Ninety five miles an hour riding to his head. He hopped down the first
with the lump on his face, and on the very next pitch he up
and stole second face with greatst bet he wasn't born, but he had a
Yes. Boy, howdy. Welcome to Prospect B Sides Podcast with your host
Nate Handy, Episode number two. We're gonna go out west the NL West
talk about a little bit of the B side history from this division, who
we're looking forward to watching this season. I hope you brought your galoshes in
your raincoats because it's gonna get a little dirty. But before all that,
I again reached out some of my Twitter followers asking for some NL West focused
question. It seemed like a pretty decent way to start things off. I
got one here from at Denver Girl seven dash one eight plus one as a
fellow Rockies fan, well, okay, as a fellow Rockies fan. How
enraged are you at Dick Montfort's recent comments over feeling the team has pieces coming
so signing players didn't seem very important to him. I am so sick of
taking the last place and being the worst run franchise in sports. Denver Girl
seven dash one eight plus one. I am not a Rockies fan. I
I'm a fan of their farm system recently, and I wanted to be a
Rockies fan, to be honest, but the Rocky, the lame Rocky narratives
and jokes and Twitter and fans has really kind of turned me off. Intelligent
people saying stupid things, stupider things than the Rockies actually do. No more,
no more, q and laics. It's just for fun, bro,
That's not fun. That's propaganda, man, All those maddess nowted types tell
you how to live your life, fast cars, hot chicks, rec's pecs,
Gucci, where there's original. So last week I talked a little bit
about knowing what kind of player you want, that we need to answer that
question before we decide how we're going to value prospects. Well, now that
we're now that we're sliding on our mudding gear, what are we looking for?
This isn't the same sort of quest as looking for the player that we
want to like, you know, really invest in and hang on to.
Necessarily, we're looking for someone who the fantasy world are sleeping on, so
to speak. We're looking for guys who are owned and most likely only very
very large leagues, larger the ones I even play in as far as prospect
roster depth. But guys like zero to two, even if we don't necessarily
like the profile of the player, the idea is to maximize all of our
roster spots, right, spend a dollar to make ten bucks sort of thing.
Nothing, you know, not reinventing the wheel. If we have in
season pickups for prospects, play the game within the game. But then truly
don't necessarily like this Dodger, this power hitting Dodger. But man, if
he really produces, puts up the numbers, he's going to get very popular.
He's going to gain value, add value to that roster spot. Right.
So yeah, if you got a guy that you really believe in and
want to hang on to him, that's cool. And if he ascends like
a Tovar, fantastic. If he ascends for a year and now you've got
a little add on for a trade or something like that, fantastic. A
B side win isn't necessarily, you know, finding our starting second baseman for
five years. Turning the nothing spots on our roster into something spots, right
makes sense. B side mudding is now an efficient use of time. Most
of the guys that we talk about on this podcast probably won't amount too much
in a dynasty in a fantasy sense, be prepared to waste some time.
But I like to set aside a little trunk of my minor rosters in leagues
where you can turn and burn, just for that incremental gains. And maybe
you know, we run into a few, and of course there's always the
tricky part of who do we drop, who do we burn. I've definitely
burnt myself dropped Jackson Cheerio once. That is one of the reasons of many
that I don't like to invest in international prospects. But that's neither here nor
there, all right, So the first diamond Back I want to talk about
is our He was our first diamond back on the list back in May of
two thousand and twenty one, and that's Jorge Barossa outfielder, center fielder.
It was just recently been added to the forty man which bodes well, especially
considering how many outfield options the Diamondbacks might have. But back in two thou
twenty one, I was watching a lot of the Kale League and he was
one of like, maybe I don't know two hitters on the Visalia squad that
you know caught your eye. High contact, high on base percentage has kind
of always been his calling card. And last season double a he slashed what
was it, two seventy seven, three seventy four, four seventy eight,
So you know, top of the lineup table, center quote might be if
you the dream, there are home runs, there are some stolen bases.
I think he had thirteen home runs last year and twenty six stolen bases.
But the power, you know, and he's good. He's a switch hitter,
and then both sides, you know, splits are pretty good. I
think he's has some pop, a little bit of pop from both sides,
but it's it's pull side. He had one opposite field home run from the
left side versus Ryan Cusick last year. I tweeted that out. I think
it's mostly home runs off of fastballs. And you know, like two thirds
of his home runs were in Amarillo, which you know is a pretty small
park, so I gotta consider that. And some of those were lion scraper
wall scrapers. And he's a smaller guy at like five to nine. Well
what does this guy look like anyway? Oh, he's a little guy,
kind of funny looking. Uh huh in what way? Oh, just in
a general kind of way. Took a couple of good pictures deep though Bobby
Miller lighter had a walk off. He's pretty good with two strikes. I
mean it's good. At bats, you don't really see him. We're getting
two fold or overpowered by guys. So he's gonna be entering his twenty two
year old season probably at triple A. He's more quick than fast. I
think I had kind of napped been so sure about the defense. I thought
his arm was a little I don't know, didn't seem very powerful to me.
But again, watching defense is really hard, and I'm not spending a
lot of time doing it. And that was also back in twenty twenty one,
a major publication just named him their best defensive outfielders. So for the
speed, like a like, I said, more like heavy bass runner had
published some videos of him making some smart bass running plays then like a burner.
I think in his success rate he was sixty six percent. So yeah,
he had twenty six bags, but well, of fun, you want
to be about seventy five percent. So a guy that, uh, you
know, I would call this a definitely a successful B side. He went
from zero percent to nine now, so I mean it's it's deeply greatar kind
of stuff right now, only some thirty teams, but still young. See
how triple A goes. Not done paying attention to Jorge Burrows of the Diamondbacks.
But his swing is not I'm not like holding out that there's more power
coming. He's got one of those kind of like I don't know, Lefty,
the hips come out too fast sort of swings that you see. I
think he loses loses a lot of energy from his lower half. So I'm
not counting on home runs coming back up. But you know, again,
if you're playing in the league where anybody who gets some run matters, especially
if you play individual outfield positions center field leagues like that, if you're on
the forty man roster, you should probably be owned. And at nine percent,
it kind of feels like he's probably not in a lot. But I
also don't want to sound all like gloom. He's a good player. I
don't know why I was sounding negative, just the type that you know,
you don't want to beat a big fans, you don't want to place a
big fantasy bat at this juncture, but he is not without potential. So
Barrossa graduated, it was time to pick a Diamondback bat for this season.
And to be honest, I didn't really have anyone in mind, and so
I sort of dig in on some stats, try to get some ideas,
and I noticed Robie Enriquez. They call him Robbie on the broadcast, but
a Puerto Rican guy, rob Y regardless, and I had seen him a
few times during the season, but I had no idea what the story was,
and the story is actually kind of kick ass. So he played college
baseball at Indiana State, I think junior college before that, didn't get drafted.
Twenty nineteen would have been his draft year. He played independent ball Boise
last year well twenty twenty one, and then the Diamondbacks signed him and dude
went I'm pretty sure he went straight. He might have been a high A
for like a minute, but he ended up the cleanup hitter at Amarillo by
the end of the year. Not your typical sort of clean up hitter.
He's not a big slugger, but check this out. So from July first
on, he slashed three forty eight, four, ten, five, nineteen
with six home runs and a couple of stolen bases, and that came with
a fourteen percent strikeout rate. Oh, you're kind of snack up on me,
then, I'm anybody sneaky, sir. You see that the lefty looks
like, you know, more of your contact type of hitter, perhaps a
higher ground ball rate than you would want to see. I mean, rumor
a friend chaired some data with me might have been a mystery. But maybe
hit one hundred and eleven EV splits look pretty decent. He had a total
of eight home runs on the season, four against right handers right hand pitchers,
four against left hand pitchers. He just turned twenty five. Maybe the
d Backs found a little sneaky something here. You know, if you continue
just to produce like this, big leagues might not be too out of the
question. His first pro season gets some affiliated coaching. Now. Like I
had mentioned with Barrosa, I feel like he's got a little bit of the
same sort of left hand swing where I think the hips are fat. It
just looks disjointed some, but I mean it's it's worked well for both of
those hitters. I just don't think they maximize power potential. With that kind
of swing, and Enriquez is he's a pretty fit guy. I don't think
there was like really any body fat on him. I haven't gotten like a
really good read of his play in right field, but an interest. And
he was not owned on fan Trex at all, because he wasn't even created.
I actually submitted a ticket and asked for him to be created because I
had a draft coming up, and that was a very slim chance that I
would take him. But I thought about it so kind of an interesting guy
is like seaside territory. So I'm just a guy. We're gonna be paying
attention to Robie or Robbie Enriquez. And I just saw today that he got
added to the Puerto Rican World Baseball Classic roster. Who knows. I mean
it's loaded roster, but maybe we see him playing that that'd be kind of
fun. Now. When I was watching him, dude had multiple game with
multiple multiple hits, a couple close cycle calls and stuff like that. You
could hit it to all fields. I think it was kind of mostly I
don't know what was he like forty four percent poll something like that pole hitter
he's got The fast is bad is fast and that's why it's kind of unfortunate
the swing and all the energy might not transfer for home runs because he's strong
and he's he's quick with the bat, but nonetheless a guy who, even
though he's older, in my deeper leagues, I want to pay attention to
pictures have not been a part of the B list stuff or excuse me,
the B side stuff. But we're gonna start. It's a lot different animal.
It's harder to find guys that are, like, you know, two
three percent or less owned, that you you know, legitimately have some interest
and excitement in as far as wanting to invest in them in fantasy sense.
I mean part of that is there's more relief pictures and starters, so just
the picture pool itself, I don't really advise or do it too often invest
in a relief picture. I think I have one success story and that's Raised
Munio's. So yeah, it's a different animal. I'm not totally sure you
know how to go about it as far as just an ownership percentage sort of
thing. But long story short, I've got a diamond back for us,
and his name is the Olbert Diaz, A righty. Last year was his
twenty one year old season. He did pretty well in low A statistically speaking
three point five six r A. He had seventy strikeouts in forty eight innings,
and he was promoted to HIA, where he got eight starts in statistically
not as impressive four point eight five r twenty nine strikeouts in twenty nine and
two thirds innings. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on
him. I watched a couple of outings. He has a two steam fastball
that seems to be it seems to get some pretty wicked armside run. It
seems to be his biggest pitch. He's got a change up, and he's
got a breaking ball that it looks it breaks, it looks it looks pretty
good. I would just say the biggest thing with him is just command.
He's he's kind of all over the place. Better take just kids some control
before he kills somebody. But nonetheless an arm that I'm gonna watch at least
to start the season. See where it kind of heads. You know,
pitching pitching can change so drastically and quickly. I mean, if DL Hall's
starting to own some stuff in I don't think it's above many other pictures to
do the same. So the older Diaz is on my pictures to watch.
Um, yeah, at least check him out this season, not thinking he's
any sort of guy that we got our own right now, moving on to
the Colorado Rockies. My Rockies right initial B side hitter was Ezekiel Tovar.
Obviously that's gone pretty well. He was at one percent when he came on
the list. He's ninety plus now. Watched darned near every one of his
broadcasts. A b is I think, so, you know, knowing pretty
well. The only thing, the only thing I really want to say about
him is he looked nervous in the BIGS. I think he even said that
he was nervous. But just some characteristic stuff from him at the plate and
in the field. I don't know if you got charge with any airs,
probably should have. Was not expecting that he's a fantastic defender. But what
I think was huge for him was the last day of the season taking Clayton
kershaw yard. I think that leaves a very different taste in a young kid's
mouth. You know about his performance and and you know his confidence levels.
Some people talk about his aggressive approach, approach and are worried about, you
know, after seeing him chase stuff in the bigs and all that stuff.
Okay about let's take about twenty percent off are over there? Eight? So
he graduated off the list, and then Drew Romo came on and another guy
who it's more real life, but he's you know, top one hundred prospect.
I think that's totally fair. Tilvar Vien and Romo together and Fresno twenty
twenty one was awesome. All those guys, especially for their age. Just
some of the baseball plays that they would make, some of the deeks and
bass running plays were just off the charts for kids, and you know,
offensively Romo that I think there's definitely question. There's also been times where I
didn't think there was a question. Young developing catchers have you know, they've
got a lot more on their plate than just hitting. We'll see how that
goes. But he graduated. Then I started off last season with Daniel Montano,
who's a you know, I was just a fan of his Fresno,
just a guy who kind of did a little bit of everything. Nothing fantastic,
but everything good. And he made it all the way up to double
A last season. You know, which is good. Three levels in less
than two seasons. He started off really hot there too, cooled off significantly.
You know, my hopes were never like super high with him, and
that that those are gone. But I was thinking, like, you know,
he could be a fourth outfielder potentially or something like that, and I
don't know, his ownership rates might have jumped up to past three percent.
So this season I'm going with Vladimi rested two, I blush you. I
wasn't gonna say anything, but then I could see he wasn't going to open
his mouth. You know, if you want to make a person feel better
after they sneeze, you shouldn't say God bless you. You should say you're
so good looking. The generic story here is just steady progression the last couple
of seasons. Restituo's a wiry guy under six foot, but he's stronger than
he looks. When Tovar was I first saw him at rookie ball, it
was like, oh, man, if he could become a good little contact
hit or high high on base sort of thing, like might have a player
here. Then we saw him a ball a little stronger, and you know
that all change, you know, rockies are smarter than I am, and
Restituyo's development seems a little bit the same, just nearly as fast. But
he's an athletic fast guy who I think might just be coming into some of
his power. He stole over twenty bases, but he didn't hit a home
run until June and ended up with eight of them on the season, and
some of them were some monster shots, including one I saw in just an
absolute downpour. He slugged five to twenty eight his last ninety four played appearances
with four home runs. You know, swinging miss strikeouts were not where you
want them to be at all, but he cut them down by ten percent
this season while jumping up a level. You know, I've mentioned I like
really aggressive young hitters. He's definitely been that probably you know, you might
say too aggressive, but you can't practice hitting game game action pitches, you
know, in the batting cage. How you're gonna learn how to hit stuff
If he ain't swinging for the full season. He was two eighty three oh
one four oh seven, but he could very well end up Hartford's starting center
fielder at the age of twenty one start this year or very soon thereafter.
So an interesting guy. I wonder if Rockies have a pretty deep system,
maybe he's getting overlooked a little little bit, but definitely going to be keeping
an eye on him. And then I just wanted to bring up one more
Rocky bat who was just owned slightly too much to meet the B side threshold.
I can douse that like three percent when I put the list together this
season. But that's a shortstop. Julio Carreis also plays some third base,
or has, at least when he and Tovar were on the same team back
in Fresno. Careis led the minor leagues in doubles. There's some folks in
the organization that love Carreras, like talk about him in ways that it's very
surprising to me. Is he a better shortstop than Tovar. He's been added
to the forty man this offseason, and he got up to Hartford, you
got up to double A and it was not It wasn't very pretty. He
struggled at the plate, chasing stuff, not hitting easy, you know,
easy pitchers to hit. But it wasn't very long stint. And we've seen
it with you know, plenty of hitters in the past that just doesn't all
click right away. But Julio carreis definitely a guy who, if it kind
of clicks, if Tovar falters careers, might be the next guy. I
know, Rocky's pitching prospects can be a non starter for a lot of people,
and I can understand that, but I did choose Case Williams as our
B side pitcher to watch to start this season. Twenty year old will be
twenty one. I think has you know, has really lively stuff, good
breaking ball, good slider, good fastball. And he actually made his double
a debut in the last day or a couple of days of the season,
and he struck out twelve and of course it was shot from a press box
in Bingham ten, so we didn't really get to see it very well,
which is unfortunate, but you will have that in the minor leagues. Maybe
he just also got a non roster invite, so maybe we'll get to see
him against some big leaguers. I haven't watched a ton of him. Command
is definitely, you know, probably his biggest hurdle, but Case Williams will
be a guy we'll tune into. So let's take a little break. Someone's
actually bringing my doorbell and when I get back, we'll talk about a couple
of Dodgers. All right, I'm back, Sorry about that. That was
actually my good friend Matt Vogel's mom stopping by to say hi. Always more
than a pleasure to see her. Ladies and gentlemen, We got him,
all right, Sorry, So Dadgers. Dadgers are a tough place to go
b side him because everyone loves their pretty boy prospects so much. So omar
Estevas had been on the list up until now, and thankfully we can be
done with that poor one out there, trash bear. Come on, hey,
beer is beer? Jeez, I cannot win on this. So our
dadger bad is twenty one year old Junior Garcia, who's actually sitting at zero
percent. In November, he's gone up to two percent. Now. Part
of that might be I did see Chris klegg I tweeted out about him.
But he's kind of a good example for me why scouting grades can kind of
get me, get me confused, a little bit bewildered. I've seen something
that are that are I don't know, just in my opinion, not where
he's at today or at least at the end of last season. But we're
talking about a young power bat Beefy. I think he's maybe about six foot,
probably two ten, something like that, and strong. His last two
hundred and sixty one played appearances in a ball he went three fifty three four
twenty three, six twelve with twelve home runs. And for a guy who's
just supposed to have awful swinging miss and his own awareness and all that stuff,
his strikeout percentage was seventeen percent. He ended up getting eleven games in
at the end in high a big pool power like erminator in the minor leagues
esque kind of distance felt team is a good B sides election for a couple
of reasons. One, I like to have a good, healthy serving the
beef on my minor league rosters, a lot of them taken up by Beef
Goodman right now. But perhaps even more so, this is a guy who
can I think easily hit thirty home runs plus in the miners. I shouldn't
say easily, but if that happened, I wouldn't be surprised. Sometimes I
just get a little too excited. It's got tone it down about twenty So
pair that with a guy in the Dodgers system. I think that two percent
could you know, really skyrocket. So if it's a profile that you're just
not really interested in but want to try to maybe grow a pretty good or
a decent trade ship, I think there's definitely something potential for that here.
Play a little game within the game. But you and your Garcia potential,
well, I mean he is ev monster shifting the pitcher. I really enjoy
watching young Mexican pitchers, um, you know, Victor Lizaraga, Victor Or
As. They're just different than the American teenagers. American teenagers, you know,
trying to max velocity made in the lab, if you will. But
these young Mexican kids, you know, they grew up playing you know,
street ball against older, older hitters, and they just they learn how to
pitch. They might not have the big velocity, but they'll have the arsenal
that they can, you know, place where they want. And I don't
know how excited and you're allowed to get watching someone pitch just two innings,
but whatever, however much that is, That's what I am for a Dodgers
B side arm Luis Veldez who is zero percent owned initially, but he's up
to two percent now. Nineteen year old Lefty about he's listed at six two
one fifty eight. I'd put him, I'd put a few more pounds on
him. But actually went three levels this season, DSL Arizona Complex and then
A Ball. There are only two A Ball starts, and only his first
one was broadcast. Only lasted two innings and he gave up like four runs,
but you could see his ability to execute a four pitch mix, and
on the broadcast, I think this is the fastball was coming in about ninety
two. The breaking ball definitely had life, not the greatest angle, but
I was pretty dang impressed. His second start wasn't broadcast, but he went
three innings, gave up one hit, two unearned runs, he walked two.
He had three walks his entire season, and he walked two in that
game, struck out six, but yeah, dude had pitched. He pitched
a total of forty three and a third innings on the season, walking three
and striking out fifty one. There at two point seven and a whip of
point eight one. Obviously, still much to learn about this kid, but
a young lefty like this in the Dodgers system just gets me excited. And
I've actually already drafted Chair two of him just in case this is the next
young dadger arm that takes off Luise veiled as perhaps a young lefty command phenom
moving on to the padres. Terso or Neelius was the original B side,
and to be honest, I didn't even really watch much of him before he
reached seven percent ownership and kind of graduated off the list. I know he
had a pretty nice season statistically in Double A D two eighty eight, three
fifty five on base only select four or eight, seven home runs, seven
stolen bases, promoted the Triple A for a few games, but I haven't
really watched him, so I don't really have much to say about him.
But he's owned too much right now. Anyways. I know he got some
run in the AFL as well. This year. We've also had a couple
of our Padre B sides to get traded away to other organizations. We'll talk
about them when we get to those teams or Padre selection for this season.
Also played some AFL ball, although it was pretty sparingly. I think he
maybe played once a week. And that's Norwillian Sedanio. He's a twenty year
old switch hitting second base third base type listed at five eleven, one seventy
five. But I mean he's got he's got a thick base, probably has
um, maybe more pop from the west side, but pretty similar splits.
Now the one home run, I think he only had one home run from
the right side, but it was a four hundred and fifty one foot bomb.
He missed most of twenty twenty one with injury, didn't really get rolling
until June, which, you know, the injury stuff I'm sure played into
his AFL appearance. Came out pretty hot and then had a flower July,
but finished the season better. But there might be a mix of decent.
It's a good hitter here with some pop. Some that AFL exposure might you
know, lead into to a little bit more popularity, adding that the Padres
have traded off a lot of prospects and creep up their lists. There's some
strikeouts and some swinging mists, but you know, he's still just knocking off
rust. He hasn't even played in one hundred pro games yet, I should
say stateside games, at least in the looks that I've seen to be dangerous
with two strikes, and I know the organization thinks fairly highly of him,
so I don't know. Maybe we see some some high A to perhaps double
A this coming season if things go well, and I think there's definitely potential
to fill some stat sheets and increase on his what two percent ownership right now.
So nor Willians Daniel of the Padres is definitely on our watch list.
So my Padre's picture selection was Garrett Hawkins. It's a big righty listed at
six five, two thirty. I'm sure he's all of that. He's a
twenty twenty one ninth round draft pick from British Columbia University. He was twenty
two pitched all but his last four starts in low A and this is one
where I do kind of wonder if he's just if he was just you know,
punching a little bit below his weight down there, had some extremely impressive
outing, so I'm including seven perfect innings in late June. I had reviewed
him during the Prospect Pitcher Listener review last year early in the season, and
one thing that's interesting about him is that he actually fares pretty well against the
lefties opposite hand hitters. His numbers were slightly better against them than right He's
I think the big bully weapon was his fastball, totally sure. The velocity,
I'm pretty sure it's like mid nineties, but it kind of comes from
this kind of big sweeping over the top. And when I saw him and
he was really good, just the execution, the command of it was was
pretty fantastic. Plays a change up off of it, and I think the
bugaboo for him is if you can spend one or not and command it.
I could explain while he was down in low A most of the year.
Not a guy that I think we need to go out and own or anything
like that, but I think he's definitely an interesting starting pitching prospect that you
know, we'll definitely take a look at and see there's been any changes over
the offseason, so plan on at least one revisit mister Hawkins here. Then
the last padres B side we'll talk about is Corey Howell. Honestly a guy
that I had kind of totally forgotten about, kind of forgotten he was on
this list. I didn't watch a lick of him last year. I wish
I would have a little more to talk about here. It's pot leave Clover
Maga. Wish I wish she weren't so fucking awkward. Bud, but he
was actually originally the Brewers selection on the first list, and he was the
main get in the Victor Karantine trade. So last season was his first in
the Padres system, and somewhat to my defense, is season was cut short
because of injury. He had only played in like forty eight games or something
like that. But he's he'll be entering his twenty four year old season.
I believe sucks he got hurt. Last year would have been like kind of
his first upper levels test. Kind of an interesting power speed guy, athletic,
you know, good size, like six to three, so maybe a
guy will will check out this season. And his ownership rates had bumped up
a little bit, what seemed to have dropped back down now too. I
think he was at four percent, dropped back down at two percent. All
right, So I'm moving on to the Giants. Coming out of twenty twenty,
Adam Lawler did the top fifty Giants list and he had pegged your list.
Rodriguez, a Cuban signee, as a potential guy, doesn't really seem
to be working out so much that way. He hasn't been bad, but
he's you know, he's going to be twenty three in High A, which
isn't horribly old. I know it sounds old, but last year, twenty
three in that league was a half year old for the level, half year
old for hitters. I'm not a guy that I've really paid much attention to,
but maybe we'll run into him. Halfway through the twenty twenty one season.
Added one of my favorite deeper first year player guys from the twenty twenty
draft onto the list, and that's Casey Schmidt. Successful B side selection.
I think he's up to twenty percent ownership. When he came on to list,
he was at four, A guy who you know reached Triple A at
the end of last year. There's a lot to like offensively. Defensively,
he's fantastic. He has a big arm. Everyday third base for the Giants
is far from out of the question, a guy I still think is getting
undervalued. It's hard for me to think of forty nine prospects that I'd rather
have than Casey Schmidt. I have a feeling at some point this season he'll
finally start getting some top one hundred love. One of my favorite prospects out
there, and I'm far from the only fan. Was talking to a friend
about him at some point in the twenty twenty one season, and I had
mentioned how and that year he was one of the most unlucky hitters that I
had watched, just piss missiles left and right, just finding gloves. And
his friend had shared with me some spicy spreadsheet and stuff, which and I
don't really remember what it was, but at that point there was some pretty
attractive under the hood stuff. Four eleven pozzy track out back, seven fifty
double pumper edelbrock In takes scored over thirty eleven to one, pop up pistons,
turbo jete horsepower, we're talking some blocking muscle. Last season was a
bit of a coming out party to some degree. See if twenty twenty three
carries some more of that. Like I said, just a guy who who's
just very skilled. I really like his swing mechanically, stays balanced, catch
the ball out in front behind him. I know everyone will talk about his
glove first and all that stuff, but he's no slout offensively either. Man.
I know there's guys with some small numbers next to him on some lists
that I would that I have no interest in owning over a Casey Schmidt.
So actually today just sent Nolan Arronado for and George Kirby in a thirty heading
into last season, Ishmael MANGOUA forgive me if I botched. That was our
Giants selection. He's a center fielder who played at High A twenty twenty one
a year young for the level, hit nine home runs fifteen stolen bases.
His strikeout percentage was seven point six percent, and he had a three point
six percent walk percentage. Over his last one hundred and one at bats from
July thirtieth to September thirteenth that season, he hit four eighty five, which
is nine strikeouts, zero walks, and three home runs five stolen bases.
Mangouas he's tiny. He's a small, left handed hitter. He's extremely hard
to strike out, eliminated in power, which is really kind of on fortunate
because he can hit the ball out in front and put it in the air.
It's just they fall short of the warning track. And I noted early
in that season there seemed to be more of an effort to try and eke
out some slugging that was leading to a lot of flyouts, and then just
getting hits seemed to be more the intent and he definitely wrapped him up.
I don't know, maybe like left handed Nick Magigal type of type of thing.
He isn't very fast though I don't think anyways, probably more quick than
fast. A guy who had me excited to watch last season, but he
did not play at all, some sort of injury I don't I don't know
what it was, so that was unfortunate. He's he'll be twenty four with
no upper level experience this season, but a guy who can definitely hit.
His ownership had had gone from two percent to four percent back down now to
around two percent. Really unfortunate didn't get to play last year. But I
don't know. We'll see where he ends up, and I kind of have
a feeling that Sacramento might be of higher interest to me the potential of Schmidt,
who knows, maybe Mangoua and guy that we're going to talk about a
little bit. Replacing him on the list this season was a bit tricky.
I didn't really have anybody in mind, so I had to do a little
searching, looking at some numbers and watching a little bit of videos. So
this is not a player that I'm super familiar with, but Victor Barricado so
he's on our to watch list. So he's a twenty one year old sort
of like first base, DH corner out field type good sides like six one,
six two, played a ball last season, righty who slugged a little
more versus right handed pitching. Playing a year young, he had twelve home
runs with a twenty two percent strikeout rates. Cherry picking, but you take
away April and July and his numbers love a lot than his total season numbers.
He went from the bottom of San Jose's lineup to being like clean up
hitter by the season's end. Just a guy you know, considering his age
and you know experience, seeing him jump wouldn't be a surprise. It seems
to be a pretty good two strike hitter. Almost half of his RBIs were
with two outs, kind of like maybe a little bit of a wiry guy,
but more solid bass. He's got a quiet swing. Maybe it's a
little bit long, tough angles to tell, but a guy that you know,
like I said, didn't see very much, but saw him put some
nice swings on some tough pitches, and you know that was enough to considering
his age and everything, to be our giant selection going into the season.
That's Victor Barkoto and our Giants B side pitcher is Nick's Whack who was one
of my favorite guys to watch last year. He came over from the Mets
in the Darren Ruff trade with JD. Davis and a couple other players.
During that series, I was keeping a running top ten outings reviewed list and
swas Outing from what was it early July made that list. He went six
innings, gave up two hits, one walk, struck out ten through strikes
seventy four percent that outing, and he was a guy that was just crushing
high a Brooklyn. Over fourteen outings there had a one point eight four r
a, a point nine four whip, struck out seventy two and sixty three
and two thirds while walking only sixteen. After the trade, six starts with
Eugene, the numbers weren't quite as great, but still weren't bad at all.
He's currently owned in three percent of leagues. He's a guy that in
some of my thirties with deeper lists, I have contemplated adding a few times.
When you talk about the two ends of the pitching spectrum, he's definitely
he definitely seems to be more of the put the ball where you want at
a very high rate rather than a guy with you know, perhaps the plus
stuff. So that's a bit of my hesitation. But he was a late
round draft pick from Xavier in two thousand and twenty one. Yeah, seventeenth
rounder. I think his fastball gets up to a round ninety four. He's
got a I don't know if it's a cutter or just like a really hard
slider. And he throws a change up as well, that particular outing.
Twenty four of his first twenty nine pitchers were strikes, So just real aggressive,
attacking guys. Almost a guy that I reviewed last year that was somewhat
similar with Andrew Abbott when he was in High A. And you know,
it might be a bit of the same story with both of these guys.
You know, just how good is the actual stuff. But as far as
a command and pitch execution side of things, zwas pretty pretty fantastic man.
If you could like marry him and Kyle Harrison, Zoax got like the things
that I don't like about Kyle Harrison and vice versa. Obviously that's just a
dream. You know. These guys that get traded are always kind of interesting.
We've had quite a few of them. Actually, next week we're going
to talk about a good chunk of some traded guys, So you know,
it's kind of nice. Maybe some organizations have some interest and not just some
prospect nerd with a microphone. You know, the giants have done some things
with some pictures, so it'll be interesting to see. Coaching up stuff is
a lot easier than coaching up command. Zoas a good sized lefty at like
six three, obviously, the deliveries pretty repeatable. I might have that sort
of like golfers swing muscle memory type of thing going on, but kind of
a personal favorite and someone that after he went to Eugene right around when he
got traded is when I lost my internet, and I haven't gone back and
watched any of his Eugene outings yet anyways, but a guy will be keeping
tabs on Nick's whack. I got one last guy that I want to talk
about. Getting pretty sick of listening to myself talk. I can't imagine how
it might feel for you, My god, are you still talking up the
grats on trudging along? I'm sure you got a lot of mud in your
boots and dirt in your hair and stuff. But that's what B side's all
about, right or Tampa Bay Rays B side selection headn't in the last year
was Brett Wisely. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a Brett Wisely fan.
But this offseason, which I as a Brett Wisely and I find fantastic,
he was traded to the Giants. Heading into this season. When asked
a bold prediction, I had predicted that Brett Wiseley would be a top one
hundred prospect. Now that hasn't happened, but I think the talent is top
one hundred esque. Currently twenty three years old. He was a fifteenth round
pick in the twenty nineteen draft out of junior college where he was a two
way player, and I read an interview where he said that the Rays were
the only team interested in him as a hitter. But twenty twenty one he
just destroyed and raced through the lower levels. He spent this season in Double
A well, he got five games in at Triple A. At the end
of the year, he got exactly five hundred plate appearances in Double A,
where he hit fifteen home runs and stole thirty one bases, two seventy four
average average three seventy one on base four sixty slug strikeout percentage twenty no,
yeah, twenty point eight percent one percentage twelve point four. He hit mostly
leadoff at Montgomery. He is kind of a very different hitter versus lefties than
he is righties. Much more slug, much more aggressive versus right handed hitters
versus lefties. It seemed like more get on bass, take more walks,
less aggressive swing choices. Just as a fan watching man, I'd like to
just see him get more aggressive. I don't know, chicken or the eggs
sort of thing. Maybe that made him well suited to hit leadoff, or
maybe that was more of him trying to play the role of a leadoff hitter.
I'm not sure, but he's an athletic guy with a lot of skills.
He can play second bass, shortstop, played a little bit outfield.
I'm not sure if he played third bass or not. I don't know,
I don't I don't remember. But he's got the arm as an ex pitcher
I know the Giants have when they traded for him, mentioned having some hopes
that they think that he can help them this year, and he's on the
forty man roster. Now, kudos to the race getting more returned for guys
that they weren't going to add to their forty man roster. So you know,
the profile might very well scream utility player, but I don't think we
have to squint too hard to see how he could maybe go beyond that.
Guy who's got power to all fields, has fast hands, he can react
to velocity inside. I will say, after watching a little bit more from
this season, the lower half seemed a little bit more disconnected to the top
half than I had noticed in twenty twenty one. I feel like sometimes the
hips can get a little too fast, and perhaps he loses some torque.
But overall, he's a guy that I have planted on my minor league roster
and down near all my leagues and looking forward to watching him play with Schmidt
and Sacramento, and who knows, maybe even both of them together in the
Big this season. But Brett Wiseley still very much a B side prospect.
And if you're in a thirty man or an eight or n I'll only you
might want to take a take a good look at a little bit of average
OBP pop stolen bases. I mean, that's a lot of categories. All
right, So that'll wrap up our N'L West B side cram session. Hopefully
you feel abreast now inappropriate and ran through a lot of players. There wasn't
even really sure how long that would take. UM probably a little bit longer
than I had expected, but you know, once we get into the season,
figured it might be nice to know a little bit of I don't know.
I guess backstory is some of these guys are why we're talking about them.
During the season, we'll be talking a lot more about observations in the
games and developmentally, speaking about some of these guys. I plan on discussing
some trends and ownership rates. Maybe guys we should start thinking about watching or
paying attention to or grabbing and giving the time allowed In a week, I
doubt we'll be talking about I don't know what we talk about thirty players something
like that. I'm not sure I didn't count, so perhaps not quite as
much of a marathon session. Next week we'll delve into the AL West.
Not sure if it's quite as exciting as the NL West. There's definitely a
few guys, at least a few guys fun to talk about, and I
know the Aids have another guy that seems pretty slept on, so we'll get
into that. I want to give a shout out to Welsh again, thanks
for letting me do this. And I want to thank Chicago Farmer for letting
us borrow a clip from his song Dirtiest Uniform, which is a fantastic song
about a baseball player a teacher. I believe himself and his band being blessed
with the most innate skills, greatest sounding voice, greatest baseball skills, etc.
But succeeding in spite of If you like kind of good storytelling, Americana,
Chicago Farmer is fantastic. Twenty dollar bill backseat, just some amazing tracks.
Appreciate you mudding along through the second episode, The Prospect p sites be
well, I'll talk at you on Monday with Greast. He wasn't born. He