Not five miles an hour. Ratting to his head, he hop down first
with the lump bonius face, and on the very next pitch he up and
stole second face with gretest be he wasn't born, he had yes uniform.
Welcome to the thirty second edition of Prospect B Sides. I am May the
rook be with you. We are in the month of May. Had to
have a little Star Wars shout out in there for my nerd friend, the
Muddy b Side original himself. Ate Handy, how's it going? Not too
bad. It's mighty windy outside tonight, so I'm I'm hunkered down in my
garage, just listening to things rattle around me. But hopefully we stay online
and then good standing here with the interworld. Yeah, the wind can get
you in. I think we were talking about this a couple of weeks ago,
but it's been pretty windy, and I don't know if you've noticed that
and some of your film washing. I've even heard some broadcasts mention how much
windier it seems like it's been. I know the Midwest League heard that on
a couple of broadcasts. Definitely out here in the Northwest. I heard it
on a broadcast for a Hillsborough game the other day, and I don't know
if you saw this, Travis Bazana had himself a hell of a weekend against
the old Washington State Cougars. And I'm pretty familiar with that ballpark. As
you might recall, Travis Bazana, left handed hitting, top prospect. You
know, he's very much a pretty boy from Australia. He was using what
we used to call the jet stream because the way that the wind blows at
Bailey Brayton Field, it is either directly out to right field or sort of
out to right field every time, like that's the only way that the wind
blows consistently. And he hit an absolute tank against the Koogs. I think
that that was Sunday or maybe this Saturday. It was one of the weekend
games, and I was like, oh, yeah, I've seen that ball
get hit there quite a few times. But even with that, you know,
like I'd seen an Ike Davis homer that was absolutely majestic out to right
field before, but I think Bazanas was just as impressive. So yeah,
he's what he's uh, using that wind out here pretty well. I think
you get what five home runs this weekend something like that or this week,
and I think he hit I think he hit like another one today, even
like he's on a streak. Did you ever take advantage of that jet stream?
I did. I mean I was a writing and so like that's gone
to Opo for me. But I hit a couple out to right field.
Yeah, yeah, one one I remember against I can't remember the pitcher's name.
He was a lefty for Oregon State at the time. I uh,
actually put a really good pitch. I want to say it was even a
two strike pitch, maybe fastball down in a way and I put it up
in the jet stream. Like I didn't hit great, but I put it
up in the air enough and had enough of the launch angle that it got
out. I mean it barely got out, I think. But it was
Opo Homer, And I remember feeling pretty good about that one. I was
like, pretty good piece of hitting, man. I didn't usually get to
say that. My good pieces of hitting was like I found the four hole
and the other way damn shot. Yeah, you know, so that one
was pretty good. What would you say is like, was your max distance
on a home run? You think max distance? I hit one at Stanford
that I think might have been my farthest. I hit one. Yeah,
I hit one at home at WSU that off of Arizona State's Friday Night Guy.
He loved to like pitch fastballs up and in and I was like sitting
on it because we had a pretty good scouting report on him that year.
And I hit a real pank out to left field, but again because it
was pulled, so it was like probably not quite as far as this one
at Stanford that I hit out to almost straightaway centerfield and got pretty far out,
but like I didn't have great power, certainly not elite. And at
our Park the wind was often working against the US righty's, so the lefties
at at our Park definitely fared better when they when they turned on one nice.
I enjoy when I get you get a little bundy and yeah, and
talk about some of your past accomplishments. What are we going to talk about
this week, Matt? I think we have a little a rhythm going.
I think I mean we've got you as usual. Didn't quite do your homework
and got distracted by some dumb pictures, and so we'll focus on some of
those pictures. I'm sure our main focus today is We're going to scour some
leaderboards kind of we're about a month into the big part of the minor league
season. There are some surprising leaders in some categories, some others that are,
you know, maybe more expected. But we're going to look at both
pitching and hitting and just kind of highlights some guys that we think it's interesting,
or maybe ones that we've seen one way or the other kind of performing
well or maybe not performing as well. Just highlight some of those guys,
and then, you know, stick around to the end. Nate's got some
hidden wisdoms to drop, and I think he's going to save it to the
very very end. And then of course we'll preview the week upcoming, which
is one of my favorite things where Nate tells us who to watch because he's
just got impeccable taste as to what the best matchups are going to be.
So stick around to the end for that. But I think that's the rough
order show. Did I miss anything? No, Yeah, we'll talk a
little bit about some prospects whose roster percentages are trending up, as we usually
do towards the end. That's right, And then I think you're also going
to kick us off with quick look at some B sides this offseason. What
we started in what like October, Matt I think it was. And Matt
and I scoured video and spreadsheets and picked out picture and a hitter from every
organization that was rostered at that time two to one to zero to not create
it yet in the fan tracks percentage and kind of pegged them with someone to
watch that might get a little bit more popular. So after a month of
the minor league season, Matt I just took a little look at some of
those guys's roster percentages and that leaderboard. Now you took jo Handy Morales as
your national's bat and at the time that he was very different because he was
rostered much higher, especially after first year player Draft season. Yeah, because
I mean when I took him, it was before the off season, so
it was like a lot of pre FYPD. But I was just for highlighting
him as a guy that I hadn't seen. He's on FYPDS, but he
was higher. Yeah. Yeah, he's at the top of the list at
nineteen percent right now. But Matt, I would say that's trending down.
Yeah, I means much more. Yeah, Yeah, do you know do
you have any guests that which of our B sides might be at the top
of this list, or maybe I told you. I don't know. I
think you did, but I already forgot. So my Mariner's arm logan Evans
is that fifteen percent. He wasn't even created yet I first talked about him,
So that's a pretty significant jumping popularity, I think. And I watched
his last start, Matt, and you know, we've talked about Evans a
little bit, and wasn't quite sure how how much I was in and how
much I mean excited that this was a guy that has popped for Dynasty owners
that was kind of the point of our exercise, but still had a lot
of reservations after watching him. But I got to say, this last start,
Matt was pretty impressive, and I'm kind of way more on the bus
than like, I have one share and I was thinking about trading it and
I'm not thinking about trading it anymore. Matt, well, that was something
we kind of identified with him as we'd watched him a bit, right as
saying he has this skill set. The slider I think has a plus shape
and movement, and he obviously has some velocity and I think maybe some other
characteristics about his fastball that play well and that stuff gets Dynasty people excited.
I don't know if the Mariners are pretty high on him. Baseball America Jeff
Ponce and the crew were hyping him up and the in spring training. I
think there's a lot of pieces to really like, and seeing a start like
last week, he really did put it together. I mean, the strikeouts
were there, he didn't I don't think he had a walk in that outing,
and it was like he went, he went, We had one hit,
which, if I remember correctly, was kind of a cheapie zero walks,
nine k's sixty two pitches only to go sixty or six innings eighty two
percent straight. You don't see that? Did you watch this one, Matt?
I watched a good bit of it. I didn't watch the whole thing,
but I think I went back after the outing and flipped through kind of
the first four or five innings, and I thought he looked really good,
Like that's the version of him that we'd seen in fits and spurts. Like.
I think that was kind of his first inning in the breakout game.
The spring breakout game looked kind of like this, and you could see why
it's super exciting and awesome to see him do it over a whole start.
But I mean, I think that's the thing with him that I keep calling
him kind of an enigma, is like, I think he's got these starts
in him, but I want to see him string a few of them together
before I really get jazz. But you know, early early signs are quite
positive with you know, watching some of his earlier starts, we noted like
there seemed to be a high percentage of secondaries being thrown and him shying away
from this fastball that was you know, getting a lot of buzz and accolades
to some extent, and I kind of felt like maybe that was intentional.
Maybe there is some some pitching to development going on in those earlier starts,
and this one was you know, him using his weapons fairly well. Now
he's still I think there's still plenty of room for growth in the execution department,
but those two pitches working together are pretty freaking nasty, and him just
you know throwing them executing them decently well or all right, as we saw,
was quite successful. So I'm way more into Evans after watching that start
than I was prior. Also on the top of our B side raster percentage
leader board, third is will Dion your guardian's arm selection, but he is.
He's at seven percent and that's he was higher, So that might not
be trending in the right direction for Dion. I mean, I think part
of it was he got bumped up to triple A and is you know,
starting and results have been kind of undeone. Like so far, he's getting
k's, which is one of the things that we were sort of worried about.
Would his low velocity, kind of deceptive fastball be able to play at
triple A. You know, while the International League is not the PCL,
it's still a tough environment for pitchers, like the run environment is still quite
high. The thing that's been surprising about Dian those he's walking a ton of
guys like he was one that I circled on the International League leader board is
like he's eighth in walks so far, and that's not really like him.
So I'm wondering. I've only watched one of his starts, and even that
I only watched a partial. It didn't look that different to me. So
I'm wondering if this is just a bit of a rough patch, and so
some owners were like, oh, you know, he had a good spring
and he got bumped to triple A. Is he going to get some starts
in Cleveland? And maybe that's why his Brosher percentage was up. And then
the early returns are just okay. And I think Cleveland's rotation is getting healthier
rather than more injured, so the spots might be closing up, so I
can see him being a drop in some of those leagues. Yeah, my
Tiger's arm Jade Hamm is at six percent, that's going to keep going up.
Yeah, I think he's trending up. And then your Royals arm Mason
Barnett, who's off to a pretty good start to the year, is at
six percent, and Caleb Durban, Chandler Simpson and Troy Johnston, three of
your bat selections are at five percent. Small, but yeah, we'll see
what those look like a calendar year after we picked him. But I thought
after a month it was worth just taking a little little peak. We did
have Matt Another b sider hit the big leagues this week, yep, Brett
Harris. And yeah, originally Brett Harris caught my interest. You know,
he's a very good third baseman defensively, question was about his bat and then
he had a little string. I don't know what would that have been.
Twenty twenty two where he started popping home runs made me start to wonder.
Chose him as an A's bat. So he makes his debut right, and
of course someone in a chat room asked me about it. I'm like,
oh, this is my time to shine. Like you know, I know
about Brett Harris. I've watched him plenty. I don't think the bat's going
to be quiet enough to really do much for you fantasy. And then lo
and behold, his first two major league hits were home runs. I mean
I would not expect a lot of that from Brett Harris. Still what he
had three in Triple A this year. Do you have any thoughts on Harris?
Have you have you dug around on Brett Harris at all? Yeah,
And I've owned him in places a couple of my deeper leagues before. I
think he's been a cut in the last six months or a year or so,
so I don't think I have any shares now. But Brett Harris is
sort of a classic B side story where I think he's got good contact,
plays good defense, and so you can see a scenario in which he gets
a decent amount of run on the back of that. You know, I
think they've even had him playing down the defensive spectrum a bit like third base
and stuff, and he's like a pretty decent shortstop. I thought, Yeah,
I saw him a year and a half ago or so. Don't think
the power, certainly, not two home runs a game kind of power is
going to be. I don't know if he's ever hit two home runs in
a game before. Yeah. Yeah, Like he's got that kind of hitter
skill set, lower strikeouts, decent swing decisions that I like in hitters.
I feel like it gives him a good floor. So he's someone that I
do think that Oakland has done a decent job collecting some of these guys,
along with some of their boomer Bus prospects that maybe they've gone after higher in
the drafts. I think they've found a nice collection, either trade or through
development to have some more well rounded bats like Harris or Darryl Hernez or that
kind of bat that I think helps compliment the boomer Bus, like the Lawrence
Butlers and and soder Shrims and they're like, you know, yeah, yeah,
so Harris, it was our seventh B sider to make a debut so
far this season. Hopefully we get some more and the nineteenth ever, So
that's that's always fun to see. Yeah, And Maldonado is another one I
don't think we touched on because he might have debuted right after our last podcast
or something like that. But Anthony Maldonado for Miami. You know, I'd
identified him this offseason as a high leverage reliever, like very high probability,
and that's sort of what he's been, although they actually used him as an
opener in his in his very first start, which is kind of funny,
Like he gets called out, he's I don't think really ever started in the
minor leagues, and then he gets called up and starts on his first his
first game, and he's looked good. I mean, he's he's like to
say yes later in the week. Yeah, I feel like that's something we
should Maybe I'll call up one of my stats buddies and look into that,
because I feel like that's pretty unusual to get a start in your very first
outing despite being a reliever in the minor leagues. And then also get a
save in that very same week. I feel like that's very unusual. So
anyway, he's he looks the same wicked slider, good cutter, and a
nasty sinker with a lot of run. I really like his his profile.
Yeah, I like I even picked him up in a smaller league. That's
my team's not very good and I don't really have any great relievers. So
it's that guy. Let's see what happens here and we'll just hang on to
him. Yeah, let's talk some leader boards. What do you got.
I don't know how you chose to come at this, Nate, but what
I decided to do was look at sort of the raw numbers just to see
what that was going to tell us. You know, like, you can
get some funky stuff when you do rate stats, the surly and guys who
don't play that much or have been on the shelf, you can get some
funky readings this early. But when you look at sort of the raw just
basic stats of strikeouts and walks for pictures, I just think it tells you
something that maybe the eras don't or some of the other noisier stats don't.
So I went through all the leagues and just kind of organized it by league
and just highlighted some guys that popped one way or another. So like,
the strikeouts are good, the walks are bad. This isn't rocket science stuff
here, but it's more of an excuse to talk about some of these guys
that either I've seen or Nate has seen, and the International League so up
in triple A. This is like getting closer to pretty boy territory. A
lot of these guys are going to make the major leagues this year and be
contributors. And some of them are guys that we've talked about starting a little
bit on a downer note, just because I actually have shares of like a
bunch of these guys. These were some of my sleeper starterish arms that I
think we're going to be depth options for this next year. So I sort
of the International League leaderboard for most walks allowed so far, and number one
is Chase McDermott for the Baltimore Oriols puts there and Naffolk I really like is'
he looked great. His last outing actually limited some his walks. I think
he only gave up one or two and struck out eleven. He also shows
up on the leaderboard for the most strikeouts. So he's doing a lot of
striking out or walking people and thus far has a pretty decent ear ray,
partly because the defense behind him has been pretty bad. I'd say, like
he's given up quite a few more runs than he has earned runs. He's
gotten a bit lucky. He's also been kind of hard to hit. You
know, eighteen hits in twenty eight innings, but twenty five walks is so
many night, It's so many. This was has been a problem for him
in the past, and early on his rotation mate Kid Povich has looked a
lot better way, fewer walks and almost as many strikeouts, and so I've
been a little worried that Povich has leave frogged McDermott. Neither really got a
shot at the rotation even as Means was out, so but they're both sort
of knocking on the door. I still like McDermott a touch better, but
I think that gap it's like flip a coin now between him and Povich.
This guy in second in the International League in walks is Lyon Richardson, who's
another guy that I had picked up. Is like, I think this guy's
going to pitch for the Reds. He's got twenty two walks in twenty six
innings and he's been super frustrating. I've tuned into a few of his outings
and it's like three and two thirds innings, six walks, you know,
like he's thrown some real stinkers in there, but he's still striking guys out.
Thirty strikeouts in twenty six innings is still a three eight one era.
Again, I think he's getting even luckier, and he has not looked as
good. To me, McDermott still looks like pretty much the same guy,
just maybe he's been he's had a couple of tough outings where he hasn't been
quite as sharp. Richardson and this other guy I'm going to touch on,
Carlos E. F Rodriguez. They both are like kind of wild in the
bad way where you don't really know where the ball's going. It's it's sort
of consistent wildness rather than sort of start start variance. I'm worried and you
see Carlos Frodriguez. His results have been way worse than Richardson's, but they've
pitched very very similar similarly so far, so I kind of lump them together
as like they're talented arms. They've got some interesting traits, and maybe there's
a starter in here, but both are sort of trending down for me,
just because they haven't been able to corral this walk issue. And it's something
that I'm watching, watching pretty closely up to this point. International League Sam
Roberts is just my He's just my pitching infatuation right now. And so I
was perusing International League Triple A total Triple A leaderboards in the light and I
couldn't help but notice something interesting with Roberts here. He's the only pitcher in
Triple A that's in the top ten in these four metrics. Matt ground ball
percentage he's at fifty two percent, that's seventh in all of Triple A.
He is top ten in K percent now this is qualified qualified pitchers. He's
top ten and K percentage at twenty five point seven percent, that's tenth.
He is fifth in walk percentage at five point one percent, and he's ninth
in swing strike percentage at thirteen point six percent. Now you take those four
ratios filter all of the minor leagues, there's only two other guys doing that,
Zebbie Matthews with the twins who just got promoted to Wichita, and a
pitcher that I'm not real familiar with but has kind of been on top of
some filters and leaderboards. I was looking at Jose Atensio of Fredericksburg the Nationals,
and those guys are at like twenty two innings pitched on the year only
where Roberts is at thirty six. Intriguing, interesting little filter there for Roberts,
I think. And I watched some of his last outing, Matt.
I don't know if you saw any part of it. He gave up a
homer to somebody that I like. Yeah, he gave up a solo home
run, and that was the only thing that stopped him from getting his third
FQO row. But he went six, gave up six hits and just the
one homer, right, So one walk, six k's yeah, ninety three
pitches, sixty two for strikes. You know, we talk about how he
does not have a good fastball, but he has figured out a way to
work with it and get some results from it. The cutter and the slider
led the way. Again. He's getting thirty six percent with on the cutter,
forty five percent CSW. But again I'm just this is my big pitching
crush at the moment, and I'm super curious to see how this might play
in the bigs. One thing that we'll we'll talk about in another of these
leaderboards coming up. Look at Sam Roberts and Christian Scott, who just got
promoted. Guy, I think we both quite like they they're right neck and
neck. You know. Scott thirty six strikeouts to six walks, Roberts thirty
five strikeouts to seven walks. Very similar strikeout to walk raw numbers, and
very different fastball quality, very different fastball qualities. And Scott did that in
twenty five in a third innings and Roberts, as you said, is thirty
thirty five point two too, Yeah, five and two thirds. So what
is that? And I think that one of the next paris of guys that
we'll talk about maybe throws it even into starker relief. But which which of
those is sort of more impressive to you? Maybe a couple of angles,
Like the walk stuff is more impressive from Scott, right because he's pitched more
walked less by the way around Roberts. Roberts pitch more walked less. Oh
oh, okay, you're right, You're right, right, Okay, so
that's more impressive. I'm so like enthralled and interested and curious, but like,
it's super impressive to me that Roberts can do this stuff without a good
fast but with a bad fastball. So from a from a I don't know,
what do you say, pitchability standpoint, that's super impressive to me.
But yeah, I don't know. I think Roberts is just more impressive just
from from this angle. From I don't really have a lean one way or
another, but it's it's something that popped up when I was looking at one
of the other leaderboards in sort of a similar way. Now, do I
think Roberts debuts and is and is as an impressive as Scott was his debut.
No, I don't think so. I wouldn't bet. I just think
it's something it's something for us to keep an eye on because, you know,
looking at the raw numbers, obviously the percentages, Roberts has a much
lower walk percentage than Scott does, even though both are good. But Scott's
strikeout percentage is significantly higher than Roberts. And I think what I would lean
towards is it's more impressive to do what Scott has done. That many more
strikeouts in you know, almost ten fewer innings, I think is slightly more
impressive. However, it's I think it's noticeable and impressive the longer that goes
on, and like, the more you should be impressed by that really low
walk rate as well. And I think that's that's my point, And it's
sort of a transition to talking about a guy you touched on already in Jaden
Hamm just to jump down to the Midwest League real quick, ham has one
of just the very most impressive K minus BB's in all of the minors,
twenty three and two thirds in so far, thirty seven strikeouts to just three
walks. That's like video game level stuff. But the guy who's second in
the Midwest League, I would not have guessed this. If you'd given me
like thirty guesses, I don't think I would have got it. Austin Peterson,
who's a slightly old for level pitcher for Cleveland, is second with thirty
six strikeouts, but he also only has three walks given up. Now he's
done this in thirty four point two thirds innings, so eleven innings more to
get one and a fewer strikeout than him, like him more impressive, but
thirty four and two thirds innings and he's only given up three walks Like that
has me pretty intrigued, and especially after some decent interesting stuff last year too.
Like I don't know, I just think there's Austin Peterson is not a
guy that was on my radar, and it's worth kind of monitoring a guy
like that who's showing that kind of command. It's at high he's older for
the level, but I kind of don't care as much for pictures, and
so that was another one I just wanted to bring up. It's sort of
the same thing with like, Okay, you said that Roberts was more interesting
to you, Well, Austin Peterson is kind of doing the same thing,
albeit at a lower level to like the more pretty boy Ham Scott comparison.
So that's what I just wanted to I was thinking about as an interesting set
of comparisons. Yeah, Peterson's the guy that I keep wanting to do homework
on but just not getting to him. I put it together our B side
arms leaderboard, Matt I found this interesting. Gary gil Hill leads in ground
ball percentage at sixty seven point four percent, which is up there with anybody
in the minor leagues. Yeah. I just wanted to note that because I
don't know if that was really something that I had thought about with him or
attracted me to him as a B side call when I watched very little of
him from last year. So Slider and a couple of different cutters seems to
be getting a lot of ground balls. And that's, uh, you don't
hate to see that? Nice? Yeah, you know, speaking of B
sides, our fandoms and Nate, your prescience in kind of liking guys before
they're cool. You the hipster pitching guru that you are. I In looking
at these leaderboards, I was astonished to find how many Colorado Rockies farm hands
popped on the lower levels as the leaders, like from Hartford on down.
Pomp Quist number one in the Eastern League, Handy Dark Candy, Rather,
you're Handy, he's Candy. Candy's in the top ten I think in strikeouts.
So the two of them looked pretty good in Hartford, in Spokane,
in Higay like their top two. Sullivan and Dolander are I think like one
in three. Blake Adams isn't far behind, and Mason Green is doing decently.
He's a first pager too, and Spokane's like not the easiest place to
pitch, and they're both They're all getting a lot of strikeouts. And then
a couple of other arms in Fresno that I have no information on. I
think I've watched a couple of them now this year, but they're totally new
arms to me. Isaiah Kupitt, Coupe, I don't know, Jace Kaminski,
Jack Mahoney and Austin Eminer and Fresno are all chopping like. They all
look really good so far, and I don't know. Man Like people give
the Rockies shit, and it is definitely a risk to invest in pitching prospects,
let alone Colorado Rockies pitching prospects. But this on the back of some
of the success that they have had in developing or drafting guys in the last
few years. I mean, the Rockies. I would not be surprised in
a couple of years, like maybe even as soon as next year to have
one of the best sets of minor league arms like that. After we see
a bunch of graduations from Detroit and Pittsburgh, the Rockies just by pure volume
and stuff and things that we've seen. They might be next in terms of
like the next wave, So a ton of interesting guys. I'm gonna try
and get eyes on these guys more. But that those kind of the numbers
in the collleague, like Coupey, Kuopit, Kaminsk, Mahoney and Emminer are
all in the top fifteen in strikeouts in the colleague already. That's impressive.
So anyway, like the Rockies seem to be doing something right. I think
some really interesting names to follow there because a few of them too. Kaminska
and Coopey both have fixed or fewer walks to twenty nine strikeouts. That's really
good so far in twenty one innings. Like that's that is note that shit
down. Like some other guys that have gotten a lot of love are noticeably
worse, like King Grice is, you know, throwing fewer innings but has
five walks and fewer strikeouts. Brody Hopkins, I've heard people like anointing as
the next Truth, but he's got twenty three strikeouts to twelve walks. Like
there are some much more impressive pitching performances happening, and they just happen to
be by Colorado Rockies. So many Colorado Rockies farm hand pitching rant over.
But they're doing some impressive stuff. It doesn't get much muddier than that.
Matt, good luck trying to sell that to people. But mind you too,
a lot of the kind of bigger arms are not pitching right now,
bigger named arms. I'm pitching right now because they had time John last year.
Man, how about Sean Sullivan so far? Yeah, I mean I
did mention the Sullivan. I think he's leading to the Northwest League in strikeouts.
Yeah, you did it. So you sort the minor leagues by x
FIP one point two to one, and that's what thirty He's only given him
one walk. I mean, like again, he and Heal and Dolander are
one and two in the Northwest League so far in strikeouts, or they're tied
at first. I guess Sullivan only one walk, giving up no home runs
so far, so they're off to some great starts. I'm I'm intrigued.
Yeah, it's like they almost know what they need the most and they're trying
to get it. I was looking at that x FIP leaderboard, Matt,
minimum twenty innings pitched. You know this is this is probably pretty noisy stuff,
but hey, this is fun to dig around in. You got Sullivan
on top, and Jonah tom Quinn, Matthews, and then maybe my second
biggest pitching interest at the moment, Johanniere Herrera the Brewers. He was the
first guy this year, and I just had some openings that I wanted to
had in the four Dynasty leagues that I could. I picked him up across
the board after watching his high a debut with Wisconsin this week and going back
and watching some of his outings from last season. I think it was last
week. Talked about him a little bit and about how he has a ninety
five ninety six mile per hour four seemer that he does not throw all that
much. It's kind of wondering why that might be. So I watched this
debut. He came in relief. He pitched the seventh, eighth, and
ninth innings, face nine hitters and struck out six of them. Wisconsin's got
a pretty decent angle and it gives you some velocity on the broadcast, which
is nice. I was really interested in this fastball thing, right Matt because
what the first inning, I feel like he threw at a decent amount I'm
like, Okay, here we go. Now he's going to go to his
big weapon here and let's see how this goes. But then he kind of
put it back in his pocket or the second and third innings and he was
throwing he threw a lot more up secondary. So I got real nerdy and
I watched the whole thing closely, and I charted pitchers Matt and his pitch
breakdown. He threw his slider forty one percent of the time, through the
four seamer twenty two percent of the time, two seamer nineteen percent of the
time. Now, mind you, there might be one or two of the
fastballs that I didn't wouldn't say I'm one hundred percent sure if it was a
four seamer or two seamer. There's definitely two fast balls, So I don't
know. I would say he threw those two fastballs about equally. And then
he threw the curveball nineteen percent of the time. There's definitely two different breaking
balls. Have not ever seen him throw a change up, so I don't
think that's part of ours. Now, is he just trying to develop some
secondaries? Throw these more? What's the story? So I went back and
I watched a couple of his outings from twenty twenty three, and man,
he was definitely throwing the four seamer more than anything else, and he was
definitely a lot looser with the execution of all of his pitches than he is
this year. To me, this just isn't something you see every day.
You see all the time in the minor leagues, especially in the lowers,
a guy with a higher velocity fastball that is maybe his third favorite pitch to
throw, he definitely would shake off the fastball to get to the slider or
a breaking ball or the curveball. I shared some video on Twitter at Pitching
Specs of him shaking some stuff off, and I think I shared his six
strikeout pitches. But for me, you know, a guy with perhaps a
well rounded arsenal that he does execute fairly well. Now, he's more strike
thrower than you know. Pinpointing his offerings, he threw strikes at seventy three
percent this outing. But I'm kind of I'm excited. I didn't want to
go the route of Logan Evans and being interested in guy and like not having
any shares of him. So I had some openings and I'm just gonna let
him sit on my rosters while we learn some more about Herrera here. But
I'm more than intrigued by what I'm seeing. That nice. He's one I
haven't watched yet, but I know you were texting me the updates when when
you were charting on him. And it's interesting to hear that about the fastball
usage, that you don't see that at the lowers that often, and I
do think that's something worth following. This was an interesting one too because of
the usage, you know, like he's not just a on starter usage,
like I wonder if they're thinking about his usage sort of differently. And this
was against Great Lakes, not a bad lineup, and these guys really,
I mean, he just kind of took the bat out of their hands some
that. Like these guys just you know, you see a couple sliders and
then a fastball over the place. They couldn't even couldn't even pull the trigger
spotting the breaking balls, especially the lefty sort of back foot like really well,
and you know he's righty, he's big. He ain't gonna be on
the cover of any fitness magazines. I'll tell you that. I wouldn't call
him like fat, but I mean he's widest in the middle. You know,
maybe some horse power there. We'll see. I'm anxious to see him
in Wisconsin, you know, go five innings and see what that looks like.
You know, I think there is the ability to attack in several different
ways here and you don't see that from a lot of a ball pitchers.
Yeah. Well, just to kind of round out some of these other able
ones, I think the Florida State League has most of the really interesting pop
up arms. We've talked about them a decent amount. Quinn Matthews, George
Classan, Jonah Toong Cade Smith, like, these are all guys, you
know, even Michael Kennedy I think had some love last year and he's up
there. A couple other guys just to keep an eye on. Fernando Perez
is one that I hadn't watched, but he's six in the Florida State League
as a twenty year old for Toronto. So Perez is one that made my
watch list because he's got thirty two strikeouts to seven walks. I think that's
impressive. Jack Weininger, he's got thirty two strikeouts to six walks. And
Brian Edgington, who's older for the level but it's really dominating. Thirty one
strikeouts to just three walks, Like that's I think pretty interesting. You know,
I don't even really care that he's that old, similar to Quinn Matthews
and George Classon, Like, let's get these guys out of the Forest State
League at this point and let's see what they do at High A, because
I think that level there's just not a lot more to be to be proved.
Well, Tom did move up and make his high debut, Matt That's
right, that's right, he did. Yeah, Yeah, I watched that.
I thought that was an interesting look. It wasn't hard to see the
nastiness and the uniqueness of his fastball the first time we saw him, But
this this outing, I was pretty impressed with his ability to land the breaking
ball, the curveball, especially like inside the lefties glove side to lefties.
I know, he had three walks, and he's got a history of walk
stuff. Mind you. He went from the FSL big plate to what I
thought was an umpire that had seemed to have a pretty tight strike zone from
what I could see. And I continuously get more and more hopeful with Tom,
and I think there's good things happening in way of execution, and we
know the stuff is going to play if you can use it. Well,
yeah, Well, the other video game numbers guy down in a ball is
tug Boat Wilkinson in the Carolina League, and he's pacing all minor leaguers in
strikeouts I think at this point, with forty six in his twenty five and
two thirds, and he's just given up the one run and has held the
walks in check two with nine. I mean, he's looking really great again
as a college dude. Like, let's get him out of a ball and
see if this stuff is going to play against some better hitters soft toss and
lefty with a lot of k's. Yeah, yeah, and you can see
he's got some funk to his delivery and really nice slider for sure. So
we'll see, you know, as we get better looks at him, especially
at the next level for Cleveland, I think you're gonna see the walks jump
up or at least have yeah cloutings where the walks get him because he's not
super cool. Agree with that. I would agree with that. You know,
he's he's given up nine walks in his twenty five and two thousand innings.
It's okay, I'd say at this point, especially given the strikeouts and
how few hits he gives up. But it'll be interesting to see how much
the shape of that production changes as he goes up. But a couple other
guys that I haven't heard anybody really talk about in UH are at the top
of this Carolina League leaderboard. Luis de Leon for Baltimore, Trey Gibson also
for Baltimore, Lucas Gordon for the White Sox, and Seth Keener for the
White Sox round out the top five with Wilkinson. They all like have interesting
numbers. Keener looks like he walks too many for me to be really interested
at this point, but dal Leon, Gibson, and Gordon like color me
interested. I'm gonna seek out their next couple of starts and see if there's
anything there, literally names that I've not heard anybody talk about there. This
is why I'm always doing pitching homework, because it's at and there's always so
much to do. It's so boring. We're gonna We're gonna forward to some
of the rest of them. There are some there are some other interesting guys,
you know. I jotted down in Double A in the Southern League.
Mason Adams my guy. I think he's started off this season really well,
thirty six strikeouts just to just three walks. Ian Seymour is another one that
I think his is sort of underrated for Tampa that I really like what he
has done. I caught a bit of his outing this week and thought he
looked pretty good, and I thought it was sort of interesting. Kai Bush
and Jake Eater seemed to be doing pretty well so far for the White Sox.
In Erie Arty and Drew Thorpe a kind of the ones who get the
headlines and are much farther up prospect leader boards, but so far when you
look at the strikeouts, Bush and Eater are out performing Erie Art and Thorpe.
So just something to keep in mind. You know, that's that's an
interesting group to follow. There might be some good things going on with the
White Sox hitching development right now. I can't help with wonder and you know
me, I'm not one to give the White Sox much praise, but I
did watch that Erie Arte's last start, Matt. It was interesting because erie
Artu was a guy that I jumped on pretty early and guy and I've already
traded off all my shares, thinking, Okay, this is a guy with
like really good weapons. This is your your stuffest sort of guy. I
don't know how much I love his pitching ability, so to speak, but
man, he was he was a bit different version than I've seen in the
past, and that he was pounding strikes. Man, he was throwing strikes
like I had not seen him before. But he ended up going seven innings.
He gave up eight hits, three yearned runs, He watched one struck
out seven eighty three pitches, seventy two percent strikes. I don't think we've
seen erie Arty get up to seventy percent in an outing before. I can
verify that, but I haven't. But point being, Matt is like,
I'm wondering if this is maybe a point of emphasis here, and yeah,
I mean this right, guy who's Yeah, you're gonna see a guy who's
trying to you know, who's been like more like mad at or trying to
be more bull and more aggressive in the strike zone. And he goes and
he gives up eight hits strikes out seven, which for him is far from
like a ton of strikeouts, and especially in a seven inning outing right,
So maybe not the most impressive Eriarty line if you're if you're a stand but
I think in the development department we might be seeing stuff going in a better
direction. I think, yeah, well that the whole Birmingham lineup, that
starting rotation for them is Adams, Bush, Eater, eri Rty and Thorpe,
and I think they've all looked quite good so far this year, you
know, one reason or another. You know, I think Bush and eri
Arty still need to work on their walks. Like that's a great outing for
eri Arty, but he still has twelve walks in the early going that's pretty
high, and Bush similarly thirteen walks through twenty seven and a third. But
all the other guys like are keeping their walks down pretty well getting their strikeouts,
and that lineup are that starting rotation rather, I think has been one
of the more impressive ones in all the minor leagues so far. And Birmingham
it's a good team. And Birmingham as a park plays a little more on
the hit her friendly side too, so that's something to keep in mind that,
like, if you start to adjust this for park factors, like I
think those starting pitcher lines tend to look even better, So just something to
keep in mind. Might be some decent pitching coming in in Chicago. Yeah,
Mason Adams has looked good man. A good call on your part there,
But just while we're at Birmingham, I just wanted to mention mat Now,
you didn't pick him as your B side that, but you had mentioned
and talked about him. But Wilfred varies. I don't know if I don't
know if you've been paying attention to him at all this year. But I
mean, he's got a really he's running a really high babbit, but he's
putting up some numbers. He said, four home runs. But the biggest
thing that I wanted to note with him, like, do you see my
man shape this year? He looks good? He does, he has he
has lost some fat, because that's something I was talked about. It's like
he was sort of a bigger guy who had sort of a control oriented stick,
but he does look better and he was a fat guy stealing bases,
but like, yeah, he's he's looking trim and has gotten gotten more interesting
to me. Yeah yeah, interesting team. Yeah yeah, it is kind
of speaking through these last couple. I think the Texas League, my guy
Gilbert Diez looks great. He's striking everybody out. Walks are still a bit
of a concern, But that last outing, I ended up turning that one
on Nate. Your guy, your guy, my guy. He was your
guy first, But I didn't know that. I didn't know that he's he
looks really zark guy and he's our guy for sure. He's a muddy b
sider. Yeah, what do you think? Do you think I have a
hard time with him, Matt, Because I think I've mentioned before probably the
player that I've picked up and drafted the most over the last couple of years.
If he's gonna what he threw seventy percent strikes this last outing, eighty
nine pitches, didn't walk anybody. Am I crazy? But if this is
a dude who can throw strikes like that and be efficient, like, the
upside feels pretty large to me, agreed, I mean, like honestly enormous.
I mean, it was sort of surprising to me that his was so
low when I was looking into him, like it was a one percenter,
maybe even a zero percenter when we looked at him this offseason, because the
fastball is plus in just terms of velocity, But I think it's plus in
its shape too, Like you watch it and he just blows this thing by
everybody. Yeah, and that's where Godi strake And that's been the story with
his fastball from first time I got him, but that was yeah, yeah,
one hundred percent. But I would say the issue and the reason why
you keep dropping him and why he's such like a heartburn kind of picture to
own is because he had twelve walks in eighteen innings before that start, right,
Like that's awful, Like that's that's really really bad. That's Jacob Mazerowski
level control, right, and so he has definitely not shown that the control
was there just yet. But the fact that you could turn in a seventy
percent strike rate in a full seven innings start is like that's I mean,
that's the kind of stuff that you're like, Okay, maybe we're taking a
step forward. So right, like the beginning of the year, if you
would have shown this line to me and was like, Yolberdiez does this once
this year? Yes? Or no? Or been like hell no, yeah,
yeah, here we are. If he starts bring in outings like this
or similar to this, like I will be picking them back up. Yeah,
you know some of our other favorites in the Texas League. Roy Ver
Salinas still has some walk issues, but the strikeouts remain intriguing. Mason Barnett,
who we talked about with Kansas City. He looks really good so far
this year. Lots of strikeouts and is doing a decent job limiting walks.
Still a little on the high side. Chandler's Champlain. He's looked pretty good
for Kansas City as well. The results haven't quite been there, but the
strikeout and walk rates are looking pretty good. So I watched one of his
starts and was actually impressed. I thought he was commanding. His pitch is
much better than he had in my review of him last year. No Cameron
even has looked okay to start the year. He's not someone I've ever been
super high on, but after I think everybody has written him off after some
middling years. The last couple of years he's looking better. And yeah,
that whole Northwest Arkansas rotation I think has shown a little bit. So anyway,
there's there's a few interesting names amongst the pretty boys, like your Team
Hences and Tacoa Robi's and even Adam Maser, who you know we both like,
and has shown some stuff too. Texas League, I think is really
headlined by Gilbertaz and everybody else is just trying to play catch up quick bit.
In the Sally South Atlantic League, Own Murphy has looked really good.
A couple of times I turned him on. You know, the walks maybe
are touch higher than you'd like, but he's just blown everybody away. Winston
Santos also looks really good for Texas PYA. I think he's been well publicized
by Chris Klegg and others. I think he's seen him a couple of times,
and Winston Santos continues to put up really really good numbers. Andrew Lara
for Nationals he's one that I know you hit talked about before and we might
have talked about him a bit this offseason, but he's off to a really
nice start to the year after I think we kind of said he needs to
show something after the hype he got coming out of DSL and Complex. But
he's looking pretty good finally. And then of course No Schultz is another the
headliners. He's just dominating everybody at nineteen or twenty, I guess, And
yeah, he looks he looks pretty good, pretty early returns at all the
gary Again, that's one we've talked a bit about, as your Phillies B
side guy getting his strikeouts, limiting the walks, and that Frisbee slider of
his really does seem to be befuddling hitters. At this level. He's dominating.
You mentioned Winston Santos. I had not done my homework on him,
so I went back and I watched some this week. Matt. I don't
know if you've seen him, there's no argument, like, you know,
he's producing right now. He's putting up some pretty pretty dang good lines and
whatever. But I gotta say, just from like a Dynasty dannpoint, I
wasn't really like all that into it. The fastball is a slider. Now,
perhaps someone with redsheets telling you about the great qualities of these two pitches
might be more excited. But this is like, this is a two pitch
guy. He throws a change up the lefties on occasion, but two pitch
guy kind of commanding it okay, and just really kind of dominating at this
level. Guys like that like yeah, great, sort of like flip investment,
potential flip investment, like pick him up if you can that's what you're
after. I'm a bit skeptical of Santos or at least this version of Santos
as all right, moves up the ladder, I don't know, not very
big. You know, we highlighted plenty of guys like that. Like I
think he's like a great sort of like B side sort of arm but I
don't know if he's starting to creep up into more pretty boy like territory and
ranks. I'm not quite sold on all that or whatever. All right,
well, let's stop talking about dumb pictures. The only other thing I don't
think we touched on the PCL and we had done talking about dumb pictures.
Jonathan Diaz, the Mariner's twenty seven year old guy that we talked about like
two weeks into the offseason that you did a little deep dive into. He
keeps doing it like he's still turning in solid starts every time out. He
hasn't quite reached the heights of those first couple of weeks, but I think
he was the PCL Picture of the Month for April, and he's still leading
the league in strikeouts forty two strikeouts and thirty eight innings. I don't know,
man, I think there's anything yeah here, Like I don't think my
own evaluation really has changed. But that's a pretty impressive month for sort of
a journeyman type guy. Right, No, you can't deny that, but
I mean it's like he kind of feels like, look at Tommy Henry,
right, he's up in the bigs, gets shelled, he comes back and
absolutely dominates a PCL lineup. You know, like I'm skeptical on Diaz there,
but Matt, how could we not? We got We can't be done
talking about pitching without mentioning. Joandre Suarez is perfect six and a third innings
this week. Yeah, that was sweet. He didn't start the game because
who was it Magol or whatever was rehabbing yea Tyler Magill. Yeah, and
I was watching that because I was watching I was watching Candy start and I
had no idea that Suarez was going to come in. He's still only two
percent rostered. But the Dynasty world is just not not on this guy at
all. I'm getting And so he went six and a third perfect, and
like it looked great. It wasn't like he was giving up a hard hits,
punched out seven. It was effishent Yeah, don know, man,
Like it was nasty good the stretch at the end of last year, this
outing, I don't think there's been any more dominant of a double a pitcher
than Suarez, Like, yeah, very least he's on the short list.
And so he turned tickets a couple of tickets. Okay, starts to start
the year. But he's been awesome, Like really in April, he's still
awesome. Like you maybe want to see a few more strikeouts so far this
year, but yeah, I mean, fuck, he's so good. He's
really really good. He gets so much weak contact into the ground too,
like it's you love to see it. Just a note on Canny. You
mentioned Candy. Let's start, man Like, this is what I love about
him, Like he's just a grimy just like he might not have his best
stuff, he might not be executing all that great, but just like figures
out a way to power through, get in it long innings. And we
saw him go seven consistently last year. This out, he threw fifty four
percent strikes. That's not great. He was struggling to locate, especially the
secondaries. And he goes five and a third, gives up one hit Wanner
and run walks, three strikes out six Like he's just like a like a
lunchbucket sort of guy and curious to see the war of attrition with pitching specs
how it goes for him in that organization. But I'm a fan of Jared
Candy, no doubt. Yeah, I mean bringing it back to where we
started Colorado doing something right. Yeah, And I just wanted to mention Cam
Weston made his double a debut. Looked pretty gard four innings of relief,
two hits, zero walks, eight strikeouts. Very interesting to see how they
might develop and use him. Could very well be a reliever track. But
I don't think they're done giving him some innings. And that we had we
had seven B side arms through f QoS this week. Matt, that's nice.
Good, it was pretty good. Aronde Eldegari again. Now Suarez didn't
make the start, but he went over six innings, So Sworerez, Gilbertez,
Mason Adams, Logan Evans and Sunday your guy Luis dia Villa through one.
Yeah, start stacking those and they'll get more popular. Talk some loser
hitter leaderboards. Let's do it. A guy who has shown up to me
Breus and some leaderboards. Is the Cardinals infielder Caesar Prieto, who I have
lastered in the past. The Orioles signed him originally out of Cuba. He's
the one with a super cool story. I don't know if you ever read
that, Like ESPN the magazine maybe did the story about his defection from Cuba.
Phenomenal, like great reporting, super interesting. Yeah, really really good.
You should you should read that. I'll find it, I'll send it
to you, okay, sweet. But he's what he's top ten in K
percentage in triple A. He's number one, Matt check this out, number
one in triple A and handy percentage. I love the handy percentage. Handy
percent You don't know handy percentage. You know it's a very telling, huge
metric. Matt one minus one percentage plus strike percentage. I like it,
and you want higher numbers at A he's at eighty three point six percent number
one in the land. Matt Man is hitting well. He's slashing three eighteen
three, forty eight, five hundred one e two iso three thirty three babbits,
so potentially sustainable and he's only rostered in four percent of leagues. Twenty
five years old and triple A knocking on the door. He's available in some
of my leagues still because I think I had him and dropped him and no
one cared about him. I don't know, man, a guy who can
swing it some. I think he hits a lot of line drives. He's
got five home runs already this year. Interesting infield possibility for the Cardinals if
need be, I think, all right. Also sortin our b side bat
leaderboard, Matt, I know Durban doesn't strike out very much, and you
love him for that. He's at ten point two percent this year. But
you know, of course one of my bats is going to outdo him in
that department, Matt. And Juan Bayez is only striking out six point seven
percent of the time, and he is playing he's in uh, he's in
low A. Yeah, he's like he's like twelve years old. Dude,
Man, talk talk to me when he's doing that in a real league.
I mean, that's but I don't know, if you've looked at he's kind
of near the top of some some leaderboards, Matt. And it's interesting if
you look at his batter ball profile. Now he's a little guy, he's
young, but the batter ball profile. He hasn't hit any home runs,
but he's a guy. I kind of wonder if the sort of adage that
some power could come later might hold true. Here still an interesting young bat
that I got my eye on. All right, Matt, I don't you
know, we talked about the Midwest League bats quite a bit, but did
you see who won the Midwest League Bat of the Week this week? I
did not Cubs B side selection Pedro Ramirez. Yeah, he's hit a couple
of home runs. I think he's running a pretty high babbit too, and
hitting the ball on the ground a lot like the Cubs on that level tend
to do. He's kind of producing a little bit more than I had kind
of expected to be honest. It's near the top of our B side list
for ops and WRC plus. Interesting little switch hitter there. Well, who
else is standing out to you on the hitter side? I had created two
thousand and twenty three draft lists, Matt, and was kind of looking at
those leaderboards, the prep bats and the college bats from that class. Kind
of interesting how it works, right, I'm just looking at WRC plus.
Two of the top three guys are those prep catching prospects that folks don't want
to go after. Right, Blake Mitchell granted. Mitchell's striking out thirty four
percent of the time. Aden Miller second, and ralphie Velaskaez. They're off
to some I think pretty good starts. Now you know who are neighbors on
this list, Matt with A, Walt Emerson and TJ. Walton. No
way, we both have about same amount of played appearances. Emerson's at sixty
two, Walton's at fifty nine. They're walking about the same rate. Now
there's a huge discrepancy a strikeouts. Right, Walton's striking out twice as much
as as Emerson. Walton's at thirty two point two percent. But your boy
Walt is hitting a lot of ground balls, Matt sixty two point five percent.
Walton's got the fourth hardest hit ball in Statcast's minor league database. He
had a well end up being a double, but I think landed just past
the infield dirt and would have rolled all the way to the wall it was
hit that hard. But I think he's got more extra base hits than Emerson
at this point. They both have two home runs. Walton's stolen three bases
been caught three times. Emerson stolen one base hasn't been caught. Like I
said from the very beginning, you know, Walton might be a top five
prep bat of this class. I don't know. I'm not ready to go
there. And I really want him to see to stop striking out so much.
Like he's you know, like figured it out. I've been watching.
I've been watching him. He's getting better, I think. And the fact
that both he and Colet have missed a little bit of time small naggling injuries
is sure that kind of sucks. Well, I don't know if far Walton's
was nagging so much. It was a fastball to the face, but yeah,
I mean like he can't get all of the way of that, Like
it's not that hard man, uh you know. I mean I'm just saying,
like we're looking at small, small samples for both and so like as
far as Emerson's ground ball rate, like I'm not super worried about that yet.
I don't think he had a particularly bad ground ball rate last year.
And Walton, it's great to see that he you know, as we talked
about early on, our guy does not get cheated with his swings. No
swinging out of his out of his butt, and that's great to see for
a potential power hitter. And I just think, you know, striking out
this much at such low levels, it's not it's not like a death sentence
by any means for fantasy relevance, but certainly for leagues where you care about
a plus plate approach. Like nobody who has a great plate approach in the
minor league or in the major leagues ran thirty percent plus k rates at this
level. So it's just something to keep in minded to add into the context
for sure. But guys who hit the hit ground balls at like sixty two
percent of the time don't really do much for your fantasy team either potentially.
But like both of these guys, like I, we're far from like settled
in this season. They haven't played a ton Like I'm just having a little
bit of fun here, But I like both of those guys, and I
think it's just going to be a fun watch because they're very different types of
hitters. Definitely just eyeballs. I'm going to say that that strikeout rate settles
under where it's at right now by the end of the year. Yeah,
I mean, I think it's trending in the right direction, right, I
mean he started out like swinging at everything, So yeah, I mean,
what's a hitter like that, Matt, What would you want to see his
strikeout rate at by the end of the year and you'd feel, you know,
all right, I'm still interested in this guy. I think if he
gets promoted to Hi A, say, and between A and Hi A his
strikeout rate is in the mid to upper twenties, and he's like really showing
the power that we think is there, that's that's doable. I really do
think if he's at either level and he runs a single dinificant sample size and
it's above thirty, big old red flashing warning sign that you're like, that's
a big thing you're going to have to change in order to bring real relevance.
I mean, I think about the guy we talked about last week,
Jaysavina. He has put up some really impressive exit velocities, has very good
batted ball shape for a power hitter, but has run thirty plus percent strikeout
rates at the lower levels and is just now in the mid minors bringing that
down into the twenties. And I said that that's finally like, Wow,
I'm hanging on. But he's like such a fringy guy. And you're saying,
you know, TJ. Walton's in the top five prep bats in this
class. I'm like, boy, that you don't run a strike out rate
that starts with a three and call someone the best top five prep bat in
the class. So that's I really think we need to see that in the
twenties. Fun Gambles number one, Fun Gambles maybe number one, maybe,
but yeah, I think that's what we want to see. I mean,
it's interesting because the guy that popped for me as I was looking at some
of these leader boards is Ariel Almonte. Are you familiar with Almonty? Uh
No, not really? Yeah, I wasn't really either. But he's thus
far showing some really impressive power for the Reds in the Florida State League.
His strikeout rate is abysmal. I mean, it's thirty six percent, but
he's already popped nine homers and now he's twenty and repeating low A. So
he was at LOWE for all last year and was terrible. He's just absolutely
murdering the ball. So his ninetieth percentile exit velocity is one oh nine.
Like, that's ridiculous for a twenty year old that is really really good.
Legit in the top five in all of the published minor league stackcast database,
so literally just behind James Wood and Matt Wallner and Patrick Wisdom. Like that's
you know, major league plus two double plus level power out of a twenty
year old in the Florida State League. His contact rate is terrible, under
sixty percent, So like, this is the kind of bat where you're like,
this is Joey Gallo esque in terms of power and swing and miss.
So even for him, I'm looking at that and being like, he has
to improve his contact rate and that's like near top of the scale power,
especially for his age. But he's someone that I'm super intrigued by this early
season leaderboard data. So ariel Amante is like, again you want to talk
about risky gambles. He seems like he might be showing something here. And
while his strikeout rate is really really bad thirty six point eight percent again as
a twenty year old in low A, that's not even close to palatable,
but his swinging strike rate is fourteen point eight percent and he's walking a decent
amount too, So it might be just like an approach tweak helps get this
into more of an acceptable upper twenties low thirties range. But the dude is
murdering BA balls so far, and I think is worth a look in your
deeper leagues. Some other fun early season leaders. The stolen base leader continues
to be Chandler Simpson guy we talked about. He led the miners and steals
last year. It looks like he's gunning to do it again. He's had
some really fun I've watched a couple of his seals and he's like, very
very good at it. He has yet to hit an extra base hit,
has walked thirteen times and struck out thirteen times, like he's one of these
like bonkers silly profiles. But he's scored twenty three runs because the number of
times he just like gets on seals two bases and then somebody behind him knocks
him in is ridiculously high. Yeah, twenty three runs on twenty nine singles,
Like that's that's it, you know, that's crazy. Our guy,
Caleb Durban. He's fourteenth in the BIGS or in the minor leagues in steals,
but he's fifth in triple A and again continues to walk way more than
he strikes out. You know, he's striking out now ten percent of the
time. That's obviously much worse than his like four percent that he had at
Double A last year. But it's still showing a plus bat to ball and
plus speed. What do you know about Duke Ellis? He's second in the
minors in steels so far. Is really fast a catcher. I don't think
has ever thrown him out. At the times that he's been thrown off,
it's been like pickoffs. Oh interesting, like that. He can run.
He's really really skinny, really fast. He's in that fun, fun Birmingham
team in for the White Sox in Double A, Yep, yep, and
they like to use them. He'll come in to pinch ron steal some basses
and stuff like that. But I don't know about a major league prospect there,
to be honest, yeap. Surprising and not so surprising. Emanuel Rodriguez
continues to lead the minor leagues in walk percentage if you're set your minimums at
an appropriate level, and even just in raw because he missed a little bit
of time he had a hamstring deal and a hand thing that might have cost
him a game or two. But he's got twenty seven walks in ninety two
played appearances. He's just two behind the the raw leader, who has thirty,
yeah, thirty twenty nine plate appearances more than he does, so Manuel
Rodriguez. I mean, he's he's just looked I think great, like bringing
the strike out rate down below thirty percent, murdering the ball, nine steals,
one caught stealing, and continues to be mini Barry Bonds with his walk
rates. Again. He for me like he's in my top five prospects.
Easily. He might be number one or number two by the end of the
season. I'm just like, I think that he represents closest to the most
productive version that a hitter can be. Absolutely great ax of velocities. He's
fast and then is really passive at the plate, and then when they throw
strikes, he just tries to murder the ball. So I'm a big sometimes
when it's sometimes when he's got two strikes and they just lay one over the
middle, he doesn't swing at it, and that drives me free and he
should he should swing at those more. But yeah, he's twenty one in
Double A and might be the best player in Double A, and like,
I don't know, He's incredible. I think he's great. Yeah. Alex
Freeland, who we briefly touched on last week. He's one that I think
is having a really good start to the year. He is running a higher
babbit, but I think a lot of the other things that he's doing have
looked really good to me. Walking a lot more than he's striking out for
great Lakes and his hit while just two homers, he's laced ten doubles,
like he's hitting the ball pretty hard, and I like to see that.
Like guys that you know, maybe not lighting up the leaderboards with the home
runs, but are still managing to hit lots of doubles. I think that
portends good things as well. So Freelan's one that you know, I think
you touched on briefly last week. But I just wanted to co sign that
I have watched a decent amount of him and I really like what I've seen
Matt looking at the looking at the college bat first year player leaderboard. I've
been wanting to bring this guy up a few times, but haven't gotten to
it. Minimum of sixty played appearances, who do you think has the lowest
K percentage? I was going to say McGonagall. But he doesn't have sixty
play appearances yet. I don't think this college bats. Oh just college bats.
U. Yeah, well you'll never guess this, so okay, I
won't even try that. Who you got, dude, Cole carrig. Wow,
he's striking out eight point three percent of the time in the Northwest League.
That is that is shocking to me. I mean, this is a
guy who maybe I just had it all wrong, but I thought this was
like kind of like big athlete project at the plate, gonna have some swing
and miss issues and all that stuff. Right, it feels like a classic
sort of Rockies investment. But he has been impressive, man like walking twelve
percent of the time, striking out eight percent of the time. He slashed
from two seventy one three fifty seven, four fifty seven and that's on a
two sixty six babbit hitting line, drives twenty percent of the time, ground
balls forty six point two percent of the time. Don't want to see it
that high. He's got twelve stolen bases, two home runs. He's been
caught stealing twice, like and I don't know if did you see the play
that I posted where he almost threw a guy out at first, he almost
threwout Day's live. Actually first happen to be. Yeah, I having to
be watching that game, and I was gonna say that his arm looked really
impressive on that throw, trying to yeah, he's like he's got some tools
and if he's not going to be like a big strikeout monster, like he's
gotten way more interesting to me. Pair that I wanted to compare Joy Loperfito
made the bigs super happy. He's already had a little bit of success so
far. But the guy right behind him in Homer's in the minor leagues is
Ryan Ward. You look at their production and it looks really similar. Just
Ryan Ward is running in seventy points lower Babbit and he is. Ward is
also walking a little bit less. But nobody's really talking about Ryan Ward in
the same way that they were talking about low Perfito and Ward was matching him
Homer for Homer. I mean, he has twelve in fewer plate appearances than
low Perfido and he's striking out less too. I mean, again, the
walk rate is a significant difference and all of that, but Ward also seems
like he's fast, like he has a higher speed scorer than low Perfito does.
Again, that's a noisy stat still at this point. But I just
think, like to the conversation we had about low Berfido last week, like,
yes, he had a great April. Yes, I think he raised
his stock a lot, and it's awesome he's getting a shot with Houston.
They certainly have some places that he might be an improvement, But I think
that the shape of low Perfito's production is a lot rarer are a lot more
common than you might think, And like Ryan Ward is basically doing the exact
same thing, minus about ten points in walk rate and minus about five points
in strikeout rate. And it's like nobody's clamoring for Ward to get promoted,
right, like it was Sandy Payes that got the call for them. So
I don't know, it's just like kudos to Ward for also a great start
to the year. And also like that's the shape of production that Liberfido kind
of had, so temper your expectations for how that might translate. So Matt,
for I don't know if these guys are really like leaders and stuff,
but perusing leaderboards, there was a few guys got my attention and Dug around
and I've been why but uh, I just wanted to Charles McAdoo. Oh
yeah, last year I put out a little bit, put out a little
tweet, right, just doing a little number, weighing in a little filter.
But it was guys in full season who had a pool percentage greater than
forty one percent, the ground ball rate less than forty four percent, struck
out less than twenty two point six percent, home run to fly ball rate
fourteen and a half we're twenty one or younger, and had a swinging strike
rate less than twelve point two percent. That filter brought up five names last
year, Matt White, Langford Cold, Keith, Jordan Lawler, Gustin Ramirez
and then Macado. Now McAdoo had only it was only one hundred and fourteen
played appearances, right, But the point was, and like we've talked about
some, I want to see if you know how that tracks this season.
Right, He's moved up a level, but those metrics are all right there
still or better. He's got four home runs. Now, mind you,
he's playing his home games in Greensboro, right, and they have pretty short
porches except center field, Like centerfield is still four hundred feet The gaps are
still fairly deep, and then it gets just real sharp down the line right.
Well, the home runs I see him hitting at home are still going
well over four hundred feet, so I don't think he's getting cheepies there.
He's stolen five bases he hasn't been caught yet, slashing three h nine three
ninety six five point thirty one. You know, we were curious if that
little run at the end of the year the Florida State League was something to
really be excited or now. But I don't know, man, he might
be more real than mirage here. Yeah. You know, I'm a fan.
He's got a funky little swing, but he's such a strong athletic guy
that he's made it work. And I haven't really seen a compelling reason to
say that he's not going to be able to keep making that work. Right,
He's off to a really, really fun start to the year. Yeah,
And of course I've got some Midwest League bats that I wanted to touch
on. Matt. Just randomly, I kept seeing Jake de Leo de Leo
d e l e O makes some really loud outs just skipping around, So
I started digging around on some stack cast he was down at a ball,
but like I said, has moved up. And I don't know, this
is just an interesting hour speed guy. His numbers aren't going to jump out
of the page. You know, he's hitting two ten, he's striking out
not too much, twenty three point one percent of the time. But I've
seen him just lace like one hundred and nine mile per hour line drives and
groundouts and not get anything for it. He's stolen seven bases on ten tracks.
He's you know, he's twenty three years old, but now he's in
Hyatt's his first pro season playing center field. I'm sure there's some swing of
miss stuff is wa he's below league average WRC plus, But I don't know,
interesting guy. I want to be surprised if he starts putting up some
like counting stats here and maybe gets a little more attention. And I can't
help. But notice, man, have you seen what Noah Miller's been doing
at the plate? Matt, Hmmm, I haven't followed. Now, Noah
Miller's like he won like a gold glove, right like minor league goal glove
shortstop got traded over to Dodgers from the Twins. He's still just twenty one
years old. It's been very light, that right all glove. But he's
popped five home runs this year. He's striking out seventeen point seven percent of
the time, walking fourteen percent of the time, slashing two thirty eight,
three forty seven, four twenty nine. And that's on a two fifty three
babbitt. Now he's hitting a lot of fly balls. He's pulling the ball
a decent amount. I don't know, like this is a guy if offense
comes along, like there's the glove, is probably a ticket to the Biggs.
And if some offense comes along. I love these kinds of sort of
b side plays. You know, a top shelf defensive shortstop, but maybe
starts hitting. Could could turn into a dynasty, you know, gem of
a find. I think and get him for nothing. So no I got
my eye on Noah Miller here. It was nice to see Alex Aidisernia finally
came back from injury hit a home run. I think his first game back.
One of my favorite players. I'll be watching him something mat I think
I'm gonna I'm gonna hold off one more week. But if Johndrick Panango he's
doing what he's doing we're gonna be talking about him, all right, agreed.
Oh, Matt. Taking a look at some prospects whose roster percentage is
trending up in fan tracks this week. Top of the list at a plus
thirteen percent is Brett with Krausky, the Brewers pitching prospect to just moved up
a level. We've talked a little bit. I'm gonna have to do some
more homework and take another look at him, I think, Matt, see
what's up here? Cale Manzarto is up eleven percent with his you know,
his call up. Jason Black got called up seven percent. Did you see
Black's outing today at all? Matt? I just saw the line looked bad.
He was really good the first time threw the lineup, and then not
so good. It kind of kind of backs up our little dig that we
did there. Sam Roberts is up four percent. Mike is it? Mike
Bovey tearing it up very much a all bat sort of profile, I think.
But he's up three percent. Jay Allen's up two percent, Jonah Tong's
up another two percent, and then Ben Cowles did how you say it with
the Yankees, who's getting some buzz, is up two percent, looking ahead
to this week, Matt, some matchups that I might be putting my eyeballs
on. International League Norfolk at Memphis. I want to see Roberts versus those
bats Mayo Own Company, see if they get them for some home runs or
not. In the PCL, I haven't watched like any Miguel Vargas and a
B side blast from the past. Andre Lipschiz is having a pretty good season.
They're going up against first place Sugarland. Pedro Leone has been pretty hot,
I think, so maybe looking there Texas League Ulsa at Midland. I'm
just kind of all about some Jacob Wilson watching right now. In the Texas
League, Matt, he's been swinging it and that's looking a lot more enticing
than I thought it might. And a couple of pitchers that might be a
good test for him and Casparius and Robleski. Southern League. I mean,
it's hard to not put eyes on Birmingham. They're at Pensacola. There's some
kind of like crafty arms that might be a good test for Baldwin, Veris
and Kierro to go up against Eastern League Binghamton at Portland. Man. You
know, I've got to tune in and watch Leandra versus arguably the best lineup
in the Eastern League. Whenever that's going on, I'll be I'll be watching
that for sure. In the Sale League, Wilmington at Jersey Shore, I
want to see some more Eldagari, maybe some Andrew Laura And you know,
I haven't really watched Laura in a couple of years, So let's see how
that has changed, and see what some of these older bats who got promoted,
Like this Glasser guy was tearing up a ball and is now in High
A for Wilmington. I haven't watched him. Midwest League Peoria apploit check in
on some ISA Dicernia, this Delao guy. See what they got going on.
Maybe Northwest League Spokane. It's at Hillsboro. I don't know if you
saw, but Andrew Pintar had a really hot week. Yeah, another good
lefty test for Contescello versus Sullivan. If Sullivan's still there. I want to
see young Victor Horrez and see what he looks like this year. I haven't
really watched him, and this will be at Hillsborough. Will be a you
know what that is that the best that the Northwest League gets for a picture
I think it might be and it's not usually and it's not that great of
an angle. Cal League Modesto at Fresno. Let's see what some of your
nuts can do against these good A ball pitchers, Matt. It's going to
be an interesting test there. I mean that nuts lineup is ridiculous at like
top to bottom. They're all really really good. But like I said,
that Fresno rotation, yeah, pretty good starts all yeah, and you know
they might be older pictures, but that'll be a good test for them,
you know, definitely. And then uh, Carolina League, I don't know,
maybe Salem at Columbia. I want to see what Ronde can do if
you can back up his FQO that he had. I'm wondering how much more
a ball is going to be. I think I think you might need a
little better challenge here. Florida State League Saint Lucy is at Bradenton and Man
Saint Lucy has a slew even with with Tom getting promoted as a slew of
arms that I want to watch at that, you know, fantastic Brandington angle
Kate Morris was it Tesser Mercedes winning winninger Thornton, but I I'll probably be
tuning in there a decent amount. Complex League is up and running, but
I mean, we don't get to watch those, but it's always a fun
time of year to see who starts getting buzz and who gets dropped in.
I'm always curious players that my other owners are going to drop to pick up
some of these speculations, because I am not above taking some other folks trash
if I like it. Yeah, maybe that's something we can dig into in
the next little bit. I know that recently, after the kind of wave
of pop up pitching prospects that we've talked about, I've grabbed a few in
different leagues, and now I would say most of my rosters are pretty full
and I'm pretty happy with their composition at this point. Also, my injured
lists are full in most of my leagues. I don't know if you saw
that in our league to show I can't fill a roster now we don't have
enough eyel spots. But it's going to be interesting now with complex starting,
that's really where you see like the early hitter pops. I'd say, like
I'm less interested in a complex pitcher, even if they're doing great because it's
just like, I don't know, the competition isn't really there, but seeing
which of these DSL guys really put it together in the complex that becomes some
tough ad drops for me too. So maybe that's something we can keep an
eye on and see if there are any any interesting ad drops in our many
leagues. Jeremy Cabrero is one of the few DSL guys that I still picked
up a few shares of and hanging on to us. So he's got two
home runs. He had a home run in his first two games so far.
So Clegg or anyone else, write them up, blow them up,
give me that trade value. But I think that'll do it. For episode
thirty two of the Prospect B Sides podcast, I am trying to put some
video out of things that I've cut up and watched over the week and that
I might bring up on Twitter at Pitching Specs. We'll be doing some of
the same again next week, same time, Matt getting dirty, seeing what's
out there in the mud. Yeah, if any of you listeners made it
through to the end, hit Nate at Pitching Specs on the twixter and hit
us up in the Dynasty dugout discord for questions. What's proving helpful in your
leagues? What's proving useful as far as we talk about these guys, I
mean, I think we're probably not next time, but think in the near
future we'll do another Questions episodes. If people have some burning questions or things
they want to get answered, let us know and we can do some deeper
dives. But yeah, or any guys you want want me to really get
in on the video and cut up and stuff, I'll put it out there
for you. Just throw me the name. We'll let Chicago Farmer take us
out and be well. We'll talk to you next time. Adios Miles an
hour riding to his head, you have them down first with the lump bonus
face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole second thase with
greatest be He wasn't born. He had bad years. Uniform