Ninety five miles an hour riding two is head. He hopped down first with
the lump on his face, and on the very next pitch he up and
stole second face with greatst be He wasn't born, but he had a day.
Yes, well, well, well, spring training has started and B
sides are hitting bombs. Welcome to episode what are we on six of Prospect
B Sides? I'm your host, Nate Handy. I'll be talking at you
for a little while here. We're going to get into the B side history
and selections of the National League East, and man, I hope you guys
brought your not nice pants today because we're gonna get extra dirty. Not in
a great way either. I did not necessarily realize how little rough the NL
East has been for us. It's a hard life picking stones and pulling teats,
but sure as God's got sandals, it beats fighting dudes with treasure trails.
Well, I shouldn't say that it's been extreme on both ends. I
guess, with the Braves giving us some of our bigger success stories and the
rest of the division. But of course I will find something to talk about
with all of these potential winners or losers and as it is a long standing
tradition on this show to start off with a little Q and A, we
have no interest in what's going on with you. We have no idea what's
because she means no idea. Being a couple of il buddies. We're joking
around in the chat room the other day, maybe we should refer to my
loyal listeners as the handy dandies, And I think I like that. At
Cotton Candy Candy asks if I've had any early spring training takeaways. Well,
that's a good question at Cotton Candy Candy, of course. Yeah. First
thing, Well, so I don't think I've mentioned that I am a fan
of prospects that come from the great state of Wisconsin. I like to keep
an eye on baseball, and Wisconsin has improved tremendously, So I think the
biggest thing as a fan and as a fantasy owner with plenty of shares,
Gavin Lucks tearing his ACL sucks, especially given the opportunity that was in front
of him this season. Just really feel bad for him. So that's probably
been the biggest thing so far. This past Tuesday was pretty cool. We
had four b sides go yard Sebastian Espino who will talk about next week,
Brett Wiseley who will talk about next week, Ezekiel Tobar and mcl garcia.
I've also seen Alex McGarry sneaking into some late inning playing time and whatnot.
I think he's done nothing but strikeout so far, but that's okay. I
also saw this was this was cool. Jeremy Reeves is getting into some games
late. We spoke about to those last two guys during the NL Central episode.
You know, overall, just for me, it's fun to see a
lot of names and back scores with the Major League logo up on top.
You know, just some of these guys getting an opportunity show what they can
do. So I don't know that's what for me. It's bring training,
That's mostly what that's about. Just some of the lesser known names getting a
chance, and who's getting hurt, who's staying healthy. It's been kind of
fun to see all that. To do about the pitch clock, watching a
lot of minor leagues, this is old news. I admittedly in the beginning
didn't really like it, but it didn't take very long for me to not
even remember that it was a thing. Every once in a while, you'd
get a call an automatic ball or strike and kind of a bigger moment,
and that's that's a bummer. But I could probably count on maybe three fingers
the times I saw that last year. That might actually be two fingers.
Just don't get why they still have it in the ninth inning and extra innings.
Just get rid of it then at that point, I don't know.
The only thing I don't like about it is that as a fan, you
could spend two hours watching the game to potentially have an umpire waving his arms
to be the last the last action of the game. So yeah, you
get games twenty five thirty minutes shorter or whatever it's going to be. But
I don't know, in a game like that, it's not worth it to
me. Hopefully we don't ever see it. So Andrea Lipstis had a home
run, So Casey Schmidt has hit everything. He's got a home run,
a couple of doubles, RBIs and I don't know. I'm recording this on
Tuesday, so there might be a lot more stuff that happens by the time
you hear me talking about this here. My calculations are correct. When this
baby hits handy eight miles per hour. Here, I gotta see some serious
shit. Do one more question here. This one actually comes from my wife,
the president of the Handy Dandies, wants to know why all of the
questions I answer or appeared to be from women. I hadn't really noticed that,
but she was right. I didn't really know what to tell her.
I guess the ladies just love to go b side. I just got some
mink. Well, you want to work in this minute, Okay to Miami
Marlins, have mercy on our souls. Trying to find a hitter that is
owned in a few percent of leagues that you liked from the Marlins. I
mean, tell me a hitter that's owned a lot in the Marlins system that
you liked less to say, it's been a struggle. Well, I was
never really expecting to hit on a Marlin and we haven't. Our first selection
was d L Burgos b U R. G Os. Now, this is
another player who tore the ship out of the DSL twenty nineteen. He hit
three eighty two, four eighty one, slugged seven twenty five with nine home
runs in thirty six games. He was with the Cardinals at that time.
And the Marlins made a trade for him, traded Austin Dean for Burgos.
So again, coming out of twenty twenty, not a lot of other ideas,
this was our choice. I believe he was owned and like one percent
of leagues at that time, and he's now owned in one percent of leagues.
I believe he just turned twenty two years old. He's a left handed
bat six one two o seven. Despite playing some A ball in two thousand
twenty one, he did not reach that level again this season, only playing
some rookie ball and after that scorching DSL since he's come over to the States
and it hasn't been good. He actually came over in twenty nineteen. That's
why his DSL stint was a little short. You know, that's always an
exciting time when a guy gets moved from the DSL to the States in the
middle of the season. But like I said, it's been struggle bus.
He started out two twenty one in a ball and he struck out thirty five
percent of the time. I don't know if he's hit above two hundred at
all, and he hasn't been back up since. He had a twenty nine
percent k rate in two twenty two, he's another player who's scouting Gray.
It's just kind of baffle me. Future fifty fives in places and things like
this, and I don't know. I don't have any faith that that's going
to get there, but maybe that's premature of me. I also don't think
i've seen him because his a ball stint. In twenty twenty one, I
don't believe there was any broadcast games regardless. We moved on after one year,
and I still didn't have any good Marlin ideas. So I found a
friend, a friend who watches a lot of games employ and he suggested to
me Bennett Hostetler, who was a two twenty one, eighteenth round pick out
of North Dakota State. He signed for sixty K, but he did play
some a ball that year and was actually named by MLB dot Com. I
think an organizational All Star. Twenty twenty three will be his twenty five year
old season, so he was an older guy when he was drafted. He's
a right hand hitter, listed at six foot two hundred pounds. You'll also
see him listed as a short stop, but he is no longer a shortstop.
Primarily caught and DH this past year in HIGHA, and that seems to
be where he will be playing here on out. But after his draft he
made some noise. He slugged four eighty one in A ball and then five
hundred in High A. But then this past season he only hit two thirty
two with a three eighteen on base and slugged only three fifty eight with nine
home runs. Now, given where House Stetler's played, it's hard to get
a good look at him Beloit broadcast, but it's from like a press box.
But I don't think this was a bad call by my friend. He's
a skilled guy. He's athletic. You know, he's not Bo Jackson,
but he's an athletic guy, good size, strong, has a good arm,
and he can swing a bat. I know his numbers weren't very good
this year, but I can't help but think that some of that had to
play into him moving to catcher. There's a lot to learn move into that
position, not to mention learning how to get beat up some You know,
clearly the House Stetler isn't a guy that we need to be owning in any
leads. Despite the lack of production, his strikeout rate did drop significantly to
like twenty percent, So I don't know, just kind of a guy that
I'm going to keep in the back of my mind. Sometimes catchers show up
in the big leagues. Quote no name, catchers show up in the big
leagues at like twenty seven, twenty eight years old. Who knows. Maybe
House Stettler is one of those guys. Obviously, a lot of that will
depend on how he's progressed defensively as a catcher, and I have no idea
what that report is. Well, my friends suggested him because his biggest selling
point, if you will, was that he made loud contact and some of
the looks that I've seen I don't disagree with that. He can hit the
ball hard. But regardless, we had to move on, and I was
glad to move on because I actually finally found him. Marlin, I am
a little bit excited about. I think Bigfoot is blurry. That's the problem.
It's not the photographer's fault. And that's Javier Sonoya, who played some
second base, third base, in center field in twenty twenty two at low
A. Believe this will be his twenty year old season. He's a right
hand hitter, not a very big guy, five to nine one hundred and
fifty pounds, and I probably would say that's accurate. So twenty nineteen international
free agent out of Venezuela. Now, he started off the season in low
A and I think he struggled at least that's what the numbers say, got
sent back down to rookie ball. But then when he came back, he
hit two eighty four three twenty two on basse slugged four oh eight with three
home runs and eight stolen bases. Now, there was very little to see
if Sonoya. Maybe a couple of series, so another very small sample selection.
It was hard not to like this kid. It seems to play hard
and have fun, joking around with the second baseman after stealing bases, hammered
up with the catcher, things of that nature. But there might be a
good hitter in here. His swinging strike rate was seven percent. Gotta like
that. His k rate was eleven and a half percent. Gotta like that.
Now he looks in control up there, he's and he's another young guy
I think is swinging it, and he swings and he doesn't miss, And
to be honest with you, I'm not really sure I even liked the look
of his swing. Mechanically, but it was hard to tell. But he
strikes me as a hitter who will that will get the most out of himself
at the plate, you know, almost like Alex Bregman gives me that is
that you know, gives me that feel. Sonoia's numbers on the season won't
blow you away or anything like that, but there might be some legit contact
skills here that kind of just started to find themselves the second half of the
season. Also, a guy I forgot to mention perusing some semi public Baseball
Savant data. Surprisingly, he had some high exit velocities that I was not
expecting. So we'll see where they start him off. But Javier Senoia a
player we're going to pay attention to, at least in the beginning of the
season. Then our Marlin's pitching selection is Luis Palacios, who the same friend
I mentioned earlier had suggested to me or had brought up to me a couple
of seasons ago, sharing that this guy's command was extremely impressive. Ironically,
I think Pelasios has maybe fallen out of my friend's favor a little bit while
I have gotten more interested. But that might also be because I finally got
a chance to see him. Polacios is currently rastered in four percent of fantracks.
Leagues believe this will be his twenty two year old season six two lefty.
I don't know. He's good size. They haven't listed at one sixty.
I'll take the over. He's a twenty sixteen international free agent out of
Venezuela tracking. He went three levels this year, a high A and then
got two double A starts in at the end of the year. His splits
are pretty even. And this is a command guy, A softer tossing lefty
command guy, which I know the fantasy world hates. But I also think
there's more soft tossing lefty success stories than the fantasy world likes to admit,
and they do come into play fantasy wise guy. What I didn't say anything
when right now, I'm sorry, I don't listen to me spaced out all
day. From what I've gathered, Platios has three pitches, a fastball,
changeup, and a breaking ball. I think the breaking ball is crossed between
a slider and a curve. And like I said, command is the name
of his game. Now, Placios did get hit up, but I don't
think he gets squared up that often. I mean, there's some home runs,
but see a lot of soft singles, and pitchers can live with that.
As you know, I will value skills on the command and execution end
of the pitching spectrum, probably more so than the most folks analyzing pitchers for
fantasy purposes, simply because the stuff could potentially get coached up. Placios had
one hundred and twenty four strikeouts in one hundred and thirty one in two thirds
any in the lower levels. He had a one point one five whip,
but a four point one seven er A. Now, the runs were coming
less as the season progressed, and he's not Maybe what I said before isn't
quite totally accurate, saying that he didn't get squared up because he didn't kind
of give up a lot of home runs. If his command is great or
as good as they say, perhaps learn to stay off the middle of the
plate will get a little easier. Let's just see if the stuff can get
a little bit more bite and see if you can ride the much rarer and
harder to find skills into a big league job. Sure he'll be pitching upper
levels this year, and we'll get to find out pretty quick if we should
continue paying attention to Louise Palacios or not. All right, let's talk about
a more exciting organization, one that has been a B side heater for us,
the Atlanta Braves. Our initial selection was von Grissom. Don't quite know
the ownership rate at the time of putting the list together, but a few
months later in July, he was owned in two percent of leagues season and
a half in an offseason later. Just looking like he's going to be an
everyday player for the Braves, or at least competing for that. He's owned
in darn near every league. Now, we don't need to get into him
too much. He was an eleventh round pick in twenty nineteen out of high
school. You know, it's funny some of these sort of blind dart rookie
league shots that we took that season, there were many more with better looking
numbers than Grissom's. Granted he was probably about a year younger than some of
them, but at eighteen years old, he hit two eighty eight three sixty
one, slept four hundred in complex ball, hit three home runs in forty
four games. Twenty twenty seemed to be good for him. He came out
as a twenty year old and eight ball hit three eleven four h two four
forty six five home runs. But the thing about Grissom is he until he
reached the bigs, his strikeout rate never got above fifteen percent, and like
many young hitters, the power came on a little bit later. Now I'm
skeptical if he will ever hit for a ton of home runs, but it
is part of his game. He is capable. I mean he hit five
and forty one games in the majors. It's von Grissom definitely one of our
success stories. Going into last season, we went with Justin Henry Malloy,
who we talked about last week. He's now with the Tigers. No,
I don't hate BA Ball, but I paid a fool. His ownership raid
is up to thirty percent. It was that one percent when he came onto
the list. So this season when it came time, I rolled the dice,
so to speak, and went with the first year player. Unsure how
that would totally work out, if that was cheating on my part or not,
but I went with Ignacio Nacho Alvarez, who was their fifth round pick
in the twenty twenty draft and played some a ball near the end of the
year. Ignast, we are wristling in a sacred place, okay, or
friends, listen to me. Listen to Ignacio. I know it. It's
fun to rissom spiral right to the face or a bunch to the phase,
but you cannot do it because it is in the Bible not to wrestle your
neighbor. Back in November when I made my list, Natural was owned in
two percent of leagues. He is now up to seven percent. It's a
little tricky going into first year player draft season. He seems to have gotten
some fans. Can't say that I blame them. To give you an idea,
though, Spencer Jones even when Fantraks just turned their leagues over, so
I'm sure they're you know, their initial leagues are all dynasty leagues. But
Spencer Jones was owned in thirty percent of leagues at that time. So give
or take the most popular to maybe even like second tier first year player guys
are always going to start off around twenty five thirty percent. So I'm still
gonna call Natural very much a B side, but our next iteration will probably
have to replace them. But Nato. I mean, for one, I
always find it interesting when a team will play a teenage year their draft year.
Natur was a California prep who played one year of junior college, which
is also proving to be an interesting demographic to check out for endeavors like ours.
There's a nineteen year old right hand hitter listed at six foot, one
hundred and ninety pounds. I think maybe I mentioned this, but he was
drafted in the fifth round, signed for five hundred K. Listening to the
Baseball America podcast about the Braves top ten, they had mentioned forgive me,
I don't remember who it was, but whoever cover that area for BA had
asked about that area and any duco players that we needed to know about,
and no one seemed to mention Natro And I don't know about you, but
I pay attention to what the Braves do in their system. I'm not sure
there's a system I'd rather one of my pitching investments to be in than the
Braves. Just watching some of their young guys in the lower levels, the
way they go about their business. I very much appreciate talking about pitching to
development and talking about working on perhaps your weakest elements as a pitcher in games.
As think there's a prudence to how a lot of them go about their
business. And I don't think there's a coincidence that they have done well hitting
wise. They do something pretty well. They've had some success, you know,
Like we talked about Grissom, Michael Harris, Austin Riley. Now I
understand Riley was a first round pick, but he was a what later round
or supplemental round prep, you know, Michael Harris, he wasn't a nothing
prep but a third rounder, you know, point being some success, There
was some prep hitters and natural being a fifth round pick, that's not a
nothing. But considering that none or very few other MLB teams were on him,
it's a bit of an out of the box choice. And we're into
that sort of thing around here. But more importantly than all that stuff was
watching NATO's fifteen inch games down in Augusta. I can see what the Braves
were interested in. Knows how to hit the ball when it gets deep on
him already has a knack of fuel for that. Fifty percent of his bad
at balls went opposite field? Now does that me? And that he struggles
to catch up to velocity I don't think so. Stample size again very small,
but I didn't get that feeling. It would have liked to have known
the velocity on a couple of the fastballs that he hit, though, but
wasn't privy to that. But nato A, he's a solid guy. Put
some swings on balls outside hands, bad head going to the ball, staying
real nice and balanced, so him waste a couple into the gap. He's
a player who walked like twice as much as he struck out in junior college,
which whatever junior college, but it very much seems to be the kind
of hitter he might turn into. Seemed to have great song awareness. I
had wondered because of Fangraft's speed rating, which I have no idea what that
is or how that's calculated, or what that means. If he was fast,
I don't think he is. I don't know why he had the highest
speed rating out of all the B sides. Additionally, he gets really good
reviews. Defensively played shortstop anther bass, which is interesting because the little bit
out of defense that I saw I was like, I don't know about this.
He seemed to have a very odd and throwing motion to me, almost
like shot Putty, but evidently he has a really strong arm. You know,
people can talk about line drives with him or ground I don't care about
any of that stuff right now. I think we're talking legit, good looking,
real hitter Clay in the system. I very much trust. In his
brief stint, Natur had a five point eight percent swinging strike rate. He
hit two ninety four with a four ninety three on base percentage, and slugged
three seventy three. He did not hit a home run. Well, he
hit a home run in rookie ball. I think there's a compact efficient swing
there. Energy transfers well enough. I bet we see some home runs from
Natur this year, and we'll definitely be watching initially for our Braves picture.
I was gonna go with Luis Day of Vila, who I reviewed for Prospect
Picture list and review. Smaller size lefty who's already been on like three different
teams, but a three pitch command guy who really not very excited about in
a fantasy sense. But I really kind of wanted to pay attention and will
pay attention to him because he's going to talk about the end of the pitching
spectrum. He is far from the end with really good stuff. I think
he has very mediocre to below average stuff, but he's a good pitcher,
so he's almost just like a little case study for me. Let's see how
far this guy could go with maybe some limited tools. But in twenty four
games started, one hundred and twenty six and one third innings in High A,
he had a three four nine r, a one point two seven win,
one hundred and twenty nine strikeouts to forty five walks. It comes out
as a fifteen point eight percent kine his walk per nine, and he was
getting even better down the stretch. Now, I know we've talked about some
pitchers who has some good ends of their seasons and one thing. I don't
want to blow this out of proportion, but I think something we should note.
At the end of the season, and you get a lot of promotion,
right, but it's not like these lineups are chuck full of all these
new guys just coming up to a new level. Well, you will get
a few in there, it's not anything that makes me think that the improvements
by these pitchers at the end of the season are because of that. But
if you're purely just like stats scouting, you know maybe their era is a
little bit better because of it. So let me stay of Ela. I
mean I just talked to him, I just talked about him, but I
decided to go with another first year player after noticing that his ownership rate is
only at three percent. And we're, you know, well into first year
player draft season, and that's Adam Mayor Or is it Meyer or Mayor m
A I E R. Bamboo backs it or tan backs hit wicker backs hit
accept. Yeah. So that's one of the two words that Derry can't say,
right, is the ollen Derek. Yeah, Derry can't say that we're
breakfast either. He was the Braves seventh round pick this draft out of Oregon.
I will not pretend to have watched a bunch of him because there isn't
a lot to watch. So Mayor came down from Canada to pitch in the
Cape what would that be the summer of two twenty one, and he turned
a lot of heads. He has a potential cheat code slider and a changeup
that isn't too shabby either. I want to say, is fastball velocity?
I think they report is at like ninety three or something like that. But
he has or may have an optimal release point. So, like I said,
he wiled a lot of people in the Cape, and just like a
lot of the college pitchers, we were anticipating good seasons from in twenty twenty
two, Mayor got hurt. I think he only got like fifteen innings in
at Oregon. And what's also precarious about this is he decided to have the
internal brace surgery or implant or whatever instead of having Tommy John. I imagine
the young man had very good reasons for choosing that. I don't know anything
about it. He should be pitching this season. I don't know what level.
He's listed at six foot two hundred and three pounds. He's a righty,
and yes, he was a seventh round draft pick, but he's signed
for one point two million dollars because he has first round stuff. We could
be talking three legit, legit weapons. There's a fantastic interview with him and
Jeff Ponts on Prospect Live YouTube, and for me, it's interesting because he's
very much, or potentially very much on the other end of the spectrum from
the other pitcher I've been taking. And I talked about Adam Maser well,
I mean, I can't even say that. I don't I have not seen
Mayer enough to know if what the command is like, seen some videos from
the Cape and some from Oregon that interview, and read some reports. But
for his price in first year player drafts, what do you got to lose?
I mean, talent wise, I don't think he's very different from guys
going much much higher than him. I'm sure if you don't want to mess
around with the injury stuff, I understand. But Adam Meyer, we are
two twenty three Braves B side pitching selection, and I can't wait to watch
him pitch this year, especially if he's in August at a start, because
they have a great angle to watch. The Philadelphia Phillies not quite as barren
as the Marlins system as far as bats over the recent years, but nonetheless
a little tricky to find an unpopular bat with some excitement. Our initial selection
back in two thousand twenty one was Marcus Lee Say, who was a twenty
nineteen eleventh round pick PREP choice out of the state of Maryland, signed for
four hundred and forty K. I think the story was another athletic potential power
speed upside. I think did some things in rookie ball his draft year a
very brief stint two twenty one. He had a pretty nice run in Complex
ball and then got a brief A ball promotion where he hit just two twelve
and slugged less than three hundred. Then at that point, entering two thousand
twenty two, like we talked about during the Al West episode, I decided
to go with the Idyl Sanchez instead, who was obviously traded to the Angels.
But this past season, Marcus Lee saying he didn't blow the doors out
during an eighty four game single A assignment, but he earned a three week
promotion towards the end of the season. He hit nine home runs total just
one in High A, and stole nineteen bases. But he didn't strike out
about thirty percent. And he's a lefty who doesn't seem to hit lefties very
well yet. Anyways, excuse me. Maybe he hit eleven home runs,
but all of his home runs were against right hand pitchers. But it was
interesting. I saw he got into a Major league spring training game today.
I don't think he did anything, but this will be his age twenty two
season. I wouldn't be surprised if we see him around a little bit.
Don't have a very good feel for him, as there's still been very little
of him to see on video, and I don't recall what picture I was
watching for Jersey Shore, but an outfielder by the name of Andrew Pineda caught
my attention. Do it, you'll just make a list. Pineda is currently
owned in zero percent of leagues. He's twenty years old, another left handed
bat, decent sized kid. He's listed at six one hundred and sixty five
pounds. I would take the over on that, and I also caught win
that and he put on some significant muscle this offseason. Here's a twenty eighteen
international free agent signed out of Venezuela, and his two twenty two numbers aren't
impressive looking on the season both stops combined, he hit two oh six with
a three oh one on base percentage and sled to three thirty nine. But
I liked the look of him at the plate and went down a rabbit hole
with him in the video. Now, granted again, there isn't a ton
to see, but a decent amount from a ball and man, he just
seemed very unlucky to me, which you know, might make a little bit
more sense why a guy who hit two nineteen and a ball got a promotion.
His babbif in Hia was two fourteen, and I saw an interview with
him after he hit a walk off or something like that game winner, Big
game, whatever it was, I don't remember, but he was speaking about
how frustrated he had been and how good that felt, because he felt like
he was doing a lot of things right, but just having a lot of
unlucky outcomes. The last hitter I can remember seeming this kind of unlucky was
Casey Schmidt back in twenty twenty one in San Jose. But looking at some
semi public savant stuff and you see a lot of high exit velocities, And
before promotion to High A, he did have a twenty five game stretch in
Low A where things started to go his way. He hit three eighteen with
a four or four on base percentage and slept five to eleven. There's some
swing of miss. He's aggressive, but I think he has a pretty good
strike zone awareness, and I don't think the chase seemed too high, but
again, not a ton of looks. The strikeout rate was about twenty six
twenty seven percent, which is not ideal. And now we don't get great
camera angles, like you don't usually get to see the right fielder start his
route. But man, he made some really impressive diving defensive plays that I
saw. I mean I saw because they were like highlights that came with the
game. I wasn't trying to watch him play defense. But maybe they weren't
great reads off the ball and didn't need to be diving plays. But strikes
me as a pretty athletic, can run, can move outfielder. I happen
to know he has his fans within the organization, which you know who doesn't,
otherwise they wouldn't be there. He might be more of like a line
drive pole hitter at this point, better at hitting the ball out in front,
But I don't know. I think there might be a potentially more exciting
player than sort of meets the stat lin's eye here. You know, twenty
years old playing in High A. Let's see what Leandro Pineda does this season.
And then our Phillies B side selection is Noah Scurrow, who is owned
in three percent of leagues. He's a twenty four year old right hander.
I've seen him listed at sixty three and also six but I'm gonna guess he's
probably six foot, but I don't know. Strong, good sized guy,
solid two hundred and fifteen pounds, and part of the reason why he might
be a little bit under the radar is he was one of these two thousand
and twenty undrafted free agents out of Liberty University via Canada. Squirrel will be
playing for Team Canada in the WBC. What a great day, fucknadiens everywhere,
Winnipeg Drummers playing the March of a thousand foughts as his traditional for the
Canadian Royal Family. He pitched ninety nine Double A innings before promotion to Triple
A for four starts. Now he had a four point six five r A
with a one point four one whip in Double A, which isn't great.
I believe hitters hit like two seventy off of him, as he watched less
than three per nine, but the babbit was three fifty eight against him.
He struck out one hundred and fifteen during those ninety nine Double A innings and
had a pretty nice four game stretch in Triple A where he gave up seven
runs and twenty one innings and struck out eighteen walked nine Skirrel might have an
interesting mix of offerings here. Now. His fastball velocity is low nineties,
but I suspect he's got a nice release point and all that stuff. Because
his fastball up in the zone it's hard for hitters to square up or touch
at all. We've seen some of these guys of late and the miners with
the low nineties fastball that plays really well up in the zone. He also
has a nice looking, more traditionally shaped curveball, fairly firm. I'm not
sure the velocity on it, but it's not one of these slow seventy mile
per hour deals or whatever. And there's also a slider that I don't know.
It's almost cutter ish. No, that's not totally right, but point
being, I think he's got three different speeds there in the north South game.
With that fastball and that curveball seems to play fairly well for him.
His biggest bugaboo is the whole thing might be missing an ingredient. I don't
think he throws a change up. I did not see him, but I
also did not watch a whole time. And as he needs to be better
against lefties, left he's got him pretty good, but we'll see. Maybe
that's something in progress. I saw he pitched an inning the other day in
spring training. I don't think we need to go out and be grabbing our
Noah scuro shares, but an arm that might be entering or close to the
bigs who'll keep a little eye on, at least to start the season.
And who knows, maybe if he's progressed a little bit and shows up making
a spot start or something like that, and you need a streamer at least,
you know a little bit something about Noah Scurrow now if you didn't already.
Oh and I wanted to mention about scurrows fastball, you know, for
a guy who only throws ninety two and has a fastball that has to play
up in the zone or is more effective up in the zone. Maybe it's
just me, but I always wonder about home runs being a problem. But
he's done well there, at least up till now. We'll see as hitters
get a little better. But he has kept home runs down to under one
per nine innings. So yeah, I don't know. I found that a
little interesting. The New York Metropolitans yet to give us a B side win
because frankly, our first two years selections just didn't give us much to even
look at. Our initial selection was Blaine McIntosh. Don't really know why.
If I remember correctly, we were having a hard time trying to identify met
that first list, and McIntosh was a two nineteen thirteenth round pick Tennessee Prep.
The story was a big, impressive athletic guy. He's listed at six
to four, one hundred and eighty. He's still owned in one percent of
leagues, and rightfully so. He'll turn twenty two this season. Left handed
bat. I don't think his initial two nineteen little rookie ball stint was anything
impressive statistically, and then in twenty twenty one he struck out forty five percent
of the time in seventeen rookie ball games. Twenty twenty two, he hit
two thirty one, slugged three eighty five and thirty three rookie games, and
was promoted to a ball where he hit three hundred, zero home runs and
struck out forty percent of the time and just nine games, none of which
were broadcast. Then he was hurt and shut down for the rest of the
year. So I don't know. I've never seen him play baseball. I
think there's a legit question out there if he can really hit, but maybe
we see him around, maybe we don't. I had moved on anyways heading
into twenty twenty two and went with what would have been a first year player
in Kevin Kendall, who was the Mets twenty twenty one seventh round pick out
of UCLA. He's currently owned in one percent of leagues. He had first
caught my attention watching some Ucla in two and twenty. No, that's not
right. Maybe it was had to have been before it all got shut down.
He's a really athletic kind of leadoff type hitter. It's a short stop,
but moved off because Matt McClain was there and played center field. And
after the draft he tore up a ball and you know, obviously a shorter
stint. Hit three twenty seven, four twenty one with a four to fifty
one slug hit, a home run, stole eight basses in thirty one games.
Kendall seems to be what I would call a legit fast guy, a
legit burner who's proving he can play up the middle, in the dirt or
in the outfield as a pro. He's been splitting time between second pace and
shortstop. But the phrase as a pro hasn't been very long because he missed
pretty much the entirety of the twenty twenty two season with injury, getting only
three games in at the very end, but the Mets did send him to
the AFL to make up for some time. I think he flashed some of
his contact and speed skills there. He hit a home run. The numbers
weren't super remarkable, hit like two hundred or something like that, but not
going to take too much out of a small stint there from a guy who's
just getting back from some injury and perhaps playing at the highest level he has
yet you know, he held his own a little bit there. So Kendall
will turn twenty four this season, hasn't played above a ball yet, but
regardless, still interested to see. I mean, really his career gets started.
But there could be an interesting skill set here, you know, maybe
something like a very poor man's sail frelic. Probably less home run ability,
but not a guy that I'm done paying attention to yet, and he would
have continued to be our B side. Met up they ran into another player
that caught my interests, and that's junior Tillian, who was a teenager playing
in a ball this year, currently owned in one percent of leagues. He's
a right hand hitter, listed at six one two o two. He's a
twenty nineteen international free agent out of the Dominican and there's more of him to
see the most in that league because Saint Lucy does broadcast. Another player who's
season stat line won't jump off the page at you, but entering August he
was slashing two sixty one three oh six four fifty seven with eleven home runs.
He slowed down after that and spent some time on the IL, ending
this season at two forty eight three twelve four oh six. He struck out
less during his cold streak and was at about twenty three percent on the season.
Now, the twelve home runs, it's a little interesting because five of
them came in two games. But sneaking some semi public savant data, Tillian
hits the ball hard to all fields. Another guy stacking multiple hundred plus EV
games. His pool rate was just a tad under forty, and I saw
him hit some missiles opposite field. Tillian worked his way up to Saint Lucy's
three whole hitter. He played shortstop two thirds of the time and second base
to rest. Strong guy, strong kid, solid lower half, and probably
some room to grow as well. And to be honest, he really kind
of reminds me a lot of a pirate that we talked about a few episodes
ago, Daria Lopez, except Tillian strikes me as a more capable defender,
which I know is Lopez's big knock or one of probably his biggest. So
Junior Tillian could be a sneaky guy to keep an eye on this season.
If he's twenty years old and high A, hitting the ball this hard and
improving on some of the swing of mass and some of the chase, he
could be putting up some big numbers. Very cool. Then our Mets pitching
choice is Jeff free Cologne, who's currently owned in zero percent of leagues.
He was a twenty eighteen international free agent out of the Dominican Believe. He
turns twenty three years old this season. Like June, listed at six one,
one hundred and seventy, his season didn't get started until June. He
threw forty seven and a third innings in a ball and twenty five and a
third innings in HIGHA with an era of three two three in a ball and
one point zero seven in HIGHA. He walked less than two and a half
per nine on the season and never walked more than two in an outing.
Strikeouts weren't super bountiful, but did start to rack up towards the ends of
both of his stops. He had twenty two strikeouts in his last sixteen and
a third innings pitched in High A. Now, I don't know if he
was coming back from injury or what the story was, but seemed to be
a guy whose pitchcounts were kind of ramping up as a season progressed. He
made several relief appearances, extended relief appearances, but a guy who seemed to
be working up. His last start of the year, he went seven innings.
Now, granted it was on sixty eight pitches. He struck out eight
that outing, giving up only three hits. That performance was against a questionable
Winston Salem lineup White Socks affiliate. Like we had talked about an AL Central
episode, they had moved a lot of guys up to Double A. But
regardless of all that, cologne strikes me as having some pretty dang good execution
in command of his pitches and looking at some semi public savant stuff from his
from his a ball stint fastball can get up to about ninety four ninety five,
probably sits a few miles per hour lower. But he throws a four
steamer, a two steamer, a cutter, a curveball, a changeup,
and maybe even a slider. Don't know if the slider and curveball just kind
of blend together. And now he has all of those pitches. But seemed
to me in the handful of games that I watched some of which makes a
lot of sense. He isn't out there like throwing all of these offerings all
the time. But you're hard pressed to find Cologne throwing a non competitive pitch.
Yeah it's good now. Of course, I don't know if any of
his offerings is like plus or exceptional, but sure seems like some of all
parts sort of guy and if you can execute like I think he was showing,
and you know, who knows, maybe some of the arsenal ticks up.
Might be an interesting guy that we see pitching in the upper levels this
season, says Jeffrey Cologne. Oh and I almost forgot another met B side
who was actually the Padres choice heading into two thousand twenty two and was selected
by the Mets in the minor league portion of this last year's Rule five draft.
And that's Augustine Ruiz, who's a big, strong lefty from Mexico who
was signed by the Padres in the two thousand and sixteen international period. He
spent twenty twenty two playing in Double A and then spent some time on the
development list and went back down to High AS listed at six two, two
hundred and fifteen pounds, but in two twenty one, Ruise hit twenty one
home runs between HIGHA in Double A, most of them in High A.
Struggled a little bit upon him getting promoted towards the end of the season to
Double A. Ruise just struck me as you know, a potential left handed
power bat. Didn't strike me as a very athletic fella, but didn't strike
out much and hit the ball hard and hit some home runs, and was
what twenty one years old at the time, But twenty twenty two did not
hold much progression. Like I said, he started in Double A, where
he hit two thirty seven three fifty two and slept only three eighty two with
two home runs twenty five point three k rate, which was actually a little
bit lower than two twenty one, and all of that in ninety one plate
appearances. Then when he went down to HIGHA, he produced at even a
slightly lesser clip, but did hit home runs and did strike out at his
lowest clip of their career. But I mean, I don't know, is
that impressive after getting sent down the level. I don't know, And I
don't think I watched a lick of him from last season, so I don't
know if the Mets can help Ruise get back to slugging. You know,
maybe there's something interesting to watch here, but until that happens, probably won't
be talking too much about Augustine Ruiz. The Washington Nationals probably the most improved
farm system over the last calendar year or so out there, and the shortest
B side list in baseball. My initial selection Israel Pineda is still my two
twenty three selection, and I believe the only player on the list this year
who has actually made the big leagues. He got a very small, what
weak taste at the end of two twenty two, and yet his ownership rate
is two percent. Pineda has always been liked by the organization. He's a
catcher with a cannon and power, but he had strikeout issues, swinging miss
issues. Well, I think Pineda kind of had a breakout season last year
without much notice. Pineda will be just twenty two years old. He's a
right hand hitter, listed at five eleven, one hundred and eighty eight.
Actually played four levels last year High A, Double A, Triple A in
the BIGS two thousand and sixteen international free agent out of Venezuela signed for four
hundred and fifty thousand. Really pinnatives starting to maybe look like a pretty good
B side selection, But it really was just kind of by happenstance that he
has stuck around on our list just because it didn't have anyone else in the
Nationals that I was into. The bad guys need to get lucky every time.
The good guys just need to get lucky once. Two twenty one was
a rough season. There were way too many strikeouts, but it's ka dropped
by ten percent this last season and the production came. So he started off
the year got sixty seven games in in High A where he hit two sixty
four, which was a huge improvement from his two o eight the year prior
Select four to forty three, and when he got to double A he produced
even even better two eighty three, forty five, thirty eight, striking out
only seventeen and a half percent of the time, eight home runs in low
way and seven and high A. Then he got promoted up to Triple A
for just six games small sample did hit a home run, and then he
played four games in the Bigs. Now, sure they have kuibert ruise,
but he's a still young guy. See how that goes. But Panada,
in his cannon arm, he threw out a very high percentage of base runners
in the low miners, which is impressive to me because pitchers down there suck
at holding base runners on. I know a lot of times you'll hear about
stolen bases in the lowers. That often gets followed up with how the catchers
are very good, but majority of those bases are stolen off of the pitcher
in my opinion, so I think that speaks on how good Panada's arm is.
So sure, maybe he's just a guy trying to position himself for a
backup job right now or in a year or two or something like that,
But man, how volatile is catching. It seems to change quicker than any
other position. So I have a pinada share in a thirty particular league.
I have been chasing catchers and forever. Maybe one of these years I'll just
get a set it and forget it catcher. But can't see him to stop
myself from trading any of the good catching prospects I get there. But Israel,
it seems to me a young man who made huge offensive strides, can
play some defense, should be owned in more than two percent of leagues.
That our Nationals pitcher. There's a guy I just kind of discovered myself this
offseason, and I've I really enjoyed the couple outings I saw, and that
is Pablo Eldonis, who's owned in one percent of leagues. Twenty years old,
another lefty who isn't gonna blow up radar guns. I think it's fastball,
probably ninety three six one, listed at one hundred and sixty pounds.
I'll take the over. He played complex ball and low way past season.
He was a twenty nineteen international free agent out of the Dominican Republic. You're
talking a three pitch guy, fastball, change up, slider and the slider
probably isn't very firm, but it sure gave hitters down there some fits.
And again, it's a guy who probably has good secondaries and can execute them
really well, and that's why he can probably have a lot of success down
there. I think he'll still have to prove his stuff to me along the
way. I did tweet out his six strike out pitches from his A debut,
which was in AUGUSTA and a good angle, So if you want to
check out a look at his stuff, I'm at pitching specs on Twitter.
Aldonas didn't get a lot of innings in this year, twenty six and two
thirds at Rookie Ball thirteen and three starts at a ball. He struck out
thirty three in Rookie Ball sixteen and a ball, but he strikes me as
having some advanced command with all of his offerings. Seemed especially good at putting
his breaking ball on the edges, off the plate, back foot to rights.
We see plenty of guys this age add some v low. Again,
we're talking small sample, but he and Louis Feldez of the Dodgers, who
have spoken about her kind of two of the arms, especially lefties, younger
lefties that I'm most excited to watch beginning of this season. So that's Pablo
eldonas now he isn't a B side because he's owned too much, but Mitchell
Parker is a favorite pitcher of mine in the national system. About Bob Well,
I'm trying to record what is it? What Matt Vogel's mom is on
the phone for me, Ladies and gentlemen. We got him all right?
Well we survived the NL East. I might have to take two showers after
that, Muddon, But I don't know. Natro's interesting. Adam Mayor,
I'm really excited to see have your Sonoya might be a fun high contact guy
to pay attention to. Pablo eldonas Kevin Kendall, Junior, Tillion Leandrew Pineta.
The Woye seems to be one B side hitter who kind of blows up
big that I did not really anticipate. We'll see if the NL East can
do it this year. Next week we will get into our last divisional deal
and discuss the AL East. I think that one might be more exciting than
I believe. We have two weeks until the season starts, hoping to have
a guest on. I think that's in the works and gonna go down,
maybe do a little bit of spring training review, checking on some B sides,
playing, maybe doing some things that I might take a week off before
the season starts, or get another guest regardless, thanks again for hanging out
with me for a little bit here. Let Chicago Farmer do his thing,
be well and talk to him Monday. Riding to his head, he hopped
down the first with the lump on his face, and on the very next
pitch he up and stole second face with greatst beat. He wasn't born,
but he had a daddy. Yes uniform