And I love a funky swing.
Helio Ramos, the giant, you know, very highly thought of,
then not so much, and then just gets his MLB chants and he's killing
it right. So I'm thinking about him a little bit when I'm watching like
Gyro Palmars and a guy Victor Barracoto. This last month or so, Barracoto,
especially the first month and a half two months of the season wasn't so
great. I think he started getting it together or whatever. He's three forty
nine, three seventy five, four forty six. This last month he was
popping some home runs. Kind of the maybe month before or half a month
before, but both these guys is kind of Richmond's a tough place to hit.
Man so I don't know some of these giant giant bats, if we're
just like scouting the stat line or what have you, maybe there's a little
bit of the park factor stuff going on. And Palmars is a guy that
just, you know, for the last what three four years, anytime I
watch him, he just he looks good to me, and he passes the
eyeball testing me. I think he's got you know, he's one of these
guys who just kind of surprises him so with not like hitting squaring up the
ball the greatest and like still popping some home runs. Like I think there's
some like really still some interesting juice in his bat. But he's had a
decent month with four home runs. I mean, I don't know how much
I'm into Pomerius here Rostering, but again just a backfield guy. He's at
four percent, Barracodo's at two. I still like Barracoto, but been tuned
in some Richmond and both those guys still kind of keeping me very interested.
Nice. Nice. Have you watched much of Greensboro with I was watching a
good amount when Macadoo was there. Yeah. Now I was also very like
you know, focused and picky and archiving and going back to just like mcadoo's
at bats, but i'd see some other stuff. Yeah, because a couple
of guys I did some of the same early this year as I was following
McAdoo and he was lighting it up there. But there's a couple other guys
that are performing there, and I wondered if if either had caught your eye.
Nick Sameo, Samilo Sameo, I can't remember they say that. Actually,
I can't say I've seen much, but I've seen a few at bats.
And then Jack Branigan, who I remember from the Florida Stately last year,
is like an older guy. But both I think are are hitting for
significant amounts of power. They're both a little old like they're again guys that
I didn't check, but I don't think anybody owns either of them. What's
those guys' pool percentage? Do you know? Do you have that in front
of you? So I know both of those guys, and I don't want
to I don't want to make this like a blank blanket statement. I've seen
both those guys pop a few home runs this year and they were both pulled
down that extremely short line in Greensboro. Yeah, and both are Definitely,
both sides are very very short, and especially for Writy's I think, and
these guys are both older, righty bats, yeah, and both of them
are above fifty percent on their pulled yeah percentages. I'd be a little bit
careful looking at like home run numbers with guys in Greensboro if their pool percentages
are high. Mcado is hitting the ball. You know a lot of his
home runs were center field, so it wasn't so much of that. But
but just something to think about if you're just looking at numbers. Definitely a
valid criticism of both these guys. Both of their homer to flyball rates are
pretty high, yeah, and I think some of that is the park.
But they're both watchless guys for me, as ones that I think nobody's going
to own and they're just going to like quietly keep moving up the ladder until
they turn into Jacksonwinsky or something like that, you know what I mean.
Like nobody was on Kowinsky and then he hit thirty homers in the bigs,
you know, So these are these are just watchless guys for me right now.
But if you need something to balance out of trade, or you need
somebody to backfill in a power focused league. I think both are kind of
interesting in Jack Bran again and Nick Simeo to the lip. You know,
I didn't like the Blue Jays when we were making our B side selections.
But Peyton Williams, this big, big boy from Iowa, was was kind
of on my short list. I just couldn't quite bring myself to do it.
But he's had a pretty pretty good month in High A. It's ball
on the ground a lot, but you know, he's big, he's powerful,
but he's gone three twenty one, four twenty four, four ninety four,
it's about three home runs, five doubles, walking almost as much as
he's striking out. But he's he's still just you know, on the fringe
of being interesting to me. And then then Cardo Olivur with Cedar Rapids,
who's had a great season and I know he's a catcher, but he's still
he's only twenty two years old and he's still only at one percent roster.
He had another killer month, he went three twenty nine, four seventy three,
five fifty seven month. Yeah, so he continues to to kind of
rake and be a pretty interesting High A hitter, I think. So I
know you said, you don't watch much Triple A. I've been watching a
little bit more though, because there's some guys up there that I've been watching.
The Sonoya, watching Natro before he got hurt, I was watching some
Jose Tania, you know, before he got you know, called up to
not play and then sent back down former B side selection Jose Tania. By
the way, one guy that stuck out to me is I was perusing some
leaderboards and I went back and watched a few games of is Brewer Hickland.
He seems like a B side guys. He just got called up, not
technically called up. I don't think they put him on the forty. But
they didn't call up oh really yeah, okay, And I'm not sure whether
that's like in advance of a post All Star break call up or what.
But he's twenty eight. I believe this would be his debut. But he's
having a great season. Power speed, blend, nineteen homers, twenty six
bags, thirteen doubles, four triples too, strikes out a bit, but
still is you know, walks better than average from in the International League.
I think he's kind of an interesting bat. There's power there, you know,
decent Max. He's bounced around a couple of organizations, but he's looked
pretty good. Might be a quad A type guy, Like there's a chance
he comes up and is like a thirty five percent is strikeout rate kind of
guy. But I saw enough of it that I was like, man,
I could see him getting some run honestly, and as an injury back up
in Milwaukee or hanging on somewhere else like that. He's shown enough that it
looked to me like this was a real hitter with some viability. I got
like that for free in a lot of dynasty leagues. That might be helpful
depth for your stretch rum if he gets a little bit of luck on the
playing time front. So yeah, I just wanted to give brew Hicklin a
shout, like I think he got tiny cup of coffee with Kansas City two
years ago. Yeah, he's an interesting one. I had drafted Neil mar
Achoa in a few leagues first year player around pick and I traded them away
and then I started watching him some and you know, maybe I'm wondering if
I shouldn't have done that, But I was really surprised to see that he's
only rastering in three percent of leagues. I know that there's a lot of
strikeouts, but I'm in one league that's like it's a smaller league. I
think it's fifteen teams, sixteen teams where we have like huge minor league benches.
I think there's like big, a big dream here, big upside if
you will, And this guy's like a physical, huge dude, and you
can run and you can hit for power. He's had pretty good months.
He popped five home runs, two sixty five, three eighty four fifty eight
twenty four strikeouts, but he has did walk fourteen times and stole six bags.
So I don't know. I was just kind of surprised that he is
as lightly rostered as he is. I think it, you know, maybe
it's a little simplified, but he does very much feel like, you know,
it's like a big boom or bus, like a gonna be a superstar
or nothing or a star or nothing type of guy. And I think there's
leagues where I'd be more inclined to fish and grab few of those types.
Have you watched him at all? I mean he's like a get off the
bus dude. Man's big watched much of him. I think I watched a
couple of bats. I don't know, maybe a month or so ago,
but I have not watched much about You should check him out if you get
a chance. He's interested. I was in the Rass thirty draft and I
was talking to I don't know if Matt Thompson and I were trying to make
a deal or something, but you know this off he said all He's like,
he's the guy that I'm not leaving with because it's you know, like
I said, all or nothing. One last bat that I haven't watched.
I just kind of started watching a little bit Matt, and I wanted to
ask you if you've seen any but the Orioles have this young nineteen year old
and a ball Aaron Estrada quite the last twenty two games three twenty five,
three ninety four, five point fifty four. He hit three home runs,
stole nine bases, caught twice, struck out fifteen times, walked nine times.
I think there is a little bit of buzz on him. I think
he's moved up to two percent roster now. But this was someone new to
me that kind of want to watch, and I haven't much, but I
was just curious if you had anything on him. I haven't watched him.
I think he popped up on a leaderboard I was looking at a while back
because he had been stealing bases a decent amount and everything else looked pretty interesting.
But I have not watched any of him live. Yeah, I'm gonna
have to get in to see what's going on there a little bit more he
might be. I know he's available in a few of my leagues that I
might need to show the miners here. Well, we can't leave quick rundown
of some of the guys who've been interested in without doing victory lapping, because
if there's anything that the fantasy community is about, in the Dynasty community in
particular, it's victory lapping, right, Like, that's why we do this,
That's why we talk about this. I think that's why we're in the
Dynasty discord. Is just a victory lap. I think that's the only reason.
Right, you're with you on that, right, Like, that's that's
the whole that's the whole point. Well, I think there has been no
better hitter in the minor leagues over the last call it three weeks, four
weeks. Then my Los Angeles Angels b side the Young Fire hydrant capture,
outfield extraordinary. Gustavo Campeto. Man, this man has been on one.
Have you seen what he's done over the last like three weeks. It's it's
been pretty insane, Like I don't know what are they doing. They're just
all right, he's going to be our Double A all Double A, all
star guy. Where sit there and do it, I guess, And hey,
maybe they'll promote Himenough to Triple A and he can light the PCL on
fire for a bit. But I also wonder if like they're going to trade
you know, Ward away and then they've got some more openings in the outfield.
Maybe they trade adela way too. I don't know who knows what the
Angels are doing, but Gasavo Campero. Over the last three three ish weeks,
he's got a two hundred and fifty six WRC plus in Double A.
And yeah, he's quote unquote old for the level. He's like twenty six
or something. And he's been through waivers like multiple times, I think,
or through the Rule five draft multiple times, and nobody wants him. Watched
fourteen point seven percent of struck out fourteen point seven percent of the time.
Triple slash of three seventy two five oh five, seven fifty six slug.
That's his slug. Like major league average OPS is like seven thirty this year
or something. He's got a twelve sixty OPS over that period. He's swiped
eight bags in three weeks. Like this little fire hydrant is so fun,
still Nate. Before we started recording, I haven't been keeping up with as
many of the minor league games that as as I usually do, But I
saw this heater that he's on, and I watched a few of these bats,
and he is as fun as ever, Like just huge hacks, just
lacing balls all over the yard, swiping bags and his helmet flies off,
Like this dude is so much fun, and I'm just so pumped he's he's
having such a great middle of the season. No, you were spot on
with that preseason. He is. He is one of the most fun guys
to watch in the minors, I think, and just then destroying the Southern
destroying it. It's wild. And again, like I think I said this
when we when we talked about like I don't think this is really a guy,
like I don't think he's he might make the major leagues. Is like
a utility guy or whatnot. But he's so fun and whenever he has any
success, I'm just like so pumped about it, just because he genuinely was
my favorite player last year to just like stumble upon and watch him play.
So he's still doing it. He's a perfect trash panda and hopefully, hopefully
he gets promoted up to Salt Lake and we see him in the PCL soon.
Yep. I think that's that's been the highlight of the Bats. I've
kind of been getting into this last month. Matt, You've got anybody else
or should we get to the good part of things. I mean, there's
a couple other like complex guys that I'm pretty interested in seeing them, and
obviously like we can't watch him yet, but I think Clig had highlighted a
couple of these guys a while back, and I was in again one of
those spots where you needed to add a few guys, and so I popped
Franklin Are from the Red Sox and English Urana from the Yanks. Both they
look awesome, like stat sheet looks awesome, and I think both have had
really good reports. So those are ones that like, again I haven't seen
live have been like I've popped him in a couple of leagues and I've been
pleasantly surprised about what it done so far. And then we talked about this
guy on the discord a little while back when Spokane was playing Everett. Kyle
Carros had a great series and has just kept that going. His knock for
him, like he's sort of been lauded as a plus defender and nobody was
sure if he would ever hit for enough power or just like hit enough in
general. You know, he's twenty one in hi A, Spokane is a
good place to hit, and there's a couple other decent parks in the Northwest
League to hit. But he looks really good and it's almost been like since
that Everett road trip for them, he's just kept kept it up and it's
really smoking the ball. So I just wanted to highlight him as like plays
for the Rockies. So if he keeps going and makes the bigs like,
it's going to be a good place to hit. And he plays really good
defense, which say what you will about the Rockies overall, but they've had
a pretty significant commitment to guys that can actually play defense really well, and
he seems to be in that mold to me. And so if the hitting
keeps up and he can play good d and he's playing in coors a lot
of time, he's someone that I think isn't getting enough love. But I
quite liked my looks at him. And I could keep talking about hitters because
they're the best. But I see Nate fidgeting, he's drinking his beer.
He's like, God, get us off the athletes and talk about the nerds.
So let's go talk about the nerds, the smart ballplayers, ones that
matter the most. Pitchers this last month or so, I'm just talking zero
one percent here. So again, some guys, if you've traded off some
prospects, maybe some arms, to think about filling up your rosters with and
seeing how the rest of the season goes. But we've talked kind of in
depth about several of these guys, Matt, because they were our B side
selections. But your guy, James Gonzalez has gotten up the double A.
He remains pretty dang interesting. I think it's what he's gotten, what eleven
games in now in double A, striking out twenty one percent, walking eight
and a half percent, you know, one point three to two whip.
But he's had some like, you know, he's had some big outings.
I think he's had a couple where he's gotten maybe beat up a little bit.
But you know a guy in the uppers who continues to have some success,
I'm intrigued. And he's a big boy. I love a big boy.
And Gonzalez has just been pretty consistent throughout the year. I really like
him. Yeah, And of course, like this isn't you know, you
know, roster James Gonzalez be like, all right, this is going to
be, you know, front of my rotation someday. But you know,
just Matt more and more, pitching more and more. I watch. It's
just like guys can make some big jumps, like we've talked about. And
as long as you're just like winning the war of attrition and moving up having
success, you get yourself in bigs. You pitch well a few times,
like if you can stick around and really get a chance to be a part
of the important, most important part of development, you know, going up
against big league hitters and you got a chance, and you look around.
Look at the All Star Game the other day, like there's several pitchers having
great, fantastic starting seasons that you know, weren't pegged as future number ones
or front of the rotation guys, Like that's just a super I don't I
don't like to. I don't like to frame it and get myself thinking about
arms that way. I don't know. Of course, the schemes is pretty
obvious to you that like, hey, he could be really good, you
know, he could be really good. He could be an ace, like
yeah, but there's there's more subtle aces out there that come to be after
many years of learning how to pitch in the bigs, and you don't always
need an ace. I mean, those guys are great to get, but
you know, the types of leagues that we play in, arms that are
consistent, like mid tier time sixty to one hundred and twenty starters like those
are useful and win championships if you've got you got those guys, especially if
you've used your opportunity cost well on the athletes, on the hitters, you
know, then you've already rostered the good players and you just got to backfill
with the dumb nerds that everybody else overlooks. Yeah, my Mets, beside
arm Kate Morris has been pitching much better of late. I still like him,
you know, again, just kind of a sum of all parts.
I think there's plenty of big league pitchers in there. I think his execution's
getting a little better. I like his athleticism still in high A. But
I'm wondering if, with all the new college guys that might be coming in
what have you, if he is going to get a double A chance before
the season ends. He's had some really nice outings of late. I think
he just had an FQO if I remember correctly, my guy Tyler Schweitzer.
Now, I remember when we were talking about Schweitzer Matt preseason. You asked
me if I was worried about his chances in Chicago, and I was like,
I'm not worried that talents will get in the way of his chance,
but you know, the White Socks have added quite a few arms since then.
True, Well, he's recently he's got five starts in now I think
at double A, and he's been pretty good. He can just be kind
of frustrating because you can see how good he can be at times, and
it's just you know, a lot of minor league pitchers are like this,
but a whole starter's kit he can really execute his whole arsenal well and really
pitch well, and the other times it's just kind of getting hit up too
much. But like I said, he's in Birmingham now and showing out a
bit. I'm still very much into Schweitzer and he's sitting at what he's at
one percent Still TJ McCarty has had some nice outings of late, going deeper
in games, striking at the walks have come down for him. Still like
his funkiness and his robotic demeanor on the mound. I'm curious again with some
new college guys coming around, if he's going to get a double A shot
sitting at I think about sixty innings fifty six innings or something like that on
the season so far, and I think there's been some pretty obvious improvements in
his execution as I've watched him this season. And I wanted to ask you,
Matt Now. I know, I think he got blown up the other
day. But a guy in the Mariners system that you weren't super high on,
Michael Morales, have you paid any attention to him recently? I mean,
I think he had a pretty well He's got two starts in double A
now. I think the first one was pretty good. In the second one,
I think he got blown up a little bit. I haven't watched much,
but I think he's having his best pro season so far. I haven't
watched him much this year. As you note, he was a guy that
I was mildly interested in maybe two years ago and was kind of a watchless
guy for me that hasn't really ever coalesced. So I I haven't seen either
of his double A starts, and I haven't followed him that closely because I
kind of I kind of wrote him off a bit, And that is it's
just one thing to note, like sometimes you do that, you just write
off a guy that like he's a jag for me, just a guy and
you can only focus on things so much, and it takes quite a bit
to pull you back in a guy like that. For me a while back
was Ben Joyce, where I was just like, look, he throws hard.
He made a bunch of headlines when he was at Tennessee because he hit
one hundred and five, and I watched him pitch and I was like,
he actually sucks. He doesn't strike anybody out, he has bad control,
he has one pitch I wrote him off like I had a chance to keep
him for free in a league that has like namesake prospecting kind of thing,
and I passed on it because I was like, I think this is a
reliever at best and a bad one. And now he seems to be a
pretty good reliever. But it's just an example of like a guy that I
wrote off and lost out on you in the long run, and then Matt,
I didn't look. I haven't looked at ba's top one hundred. I
don't think all season. But is it true that I hear right? Is
Gary gil Hill their top one hundred? Now? I haven't. I haven't
seen. I know they've written him up pretty glowingly a couple of times.
I think he's getting some real helium. I think that was a great call
about you. I think you got it well. I think he got his
tit slit his last outing. But I didn't bring I brought him up because
I wanted to talk about Isaiah Low, who was my what padres beside arm.
But Low has been really freaking good and racking up fqos down in a
ball. He's at thirty one point three percent strikeout, nine point six percent
walks, I kind of think just from an arsenal standpoint, just my view.
I don't have you know, metrics and numbers like I find his arsenal
as intriguing and nasty looking as Gary gil Hills, and nobody's on Low Man
he's one percent rostered. Still, I think he's actually one guy that I
have well because you know, the value on the trade table wasn't meeting how
I value him at all. It was easy to trade Gary gil Hill,
but I've managed to hang on to to Low and he might be my most
exciting Paune prospect after trade seasons over in some of my leagues. But he's
been really good and I think really slept on and again that I think some
of that is the West Coast thing. Yeah, he's been good in San
Diego. I don't know what you think about this, but I feel like
they've done a pretty good job with some pitching development overall. I think maybe
they're hitting development isn't isn't quite as good, but they've definitely developed some pictures
that and have shepherded them through the system. Maybe maybe this is dated a
little bit now. I don't know what I've gathered about the Padres pitching development
over the last few years that they're very hands off. Watching Maser a lot.
I think some of that kind of shows, I think they kind of
just and they tend to push. I think I think they push a little
bit, and I think they let guys just kind of figure it out.
And I don't think their at least this is what I was told. They're
not like Super. I don't know lab Ish and into all that as much
as some other organizations, but I do agree they do tend to pop some
pitchers in the draft. They did it again just the other day, some
amateurs I've kind of had my eye on, and they tend to take some
of those guys. So I don't know. I don't know how I totally
feel about all that. I wish that Maser maybe had a little bit more
guidance learning how to pitch. But they seem to always have some interesting arms,
I think, or at least over the last four years or so,
well, my b side arm from them. Austin Krabb, the lefty with
pretty good control. He's had a pretty bad year so far, like certainly
the first few. He's turned it on a little bit of late He's had
some good outings lately he has. He's one that I think started the year
with like extremely bad luck. I think his BABIT was high. I think
his left on basis really low, and it was a lot, and he
wasn't doing quite as well on the bas runner prevention side of things, walking
a bit more than he had in previous years. But I think he has
righted the ship. At double A. It has looked more like he did
of late training into one of his starts a couple of weeks ago, and
it looked more like I remembered from last year. I was sort of surprised
that he'd been having so much struggle. He seemed like a back end starter,
good control, good command kind of guy, and he hadn't been showing
that so far. But I think he's sort of righted the ship and is
another one to look at as like a high probability back end starter rotation.
Yes, yeah, you know, at the beginning of the year, I
was kind of wondering if Crab might be ahead a Mazer for a major league
start, But he was so bad to start the year, wasn't It wasn't
to be. I don't know if you've watched any Nick Cinecola or the Giants.
He's been up in double A for about six or seven starts, and
he's striking out thirty percent up there and walking six percent. I think historically
I've never really been a big fan of his executionist command and that sort of
thing in the brief watches. I think I watched him, you know,
several times when he was with Eugene. Maybe he was still a ball last
year. I don't know whatever it was, but he's kind of I got
my attention a little bit just the strikeout, you know, ability twenty four
year old double A. We'll see how that goes. But Giants are kind
of a fun b siding franchise because they I feel like they just give a
lot of guys a shot and they they'll rotate through and that can be a
little bit frustrating, you know, it could take a little bit longer for
a guy to get more settled in the biggs. But Sinicole, I've definitely
picked him up to back Bill in a few spots. Another Oriole that I
want to watch some more of. But Blake Money down an a ball has
put up some interesting numbers. I want to watch him some more. A
couple more I know Rockies, but Mahoney and Adams have been pretty good,
but Matt. The guy that has been most interesting to me of late is
Ryan Gusta of the Astros. Now you look at his season line, he's
twenty five in Triple A. He's got a I think five thirty two era.
Forgive me if these are dated by like an outing. Fourteen starts,
sixty nine innings, twenty one point six K percentage of ten point two,
walk percentage two eighty six average one sixty two whip a five thirty two er
right, not like sexy looking stuff right now. Of course, he's in
the PCL, so there's that. But I watch I've watched, I think
when we were doing our B side research, I was watching a little bit
of him from last year. But man, he has been on a tear
in the PCL. His last six starts thirty five point one innings, one
point two eight eer, a point nine to one whip twenty four point six
percent, k a five percent walk rate, strike percentage of sixty eight percent,
zero home runs, only five earned runs. So I have been turning
him on. You know. Of course, it's Triple A, so it's
fun. You get the savant stuff with it, and man, this guy
is just looking now. Of course it's small sample, but he is looking
like our kind of dude, man, like fucking good stuff. You're talking
lots of stuff. You're talking lots of ways of attacking hitters, executing it
well. His fast ball seems to have gotten more lively. He throws a
couple of different ones. Now, the breaking stuff looks good, the change
up looks good. He's getting like high percentage of whiffs on all of the
pitches at different outings. What his I think this was his last outing,
or at least it was the last outing of his that I watched. But
he threw he threw a four steamer, a change up, a curveball,
a cutter, and a slider right, and he got csw fifty three fifteen
forty five percent, ten whiffs on twenty swings with his four steamer, four
whiffs on ten swings with his change up. And you know, so watching
the video, like, all right, how sharp is this guy looking?
And this is this is interesting. I don't think I've ever watched the guy
and thought about this before, or at least as much, Matt, But
you see him he has misses, right, he misses his location, and
he'll miss it by i'd say a good amount, right, But man,
he's got such a high percentage of these misses just still be like great pitches
on the edges. Like Ketcher will call for a fastball down in the way
and he'll just paint one high and in right, And it's like to me,
I'm like, man, is this coincidence that so many of his misses
end up like located extremely extremely well? And I'm starting to think watching like
his last three starts, like is this guy just not listening to what his
ketcher wants? I don't know, like honestly, like binge, watch his
last three four or five starts and if you don't think about that a little
bit, because I am like, if I if I had a chance to
interview him, that'd be like the first question I'd ask him, are you
just doing what you want? But yeah, dude, and so you're talking
you know that, like WGM, I'm competing having starting pitching depth is always
nice. He's zero percent rostered. He could be close, So I'm like,
yeah, I'm gonna pick him up in case I just need an arm
or whatever. But some legit interests over here on Ryan Goosta. I think
maybe, however you want to call it bit a late bloomer or what have
you. But and it's only six starts, but very very excited to see
how the rest of his season goes. Yeah, Gus is an interesting one.
I haven't watched or don't recall watching him. I've watched a decent amount
of the PCL this year, but I don't recall him standing out. And
you look at his line and it's it's again like nothing pops in it,
you know, like you go back five years worth of minor league data and
nothing is like stand out. Oh my god, this is incredible. But
it's been pretty consistent and pretty He's held his between three five and four five
fit for most of that time. Yeah, and doing it Doing that in
the PCL is no joke. Yeah this year. So yeah, he's carved
up some pretty good lineups of late. And you know I have taken notice.
Nice, Sorry, have you watched any of Sorry it's a Dodgers pitching
prospect. So maybe I know the answer to this. But if you watch
any of Chris Campos this year, no, I don't think I have.
Campos was like a seventh rounder. I think a couple of years ago out
of the West Coast Conference, and so I'd seen him. He pitched for
Saint Mary's and I'd seen him and thought he was kind of interesting coming out
of college. Pretty low slot guy, like he's not big, you know,
he's maybe six foot if I recall correctly, but pretty low slot delivery.
And I always thought his fastball played better than like the VELO looked on
it. And I also thought that he had pretty good control, And it
seems to me over the last this year, he's like last year he kind
of struggled and was totally forgettable, and so I think I dropped him off
a couple of watch lists. But this year he's really stopped walking anybody.
I mean, he's down below five percent on the year walk rate and is
striking guys out at like twenty seven percent or so, and he's up in
Double A now and pretty much chopping that league. He's a guy that like
went from, oh, this is sort of interesting. And I don't know
if he's popping on other lists or anything, but he was one that popped
for me and I was like, oh, this is pretty interesting, and
I remember liking him. He's won Chris Campos for the Dodgers. That encourage
you to see if you like it. I actually be really curious if you
like the arsenal. I find that I have enjoyed how it's played in Tulsa.
I think I saw him, I mean against Amarillo, he had a
really solid start. But yeah, anyway, you should watch him tap a
Campos and see if anything pops for you. But he's an interesting one for
me. I'll take a look. See what's up there that think you dadger?
All right, Matt, So enough of that mudding. Let's talk a
little bit. Well, let's just do a different kind of muddon. Let's
talk about the draft real quick here. You know, for us we're not
like huge followers of amateurs, right, but I mean we're not super naive.
I think the draft now is when I start to really do my homework
and dive and get into some stuff. But I know you have. You've
been out to some University of Portland games, right, They had three pictures
draft yep, Sam start is that how you say it? Right? Brown
for the A's yep, Nick Brink seventh round to the Marlins, and then
Joey Gartrell YEP fifteenth round to the Boston Red Sax and Gartreil would have gone
higher if not for TJ. This year, he okay through I think it's
like four games is their Friday Night starter. Ninety five ninety six fastball,
but a ton of sink and run and a good slider and solid command.
Gartreil is kind of a horse like that's that's a sort of sleeper one to
put in, Like nobody's gonna draft him in an FYPD and he's not going
to be like a big K guy I don't think in the pros. But
I think his sinker is going to play and he'll be He'll be an interesting
one to follow, Like I wouldn't be surprised if, like two years from
now, we're seeing him chop up double a with like a eight k per
nine, like a sixty five percent ground ball rate or something. Okay,
they had three pretty good arms this year then THO they actually had more than
that, but those are the three that went. And for the West Coast
Conference to get three pitchers drafted, I think Gonzaga did it two years ago
with the Hughes draft. I forget the other two guys there, but they
had three pitchers drafted, but it is very rare. I'll brag on my
buddy who was their pitching coach, like he did an awesome job with that
pitching staff, like turning those guys into really really strong arms. I'll give
you the quick overview on each of them. Stir Went the highest. Not
that surprising because he's like up to ninety seven. I think he gets up
to ninety nine and bullpens and stuff, but in games it's more like ninety
four to six I think, and has a really nice slider, but the
command is okay rather than excellent. I think he got by on just having
better stuff than the West Coast Conference for the most part, less consistent than
Gartrel when he was healthy, and certainly than Brink and Nick Brink. I'm
pretty sure I didn't double check this, so I'm pretty sure he was WCC
Pitcher of the Year this year. Super well earned. Like this guy was
incredible, very very smart. Like I would talk to the scouts in the
stands and they would all be like, this guy's like wildly smart, almost
like I don't know if you know scouts like this. Sometimes they're intimidated by
that. I feel like this guy's way smarter than me, and they would
almost take that as a negative sometimes, and but Brink turns that into really
really knowing how to pitch. And he's got like four pitches that he's pretty
confident using. And I actually loved his changeup and his confidence in using it
in interesting spots, which is like one of my favorite things to watch as
a pitcher. His fastball's mid nineties. His slider is a bullet slider that
really works, but I always thought his changeup was his best secondary and he
had really good command of all three pitches. He toyed with a sweeper too,
but I think he mostly was a bullet slider guy or gyro slider guy.
And the one thing about Brink other than like the weird thing that some
of the scouts had with his like being really really smart, is he has
an odd delivery in one pretty specific way. And I actually sat there for
one of his games this year talking with like three of the other scouts there
asking them what they made of this. And Brinks strides pretty open lands with
his front foot like pretty far to the left side. He's already pretty far
to the left side of the mound, and he still like gets down the
mound pretty well. Obviously has good velo, has good control, but it's
one of those things that I couldn't really come up with a starter that had
a similar stride alignment, if you know what I mean. And I don't
know if you have any off the top of your head, mate, but
we couldn't really come up with any with this group of scouts that I was
sitting with. I wondered if that impacted his velocity just it seems like he
was like off center enough that maybe it was eking a little less velocity out
than he actually has in there. And I wondered whether the slightly atypical delivery
knocked him down a bit in the draft, because you look on performance and
he was better than like some of the Gonzaga arms that have been popped in
the second round or something. I'm sort of surprised that he fell to the
seventh I know that Miami guys liked him, so I'm not super surprised that
Miami is the one that took him. But Bring for me, is the
best of those arms. And I do wonder if a team like Miami,
who I think have especially on the pitching side, have done more of the
lab type stuff, whether they can coax even more velocity out of him,
and again whether he needs that or not, whether that might lead to injury
down the line. Like who's to say, But I think it's an interesting
landing spot for Brink, and he's one that I would say is from what
I had seen in the last maybe two years, like he's one of the
best pitching prospects that I have seen in person in college. I'm sure he's
not going to land high on any FYPD list, and we'll probably circle back
to him this offseason as we get ready for FYPD season. But for me,
Brink is like a flag plant type guy. I just think that guy's
going to have success and he's going to be a good, a GID pro
pitcher too. Fun. I had to ask you about those guys because I
figured you had some experience with them, some intel quite a bit, quite
a bit. Yeah, I don't have nearly as much, but I was
kind of not surprised and maybe kind of excited to see the Angels took Trey
Gregory Alford, Colorado prep pitcher. Big kid throws really hard, pretty electric
stuff. But I had a few high school coaches out here the same ones
that kind of tip me off on Martin when he was like a sophomore in
high school. I think that he is like the most electric arm that they've
seen out here. And you know, the Angel kind of gave him the
Cat and Dana treatment again. You know, he's not a nothing prep guy.
You maybe came on the scene a little bit later. But like Perfect
Game has him ranked, had him ranked thirty fourth, but they popped him
in the eleventh. I'm sure they'll sign him for a million dollars or whatever,
similar to what they did with Dana. And you know, the Angels
like to move fast. So I'm kind of excited to see him in pro
ball and probably pretty soon here. Yeah, that could be interesting, you
know, first year player drafts and stuff, but work and stuff. Those
sometimes those day three guys who get paid like Day one or Day two guys
don't get the attention they deserve. So yep, maybe maybe a sneaky guy
there to keep an eye on. We'll have a lot more to talk about
with the draft and whatnot. But I don't know any any pretty boy thoughts
off the off the top of your head, any reactions from you with the
pretty Boys first round or whatever. Well, I mean, I think the
best guy went first, which I know there was a lot of speculation about
the Guardians sueing something kind of creative with that. Do you think that because
you saw him this year you weren't I know you weren't impressed with the defense
very much. I wasn't impressed to the defense. You're right about that.
I saw him twice when they came up to University of Portland and Bazanna.
In one of the games, had three balls that I would say a good
second basement makes, and he didn't make any of those plays. He made
all like the normal plays. Maybe it was just like a one small sample
because in the second game that I saw him, he made all the plays
and it was fine, like there was nothing of note. But I did
think it was interesting in that one game he had two tough balls up the
middle that he didn't get to, and then one tough ball in the hole
that he got to and didn't make the throw, so it was sort of
like a long infield single. I thought that was sort of like, again,
at the very very top of the draft, you kind of pick knits,
and I just from that, I was like hard for me to say
that that's a no doubt plus second basement. I think he's more of an
average to blow second basement maybe, but boy, can that guy hit and
and I do. It's also interesting like he's five nine maybe. I know
he got listed at six foot I think in one of the things, but
he's short, He's like really really short, but he's absolutely jacked. I
think the swing decisions were pristine watching him hit one of the games, I
think he hit two home runs, a basis loaded, just smashed single up
the middle, a hit by pitch in a walk, didn't get out and
was just crushing pitches. And the other game he had a homer. Like
I think he's homered every single time I've seen him, as I saw him
two years ago too. Yeah, he's the real deal at the plate,
I think, and maybe just good enough to play second base, first second
baseman ever taken number one, and like if the defense isn't like gold gloveish,
I think that says a lot about the bat. Yeah, and I
do think that that's earned and unlike some of the SEC guys who there's somewhat
rampant speculation about are they juice in their bats? And are like are they
goosing the scouting reports or do they have live cameras going like I will tell
you some of the inside chatter that I had heard from the gossiping scouts at
these games. And bear in mind these guys don't usually scout many of the
SEC guys because they're more Northwest based scouts, that they had heard that this
was actually a concern for some of these top of the like first half of
the first round bats at the big SEC programs, that they were worried that
some of this stuff, some of this incredible performance from some of those top
guys might have been a little bit of a mirage and that it was giving
some of these guys like half grade minuses to their internal evaluations. I thought
that was interesting, Like it also could have been like you know, scouts
loved the bullshit and blow up a rumor, But I thought that was interesting.
And nobody that I have heard has said anything to that effect about Oregon
State or Bizano. So so yeah, maybe that was another just like small
separators from those top kind of five or so guys at the top of the
draft. Ye, I don't know, I won't I just I mean hack
me. I'm super curious to see how some of the power plays out for
some of these bets when they get in the pro ball here because it's interesting.
I'm a little bit wondering slash skeptical of some of this, and I
mean, just again initial I got I want to watch a lot of these
guys and get more familiar. But I thought Weatherholt to Saint Louis was pretty
interesting. You know, that's probably a type that I'd feel pretty good about
drafting in a especially a larger league. And for the record, for me,
like I know, I've seen some some like mildly negative reports about Jock,
but I think Jock for me was the guy that I want to bet
on in the like FYPD sense, he showed interesting improvement in the things that
he was bad at right, Like he was like chasing too much and it
was leading to a slightly elevated strikeout rate. Even if you like knock four
miles an hour off his reported top end exit Bilos, it's still elite power
there. And maybe somebody that isn't Florida can teach him how to actually pitch,
which we have seen before, right, Like we've seen college pitchers come
out of Florida with talent and no idea where the ball's going terrible pitch shapes,
bad sequencing, and it gets better. If Kansas City wants to try
him two ways, maybe he can do it. I'm not saying he's Otani
on either side of the ball, but if I'm gonna bet in a dynasty
league and I have it in an early FYPD pick, He's probably my number
one, like just on the upside chance. Bazana would be two for me,
just like a little bit safer. But Jock, I just think that
that guy, there's a world in which the contact and chase games that he
made this year at the plate play the power is real, Like he's not
juicing the bat and not cheating the pitches, and he's a closer, like
a legit ninety nine mile an hour lefty closer coming out of the pen.
And I think that's a really fun and be pretty valuable in a dynasty context.
So anyway, that's that's of the pretty boys. I think that's like
the guy that I was most impressed with what his improvements looked like. Yeah,
Bizana for floor and Jock for sealing. For me, I liked seeing
Orlando get picked well, I mean by Miami whatever, but uh, sixteen
after I don't know, for whatever reason it was being said, he like
kind of fell off this summer to some extent or whatever. But you know
me, I love the no stride stuff, and yeah, yeah, that
kid, I know it's a little funky, a little different, but that
kid can hit the ball really hard with no stride and that that intrigues me
quite a bit. And then I it was kind of interesting that the Orioles
went back to North Carolina and got Honeycut after they took after they took Horrorvath
in the second round last year. Right, but I pay a little bit
attention to North Carolina, watched some Honeycut and went to went to an order
that kind of seems to know what they're doing with hitters. I think that's
an interesting one for them. I mean, he's tooled out the wazoo and
I think is a really good defender too, which real teams care about like
watching him, like he doesn't get cheated in his hacks, but it also
means he misses the ball a lot. I mean Horrorvath was kind of like
that too, right, yeah, bit a bit, Yeah, Yeah,
he definitely had some some contact concerns, but his like played approach to me
was always a little bit better, Like even in college, like he was
like two guys are like they're they're putting their ace wing out there a lot.
Yeah yeah, yeah. But with Horrorvath, it was like he would
let fringe pitches go and walk a lot. Because of that and Honeycutt,
I think is a little less selective. What did you think about the Mariners
pick the ambidextrious guy. Yeah, yeah, I don't. I mean,
I don't know. I haven't I haven't really watched some pits, so I
don't know, but you know, I played against Patti, like is a
gimmicky I don't know. Yeah, well, you know I played against Pat
Vendetti, who was the oh really switch pitcher. Yeah, he's like the
original, wasn't he. Yep. It was a trip playing against it.
It was weird, like I got to hit it against him a couple of
times obviously as alrighty and like you' angelo sint g. Is that how you
say his last name? I think so, I think I think it's like
that. I think it's something like a sint g as a lefty. Vendetti
threw a lot slower. He was much more like a funky like side arm
lefty with the big sweepy slider as a lefty, and that as a righty,
he was more like a Johnny right hander like eighty eight to ninety two,
with a like more north south slider. And so mostly when when we
were doing our platoon against him, I got to face Vendetti because like he
was sort of murder on lefties like that and was just kind of an okay
college pitchers a righty. But Cincy, I think it's like ceiling well above
n Ditty and Betti made the bigs, so there's something interesting there, and
the Murners have done a decent job developing pitching. So I thought it was
a fun pick. I'm interested. I can't wait to start seeing some of
these guys in full season ball. It'll be fun see where's where's this year's
mcadoo's and baldwins and stuff like that. I love Day three. Day three
is my favorite. I'll spend more time probably digging on Day three guys.
And yes, we'll do a lot more digging on this and find some some
more sleepers that we like for sure. Yeah, man, it's good to
see you again, my friend, you too. Apologies. I know,
trying to make this an every week thing, but you know, life happens,
and things happen, and vacations happen, and tennis happens happens. We're
in the we're in the playoffs now, Nate. Yeah, it's playoff time
and well not quite yet in tennis. I mean, oh, tennis,
and tennis playoffs start next week. We hide for first, but we lost
on the tiebreaker, so we're the second seed. Well, best of luck,
my friend. I think how much you got anything else you want to
say? I think we'll wrap up episode thirty seven of the Prospect B Side
podcast. Here, wrap it up, my friend. All right, well,
we'll let your cago farmer take us out. Be well, we'll talk
to you next time. I wait five miles an hour. Riding to his
head, he hop him down first with the lumpbone ass face, and on
the very next pitch he up and stole second face with gretest speed. He
wasn't born, he had the bad Yes, UNI born