Speaker 1: Greetings and citations everyone at Rich Wilson Walking Too. Fantasy
Speaker 1: Baseball Live. Today is Thursday, September twenty sixth about nine
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning. I am solo today. This will
Speaker 1: be being released on Friday morning. In lieu of our
Speaker 1: Friday show. Tim and I had some scheduling conflicts. I
Speaker 1: was unavailable to do the recording, so I am doing
Speaker 1: it today. We're talking about the Arizona Fall League. The
Speaker 1: rosters were released yesterday about one thirty in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: For our Patreon members. I put together a nice little
Speaker 1: PDF package for you. It was released this morning. You're
Speaker 1: getting this Friday probably around eight o'clock in the morning. Hopefully.
Speaker 1: It's got all fifty five write ups in terms of
Speaker 1: everybody that has made are my top six hundred and
Speaker 1: forty prospects, anybody that had a write up that was
Speaker 1: in the top six hundred and forty prospects in the game,
Speaker 1: which again were fifty five. And there's there's six teams
Speaker 1: in about one hundred and eighty players or so one
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five, so it's about a third of
Speaker 1: the players, and it's mostly positional players. Most most of
Speaker 1: the positional players make my top six hundred, and I've
Speaker 1: only got three or four pitchers and the whole lot
Speaker 1: the pitching in this for this season is very very weak.
Speaker 1: I mean last year we had Jackson job who made
Speaker 1: his major league debut. Last night we had to Tacoa
Speaker 1: Roby Tacoa's forgot what his first name is. Anyway, the
Speaker 1: guy from Saint Louis, he was there. Jack Eder was there,
Speaker 1: so he had some guys that we're coming back from
Speaker 1: significant arm injuries that were there. This year. There's just
Speaker 1: not a lot of There's not a ton of guys there,
Speaker 1: and you know, part of the reason kind of gets
Speaker 1: into why players go to the Fall League, and there's
Speaker 1: a variety of reasons. It is not to showcase for
Speaker 1: the teams to showcase their best players. Sometimes they do that.
Speaker 1: It looks like the San Diego Padres are doing that
Speaker 1: this year with their two young kids, Ethan Sallas and
Speaker 1: Leo Dallas DeVries. They're both going to be there. I
Speaker 1: remember it was several years ago the Cubs sent to
Speaker 1: Chris Bryant. I think they Chris Brian and a couple
Speaker 1: other like top of the top prospects. So it's a
Speaker 1: number of years ago. But you just rarely see that
Speaker 1: the Yankees never send a top prospect. That's not true.
Speaker 1: They rarely send a top prospect. They did, say, send
Speaker 1: Aaron Judge seven eight years ago, maybe ten years yars ago,
Speaker 1: but they don't. The Baltimore Orioles do not send high
Speaker 1: end prospects. Who they send are guys that they're trying
Speaker 1: to make decisions about for the forty man roster. They
Speaker 1: want to have them one more look at them, and
Speaker 1: they know there's a lot of baseball people there. The
Speaker 1: season is over, so everybody can descend on the Fall League,
Speaker 1: and you'll get a lot of pictures that will not
Speaker 1: be protected and maybe they can pull a you know,
Speaker 1: a bit of a trade for a guy that they
Speaker 1: showcase there. So you see a lot of twenty four
Speaker 1: twenty six year old pictures that you've never heard of
Speaker 1: that are likely to be middle relievers or spot starters,
Speaker 1: and therefore they don't make any of my lists. So
Speaker 1: that's a big phylum that's there. Another one is guys
Speaker 1: that are hurt. Chase the Louder is a great example
Speaker 1: is a guy that spent a lot of time on
Speaker 1: the injured list, Gino Groover, spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: on the injured list, he will be there, so because
Speaker 1: you want to get more playing time for guys. So
Speaker 1: here's a chance to get another twenty five games, and
Speaker 1: you know it's it's not the best of baseball, but
Speaker 1: it is. You know, at least they're continuing to play games,
Speaker 1: and you see that. You used to see that a
Speaker 1: lot with pitchers. That will hurt to give them another
Speaker 1: four or five starts as well. But again, what you
Speaker 1: don't want to have is any picture that's you know,
Speaker 1: pitched one hundred and twenty innings and their their arm
Speaker 1: is dead. You don't want to put another twenty thirty
Speaker 1: innings on them, or you know, fifteen to twenty five
Speaker 1: innings on them in the Fall League for exhibition games
Speaker 1: meaningless games. So those kind of players will never be there.
Speaker 1: You many times someone want to send your stars who
Speaker 1: maybe made it to the major leagues or about ready
Speaker 1: to be called up for one little fine tuning. Now
Speaker 1: you want them to have a really nice offseason because
Speaker 1: remember it's the seventh through the middle of November, so
Speaker 1: these guys lose a month to five six weeks of
Speaker 1: their off season continuing to play in games and by
Speaker 1: the time you get back, there's Thanksgiving, there's Christmas, and
Speaker 1: then you're back at it. So there's really no downtime
Speaker 1: because the Fall League really takes that away from them.
Speaker 1: So if you're a big Fisher hunter kind of guy,
Speaker 1: that season usually goes away because you're playing baseball. So
Speaker 1: sometimes guys that do go aren't all that motivated. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're probably not going to call games like the catcher
Speaker 1: from Minnesota. Did you know we heard about that story.
Speaker 1: But a lot of them aren't happy to be there.
Speaker 1: So there's a bit of half ass kind of playing
Speaker 1: that goes on there, and that's very very prevalent. I
Speaker 1: work given a lot of agents. I know I've mentioned
Speaker 1: that multiple times and I hear it directly from agents.
Speaker 1: A lot of the players hate the Fall League. They
Speaker 1: hate going to the Fall League. One is it's another
Speaker 1: chance for them to uh, to get hurt, and they're
Speaker 1: they're tired. I mean, you pay five months of competitive
Speaker 1: baseball and you got to play another month, and even
Speaker 1: though it's pretty low risk kind of baseball, it's just
Speaker 1: not something that they'd rather have the time off. And
Speaker 1: you're thinking, well, gee, woun't everybody love to continue to
Speaker 1: play all season long. Yeah, there's always those types of
Speaker 1: players out there that want to do that, but a
Speaker 1: lot of guys just need a break and it's hot.
Speaker 1: Nobody goes to the games, I mean a good game
Speaker 1: besides the Rising Star Game, which is their all star game,
Speaker 1: and maybe the Championship game. You know, there's there's maybe
Speaker 1: five six hundred people at a game, so you're not
Speaker 1: motivated by playing in front of a big crowd. You're
Speaker 1: you're doing it for the team, and sometimes the teams
Speaker 1: try to make it look like, hey, this is an honor.
Speaker 1: Players see through that, agents see through that. You know
Speaker 1: this is usually there's ulterior motives and sometimes the ulterior motives.
Speaker 1: If you've got a kid again a picture that's twenty
Speaker 1: five years old, who's out of options, they got to
Speaker 1: make a decision on him. Forty man, he's motivated to
Speaker 1: pitch well. He's motivated to play well. Quincy Hamilton with
Speaker 1: the Houston Astros, who's twenty six years old. He's looking
Speaker 1: for a new a new team, so he's going to
Speaker 1: play as well as he possibly can. But if you're
Speaker 1: a Cole Jung will be there with the Seattle Marinders,
Speaker 1: he's a great prospect. I mean, what's really the motivation there? So,
Speaker 1: But anyway, so that's why when I comment that, you know,
Speaker 1: don't expect like great stat lines that you can really
Speaker 1: dig your teeth in and go, hey, this guy's made
Speaker 1: a major improvement in the Fall league. It just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: It's an exit ambition season. It's there too, you know,
Speaker 1: for for alternative reasons as opposed to development. There's there's
Speaker 1: not extra batting practice that's going on for somebody to
Speaker 1: try to get shorter to the ball. None of that
Speaker 1: stuff exists at all now. At the same time, they're
Speaker 1: you know, the part of the reason I go early
Speaker 1: is because the fall instructional leagues are going on in
Speaker 1: Arizona as well, and I'll be in the backfields in
Speaker 1: the morning looking at a lot of the guys in
Speaker 1: the Complex League sometimes the DSL and Low Way who
Speaker 1: are there for extra instructional training, extra games, and that
Speaker 1: is a lot of fun and you get a chance
Speaker 1: to see some pretty interesting instruction going on in quality
Speaker 1: of play. So I do like that. It's only I
Speaker 1: think two or three weeks as the Fall Instructional League,
Speaker 1: and again they play on the backfields of all of
Speaker 1: the all of the minor league facilities that out there,
Speaker 1: which is where the Fall League actually happens. It's in Glendale,
Speaker 1: which is the only ballpark in Arizona that faces the sun.
Speaker 1: If you go to a daytime game, it is brutally hot.
Speaker 1: Tim and I have talked about that before. You flat
Speaker 1: out cannot sit out from the underhang, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So where where the upper deck kind of
Speaker 1: goes over, that's where you have to sit. You can't
Speaker 1: sit out in the blazing sun for more than any
Speaker 1: or two I mean literally, you start to feel faint.
Speaker 1: It's that hot. It's unbelievable. So that's and and the
Speaker 1: teams there are the Dodgers, the White Sox, the Reds, Cardinals,
Speaker 1: and Phillies. It is the Dodgers and the White Sox
Speaker 1: minor excuse me, spring training facility. And the story is
Speaker 1: that the Dodgers owners back. It wasn't the will Ponds
Speaker 1: or the Mets whoever they you know, the Dodgers sold
Speaker 1: their team to to Magic Johnson and and the Guggenheim group.
Speaker 1: Prior to that, I can't remember the name of the owner.
Speaker 1: Apparently his wife wanted to be able to look at
Speaker 1: the mountains. So that's the reason they positioned the stadium
Speaker 1: that way. I don't know if that's true or not,
Speaker 1: but that's what Lure has kind of indicated. So that's
Speaker 1: Glendale really beautiful ballpark. It's a shame of the setting
Speaker 1: of the evening games are absolutely beautiful there. It's very
Speaker 1: very nice. Mesa, the Solar Sox that's kind of in
Speaker 1: the southern section of theirs of the Phoenix Complex. The Cubs.
Speaker 1: It's the Cubs spring training facilities, the Angels, the A's,
Speaker 1: Oakland A's and the Red Sox the a's spring training
Speaker 1: facilities just down the road. Also in Mesa, which is
Speaker 1: used to be where the Cubs played, the A's used
Speaker 1: to play, and I mean in literally a municipal stadium
Speaker 1: where they high school kids play. I mean it was
Speaker 1: a dump and they took over the cubs old facility
Speaker 1: and the Cubs build a brand new ballpark probably five
Speaker 1: to ten years ago that you know, has some characteristics
Speaker 1: of Cub Stadium. It's got the billboard, the you know,
Speaker 1: the signage that you come in the the you know,
Speaker 1: the famous sign that you see when you go into
Speaker 1: Wrigley Field, the same one is there in smaller form
Speaker 1: at the Mesa Solar Sex Solar Sex Solar Sex Solar
Speaker 1: SOX Complex. So a lot of games there. The next
Speaker 1: place is let's see scrolling ath in my list here
Speaker 1: the Piorajvelinas. They play in Peoria, which is the home
Speaker 1: for the Padres and Mariners. That's an older facility. It's
Speaker 1: a nice facility. It's a good ballpark, nothing spectacular about it.
Speaker 1: The Brewers play there, the Braves and the Marlins. It
Speaker 1: used to be I used to love to go there
Speaker 1: because it was one of the few Chick fil A's
Speaker 1: that was in walking distance of the ballpark. So you'd
Speaker 1: go there for a daytime game, walk over to Chick
Speaker 1: fil A, grab some sandwich or something, and then you'd
Speaker 1: go to the ballpark. But now there's chick fil As everywhere,
Speaker 1: so that's no longer a big thing. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: that's I don't know if I'm going to go to
Speaker 1: any Puori Havevelina games home games, but that's where if
Speaker 1: you want to go see Ethan Sallas and Leo Dallas
Speaker 1: de Vries, that's where you would go. Let's see my
Speaker 1: cursor is now stuck here. Let's see Salt River Rafters,
Speaker 1: which is the home for the Diamondbacks and Rockies spring
Speaker 1: training complex. It's also got the Nationals, Twins, and Yankees.
Speaker 1: Salt River Talking stickets, Salt River Fields is I think
Speaker 1: the best ballpark in the Phoenix Complex. I think it's
Speaker 1: one of the best ballparks in the United States, major
Speaker 1: or minor for it just all works. It's it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's seats eight nine thousand people, so it's a minor
Speaker 1: league spring training facility, but it feels big. There's not
Speaker 1: a bad seat in the house. It's very, very comfortable.
Speaker 1: I don't know how they did it. It just the
Speaker 1: whole stadium just works. If you go there during the
Speaker 1: day game, you can sit on the first base side
Speaker 1: and you're in the shade. So everything seems to work
Speaker 1: that they put out there. And I just love that
Speaker 1: ballpark and I'll go to a game or two there.
Speaker 1: So sometimes I'll go during the daytime and if it's
Speaker 1: in Salt River, I'm fine with that. Scottsdale Scorpions is
Speaker 1: in downtown Scottsdale. Salt River is right, it's probably ten
Speaker 1: minutes away from Scottsdale, so it's kind of ever in
Speaker 1: that general the fringe of Scottsdale on the opposite of
Speaker 1: whatever the loop that goes around that one oh one,
Speaker 1: maybe it's it's just on that side over there, so
Speaker 1: it Scottsdale is the Giants, my spring training facility. The
Speaker 1: Blue Jays, Mets, Pirates, and Tigers will be there with
Speaker 1: the Giants. Scott Sale is the oldest stadium that is
Speaker 1: in the Fall League. It's literally in the downtown of Scottsdale,
Speaker 1: right across from the hospital, and it's never been a
Speaker 1: park that I like to go to. It's probably the
Speaker 1: one that's attended the most because it's in the biggest
Speaker 1: populated area, so you know, if you go to an
Speaker 1: evening game, you might actually see fifteen hundred people there,
Speaker 1: as opposed to some of the other stadiums where you'll
Speaker 1: see a thousand people. You always get more at night.
Speaker 1: The daytime you're still going to get five hundred people.
Speaker 1: But it's not my favorite stadium by any stretch, but
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's okay. And then the last stadium
Speaker 1: is Surprise, which I do not like. It's out in Surprise,
Speaker 1: which is way far away. It's on the western side
Speaker 1: of the Phoenix Complex at least Eastern Western. I think
Speaker 1: it's the Western because it's closest Los Angeles. If I
Speaker 1: got it wrong, I apologize. But the Rangers and Royals,
Speaker 1: that is their facility, Astro's Guardians and Orioles play there.
Speaker 1: They don't allow bags in, so I can't bring my
Speaker 1: scouting bag in, so it's a pain in the ass.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of games there throughout the years,
Speaker 1: but I just don't particularly like to go there because
Speaker 1: I usually stay not in Surprise, I say somewhere else,
Speaker 1: So I unless there's a really good pitching pitcher that's
Speaker 1: out there, I'm not gonna slep out to Surprise to
Speaker 1: go see them play. But anyway, that's it. My favorite
Speaker 1: again is Salt River love the Masa Solar Socks down
Speaker 1: there in Mason. I do like the Glendale team, and
Speaker 1: this year I believe there's going to be a game
Speaker 1: or two at Goodyear, which is where the Milwaukee Brewers
Speaker 1: spring training facility is. I've never gone there before, but
Speaker 1: I think for some reason, the Glendale is going to
Speaker 1: be sharing their games over Goodyear, which is not that
Speaker 1: far away. So I definitely scheduled to go to a
Speaker 1: game there so I can check that off the list
Speaker 1: of ballparks that I have been to. Let's take a break.
Speaker 1: Come back, let me go through fifteen players that I'm
Speaker 1: interested in again. If you're a Patreon member, got all
Speaker 1: fifty five players that I've written off out of the
Speaker 1: top six hundred and forty players that I think that
Speaker 1: are in baseball. I'm going to provide the top fifteen
Speaker 1: ish players here to the general public. The first guy
Speaker 1: is on the Glendale Deserts Dogs, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: go buy by team. Heers Edwin Arroyo. He didn't play
Speaker 1: this past season, missed the entire season with having laborm
Speaker 1: surgery on his shoulder. So it's great. This is a
Speaker 1: perfect example of why you want why the Arizona Fall
Speaker 1: League is there. You get Arroyo a chance to get
Speaker 1: some extra playing time in It's a guy that I
Speaker 1: really like. I think there's twenty twenty upside here. He
Speaker 1: came in last season noticeably stronger. He's a plus runner,
Speaker 1: He's a really good prospect. Hopefully he won't play all
Speaker 1: that well, so maybe he can be a cheap acquisition
Speaker 1: from that people could go out and grab because they've
Speaker 1: probably forgotten about it just because he didn't play at
Speaker 1: all in twenty twenty four. Also in that Glendale Desert
Speaker 1: Dog team is Colston Montgomery, who played he's with the
Speaker 1: White Sox shortstop. He played there last season. He was
Speaker 1: at the Fall League last year, and I'm surprised to
Speaker 1: see him again this year. He had a down season,
Speaker 1: more strikeouts than he showed at the lower levels of
Speaker 1: the minor leagues. In twenty twenty four. The White Sox
Speaker 1: might have pushed him a little bit. Maybe he wasn't
Speaker 1: quite ready for Triple A. He has been heard a
Speaker 1: lot throughout his career, but I did not expect him
Speaker 1: to have a twenty eight percent, actually a twenty nine
Speaker 1: percent strikeout rate in TRIPAA and batting average at two
Speaker 1: fourteen in a slug of three eighty one. I think
Speaker 1: he's a better player than what he showed there. Long term,
Speaker 1: I think he's going to be a very good Major
Speaker 1: leaguer because he's a really good shortstop. But from a
Speaker 1: fantasy standpoint, it's it's a bit of a meth look.
Speaker 1: I kind of always comped him a little bit the
Speaker 1: Jackson Merrill, who turned out to be a lot better
Speaker 1: than I thought. He has more power than I thought.
Speaker 1: He's gonna have So can Colson Montgomery turn into Jackson Merrill? Maybe,
Speaker 1: but I think there's gonna be a little bit light
Speaker 1: from a fantasy standpoint. But a good baseball player just
Speaker 1: maybe fifteen to twenty home run pop and you know,
Speaker 1: single digit stolen basis, which is a good baseball player,
Speaker 1: just not a star. Zayir Hope with the Dodgers, he
Speaker 1: was a kid that was acquired for the in the
Speaker 1: Michael Bush trade. When the Dodgers in Chicago Cubs did
Speaker 1: the deal before the season. Michael Bush was out of options.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to keep him on the forty man rosters,
Speaker 1: so they moved him to Chicago. Had really good season,
Speaker 1: twenty home runs, and they got ZAYR. Hope back. And
Speaker 1: it's turned out to be a really really good prospect,
Speaker 1: really athletic, emerging power, good understanding of the strike zone.
Speaker 1: I'm anxious to see him. I've not seen him play live,
Speaker 1: so anxious to see him play. So those are the
Speaker 1: three in the Desert Dogs. The Masa Solar Socks is
Speaker 1: Moys's Bellastero's He's going to be. It looks like he's
Speaker 1: going to catch for the Masa Solar Socks. Just a
Speaker 1: real feel for hitting, excellent exit velocities. I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna hit twenty home runs. I think he hit twenty
Speaker 1: home runs this season. There's a little bit of chase
Speaker 1: in his approach, so he's got such good hand eye nation.
Speaker 1: They feels like he can hit everything, so he does
Speaker 1: expand the strikes on a little bit. His biggest problem
Speaker 1: is it's not a great body. He's five foot seven,
Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety five pounds, so that's not Matt
Speaker 1: Wilkinson type of size. But you know, you like your
Speaker 1: baseball player is a little bit bigger than five foot seven,
Speaker 1: And I mean that's the only thing is the physical
Speaker 1: is the physicality of the player. But he can flat
Speaker 1: out hit. And he's not that old as well. He's
Speaker 1: only just turned twenty one years old. Another guy I'm
Speaker 1: looking for is Mac Horvaff Tampa Bay Rays was a
Speaker 1: Baltimore Oriole and the Orioles traded him in that ill
Speaker 1: fated well. I guess it's not. Zach Eflin's been a
Speaker 1: pretty good player pitcher for them, but he was the
Speaker 1: Oriole second round pick and last season twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: and it looked like he was really gonna tear through
Speaker 1: and then he just stalled in High A and just
Speaker 1: as the eggs of velocities just were not there, and
Speaker 1: they've had trouble finding a defensive home for Matt Corvins.
Speaker 1: I think it's maybe an outfielder eventually, maybe a middle infielder.
Speaker 1: From a fantasy standpoint, I gona talk about him, but
Speaker 1: Xavier Isaac will be there, really anxious to see him
Speaker 1: in that physicality that he brings the So those are
Speaker 1: the two that I wanted to highlight. What team was
Speaker 1: that that I just did? The mesis Solar Socks and
Speaker 1: let's see. So the next team is Pueria have Alina's
Speaker 1: Ethan Sallas and Leo Devallas. Leo Dallas Devrice Ethan Salas
Speaker 1: have a terrible offensive season. I think we know all
Speaker 1: about Ethan Sallas was the number one international signee along
Speaker 1: with Felon and Celestine who was with the Seattle Mariners.
Speaker 1: Ethan Sallas just tore through the complex low A, High
Speaker 1: A and actually hit double A last season, ended the
Speaker 1: season at double A. But this year in back in
Speaker 1: High A hit two oh six with a two eighty
Speaker 1: eight one base percentage and a three eleven slug And
Speaker 1: you go okay, well, yeah, he's only eighteen years old.
Speaker 1: He just turned eighteen in June. But he struggled. I mean,
Speaker 1: he just didn't I hit the ball hard. I think
Speaker 1: he's going to be a very good player, but you
Speaker 1: have to wonder why the heck are the padres rushing him?
Speaker 1: And then they did the same thing with Leo Dallas
Speaker 1: to rise. But if you listen this morning to my
Speaker 1: podcast on you know the top prospect of the year,
Speaker 1: I mean, dev Riise was on that list. He was great.
Speaker 1: Two eighty three point fifty four seventy five slash line
Speaker 1: with twenty five home runs. I think that's the kind
Speaker 1: of player he can become. Corey Seeger is the dream
Speaker 1: that he's going to develop huge power. He might, but
Speaker 1: I don't want to go there. But I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's big boy power. And he played played well. I mean,
Speaker 1: granted he only hit two thirty eight last this season,
Speaker 1: but I mean the guy held his own as a
Speaker 1: young seventeen year old in low aw. He did miss
Speaker 1: the last three weeks of the season or so with
Speaker 1: an injury, so it was a shoulder strain. So I'm
Speaker 1: assuming he's healthy. That's why he's going to play, so
Speaker 1: it's great to see him playing in the Fall League.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of guy that you want to see
Speaker 1: in the Fall league, just to get a few more
Speaker 1: at bats in there. And then the number one prospect
Speaker 1: in the Seattle Mariners is cold Emerson and he will
Speaker 1: be there, which is pretty exciting. I believe Cole Young
Speaker 1: is going to be there as well, did I right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Cole Young is also going to be there. So I'm
Speaker 1: anxious to see cold Emerson high floor player with tools
Speaker 1: three hundred hit or fifteen to twenty home run pop.
Speaker 1: I don't think speed's going to be a big part
Speaker 1: of his game, so he's going to be one of
Speaker 1: the elite prospects that we will in the Fall League.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break and come back and do the
Speaker 1: second half of the players I'm anxious to see going
Speaker 1: to the Arizona Fall League again. If you want the
Speaker 1: entire list of fifty five players in a nice PDF format,
Speaker 1: go out to Patreon, PA, t R e O N
Speaker 1: dot com forwards last Prospect three sixty one and become
Speaker 1: a member and check that out at Salt River. And also,
Speaker 1: the nice thing about Salt River is you get baseball
Speaker 1: savant data. So it's the only field that they turned
Speaker 1: that on for. I guess that means that's the only
Speaker 1: field that they've got pitch effect stuff that's out there,
Speaker 1: which I find to be curious, but because I thought
Speaker 1: they had it at all spring training facilities, but the
Speaker 1: Arizona Fall League that was the only one that was
Speaker 1: turned on. Last year. Tommy Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman started
Speaker 1: the season late, was hurt for the first two months,
Speaker 1: even with a hamstring injury. So this is a perfect
Speaker 1: opportunity for him to see more playing time. It's a
Speaker 1: really good prospect, he's just not talked about as much
Speaker 1: as he should be. Athletic, plenty of batspeed, He's not
Speaker 1: a big kid, five foot ten, so I think it's
Speaker 1: plenty of doubles, ten to fifteen type of home run pop.
Speaker 1: And then Robert Hassel returned to the Fall League. Robert
Speaker 1: Hassel came in two years ago as a top prospect,
Speaker 1: one of the top prospects in the game. He hurt himself,
Speaker 1: I think in the second week of the Fall League,
Speaker 1: and I got a chance to see him because I
Speaker 1: go to the first week and I thought he looked fine,
Speaker 1: and he was never the same after that injury, at
Speaker 1: least until probably this season. I mean, he really struggled.
Speaker 1: It might have been a two thousand, might have been
Speaker 1: a I guess it was twenty twenty two that I saw,
Speaker 1: so he finally started to play batter. Last year was
Speaker 1: a disaster. Could even in twenty twenty one. I could
Speaker 1: be getting my years mixed up a little bit, But
Speaker 1: he was with the Padres at the time and eventually
Speaker 1: got traded to the Nationals and a thirty percent strikeout
Speaker 1: rate last year finally turned it around, was back to
Speaker 1: making twenty one percent strikeout rate, so it's about league
Speaker 1: average contact. You know, Look, he's not going to be
Speaker 1: the player that I thought he was going to be
Speaker 1: when he first came out. I thought he'd be an
Speaker 1: elite hitter with a little bit of speed, a little
Speaker 1: bit of pop. I don't think he's that good of
Speaker 1: a hitter, So that's going to put him more as
Speaker 1: a number five type of outfielder. But let's see I
Speaker 1: get a chance to see him over again at the score.
Speaker 1: Scottsdale Scorpions Detroit sending up a nice couple nice little
Speaker 1: players in Thyron Lorenzo, who came over in the Jack
Speaker 1: Flaherty trade from the Dodgers. Pretty amazing. The Detroit Tigers
Speaker 1: moved their number two starter at the deadline thinking they
Speaker 1: were out of it, and it looks like they're going
Speaker 1: to make the playoffs. I mean, just remarkable. And guess
Speaker 1: what they promoted all their young kids just to give
Speaker 1: them playing time. You know, Torko send at all, They
Speaker 1: sat Hovey or biased down. They bring in Trey Sweeney
Speaker 1: and magic starts to happen. Trek Scoogle's an absolute stud
Speaker 1: and that team looks like they're going to go to
Speaker 1: the playoffs. I mean, we still got four games left
Speaker 1: to play, but last when I looked last night, they
Speaker 1: were they look really strong to make the playoffs. Anyway.
Speaker 1: Lronso is a nice prospect. It was really good in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, did not play very well in the
Speaker 1: Midwest League with the Dodgers. He got traded and the
Speaker 1: light bulb came on and he's been really good. Three fifteen,
Speaker 1: five home runs in twenty six games with the Tigers.
Speaker 1: Another one of the Tigers catchers is going You have
Speaker 1: to go out to the Patreon site to see that
Speaker 1: player is. It looks like he's gonna be playing first
Speaker 1: base at the Fall League. Another guy I'm interested, another
Speaker 1: high prospect is Bryce Eldridge, who made it all the
Speaker 1: way at to Triple A. I think he starts next
Speaker 1: year back in double eight. They just gave him that
Speaker 1: extra week in Triple A. Huge power, seventy grade power.
Speaker 1: He was actually a two way kid coming in from
Speaker 1: high school. But he has not pitched yet six foot seven,
Speaker 1: so there's going to be swinging missing his game. I'm
Speaker 1: anxious to see him play live. So that's definitely one
Speaker 1: guy that I'm looking for to seeing. And Tamar Johnson
Speaker 1: is going to be there with the Pittsburgh Pirates. And
Speaker 1: Tomar Johnson can flat out hit. He has struggled at
Speaker 1: every stop in the minor leagues for the first fifty
Speaker 1: sixty games and then he starts to slowly figure it out.
Speaker 1: So he's in Double A now. I think started off
Speaker 1: slow again, and it appears he's making better contact as
Speaker 1: he goes up the change up through the minor leagues,
Speaker 1: which is exactly the opposite of what you would think
Speaker 1: us a guy strike out more the higher they go
Speaker 1: in the development process. But Tamar Johnson's starting to make
Speaker 1: better contact. The further up the chain that he goes,
Speaker 1: I think he's trying to decide whether he's a home
Speaker 1: run hitter or not. I hope he doesn't try to
Speaker 1: become Nick Gonzales. It just goes out there and makes contact,
Speaker 1: becomes a double hitter with fifteen home run pop as
Speaker 1: opposed to trying to be a twenty five home run
Speaker 1: pop guy and striking out too much. So the last
Speaker 1: is the surprise Sagoras and the only guy I believe
Speaker 1: that's coming from this year's draft class, and that is
Speaker 1: a Kansas City Royals are sending first baseman Jack Caglino,
Speaker 1: who had a pretty good start to his professional career
Speaker 1: in High A. I think there's huge raw power there,
Speaker 1: a chance to hit for thirty home run pop. Does
Speaker 1: have some length in a swing, so there's going to
Speaker 1: be chasing a swing. There's going to be strikeouts as well.
Speaker 1: But that is Jack Caglinoo, and I believe Chase the
Speaker 1: Water makes a second appearance. I think he was at
Speaker 1: the fall Ley last year. But the guy, poor guy
Speaker 1: just can't stay healthy. He's been hurt a lot. You
Speaker 1: can a Baseball reference to see if we have a
Speaker 1: Chase the latter sighting I could have swore we did
Speaker 1: the Lauder the latter, but he should have been in
Speaker 1: the big leagues and not Noel, not Noel the guy
Speaker 1: Christmas Tree name escapes me at the moment. It's funny
Speaker 1: when you do these podcasts and you're talking and looking
Speaker 1: at notes. Sometimes guy stuff that you don't have in
Speaker 1: the notes. You can't you can't can't remember here again,
Speaker 1: let me look at Chase the latter. See if he
Speaker 1: played in the Fall League last year. I thought he did.
Speaker 1: In fact, I'm positive he did. There it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was on the Peoria team one hundred and nine
Speaker 1: played appearances, five home runs, he hit two ninety nine
Speaker 1: with five solemn bases. Yeah, he was. He was a
Speaker 1: stud last year, but he again got hurt a lot,
Speaker 1: so Cleveland said, let's go back to the Fall League
Speaker 1: to get you some more playing time. I think the
Speaker 1: latter it's a chance to be a very, very good
Speaker 1: baseball player if he can stay healthy. But man, it's
Speaker 1: been that foot has been a real problem, and it
Speaker 1: just seems like it's one injury after the next. With that,
Speaker 1: he's had a couple of surgeries on it. Hopefully they
Speaker 1: finally got him right, take our find a break, come back,
Speaker 1: and I'll wrap this podcast up. Good stuff here. I
Speaker 1: love going to the Fall League. I mean part of
Speaker 1: it is I just love baseball. I love watching baseball.
Speaker 1: My again, my my warning that I threw out here
Speaker 1: is you don't overvalue, don't evaluate players at all the
Speaker 1: Fall League. I think if you go for what the
Speaker 1: intention is, and that's just to enjoy baseball, that's what
Speaker 1: it's all about. If you decide to go and invest
Speaker 1: the money in going go to to see these players
Speaker 1: that I've been talking about other podcasts and you've been
Speaker 1: reading about them, just to get a physical look at
Speaker 1: at them. I remember the pedro Leone was you see
Speaker 1: stuff at these games that you don't typically see when
Speaker 1: you watch games. M I LB and Paedri Leon's a
Speaker 1: good example. Uh, three years ago he was at the
Speaker 1: Fall League and I heard about pedro Leone. I had
Speaker 1: drafted him a couple of Dinasa leagues because I heard
Speaker 1: about you know, his exploits coming ever from Cuba and
Speaker 1: supposed to be you know, a big guy, four million
Speaker 1: dollars signing bonus. And when he came up the bat,
Speaker 1: I was floored by how little he was and based
Speaker 1: on physical my physicality. Looking at him, I'm thinking we've
Speaker 1: got a problem here. This looks like a fourth outfielder
Speaker 1: and not a guy that's going to be a stud.
Speaker 1: Yeah he was fast, I can really run it down
Speaker 1: in the outfield, but he kept his battle on his
Speaker 1: shoulder the entire at all of his at bats. He
Speaker 1: was afraid to swing and he just did not have
Speaker 1: the physicality. Yes, he's hit twenty four twenty five on
Speaker 1: runs this season, and I think eventually he's going to
Speaker 1: be a player. But you just knew looking at him,
Speaker 1: this was not going to be a star. It looked
Speaker 1: like a fourth outfield and I think eventually that's what's
Speaker 1: going to happen. So seeing these guys close up, not
Speaker 1: on television, there's a lot of advantages to seeing these players,
Speaker 1: but don't make the evaluation looking at the box score.
Speaker 1: Goale Dlata or this player went three for five and
Speaker 1: then two for three and had another home run. He's
Speaker 1: going to be great. Let me move him up in
Speaker 1: my first year player drafts, or let me move him
Speaker 1: up as a trade target. That's where I think you
Speaker 1: make the mistake when you try to do that, because
Speaker 1: there is no pitching, absolutely no pitching at the Fall League,
Speaker 1: so it's hard to make real evaluations and it's a
Speaker 1: small sample size and they will be there. Well, I
Speaker 1: just read out Chase the Louder's it's that line one
Speaker 1: hundred and nine plate appearances. So that's a high end number.
Speaker 1: So he played a lot of games because he was hurt.
Speaker 1: He needed the playing time. But most guys get somewhere
Speaker 1: between sixty and one hundred plate appearances. Here. That's a
Speaker 1: small sample size and a hitter's environment with no pitching.
Speaker 1: Just keep that in context as you watch these games again.
Speaker 1: Love going to Phoenix. Great food, there's a hotel there
Speaker 1: for you. You can spend one thousand dollars a night or
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars a night. There is a wide variety
Speaker 1: of price points that will fit your budget if you
Speaker 1: decide to go there. I'll be tweeting out and our
Speaker 1: Patreon members will know where I am at each game.
Speaker 1: So if you're there, people have a tendency to come
Speaker 1: by and say hello, Please do and love to talk
Speaker 1: baseball with you when you stop by. Until next time, guys,
Speaker 1: be well,