Welcome back to Join the Ranks, a podcast of the Dynasty Guru network where
we're helping Dynasty managers win your leagues, one player at a time. For
more great content, be sure to listen to the Dynasty's Child podcast in our
newest TDG podcast, The Prospect Showdown, hosted by Brian and Daniel Laboude.
You can also find all our rankings and articles on the Donasty Guru website.
We also have a lively discord channel with news updates, early releases of articles,
and it's a great place to post questions about trade offers. Each episode
of this podcast, Chris and I'll discuss one or more of the trades posted
on the site and share our analysis. If you want to join us there,
it's a small donation and information that is on the TDG website. I'm
Drew Klein, senior writer at The Dynasty Guru, and with me is my
co host TDG Senior writer Chris Knock. Chris, how are you doing tonight?
Know? I am doing great, and I'm still not prepared for a
snappy answer for that question, even though I knew it was coming. Well,
we're almost halfway the season. We'll get on one of these days,
one of these days. I'm still a little bit of surprised we did not
have a correct answer and our randomly inserted obscure song title. You guys may
be tired of it, but I'm not. I'm going to keep it up.
Last week's song was learning to Fly by Tom Petty. Plenty of time
to join the ride contest and win a twenty twenty five TDG discord subscription of
the twenty dollars value. How many of those have we Oh, so I'm
going to cut you now, go ahead, go ahead? How many?
How many of those? How many people have we had win that so far?
Well, we had one person win for having the first one right,
and we've got three people who have who have entered in the season long contest
between you and me. Maybe all three of them will get a prize at
the end. We'll see how it goes. But oh winner, everyone's a
winner who listens to JT or joined the ranks. Tell Taylor, So,
Chris, you and I have been using the n season episodes to look at
the rankings by positions. We've been doing two positions for each episode, but
tonight we're just gonna look at the starting pitchers. Each week we'll talk about
players moving up and down the ranks, and keeping with our focus on prospects,
take a hard look at who's about to join the ranks. Sprinkled in
the schedule, we'll be dropping in a special episode about once a month,
updating the jt R thirty, which is our overlook prospects from each organization,
and the June update will drop about a week from now, and we'd love
to hear what you think about the new GTR thirty theme song accompanying those updates.
Chris, couple things. First of all, happy twentieth episode that you
and I have done together. Oh man, oh, it's almost old enough
to drink, all right? And then once again, last time we were
together we mentioned an unperforming player and he went on a hot streak. This
time it was Jiner Dias and in fact you and Tyler sodas from his and
then also and then our older ones, though those they kind of cooled off.
Misteries they did. Yeh'd be long live. But my question for you,
then, are you going to try to use our mojo on players that
you have rostered and bring them up tonight hoping they'll get hot? I am
crossing all my fingers and toes. Let's talk about pictures, and it's fun,
it's frustrating. It's everybody wants good pitching. It's hard to get it
in the trade, but you don't want to spend too much capital on a
prospect if you're not sure they're going to make it. Like you and I
were talking before we started recording, uh Dinashno, rankings mid season are tricky
because at the very top, you're expecting players who are ranked high in dynasty
to also be performing well this year. But the more you get down you're
kind of look in some future thinking as well. So we kind of got
to balance that. But I think anytime you're in season, you spend a
lot of time talking about the here and now, and you know flags fly
forever. So even though you want to build a dynasty, you want to
win you flags this year as well. What are your thoughts in that when
you're thinking about pitching it in the dynasty of rankings and all that mess,
Well, yeah, rankings, I mean we can rank them, you know
a lot of things. I think they're more volatile than our position players,
and I don't think that's a secret by any means. But I will say,
and I meant to when we were kind of talking a little bit about
our outline for the day one thing with pitchers and dynasty and team building,
and I think we'll probably get into some of the reasons why here in the
short order. But when I am not truly chasing that championship, and I'm
saying, by this time in the season, if I'm questioning my ability to
win, I'm pretty quick to move off some arms more so than bats.
And I'm definitely not targeting arms unless they're the injured variety that can come at
a discount of sorts or underperforming I should say, still coming at a discount
if I if I believe in them, I kind of throw I don't want
to say I throw rankings to the window in season, but I just don't
hold arms on dynasty as much as I hold bats. I find you talked
about trade value that can help you both ways. So I'm very quick too
if I'm not competing to look to move while performing arms in season, even
if long term they might be having some value. I know that was kind
of how do you set the value for them? It is the market or
do you draw a line and say I need to get this much or I'm
not going to make the move. It's it's always i've I've I feel it
out. It's I mean, ranks will come into play, whether it's dynasty,
but I actually look at him more in terms of redraft performance. But
I don't rely heavily on just that, right, I mean, there's I
think Rangers. Suarez is a good example right now. He is in season
on a heck of a bender. He's pitching again tonight. Tonight's Friday for
those who are going to be listening down the road, But I think he
has more. I don't know if people are fully buying in as this being
him the real hymn. So while he is performing very well, he might
not fetch a high redraft type price, whereas I think his dynasty value might
be higher than his redraft I don't know if that's spicy or not. But
he's a twenty eight relatively low mileage arm. Twenty eight year old, relatively
low mileage arm. So whether it's a plateau, I don't think he'll be
declining other than the injury bug. So just using him as a quick example,
sorry, I'm not going to just dive into his value right off the
bat. But so I look at redraft and you know, I'm it all
just it depends. I don't look for specific returns. If it's an ACE,
then I'm moving. Those might not be ones that I'm actually moving necessarily,
but some of those hot, well performing arms I might be more liable
or more likely part of me to move when I'm not competing for a crown.
Yeah, And the reason I ask a little selfishly, but I don't
think I'm alone in this is that I've got a couple of rosters of teams
that are competitive, and my strength is in the pitching, and so if
I'm going to get over the top, I've got to move some pieces and
beef up a couple of the hitting positions. But sometimes it's like, you
know, I'm so weak at middle infield, and what kind of shortstop or
second basement am I going to get for a top twenty pitcher. I just
feel like it just looks like a bad trade, you know, even though
it's going to help my team. And if these are head to head leagues,
and I think in ahead to he league's almost easier to trade a picture
there because you know you're losing one start a week, but you're filling somebody
in, and I think that the hit is marginal compared to long term roto
scoring for a season, so so the format matters, but I'm working on
it. I go to a group we talk about you know, the you
know, I'm afraid of trading anonymous, but you know, it's kind of
helpful what you said there, And uh, I think that we're out there
like people are just afraid, and especially if it's somebody you had as a
prospect and well, yeah a long time too, and with I mean it's
tough too, because what you think might be a deep stable of arms could
change in the blink of an eye. Uh, you know, the last
couple of years have definitely shown that. You know, one of my approaches
usually is throw all of my names on the trade block, saying I will
be only moving one of these, maybe more, but one at a time
at best, and wait to see what comes in and see what you think
is the best value on the return and go from there. It's sounding I'm
giving all this advice that obviously shows that I'm often selling and not buying.
But sometimes, but sometimes you're in a position like I am. I want
to sell because I need to get over the top. Yeah, I've got
a playoff team, but I want to make sure I win. But the
packages that I get off a back are packages a rebuilding team would want.
Like, hey, here's three prospects, two draft choices. I thought,
that's not can help me win this year. I want to move one of
these pictures for pieces can help me win this year. And then, you
know, people don't want to move off their starting line up. They want
to move off their bench, their or their prospect list. So sometimes those
trades it's a little harder to get. Nobody wants to get ripped off,
you know. But yeah, so our top ten from the preseason, I
read them to you. Now, our top two are injured, Herrerah,
Spencer, Strider, Garrett Cole, Corbyn Burns, Zach Gallen, Luis Castillo,
Pablo Lopez, Uri Perez, George Kirby, Kevin Gosman, and Zach
Wheeler. Now, if you recall our top ten from eighteen months ago,
you know, preseason for twenty twenty three, only three of these names were
on last year's top ten. I think we're going to do better. A
better ratio of how many of these guys are next year's top ten right now.
But I'm also gonna throw it in a little while about ten guys who
are knocking on the door too, So I'm not going to stick to that,
but only quote unquote three who are injured right now, Strider, Cole,
and Perez, right, and Cole's about to come back soon. In
terms of our rankings, Strider and Cole coming back off injury, do you
still anticipates are going to be within the top three, within the top five
five rank for sure? Well, well, Strider at least Cole. Not
that I'm out by any means, but I think the fact that he will
be pitching the second half of the season puts in terms of rankings more at
risk. If he was out the entire year, I think he would definitely
still be in the top five, especially because of the slew of injuries or
lack of performance immediately behind him behind that list. But yeah, I would.
If Cole performs anywhere reasonably close to what he has historically, I would
be surprised if either of them are out of the top five. I don't
know. I think I'm looking at Corbyn. Burns is having a good year.
His strikeouts are going down though, so I'm not quite sure him and
just some names on this list because Steve's having a very good year, George
Kirby's putting up great numbers, and Zach Wheeler's having a very good year,
and then Kevin Gosman start to start solid year. I mean he belongs to
he He's not having a poor year. Yeah, Albo Lopez I'm worried about
in terms of this year's performance. And then it's just you know, we're
gonna have to have some conversations about whether that's this year's a blip or the
beginning of a trend with him. But then the top two names knocking the
door are Trek Scougbel and Paul skeins Well. I think Schooble and Skins will
definitely be in that top five all things continuing as is. That is disclaimer
across the board. But the upside that Strider presents is I think still better
than upside. You know, a healthy Strider next year, full season is
better than are on the level of schemes right now. And Cole presents the
floor with an upside. You know that very small difference between floor and upside
there that is both extremely high. Yeah, that he would be more likely
than Strider, in my opinion, to not make the top five. But
I think that's going to be more a vote of confidence in some of those
other names than necessarily a concern about Garrett Cole's future performance. And at least
with Cole, we're gonna have a few months to look at a few months
of performance from this year to look at. Like you, I think he's
the one most likely slip out of the top five, but he's also the
guy, can you know, be the next Justin Verlander and just come back
and you know, be a candidate for sy Hailing after the year after being
injured. So got that kind of talent and track record, So so scoobling
schemes, they're they're going to break into the top line, I think.
Or this is not a flash in the pan, This isn't a fluke not
agree with I agree with you. In fact, early in the ranking season,
I was so so high on Schoolable and I backed off just the slightest
bit. I should have dug in. I should have just dug in with
him, and I thought so, and I thought I was thinking of my
heart wore my head, but glad to see it next. Next two names
I've written down Tanner How and Tyler glass Now both putting up very very solid
years. And are are these guys who are Glass Now is just striking everybody
out. He's got a thirty four point five K percentage and a seven percent
walk percentage. Tanner How twenty four point five and a four percent walk percent
He's not walking anybody. Both of them have a whip under one. You
know, he sustainable. And of these two guys going to be knocking to
you know, I'm having a hard time with How and maybe that's just a
blind spot on my end, but he's been around long enough for this feels
like it could be the career year, though he's definitely not. You know,
he's not old here by any means, right, And he's tough.
He's tough, he's flashed it before and so and you know, this kind
of is what jives with what I was saying saying early on in this conversation,
is that, like, I mean, what was Tanner Hawk's redraft ADP.
I have no clue, but I can tell you it was not.
You know, the top twenty arms taken is probably closer to top eighty sixty,
perhaps and it's just every year it's these we have different excelling pitchers that
in season are worth paying for when you're chasing the championship. But Pablo Lopez
is the other side of the coin where I was super high on him coming
into the year. I had said he was going to be my cy young
pick. He was showing five pitches and he was excelling with that that just
up in Minnesota and this year who I don't know. I can't even explain
Pablo Lopez right now. And it's just but it could click at any moment
and he could start becoming dominant. But what I trade for him in one
of my my championship leagues, I'm gonna wait till that becomes a trend.
And uh yeah, I mean that's that. This is the difficulty with arms,
Yeah, and with Town or how he has ninety one innings pitch so
far. His career high is one hundred and six. That was last year.
So is he finally healthy or is he do for well and then something
to happen. And even if it doesn't happen, how high can he go?
Can he get to two hundred without wearing out when he's never been over
one hundred and six. You know, I don't know. I mean,
he's a big guy, but that's what has me wondering about all right,
I don't I don't have him rushed anywhere, but if I did, I'd
be really happy right now. But I might also be thinking, you know,
if he's one you're looking to acquire. Inian's limits are a thing,
whether you know they might start just those phantomil stints perhaps who knows, But
teams everyone's aware of the volatility of arms and you got to take it all
into account. And Glasdown's in the same boat that way. He's a little
bit older, a couple years older, and he has a pitch more than
one hundred and twenty and it's himself, and he's up to eighty six this
year, so a little more dynamic, little flash year, you know,
playing on a more successful team. I think that the Red Sox are probably
more likely to rest Hawk because the Red Sox aren't going to go anywhere this
year. The Dodgers, in the other hand, are, so they want
to save them for the playoffs, but they also want to make sure they
win their division and their you know, poise where they want to be going
into the playoffs, So I don't know how they'll they hand your handle glass
now, But the talent's always been there, and it's just kind of the
longevity and the durability to get through the season. But boy, he's putting
up some really nice numbers right now. So the next year, gare Crochet
and Cole Reagan's who kind of lumped together, but for slightly different reasons,
but I think their career trajectory is somewhat similar. Garrett Crochet, as you
may recall, when he was drafted, he came right up that year and
the White Sox brought him up and pulled him into the bullpen, and he
had been a starter in college. Now that he's kind of groomed and he
can't really go by track records, he's pitching reliever kind of innings before and
then I think there's an injury in there as well. But got off to
a really good start, a little bit of stumble, but he's been really
hot again lately, a three one sixty area overall. His his whip is
uh one point zero point nine zero pardon me, is Crochet for real?
And we have to start moving him way up the rankings or you still wouldn't
see. Yeah, I'm I'm in on crochet. Uh you know that fastball
slider combo. It's just clicking. And I think it's unfortunate. I think
I don't want to say he gets ignored because he's definitely not being ignored,
but pitching for the White Sox it's not helping. But yeah, he's I
think, no, he'll He'll definitely be near the top of my ranks,
that's for sure. Cole Reagan's I was not a believer, and I'm becoming
one. It's so funny. I'm so quick to like hop on some prospects,
like oh, this guy looks really good, and then once the guy's
a Cole Reagan's kid, I like, oh, I want to see it
for a couple of years. I think part of that is I don't trust
Kansas City and he came up through the Texas system, so they haven't had
too long to He'll be polite. He didn't come up with the Kansas City
system. He came up through a bit of a stronger pitching development system.
But he is, Yeah, he throws that kitchen sink. I mean,
it's like, I don't know how many's almost that you Darvish pitch pitch selection.
I don't know if anyone will ever touch that. However, many types
of pitches that guy can throw, but it's insane, and I honestly he's
another one that it's just dealing. And he's had some not quite as good
games. He hasn't been fully consistent. But I'm in on the Reagans train
for certain too. I get the last one I want to throw out right
now. I mean, I could talk about a bunch of these guys a
long time. But Joe Ryan is quietly having the year I thought he was
going to have. I think he started a little bit slow, but his
whip is under one. His k percentage is twenty six point nine, like
you see a little bit higher, but his walk percentage is four point two,
So like Tanner Houck, he's also not walking anybody at all, three
point two four e er. So tell me I had Joe Ryan winning the
cy Young coming in it's my really fantastic forecasts made me hear the words better
than my Pablo. You know, he's he's got that deception, but you
look at his you know, his stuff plus and it's really pedestrian more than
I mean, I hate that term, but it's average, right, I'm
pulling them up as we're talking. But his stuff plus is ninety eight.
His location plus is one O seven, which is actually pretty good. And
that's where he's really thriving, right, is just being able to locate.
And he's got a handful of average pitches, about average to above average pitches,
and it's good. He works great with it. But and he's hellent
thrown a hell of a season. So he gives up more home runs and
than most of the guys on this list, you know that. And I
think that's related to him being more of that command type type of arm.
Anybody else you want to talk about anybody else, even hot starts or anybody
else, well, I mean it's hard to ignore Luis Gill in New York
there. We were talking a little bit about him on the discord and I
said I would do a dive and talk about him today. So you know,
when all of a sudden done, when I'm looking at him, Uh,
it's it's hard. It's hard. He's one that is I don't want
to say, is an enigma by any means. He's definitely gonna skyrocket.
Where was he? I don't know, I would be surprised if he was
even on our list preseason. I did not. I failed to look at
that he's not. I mean, he's got such a you know, the
yin and yang of numbers here. You know, he's top ten or so
in his k's and k rates, he's in qualified pitchers. He's second worst
with walk rates with almost twelve percent walk right, but he's striking out over
thirty percent, which is great obviously, Right, he's coming back from Tommy
John in twenty two. He pitched a career high leading into that Tommy John.
So I would be surprised. The Yankees are going to continue. You
know, they're performing well right now. So I bet they'll do some sort
of phantomile stints for him to manage. But I don't think they're going to
probably, you know, do a hard cap by any means or that however,
you know, one hundred and twenty or one hundred and whatever it means.
But where I get a little concerned is that he's got a ground ball
right when you look at him amongst the leaderboard, he's got a ground ball
rate of thirty seven percent. Uh and somehow it is only allowing six and
a half home runs per fly ball, so he's, like I mean,
pitching in Yankee Stadium. It seems like he's just getting lucky with these with
these hits. I can't say that I've watched every single starter or every a
single fly out of his, but that those are numbers that just make me
a little wary. And couple in with that, he's only got a twelve
percent swing great, even though he does have a called strike a cold strike
whiff rate of twenty eight percent, So some of these k numbers might not
be quite as strong. So I don't know if he's a sell because he's
pitching excellently, but he could be one of these that is gonna fluctuate next
year, I guess. Is more what I'm thinking. He's really a tough
position. He's really a tough position if you own him. I have a
couple shares. I'm not looking to move him, but if someone came asking,
I'd probably continue those talks. See what happens, see what the kind
of price. But it's not really a hard set. I know, I'm
not giving him a ringing endorsement or say or the opposite, but he's a
real not an enigma. But he is. Definitely, he's a tough one.
He embodied the difficulties I have with Dynasty Baseball and pictures. So on
the surface looks good, not quite enough to close hoods from the radio up
louder, Yeah, I like that. There we go and listen for the
next Riot song. We spent some time pre season debating Logan Web or Blake
Snell and if I took Snell, and I'm going to get back and change
it to Web, who did I take? I probably took Snell, that's
I mean. And Web is doing what he does, which is great,
but that's just not what I look for my Dynasty roster. But it's much
better. It's much better than Snell. Hey, anybody else in the majors
now you want to talk about before we move on to the prospect No,
I'm good. Let's let's roll all right. Let me walk through who we
had a little bit deeper on this list with our initial prospect list. You
see a few of them have already graduate, waited or are in the majors,
and we'll graduate by the end of the season. And then a few
haven't pitched or already are injured right now. Coming to the season, we
had Paul Skeen's number one, Jackson Job number two, followed by Kate Horton,
Ricky Tiedeman, Andrew Patner, A J. Smith, Shauber, Kyle
Harrison, Hurston Waldrup, Jacob Mizzierowski, and Chase Hampton. That rounds up
our top ten. And after that we had Mason Miller, Noah Schultz,
Robbie Snelling, Dylan LESCo, Yarro Iriarte, Drew Thorpe, Nobel Meyer,
Daniel Espino, Decora, Robi Ben Brown, Carson Wizon Hunt, and Connor
Phillips. That was our second tier. So it's actually twenty two names,
so a lot of names there last year of the top twenty or so,
most of them are doing well. I mean they're either there's a few were
injured or but I think that's been a pretty solid group with a few exceptions
ad I'll kind of bring up. But to start on the positive, we've
seen Drew Thorpe get called up in good start with his first start, Kirstin
Waldrip pitch the other day and the numbers weren't great in the end, but
it wasn't a bad performance. He as Iver call I kind of got in
trouble with in one inning, so kind of wait and see their who's jumping
out at you from the from that list, who's going to be your number
one or number two prospect going in the next year off. I mean,
do you think in that I can't. I think you said he was in
the second tier. He was in my top ten, but that's Noah Schultz.
You probably had an Inklean I would bring him up. Yeah, he's
he's Yeah, he's doing everything we dream of at high A, although he
also just got promoted I think last week to double A, where he's doing
it still and he has much like my ZEBI call. He isn't walking anyone
in double A. I don't think that will last as long as Ebbs.
But yeah, no, uh is so far healthy. You know, innings
will be something to watch his health, of course, but uh, that
kid can sling the ball and his slider fastball combo is just glorious. So
it's hard. It's hard for me not to see Chris Saal with him and
uh uh it's it's a lot of fun and I like to I can't wait
to see what happens. I can see him hopefully making He's gonna be probably
my number top three prospect arm I'm not gonna go quite the top one yet,
but uh, I'm excited to see him hopefully in the majors next year.
It's my guess if this continues, yeah, I can see that,
I think. Uh I I still don't know. I know we talked about
whether we thought Detroit would call Job up or not. I still think that
depends if they trade making trades going the deadline. If Jack Flaherty probably be
flirty, I don't know if May is going to get any interest or not,
uh, you know, get traded for pieces, then there might be
a spot for Job to step up. You really hit the nail on the
head with that one, though, didn't you know he threw water on my
hopes of him being up by now and well yeah, and I wasn't trying
to be negative about it. I just saw them. No, you were
realistic instead of my instead of my hope. I really like a J.
Smith Saber and I watched the start. I thought it looked good. In
the next days on the I l and I had no idea why, because
he looked great. You know, he didn't leave the game hurt or anything
like that, so you know, keep anything. It was something minor,
wasn't it? Yeah, but he's still there. I mean they haven't didn't
move him off right away either. I think, you know, Teching would
have been eligible to come off. But nobel Meyer's another one who who I
think is doing a pretty good job right now. Is K percentage about twenty
nine percent, walking more people than i'd like. Is walk percentage at fourteen
percent, that's it A and high A. So I think he's got to
get that under control. And thirty eight percent ground ball rate, So a
couple of things that I'm not going to commit right away to say nobel Meyer's
going to be at the very top, but definitely got a very good chance
that he will be. One name I haven't mentioned yet. He was right
outside our second tier. Maybe I was wrong. I can say that quietly.
The door's closed. Maybe tink Hens is not going to be relegated to
the bullpen. He's really putting up some good numbers the three one nine era,
striking out thirty two percent, only walking seven percent, really nice numbers
all the way around. His grand ball rates at I don't know. You
want to you want to dance with my grave here? No, I wouldn't
do that. To you. You know, he's he is looking great and
he's getting those case that we were hoping for last year right in that kind
of stunted season. But now it's not all. He only pitched two Indians
his last outing. I don't know if there's any injury there or what.
So I think that I don't want to say jury is still out. I
think he's showing that he can be a starter. It's all about that workload
again for him, in my opinion. And but if he's if it is
another injury, you know, he goes back to your high impact bullpen arm.
So potential. Not saying that's definitely going to close the door on that.
But yeah, he's he's looking great, and hey, don't worry,
Drew. I have plenty of missus myself. I'm just so vocal about taking
a couple of different forums that I'm thinking, oh boy, it's gonna hat
me and a few names. I know, we tend not to dwell too
much on the negative. And you know, there's a young man who are
working hard at their profession, but Carson wizen Hunt is not living up to
I think the ranking we had for him. I had I was probably the
high man on him in the group as well. But at Triple A his
ears at five point four seven and that doesn't mean everything in the world striking
up people to thirty percent rate, but it's got twelve percent walk rate,
so that eats into that. It's giving up fifty one hits and fifty one
innings and twenty nine walks on top of that, so the whip's not that
strong. He's given up eight home runs, which among the highest of the
of the pictures on the in this short list that we're talking about right here.
H do you pay attention to him? Have you seen anything? I
know he's you hate see somebody have their worst year in the minors in Triple
A and yeah, that's that's the system where yeah, I could see him
calling him up for a start here and there, but he's not really fortuing
his way in well, I guess he's in the Triple A. Is where's
the Giants Triple A affiliate? I'm blanking on him, But is that the
Pacific Coast League? I mean that is a homer you know, a bat
heavy triple Triple A league. But you know, the biggest, in my
opinion, the biggest knock against wisen Hunt is he's a fastball change up guy
for the most part, and I don't like having the number two pitch be
a change up in my prospects. So that's that's where I would have stayed.
Why I stayed a or one of the reasons I wasn't as uh as
big of a fan as of his. Another one is uh Dylan LESCo,
who on that downside only striking out twenty three percent, walking eighteen percent.
It's just a horrible ratio between those two. Yeah, you know, if
there's a silver lining, uh the actually no, I can't find one.
The flyball rate is fifty one percent. I was thinking somebody else has got
somebody else's I'm gonna talk about Later's got better ground ball rate, but uh
Lesco's ground ball rates only twenty eight percent. So they're hitting it, hitting
the ball a lot, they're hitting it in the air. High A twenty
years old, got a way to go. I think, you know,
you're always saying progressions in a linear but I really thought of high A he
dominated a little bit more than he used to. Totally agree. Yeah,
it's it's unfortunate because and he had a cup up there last year and he
walked a lot of people then too, but you know that's kind of been
his biggest weakness. But he's also not striking out, so something hopefully.
You know, he just came off of a Tommy John I believe too,
or when he was drafted he was coming off Tommy John. Yeah, right,
yeah, So it's a little spooky seeing this in his first full year
healthy makes me a little nervous that there might be something going on as that's
pure speculation. I don't know, because it's not what we like to see.
Right before we talk about prospects. Maybe knocking on the door of our
top twenty, anybody in that group you want to talk about. No,
Actually, I was gonna, unfortunately have to fess up about Dylan Lasco because
I had him at twelve so below. I had him for three spots ahead
of Robbie Snelling, who's excelling this counterpart. So who's in the next group?
Who do you see knocking on the door? Who's the names? You
think, Hey, we're gonna be talking about these guys in the top twenty
next year, Well, i'd be it'd be sad if I didn't bring up
Zebbie Matthews. Of course, who are faithful listeners will know that we brought
him up multiple times, but now he's basically everywhere, and he's probably a
top considered a definitely considered a top twenty pitching prospect at this point, so
he'll be up there. Scrolling further down the list, I think Blade Tidwell
is jumping up. I'm looking at him on my list areas we had him
at fifty six. Overall, I think he'll be in the top twenty,
although his last couple outings haven't been quite as strong. I don't believe he's
one of the names that I'm seeing lower down that I know would be doing
a little bit. We'll be ranking higher. Christian Scott, I don't you
know. Right now he's in the minors again. I think he'll end up
going back to the majors. We probably should have talked about him there.
Yeah, good point. Everything I've read says he's just down there for a
little bit of inningsy management and or then the Mets manager said, with the
days off they have coming up, they're just going to be using the five
man rotation. They won't need him, but he'll be back up within a
month, no doubt about it. And where do we lose Rookie eligibility is
at fifty or thirty. I always forget with fifty fifty. So it's odds
are hill because he had what four starts or so, So I'd be surprised
if he saw had rocky eligibility. I guess anyone jumping out to you,
I got a few Matt Wilkinson over in Cleveland. Oh yeah, Actually there's
a bunch of it. We're kind of rolling in the deep when we look
at some of the young pictures who are coming up. But uh, Matt
Wilkins. He's striking up forty six percent of batters and walking six which is
pretty impressive. On top of that, he's got a forty five percent ground
ball rate, all great indicators early on of you know, twenty one year
old. He's they moved him into High A this year. I think he's
could be top ten, depending who graduates and you know, out of the
out of the group that we have and who stays healthy. So that's one
at Christian Scott with somebody else that's going to talk about. Detroit's got another
kid coming up, Jaden Ham, who there's some chatter about on the baseball
Twitter and the like, and for good reason. You know, he's at
a ball and again striking out thirty four percent, he's walking three percent,
uh, and just putting us some really solid numbers there, and he's got
a nice, niceis pitch selection. I know, I have rostered a couple
places, and I'm getting a ton of offers some people for him, so
they may think I don't know what I have, and others look pretty tempting,
so I might might see what I can get for him on a couple
of them. But I got a few, which one we want to pick
up? Here's here's what I found, Jack Dryer or Dreader, who is
in the Dodgers system double A and triple A. And you would think I
know the Dodger system better from that league with playing where we're quit after the
minor leaguers, and all of a sudden, I find this guy's got a
one point zero five ERA, striking out thirty six percent and only walked four
percent, and really off to a really strong year. And that's that's only
twenty five innings so far. So maybe why he is just now hitting my
radar. But so I didn't know whether to talk about him or call him
my sneaky deep, but I didn't want to call a triple a pitcher a
sneaky deep. So I don't know enough about him yet to say he'll be
top twenty, but he's some of him. I'm starting to dive in on
and take a little bit of closer look, and it's Jack Dryer d r
e y e Ry's looking him up. I'd call him a sneaky deep.
You know, the problem, as we all know what those Dodgers pitchers is
that you know there's there's always three of these guys, it seems like,
but those those those numbers are hard to ignore. A couple anybody else you
want to talk about this, A couple of guys, just curious guys.
I want to ask you if you know what's going on? Well, the
other one, you know, our buddy Doc Holliday is always raving about Travis
Psykora, little Mabel as I call him. But yeah, he's he's doing
what he does best, low way as a twenty year old, and he's
striking out his fair shared, limiting those walks, which you know, you
get a little concerned with some of those young, tall guys. But he's
he's he's showing the signs of being worth that that day one pick from by
the Nationals there, so he's looking pretty good too. Yeah, and I
for difficet to mention Hayden bird Song, who I talk about a lot,
had been called up to Triple A. He hasn't made an appearance with him
yet when I looked on Fangrafts earlier, but he got called up earlier in
the week. So San Francisco's got there eyeing him. He's still striking people
out over thirty percent, and his walks are down over last year or so.
That ratio is getting even better. And he's a big tall drink of
water. And yeah, Sanrancisco's got some some depth there. And I know
they like the old guys on there major league roster, but I think the
opportunity is going to be there, all right. So Carlos Rodriguez got called
up for a spots start with Milwaukee. He was there Minor League Picture of
the Year two years ago. Don't ask me how I know that. You
know, you hear things and certain things just stick. Probably because I love
Robert Gassers so much. I thought, my gosh, who's better than Robert
Gasser And it turns out Carlos Rodriguez was that year, but not no overall
not having a great year statistically, though. I've actually moved on from him
on a few of my rosters. The only thing that I see that I
like, he's got a pretty high ground ball rate. I don't know.
I know you're in the area. I don't know how closely you follow the
Brewers. Was they just need a picture? Is that why they called him
up? Or are they seeing something that I don't see? Do the Brewers
need a picture? Yeah? Oh? Man, Yeah, you know,
I think I don't follow their their beat writers by any means. I'm only
locally a fan, I guess more than anything. But yeah, he's been
a on fantasy radars since that minor at least since that Minor League Player of
the Year, So it's you know, he's he's It's been a pleasant surprise
that he was, that he was called up, And you know, I
don't know why he wouldn't keep uh being a being a viable fantasy player going
forward either. So it may have been short term that he's up here,
but I expect to see him more. I mean that that that rotation is
in shambles, so and they're the Brewers themselves, are you know, they're
they're kind of running. They're probably going to continue to run away with the
division, So he may end up being one of those that's moved for a
more set in stone picture, you know, someone who's more established, or
he could continue. You know, the Brewers also like to watch their pockets,
so I could be completely wrong with that assumption on my mind too.
Yeah, I think it's gonna be fun to watch these guys over the next
several weeks and a couple of months. You know, these are not the
names that that we've been looking at, because I think there's some really exciting
starts that some of these younger pictures are getting off to it and would be
great to see if it's season long, sustainable and going to make a difference
in the rankings, or you know, whether some of them are just getting
off to a hot start, and sometimes that happens. So, uh,
any real want to talk to before we get to the sneaky deeps? No,
I think I'm it's good sneaky all right. Well, I realized that
I might have gone old school aka not gone that deep, and I'm pulling
it up right now to see what his roster chip is. It's five percent,
and that's Adam Maco in Toronto. You know, I completely neglected to
look to see how much he was rostered. So he's another kind of large,
relatively large arsenal. He got traded to the Blue Jays by the Mariners
two years ago, I think, and I forget who that trade was for,
but he got sent to the Blue Jays and he's just kind of been
piecing his way up slowly surely. He's in double a pretty successful year this
year. He's got seventy four strikeouts in sixty one in so not a huge
k guy. But what I like seeing about his numbers is that year after
year he's been consistent and pretty much in the same i'd say eleven to twelve
strikeout per nine inning kind of range with those relatively good four below walks per
nine. So I think he's to me, that shows like a stable back
of the rotation type arm. He's not a big guy by any means,
so I don't know if he'll really fit that workhorse mentality, but I think
he could be a viable depth piece for our fantasy rosters as we go forward,
and the Blue Blue Jays, part of me. Blue Jays, the
Blue Jays, you know, who knows what they're gonna be doing here.
It hasn't been a successful year, so I don't think he'll get called up
this year necessarily, But he is on their forty man roster, so it's
if they move out some pieces, perhaps they'll need him to get some innings
for him. So I think he's I think he'll be a little decent.
Mine is a picture deep in the Milwaukee system. Surprise, surprise, you
just keep turning out good pitching prospects again named Casey Hunt, who's in the
High A right now. He was drafted out of Mississippi State by the Pirates
originally in twenty two, and then he must have been traded over shortly thereafter
because he didn't even have any complex stats of the Pirates. Has been Milwaukee
the past two years, picked in the fourth round. Then he is twenty
three years old in High A. But as her dogs say in one of
his episodes, it's not his fault. He's twenty three years old, but
he is. He's dominating and then some He is striking people out at thirty
eight point five percent rate and walking them at a two point six percent rate.
So he is pounding the strike zone and when they hit the ball,
they're hitting it on the ground. It's got a forty percent ground ball rate.
And you know, I just you know again, if we're looking deep
and I what I try to do is look at who's who looks like they're
about to break out and a ball are high, a ball particularly for for
pitchers. And you know, here's a guy who's who's numbers right now are
jumping off the page at me. So you know, put him on a
watch list. I think it'd be a really deep league before you're rostering him
right now. But he's definitely somebody I've put on my on my watch list,
and I'm going to see what happens. I think he showed up as
one percent rostered over there in fan track, so fits abilit either way.
So those are our sneaky deeps. I've got one trade to throw at you
that was from our discord. And you've already talked at length about one of
the players involved, Chris as we No, we don't talk about these ahead
of times, so I'm playing. So you talked well about Luis gil or
Heil. However, it's pronounced Would you trade him for CJ. Abrams?
Straight up? Straight up? So here's the kicker about Abrams. Abrams was
damn sexy to start this season. He has since cooled off, or at
least last I looked at him. I'm pulling up his game a log just
to kind of give me a too late the home run in a double in
then game he gets retires a couple of days ago. But oh yeah,
I think he has Couladelphia. I'm just going to do a May fifteenth.
So the last six weeks roughly or four weeks. CJ. Abrams has had
a nice WRC plus of sixty nine since May first. It's that good,
Chris. Not good for it. It's not nice for fantasy baseball purposes.
So you know, my how that looks a month later, I would not
you know, you know, it's hard to say that because Abrams has that
ceiling that is a tantalizing ceiling and is over that same windows. Abram's care
rate it's only been twenty four percent. He's not walking, he's just basically
his ex of velocities almost ninety miles an hour. That's not terrible. Without
diving in more, I'd say no, but it's possible that this is just
a really cold streak and Abrams could bounce back. But right now, looking
at this, I think i'd i'd ask for more, which is which is
bold, because I need you know, you see some of these Dynasty updated
ranks that I have not put out. But Abrams is probably more often than
not a top fifty piece and easily and yeah, I'd go I would ask
for more, I think out of that picture. Wow, yeah, yeah,
I'm really trying. I'm looking at him, going, Okay, who
you know who could I either churn or find somebody who can give me most
of the stats that if this player gives me, if I if I move
them off my roster, Like, can I can I find a couple of
pictures who can do what Gil does? Or can I find a couple of
hitters who can give me what Abrams does? But I I might lean toward
Abrams ceiling on that one. I might Ah, gosh, this is when
I just I don't, I don't, I don't disagree. I mean,
I get it, I do get it. When I'm moving an ace or
an ace like picture, I'm looking for a five category bat or should be
looking for a five category back, and I mean it's a fun trade.
I won't I'm not. I don't think it's lopsided by any means. I
definitely what I could be kicking myself in a few weeks. I would look
into it more, but yeah, top level, I think I would keep
Kiel. Yeah that's what if that offer came in and I'd be like,
hey, I'm really busy at we're Can I get back to you in the
day and then text our friends and see what they think? Chris, what
would you do? So? Oh, all right, what did the masses?
What did the masses say? The masses were overwhelmingly Abrams. Yeah,
who's the Who's who's the one percent? With me? Little Jerry in our
little Jerry you got I got you, man, I feel you. And
on the other side of people like oh jan is squid, friend of the
show, worka spurling Taylor, they don't know nothing, Chris Knock, Did
I choose Abrams? Yes? Oh man, Ye I'm staying. I'm staying.
I'm staying where I'm at. I mean, there was a full week
ago too, I mean, to be fair, was six days ago has
posted, so a lot could happen. Bro, What has happened since then?
Is Gil has pitched well, uh, earlier this week against oh my
gosh, no, I'm blank on who it was. It was. It
was decent. And then tonight I was actually peaking earlier today and he had
another strung audit against Boston. Who was he pitching against earlier this week?
Why am I blanking on? But his outing against Boston looked better than it
looked great? Uh, not knock your house down by any means. But
uh, what was his line to night? Uh? Five innings six case?
Looks like he probably walked a few one point six whip. I'm just
looking real quick. So yeah, but I I'm you know, I'm gonna
stick with the pitcher. Well, there you go, Dodgers, that's we
pitched against earlier this week. Yeah, so that that's a ringing endorsement.
Well, I went in and went in doubt. I think pitching is a
little more valuable. So if it's a total coin flip, I tend to
go to the picture. But that, yeah, that one was so closer
than I thought it was gonna be a first glance. All right, Well,
my friend, that brings us to the end of another episode. Uh,
good talk. Hopefully all the listeners out there enjoyed it. Uh,
any any fun? He just stumped you with this one. But any final
words? Uh, I'm glad to not have to talk about pictures. Oh
I guess I am too, But although I will say it is it is
fun kind of doing the research and seeing who pops up. But yeah,
they could be the headache in the game we play. Well. Take care.
I know you've got a busy weekend and oh we're also recording writers.
We're going into Father's Day weekend. So to you and all the other fathers.
Yeah, I hope you have or if you're listening later in the week,
have had a happy Father's Day. And all the listeners out there,
again, we know your time is valuable. Thank you for spending some of
it with us. Take care everybody, and hey, let's see what Taylor
has to say. Everybody. Before you go, I got to tell you
about my buddy, Nathan, mister Dynasty one stop, the one stop Shoper
for all your Dynasty leagues. Are you considering a new fantasy baseball league but
don't know where to start? Nate's got your back. Total draft degenerate that
just wants to do some bestball leagues do a d one s Nita Shoulder to
cry on. You'd have to ask, But he's a nice dude. Maybe
you could come to some sort of arrangement. In any case, here's the
deal, people, I'm the commissioner of four leagues across the multiple sports and
it's a crap ton of work. I don't do it anymore. I get
it, it's crazy, but Nate has this down to a t. Every
league I do with him is seamless, from creating the perfect league settings to
gathering fees, to draft scheduling, to recruiting managers and whatever else. Dude
does it all for a small fee that you can read more about on his
website Dynasty one stop dot com. Seriously, he takes care of everything.
Check out Dynasty one stop dot com to learn more. That's Dynasty one spelled
out stop dot com. Join the Ranks is a Dinasty Guru podcast and is
produced and edited by Drew Klein. Content created by the hosts Chris Knock Andrew
Klein. Executive director of The Donasty Guru is Taylor Case and Director Emeritus,
and Joey bart stand is Keaton de Rocher. Unless otherwise specified, the host's
rankings and opinions are our own, and, as is painfully obvious, we
don't share our weekly player lists with each other before recording