Ninety five miles an hour, riding too 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 be he wasn't born. He had to
welcome to prospect b sides. We try to talk about some prospects and no
one else is or very few are, and who knows, maybe we find
a dynasty gem. But I am made handy. I'll be talking at you
for a little while here. I last week I shared some personal stories about
some annoying folks. Am I wrong? No? You're not wrong? Am
I wrong? You're not wrong, Walter, You're just an asshole. Okay,
Then this week I won't lie. I'm a little up against it time
wise. Since I recorded the last show, it has been a week.
My youngest daughter was in the hospital for a few days. Everything's good,
everything's fine. This one's getting a little squeezed in. We always start off
with some Q and A, and I've got some questions this week, but
I'm not going to be able to get through all of them. But I'll
take one here at beach bum Brenda asked, I hear you talk about backdoor
savant data. What is that well at beach bum Brenda backdoor. Savant is
the nickname given to me by Matt Vogel's mom. Ladies and gentlemen, we
got him. Sorry, I'm fourteen years old. But in seriousness to answer
your question, in two leagues last year, in two minor leagues last year,
the Florida League and the PCL, you could get some semi public baseball
savant data from from the games if you took the game ID number, which
you could get from like the box score page and subs du did it in
place of like a major league score give you some data, So thank you.
Sorry. I had a little fun there, but we're gonna get into
it here. This is probably the system that I watched the least off.
I just don't need to be disappointed multiple times exponentially, so I really don't
pay close attention to the White Saxe. Of course, I'm not completely naive,
and I watched some stuff, but for the most part, I don't
keep close tabs. Coming out of twenty twenty, our original selection was Jenobille
Lariano, who was a twenty eighteen kind of oddly February of twenty eighteen,
International free agent from the Dominican Republic. He was a center fielder who put
up some impressive DSL numbers as a nineteen year old, which is a few
years old, but nonetheless, he went three fifty seven, four thirty seven,
five forty three with six home runs six stolen bases over fifty nine games.
The very little that I had read about him, it was talk of
a potential athletic center fielder who could maybe hit some home runs and steal some
basses, So that was enough for a dart throw choice. Twenty twenty one,
he struggled a couple of weeks in Lowe after a fairly unremarkable, I
don't know, forty games in rookie ball his first state side and go at
things. So he didn't stick around another season, as I had a better
idea. But I did actually get around to watching him a little bit this
season, so he got in nineteen games and rookie ball this past year as
a twenty one year old. He put up some okay numbers, hit a
home run, whatever, nothing really remarkable, and he got up for seven
games in Knnapolis, and I could just see why the White Sox might be
kind of interested in him. Or you know, stubborn, trying to develop
him. He's a good, like probably six foot maybe two hundred pounds,
strong athletic. Not like he did a bunch of damage, but a couple
of the swings I saw him put on some balls where we're pretty impressive.
Just it's kind of an effortless, quick, compact swing and the ball just
really kind of jumped off his bat. But I mean pops off the bat.
You can hear it all over the ballpark, a lot of pop coming
off the bat. And definitely, if he's a good hitter, why does
he hit good? So John Abel Lariano, maybe we see him around,
maybe we don't. Going into two thousand and twenty two, my selection was
Luis miasis I believe that's how you say it. Myasis miasis Am I ees
es. He's a big left handed bat, sixty three, probably two hundred
pounds something like that got my attention at the end of two thousand and twenty
one in high A. It seemed like a fast bat, hit some balls
really hard. It was coming off a pretty good season in low A.
Doesn't strike out a bunch. He was the two thousand and sixteen international free
agent out of the Dominican. Twenty twenty three will be his twenty three year
old season. But he kind of fooled me initially watching him this past season.
I didn't really realize that he was more of a contact I kind of
took him as more of a I don't know, slugging type pull hitter,
which he does pull the ball a lot, but he has the ability to
drive the ball the other way too. In his four hundred and fifty one
high A played appearances this past season, he hit two eighty one with a
three twenty four on base percentage. Right, I think he is a fairly
aggressive hitter. He slugged four to forty eight with twelve home runs. Nothing
too crazy. But now Chris Getz, who I don't know what his title
is, farm director for the White Sax, maybe did something kind of interesting
this year. They kind of took their select prospects from the lower levels and
sent them to Double A for a month to end the season, had them
all played together. What have you Misis was one of the selected and the
jumped Double A didn't really phase him. He produced had a better clip than
some of their more marquis names. Jose Rodriguez, Brion Ramos Wholsa, Montgomery
Westcalf. Granted he's a little older than those guys, but he hit two
ninety nine with a three thirty three on base percentage and slugged four forty three
and one hundred and two played appearances up there with three home runs. Wake
up russ Off, look good. Makeesis is a corner outfield type. I
think he plays a decent corner outfield. I think he has a good arm,
but he's not really the fastest guy around. Stolen bases aren't part of
his game. He stole one base over the last two seasons. His total
line on the season was two eighty four three twenty six forty seven with fifteen
home runs. And I think the story is he's just been a little bit
of a slower burn just kind of see gradual improvements. He used to hit
a lot of ground balls. He doesn't really do that anymore. He actually
hits the ball in the air quite a bit. It's no secret that the
White Socks for a few years now have been longing for a left handed outfield
bat. I don't necessarily know if Makeesis will be that guy, but he
was an r this year. But he's got a major flaw. He does
not hit left handed pitchers. He hit just one two sixty six two eighty
three against them in one hundred and nine plate appearances. So until that gets
better, I don't think the dream can be any more than a strong side
platoon. So moving on to this year, Jacob Burke was my pick.
Burke was the first year pro, A twenty twenty two eleventh round draft pick
out of the University of Miami, signed for a little over two hundred K.
He's a right hand hitter, listed at six one two o eight.
I believe he will turn twenty two this coming season. There wasn't a whole
lot to watch quite yet, but he did Bosom rookie ball and from Lowe
and I first noticed him with a web gem. It reminded me very much
of Aaron Rowan back in the day, so I started digging around a little
bit on him, watching a little bit more. The biggest impression I got
is he is a guy who kind of plays with his hair on fire.
He's gonna give you everything he's got. He was playing center field for Kannapolis.
I don't know if that's the most ideal spot for him, that's what
he played in college. I know there were some draft heads who thought Burke
would maybe much earlier in the draft than he did. He transferred to Miami
for his junior season from Southeast Louisiana and put up way bigger numbers than he
did at his previous school. He hit three forty seven five ninety nine with
thirteen home runs and ten stolen bases, struck out eighteen and a half percent
of the time. I'm not running out in drafting Burke and any of my
first year players or anything like that. This is much more just a curiosity.
Could potentially be a guy that moves fast. Um, White Sox don't
strike me as a super loaded system. Oh no, we suck again.
I think there's definitely room for an outfielder to ascend quickly. It wasn't anything
super crazy statistically in his short stint that jumped out at me, but I
did like the at bats you could tell he was, you know, more
of an advanced college player, hitting the ball hard, different directions, like
the look of his swing. So, Jacob Burke maybe a guy we keep
an ion. Then my White Sox B side pitching selection is Cole Simus,
who is currently owned in three percent of leagues, which is kind of wild
when you consider that he is a twenty twenty one undrafted free agent out of
San Diego State. His dad was a former closer for the White Sox.
He's a writing twenty three years old, six one one ninety. He got
in Low A and Double A this year. Another one of these guys that
was part of the select crew that got promoted up to Double A at the
end of the year. Now, I don't know what the story was.
In college, he was a reliever, but he only pitched twenty seven innings
his whole college career, which is kind of wild considering he pitched twenty one
innings in two twenty one, his draft year for the White Sox. In
rookie ball this season, he got in sixty one and two thirds innings,
which was fifteen starts in Low A, where he had a three sixty five
R seventy six strikeouts, a three point six five walk per nine, and
a one point two three wit. Simus has a four pitch mix, and
I think all four of his offerings and you know, and my limited looks
took turns looking like his best pitch. His fastball gets up to like ninety
six ticks up if he's relieving, But I think developing him as a starter
right now. It's kind of wild how baseball can work, right. You
know, some of the bigger lists up there have Simus now higher in their
system than Jared Kelly, who was a bigger name second round draft pick.
A few years ago. The White Sox seemed to very much use kid gloves
with a lot of their prospects in the lowers, trying to keep pitch counts
down and innings down, and I think there was definitely some of that going
on with Simus, and you know, makes sense for a guy who has
barely pitched. It'd be nice to say, hey, wow, look at
this. My White Sox actually might have found a little gem here. But
I can't help but think this was just something that kind of fell into their
lap because of their relationship with his dad, Cole. Simus kind of come
out of nowhere to definitely be a name in this system and is at least
at some point this next year he'll be getting some more upper level experience.
The Minnesota Twins a bunch of losers the target field. Come watch the worst
team in baseball, the worst team. Now, my guy Aaron likes to
give me a hard time because I do happen to find myself interested in quite
a few Twins prospects these days, but we're yet to have a official Twins
B side and hit really, and part of that is because I've been bullish
on my original selection, Jefferson Morales, who's been on the list the first
two years. I've looked for this, but for the life of me could
not find it. But several years ago I read an article I'm guessing it
was probably on Baseball America about a Venezuelan academy and different drills and things that
they were doing with catchers, and a young teenager by the name of Jefferson
Moralis was part of that article. Twins signed Morales in the two thousand and
sixteen international free agent period. Two twenty three will be his twenty four year
old season. The right hand hitter, smaller compact guy five eight one seventy,
he spent twenty twenty two in HIGHA with maybe a rehab stint in rookie
ball going into two twenty one. Somewhere along the line, I caught wind
of the Twins being high on his bat and his defensive abilities. Behind the
plate. The g had put up some decent rookie ball numbers, so he
was my selection two twenty one. He didn't necessarily light the world on fire
offensively as a twenty two year old, but he didn't strike out very much
eighteen percent. He hit seven home runs in seventy one games, and he
was promoted to HIGHA where over one hundred plate appearances he went three oh one
with a three to fifty on base percentage and slugged five to sixteen with five
home runs. Struck out twenty percent of the time, so that kind of
finish of his season kept him around. I'm drawn to his compact swing and
good balance at the plate, guy who seems to cover the plate well,
reacting to velocity looking away, and maintaining his power through the swings and throughout
his full season career. Despite being a good defensive catcher. The Twins play
him in the outfield, I think mostly left field, because they think highly
of the bat and want him to get his abs. That trajectory that we
were seeing at the end of twenty twenty one to not carry into two twenty
two. He was off to a rough start, a rough month, then
he had a pretty pretty hot month and got hurt in June. He missed
about a month, but he never really got going. When he came back,
he batted one sixty eight with three home runs, striking out at the
highest clip we've seen him over the last two years. I'm not done with
Jefferson Morales, but he is going to be twenty four this year and has
no upper level experience yet, and my guess is that he'll probably start in
High A. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe they'll just skip him up to Double
A. And you know, the Twins always do seem to have at least
one bat just really kind of put it all together and blow up and get
a lot more fantasy appeal. I'm not weighing down bets that it's Morales,
but I do think that he's a fairly sound guy at the plate. His
ownership rate has never eclipsed one percent, and in November it was at zero,
and regardless of everything going on, hitters always do end up hitting,
so we'll keep an eye. But I had a more interesting hitter to go
with this year, and that's Dalton Shuffield, who in November was owned in
zero percent of leagues, and I think he still is I believe this will
be his twenty three year old season. He's a right hand hitter, smaller
guy at five nine, one seventy and he was a twenty twenty two tenth
round pick, so he is a first year player in your fantasy drafts.
He had a very brief stint of rookie ball after the draft, played in
High A, and then got sent up to Triple A to end the season.
So we're gonna you know, we're talking about a really small sample size
here, but Shuffield is not without some interesting his He was I believe a
second team All American in college at Texas State. He had a very minus
twenty thousand dollars signing bonus. He could very well be on a quick prove
it to me sort of plan here for the Twins. Yeah. So he
had three games from rookie ball eight games and high and then to Triple A
for the last fourteen games of the season, where he hit two seventy one,
three fourteen and select five forty two with two home runs and a stolen
base. Now, the home runs one was a real nice piece of hitting
where he took a high and outside and fastball and just hit a rocket line
drive out of right center. The other home run was an inside the park
home run, not that he needed to be on this particular play, but
truff Field is fast, and he is a guy who said to be pretty
dang good up the middle, infielder, shortstop, second base. Now,
the strikeouts were a little bit high in these brief stints, but I'm not
going to knock him too much for that, just kind of just accelerating right
after the draft up three levels. Real quick strikeouts were not a thing in
college, not that that is a one for one, but he doesn't strike
me as a guy who will struggle with that too much. In college,
he slugged over six hundred put up, you know, very good numbers.
But of course the question was if the level of competition was high enough and
if that was going to translate over But his first test sure did go well.
One of the things you'll notice with shuff Field is that he does have
a fairly pronounced leid kick, but in my looks, that didn't seem to
be much of an issue. That stuff is really just a timing mechanism,
and as long as you're staying balanced in your swings, no issue at least
That's how I've come to understand it, and I was pretty dang impressed with
Shuffield from a technical aspect, at least from what I could see. So
shuff Field is, you know, another one of these small sample sized guys
who has really gotten my attention. I have come really close to drafting him
at the end of a few of my deep league drafts this offseason, but
haven't quite gotten there yet. But if he's up in Triple A, shoot,
even if he's in Double A, and he has a real hot month
to start things off, I'm gonna think real hard about picking up a share.
I'm curious to see now he's a minor league camp the spring training,
but I'm curious to see if he scoots over to some major league spring training
games. So Dalton Shuffield not without some interest. Then my Twins pitching selection
is a guy who, again I have not been able to see much of
because he pitched a large trunk of the season in Low A in the league
that he was not broadcast and then when he was promoted to High A,
he was either pitching in parks that broadcasts from a press box or were just
really poor quality. Not a very good angle to get a good look at
his offerings. And what's even more disappointing is that he actually did have one
game in Bradington in low A, which probably has the best camera angle out
of anywhere in the miners. Sometimes there archives there are just shoppy and digitally
skip and all this weird stuff. And of course his one outing was that,
oh man, and I should probably tell you his name. I'm talking
about Jaln Nolan, who was owned in two percent of leagues. Twenty two
year old lefty six one one eighty. He was a twenty twenty one nineteenth
round draft pick out of a Florida junior college. He's a fastball, slider,
changeup guy. Now the semi public savant stuff labeled a sinker and a
four steamer. I'm not totally sure if they're different now. Lynn pitched seventy
one innings this year and struck out one hundred and eleven. His walks were
around four and a half per nine, which is an ideal, but man,
check this out. His last fifty five innings, which included his promotion
to High A, he struck out ninety and fifty five innings. Dear Lord,
baby Jesus seeing his numbers. I had to check this guy out.
You get three high A starts. Two of them were in Cedar Rapids,
which has a not very great angle and it's not a very good broadcast.
But the sinker seems to sit about ninety two and the slider, you know,
given the savant info in the video, doesn't really seem to be anything
too crazy, and his command doesn't seem to be the greatest. Yeah,
he gives these hitters all sorts of problems. I imagine there's quite a bit
of deception for the hitter and his delivery, which is kind of I think
a lower arms slot, and my kind of guesses from the from the hitter's
vantage probably looks like the ball is probably just like kind of shooting out his
ear, coming out of his shoulder, and some guys up there just don't
seem real. I don't know, machine like delivery varies. They'll they'll lose
balance and fall over on occasion, and they're following through and stuff like that.
And no one has caught me as sort of that guy, at least
right now. Maybe an easier way to say it is I think there's still
kind of a lot of rawness there, But I'm anxious to get a better
look at his offerings and maybe even try to steal some under the hood stuff
from a friend. But a guy putting up that kind of strikeout numbers and
not really totally sure why, needless to say, has my interest. And
that's Jalen Nolan, who will be checking out probably early in the season,
hopefully from a good broadcast. All Right, the Lamo Detroit Tigers, I'm
kind of like, to god, it looks for all the kitties in the
park. Back in twenty eighteen, they signed a Denzo Reyes for about one
and a half million dollars, big strong bat out of the Dominican Republic.
I think he's currently listed at like six two, two hundred pounds. I
believe this will be his twenty one year old season, right handed hitter.
He was owning just two percent of the league's when he came onto the list.
He's at well, he was at three percent in November. This was
another dart throw who put up big numbers in the DSL. Now, of
course he had some pedigree if getting signed for a lot of money as a
teenager is pedigree. But in twenty nineteen in the DSL is a seventeen year
old. He hit three thirty one in sixty two games, and he hit
seven home runs, striking out fifty one times in two hundred and forty two
at bats, and of course twenty twenty happened. It seemed like a decent
selection, and it was their big money signing, or one of their big
money signings that no one really owns. Well. He came stateside two twenty
one and didn't really impress too much. In forty eight games. He did
hit seven home runs, but the k rate jumped to about forty five percent.
Excuse me, it was about forty percent, a little bit under forty
percent. It did not leave me with enough interest to keep them around as
our two twenty two pick, but it did seem that after thirty two games
this last season he had finally kind of conquered rookie ball. Strikeouts were down
to twenty four percent. He hit five home runs and one hundred and thirty
two played appearances, and he got promoted to a ball where he got in
twenty two games, struck out forty two percent of the time. I know
Ray has still makes some of the bigger lists for the Tigers. You know
this just isn't really my cup of tea, but you know, still young.
See if he makes some noise this year or not. But heading into
twenty twenty two, we went with Andrea Lipsis, who's owned in three percent
of leagues at the time and as of November was at four percent, but
I imagine that has now gone up some. Lipsis will be entering his twenty
five year old season. He's a right hand hitter by about sixty one two
hundred pounds, played most of his season in double A last year, did
get up to triple A for forty six games. He was a twenty nineteen
third round pick out of Tennessee, and Lipsis was added to the forty man
roster this offseason. In college, he was lauded as a guy with a
pretty good glove and some offense that had kind of maybe just come together.
His last season there, where he hit sixteen home runs. Power was kind
of a question. I guess the home run numbers haven't really come as a
pro either. He hit twelve home runs in two thousand and twenty one,
and he hit twelve home runs in two thousand and twenty two, granted higher
levels, but watching them some in two thousand and twenty one. He was
this guy who just kind of really caught my eye at the play, just
looked really sound, looked balanced, looked in control. When I'd see him,
he would I seem like he would always impress me one hard hit ball
or something, and I was just kind of really surprised at his season totals.
And I think he hit like two thirty something with you know, like
I said, twelve home runs and whatever. But when I dug on him,
you could see he would have these like really hot or very productive stretches
and than just nothing for a few weeks at a time. Maybe I was
just catching them in the good moments during the better weeks, but he was
the guy got a sense that the Tigers were still hopeful about just seemed like
too good of a hitter to not put up better numbers, and then kind
of turned out to be a good call. In two twenty two, he
hit two sixty four with a three ninety two on base percentage, slugged four
to twenty six in eighty eight Double A games with nine home runs. Then
in forty six Triple A games he hit three o two with a three eighty
eight on base percentage and slugged four to fifty three with three home runs,
stole twelve bases in Double A, which was two more than his whole previous
pro career. Hit a fifteen percent strikeout rate in double A eighteen percent in
Triple A. Lipsus is a guy who's never struck out at a high rate,
and it seems he's become a much more patient and selective hitter. His
on base percentage in twenty twenty one was three twelve. It was three ninety
two twenty two. He's the guy who plays I think a plus second base
and third base. I think he was primarily a third baseman. Anxious to
see how his spring training goes and his push to get a job in the
bigs. Even if all goes well, it may not be the most exciting
fantasy profile, but a high OBP, some home runs, some stolen bases,
and we're also talking about a guy who may be still developing and ascending
as an offensive player. Regardless, I think Lipsus was a pretty good call
and still not super popular. Interestingly, the Tigers traded for Justin Henry Malloy
this offseason, who was our twenty twenty two brave selection, and Malloy may
very well be some of Lipsu's competition for a job you. Malloy was a
six round pick out of Georgia Tech. In twenty twenty one. He was
owned in one percent of leagues. In last February, he's now up to
I think over twenty percent. I think it was like twenty three percent.
So we're talking about a guy who has owned in, you know, four
to five times as many leagues as Lipsis and bust out the Spider Man meme.
My name is Julius. I'm a twin prog. Because these two guys
offensively are so dang similar. A lot of their batted ball profile is very
very close. Malloy probably hits the ball a little bit harder. I mean,
I think he had like sixteen home runs this year or something like that,
but he also strikes out seven to eight percent more often Lipsis. It's
probably a little more fleet of foot. Malloy may be more of a natural
third baseman, but we'll probably be playing corner outfield. In terms of splits,
Lipsis was and kind of has always been just very similar. Not much
difference between right handed and left handed pitchers. For him. Lloyd, on
the other hand, four hundred and fifty played appearances versus righties, went two
sixty two, three seventy eight four oh nine twenty four percent k rate versus
lefties one hundred and forty one played appearances. He hit three seventy eight,
five h four, six h four with a twenty one percent k rate and
hit home runs at about twice the rate. Malloy is also on the forty
man roster. It might be a little interesting spring training competition. I mean,
not that it's a lack one of them makes the opening day roster,
but one could you know, both higher OBP guys who you know maybe in
that park could hit for a lot of doubles. Neither one of them get
me too too excited in a fantasy sense. Good B side calls regardless.
But concerning the two, and I've already done this. Someone's interested in Malloy,
We'll send him off for whatever and just pick up Lipsus. I don't
know sure. Malloy's a couple of years younger, and if you want to
say he's still ascending and there might be some power in there, I won't
argue against that. But like I said, too. I think Lipsis might
be ascending a little bit as well. So for this season, we're gonna
go with Manuel Saquara, who played some shortstop, third base, second base
this year. Long term, he's probably a corner infielder, and November he
was owning one percent of leads and a player. I really don't get why
he isn't more popular right hand hit or listed at six one seventy. I'll
take the over on that. Spend twenty twenty two playing a ball for Lakeland.
He was at twenty nineteen international free agent out of Venezuela. In his
first pro season twenty twenty one, he won the Florida Complex League MVP and
Home run Championship. Square has a powerful bat. I don't think there's any
doubt about that. Backdooring some savant. This can just stacked some ex velocity
games, four or five struck balls with high evs, and of course being
in that league, it's hard to watch a lot of him. Only two
stadiums were broadcasting this last year, Bradington and Saint Lucy. We got to
watch him some, and you know that might play into his lack of popularity.
He's another young guy who's getting his swings in up there. But I
don't think the chase is all that bad, at least from the little looks
I saw. I've read some reports that that's an issue for him, but
he doesn't strike out too often. He struck out twenty two point four percent
of the time this year. He hit nineteen home run this season. He
hit two fifty four with a three eleven on base percentage, sled four sixty
three with nine home runs over his last fifty five games. He's the guy
who wants to hit the ball out in front, heavy poll hitter, you
know. So just like in a hitting sense, he might be a little
bit raw, and I'm sure you can get much better with some of his
swing choices. But two pro seasons, I mean, I think Sequare is
two for two, two very productive progressive seasons. So I'm sure we'll be
watching a twenty year old and high a And if he starts to produce some
numbers, puts up the home runs like he has been, I'd imagine he'd
start to get some fantasy attention, or at least some more fantasy attention.
So Manuel Sequara is our Tigers B side hitter for twenty twenty three. The
pitcher I chose was Kider Montero, so twenty two year old who spent the
season in High A, listed at six one one forty five, owned in
three percent of leagues. He was a two thousand and sixteen international free agent
out of Again Venezuela. And he's a righty who had more success versus right
hand hitters. And when you watch them you could see why. He's got
a two steamer that he pitches inside with very effectively. Season numbers might not
wow you, and he actually spent I think most of twenty twenty one in
HIGHA as well, with like a plus six DR or something like that.
And y this year is four and a half. He had one hundred and
one strikeouts and one hundred and three point two innings. But I think the
story of his season is more so about how it ended. Now. Through
July, he was at a plus six ERA again at the same level,
producing much like he was at his fifteen starts there the previous year. But
over the last two months seven starts he had a one five four ERA with
a one eighty three batting average against thirty strikeouts in thirty five innings. He
went five innings and all of those outings with only fourteen walks and only twenty
two hits. Four of those outings were of five plus k's and watching him
the attack is to both sides hitters very much inside outside east west. That
two steamer that I mentioned, he's got a firm curveball that he seemed to
actually have quite a bit success with landing it high in the zone, which
seems precarious. I believe there was also a slider or it was his cutter
that he's been working on that was just inconsistent. It was hard to tell.
I think the velocity on the fastballs or probably he probably sits low nineties,
but the effectiveness is I think on the movement of them, and he
could really paint the edges of the zone with all of his offerings when he
was going well. And so for a guy with him who might not have
any like cheap code pitches or out of this world stuff, it's going to
be requisite that he can can pitulate that with the command. I don't know,
I don't think it's it's been anywhere near there, But I think his
success down the stretch was because it was much improved and it was interesting catching
the broadcast where they were talking about Montero struggling out of the stretch that was
a big focus for him, and they were saying that that had gotten much
better as well. So you know, of course, not someone we need
to go out and roster, but the guy who may have taken a big
developmental leap towards the end of the year and will be entering some upper levels
this year. It has me a little bit interested. All right, let's
talk some Cleveland guardians. My goal is to not call them by their old
name, which I have a horrible habit of doing, and do not mean
to be offensive. Why are you the way that you are? Honestly,
every time I try to do something fun or exciting, you make it not
that way. But our original selection, unlike many others in this division,
was a bit of a rookie ball dart throw that actually hit, and that
was John Kenzie Noel. Not sure what his ownership rate was when he came
on to the list, but in May so a few months after, he
was at six percent. He is now currently oh I don't know, at
least seventeen twenty percent somewhere in there. A man early twenty twenty one,
he really burst onto the scene. By July of that year he was at
ten percent, and then to start twenty twenty two he got up to thirty
four percent. But man, his stint in Low A one hundred and sixty
two played appearances, he had eleven home runs, he struck out only sixteen
point seven percent of the time, and he went up to High A,
where he got twenty six games in one hundred and eleven pit played appearances with
eight home runs. The strikeout rate jumped to twenty seven point nine percent.
Mind you, this was his nineteen year old season. He had three ninety
three in Low A in two eighty and High A. Now, yeah,
obviously graduated off the list at this point, but I'm wanna talk about him
for just a second. This past season he jumped three levels, which is
great twenty years old, got all the way up to Triple A and now,
granted, his stint in Low A was fairly short, less than forty
games, But I have to say, despite Noel hitting thirty two home runs
last year, I'm not really a fan of the hitter. He's become back
on that short Low A stint. I was watching a good bit and he
struck me as a guy who could really slug with the ball in front and
middle behind him, you know, really slug to all fields. Saw a
lot of line drives. You know a lot of times hitters like that you
will just home runs will just come. He's strong, powerful, he was
hitting for the high average, wasn't striking out. But now ever since then,
looking at his bad ball profile a ball he pulled the ball thirty eight
percent of the time. Since then, every stop has been over fifty percent
of the time. He hit the ball up the middle thirty two percent of
the time during his low A stint, that's higher than any other stop hit
the ball the other way thirty percent of the time. He hasn't hit the
ball the other way twenty three percent of the time. Since then, the
sixteen point seven percent k rate and loway gone to twenty eight percent, thirty
two percent, three percent in double A. This last year just isn't so
bad. Now. Of course, I understand hitting gets harder as you faced
better pitchers, but I was sure way more into the kind of hitter he
was early twenty twenty one. But I mean, who can blame him?
Home runs can make you a lot of money. I mean it's one banana,
Michael, what could it cost ten dollars? You've never actually set foot
in the supermarket, have you. I don't have time for this Nowell had
actually graduated off middle of that season, so at that point it was time
to pick a replacement, and that was Jose Tanya, who was one percent
owned in July of two thousand twenty one. And I'd call this another B
side win, as he was fifteen percent owned to start two thousand and twenty
two and we had to graduate him off the list as well. But Tania
is interesting that fifteen percent had dropped down to nine percent in November of twenty
twenty two, and it's now less than that as well. But it's another
case where I think there has been some nice progression coinciding with some lack of
dynasty interest. He'll be entering his twenty two year old season, most likely
in Triple A. He's on the forty man roster, has been for a
whole year now. Left handed hitter five eleven one ninety he first grabbed my
attention just kind of a left hand, a little mighty mouse with a lot
of pop in his bat, and sure there was some swinging miss but he
was, you know, another young, fairly aggressive guy, and I dug
that. And he's a lefty who this past season in the upper levels significantly
hit lefties better than right hand pitchers and struck out significantly less against left handed
pitchers. And the league he was in had some good ones, but he
struck out twenty seven percent of the time versus right he's eighteen percent of the
time versus lefties. Now, his total season numbers may not wow you.
He hit two sixty four, two ninety nine on base, slept four eleven,
but it's less three hundred and twenty six played appearances. After a little
time off, I don't know if it was a little injury or what have
you. He didn't play for a week or two, was never officially on
an injured list after that, and on he hit two seventy five with a
three twenty two on base percentage and select four sixty seven during that time,
which I think was in June. That time on, he hit twelve of
his fourteen home runs on the season and only struck out twenty two percent of
the time. And since moving on to the upper levels, his k percentage
has taken a very small tip. I mean, it's basically the same twenty
six percent to twenty five percent. And you know, just looking at his
pro career, I think Daniel was a guy who you know, I think
he's more naturally a contact type of hitter, but has learned how to be
a more powerful hitter. I'm still very much a Jose Atania fan, and
I think we'll see him in the bigs relatively soon. So perhaps somewhat of
an odd By Lowe candidate. Entering last season, we went with Christian Cairo,
the son of former Major leaguer Miguel Cairo, who was owned in two
percent of the leagues at the time. As of November, he was owned
in four percent leagues. But I'm not really sure why that jump. Twenty
twenty two was not a great season. Believe he turns twenty two this year.
He's a right handed hitter, smaller guy, five eight, one seventy.
He only got fifty eight games in roughly I think maybe there was a
little bit of a rehab stint in rookie ball, but he only got fifty
eight games in High A this year. He was a fourth round selection in
the twenty nineteen draft, and he's never put up super impressive numbers. But
in two twenty one. He got called up to High A at the end
of the year last month or so, and that's when I started gaining some
interest. Lake County had and still has a fairly loaded lineup, and it
was Cairo that was batting two whole for them. I believe down a playoffs
stretch and I just kept seeing super quality at bats, younger guy not getting
full lace and line drives left and right, and that little High A stint
was by far his most statistically impressive leg of his career. This year,
though, I mean it was pretty much a dud. I think there were
some injuries and what have you. I mean, I had to have been
for him to only play fifty some games. But he s last three sixty
two, which is nice, but select only two eighty three. He had
a couple home runs, stole ten bases. He didn't get back until August,
and production did see him a little bit better than Yeah. I don't
know, maybe twenty twenty three will be a rebound year. I do think
there is some exciting skill here. I don't know how exciting it might ever
get for Fantasy. Tough organization to find a prospect that is not very popular
that I'm actually excited about. To some extent, flirted with the idea of
just keeping Cairo on the list, but he was at four percent. I
really wanted to stick at two percent of less. I don't really know why,
and I still could not come up with a very exciting Cleveland Guardian B
side for this season. I don't even really want to call my I guess
selection a B side, but I went with Joe Naranjo, who was owned
in one percent of leagues. I'm not going to pretend like I have like
any serious interest in Nornjo, because I mean, maybe maybe just the slimmest,
but he's still fairly young, and I have to say, when I
watch him, he seems to always do something impressive, but he's just never
put up any sort of decent numbers, and he repeated high a last year.
Nornjo was a third round pick in twenty nineteen out of California Prep and
really just kind of an odd profile. He's a smaller guy five eight maybe
two hundred pounds, so he's strong. He's thick, left handed hitter,
but not really like a place to play. They play him at first base.
That's a fairly small target, but you know, it kind of fits
the mold of a Guardians hitter these days, like they really liked the high
contact on base percentage. Nernjo on the year hit two thirty nine with a
three to sixty eight on base percentage and slept four h nine. He did
have eighteen home runs, but he does tend to struggle against lefties versus right
He's he hit two fifty with a three eighty six on base percentage and slept
four forty four with fifteen of his eighteen home runs. So it's not that
I don't think Neronho has some skills as a hitter, and like I said,
he's still pretty young. He could be playing in Double A at twenty
one if they gonna have his third season at High A. But this just
doesn't feel like a track to any sort of fantasy find. But I wanted
one guy in the Guardian system to at least keep an eye on early in
the season that no one was rostering, So Joe Narranho was the reluctant choice.
What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I've ever
heard. At no point in your rambling incoherent response. Were you even close
to anything that could be considered a rational fund? Everyone in this room is
now dumber for having listened to it. And then it was time to pick
a B side pitcher. A Cleveland B side pitching prospect very much sounds like
an oxymoron because they're all pretty popular, and rightfully so. But I went
with my guy, Aaron Davenport, who was owned in four percent of leagues.
Davenport caught my eye when I was researching and trying to watch put together
a list for some twenty twenty one first year player draft, you know,
late round pitching targets. I had never seen him before, you know,
he started pitching some a ball. At the end of twenty twenty one,
Guardians took him in the sixth round out of Hawaii and signed him to a
four hundred and fifty k signing bonus. Not a huge guy, six foot
one hundred and eighty, but his curveball is what really kind of got my
attention. First, traditional hook, you know, twelve sixth hook. He
works with a lot of energy up there, kind of fast, looking like
he's real anxious to get that pitch out. Then his delivery seemed a little
herky jerky. I think he's toned some of that down, though, But
in Guardians fashion, they took an arm whose secondaries were probably ahead of the
fastball, probably still are. But it's not like his fastball lacks some punch.
It just lacks command. And that might really be his biggest bugaboo.
I mean, I don't think he's a great command guy all the way around.
He probably commands the curveball better than anything, but when he is more
on, he can really tease you. And what I really like about Davenport
is he seems to work his entire repertoire every outing, and we'll stick with
pitches that he may not necessarily be having the greatest success with that day,
you know, And I like that. To me, that's pitching to progression,
not necessarily pitching to results. He's trying to get himself to be a
full rounded pitcher. He has a huge uphill battle to become a starting pitcher
in that system. There are tons of talented guys ahead of him, but
I don't think he lacks ingredients to maybe get there now, you'd probably say
more than likely. Right now, his future role might be a relief pitcher
and I wouldn't argue that, but he and the Guardians aren't there yet.
On the season, he had twenty three starts at HIA, the four point
two one er a a one point three two whip, struck out one hundred
and eighteen and one hundred and seven innings pitched. Now, those strikeout numbers
are a little interesting to me, though, because he can rack him up
in clumps. I think there's more strikeout potential than those numbers suggest. I
think he just has some outings he's not completely dialed in, and the strikeouts
don't come as heavily like two and one and three strikeout performances and stuff like
that. But he's also a guy who could go on a three outing run
and rack up, you know, twenty five strikeouts. And now I didn't
watch any of his later season outings from last year, but he produced at
a higher clip. He had four outings, gave up three runs, strikeout
twenty eight, walked only three, gave up only one hit in one of
those outings, and only three hits and two though, so he was he
was producing pretty nicely down the stretch there. Maybe you're a guy Aaron Davenport's
tighten things up a little more needless to say, I'll be watching Aaron Davenport.
I'll probably watch Aaron Davenport, whether I'm interested fantasy wise or not the
rest of his career. You're darting two. And last, and definitely least
the Kansas City Royals. Not the least in a beast sense, but who
likes the Royals. The Royals have an interesting system, a lot of speed,
good defenders, at least that's kind of their international profiles. This division
was chuck full of some guesses at rookie ball, international rookie ball guys in
our initial list, and that was true with the Royals as well. We
went with Willman Candelario, who was owned in one percent of leagues and still
is and not totally sure why. This will be his twenty one year old
season, so I mean, he's still pretty young. He's a switch hitter,
which also could take a little more time. Listed at five eleven,
one hundred and ninety five pounds, he was a twenty eighteen international free agent
out of the Dominican Republic. Candelario was tabbed as a very good defensive shortstop,
and as I've mentioned a few times, that gets my attention he was
coming off a twenty nineteen DSL season where he slashed three fifteen, three,
ninety six and five oh five with four home runs and eleven stolen bases,
struck out twenty nine percent of the time. So for me, a defensive
guy who shows that kind of offense, Hey, maybe that narrative wasn't so
on point. Maybe we got a sneaky guy here. Yet since coming stateside,
he's had one hundred and forty two complex plate appearances. In twenty twenty
one, he struck out fifty one percent of the time. In twenty twenty
two is thirty nine percent of the time. He was sent back down to
rookie ball, where it crept over forty percent. Now, he did come
back to Loway this last year in August, and the bat did start to
get going and produce a little bit better, especially from the right side.
But I mean, there's really no reason to get too excited about a guy
who strikes out this much. So we'll see how much time the glove will
give him to write the offensive stuff, or we just won't pay any attention
to him at all and probably not lose any sleep over it. So he
got booted off the list fairly quickly in July of twenty twenty one, when
I went with a guy that I was very, very excited about at the
time, and that is Daryl Collins, who was owning only two percent of
leagues at the time, but he was the guy that I was getting about
as excited for as anyone in low A, and I wasn't the only one.
By the beginning of twenty twenty two, he was owning seven percent of
leagues, but has since dropped back down to three percent. This year,
Collins will be twenty one years old. He's a left hand hitter, good
size six two, probably two hundred pounds and really fit, really strong.
I'm pretty chriseled teenager at the time. This last year he played in low
A again and finally got promoted to HIA. He was a twenty eighteen international
free agent out of the Netherlands, which is interesting. He was a very
young kid playing and whatever their highest league is over there. But he first
caught my attention watching a lot of Low A that year, watching pitchers,
pitchers who had great outings, you know, guys who only gave up one,
two, three hits. So watching these pictures against Columbia and it just
seemed like every single time I watched a picture who gave up hardly any hits
out of anyone in that Columbia lineup, it was Collins getting the hits against
these guys. At the time when I added him to the list, he
was again nineteen years old, hitting two seventy six with a three eighty five
on base slugging three eighty four with four home runs and eight stolen bases.
Touted for his contact abilities, and sure the slugging wasn't there, but I
was like, oh, man, this guy's hit four home runs. We
saw a couple of them. I was like, man, yeah, some
pop in his bat. I will say he's a lefty who, like we've
talked about in previous episodes, lack of a better way of expressing it,
just kind of a disjointed swing. I don't think the energy from his lower
half gets transferred into his swing very well at all. And like I said,
he's big, he's strong, But since that half a season stretch in
low Way, he's had one home run ever since then. Then, of
course the rest of twenty twenty one and he hit two h five slugged under
three hundred. I guess I'm sorry. I guess he did have one home
run that second half, but then didn't hit another one until this last August
twenty twenty two. Up until an injury in June, he was batting two
thirty something, slugging only three thirty six. He got a month in at
the end of higha where he went two sixty nine, three seventy four,
three fifty five and hit that home run. Oh, I guess, I
guess he did have a home run the first half two so he's had two
home runs since that stretch. But regardless, it's looking like a pretty tough
profile for a guy who has only ever played left field and DH it's a
shame because there does seem to be pretty good contact skills and and like he
was at least when I was watching, and he was just kind of a
dude, had a lot of clutch hits, had some walkoffs and stuff.
But yeah, I don't know, don't really have a whole lot of interest
in Daryl cons these days. But there was some excitement at the time.
I mean, I saw some people talking about a few was potentially a top
one hundred prospects, which you know, just sometimes we just get a little
too excited. Sometimes you eat the bar and much blood. Sometimes the bar
wat you. But anyways, going into last season, going into twenty twenty
two, our selection was a guy who found himself getting added to the Royals
forty man but not yet receiving any dynasty popularity because he was owning only one
percent of leads. And that's Michael Garcia, who is much more well known
these days but still owned in only I think fourteen percent. That's got to
be creeping up by now, but I don't think we have to talk too
much about him. He's a guy who again another another plus defender who offense
was a big question, but he is at least put himself looking like a
guy who isn't going to be nothing offensively. Royals like they're fast guys.
He's fast, played some plus defense. He might be getting a shot at
their shortstop position relatively soon here looking forward to watching Garcia camp. Nonetheless,
this was a B side, a B side win. So then this season
in our selection is another guy who has snuck onto the Royals forty man roster
without any or a much fantasy attention, and that's Diego Hernandez, who November
wasn't owned in one percent of leagues. Twenty two year old lefty listed at
six foot one hundred and fifty. I think he's bigger than one hundred and
fifty. Last year he played in High A, in Double A. He
was a twenty seventeen international free agent out of the Dominican Republic. You know,
making a forty man roster at twenty one isn't too shabby. He's the
guy who the Royals have publicly talked about his work ethic and the work that
he put on to put on strength. I know there was talk about them
actually like really rehauling his swing coming into this year or at some point this
year. In twenty twenty two, he really went from just kind of a
middling prospect or middling guy in their system to the forty man. He had
only hit two pro home heading into twenty twenty two, and then he hit
nine last year, including two over a thirty two game span during his first
Double A's taste. He's a bit wiry, but showed some muscle. I
got a glimpse of a side view of a home run that he hit.
I believe I tweeted that out. At one point whatever where he seemed to
start his swing, stop his swing, finish his swing, and just hit
a just rope home run out of right field. Ex Velocity had to have
been pretty impressive on that one. And now I've watched him a little bit
more since then two and that thing, that little pause or something, seems
to happen on occasion. So I don't know what that's all about. I
don't know if I like it. But for a guy who like never hit
any home runs and can have like an interruption in his swing like that and
still hit the ball really hard is quite interesting. But last year his batting
average just kept soaring every month, getting better even through promotion, just hitting
more and more. And he's a really fast guy. He stole forty bases,
lauded as a plus center fielder with big range. There is some swing
mists and things to be cleaned up. You know, this is a guy
who might have kind of just discovered himself at the plate. So the trajectory
of his development was evidently pretty exciting and maybe exciting to somebody else, and
the Royals knew that or felt that and kept Diego Hernandez protected. So we'll
be seeing him in the uppers and see how just how good he can be
offensively, and our Royals B side pitching selection is Adrian el Kantara, who
is owned in three percent of leagues. This will be his twenty three year
old season, right hander six to one, listed at one hundred and seventy
eight. I think he's probably a little bigger than that. He pitched in
HIGHA in Double A last season. He was a twenty seventeen international free agent
out of the Dominican Now. Elkantara's season stats aren't going to jump off the
page, but over his last eight low A starts, two forty nine ERA
A point ninety three whip, fifty five strikeouts in fifty and two thirds innings,
and mind you, in that stretch he had a five run five inning
pitch outing just like a cobra. I had to shed my loser skin to
find my true power. And he got two double as starts in at the
end of the year in which he gave up nine runs total. But mind
you, he faced Frisco both of those outings. Frisco's lineup was loaded,
especially at that time Evan Carter had just come up as well. I mean,
I think something like six of their top thirty prospects were in the lineup
something like that. You know, these week long series now and the miners
is interesting if you're the pitcher going twice, which was his case that week.
He really wasn't bad at all. That first outing, I think he
struck out all their top dogs Foscue, Akunya, Carter. Then the second
outing they kind of got to him a little bit more. Alcantara seems to
do well against both right hand and left handed hitters. He's got an arsenal
that I think is, you know, pretty full starters. Seems to have
a decent breaking ball. I think velocity on the fastball might it probably sits
like ninety three, ninety four or something like that. There's a change up
in there. He seems to command them all fairly well. So nothing I'm
getting like too crazy excited about here, But a guy who has caught my
eye enough to want to take a look and see how the development is to
start this season, and that's Adrian el Kantara. All right, I'm sure
you're sick of hearing me talk at this point, so let's get out of
here. But the AO Central, it's had some interesting b siding outcomes.
Might not be the crew that I have the most anticipation to watch this season,
but I still think there could be some Dynasty wins in here. I'm
recording this before the fact, but I'm gonna say I had a lot of
fun on the Baseball America Fantasy Summit talking with Dylan White Andrew Wheeler. Hopefully
I didn't make a fool of myself. Next week we will get into the
National League East, which has some guys I'm very much looking forward to watching
this year, and one hitter who's actually probably already graduated off of their list,
whose ownership has jumped since November, so we'll get into all that big
Thanks again to Welsh, who I know is like the busiest man in fantasy
baseball content these days, for making this show happen. And thanks again to
Chicago Farmer, who will send us off. Be well and I'll talk to
you on Monday. Two is him. He hopped down 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 day. Yes, uniform