Ninety five miles an hour riding two is head. He hopped down first with
the lump on his face, and on the very next pitch he up and
stole second face with greatst He wasn't born that he had a day. Yes,
welcome, beautiful mud people to episode four of Prospect B Side, where
we contemplate if Jags or Jags or if they're Dynasty steals. I am Nate
Handy. I'll be talking at you for a little while here. Feel free
to follow me on Twitter at Pitching Specs. We have been running down the
league division by division, getting into some B side history and picking some B
sides to watch this season. More or less, a B side is a
prospect not owned in high numbers who we think could possibly become more popular.
This week we're getting into the NL Central, which I think has some very
interesting bats. But before all that, we usually start things off with a
little Q and A, so we have no interest in what's going on with
you. We have no idea what because it means no idea. I got
a good one here at Twinkie Girl asks last episode, you said you are
not fully bought in that investing in pitching prospects is as risky as most lead
on. Do you care to elaborate? I feel like I could probably do
a whole hour of talking about that. I want to be clear. I
do think that pitchers are more risky, but I think it's just overdone.
And you know, ironically, I was actually just thinking about this as I
was snow blowing my driveway. So I'll get into one aspect of why I
think pitching prospects aren't as risky as a lot of folks lead on. But
to do so, I got to tell a little story. So just bear
with me. I will to my point. As I've mentioned before, I
live in Narnia. I live ninety two hundred feet up a mountain in Colorado,
where there's just like basically perpetual snow. Hey, just finishing breakfast,
So colder than a witch. Is titty out there, isn't it? That
might be a little dramatic. There is summer, but I don't particularly care
for it for living up here anymore. But you know, I'm not the
only vote in this situation, and my wife loves it for two main reasons.
I believe it's pretty and it's away from people. In my opinion,
The pretty part is worn off and is very overrated. There are lots of
things in life that are pretty but not very practical on a day to day
basis, right, Like why doesn't my wife wear high heels and address every
day? That's pretty well, obviously she wouldn't do that. It's not practical.
But it's the away from people part that has got me thinking. It's
true, you don't have to run into or deal with as many people as
you would living in a city or a more populated area what have you.
Of course, you get into your life's routine. Mine in particular, I
don't really see many people. Take my kids to and from school. I
go to my job on the weekend, but that's like an overnight deal,
not really dealing with people. But the thing is, when you do have
to deal with people, it's most likely going to be a negative experience.
The last two run ins I had with people outside of my ordinary daily routine.
Driving home from picking up my daughter at school again mountains, windy roads,
snow. I'm coming around a corner, coming downhill to the ride of
me. This guy pulls out of his driveway without even looking. The extra
scary part is that my four year old daughter had unbuckled herself and was being
rambunctious in the back, and I was reading her the Riot Act while this
happened. Needless to say, I swore off the road into a big giant
ditch full of snow. I must have missed dude's truck by inches, and
then I missed the rock wall to my left by inches. It was,
I have to say, fantastic quick reaction driving on my part. I was
very lucky, and so it was my daughter. She was not hurt.
So I'm sitting there stuck in this ditch and the guy who had pulled out,
he gets out of his truck, comes my way. I rolled down
the window and the first thing he says to me is, man, you
were going pretty fast. What I just may have saved your life, dude.
Never mind that I was going like twenty five miles per hour, which
was under the speed limit because there was snow. So I'm just kind of
taken aback, like okay, buddy. But then he did say that he
was sorry and offered to tow me out. So I get out and we're,
you know, tying up the ropes and all that stuff, and he's
insistent I'm trying to pull me out from behind. I I don't think that's
gonna work. Mind you, this whole time he is talking about how I
was going so fast, okay, bot, let's take about twenty percent off.
Are over there eight and just really starting to get under my skin.
I'm trying to tell him that we need to tow me out from the front,
like I said, He's insistent, he's unable to pull me out from
the back. He finally relents and says he'll try the front, but mind
you, he is also mentioning several times about how fast I was going.
He also then starts mentioning how I may have to call a tow truck because
he's gonna be late. And mind you, this whole time, I'm just
biting my tongue. I'm just like, get towed out, go home,
just move on. He pulls me out of the ditch from the front.
I get up on the road, I get out to I guess, thank
him and shake his hand, and he starts going on about how people come
around that corner too fast and all this, and I'm just like, dude,
I am so out of here. Peace. So you know, this
was just annoying interaction with a person. Two days later, I'm making lunch
for my two little daughters. I happen to look out the front window.
I have a fairly long driveway, I don't know, maybe sixty yards or
something like that, and I just happen to see a bunch of snowblow up,
you know, just kind of come flying out of the ditch. I
walk over, look around some trees, and I see a FedEx truck that
has gone off the road down into the ditch alongside my driveway. No other
vehicles around. I finish up the lunch or whatever, I put the baby
to sleep, and I look back out there and he is standing at the
end of the driveway on a cell phone. You know. I imagine he's
calling his boss or something. So I throw my boots on, my jacket
on, and I go out there, and I hear him talking on his
phone about how another car had come around the corner and was I don't know,
caused him to go off the road. Now, that was a blatant
lie. You're calling me a liar, right now, would you calling me?
But you know, I'll give the guy some credit. He's give him
the benefit of doubt. He's probably talking to his boss doesn't want to get
in any sort of trouble or whatever, right, that would big deal.
So head down there with the truck offered to help him. He's doubting that
you know he can be helped, that he's too stuck in there. And
now I have a little bit of OCD blood in me and some grumpy old
man in me, just kind of how I was born. But I don't
get too particular about a lot of things. I'm a pretty laid back guy.
But one thing I definitely don't like messed with is my driveway in the
winter, effort to keep it clean of snow and ice and give him my
schedule. These days it's very hard to do all the children and all these
things. But in the process of him going into the ditch, he had
also sprayed up a lot of snow. The snow bank basically had fallen into
the end of my driveway. Regardless we'd tell him out he was a younger
man, get out, unhitched the toe, and he drives off without really
ever, I don't know any sort of sincere thank you. So I get
back in my vehicle to drive up my driveway because I'm obviously on the road
at this point, and I noticed that in towing him out, even more
snow had come up at the end of my driveway. And of course,
who gets stuck trying to come up the driveway? Me choice work super chief.
I'm trying to be a less cynical person. But as my one year
old daughter is potentially napping, hopefully napping, this whole ordeal of hoping out
an ungrateful guy is eating into my one, perhaps one and a half hours
of solitude or productive time for myself. And I'm angry. But what this
guy me thinking about was this idea of living I don't know, in somewhat
solitude, or this idea of not wanting to be around people, this idea
of living somewhat remotely that every time you run in to somebody, it is
most likely or at a much higher rate, a negative experience, thus perpetuating
your desire, your want to be away from people, sort of like some
sort of self fulfilling prophecy, the sort of sequence of action and thinking,
I mean, isn't that basically what turns into agreaphobia, the fear of leaving
your house. So what the hell does this have to do with pitching prospects?
Right, insummation. I think if you did it more often, it
wouldn't be as scary. Man, I just haven't had very much luck investing
in pitching prospects. Well, yeah, I've been playing in a league with
you for several years now, and I see you got twenty five thirty hitters
and five pitchers. Have you figured out what your success rate is? More
tickets you buy, the better your chances are. So I think some folks
might be setting themselves up for some thinking airs focusing on the four hitters that
worked out for them, while not focusing on the twenty that didn't, and
yet wondering why there's zero one pitchers out of five didn't work, which I
don't think is all that different than me thinking all the people I run into
these days or assholes? Is en philosopher Bashow once road a flute with no
holes, it's not a flute, and the donut with no hole. No
no, no, no, no, no, no, unbelievable. Thank
you very little. Anyways, thank you for the question at Twinkie girl.
Let's get on to some players, all right. Cincinnati Reds one of my
favorite teams when I was a kid, Nasty Boys, Barry Larkin, Eric
Davis, Chris Sbo love those teams. These days, it's not quite so
much that though, right. But our original red selection was Ivan Johnson,
admittedly not a guy I've watched a lot of a guy that I have thought
about watching from time to time, but can't seem to find him playing now
that it's been that horrible. But twenty twenty one he played in what is
it, seventy nine games, but then this last season it was only fifty.
Don't totally remember what the motivation was for him to be on the list
to start things off. He was one percent owned in July of two twenty
one, but he was a twenty nineteen fourth round draft pick out a junior
college in Florida and a guy who production wise has been kind of consistent.
Moving up low A hit two sixty three high, he hit two sixty five
double A. This last season he hit two sixty one three sixties. On
base percentage slugging has never been anything remarkable, but in rookie ball twenty nineteen
he hit six home runs in forty six games. Whatever rookie ball, But
in twenty twenty one he got some AFL run and he hit six home runs
in the AFL. That's a month long season, probably like a second base
profile hasn't put up gaudy numbers, but has flashed some things, and he's
been a mainstay on their Top thirty, on their popular top thirty lists for
good three years now. But again, not a guy that I'm super familiar
with. Watched a ton of I had a much better selection for this season,
and that's Alex McGarry, who won the Reds Minor League Hitter of the
Year award. Ellie Dave Lacruz was the Minor League Player of the Year,
but McGarry one hitter of the year. He's a guy that I'm kind of
surprisingly having a hard time leaving out there on the wire at the ends of
my drafts. Also this list of things that we want. The pickles can
be midget with the cheetos better be puffy DA's right say. Had a breakout
season, yet in November he was owned at zero percent. I see now
that he has crept up to two percent. McGarry played college ball at Oregon
State. He hit ahead of Adley Rushman. Twenty twenty was his draft year,
and he was definitely on the map as one of the more highly thought
of college first baseman of that class, but he did not get drafted,
which could very well play into some of his lack of popularity. McGarry played
some outfield in college, but it looks like he's first base. I think
he played a little bit of left field and HIGHA this year, but he's
a first baseman lefty. He'll turn twenty four this season. He was one
of five Red's prospects. I do believe that got a non roster invite this
spring. Yeah, you don't find him on any of the Red's top prospect
list, which is interesting. Across three levels, he hit twenty seven home
runs. He got about two and a half months in at High A,
then a couple of months in at Double A, and finished the season with
like an eight game stint in Triple A. For the season, he hit
two sixty four with a three to sixteen on base percentage. And those numbers
might not scream out at you, but I think there might have been a
little wrist injury that played into some of this. Over his first seventy eight
games of the season, which was three hundred and twenty seven played appearances,
he hit two eighty eight three thirty nine OBP and slugged over six hundred six
oz three And there are some strikeouts, I mean one hundred and two strikeouts
in that time span. But as he jumped up from High A to Double
A, he didn't skip a beat. He slugged over six hundred high with
eleven home runs and one hundred and sixty seven plate appearances. Then his first
one hundred and sixty Double A plate appearances, he slugged over six hundred with
thirteen home runs. Now the rest of the way, starting in early August,
I do believe they're on out. He only hit like two hundred with
three home runs. There was an il stint with a wrist injury, and
I watched a good bit of him down the stretch, and I just don't
think he was really the same. I had wondered if there was maybe some
intent to try to hit the other way more often. Maybe there was,
But I can't help but wonder if he had not had the wrist injury,
what his final season totals might have looked like. The pace that he was
on, he could have very well been up there with the minor league leaders
and home runs. He's a good sized guy, like six two over two
hundred pounds strong, the guy that just kind of looks like he swings a
heavy bat. I don't hate his left handed swing whatsoever. And he's a
lefty. You actually had a better average, more walks, more of an
on base guy versus lefties, but he seemed to not do as much damage
slugging wise from against lefties. And although you know, there's there's plenty of
players that I like so hanging around at the end of my drafts these days,
and guys that I probably prefer just overall over McGarry, but I just
can't seem to leave him out there with the feeling that if he does quote
pop up, it might be rather quickly. So he's going to big league
camp. And if you think about the Reds first base, there's what two
people in front of him, right, Joey Vado and Will Myers. Sure
there's, you know, maybe some other possibilities, but the Reds don't have
a long term first baseman in the fold yet. At least that's how it
kind of appears right now. Maybe the odds are slim, maybe they're not,
though, but the idea of McGarry hitting in Great American Ballpark, it's
just a little too tantalizing compared to other guys you're contemplating who might be a
few years away and stuff like that at you know, pick three hundred of
a first year player slash supplemental draft or something like that. You know,
And with the with the strikeouts they did through the course of the season,
even through his injury lesson he was like a thirty percent at high A.
Down the stretch, I think he cut it down. He was probably had
about twenty two percent clips. So in my looks, I don't know.
I mean, he's trying to hit home runs, you know, is he
big league ready? Is he gonna come out of the gates like? I
probably doubt that, but I don't know. Just feels very decide interesting to
me. And he did. He did tack on fifteen stolen bases, and
they seemed to come more plentiful as he moved up to Double A too.
Not that I'm going to be planning on McGarry getting me any major league stolen
bases, but he might be a guy who could chip in a few.
It's a first baseman Alex McGarry of the Reds might be worth a look.
And then my Red's Picture selection as Julian Aguar was nowhere on my radar until
this last offseason when I was thinking about trying to find a Reds pitcher.
Agar was a two thousand and twenty one twelfth round pick out of Florida Junior
College. It's good size six three eighty listed right hander, and he'll be
twenty one years old this year, owning three percent of leagues. He spent
the majority of the season in Low A, got two starts in High A,
one of which was against a guy I'm a fan of and as Joey
Yesta's and I have to say, Aguar like kind of really got me interested
that outing, which I think was his last of the year. But he's
a fastball, changeup guy that seems pretty solid, good mid nineties velocity,
but his slider that looks to have plenty of movement really kind of took the
show that outing. More or less just his willing and ability to throw it
in any count two oho in a sticky spot starting off abs with it for
what seemed to be the third or the lesser of his offerings. I don't
know, it seemed like, you know, maybe it was just a day
that he was especially feeling that pitch, but kind of got me much more
intrigued. You got eighty eight and a third innings in at low A.
He had a three point one six r a ten point four nine k per
nine at two point two four walks per nine. But you know, if
he was if he was pitching the way that he was that last outing of
the season, that's that's kind of impressive to me at that level, that
age. So you got a young guy with three offerings, all of them
looking to have some potential. To me, a guy with seems to have
pretty decent command execute his pitches and his tough pitches and tough situations. That's
not really something you see every day at these levels. So Julian Aguar,
it's kind of snuck up on me a little bit here, and I'm interested
to watch him. All right, Let's talk a little Milwaukee Brewers, who
maybe frustrating their fans more than most these days, but the B side hunting
has also been quite frustrating. Our original brewer was Eduarki Fernandez, who was
a fairly highly touted international signing in twenty eighteen. I believe he signed for
over a million dollars. The fantasy appeal was a potential power speed threat coming
out of twenty twenty, seemed like an interesting choice. When he was seventeen
twenty nineteen in a DSL, he hit eleven home runs and stole fifteen bases
in seventy two games. Struck out quite a bit. Well, you know,
maybe that would get better, but it hasn't. Talking thirty eight percent,
forty one percent, thirty seven percent. Finally got up to full season
ball this past season, thirty four games in low Ay. He has hit
some home runs, and you know it hasn't hit for that horrible of an
average. This last season he hit like two fifty some. He had one
hundred and twenty three at bats this past season in Low A. I did
not see one of them until that k Ray starts dropping significantly. I'm probably
not gonna be too interested. We then moved on to Corey Howell, who
we talked about in the second episode when we talked about the NLST. He's
now with the Padres. So then going into last season, Ernesto Martinez was
our choice, who was owned in two percent of leagues at the time.
He is now owned and I believe one percent of leagues. So back in
twenty nineteen, the Brewers sent Martinez to Triple A. He was just twenty
years old at the time, and that was jumping up from Complex ball.
Over forty eight games, he hit two sixty two with six home runs,
stole four bases. There were some strikeouts round thirty percent. Then, of
course twenty twenty happened, and then he caught my attention. Down the stretch
of twenty twenty one, where he was in Lowa at twenty two years old,
he hit two seventy four slugt four ninety two, eleven home runs,
but he stole thirty basses. Martinez is a big lefty, like six six,
two hundred and forty pounds, maybe big Cuban kid. A lot of
fun to watch too, Just kind of having a lot of fun out there,
you know, big guy, big lefty, potential power of speed.
I don't know. I was interested to see how the trajectory would go.
And you know, a guy who had proved to be able to handle himself
fairly well, you know, in Triple A for a short stint. But
unfortunately twenty twenty two was kind of a lost season. April at High A
wasn't very productive, and then he was on the I L until August,
came back from injury, played some rookie ball, got back to HIA for
like two weeks, nothing really remarkable. He ended up getting just twenty one
games in at HIGHA this year, where he hit two thirty seven, two
home runs, stole eight basses, though there's still some strikeouts. I saw
maybe a handful of his zat bats this year, nothing really remarkable. But
he's a big athletic guy and has some skills that could be quite interesting fantasy
wise. So I don't know. He'll probably start this season back at High
as my guests. Maybe we'll see him around, maybe we won't. I
don't know, we'll see So then this year didn't really have a bunch of
inspiration or anyone in mind. And then I noticed that the Brewers sent one
of their two thousand and twenty two draft choices to HIA at the end of
the season, and that was Tayton Hall. It's a catcher who can play
first base and probably some outfield found it quite interesting that the Brewers would send
a nineteen year old straight out of the draft. More or less, he
got a little bit of rookie ball in but he was one of these junior
college guys go to junior college for a year and become draft eligible. So
he came out of a Florida junior college signed for about one hundred and sixty
K. But he is the son of former big leaguer Toby Hall, and
he's not without some prep pedigree. I believe Perfect Game had him ranked as
like a top twenty or thirty catcher for his class. So there'll be another
very small samples, but I think I watched all of his hiaat bats was
just like nine games Worth didn't look overmatched at all. He hadn't hits in
I think six of nine games. He's a big kid, six four,
two hundred and fifteen pounds, a frame that he could probably still grow into.
The first thing you'll notice about him is just like a really odd setup
at the plate. Dan's like completely open to the pitcher perpendicular. But he
gets himself into a good hitting stand. So that's just whatever he feels comfortable
doing that. I wouldn't make anything of it. I like the look of
his swing. He didn't seem to get fooled too much overmatched, made some
good swing decisions. Look to me to be a kid that was kind of
looking to go the other way, seemed to have patience. When he was
in junior college, he walked twice as much as he struck out. You
know, I don't really know, or I've seen enough about him so necessarily
know what kind of hitter he might be. But he's a big guy.
I don't and he didn't hit any home runs this year. I don't think
we're not talking a whole lot of that bats, But the look of his
hands and his bat speed, I don't think he's a guy who will ever
steal your basses and stuff like that. But the Brewers might have themselves an
interesting kind of versatile catcher type who can actually swing it from the left side.
I had wondered in my deepest of leagues if he would be a choice
of mine, a first year player choice of mine near the ends of my
drafts, and that hasn't come to be yet and probably won't. But definitely
a guy I want to watch some more and learn some more about. That's
Tayden Hall. He's a good looking player, not quite as good looking as
Matt Vogel's mom, but nonetheless, ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
Then the Brewers pitching selection really was a no brainer for me when I saw
that he was only owned in three percent of leagues. And that's justin Jarvis,
who pitched mostly in high this past season, got four starts in Double
Ay, none of which I saw because my internet went out. But I
had reviewed Jarvis for Prospect Picture List in review and he was starting to get
kind of interesting to me, perhaps a prep pitcher who was finally kind of
coming into his own this season. Very much kind of a north south up
and down attack. He's got like a mid nineties fastball that seems to get
some good life up in the zone, and then he's got the big traditional
hook to go with it. There's a slider and a change up too.
I was interested to see how those might come along, because they probably weren't
super quality the point I was watching him, but I had picked up a
share in a thirty kind of thought the progression was going nicely. He's a
good sized rity at six two, I don't know, maybe two hundred pounds
if that. He's a little wiry. Yeah, he was a twenty eighteen
fifth round pick, prep kid from North Carolina. Interestingly, his splits are
kind of reversed. I think he was more successful versus writings. He had
put up some impressive stat lines with some high k's towards the end of the
stretch I was watching him. He was actually Rule five eligible this last year
and was not selected, which probably makes sense. I don't think he's quite
polished enough to hang in the bigs all year, But you know, the
Brewers that have done some things with some pitchers, and I'm interesting to see
where his development has taken them. As he gets going in the upper levels.
Here might be a little sneaky guy to watch and we'll definitely be tuning
in. Let's get into a system that's a pretty nice b side hunting ground,
the Saint Louis Cardinals. I think it's been pretty clear and abundant their
ability to develop some players that maybe weren't the biggest names when they first became
pros. They've had some success with kind of taken more experienced college bats that
maybe weren't as touted, seeming to have some current success with guys like Mason
Wynn and Tim Kents, who were I mean they weren't nothings on the prep
scene, but kind of considered a more raw athletic and I helped shape them
into dang good baseball players. The original B side list, my Cardinals selection
was Patrick Romari. Again, this was coming out of twenty twenty, and
I don't remember the specifics of it, but I was I did the top
fifty list on pitcher list for the Cardinals. Doing my research for that list,
I came across for Mary. The Cardinals took him in the twelfth round
of the twenty nineteen draft out of IMG Academy, which is obviously a pretty
prestigious baseball academy, and I can't really say that my interest was anything more
than interested in why the Cardinals were interested. They were able to sign him
away from college two hundred k. He's a good size six three, two
hundred pound right hander. He'll turn twenty two this season. But really my
main thing with him is I've just wanted to see him and there hasn't been
a whole lot of opportunity to do that. When we were putting the list
together, I believe it was Trevor Hooth who recommended to me Lars newt bar
as my choice as the Cardinals choice have been a lot cooler, but anyways,
twenty twenty one didn't get to see any of Ramary that season. Bradenton
was the only broadcast in that league, and either Cardinals affiliate didn't play there
at all this that season, or Ramary was hurt or gone when they did.
He was a zero percent ownership guy, and I just kept him on
the list un till I got to see him, which was finally this year,
and not very much. Twenty twenty one ended up not being a very
impressive season statistically. He got in seventy nine games, three hundred and twenty
two played appearances, He had seven home runs, struck out thirty percent of
the time, hit two thirty six, select only three seventy three. But
yet, like I said, I just kept him around because I didn't really
have any other inspirations and I just wanted to see him play. This year,
he got one game in at a ball in Palm Beach when on the
IL came back middle of May for just a handful of games, went back
on the IL, he did some rehab down in rookie Ball in June,
got back at the very end of June, and I noticed that he had
had a couple of very hot weeks and finally got to see him play during
the series at Saint Lucy in July. He only played eighteen games for Palm
Beach and then got promoted to HIA. But during that eighteen game stretch he
hit four oh seven the four sixty two one basse and slugged seven ninety seven
with five home runs and three steals. The couple of games that I watched
struck me as a dude with a pretty powerful swing. Looked like the end
of the bat got deep, and he crushed some balls. I wouldn't say
that it was enough looks to get really a great feel of what kind of
hitter he might be. The promotion to HIA didn't go nearly as well,
though. He struck out thirty four percent of the time, not very impressive
numbers. But over the last two years I did scope out some of his
his backdoor savant stuff, and but dude does register some pretty high exce velocities.
So Rami remains very much kind of an unknown to me, and somehow
his ownership jumped up to three percent as of November. I wasn't going to
keep him around anyway, as though, because I had someone else I was
a little more excited about and that's Jeremy Revas, who won Palm Beach's Player
of the Year in November. He was owned in two percent of fantrax leagues.
A major publication named him the Cardinals best defensive infielder in their system,
which really got my attention because Mason Wynn is in their system. So Rivas
played, you know, obviously a ball. Not a lot of telecasts,
so I have not seen much. Maybe watched about ten games worth of at
bats and PopEd around and some backdoor savant stuff. He's a nineteen year old
right handed hitter listed at six foot one hundred and seventy two pounds. He's
got a strong base. Then he does you know, like upper body but
a good size, you know, short stop. He was a twenty nineteen
international free agent out of Venezuela, signed for six hundred K. I believe
he started off the season producing well, had a rough spell, but in
my opinion, the bat doesn't look like there's no potential. There's some exit
velocities. He had the highest line drive rate of anyone on our B side
list this season, and it really seemed to me like the effort was just
to hit everything back up the middle line drives up the middle, which I
don't know. I mean, I'm no hitting coach, but that doesn't seem
like a bad place to start for a guy whose bat needs some development.
And I love to pay attention to the guys who get labeled defense first,
especially teenagers. For the most part, if you're really good at defense,
it means you work really hard at it, you put in the effort.
It also probably means that you're a really good athlete. And the narratives of
guys like Francisco Lindor and his Zepeel Tovar being labeled defensive first guys as teenagers
and folks not really putting much projection in their offensive capabilities stick with me.
And of course the odds of that happening are probably slim, But if Vas
shows up this season in HIGHA and starts putting up some offense, I'm all
over it. We know a guy who can play a plus shortstop won't necessarily
have to be a huge offensive contributor to get an everyday job, so we
will definitely be keeping a close eye on what Jeremy Revis is doing, especially
early in the season. I always find the pitching in the Cardinals system to
always be pretty intriguing, and that's definitely the case with our B side choice
Austin Love this year, who's currently owned in three percent of leagues. Last
year, Love was kind of on the fringe of mine, I don't know
deeper college pitching targets for first year player drafts. He was selected in the
third round of the twenty twenty one draft out of North Carolina. Only saw
a few video clips of him at that point, but what interests me was
he was a guy who was lauded for his command, had a very and
still has a very unique delivery, a like extra extra short arm sort of
action, almost like a looks like a torontosaurs rex throwing, and his slider
got really good reviews. So a guy with a high command of a potential
legit, you know, cheap code pitch. It was kind of my initial
attraction. Never drafted him or anything like that, but I did keep my
eye on him this year, and the production wasn't really coming all that well.
His ear was over five for the season. But more importantly, this
guy who was supposed to have such great command was very inefficient. The walks
were too high and lefties hit him very well. Now some of the story
with him around the draft was you know, he was initially, like a
lot of college pitchers, a reliever for North Carolina. They didn't start,
I believe, until his senior year. And he's a guy who's fastball can
be like, you know, get up to like ninety eight and short spurts,
but probably sits two when he's starting. But I think perhaps the starting
experiment may have gotten some new life breathe into it down the stretch because he
seemed to get much better. There were still some runs given up, but
the k's increased. I think the strike percentages increase. The walks went down,
not by like huge amounts. But the slider when I was watching his
ability to put that you know, nasty looking slider from that I don't know
how he can throw like that, to be honest with the arm action is
wild. You gotta see it. It really looks like a t rex.
But his ability to place that slider, you know, on his glove side
side of the plate was pretty impressive. I think this changeup, I don't
know, this changeup might have a chance to be really good too. So
we're talking a guy that could have three weapons and if the command comes back
like it was supposed to be there. Love might be putting up some you
know, numbers in the upper levels next year, might get some more attention,
and I won't lie. Also interested to see if he just does go
to the pen what that might look like. So like, you know,
his first real pro season might not have been anything spectacular, but I can
see why the Cardinals took him in the third round. Now he was I
think somewhat of an underslot signing, but nonetheless, Austin Love is an interesting
arm I want to watch. Let's talk about some of these dirty grouse Northsiders,
the Chicago Cubs. I say we march right now to Wrigley Built and
kick every one of their fucking a There's not many to talk about here because
jo Hendrick Pinango had been on the list for the first two seasons. May
have twenty twenty one, he was at two percent ownership. He got up
to six percent in February of twenty twenty two, and what was really surprising
to me was in July of two twenty two he had dropped down to three
percent and he's now currently at ten percent, so finally owned enough that he
will graduate off of the list. And got a new one for this season.
But I want to talk about Pinango. Folks that like to talk prospects
with me know that I am a fan and his ownership rates just haven't really
made much sense to me. Pinango was a twenty eighteen international free agent from
VENEZUELA left handed hitter, not super big. He's listed at five eleven,
one seventy. That's probably pretty accurate. His first pro season twenty nineteen in
the DSL, he hit three fifty eight and two hundred and forty at bat.
He hit zero home run, struck out only twenty times. There was
a little bit of buzz about him. I had watched some videos on Twitter
or whatever, and that was enough to be my cub. And the phrase
my cub coming out of my mouth is horrific. So twenty twenty one,
he's in low A at Myrtle Beach at nineteen years old. He hits two
seventy two with a three twenty two on base percentage. Now Pinango is swinging
the bat up there, as we've talked about, that's my style with a
young kid like this in a ball. But now the issue was or the
concern, the question was he only slugged three seventy and hit only four home
runs. His groundball rate was fifty seven point two percent. Not ideal,
and I'm sorry. He got up to Hia at the end of twenty twenty
one for about a month, but irrelevant. He hit one home run there.
Narrative was Pinango is a fantastic pure hitter, but he hits too many
ground balls. Isn't going to hit for power. There's no argument that he
hit too many ground balls, but I was not sold that he wouldn't hit
for power. To me, it just felt a little bit like a young
guy getting a lot of swings, and I think he has it in him
to become more accurate with those swings, and I think he has it in
him to learn how to play out in front more twenty twenty two starts.
He's in Hia at twenty years old, and in a lot of ways,
that is exactly what started happening. His first three hundred and forty nine played
appearances eighty one games, he slashed two ninety six three thirty two four eighty
with twelve home runs, and his k percentage shot up to a opping sixteen
percent. And again, with the ownership rates, we saw him go from
six percent at the beginning of the season too now at this point three percent,
So I was getting a little excited, thinking, all right, Dynasty
owners are really missing the mark. Here. I was sitting at the computer
geeking out on some baseball stuff. Did like a little filter left handed hitters
and high a give or take the same age year plus or minus of Pinango,
and he's having just as if not more, of a productive season than
Tyler Satis from was at bad juncture. There's some other high brown names on
this little shortlist, and I tweet that out, saying, hey, come
on, now, why are we dropping Pinango when he's doing exactly what we
wanted to see him do? And of course, I mean it might have
even been like that day, but he just fell off a cliff. Statistically
from there on out, one hundred and seventy played appearances, forty games,
one eight two, twenty four, one ninety four, with one home run
and at twenty two point four percent k rate. As much as it pains
me to say, Panogo is a guy that for two seasons I watched quite
a bit of almost you know, semi religiously tuning in checking it out twenty
twenty one. I was watching he and Tovar probably more than anyone, and
they were at the same level. Got moved up to hide about the same
time. And if you would have asked me just from a hit or aspect,
just from a production standpoint, who would have had the twenty twenty two
that Tovar had, maybe minus stolen bases? I would have said, my
bad is Pinogo over Tovar. That's how much I preferred his skills at the
plate compared to Tovar. So, like I said, I get excited and
like, hey, buckle up, let's go. It's you know, pinonggo
time. I'm gonna send you up against the best. You two characters are
going to top Gun. I don't know, maybe a week after two weeks
or whatever is when I lost my internet and went blind to what was going
on. To me, there was just no way that he could just fall
off a cliff like that. Too good of a hitter. Was asking around
one day in the prospect one room, and our good friend Zito had shared
with us that Penango was in a cast. Shortly after the season, there
was some sort of injury that the Cubs didn't really talk much about, or
something like that, and I'm completely buying that. Long story short, even
though he's up to ten percent ownership, I still feel like Pinango is very
much a B side and he'll be why. He'll turn twenty one this season
and could very well be in Double A. He could really swing the bat,
and that's good because he's probably gonna have to if he's gonna make the
Bigs. Back in twenty twenty one, I thought he I mean, the
looks that I got of him playing corner out field were not pretty. But
evidently the reports are now that he's all right. He's not a fast guy.
I wouldn't say he's slow, but you know, I don't think speed
is really going to be any part of the game. He's gonna have to
hit his way into the Biggs. I believe he's got some high exit velocities.
I also know that his average exit velocity probably isn't very good because he
makes a lot of contact and a lot of weak contact comes with that.
But that doesn't deter me. Let the young hitter get a bunch of his
swings in, just like a pitcher learning a new pitch. Let him throw
it a bunch and calibrate all that so Jo Hendrick Pinango. I'm waiting for
a big season. I think we were gonna get it last year and injury
screwed it up. My cub choice this year was bj Murray. Murray was
a fifteenth round two, twenty one draft choice out of Florida Atlantic. He
grew up in the Bahamas and played high school ball in Florida. I don't
think he really came onto the draft scene until he had a big senior season.
I see he'll be playing for Great Britain in the WBC. He's you
know, I'll miss you, miss me. Murray also got some AFL action,
and that's really when he kind of got onto my radar. Saw him
hit an impressive opposite field home run from the left side. Murray's a switch
hitter. He's listed at six foot two hundred and five pounds. It's like
a strong guy strong lower half. Split the season between Low A and High
A. Wouldn't necessarily say he blew up the stat sheet, but had a
pretty solid season. In fifty six games at High A, he ended up
hitting two seventy three with a three eighty eight on base percentage and slugged four
h six. He hit five home runs there and stole eight basses, but
over his last two hundred played appearances there he slashed three twenty five, four
twenty seven, four seventy nine with five home runs. I believe it was
somewhere in there. I saw Jeff ponce right about him a little bit as
a helium guy. So I'm not the only fan or semi fan. I
don't want to call myself a fan of a Cub, but I just did.
He seems to have hit for a little bit of a better average as
a lefty, slugged a little bit more as a righty. He has a
reputation of being just kind of a field rated Jim Rat guy, hanging out
soaking it all in. I mean a lot of guys are like that.
But in November he was owned in one percent of leagues, so perhaps there's
a little bit of a late bloomer sort of thing happening. Murray could very
well be playing in upper levels this year. I think there is skill.
I like the look of his swing from what little bit I've seen, But
I think Murray makes for a pretty nice B side selection this season. We'll
definitely be keeping tabs. The Cubs low A affiliate Myrtle Beach from a production
standpoint, had a pretty fantastic season from their starting pitchers. Their opening day
rotation was Luis Devers, Porter Hodge, Richard Gallardo, Luke Little, and
then our cubs B side pitching selection for this season, Tyler Schlafer. Again,
I want to keep some of these pitching B sides in perspective here,
But in Low A Schlafer had a three eighty two er, one ninety average
against and a twenty seven percent k rate. Kind of a cool story for
him. He was a twenty nineteen ninth round pick out of a Chicagoland suburban
high school. It's a pitching for the home team. He's listed at six
eighty. It will be twenty one years old this year, owned in three
percent of leagues. Now in Low A, do you have a pretty good
secondary and you can execute it really well, You're gonna have a lot of
success. In my opinion, that whole Myrtle Beach rotation could all do that.
They also have a lot to prove to me before I get too too
excited about them. Schleifer's game is a fastball and a changeup. I don't
think the velocity on the fastball is anything too special, but it definitely has
some life to it, some movement to it, and the changeup seems to
really fade and move more so than most. And it isn't that he can't
spin a breaking ball. I think he spends two of them, but they
are liable to go anywhere. So that will be, I'm sure the focus
of his development this season and what it will take for me to get more
excited. But we're gonna watch for that, So Tyler Schlaffer not without some
interest. The Pittsburgh Pirates have given us a little bit of B side success
and I'm hoping thinking there might be some more coming. Josiah Dixon was our
original choice, who was owned at one percent of leagues back in July of
twenty twenty one, and he's still at one percent, and I'm not sure
it should even be that high. Dixon was a twenty nineteen twenty third round
pick out of a powerhouse California high school. He was a well known prep
but I don't think anyone really expected him to sign like a plus plus athlete,
burner, center fielder, but the question has always been hitting. But
his twenty nineteen rookie season, he hit like over three hundred with over four
hundred on base percentage in a small rookie league extint, which teased me into
thinking maybe the Pirates were onto something here. Well, two twenty one was
not very good. Twenty twenty two is now very good. I don't know
if you can hit, but he is really fast and he does play a
great defense in center field. He's currently twenty one right handed hitter, listed
at five eleven, one hundred and eighty. You know this last year was
actually sent back down to rookie ball for a minute. In his forty five
A games, he hit two thirty two with a three twenty two on base
percentage and slugged two eighty eight. So I don't really have any more interest
in keeping tabs on Josiah Dixon trash beer. Come on, hey, beer
is beer? Jeez, I cannot win on this, but we sent him
off the list halfway through twenty twenty one. Anyways, to add Diego Castillo,
who was only owned in one percent of leagues in July and then,
I don't know, it might have been weeks or a month later, he
was promoted to the Bigs. He has since been traded to the Diamondbacks this
offseason. I don't know, you know, how excited we might be about
his big league career and all that, but I think it was definitely a
B side win to identify a guy who was owning one percent of leagues who
went to the bigs. But we don't need to get into him. He's
not a B side prospect anymore. So heading into two thousand and twenty two,
my selection was Dario Lopez, who is still very interesting to me and
still very much a B side prospect, with his ownership rate at three percent
in November one percent at the beginning of last season. He just turned twenty
one, just a couple of days ago. Strong right handed hitter listed at
six one eighty three pounds, he was a twenty eighteen international free agent out
of the Dominican Republic. And I have tried to watch as much as I
could of Lopez twenty twenty one. He's down in Lowa at Bradington, which
is the one stadium that broadcasts in that league that season, so he got
to see his home games. Not that I watched all of them, but
I watched a good chunk of Bradenton that year because it was the only place
to see anyone in that league, But Lopez really started to get my attention.
Down the stretch I believe he was hitting was the top of the lineup
as a nineteen year old. Bradenton went on a championship run and he actually
hit what ended up being the league winning home run final game of the playoffs,
And what got my attention was that he really hit the ball hard when
the ball got deep on him. The right handed hitter was just hitting some
monster shots into the right center field gap. Swing a miss, didn't seem
too bad, just generally caught me as a young kid who might be able
to really slug. One day twenty twenty two, he's up in High A
at Greensborough, who does not broadcast, and a lot of teams in that
league do not broadcast, so didn't get to watch nearly as much of him.
But boy did he go on a heater tonight. From June eleventh to
August thirteenth, he hit three sixty one, three eighty seven select six h
five over two hundred and seventeen played appearances, with thirteen home runs. In
that span, he had an eighteen game hitting streak, which I believe was
a league record and a thirteen game hitting streak, yet getting no attention.
So I kind of started asking around a little bit about him, and really
the reactions I got just weren't very interested, weren't very excited. Just said
he plays at Greensboro Small Park and all that, and yes, okay,
that's true, I get that, But I mean, not everyone in that
park is going on eighteen and thirteen game hits streaks. I think he had
like a hits in like twenty two out of twenty five games or something like
that, but not everyone's doing that. One of the reactions I got was
that he is just a heavy pull guy trying to hit home runs out of
the short park, which got me digging around a little bit because that was
very much not the impression that I had of him in a ball. You
know, I thought this was a you know, potentially a budding all fields
hitter. We hit for power to all fields. So in rookie ball,
he pulled the ball forty two percent of the time, in a ball he
pulled the ball thirty two point eight percent of the time, and in high
a he pulled the ball forty four point four percent of the time. So
I'm thinking, hey, look, at that we're both right. In a
ball he hit opposite field thirty nine point three percent of the time. So
we got a guy who was in a league that was supposed to be harder
to hit in harder to hit home runs, which he hit I believe ten
home runs in a ball to a small park in High A where he was
pulling the ball and trying to hit home runs. Should we be knocking a
guy because he's aware of his surroundings? To me, that says, Wow,
look at this guy who's nineteen twenty years old, has the skill to
be able to hit be a different hitter in a different environment. I don't
know. I take that as a plus, not a knock. Also heard
some interesting stuff that, you know, maybe he has a chance to be
a platoon bat. So I dug on his splits the last couple of years
and this past season in High A he really struggled against lefties. Again,
he's a right handed hitter. He didn't even hit two hundred against lefties.
He crushed rights both average wise and slug wise home run wise, hit some
home runs against lefties, but did not hit them nearly as well. In
a ball. He actually hit lefties better than rights. I don't really know
why that might be or how to explain that, but I think there was
definitely a shift of some sort and what kind of hitter he wanted to be
and all of that, whatever the answers might be, is a plus in
my book. I've liked his ability to cover the plate in different locations,
in different speeds. I've liked to his ability to catch up to velocity.
Like I said, I've liked his ability to hit for power opposite field.
I don't know, just a guy that I'm pretty bullish on. I don't
really care if no one likes them. I do, and I'm excited to
see him probably in Double A this year as a twenty one year old who
I think can do some damage with the baseball bat if he can keep the
k rate down. He's consistently been around twenty five percent. Isn't that horrible?
But I'm hoping as he matures a little more, maybe he can cut
into that. If we've seen a few b sides make that happen, we'll
talk about them in some coming episodes. Oh and I failed to mention that
there was some sort of injury and he played sparingly kind of down the stretch,
those numbers tailed off a little bit, but whatever, that's irrelevant to
me. Now he's a you know, I think he might be listed as
a short stop. I think he might have played some short stop, but
he's probably like a corner infielder long term. So Dario Lopez definitely gonna keep
watching. I'm a fan. My selection for the Pirates this season is Chase
Bowen. Here's a twenty two year old who played LOWE and high A last
year. Kind of played all over the place defensively, outfield, second base,
first base, third base, owning two percent of leagues. Solid,
strong kid, six foot, probably two hundred pounds. He was a twenty
nineteen eleventh round pick out of high school in Ohio, signed for four hundred
k. Now right, wrong or indifferent Northern guys, I give them a
little bit benefit of doubt, give him a little bit more time. Bone
wasn't a ball in twenty twenty one. Statistically, didn't blow anybody away,
But I think twenty twenty two was a little bit of a breakout season for
him across the two levels. He hit seventeen home runs and stole twenty five
bases. I don't think he's anywhere close to being any sort of polished hitter,
but over his last two hundred and twenty nine a ball played appearances,
he slashed three sixteen, three seventy six five h five with eight home runs
thirteen stolen bases. He was promoted to HIA, which there was only a
few games to watch from there because again Greensboro NAT broadcast, But he struggled
to produce like he was. He hit three home runs and they have actually
happened to be off of some pictures that I like, so hard to speak
on you know what his struggles may have looked like there. He looks to
be an aggressive guy, probably too aggressive sometimes, but again I like young
aggressive hitters. There's definitely some swinging miss in there. We'll see if there's
some more maturity here. Now, obviously you're not going to bet on everybody
being able to do that. That would just be ridiculous. But the Bone
isn't a guy that I'm rostering right now or drafting or anything like that.
He's just kind of an interesting watch. But I think he's shown at least
some ability to be a potentially exciting fantasy asset with his power and potential speed
maybe ability to play all over the place. He's not polished there. You
know, his splits don't look so great or anything like that right now.
But let's just see. This would be about the age that he would be
hitting pro ball if he had gone to college. So let's just see what
happens here. We'll keep some early tabs on Jace Bowen. I imagine he'll
probably be in Greensboro again. Hopefully there's some more teams broadcasting there, maybe
even Greensboro that would be nice. The pirate arm that I decided to go
with is Carlos Yemanez, who's currently owned in one percent of leagues. Twenty
years old, right hander, strong, big guy six two. They got
him listed at one hundred and forty pounds. There's no way he spent his
whole season in a ball so he had another Venezuelan finding himself on the B
side list not surprising. I've probably looked at more backdoor savant stuff on Jimenez
than actually watching him pitch, But he first caught my eye when I had
tuned in to watch Tink, Hence, when he was in braidington Yemanez was
on the other side, and sometimes you just turn on the video and there's
a guy who just wows you. You know, it's just different. It's
just a different speed, different movement. And I'd say that was the case
with Yemenez, just generically just tons of raw arm talent. I think his
fastball was sitting around ninety six and it looked lively, and so did his
secondaries. Plenty of movement, but human, haz, I mean, he's
wild walks here an issue. Putting the ball where you want is an issue,
all right, vun they tell out you're a picture. You're sure not
much of a dresser. We wear caps and sleeves at this level. Sun
understood. All right, Let's see what you can do. And that's not
typically a profile that you know, I get too interested in. But every
once in a while I might take a guy like that just to see if
it tightens up. I'd much rather do that with a guy who's a free
waiver wire pickup than somebody I have to draft. So I felt like him
and Az was a good B side selection. At least keeps some tabs on
see if the command improves it all. And if it does, I imagine
strikeout numbers will be there. I mean they already were over sixty nine innings.
This year he struck out eighty eight, but he also walked forty five,
So I mean that's a five point eight one walks per nine. That's
not that's not gonna get it done. But I mean there's plenty of stuff
here breaking ball, change up velocity that is not going to be his problem.
So Carlosminez of the Pirates not without potential. All right, Well,
I think that's enough of me talking at you for this week. I appreciate
you joining me. I also appreciate folks that have been following along these last
four shows being gracious and patient with me as I learned this podcasting technology and
craft and things. Hopefully the volume is better than it was in the first
few shows, and I'm not breathing into the microphone and smacking my lips so
much and all that stuff, trying to project my voice better and all that
jazz. It's a very different animal than writing stuff. And I have gained
so much more appreciation for Bagman and the Welsh and other folks that I like
to listen to. Who do this again. You can follow me at pitching
Specs on Twitter. I'll also be joining the Baseball America What are they calling
it Fantasy Streamfest or something like that. I don't the horrible plug on my
part, but next weekend I think I'll be talking with Jeff Ponce and Drew
Wheeler about underrated prospects or seeking guys under the radar, something of that nature.
So you can visit Baseball America dot com or get at Jeff Ponce on
Twitter and learn more about that if you wish. Next week we'll get into
the American League Central B sides, some history and this year's picks. Again.
Thanks to Chicago Farmer for letting us use a little bit of his music.
We'll let him take us out be well, and i'll talk to you
him Monday. First on his face, and on the very next pitch he
up and stole second face with greatst beat. He wasn't born, but he
had a daddy ass. Beautiful