Not five miles an hour riding too his head. He hopping down first with
the lump bonius face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole
second phase with gretest be he wasn't born, he had yes uniform. Welcome
to episode fourteen of The Prospect. Besides podcast, I Am Nate Handy joined
once again as always the star of the show. Nat aka the Rookie aka
grew Nats in my minions, We're coming for you, Nate. How was
your holiday? My man who's good? Got a chance to see some family.
We took the cross country flight for us, which was an ordeal,
but made it and ended up having a delightful week full of too much food
and just enough family to keep it keep it interesting right on fantastic. My
highlight was Thanksgiving afternoon. You know, my life, I basically basically lived
in sweatpants and scrub pants. So I'll bust out some dress slacks every once
in a while, and I did, so they didn't fit me, by
the way. You know. I had some like I'm like, oh,
what's in the pocket here? And I had like a washed packet gum.
So that was a mess. So I clean that out of the pocket.
I feel my back pocket and what do you know, there's like three hundred
and sixty seven bucks in that back pocket. What's awesome. Yeah, man,
that made that made my day. Yeah, that was probably my highlight.
That and just overeating. That's phenomenal, I think, you know,
it was great seeing my family. That was a lot of fun. We
went to visit my family for the holidays and went as well as it could
could have gone. But I was really jonesing to play tennis. It had
been a week and I hadn't played, you know, real tennis. I'd
gone out a couple of times just to hit around and practice serving or whatever.
But I was like jonesing, and I was like counting down the data.
So I was coming home and like lining up, you know, going
to play this day and this day and this day and get back into it.
But then I met somebody out there who he was like, ah,
yeah, I'm free Tuesday morning. You want to hit And it was so
fun. We got to play on a clay court and it was really really
nice resort in my family's hometown and it was awesome. So like that was
actually low key the highlight of the trip, other than seeing family of course.
Yeah, getting to sneak in some tennis and nice play court which I
never get to play on. That was so fun. Yeah, what was
that like, sliding around a bunch and stuff. Yeah, slots of sliding
around the ball just changes so differently. You know, we did this a
little bit in baseball because we would play at place like Arizona and Arizona State
which have very very hard desert dirt ground, you know, and real real
grass and the ball. I don't know if everybody knows this, but when
the ball comes to the outfield, the ball snakes if you're in if it's
in grass, and the grass has been mode in different directions, like if
they do a pattern out there. And when I first I think we played
Arizona State at Arizona State my freshman year and I'm out there during warmups,
during infield outfield warmups, and I just completely whiffed on the ball to throw
home because the ball was snaking so much and I had never seen that before,
and so I was just rattled the whole rest of the time out there
because like at our field was just only turf and the ball just bounces the
same every time, and so it reminded me of that playing tennis on clay,
that it's so different a surface than playing on hardcourt. And I thought
about that, like, Oh, it's like kind of the difference between going
from our very true bouncy field turf to real grass, where like it hits
the dirt and it's concrete and then it hits the grass and its snaking all
over the place. It was crazy. Well, so, if you haven't
been listening along, Matt and I are getting really really dirty, really muddy,
really grimy. And we have watched video trying to find some prospects that
may be worth paying attention to, maybe worth picking up in hopes of perhaps
finding a gem, something that will be useful to our major league dynasty clubs
or useful on the trade table. We have been going division by division,
and today we are going to be talking about the National League Central. Some
of the players we did like a little draft the very first episode of this
little process, and we did take some n All Central players. But let's
do it, Matt, what team do you want to talk about first?
Well, let's go talk about that best team in Chicago, the Cubs.
Let's start with them first. Oh, this will be simple, the Cubs
suck. They are a bunch of losers. You don't need to roster any
other players. All right, what are we doing next? They've got a
couple of guys that are worth talking about. Although I did find that the
Cubs and one other team in the Central I found a little tougher to be
side. But we've got a couple little nuggets in here. When I was
a kid growing up in Chicago, my dad took me to this, like
over the weekend baseball camp. Right, it was called the Billy Williams whatever
hitting camp or something, right, And not that I ever would have been
a good hitter, but I blame that camp for ruining me, or ruining
what could have been. They taught us to literally swing down at the ball,
to swing down at the ball because ground balls and line drives are better
than popping it up. Right. I had a lot of coaches tell me
the same thing. Yeah. So, watching the Cubs minor leagues for the
last couple of seasons, particularly in the lower miners, it is like and
and I bring up that story because I can't, I can't help not think
about it. I mean, it was ran by Cubs coaches at that time.
This is a long time ago, so I don't know if anyone is
still affiliated with the organization, But man, these guys hit so many ground
balls ground Ball Factory, at least a lot of the guys that I was
digging on there, they signed these international guys who hit a lot of ground
balls. So I imagine, you know what, you sign a lot of
those guys when they're well like fourteen fifteen years older contract they're going to so
I mean a lot of their development has got to be influenced by the Cubs.
And then on top of that, I also noticed that they like to
draft some Puerto Rican preps in later rounds that also like to hit a lot
of ground balls. So I don't know, did you notice that as well,
Matt. I didn't notice the ground ball tendencies as much, although a
lot of the guys that I washed for on the hitter side for the Cubs
were more of that line line, drive oriented set. So I do see.
I do see that a bit, and I think might be a product
of like you said, where they're acquiring talent and maybe a bit about the
historic approach to minor league development. Perhaps, Yeah, I don't know,
I don't know. If that's like how they how they're teaching it, or
how they want them. I don't know a little bit of B side history
here. I have to say which which is very fitting. The Cubs may
be the most frustrating organization for me. I will not say that I have
totally quit him either, but jo Hendrick Pinango has been a favorite of mine
for a few years now. The question who's someone who might end up a
top one hundred prospect this year? Like he was kind of one of my
go tos for that question, and like we were talking about very very good
contact skills and strikeout kind of sprays the ball over the place. But the
big knack was, well, you know, is he ever going to hit
any home runs? Be cause he not good defensively, He's like left field
are at best. Probably he's not very big either. But then twenty twenty
two, like the first half I felt like it was happening. He started
hitting home runs, He was on par with any other left hand hitter at
High A that season, producing the likes of Sadderstrom that year, and then
just completely fell off a cliff. I think it was injury related. I
was excited this year and he was awful. He was still awful until I
don't know, maybe he turned it around and got respectable the last third of
the season. So I don't know what's going on there, Matt. Maybe
it was just a bad call on my part, maybe too much wishful thinking.
But I still wonder if it's just been an injury, like a risk
thing with him. So I don't know. We'll see. So he has
kind of been my Cubs bat B side for a couple of years. I
think, well, I guess, uh, well with BJ Murray last year,
that turned out okay. He went to the futures game and got a
little bit more popular. I don't know what his roster rate is at the
moment. He turned into a pretty solid year, and I think his roster
rate was above where we generally liked to sit because you know, I liked
what he did this year. But you know, I don't have any like
super huge hopes or expectations. But I think he's a corner infielder who could
get some major league run yeah, and has some solid skills all around.
You know, I thought that was a nice pick. And to go back
to Penango, you sold me on him last year. I think you wrote
him up, maybe as a follow up to the previous years b sides,
and I was like, yeah, I'd been watching him and he had started
the year really well, and so I went to ad him, and that
day my main rifle in one of my long dynasty leagues had also added him.
So he's been on my shitless since because I was like, I was
gonna add him, and then I got scooped and then he wasn't very good
the rest of the year. So maybe he did you have a favor.
It's just interesting to me that I will just absolutely rake and then just just
struggle at the same level as hard as he struggled. So I don't know,
maybe something fishy there, maybe maybe just not gonna happen. Last season
started doing pictures and I selected Tyler Schlaefer, who did not pitch at all
this season because of Tommy John he was a part of. It was a
very good twenty twenty two Myrtle Beach rotation included Luke Little Porter, Hodge,
Louis Devers, and Richard Gallardo. Watching that rotation a decent amount kind of
felt like Schlaefer was kind of on par with with all of those guys,
like Devers, and Hodge felt a lot of the production was from a secondary
in his case of changeup that was really just kind of too good for the
level. And I have been sort of interested in quite a few Cubs pitchers
in the lowers the last couple of years, and I think for maybe all
of them, a good amount of them, I feel like the game,
the success at a ball maybe even high a basically off of having like a
really good secondary, and they've kind of just fizzled out some or got traded
away, or at least I have not kept up the same level of interest
in them as they've moved up. With Schlafler, I don't have any like
super big expectations or excitement, but his fastball did have a little heat,
little movement, and I felt like he was kind of maybe starting to spin
it better. We'll see where Schlaefer ends up in twenty twenty four and how
and how he fares. But I've got a new B side pitcher here that
caught my eye, and that's a twenty twenty two undrafted free agent out of
Yale by the name of Grant Kip. Have you watched any Kip Matt.
I did watch a little bit of Kip Okay, now again, I'm gonna
tempt This is just kind of a watchless guy for me. I ain't going
out and getting any shares as Kip anytime soon. But he struck me.
You know, he's a big righty six two hundred and twenty pounds. They
have him listed ass pretty smooth and athletic actions. He's got the full fastball,
slider, changed curveball kit that he can really mix and execute pretty dang
good at times. The velocity on the fastball, and I wonder about the
quality of it to the shape might be the big limitter here for Pip.
I think the fastball probably only gets up to about ninety one, maybe ninety
two. But you know, it's hard. It's hard for me to tell
my couch. He did get some whiffs with it, but I wonder that's
just kind of more level stuff. And I don't know if that play is
quite like that as he moves along, but he does remind me a bit
of a few pictures. I was actually just chatting about last night Bryce Jarvis
and Darius Vines and that these guys over the last couple of years have legit
pitched some of the prettiest innings, prettiest outings, prettiest at bats I've seen
in the minor leagues. Now, those guys have not proven to be consistent
with that, but the arsenal, you know, Kip's arsenal probably has less
teeth than those guys, but do think he is more consistent with these stretches
of just like really pretty execution. He pitches fairly aggressively and he efficiently,
which you know, might explain the rougher numbers as he got promoted to HIA
for five starts. You know, that stuff might not play in the zone
as aggressively as well against the lower level hitter. But I wonder if Kit
hesit in them to get to that sort of execution, that the whole package
can play well, and if you might just have a shot to go from
undrafted free agent to a major league starter. I like that. I think
he's an interesting follow, like you said, not somebody that wowed me when
I got to look at him, but enough interesting stuff there that it'll be
interesting to see how he fares as he rises up the ranks a little bit,
you know, like I said, just some pretty just landing, some
you know, mixing the whole repertoire fairly well and just stretches where he's just
landing this stuff just like right on the edges, you know, Gallon esque
sort of sort of prettiness. His numbers on the air well, I don't
think there was anything super eye popping in either direction. One point three four
whip over like what he got in ninety eight ninety nine innings. Oh,
he struck out nine point five eight per nine, walked three point one nine.
Now, I know Myrtle Beach is supposed to be a good place for
pitchers to hit, so keep that in mind. And like I said,
there's there's been a lot of guys at Myrtle Beach who kind of caught my
interests and then it didn't last. Yeah, I don't know Grant Kimp,
big, tall, righty, not super powerful, but he might be able
to play the whole kitchen sink well and to get good hitters out. You're
getting pretty loose with your Gallon comps. I think this is the third guy
I've seen you talk about today who might be Gallon. So let's uh,
let's keep let's keep it. Well. I don't like the true major league
ace's names out of your mouth a little bit. That's a that's a reason
for kip anyway. Yeah, I don't mean, I don't just you know
what I'm saying. Well, guys are executing on the edges consistently at a
high clip for or at least stretches. I like to call that the George
Kirby. But you know your mileage might vary. You know, that's okay,
I can, I can, I can be flexible there. Well,
I'm going to go another sort of unherlded direction and go with Brodie McCullough.
Did you watch any McCullough. Don't think so. If I did, I
didn't. If I did, I didn't keep them on my little list here.
Yeah, McCullough is someone I had pretty serious consideration for our pitcher draft.
He was one of my just missed so I know him, kind of
in on him. Yeah, a D two draftee. He only pitched one
year in college and then got drafted in twenty twenty two in the tenth round.
You know, one hundred grand signing bonus dominated for D two wing.
Gate College didn't know when Gate College was a thing, but Bertie McCullough did,
and struck out almost sixteen per nine as a starter there really was impressive.
Barely pitched after he got drafted last year, you know that makes sense,
a grand total of seven innings last year, but the k's seemed to
still be there. And then across Myrtle Beach a ball and south bend put
up a really strong overall line thirty point eight percent strikeout rate, eight point
eight percent walk rate, both comfortably above average. He runs it up there
with four plus pitches and probably plus in the sense of like they're better than
most of the other minor leaguers that we see. My notes on him are
all of his pitches looked good, which might mean for our purposes that he
has three or four major league average kind of pitches, and that that combined
is as sort of a sum of its parts. Might play up a little
bit. He did struggle a little more at high a South Bend than he
did at Myrtle Beach, As you mentioned, Myrtle Beach a little bit better
place to pitch. Overall, the numbers were interesting, and then watching him,
I kind of don't really get people aren't on him. You know,
he's six' four, runs it up to ninety six, ninety seven I
think I caught one or two ninety seven's, but mostly in the ninety two
to five range on the fastball. But it looks like great extension. I
mean, just watching him his I don't have the stat cast data on this,
but to my eye, it looked like he got all of that six
foot four frame down the mound. He's got kind of a longer armstroke,
so maybe that plays into the visual evaluation of it too, but with that
extension, it looked like even at ninety two, he was getting a ton
of whiffs on his fastball. His main breakers are a slider in the eighty
three to eighty five range and then a changeup that's also in the eighty three
to eight or five range, but they just go in opposite directions. I
think that helps them both play up with that sort of pitch tunneling. So
I really want to see this guy's heat map, you know, from a
stat cast view, because to me, what it looks like is he's getting
plus extension down the mound, and the four seam fastball looks very straight,
kind of true backspin run, and then his two off speeds break from that
same point in opposite directions, and I think that it helps all three of
the pitches play up. My looks at him too, the command was solid,
you know, limited walks a decent amount. But I also thought he
pitched to the zone quite well. If it was his slider when he missed,
it was missing off the plate in a place that wasn't going to hurt
him. Change up the other side of the plate where it wasn't going to
hurt him, and he was trying to locate that fastball up pretty well.
So I actually quite liked him. You know. Again, my hesitation and
why I bumped him down my prioritization list when we did our picture draft was
just that the walks ticked up and the cas ticked down at high in his
first taste. And I expect he'll start there in South Bend again next year.
But if we see him next year and the stuff starts to play and
the execution is still there, he could be a quick riser. I really
did like what I saw, and for someone that just has no heat,
I mean, is not ranked on ba's thirty Chris Clegg zero, no rank
for him. You know, it's like these guys are going deep and he's
not being talked about. And I actually really liked him as an arm.
What was his walk grade on the season, eight point eight percent. That's
not the worst I've ever seen, No, And it was plus at Myrtle
Beach three per nine, so, you know, not great, but definitely
acceptable. And then at South Bend it was three and a half, so,
you know, still in spitting distance of being good. It's just the
strikeouts ticked down a little bit. I think he had some batted ball luck
maybe you know, left on base and batted ball luck. We're okay,
So had a solid year and I'm really interested to see how he starts out
next year because the stuff, to mim, I looked actually good. And
you know, me, I'm not really the biggest stuffest out there, but
this guy, for someone that has very little helium touching ninety seven getting whiffs
on the heater, I was like, this might be a real arm.
Yeah, that sounds like I'm actually kind of mad that got by me.
Huh, I'm gonna have to turn on some video. There was the roster
percentage, you know or what was it September? Okay, good one there,
rook. Wait and he was tall too, man, that's six four
strapping line, you know, you were making fun of me, But that's
really just on the hitter side. All my pictures are like big beefy boys.
So I don't know, I don't know if there if there's any other
pictures you wanted to mention. I kind of watched a little bit of Luis
Ruhano and Cohen Moreno, but man, the walks, it's just it's just
too much. It's too much for me to care too much about them down
in a ball walking everybody. Yeah, similar, still deal with me.
The other couple of guys that I looked at, just the walks were out
of control and supposedly supposed to be on the cutting edge of helping coach command
these days. So yeah, I don't right. I mean, you look
at you, look at Luke, little Ben Brown, Jackson Ferris, like
every one of those guys has a walk problem. And I'm kind of concerned
about all of those sort of like higher profile arms in the CUB system.
You know. The only one that seems to have been better than I thought
they were going to be is Horton. And Horton, now, you know,
kind of widely viewed as a top five or ten pitching prospect, and
I was not on him coming out of college. I thought he was a
little bit overhyped, but he's showed me that I didn't know what I was
talking about at all. He's pretty good. Yeah, well, we'll see,
we'll see. The only other guy that I wanted to just mention is
Marino Santi another a ball pitcher in Myrtle Beach who you probably came across him
a little bit. Again, the walks are too much. He's a lefty,
and he just has like a wild amount of movement on his slider.
So while I don't think he's got the command to stick in the rotation,
he's someone that I think is pretty high probability big leaguer, just like based
on that slider alone, Like he's gonna be a lefty guy in the bigs
if he can even shave like two percent off of his walks, like they're
that slider was nasty. Yeah, it is, it is. I did
watch a little of him. All right, let's move on to the hitters,
huh, I had. I don't know if this is really cheating,
and I haven't done this yet, You've probably done it a bazillion times,
but I'm gonna creep up that I'm kidding about the bazilion times, but I'm
creeping up to three percent raster percentage when I pulled it in September because I
just didn't really like a lot here. I watched some like ezekiel' Plagan,
Lanel Espinoza, Luis Vasquez, the young Mexican infielder Ravage Garcia, and all
those guys are just again it's just the ground ball, just beating everything into
the ground and little I'm gonna go with Pedro Ramirez with a teenager Myrtle Beach
second base, third base. Ramirez, nineteen year old Venezuelan signs in twenty
twenty one, had a pretty nice season, particularly down the stretch. From
July twenty fifth to September fifteen, one hundred and seventy six played appearances.
He hit three thirty six four forty nine slugged five twenty five with six home
runs sole seven bases during that span. Now, Ramirez, I it's probably
definitely more of a you know, contact guy than a slugger's. He's not
very big. I don't know where they have him listed at like five nine,
I think, but I did see him hit a pretty impressive opposite field
home run from the left side, maybe some power potential. I really liked
the look of him just at the plate. Mechanically, he's pretty still and
calm, especially from the left side. I didn't watch a whole ton of
him from the right side. Didn't strike out very much seventeen percent, he
walked twelve percent of the time. On the season, he hit two sixty
six slugged four h four. Like I said, I think he was getting
to a little bit more pop down the stretch. Defensively, I can't say
I really know too much second base, third base at nineteen years old.
I don't know what you want to make of that as far as sticking up
the middle. But like I said, as far as all my choices,
went about to Pedro Ramirez the most and cheated a little bit to get him
on here. No, I think this is a good pick. He was
my runner up, and I agree with everything you said. I think he's
got a solid hit tool. I like his swings both of the left side,
and I got a few of the right side too, and I thought
that it is pretty similar. Just still head, good hands, not a
lot of power here, but there's quite a lot in common for me with
a guy like James Treantos, who's way more well regarded, but their I
think profile as pretty similar guys. You know, Tiantos probably strikes out even
less, but other than that, like they both sort of have limited power,
some speed, somewhat questionable defensive home I did get a couple of so
I watched quite a few of the Cubs pitchers trying to find someone good,
and Pedro Ramirez seemed like a second base only to me, just seemed like
the arm wasn't quite there and they weren't playing him at the stop. And
you know, I think he's probably a two b only guy, but I
liked him a lot. I think he's a good hitter. Oh no,
yeah, so like he too. His ground ball rate was fifty one percent,
not the greatest, but I watched him much more during that hotter streak
the second half of the season. I don't know, he didn't strike me
as as a guy who wasn't hitting the ball in the air, at least
not like some of some of his teammates and other guys. I was watching
a line line drive rate of twenty two percent, not too bad. Pedro
Ramirez felt significantly more interesting than than the other options. Yeah, No,
he's got a good hit tool, and he'd take an infielder with a solid
hit tool and dream on a little bit more. Now, I like that
pick, but another small Venezuelan that I just want to see hit the ball
in the air more like, Hey, we're living this again. Yeah,
and while you're taking a five foot eight, tiny little minion, I'm going
for a behemoth, six foot slugger shortstop Luis Vasquez. Oh what is happening.
We're going to call you grue after this. But now I'm taking Luis
Vasquez here again. I I a lot of what you said. I think
the top end of the CUB system is remains really solid, but I think
we're going to see all of them graduate in the next year and a lot
of what remains not great b side hunting grounds on the hitter side. Basquez,
he does seem like he could stick it short. That's a problem when
you've got Dancy Swanson signed for another half decade or whatever it is. But
he really I think can pick it. I saw some really nice plays,
and I think he's got good reviews from other sources about his defense this year.
While he does have a bit of the ground ball problem that you've noted
from other Cubs hitters. He he had a really interesting line at Double A,
which was about half of his year, where he struck out a little
more and walked a little bit less, typically things I don't like very much,
but his batted ball profile was kind of transformed, and he was hitting
the ball in the air. He was pulling those balls in the air,
and he hit eleven homers in half a season, so that's like a twenty
to twenty five homer pace at the big league level, and it seemed real
like it didn't seem like he was overperforming anything. He just like started pulling
the fly balls and was being a little more aggressive on that. And I
liked that he regressed a little bit to form at Triple A when he spent
the second half of the year there, but still put up nine homers and
stole six bags and reduced his strikeout rate to twenty percent, which is like
that's solid, especially walking fourteen percent of the time. But he was hitting
the ball on the ground a little bit more and still pulling his fly balls.
I think that's how he got to his nine home without having a real
plus hit tool or plus power but I don't know. He's a guy,
you know, low draft pick that has kicked around their minors for she'sh seven
years now and seems like a high probability big leaguer, probably not an impact
one, but just with the high probability of playing defensive at the top level
and what seemed like some interesting traits, I went with Luis Fasquez. Yeah,
I think that's I think that's solid. I'm not super excited about it,
you know, but he's he's okay. Yeah, Well, being super
excited about anything. Cubs isn't really a thing. My second team when I
was a young lad, the Nasty Boys, Barry Larka and Eric Davis.
God, I love those teams. Cincinnati Reds can't say that it's been the
most successful B side hunting ground. I know, you and I probably my
fault. We're getting a little interest. And Alex McGarry last year, their
twenty twenty two Minor league hitter of the Year, just didn't really have a
very good season. Started off in Triple A and was struggle bus. I
went back down to Double A and got it back together. But I'm not
super excited about Alex McGary's fantasy upside here, but we did have a good
success in Julian agu Are with our pitching selection. I think probably out of
all of all the pitching selections from last year, I think he's the most
exciting of the bunch. Yeah. He really backed up last year with Estellar
this year and a Yar is awesome. Yeah, so our big b side
pitching success story jumped from like zero percent to four percent. Woop woop,
yep. I'm not going to get into the bat that I picked. I
picked Ethan O'Donnell, who we talked about during the hitter draft episode, and
maybe I'll talk about him a little bit more during our first year player draft
episode. But in part in why I went with the first year of players
because I honestly didn't have any Reds bats that I was really super excited about.
I know, trout Wine is a bit interesting and he had I think
a pretty decent Arizona Fall League, but overall, I just kind of thought
o'donnald's upside was a little bit more exciting. So, so what do you
got bat wise for US man? Well, join me in military service here,
because I'm picking Army Zone Jacob. I don't even know how to pronounce
his last name be her two beasts. I know I didn't check out preference
for this. I feel like I've heard it a few ways, all right,
Jacob Hurdabas he was a twenty nineteen draftee. Herd Obies is one of
these like guys who is so weird. You watch him hit and you're like,
that can't be a major league or a minor league professional hitter. It's
a super stiff swing that seems like he's following that advice that you got for
from those Cubs instructors all those years ago, where he's really chopping down on
the ball. Doesn't look like an athlete really, you know, he's sort
of call him, you know, six foot one eighty, but he looks
kind of doey. I'd say, I don't know if that's a fair call,
but he makes it work. Man. I just think that because he's
got no power and this swing is so janky, that everybody has sort of
overlooked what he does really, really well, and that is control the strike
zone. He doesn't swing at balls. He'll swing it strikes, but he'll
foul him off and hit line drives. He sprays all over the yard,
so unlike a lot of guys that I like who are elevate and celebrate,
pull a ball in the air and hit a homer, he's almost the exact
opposite of it. And at times his swing has reminded me a little bit
of Jose Ramirez. Now obviously the super different players in a lot of ways,
but there's something about the way that he swings that reminds me of that
high con contact spray approach that I think of when I think of Jose Ramirez.
And he just turned in one of the best hitting lines in the minor
leagues last year, and for someone that was what one percent one percent owned
last year, I was like, this is an actual find. I think
he had a really good AFL too. Yeah, yeah, I think he
was all right. But the guy made it up to Triple A and in
his third professional season, splitting time most of the season at Double A and
then the end of the year the last thirty six games at Triple A.
But he on the year had check out this line three point thirty four seventy
nine for eighty two was a triple slotch and that's all at Double A and
Triple A. And it's not like he's playing in the PCL for that time.
This is the International League, so it's like not great hitting environments,
but he stole forty five bags. So definitely someone that's going to play up
the even more in categories or a roto league. But that line is pretty
special. Walk seventeen percent of the time and only struck out thirteen point eight
percent of the time, good for a one sixty three WRC plus on the
year and over four hundred and fifty five played appearances. That's tough to fake.
At double A like that is truly one of the best lines in the
minor leagues last year and one percent ownership. So because he's goofy looking,
his swing doesn't look pretty and he doesn't hit homers, I think he's just
so underrated. But this seems like a guy that they're gonna give run to
in the outfield next year or trade him to somebody who has an opening and
see if they have can can get something out of him. But Steamer agrees
with me. Projects ninety eight WRC plus again for a one percent ownership.
Guy who was a senior draft out of Army three years ago twenty twenty one
draft like that is almost unheard of. I would say, like he was
also a just missed for my hitters. I think I ended up coin flipping
between him and Krim at the end of the draft, and in retrospect,
after Steamer's projections came out, I was like, fuck, I should have
just gotten because his projection was so good, and but it was because my
looks at him. I got fooled, kind of like everybody else, because
he just doesn't look like anything that anybody else does, you know. So
I'm kind of on it again. He's one that I'm excited about because it's
just so unorthodox and I love it when those kinds of guys perform and produce.
So, yeah, Jacob heard a bees. I think he's He's something.
I wish I would have been a little bit more vocal about this,
but I had a feeling that's where you were going to go, and I
was I did telegraphed this one, did you Maybe maybe you said something at
some point. I don't know, but that's why I didn't mention him as
some other guys I looked at. But I am one guilty of seeing him
seeing he heard a beast, little hurt let's call him the little hurt little
Hurt. I like it. I've seen him on video first before I saw
any of his numbers, and I was like, I don't know what this
is. This is this looks weird and I didn't even know that he that
he didn't hit home runs, but I kind of just rote him off just
from that. I was like, this is too goofy for me. Then
when he started doing some things in the AFO, I went back and then
looked at the numbers, and this was after we had even drafted and stuff,
and I was like, oh, this is kind of interesting. So
I like that you went here, kudos. I think it's a good call.
One hundred and sixty some WRC plus and and a lot of that was
on the back of a pretty high babeb you know, his triple A babbitb
was well over four hundred. But I still like the twenty one percent walk
rate, ten percent Kate Raid at triple A, Like, yeah, knock
him down one hundred points of babbit and that's still a pretty interesting line.
So yeah, what do they got into it? What do they have them?
Have him listed at size west six foot This is like a giant for
you, just because he's got such a busted ass swing that there everybody else
ignored him. You have to find the tiny guys to find any edge.
But now heard a beast. I'm telling you, I think that this is
a guy who's a major league regular and will play a lot for somebody soon,
you know. So that's the kind of guy. Like one percent.
Would not be surprised if this is like ten percent next year, maybe more.
Yeah. I really came down to two arms here, and that was
Jared Lyons and Hunter Parks. This is very much not my personal style.
Twenty two year old right hand pitcher spent the whole season in hya. He
was a twenty twenty one eighth round pick out of Junior College. I believe
South Carolina well eighty innings this year. No, yes, I think eighty
innings this year in twenty two starts. I first started catching him tuning in
to ag you are. They were together for most of the season. But
Parks, man, this is such a tease and such a frustrating profile because
he is nasty. His whole arsenal just looks ridiculous. But he's wild man.
He walks, he hits guys, he throws, and it's usually armside
where everything just can get away. So him hit a few guys and get
all, you know, have a little hold me back fests. On a
few occasions he was six point seven eight walks per nine And I get that
is why I have not watched any of him. Yeah, and I get,
and I get how that can just be a non starter, right,
guys like this, I'm gonna cap but it can how good it can ever
get. But there are stretches where like I'm like, okay, all right,
man, you got this. And then for a couple of innings he
will completely dominate for a few innings at a time. Now I don't know.
Then he comes out next time and everything's on and off again. But
it's interesting because the motion, the whole delivery and everything. And I'm no
expert in this, but it doesn't feel like it should be that hard to
have better command. And I looked back at some older film with him,
and I think the Reds have shortened up his arm action some perhaps to help
with all of this. His start on August fourth, he struck out six
of his last seven hitters. And this is the thing with him, like
he strikes out a lot of guys, looking I don't know. It kind
of seems like with all of his offerings, but particularly the change up,
like like guys just don't have a chance, they're just done. And I
don't know, Matt, how do you feel about this? I know,
hitching ninja and all that stuff. Everyone loves whiffs, but to me,
there's something about and a lot of parks strikeouts too. It'll be like three,
four or five pitches, probably rarely three pitches, four or five pitches,
and it's not just the last one that they're looking at. I've seen
them three looking strikes, different pitches. Something about a strikeout looking, just
as I get older, becomes becomes sexier to me. I don't know,
well, I know I personally have an emotional reaction when I see a strikeout
looking, especially on a fastball away, because that was our college's two strike
approach in quotation marks, which was look for a fastball away as anything else
and spoil it and striking out looking was the worst thing you could do.
And of course that fastball away the umpires and college are of variable quality.
I remember one time striking out looking on a fastball away at Rice, and
this pitch was like nine inches off the plate. Outside. But of course
to our dugout, it looked like I just took a perfectly placed strike out,
you know, fastball in the outside corner, and I got reamed for
this. Our hitting coach, our head coach were like yelling me about benching
me because I took this pitch strike out looking away. And Matt, a
lot of these strikeouts looking particularly this outing are right on right change ups too,
which ooh, I love that, I know, I know. And
his fastball gets to the upper nineties and it holds through the whole outings maybe,
and this, you know, this is very unique. There are several
outings where the velocity ticked up his last inning. You don't see that a
whole lot. Here's here's my question for you though about parks. You know,
the command is obviously of concern, But if the stuff is so good,
why only the twenty four point six percent strikeout rate. That's a great
question. I was going to bring that up as well. Maybe because guys
can just sit there and spin on stuff and know that they're gonna walk.
I don't know. Well with with the wildness too, is wildness in the
zone. There was some there was some hard contact at times. You can
give up very many home runs, I don't think, but that's I mean,
that's a great question. His strike percentage on the season was fifty eight
percent, which is awful, but like low, he's got a low eighties
slider. Now here's another thing that that ninetieth Percentile podcasts with Jeff Ponts,
they were just talking about this, and I couldn't help but think about Parks.
They were talking about sliders with induced vertical break and how some folks are
starting to think that this might be pretty good shape of a slider that started
throwing, whereas before most folks were thinking that you didn't want that. But
I wonder if Parks has some of that with his slider going on. He's
got a seventy six seventy to like seventy nine mile per hour slow you know,
hook with curveball with depth, and the change up is you know,
after he's pumping ninety six ninety seven change ups coming into like eighty six eighty
seven. It's just the whole the whole weapons, the whole tools, the
arsenal part of Parks is really why I went with him, even though I'm
very skeptical that he can get it all tightened up and not. But if
she did, I could see him really taking off in the Dynasty world.
But one thing, one thing about Park though that I do have to note,
is I like hate his demeanor on the mound. I find him extremely
immature and stupid, pointing at dugouts after strika That's what I wanted. And
he like he walked three dudes or hit a guy, walk two guys,
like a two run single or something, and struck out the last two batters
and was just like all pumped and pointing at the other dugout about it and
stuff. I'm like, dude, shut up, you just sucked man.
But anyway, Hunter Parks that's my reluctant choice there. Yeah, Cincinnati was
tough for me. I really didn't like the options very much. I'm going
with Brian Cardona, and I don't feel great about it. He's got walk
issues, has okay stuff. It's not like dreaming on much. I think
his fastball is below average. It's eighty nine to ninety two. He does
try and locate it up at the top of the zone and get some whiffs
up there, but it's not outstanding. The change up at eighty two to
four. I think was by far his best secondary. His curveball seventy six
to nine, pretty loopy, and with the command being so below average,
I just really wasn't that excited about it. He did have a few good
starts mixed in there that you could dream on, but I think the command
has to tick up maybe two full notches for this to be a real arm.
So he's honestly wins by default here, just given our constraints. You
know, if you want to dream on the stuff side of things, your
guys me Connor Phillips and Andrew Abbott are really interesting. Richardson and Roa are
again similar high walk but have shown some flashes, but they're way higher up
in level up in tripa A. Petty is like maybe interesting, although people
have been talking about his stuff for so long and he just doesn't get strikeouts
with it, and so that's really weird to me. So those are all
like the pretty boy names, right, and for the other names like everybody
seems to have a walk problem or doesn't strike anybody out or both, just
like, yeah, I didn't really love it. We've been talking about some
weird swings. Let's get into the Milwaukee Brewers history here, so our bad
last year was Tayden Hall, who was a ninth round twenty twenty two pickout
of Junior College, the son of former Big leaguer Toby Hall. Hall's interesting
in that he is a big guy six' four two hundred some pounds and
he is yet to hit a professional home run. He is noodleback, which
is on brand, especially down in Carolina. He's a very different looking hitter.
He's toned down some of his his oddness. He is very very open,
but I think he gets into a good hitting position and then the weirdness
is more just in the start of his stance. But hit two seventy four.
He had an on base percentage of four nineteen. I mean, you
love guys like this, mad. I mean he walked nineteen percent of the
time and struck out eighteen percent of the time. I like that, I
know right now. I think he was drafted as a catcher, and part
that was part of the interest initially to me was like, Okay, we
got this young teenage sort of catcher slash corner outfielder slash first baseman who looks
like he's really disciplined approach and can maybe hit a little and he's big.
Maybe he'll start hitting some home runs, but like I said, didn't,
which which really kind of tampers any interest I might have. I don't seems
like a lot of just opposite field slap hitting from Tatum Hall. He didn't
catch very much either. This big, tall first base man who's gonna walk
a lot and hit some singles. I don't really know what that does for
us in fantasy. Not much, not much. But to go a little
bit further back in time, I think twenty twenty one went with Ernesto Martinez,
who's a big six' five, two hundred and fifty pound Cuban who's
twenty four years old. He got up to double A, but he remains
a bit interesting to me from a B side standpoint. Brewers just resigned him
to a minor league contract. But in some ways Martinez is an interesting watch,
as I believe his discipline at the plate has improved, Like I was
surprised to see he got under twenty percent strikeout rate. Now this is this
is like very very poor man's homeless man's sort of version of O'Neill Cruz or
a big guy who can run and I think does have some pop in his
back nothing like like the those guys, but he doesn't really pull the ball
enough and get to his power like you like to talk about. But nonetheless
kind of an interesting power speed combo from first base potentially who just might still
have major league chance. I don't think he'd be an awful choice to go
with this season, but I didn't love a lot of the Brewers' bats down
here, mostly because there's so many weird ones Matt there are, I know,
to talk about one of them. I cut up that one little video
of just one day one lineup with Carolina, and like half the lineup is
just his goofy swings and batwaggles and weird toe taps and jed here Arianamo is
just like one of my favorites. Yeah, he's super I mean, don't
get me wrong, has produced well. Jesus Torinos has got weird toe tap
footstep thing going on, hitting halls weird. So I don't know there,
I don't know. I just feel like, okay for me, there's there's
other guys at this level that are sort of producing, Like I just don't
have to like go with the weird looking one. I don't know, So
I went with the I went with jan Baiaz, who is not a nothing
name. I don't think he was at two percent, so that's that's much
higher than I usually go. There's a teenager, eighteen year old who really
had a nice season on the Complex and then just got a brief I think,
like two week taste at the very end. He's not very big either.
Look at me picking a little minion. He's yea, I know,
right five nine, right hander. The only like I only really saw like
one hard hit ball. I think he was an opposite field. We hit
like a double into the gap over those you know, couple of series.
You know, it strikes me as a high contact guy. Hit three point
fifty one with a three seventy seven on base and did slug five twenty seven.
Granted in the complex he struck eleven percent of the time and walked four
percent of the time. So an aggressive little guy here, which you know,
I like aggressive guys at this level, especially at eighteen years old.
We'll see how this all plays out, but I don't know the one little
look. I figured one bias, and he was far less less goofy than
anybody. He does have a bit of a of a laid kick, that,
you know whatever, I'm not like a huge fan of. As long
as you're you're doing it well, it seems to go all right. So
I don't know one Bias matt Any thoughts. Yeah, he strikes me as
your kind of guy, a little too aggressive for my take, But I
M looking at him. I thought this is an interesting developmental project, you
know, Like you said, he didn't get a ton of looks in full
season ball, and he's still young, so I think he's got some some
developmental road ahead of him. Yeah, but yeah, I liked I liked
Bias all right. He seems interesting to follow, and I think I think
a guy who I think folks sake has a chance to stick in the dirty
played shortstop, third base, second base. So yeah, I don't know,
just kind of an interesting sort of b side watch. Far more raster
than I would kind of expect. But you know, people like to jump
on these two that do some stuff in the complex. So yeah, I
was surprised he was at two percent already considering he's still so young. And
yeah, this organization is just funny, all the funny stances and swings.
Yeah, it's a it's an interesting organization for sure, No, Wes Clerk
was like a little bit interesting to me, especially after the AFL, but
still the strikeouts thirty percent. Just don't like to dance with that if I
don't have to agreed, especially for a guy who's going to be a cornerback.
I know they list him as a catcher, but he didn't play there
that much, and those kids are right on the red line, and while
the power is there, the margin for that kind of guy to succeed is
just so narrow. I watched a good bit of him too, and I
liked his swing, but I think if that's a one bay, if that's
a first base only, I don't know. I liked him more in the
AFL catch him some looks of him there than the end season stuff that I
saw. Yeah, Xavier Warren was a guy who I kind of had my
own a little bit last year, but I think did get a little bit
more popular, but he seemed to fall off this year. He did not
have super productive season. Yeah, and my guys like that were Eric Brown
Junior, obviously a little more owned I think, who was in like some
top thirties for fypds last year, and another another goofy swing, another goofy
swing, swing, kind of undersized guy. And matthew Wood was another one
that I kind of liked, and then I watched him and I was just
like, that's just kind of a goofy swing. I think he's never going
to hit for power. And yeah, for that reason, I was kind
of out on him too, So yeah, a bunch of funny swings.
I ended up going with Isaac Collins for my pick, and again I don't
love this pick. He's sort of a blow average athlete, maybe is a
corner. I mean, he's played second, third, a little bit of
outfield. Again, good plate skills, but he just seems like maybe a
smarter base runner than actually a good like a plus athlete. You know,
he swiped twenty nine bags, which is certainly not nothing. I like his
swing. I think the swing looks nice. He's a switch hitter, and
it has a nice swing from both sides, with good contact and a little
more power than you'd expect. Although ten homers in three hundred and eighty five
plate appearances, it's not like he's a thirty homer bat in the making.
If he's just the left fielder, that makes it a little bit tougher to
see this sort of profile playing up. But if he sticks on the dirt,
then maybe I don't know. I didn't love him, but I liked
enough that he's my selection. Isaac Collins. Yeah, I don't know if
you watch any of Collins. Did he come from the Rockies? He did?
He did. I was wondering if you remember that. Yeah, they
did fade him and he got claimed last offseason. He was like okay in
the Rocky system. But again he's another small guy, like he's five to
eight. I think, so that's probably part of it. And again I'm
a little worried about his defensive position. And if yeah, he really is
just a left fielder, then you look at that and you're like, I
don't know. But he got a small cup of coffeet the end of the
year at Triple A, and I bet that's where Milwaukee starts him next year.
So but I remember correctly, I think he was he was twenty twenty
one Fresno for a little bit. Uh huh. I think I think rest
of the studio kind of took over his spot, so to speak. Yeah,
right, that's interesting, you're gonna say. I think I think i'd
cut you off, were you gonna say something else about Arianamo. I just
think his batwaggle. If anybody's listening, you got to watch this guy.
It's just like pick a random at bat. He stands up there like he's
a normal hitter, you know, slightly open stands, and then right before
the pitch is gonna come, he tomahawk chops his bat all the way down
to his belt basically, and the ball's like on its way and he's doing
It's the weirdest swing I think I saw in the Miners this year. I
hate it. And he's like seems like he's late all the time because he's
got a funny toe tap too. He did okay, like turn in an
okay line this year, but man, I just think it's such a terrible
look, and he's never he just doesn't seem like he's on time enough.
And he might want to fix those two things, buddy, I know,
right. I mean, imagine how he could produce if he wasn't such a
weirdo. Maybe a little better. Are the Brewers like doing this on purpose?
Like is this like a little like running inside joke they have going on
or something like just let's just find the weirdest the weirdest looking hitters and put
them all together. You know, it might be I mean, honestly,
they might just be like looking for that unheralded kind of swing and they might
be taking it to the extreme. But yeah, it's weird. Their collection
of hitters is by far the weirdest, just in terms of diversity of plate
approach and all the weird things they do in the swing. I thought,
for sure I would have bet somebody money that you were going to go with
Dylan o'ray. I don't know if you watch it. I thought about it.
I did. I thought about it, But the No Homer thing for
me, I was like, yes, you know, decent speed and again
kind of a funkier swing, and it's certainly someone that I would put a
watch on, especially if you're in category leagues and you don't care about power,
because forty four bags and two hundred and eighty five plate appearances is right
forty. He was a twenty twenty two third round pick out of Canada.
Just FYI, but I thought I saw he swing too. I thought,
yeah, yeah, he does. But I saw the twenty percent walk rate,
the thirteen percent k and I'm like, oh, that's going to take
him. He's on my list for sure, and you know, honestly,
he might end up being more interesting than Collins because he's younger and there's still
some time for him to find a defensive home. But the fact they're already
moving him around a lot too tells me that like, probably not plus any
of those defensive slots either. He's played second short center, but the speed
is real, kind of a goofy swing, and I'm not sure it's going
to play at higher levels. I've heard even though he's at zero percent raster.
And maybe this is just being around back or something in Brewer talk,
but I've heard some talk about Alex Hall, who is up in Wisconsin and
he's an Australian guy. But I don't know. I didn't really I didn't
really get peel there. Well, if he's a Nausie, you can just
write him off. They're a bunch of terrible folk prisoners over there the other
side of the ditch, just a bunch of bunch of outlaws. I think
we did well last year on the pitching side, Matt justin Jarvis. I
think that worked out fantastically at him roster and he took off, got some
popularity, and I traded him everywhere. He's now with the Mats. Of
course, I don't know. Maybe knocking on the door with the Mets,
I think he's I think he got up to triple A, didn't he?
But long term wise, I don't. I don't have a whole lot of
interest there. And then Matt, I don't know how you felt about the
Brewer system, but dude, as a whole, I get they have some
big names and whatever, but as a whole, I thought this system was
so boring, so many, so many soft tossing, just boring guys and
older too, like and like, I feel like even the younger guys and
maybe throw a little bit harder, like Patricio a Kenyo, like he throws
ninety five, but like he doesn't strike guys out yep. So I don't
know. So I was kind of really kind of reaching here, and I
decided to go with a project, like a legit project, and that was
Quentin Lowe. Who did you watch him at all? I didn't. Okay,
So quinnlo he's from out here, not too far from my house actually,
but he was a twenty twenty one thirteenth round pick out of high school
I think a little bit older. Oh I guess twenty he's like twenty one
now. But he was a two way player and had been that and had
been up to up to this season. But I think early in the season
all the hitting stop. If I'm not mistaken, mistaken, and it looks
like he's going to be just a pitcher now. People like to talk about
the Brewers pitching development a little bit. Well let's let's see what happens here.
This is a big test because Low is raw, he is he is
rough. But my man throws ninety seven. He's got a nasty breaking ball.
He's big at six four two fifteen. Like I said, it's it's
sloppy. He watched seven point nine to nine per nine. But given mind,
this is like thirty thirty two innings of a guy who has not been
a full time pitcher ever. I did kind of feel like the last couple
outings, I think he was getting better. I think there were some improvements
being made. But like I said, this this is just this is a
reach. This is a real big swing. But if it does, if
they can tighten this up, maybe it takes a year. I don't know.
This could be get exciting and get lots of dynasty attention with that sort
of velocity in what I think might be some real strikeout upside. He was
at what twelve point nine to five per nine in his short thirty two innings
or whatever. Yeah, I don't know quinnin Low. I'll have to watch
some video of him. I didn't know anything about him. But that's interesting
little developmental project for the Brewers, very much so. But you know,
definitely definitely has some juice in there, and let's let's see what happens when
he just has to focus on one thing. Well. The Brewers have two
guys at the top of their pitching organization that I've long been a fan of
in Carlos F. Rodriguez and Robert Gasser. Both are my kind of guys
and that they've built up volume, they get a decent amount of strikeouts,
and they aren't overly wild. I like both of them. I have shares
of each in a bunch of different leagues, or have had shares and traded
them. But they're the kind of guys that I really like in deeper leagues,
especially points leaks, just because they're guys that I think come up and
are more likely to contribute right away with that floor of innings, and then
of course the highest profile name in their org in Jacob Mssierowski, who I
think the stuff is certainly intriguing, but I think Nate agrees on this that
we're both pretty skeptical that he puts it together as a starter. You know,
thirteen point four percent walk rate and you watch him visually and it's just
like the stuff is everywhere, even his like plus pitches, he just misses
the zone by so much. It's just like, who are you really fooling
with that? You know, Even with all that, he still had a
thirty five percent k rate on the year and ended up in double A and
obviously had a really impressive showing in the Futures game. But I like Nate,
I think remained pretty skeptical of him and honestly going to take the other
two arms at the top of that org over him, and you know,
we'll see, we'll see who's wrong. I'm not that's not a popular opinion,
but I really like, I don't know a lot of that just feels
like the classic sort of dynasty overpay for a guy that's stuff like, And
don't get me wrong, it can't happen. It just is not my it's
not my style to to pay premiums on these sorts of guys deal holes and
Mizowskis, And yeah, I agree, and deal Hall sins like all those
guys at some point just got huge buzz and it's like you guys, I
know, I'm sure, I'm sure they're they're blown up the stuff plus spreadsheets
and stuff. But deal Hall is a is a like way bigger part of
his outcome distribution than most want to admit. And I just am not a
personal buyer of that kind of guy. I just think there's the injury risk
seems higher with him. Performance has been good rather than great, and if
he's got elite stuff, why hasn't he put up elite performance? And so
anyway, all that to say, I'm I'm sort of give me the gimme.
Robert Gasser over Mizerowski and Carlo stef Arbriguez the same kind of thing,
Like I'm more interested in them. As a guy I actually went to Hold,
whereas I'm trading. If I luck into a share or take over a
team that has Miserowski, I'm selling him almost immediately. But I agree with
Nate that kind of the rest of this organization. I was just like,
there is not a lot here. There's a couple of reliever type guys that
might be interesting in Shane Smith and Blake Holob. I watched both of them
and thought like, Yeah, these looked like big league relievers to me.
A lot of the other starters, I was just like, oh, these
are not good. Like just I was not a fan except for one guy,
Nate if I came to him late, like he had missed on my
cutoff of deep dives for our picture draft. But I think if I had
evaluated this guy before our picture draft, I think it would have taken him.
So I'm I'm on this guy, like as in, he's one of
my favorite arms I saw in the minors this year, and I'm just not
hearing anything about him. And it's Logan Henderson is my guy here. Not
on ba's top thirty. Clegg did rank him at the back of his top
five hundred, and you know five twelve when I pulled this, he is
two percent rostered. So some people have paid attention because his end of last
year was phenomenal, made it up to a ball. I think he repeated
a ball. That's right. He made it up to a ball at the
end of last year for a small cup of coffee, but Henderson repeated a
ball this year. I think he dealt with an injury early in the year
because he really didn't get going until late May, I think, and his
first few starts were a little bit up and down. Ended the year on
just this hell of a stretch. Let me let me pull this up because
it was so impressive. From June fifteenth to the end of the year,
through fifty nine innings over twelve starts, struck out eighty one, walked thirteen
good for two to nine. ERA gave up six homers over that time.
His whip was like zero point seven over that stretch. Just absolutely dominant and
watching him, this isn't a guy who has like a plus curveball that is
playing up because of the competition. His stuff seemed legit ninety one to five
on the fastball, but it seemed like it played up a bit more.
I think I got one start where he was up to ninety six. According
to the broadcast. There wasn't a visual gun, but it seemed like there
were round up characteristics here that were really exciting. In that if he threw
it at the top of the zone, he was getting a whiff or a
pop up on it, you know, ninety one to five, Like that's
pretty awesome. His changeup is his plus pitch, and it is nasty,
like not quite as good as like, you know, the Devin Williams of
the world, but that same kind of shape where it really kind of falls
off to the right. Again, not quite as intense, but he arm
looks the same, and he's throwing it to lefties, he's throwing it to
righty's and getting whiffs and called strikes, and it's got a nice movement profile,
and he really does seem like he has command of it. His slider
is his worst pitch, but it seemed like he was developing it this year.
I saw some starts earlier in the summer, like late June, early
July, where it looked like he was getting under his slider. But I
listened to a home broadcast towards the end of the year, Oh yeah,
his last start of the year against Texas's A ball team, and the broadcaster
said that he's really been developing that, and he showed a few more where
he was actually getting on top of it, and it was moving in the
right direction. And in that start against Texas he went six innings, which
you and I both love, and punched out out ten no walks and looked
every bit as dominant as that line sounds. He was getting called strikes,
whiffs, getting whiffs with all three pitches, but it's especially the fastball at
the top of the zone and the changeup are his weapons. And the changeup
is like comfortably plus and with the command that he showed towards the end of
the year, I think earlier in the year he had a couple of bad
starts that pushed up his walk rate a little bit, but from that point
on in the year it was actually elite command and was getting a ton of
strikeouts. One of the best kind of sixty inning pitch runs of the of
the year. And yes it is just a ball, and yes he's repeating
it, but he doesn't have a long track record. He was a twenty
twenty one drafty fourth rounder out of high school by the Brewers and barely last
year. Yeah, do you know why he loved only what thirteen innings last
year? I don't. I wonder. I wonder if it was related to
whatever caused him to start the year slowly and on the shelf. This year,
I tried to do a little bit of digging, but I didn't see
what it was. This looks great it is I think like I'm like a
good one that I like it actually very very excited. Yeah, he was
a community college guy, so not out of high school, you know,
a year out of that. I feel like I feel like I heard some
talk about him, some buzz about him around that draft, but a name
that has gone forgotten in my mind. I don't remember hearing anything about him.
And I came to him late in my evaluation process because I thought the
numbers were like solid but not outstanding from when I was pulling stuff in September
for this, and so I kind of had pushed him down my list to
evaluate and ended up with, you know, names that I was happy with.
But when I was digging into this org a couple of weeks ago,
and I was like blown away with how good this guy looked and looking at
how he put together his outing, I was just continually impressed. And then
his ending the year on six innings ten k's and it was pristine. I
mean, like, this is one of those outings. So it wasn't he
was not being inefficient. It was just getting strikeouts with every pitch. And
that lineup wasn't great. You know, the Rangers a ball team I think
as like Glider Fraguero and like that's the only guy who's really of note.
But boy, he just dominated on it. It was just a hit three
all of that. That's solid. Yeah, July twenty second, August fifth,
and September second, which is the start you were referring to. Yeah,
and a guy who only got eighteen starts on the year and has twenty
twenty five professional starts total, Like, this is a dude I think in
the making. He threw eight that start you reference, he threw eighty two
pitches, sixty four of them for strikes. That's what I'm saying. Like
he watched it and he even there was a couple pitches that were like clearly
strikes and and didn't get called for called strike threes. And the announcer actually
commented about it, who was actually quite good by the way. You know,
you listen to a lot of guys who are just veryed not that good,
but like, whoever, the Milwaukee ay ball guy is like, kudos,
yeah, I agree, but he like was incredulous that these strikes weren't
being called because they were just right there. And then twice the next pitch
was a swing and miss. He just didn't care that he got squeezed.
He just went back to the same pitch or changed it up and got a
strike. Like I mean, I was just like, this is really impressive.
Okay, what why did he slip through my cracks? There's there's nothing,
there's no marker that would have like eliminated him from my process of watching
him, and I didn't. I don't know, just wonder. I just
wonder for some people it's the injury and he wasn't a guy and then I
guess fourth rounder but injured JC guy. All Right, would you on a
long track record, would you rather Sheriff Henderson or Missowski? Honestly, Henderson
after watching him, like, I just think playing the game, Misowski obviously,
because I can turn that into something, right, I mean, like,
I think is going to make the major leagues and be a starting pitcher.
I think Henderson is going to be. Like I'm genuinely he's in my
top like five or six arms in the minor leagues of the like non elite
arms, you know, like him and Tang and Van Schoder, like those
kinds of guys. Like he's in that top five for me. Okay,
all right, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna watch some Henderson after that.
Yes, two guys now that damn you, Matt, damn you all right?
Just learning here? Yeah, Pittsburgh Pirates, the Buckos. This is
where I think we came together harmoniously on the hitter side, did we not?
We did? I mean, we already talked about Charles Mann I could
do, but maybe we'll talk about him a little bit more during the first
year player draft. I don't know. He was our bat selection, both
of our bat selections. The Pirates b side history is really interesting to me.
I wouldn't say that we have had like a big success yet, but
I kind of feel like there might be some brewing a little bit. Last
year selected Chase Bowen, who had another really solid, nice year High A
in Double A. He went twenty twenty twenty three home runs, twenty six
stolen bases. I believe he cut his k rate once again or stayed pretty
similar as he moved up a level or two. He kind of impressed in
the AFL a little bit, but I think he might be turning into I
don't know, do you think he's a real prospect in their system though?
I do. And he's a guy that you know, independent of your previous
selections. I thought merited consideration here, power speed blend, He's a good
athlete place Birthpase. Yeah, I'm pretty interested to see what he does next
year, because, as he noted, he has been keeping the Cays on
the right trend as he goes up to the minor league ladder, which is
very difficult to do. Just a small cup of coffee at double A at
the end of the year. But his overall line is quite interesting. Again,
I'm a little worried on the swing and miss, but sure if he
can keep that under control. There's power speed blend here, and I do
like Bowen. Yeah, I kind of think too, like regardless of how
it might go. This was This was a nice twenty nineteen eleventh round prep
selection by the Pirates. I think. Yeah, a good little developmental story,
I think. And then, man, I'm sure you've probably heard me
talk about Dario Lopez in the past. I was pretty excited for his twenty
twenty three and then he busted up his knee before it even started and missed
the whole year. He's still I don't know. He'll probably start in Higa
again, is my guess. I don't know, maybe at least for a
little while. He's an interesting bat with some power and I think good contact
skills. I don't know. I've heard that he's awful defensively. I don't
know if it's I don't know if I'm quite that dramatic about it. So
I don't know where they'll stick him in the infield, if in the infield
at all. But a guy who really you could see evolved from his A
ball days of being kind of a spray hitter, more so opposite field,
but power to all fields, and then he became more of a pool hitter
when he got to a ball or a high A. But I'm really interested
to see him this year, and still very much not rostered along with Bowen
too. Bowen was at one percent when I pulled him middle of September,
and then we did have a former. He's obviously not with them anymore.
But Diego Castillo was a B side once upon a time. He made the
big leagues, so maybe McAdoo can keep this nice little, nice little stretch
going. What other bats may be caught your mind? Caught your attention,
Matt. The only the one I wanted to mention was Trey Gonzalez. Yeah,
he's a lefty outfielder for them, and what you do. He made
it up to high this year, more speed over power, but interesting plate
skills. He's not like a must follow for me, but just again,
like a slightly undersized player with good plate skills, you know. I like
that kind of that kind of profile to project on. And I yeah,
I don't feel strongly about him. I don't think there's even a regular here
just yet. But if he puts on a little more power, the plate
skills are good enough and he just needs to advance something else to be really
interesting. But I liked, I like the look of him. Yeah,
he was on my short list due the one thing that's nice about the Pirates
is that all of their A Ball games are broadcast in that league, so
you can kind of watch a lot of these guys. Oh yeah, I
watch a ton of Bradenton yep. And it's a good angle to watch pictures.
Thank thank god for Braidenton. Yeah, and like like you said,
the angle not only is a good angle from from sort of directionally from setifield,
they really zoom in, so like you get pretty good looking than the
camera isn't the nicest, it's still you get really good looks at people,
and you get like the primo supplement of having some stack cast stuff paired with
it. Yeah, as you watch super nice. Yeah, I just I
just wish the quality of players would be a little bit better at times.
I know one one of my guys that I kind of fell forward last off
season based on some you know, behind the scenes scouting in quotes from Eric
Longenhagen, he had said they'd gotten great data on this twitchy tooled out six
foot four shortstop named your done Delos Santos for the Pirates. And so I
picked him up in like a bunch of leagues and was super excited to see
him. Watched him a bunch in Bradenton. He is awful, like maybe
there is something still to come, but I could not be farther out on
him right now. He hit one homer on the year. I think I
think it was just the one homer, but certainly one that was that was
on video, and he like squeaked this pitch out that was middle middle like
eighty nine mile an hour fastball right down the minute I barely got it out.
I was like, who, this is terrible. Yeah. Some of
the scouts that I casually chat with from time to time, they've like given
me some lists sometimes from like the DSL or whatever, like these are who
we got as the top fifteen prospects from the DSL something like that, Right,
And like, dude, half of those guys maybe even more like the
next season can't like hit over two hundred in the complex and you're just like,
I don't know what. Okay, all right, well, thanks,
thanks for the thanks for the list. So kind of interesting. I think
in the DSL you got to listen to Baddler and kind of nobody else,
Like, unless you're in the DSL getting something additional, the numbers are worthless
almost. I mean, it's pretty much on par to me, maybe a
little bit better. Like, hey, look at this guy down the road
in Colorado here, he just hit five point fifty senior year of high school.
Like, okay, it doesn't mean he's good like in a professional sense,
you know, but there's a couple other bats that kind of made my
short list here for the Pirates. I don't know if I wrote this down
wrong. I think I double checked it though. But they have this catcher
first base guy who's in the complex and got a little bit run a ball,
Omar al Alfonso, who is listed at nineteen twenty years old maybe now,
but he was a twenty nineteen undrafted free agent Minnesota High school. Like,
is that the math even add up? Right? There? Is that
even a thing? I don't know. Maybe that seems funny, I know,
I know, so maybe something is miss labeled there. I don't know.
This was more just kind of looking at some complex numbers and then turning
him a little video on and he was kind of interesting. When we keep
tabs there, I'd like to look at him at the plate. Another first
base type that was down there who got promoted to Hya later was Nick Smillell.
He's a little bit older, sixteenth round pickout of Rutgers in twenty twenty
two. He's a little bit interesting. He hit. He had eleven home
runs in two hundred and seventy five played appearances this season. Gonna watch him
a little bit. Another guy that came up from the complex, another first
base corner outfield type as Merlyn val does. Interested to watch him a little
bit more. He hit well, He had six home runs in one hundred
and eighty two played appearances, hit over three hundred, slugged over five hundred.
Kind of liked the brief look of him. And then I wanted to
ask you about Emmanuel Terrero, who I think I have him as zero percent
roster, but I feel like he's been making some some top thirties. I
wasn't like overly impressed. Seemed like a little speedy contact guy, maybe maybe
with a little bit of pop, but I probably probably not really really your
type. But I was just curious if you watched him at all. Yeah,
I did. You know he had a long run on that Bradenton teams,
but the strike out rage just for what he was seemed to touch high.
You know, if he was showing a little more power, it might
be a little more excusable. But that's like getting close to danger zone.
It's sort of about twenty six percent for a guy that isn't going to hit
for a lot of power. It's like probably limits his upside. But yeah,
it could be could be an interesting follow Yeah, more more just guys
I want to tune into next year sooner rather than later. Arms here last
season I went with who did I go with? Oh, Carlos Yemenez,
who got my attention down to a ball paired with some interesting stack cast stuff.
But he did not pitch this year, so I don't know what the
injury was. No kind of physical right hand pitcher that seemed to have some
pretty loud stuff, and I thought he he used it and commanded it fairly
well for a I don't know if he was a teenager twenty year old at
the time, but he only nine point two innings this season, so I'm
interested in watching him. I think most of those innings, if not all
of them, were in the complex, but I want to check in on
him early next year. They have this guy, Wilburd Dotel who's been interesting
to me the last couple of years. Mid nineties fastball. I've seen him
get it up to ninety nine and he's got secondaries that look like they have
bite. But this guy just doesn't strike anybody out. I don't know.
It's just funny how that works sometimes, Matt, So I don't know.
He's just a bit of a mystery, just kind of interesting watch. And
then this season, I'm gonna go with a guy who the time in September
was not created yet in fan tracks, and that's nineteen year old Alessandro Ercolani,
who was an international free agent signing out of San Marino, which I
think is like a country inside of Italy or something like that. But I'm
not mistaken Ercolani interesting. Initially he was. He was added to whatever the
AFL roster and I had seen I'm guessing that I think it was Baseball America.
Somebody had labeled him as having one of the best sliders coming into the
AFL. Now, he never appeared in the AFL. He never appeared in
af and I don't think he I don't I don't think. I think he
was taking off the roster or something. I don't know, and in part
maybe it had something to do with injury. I think injury probably played a
role in why he was there too, because he missed a large chunk of
the season. He's good size, and think they got him listed at like
six two point eight. He's a teenager, but I wouldn't like he's already
kind of bowl physically. I don't know how much projection is left, but
like over after he came back from his injury. Over his last thirty nine
and two thirds innings eight starts, he had a two ninety eight ERA,
one point twenty five whip, eight point ninety five k per nime, two
point nine eight walk per nime, three strikes at sixty four percent. He
did give up six home runs and thirteen earned runs. Besides all that,
I just I liked. I liked the look of him walk right on.
The whole season was a little bit over four per nine, struck out a
little bit over the fastball. Put a little bit of stat cast stuff that
I was looking at, which isn't a sample of his whole season. There
they have his fastball averaging like ninety three ninety four, but I saw him
get it up to ninety seven ninety eight per the Bradington broadcast, which I
think is fairly accurate. But he throws a couple of different fastballs per back
cast, the curveball, change up, slider they even label harder. But
you know who knows with some of that stuff. He left the total of
sixty five innings and yeah, I don't know. Man. He's a young,
good looking pitcher who they say the slider. The slider is supposed to
be pretty quality. Now I know, it's like CSW isn't real crazy on
that. But again, that's not like the whole sample. I don't know
if that was taken before the injury or after. But like we were talking
about Bradenton, you get a good angle of the looks and you know he's
pitching the different sides of the plate and landing his offerings. Now, the
fastball, I think he can leave it over the middle of the play a
little too often, especially when he's trying to play it up in the zone,
which you know is definitely a thing for a lot of pictures as they're
developing. But Alessandro Ercolani not without some excitement here, probably the most exciting
picture that I'm talking about tonight. For me, He's not one I watched
at all, So that's that's that's a follow for me. I think there
was definitely some progression as the season went on, and he doesn't really look
nineteen though, But I don't know if Italians lie about their age. There's
something interesting going on with the Pirates pitching development. You know, they've had
a lot of success stories, even guys like Quinn Priester, who I've never
really been a fan of. I actually think they've turned him into a potentially
interesting arm. And you know, he was pretty highly drafted and well thought
of, but he had sort of a long developmental curve in the miners where
he showed a lot of poor stuff before where he is now, which I
think is like a he might be an interesting major league starter. Their top
end of their organization, I think, is full of guys that I would
happily roster and dynasty Jared Jones, Thomas Harrington, Anthony Solimento, Burrows,
those guys, huh, Mike Burrows. Burrows for sure, I really like,
you know, obviously injured this year, but a big fan of Burrows.
And so I wonder if there maybe should get a little more credit on
the pitching development side than they do, because that's a lot of guys from
a variety of backgrounds that they've turned into what I think of as like actual
major league caliber starters. Yeah, and even when you like like some of
the guys I was mentioning, I feel like every time you turn on Braden's
in, even if you're not looking to watch a certain picture and you're just
clicking around there seems to me there's always somebody you're like, oh, there's
a little a little juice to this guy. I feel like there's also good
to identifying some some talent. Yeah. One of the guys that seems to
be there pop up Brandenton arm this year was Michael Kennedy, And you know,
I know some people just absolutely stuffed him. And for an eighteen nineteen
year old arm in high A or low A, I don't really get that
excited about those guys, especially when they run a thirteen percent walk rate.
But again, if you look at it in the lens of Pittsburgh's overall pitching
development, I wonder if you might round up on that, and maybe that
kind of excitement is actually warranted. So he's certainly when to watch, although
I think he's already got a little more helium than we usually talk about.
But I say all that to talk about a guy that hasn't really wowed statistically
and is one that I'm sure you've heard of, but I think a lot
of people haven't really given much thought to. And my selection here is po
U Chen. He's a Taiwanese arm and I know you've mentioned you've got a
guy who turns you onto the Taiwanese players that come over. And I don't
think he's really made any kind of noise in Dynasty circles up to this point.
Yeah, I've got him as zero percent owned in Dynasty, not ranked
on anybody's list that I could find, And he's been just okay the past
couple of years. He was a international signee in twenty twenty and then didn't
throw much in twenty twenty one, and then had a full season in Bradenton
last year, ninety eight innings of solid ball there but just didn't jump off
the page. But at Greensboro this year, he threw twenty five games,
twenty four starts, one hundred and nineteen and two thirds innings pitched, struck
out over nine per nine and three point two walks for nine, So solid
K and BB. And she'd think like, Hey, that's not bad and
not a crazy babby. You know some grounders, you know, but it's
not crazy. Still, nobody's talking about him, and I'm like, huh,
this is interesting, And so I watched him pitch, watched a couple
of his like mediocre stars arts, of which he has a few, and
the reason that people don't really talk about him is he's got kind of a
homer problem. His fastball is not plus. You know, he's like maybe
in the low nineties. I don't think I saw a good velocity this year,
but last when I when I saw it last year, he was like
ninety to ninety three. But it doesn't seem like it plays up really.
He commands it, okay, you know, attacks the zone with it,
but I think he gets a hit too. But his plus pitch is his
split change up, so it's you know, I think he kind of holds
it as a split grip, but he rolls over it like a change up.
So it's that's his best pitch. But when he misses with it,
people hammer it. So he gave up. I think the most homers in
his league this year in HIA among qualified starters. So he definitely had a
bit of a homer problem. Like you just go through his name logs,
that part doesn't help you there. It doesn't it plays up for and I
wondered if that had something to do with it. But he had a homer
problem on the road too, Like just reading through his game log his last
start homer, second to last start to homers his last start away in Rome,
which it doesn't play well for Homer's gave up a homer. He just
like two hommers here, Homer there. It just he gives up so many
homers. But watching him, I was intrigued by the skills in and especially
the split change, like it's an actual plus pitch. I don't know if
I want to hang much if that's his only plus pitch, but if the
Pirates can coax anything better out of his slurvy curveball, which I didn't love.
You know, the shape seemed a little loopy to be a real slider,
but it wasn't quite as like directionally downward as you would see for a
true curveball, so it was kind of like a mid kind of in betweener
pitch for me that I didn't really like its shape. But he had some
great outings the National's High affiliate in late July, seven innings, seven k's,
of course a homer, but only one walk. He had a short
outing against Boston's High team, which had Roman Anthony and a couple of other
decent prospects, and he went four and two thirds and punched out twelve with
two walks and two singles, so he mixed in a couple of outings that
you're like, wow, this is actually pretty good. Again that Boston lineup
he dominated in June six innings eight k's, one walk or a homer as
well, but he mixed in some good outings here and there. There's just
a lot of homers to this guy, and the control seems middling. Like
he did better as the season went on, I think as far as limiting
walks and getting his strikeouts, but I think he can lose his command a
bit and work deep into counts. You know, too many balls, too
many uncompetitive pitches, and really with the one plus pitch, I'm not as
excited about him as some of the other arms we've talked about, but it's
he's an interesting guy, and in this organization. I wonder whether we might
see the stuff playoff even more as he gets up into double A next year.
Well that, uh, that segues kind of nicely into the Cardinals here
because my B side arms selection for the Cardinals is also Taiwanese and that's chen
Way Lynn who I think that that would make it make it our third Taiwanese
B side selection, right Awesome? Yeah, But I think I'm just gonna
he's technically a first year player this year because he signed in July, so
I'm just gonna save him for that episode. I did write about him a
little bit in the Dynasty dugout history here hasn't been super great. Stuck with
a bat I shouldn't have stuck with for too many years who's out of baseball
now. That was Patrick Romery, who was a prep guy that interests me,
but uh, in the last last year, I went with Jeremy Reeves,
who is a plus shortstop whose bat is not super exciting, but I
did see he was in the AFL. I think he did some things at
least started off pretty hot. But I don't have a ton of fantasy excitement
with Jeremy Reeves. He's still quite young. I just don't know if the
bats are going to get very exciting, but I do think he has a
glove that could get him a major league opportunity. And then I went with
Alexia Decernia, who we talked about during the draft episode. So I don't
know. Maybe I don't really have a whole lot to say here. The
Cardinals, the organization as a whole. I think there's some interesting stuff going
on here. I like a little more of what's happening on the hitter side,
I think than the pitchers side. Overall, you know guys that were
a little bit under the radar, they're sort of turning them into I think,
really interesting names that you should pay attention to in Dynasty. Obviously,
you know at the top of the list, like Victor Scott the second I
think you know, ninety five steals. He's a plus center fielder. He's
gonna play in the bigs, and that steals should definitely make you interested in
your categories in rot leagues, especially considering he's not a zero with the bat
Otherwise, Mason Win, I think he's going to be a major league shortstop.
I'm not super excited about him for fantasy as far as impact goes,
but no, certainly going to I just I'm not sure that he's gonna steal
enough to be a threat on the bases and an asset there, and personally
just don't think he's going to hit that many homers. Like he might settle
into a fifteen to twenty homer bat, but if it's only ten steals at
shortstop, like that's maybe interesting, but he's going to play in the bigs,
and that, of course is as valuable. He's solid rather than outstanding
for me. But guys like Luken Baker, he wasn't on anybody's radar a
year ago and turned in a monster year with a ton of power and it's
real. You know, we'll see how that plays as as a corner guy,
first base only guy. And he's obviously pretty well blocked in Saint Louis,
But it seems like for you power focused guys like he might get some
DHT bets for them too, or as as a trade piece, you know,
something interesting. So I found a bunch a lot of their arms,
like again just kind of boring. Yeah, a lot of a lot of
soft tossers, like they're just searching for late career Adam Waynwright or something.
I don't know. I still find Austin Love kind of interesting. Who was
my pick last year, but he was another guy who got hurt. Did
all did all of my b side arms from this division last year get hurt?
I think? So he only loved but he's got kind of a weird,
weird different arm action, probably more so more likely a reliever, But
I also like I almost went with Ian Biddell, who I've liked since his
college days in Louisville. You know, it's interesting that so you got a
college guy who gets drafted in twenty twenty, right, so twenty twenty one
should be like his first pro year. I don't know. He pitched for
a little while. Then he has, like Tommy Johnson, all of a
sudden, you're three years down the road and this guy is twenty four years
old and he hasn't gotten past high A yet. Yep. That might make
for a nice B side lack of attention, but I think the Dell is
kind of interest in the combination of command and stuff, and that's my B
side. Oh sweet nice, I'm glad. Yeah, yeah, he's he's
he's my B side arm and I echo what you said. You know,
the injury kind of hid or pushed him down any interests that anybody had might
have had coming out of a high profile college program like Louisville. But he
reminds me a bit in approach of another guy that I had picked in Pearson
Old his stuff. He doesn't have quite the level of precision that Ol does,
but he attacks in a similar way. His slider is his main off
speed pitch rather than a change up for like ols his, but you know,
ninety one to four on the fastball. The slider seems like the gyro
variety, you know, eighty one to four, but a lot of sharp
downward action. He also gets some whiffs on his change It's like eighty five
to seven on the change up, So I'm not sure it has quite the
separation that you like off of his fastball, and maybe that's part of what's
limiting his strikeouts. You know, twenty seven percent strikeout at hi A for
a guy's you know, twenty four it's like okay, but it's not outstanding.
But yeah, I liked, I liked what I saw. It seemed
like a picture again, not someone I'm super excited about. You know,
it's all without the like allergy to walks. You know, he had sort
of average walk rates as opposed to double plus of old. But I liked.
I liked what I saw from him, and also agree that the rest
of the system just isn't that exciting for me. But that feels like a
feels like a cardinal picture to me, like totally yeah, yeah, he's
still just at one percent owned. And again I think he's still just getting
going, but he seems likely to be locked into their double A rotation next
year, and you know, we'll see how it comes together. But of
the pictures, I think he's on some list too. You know. I
was, well, sometimes these guys get on the list but just don't get
the popularity. And then that I didn't see. I didn't se him on
Ba's right up or anything. So yeah, just looking at my little short
list here for other bats, do you kind of let Jimmy Crook's potential to
be a major league catcher? I don't know how exciting the offensive profile might
get, but yeah, I mean he had twelve home runs. I don't
think he strikes out too much, slugs a little bit. Yeah. Pedro
Payes is a guy that I've watched for a few years, and this guy
has like massive, massive power, but it just doesn't really get to it
too much. I don't have much hope that he's going to be any sort
of major league something. I was curious if you watched any RJ Jaeger Yeager
I did, what did you think about He was a twenty twenty two un
drafted free agent out of Mississippi State, but he was a little interesting in
me, Like fourteen home runs, seventeen stolen bases from a corner infield guy
is kind of interesting. I don't think he had two big Yeah, he
only struck out thirteen percent of the time time like that. I may I
may have picked him if I had not really liked I had Acernia so much.
Yeah, Jager's pretty interesting. He's the one that I worry a little
bit about the age to level and position. Yeah, you know, yeah,
he's probably first base only the powers like round down, so it's like,
you know, he's probably not a twenty five homer guy, and so
then it's like you're really gonna play if you don't have power and you're a
first base only guy. That was that was my qualm with him. But
I but he was alright, undrafted guy like that. He's not like necessarily
shattering the statuet. He's got a lot of guys will have to jump.
And this was the thing with the Cardinals minor league organization is it looks like
a lot of average kind of guys. And I don't even say that in
a bad way, in it like you need these guys to be a real
major league team. Unless you're the Braves and you lock up nine stars for
less than their worth for forever. Like you have to fill out a roster
like this, you know, not in the Jerry Depoto way where you can
like mash two of them together and turn them into a plus player like he
seems to be trying to do with five of the Mariners positions. But you
need to fill a roster out and give four hundred plate appearances to, you
know, a guy like pree To or somebody like Jaeger, if you know
he pulls it together. Like those are the kinds of guys that can fill
out our roster really nicely, either on the back of a forty man or
as a bench bat, and not be a minus when you put them in
there. The Cardinals have a ton of those guys, like a guy that
I've long really liked in Buddy Kennedy they signed offseason or traded for. I
forget. He's bounced around from Arizona to Oakland now to Saint Louis, and
he's a classic Saint Louis kind of hitter, right, Like he doesn't strike
up very much seventeen point five percent of the time, but walks a ton
hits a ton of line drives and at triple A this year ran a one
twenty four WRC plus with like not good defense, but you plug him in
at second or third or first or whatever, and he's gonna not be a
black hole in your lineup. And that is a lot of the Cardinals guys
are like this, like Preato, Capriniac done men Linger, Like all these
guys are guys who have made it to double A or triple A and seem
to project as like slightly below average bats but play a few different positions.
And that's sort of like the Cardinals way it seems. As far as development,
I don't think any of these guys, with the possible exception of Scott
are going to be a fantasy star. And again, for Scott, it's
because he has a seventy or eighty grade tool in his speed and that might
like play way up. But everybody else seems pretty like roster filler to me.
The guy that I picked for my B side selection here is Mike Antico
made it to double A. He's on the older side. There's a little
bit of swing and miss. You know, it's not bad. Twenty three
percent and a ten percent walk rate. Again, those are fine, but
fifty two steals, which for a guy who also popped eighteen homers, Okay,
that might be something, especially in a roto or categories head head league,
Like, I'm not thrilled by it. He's not someone that was really
on my short list for like our draft, for example, But fifty two
steals is impressive kind of no matter where you are, and when the rest
of the approach isn't awful, you look at that and you're like, Okay,
maybe there's something here. So Mike Antico, he's an outfielder again,
made it up to double A for the Cardinals, But worry a little bit
that the impact just isn't going to be there as far as the homers go.
Although the steels do seem seem pretty legit. I just think the bat
might not carry him. And obviously, with ten other guys with somewhat similar
profiles already in the organization, it might be tough for him to see playing
time. And I think that's I think that's solid. I didn't realize.
I didn't realize he stole on many bases. Yeah, it's not totally out
of character for him, you know, thirty seven oh he hit sixty seven
over last year. You know, split between AFL this year or was that
last year that he was that was last year. I don't think he was
there this year. I feel like he was. I feel like he was
there. AnyWho, I think hence, uh huh, what do you think
the percent chances that he is a major league starter long term? Under five
percent? Under five? Okay? Yeah, all right, I mean I'm
I don't know, thanks for answering that. I hate questions like that.
I don't know how to answer those, but uh yeah, I think I
think I'm with you there. I think it's very unlikely. Look, I
don't actually have those percent percentages locked and loaded in my head. I chose
five percent to demonstrate my disdain for that kind of picture. Like, I
mean, I know that some people love his stuff, and I've watched enough
of him, but I'm like, yeah, I kind of get it.
Like you can light up the radar gun. You look at how skinny he
is and how loose his arm action is, and you're like, oh,
there's going to be more or here. But kind of like I asked you
about Parks, if his stuff is so good, why doesn't he strike people?
Out and tink Kents has a career minor league strikeout rate of like twenty
four percent or something. Yeah, it's like, look, if his stuff
is so good, where are the cays He's facing shitty hitters, right,
you know, like they're supposed to be so much worse in the minor leagues
and he's just not punching anybody out. You know, he's he's doing a
little bit better this year with limiting walks. I think the walks were a
little bit higher. I guess I was just on the complex where they were
a little bit higher. But yeah, the walks ticked up, but less
than a strikeout per nine. It's not a heavy ground ball profile. I
just like I watch him and I'm just I don't see what's there. I
don't see why everyone is so in love with it. So, you know,
it's like it's like arm talent, right, Like there's so much love
for like raw arm talent, and I I'm just not sure it's even warranted
there, Like the velocities are good, but the shape or something about it
must be minus because he doesn't get whiffs with it, at least not compared
to how he should. But that does seem to me like a type that
dynasty owners will flock to. And those are the arms that make me the
most nervous. You know. Yeah, he's twenty and he threw ninety three
innings this year, so like he's not going to give you any value at
all next year for sure, Like best case scenario frame, he goes great
and he makes the major leagues, he'll be up for a cup of coffee
at the end of the year. Like he's not. He doesn't have the
innings to hold down a rotation spot for any given length of time. And
yeah, he was up in double A for a good portion of the year,
but it wasn't pretty five fip over that eight seven eight k per nine.
I just see that kind of production and I'm like that is so generic.
And then you watch him and you're like, okay, well the fastballs
running up there at ninety eight, but people are fouling it off or hitting
it, Like why are we excited about this? And yeah, Slider's got
a ton of movement, But if he's not getting what's with it? Why
do I care? Like either they're seeing it out of the hand or that
movement profile is actually not that good even if it looks impressive on occasion,
So I'm just way down. Like I think Hence and Mizerowski and a couple
of other guys are in in like that same range and sort of the fifties
for a number of prospect rankings. I think BA has them in similar ranks.
I think Clegg has them in similar rankings. And you know, I've
said before that I just think that that group is way too highly ranked.
You know one of them is going to hit, but you do not know
which one, and the rest of them are going to be relievers or not
make the majors. And that's that's how I feel about hens is that he's
in that range. And it's certainly not like for me trying to for a
lot of high probability arms. That's not one that I'm ever gonna roster.
Yeah no, Yeah, And like I've said before, I think you've done
a really good job of identifying guys that do have a high probability of making
the big leagues and potentially locking down a rotation spot. And you've also done
a good job of highlighting why dynasty folks probably aren't interested. Yep, I
don't know. Yeah, a bunch of steppers and all you all you haters
out there, like, uh, maybe you just gotta gotta get a little
bit more mature and vanilla, if you will, and take the guys that
are higher probability starters. It's gonna be. It's sort of an interesting experiment
that we're running here in the kinds of guys we're both talking about in our
approach, and like, I think it will be really interesting to see a
year from now or two years from now, what the path for some of
these guys has been. Like just talking about the five arms that I talked
about today, Bdell, Chen and Cardona, I think those three like might
just absolutely not be anything at all this time next year, Like they go
up a level and it actually turns out their stuff isn't going to play,
and Keen keeps giving up two homers per nine or whatever it is, and
they all are basically done, Like they're not going to make the major leagues.
But I feel like one of them is going to turn into a back
end kind of starter, you know. And then Henderson, like I'm genuinely
excited about but again he's done it just at such low levels, Like who
knows what the higher levels hold. Yeah, but I'm pretty interested to see
to see how that grows. It makes me curious, like say a thirty
teen points lead, where you have like thirty minor league spots right and starting
pitchers right, there's only so many to go around. I'm just curious how
it might work if you just loaded up your whole minor system these guys that
you can identify as you know, potentially a higher likelihood of becoming major league
starters, and then just using that to supple whatever you need when they started
hitting the bigs, because people are always in need of pitchers in those kinds
of leagues always. Maybe I'll experiment and try it somewhere. All right,
nah and all central not maybe not quite or at least we didn't get quite
as excited as the past divisions about our overall selections. But I don't know,
I don't know. I liked my arms in this division, you know,
yeah, yeah, by Henderson, but it's like I think he's an
actual guy. But I gotta go watch. I was telling you before we
started recording that they all had something in common, and it's like a very
change up heavy approach. You know, four of the five of them,
their plus pitch is a change up, and even the one who who that's
not their their plus pitch in Biddell, it's his slider, but it's still
his change up is decent. So it was I was in going through this
like that was not on purpose at all, but all of them after watching
them, was like, they all have really good change ups and Henderson is
by far the best. Like Henderson's I think is already very good and we'll
see, we'll see if he can keep it going. Obviously dominating and a
ball is one thing, and continuing to do it as you go up the
levels it's harder to do. But I was as excited about him as any
a ball arm for sure. This year my theme with the arms pretty much
was really raw. Yeah yeah, really raw with exciting stuff, which isn't
really my m O. But when you're talking about potentially free pickups or something
like that, I'd much rather take a stab at one of those types down
here than you know, Misselerowski's. They pay the premium for Miserrowski here.
So that will wrap up this episode of the Prospect. Besides podcast next week
maybe we will be doing what al least. You can follow me on Twitter
at Pitching specs. Don't follow gru here. I'll try to turn you into
one of his evil doing minions. Hey, you took all the short kings
tonight. I did What am I doing? You're rubbing off on me in
a bad way here, but uh, we'll talk to you next time.
Till then do well. Audio About five miles an hour riding to his head,
he hopped down first with the lumpb on in his face, and on
the very next pitch he up and stole second face with greatst speed. He
wasn't born, but he had the dirty Yes uniform.