[SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, JJ Cooper, Jeff Ponds, another baseball maker, prospect podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this time we're in person and Jeff, I gotta be honest, it's great to see you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The effort that has involved with us being in person does feel like ten times more than when we're doing this over the internet.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, certainly with this one now that we had the video element it was different when you know we're recording role five You know recap podcasts put a mic in front of us exactly and we're in a hotel room.
[SPEAKER_03]: We just got so this was you know a little more technical in terms of being able to make everything work But I think it's going to be great products.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, just like just getting done.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were heading ready to head to the to the future's game to the draft
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll stick around for the all start game as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we will be headed down to Atlanta for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a very fun week for us a lot of work.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're going to talk about today because yes, I know, okay, I should we should not have started those division by division breakdown right before
[SPEAKER_01]: future's game and top hundred update and all that because we're gonna put that on pause again probably for two more weeks to be honest because we're gonna have future's game and all that next week as well but we are gonna talk this week about we just updated our top three's an addition to the top hundred which taught by last week we updated top thirties and check it out at baseball america.com we have updated top thirtie prospect list with scouting reports tools grades all that nine hundred players that's all at baseball america.com
[SPEAKER_01]: But today, we are going to talk about some of the players who stand out, who stood out as we made those updates.
[SPEAKER_01]: They did those updates.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be reporting it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jeff, I'll kind of let you just kind of start off by taking us to as I hit our little rising.
[SPEAKER_01]: prospects there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's one of the first ones?
[SPEAKER_01]: All these by the way are going to be players who are not top one hundred prospects.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're not going to talk about anyone who moved up in the hundred or whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: We covered that last week, Connor Griffin and all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this week we are talking about non top hundred prospects who have moved up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who are you going to start out with?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'm gonna start out with Bryce Meyer, right-handed pitcher from the Astros.
[SPEAKER_03]: It feels like every single year.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're sort of sitting here this time of year talking about Astros, college, drafty, most of the time from outside the top five rounds, who takes a big step forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like last year at this time, we were talking about a guy making his major league debut.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's now a blu-jay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's quite a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jake lost.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like he's sort of this year's gateploss.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's always stuff
[SPEAKER_03]: kind of lurking in this system, particularly on the pitching side, that's a little bit better than what the amateur or even the prospect pedigree is once they're in.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's guys that just always take big steps forward.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, Ronald Blanco, I think it's just such a great example because it was a
[SPEAKER_03]: twenty-nine-year-old sort of roll thirty-year-old forty-releaver that then became kind of like a fifty-fifty-five picture of the last couple years of course ended up having an injury.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bloss, I think my or kind of falls into that same category might be even a better draft sleeper.
[SPEAKER_03]: This was a sixteenth round pick
[SPEAKER_03]: A couple of years in JuCo gets the Missouri in twenty twenty three has Tommy John surgery misses all that season.
[SPEAKER_03]: Returns to twenty twenty four isn't great against SEC competition.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would also say that if we're talking SEC in terms of dev houses, all that sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Missouri's probably on the lower side of the scale.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think I'm saying anything out of the pocket there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It comes into the organization and he's rocketed up a few levels.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe it's done late, debut for Corpus Christi last week and pitched really really well.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think he's a guy that probably isn't going to debut like Bloss, this year, but could be in the picture for next year and certainly somebody that pushed his way into the top ten and could keep climbing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think this is
[SPEAKER_03]: a major green arrow, and if we sit here in a month in the next update and he jumps over at EthanPaco, or at a J. BlueBaw, I don't think that's crazy, especially if you're sitting here on the upper minders and has an opportunity to show that his performance is better than most guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the thing that stands out with that is that coming into the season, he wasn't even close to those guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I mean, I think he was
[SPEAKER_03]: Thirty on the handbook list, and then I think got pushed off.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's an international signings Kevin Alvarez being a big one another big move on our list.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think something that will be on the top one hundred very shortly might be the first big Astros prospect in quite a while if we don't consider Camp Smith because he was never really an extra proposte.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Camp Smith.
[SPEAKER_01]: Camp Smith total number of Astros minor league games is zero.
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So big development successfully.
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it was a matter of him just graduating, but I think in this system, you know, Alvarez is another name to keep in mind, but for me, my or such a great story is a sixteenth round pick, and this really made goodness first year.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now is a top ten guy, and they even have some other draft sleepers from last year, like a Joseph Sullivan, who's eleven, who's really interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: So systems getting a little bit better, they got some picks in the next week, who'll be interesting to see what they do, and they're not picking at the total back end of the first this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like twenty-one, I think,
[SPEAKER_01]: And a couple years ago, we were saying they had a way to date two to date.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, it's quite often.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, it should be interesting to see what they do this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they had a really good draft last year, first year under, yeah, Scouting Director Camp ending out too.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, really interesting story there, and kind of what's developing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm a scouting side, I think, for the Astros, which is a departure from this organization.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so my first one is going to be Ty Johnson right handed with the race.
[SPEAKER_01]: Speaking of guys who were traded from the Cubs, we had that with Camp Smith.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also had that with Ty Johnson Johnson came over in the EZAC Parades trade last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I won multiple players that the the the razor card race really did bring in a lot of talent at the deadline last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in Johnson's case, he was kind of the guy I believe was on the back of our thirty last year, kind of what you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Got bumped off because of
[SPEAKER_01]: really more of like other guys that added other guys joining not like oh Ty Johnson looks terrible is like that it was just like that that was really a list where it's like oh there's just not there's not enough room if you're going thirty deep has really pitched quite well at doubling the summary for them and
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing that does stand out with him, you and I were talking about it before we start recording.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a funky delivery.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's like it kind of comes out of the kind of, you know, almost like you don't pick up, if you're a hit or you don't pick them all up pretty quickly, it's a little bit unusual.
[SPEAKER_01]: Multiple pitches, but I would say if you said like it's kind of a reliever mix in the long run probably, like I would kind of equate him
[SPEAKER_01]: They're very different.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mason Montgomery is lefty.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ty Johnson is ready.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't want to make it sound like they're the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I wrote Mason Montgomery for the raise every year for years where it was like, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, he's got a really good fast fall.
[SPEAKER_01]: It really gets wings of misses, but we don't know if the second areas are going to be ones to turn over a lot at multiple times.
[SPEAKER_01]: And eventually that's what happened to Mason Montgomery.
[SPEAKER_01]: He goes to the pan on edge, just brought back down, but I think it's more of like they need to, sure, healthy armcy's optional.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's been in the rotate, in the full pan, I should say, all the years throwing a lot harder now.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Johnson's case, I would say the changeups kind of the very rudimentary pitch for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: that hasn't really developed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if it's going to develop, but at the same time he has a fastball, he has breaking balls that do work, especially if he's turning over a lineup once, especially if you're going to be a guy who pitches, you know, we're talking three, four, six, seven matters kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's part of what I would say is this holding the end-back from moving up further on the
[SPEAKER_01]: The rankings for them is he's probably a little bit more relieverish than he has starters, even if he has a starter right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he is a guy who's definitely having success, definitely showing that he can make now double A hitters miss, you know, making this double A hitters bats.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what you're looking for.
[SPEAKER_01]: definitely moving up in that raise organization.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I wouldn't say it's a smooth arm action.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's, you know, kind of, uh, uh, hitchy in terms of how it moves, but it's a really weird angle.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that angle is what allows sort of the fastball slatter makes it all that to sort of play because of the deception, but it also might mean that he's limited in terms of what you can add to that arsenal, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't want to take away a guy's super power, which is often why these guys may be end up in a relief role, just because they do have that sort of roll block.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say also, that's where this has changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think nowadays, that kind of role is more valued than a number of five-starred.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you used to be that you would say, like, no, no, no, anything other than your closer is less valued than a starting, in the rotation of starting pitcher.
[SPEAKER_01]: But nowadays,
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that you have multiple higher leverage relievers per team that just get to be able to get paid more also than the guy who's if you're in a five star who's not like again the razor example right now who actually has five plus stars Joe Boyle just came up to be a bulk guy for them and he's
[SPEAKER_01]: He would start for both teams right now, I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: But for most of these teams, like that number five starter is really more of a less important role than being that eighth inning guy, that second to believe or that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That, like again, like the Brewers, you know, we have, like, what is after a Braves role?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like after a Braves value, then on number five starter, I would say.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I think, you know, especially high end relievers when we start to get into the top ten relievers in the game.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if they're under team control, if they're under twenty six twenty seven years old, those guys are kind of sixty value.
[SPEAKER_03]: If we're really looking at like what teams, pro teams value, that's a plus, that's a plus role.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you do more fantasy stuff for us, obviously, that I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing that jumps out now is now, I would say most teams aren't looking for a closer and then a seventh inning guy and eighth inning guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: They want to have what I would describe as multiple
[SPEAKER_01]: like the twins have, you know, their John, you know, your own grand and griff and jacks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Except rumors have, you know, like most teens have this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like where you were talking about two or three relievers, you're like, these are the game is on the line, really yours.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're going to get us from the seventh through the night.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're usually guys that can get strikeouts, strikeouts, strikeouts, and swings and misses in order to throw enough strikes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Crats, we talk about hello, fresh a lot, but in the same fam is another option for you if you're looking to go on your little wellness journey or you're very picky in terms of what you're looking for in ingredients wise.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can go green chef this summer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can heat and eat because this summer, I've got like three days where I'm not doing anything and sure those are gonna get scheduled with something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's give me something super quick that I can heat up the whole family's eaten healthy and they're full.
[SPEAKER_02]: menus changed weekly, eighty plus dietician approved weekly meal options.
[SPEAKER_02]: Green Chef makes it easy to find those meals to fit your lifestyle.
[SPEAKER_02]: So go check it out.
[SPEAKER_02]: F.T.
[SPEAKER_02]: Fam.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is an exclusive offer.
[SPEAKER_02]: Make this summer your healthiest yet with green chef head to green chef dot com slash fifty territory and use code five zero territory to get fifty percent off your first month and twenty percent off for two months with free shipping.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's code fifty territory at greenshet.com slash five zero territory.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that kicks it back to you and I'm letting you pronounce.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Henderson.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's IXAM.
[SPEAKER_03]: He is a left handed pitcher from the Cardinals Fresno State guy spent a couple years there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was first team actually at all mountain last in twenty two and twenty three.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a twenty three drafty.
[SPEAKER_03]: Had a really good season last year, but it was across a couple levels of A ball.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, there's always some skepticism with a college starter, especially a lefty who has
[SPEAKER_03]: a diverse arsenal and how those guys are going to necessarily play once they get up to the higher levels.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, let me tell you since he's got it for the Texas League, he has really performed.
[SPEAKER_03]: The losses have a little bit.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, ninety two and ninety four.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'd say it's more three to four.
[SPEAKER_03]: You'll see a five six seven out of him when he really ramps it up.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like average ride.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, fifteen to sort of seventeen eighteen inches in a given start.
[SPEAKER_03]: Which is enough to ride it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's enough to keep your forcing and fastball and have it be effective.
[SPEAKER_03]: His fastball command is excellent.
[SPEAKER_03]: Really really high zone rates.
[SPEAKER_03]: Kind of stays out of problematic zones.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's got four different secondary study plays off of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a sweepier slider with some decent power on it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'd say it's an above average pitch.
[SPEAKER_03]: It has a decent change up.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of splittering in terms of shape.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like lower spin rates in like the twelve hundred area.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I don't know if it's a straight splitter, but it really looks like one in kind of plays like one.
[SPEAKER_03]: as a lefty that's obviously important for right-handed batters.
[SPEAKER_03]: He'll mix that in and left on left situations as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: Also breaks in a curveball that's mostly used against right-handed batters as sort of like a secondary look besides the sweep or something that moves down.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then he has a cutter as a bridge pitch that kind of sits really effectively between the fastball and the slider.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sort of keep guys off of that and it gets a lot of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Not a lot of swings and misses but a lot of ground balls and bad contacts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Explain that to someone if you're hearing bridge pitch and they haven't like been following kind of like like it is fascinating to me like I was writing up a marriage reliever who very much was like oh they have they have the sweeper they have the kind of they have this you know the slider that's really a bridge pitch because it's just like so you don't end up having two pitches that are so clearly to think for sure other exactly either becomes instantly recognized yeah I think it happens when guys have arsenals like this where there's
[SPEAKER_03]: like to find arm side and glove side movement.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the sweeper is going to have a lot of glove side movement.
[SPEAKER_03]: The fast ball is going to have a fair amount of arm side movement.
[SPEAKER_03]: The splitter and curve ball are a little, they have some arm glove side on the curve ball, a little arm side on that splitter.
[SPEAKER_03]: But they're going to drop a lot more.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you think it could force seam up.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the splitter or the curve ball down and then, you know, you have the change of the goes that goes right or excuse me, the fast ball that's kind of moving a little bit to the arm side, the change of problem or splitter probably as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if throw that cutter in between and cutters by definition, especially like
[SPEAKER_03]: clear cutters like not sort of blended gyro of so slyer cutters.
[SPEAKER_03]: We do see some of those where it has some ride and very little arm side run and very little excuse me, horizontal or glove side break.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it sort of sits in the middle and doesn't move a whole lot one direction and the other horizontally.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's sort of perfect for a guy like this.
[SPEAKER_03]: this to sit in between the fastball and that sweeper and creates a deception because it's coming in looking very similar to either the fastball or the sweeper in terms of the loss because it's more like the high eighties.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so then you're all this and putting that doubt in a hitters head and I'm trying to, you know, this is the fastball.
[SPEAKER_01]: trying to adjust for that, put the barrel, it's going to be a little different than if it is for the sweeper or it is for the cutter, and all of a sudden, yeah, kind of caught in between.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's often a cutter or a gyroslider that's used as a bridge pitch.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not going to be something like a splitter or something like that, or even a two-seat fastball.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be a cutter or a gyro pitch.
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't have a lot of defined movement to one way or the one direction or the other.
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, I think a big part of that is also, it kind of is easy to command those pitches that they don't have a whole lot of movement, like a sweeper where you sort of have to make sure you're landing it, you know, one side of the plate or the other.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's easier to kind of command that and keep it into similar zones to, you know, your fastball.
[SPEAKER_03]: Also,
[SPEAKER_01]: So this next one, I'm going to start, but you're welcome to join as well, because I think we both wanted to talk about him, which is Edward Florentino, outfit for the pirates, who started off in the Florida Complex League, and pretty much pillaged his way out of that league very quickly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was a one, ninety-two, weighted, one, three, plus, which is ninety-two percent above average, half of the league.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, it's been hitting so far after the promotion as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: there's a lot here like from the power side I think and there's a lot to like from just that there's some battle ball skills like the hit tools probably not as advanced as you know as maybe the the batting average at all may indicate right now you know uh... marcherally does a great job to the pirates for us he kind of to see wrote it up basically defensively long work to do probably a corner out through your hope and just find out there however the offensive profile here
[SPEAKER_01]: a pirate's fan in your listening to this and I say, hey, there's this outfield prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I'm talking to Griffin right now, there's this outfield prospect in the pirate organization who could end up being in a above average powerheader in the big leagues, long ways away.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would imagine that's something that's getting a pirate stance pretty exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got a lot of those guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: Not in recent years.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I would think having someone in addition to Connor Griffin that you can be excited about in sort of all avenues, whether it's reality, just as a fan, a prospect fan, a pirate's fan, or even from a fantasy perspective, I think this is one of the more exciting players that's come off of the complex so far, in terms of leaving the atmosphere.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which by the way, speaking of that, you know, baseball merga.com, Josh Norris has already
[SPEAKER_01]: finished a tour of the areas on a complex lake we have cases can know out there as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Josh just also went to the FCL.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's working on DSL coverage right now as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I just want to point out like if you are interested in who popped
[SPEAKER_01]: in the Florida Complex League, in the Arizona Complex League, and in the Dominican Summer League.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's what we're working on right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: We will have top prospect list for those, you know, this League, FCL and ACL are wrapping up real soon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still crazy for me to think about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's crazy that it ends this early.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'm just thinking about that a couple of weeks.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, this is almost over in a month.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, okay, so next up is one of yours again, and it's a cup.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a cup.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Jackson Wiggins, and I'll say this.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think Wiggins is sort of in a position to be considered for the next top, one hundred update.
[SPEAKER_03]: and I think if he continues to do what he's doing in AA, understanding the background with Wiggins a little bit, you know, was highly touted when he first went to campus at Arkansas, spent a year of selling the bullpen, you know, sophomore season starts, ERA is in the sixes in the SEC, he gets slammed, gets injured, has Tommy Johnson, Drew misses his junior year, comes back last year after getting drafted in in twenty three, makes his debut kind of late, and the signs were good,
[SPEAKER_03]: In this cup system in particular, guy like this will rise because the top end is really good at the back end, not so good.
[SPEAKER_03]: In terms of players that have established himself, he came out this year was awesome in the Midwest, they go over the first few months which we see that happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, he's made seven starts now with double A, ten to C, or should be Knoxville now.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the numbers are great.
[SPEAKER_03]: The command has been better.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's still a ten to eleven percent walk rate.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that factors into it.
[SPEAKER_03]: There is still some command.
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of it is he tries to chase.
[SPEAKER_03]: He gets slings above the zone.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think when he starts dating to some of the bad at ball data, really high in field flight ball, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, unusually high in flight in field flight.
[SPEAKER_03]: which is a really good side, especially when it's a foreseen guy like this that can write it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So basically what you're happening is he's getting, he may not be getting above that enough for swings and misses, but you really, I actually was a fun social media debate recently where someone, I apologize for not remembering who it was, but someone was doing a version of FIP.
[SPEAKER_01]: but they treated infield flies into pop-ups like strikeouts because they're like, yeah, that's really pretty equivalent.
[SPEAKER_03]: And really it's, and I think, you know, you look at that, it's almost the ground balls of the four seamers and it four seams sort of fastball guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it might be the better, as you said, the batting average on balls and play on ground balls versus infield play balls is significantly different.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pretty much the batting average on the infield fly ball is pretty much zero because even if it lands it's an error and that's still exactly exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think you see that and that's one of the reasons that explains the really low batting averages against.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one fifty four this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one sixty three at the double A level.
[SPEAKER_03]: And obviously he continues to get strikeouts.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's six foot six.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's big.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's strong.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's showing get deeper into starts now and be more efficient and effective.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not just strikeouts all the time though.
[SPEAKER_03]: The strikeout stuff is certainly there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a thirty point six percent strikeout rate.
[SPEAKER_03]: A thirty point point four since he's gone up to AA.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think he's a guy that I guess technically is asleep, or he's up to five in this system now, but he's right on the cusp of the top one hundred guys in this system.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just behind Alcantara, he's just off the list, and then Rojas, Casey, and Balistero, so still on in terms of companies.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, it's an interesting arm, and I think one that, you know, he could jump Kevin Alcantara, or Alcantara could get treated in the next month.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's all possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the realization we may talk about next week.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to do a some trade deadline in Prospect Preview stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the cubs are definitely one of them, and you talk about for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, another one, another fun one that I wanna talk about is Nate George, who speaking of guys who kind of jumped out of the complex, I don't have it in front of me, I'm going kick computer three right now, but I believe it's three, eight, in the SCL, I'll hold it up maybe three, three, those in that range, just hit his way where it's like, you can't keep him in the SCL, promoted to low-A, has been, okay, he's not hitting three, eight in low-A, but it's like three, twenty, three, thirty most of the time he's been there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can really love watching this guy play.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you watch more M.I.L.V.
[SPEAKER_01]: TV, anybody have you caught him yet?
[SPEAKER_01]: A little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he hits a ball in the gap, he is out of that box as if he's been, you got rocket booster on and he tears around the basis.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had a week where he had multiple tripals, I think maybe in three tripals and all of them were stand up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't mean as in stand-up isn't like the Alphiler fell down or anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean as in like he can really run and because he's so quick out of the box because he's really cutting the corners on you like runs the bases really well.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't want to make a sound like he's just a fast guy because he is fast but he can hit there's a lot of a there's a lot of a there's a chance for him to do a lot of things well here.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he is a high school, a cold weather high school drafty who hasn't been playing pro ball very long.
[SPEAKER_01]: He looks to be honest.
[SPEAKER_01]: You wouldn't really like as you watch and play.
[SPEAKER_01]: You wouldn't be like, oh, this guy's behind his California and Florida and Texas pierced the whole lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't look like that, but at the same time, like I would say there still is some more development potential here from the standpoint of there are less
[SPEAKER_01]: things like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But just as a guy for the Orioles who really has been, I would say, there actually has been, I know Orioles fans, I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I can play that understand if you're more to a fan, you're like, this year's been disaster.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get that at the Big League level.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would also say I can understand where there's been some frustration that at the upper levels, you know, you take guys like Chase the Dermit has really taken a step back this year, came over, which has been hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like some guys who they were kind of in that, hey, they're starting to count on these guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: But at the lower level, obviously, we talked, I think, a little bit last week about Esteban Mija, who's kind of jumped up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nate George is another one.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's some other pictures.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a Braxton Bragg just went back on the IAL, the trade Gibson.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've talked about Keeler Morphay, who is a Keeler Morphay.
[SPEAKER_01]: You say, well, what's the risk of Ramora here?
[SPEAKER_01]: The risk is essentially you are juggling with, like,
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like dynamite here.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's extreme plus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would put that role.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like a street doesn't even enough in terms of a risk profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: He throws really hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can miss bats.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can also miss the strike zone by a foot and a half.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's a lot there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's back on the mound now after a finger injury.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am hopeful that the finger injury is never thrilled.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's never been right Maddox out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, you know, paying some.
[SPEAKER_01]: His struggles are early in the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did have a finger injury that cost him multiple months.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there is hope that that was, you know, like, we're going to seal a bit more from him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there are a number of Orioles guys that would say below are levels who are interesting to kind of keep an eye on.
[SPEAKER_01]: But speaking of guys in the lower levels that are interesting to keep an eye on.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got one.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and it feels like the red socks have a few of these guys, but I think the biggest standout in terms of breakouts this year in the system, and they've come, they've become somewhat notorious for this at this point.
[SPEAKER_03]: It feels like every year there's two rich re-guys that break out, but it's Dorian Soto, who is their top signing out of the Dominican Republic last year outfielder, you know, really hitting the numbers kind of speak for themselves down in the Dominican sub-league.
[SPEAKER_03]: the reports are backing it as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that's the thing that we're always looking for when we do start to move up some of these DSL guys after a month or two is what are scouts saying, you know, what's the performance like and then what's the underlocking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Senator Jack on that, because we're a helium this week with Sohashi was a Marlin's prospect and who has an eighteen to three locked to strike out Richard.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not strike out to Walker issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's locked eighteen times
[SPEAKER_01]: times.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the stat you only see in the DSL.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so there's always some some flukiness to the numbers, but looking underneath the hood, looking at data, we've had four or five years now.
[SPEAKER_03]: We've had enough track record, at least myself looking at DSL data, that junior cam in the era who's now in all star, you know, is somebody that we saw in terms of DSL numbers and we're able to sort of pick out as being a standout.
[SPEAKER_03]: Kind of similar stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's hitting the ball pretty hard, you know, like one-on-one-ish sort of ninety percent of average for a seventeen-year-old that just signed months ago is really, really impressive.
[SPEAKER_03]: The bats at ballability is there, low zone width.
[SPEAKER_03]: The chase is not low, but not super high.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when you look at the contact rates and everything else, and knowing what the DSL is like, it's kind of like little league where your best hitters are probably not walking all that much because when they see a meatball over the plate, they're gonna crush it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's where we're getting with Soto.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think he's a guy that couldn't move up the road so much less even more.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's got the thirteenth in a really talented system, and so far the reports everything we've heard back is it's kind of all systems go.
[SPEAKER_03]: This could be a topwood hunter die in the making.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're keeping a little bit tighter this week on the podcast because we have other things we have to do today.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we've gone through some of the sleepers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're kind of going to keep doing this right now because we're going to prospects of boxes.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we do every week on this, we talk about guys who are non-top Hunter prospects that we want to talk about.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll start with one because you just did soda as your lifestyle, sleeper, so I'll start with a twin.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is a guy who was prominent and I would say kind of
[SPEAKER_01]: disappeared for a little while, but now he's back, which is Gabriel Gonzalez, who is in double a witch doll last night.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, if memory serves, but Gonzalez was one of the key players, well, one of the multiple players in that Mariners twin straight couple years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mori Polanco went to the to the Mariners, Anthony Discofani who, if you said, was he a twin, like, kind of, but I don't think, you know, he
[SPEAKER_01]: pretty much one of the IL almost immediately was kind of, you know, so that, and then Justin Topah who also went on the IL also immediately, but in his case, at least in Topah's case, he is now pitching for the twins.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Gabriel Gonzalez was the prospect involved in that deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's always been kind of thought of as a corner out theater with a pretty good bat.
[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't get to see that last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's a little heavier, but also probably more importantly, back injury, that really kind of, back sort of terrible this or other, you know, like back, back injuries are really rough.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's healthier again, slim down a little bit this year and he's hitting again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that there's still reason to be like, okay, this is good sign, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we want to see a little bit more on this and all, but he's absolutely far from where he was at this time last year where I was like,
[SPEAKER_01]: what's going on with this guy like he's really hitting always has had a decent ability to draw walks as well there's real like it's kind of he goes in between being a hitter with power and being a slugger who can hit
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that he's on that line.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a terrible thing to be able to do a little bit of both.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: The best going to have to carry the pro-fox.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's bad out there and that's the only thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe it is.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll say it's stumpy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as I slid down, I don't want to make it sound like stut.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can say this is someone who's stutts.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one's trying to describe this stut.
[SPEAKER_03]: in spring training we describe we actually nicknamed him the risler because he's looks very similar and built to the internet sensation the risler right but he does hit you know so that's that's that's that's that's my prospect you know my prospects of pop for this week when are you Jeff
[SPEAKER_03]: I mentioned earlier when we were actually our first sleeper in Bryce Meyer.
[SPEAKER_03]: Another asked was guy Kevin Alvarez, and I think really what my prospect still box is here is this is truly, and you're giving a sneak peek here.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a prospect to get really excited about, and I felt as if he's at six, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: So I still haven't behind Walker Yonic for now.
[SPEAKER_03]: I still haven't behind for Koochay for now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me ask it this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have him behind Walker Yoke.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who has since he came back from injury, this hit a little bit, this hit a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who was our first round pick last year?
[SPEAKER_03]: It was, it was Yoke.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying, but.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I pumped you full of true serum right now and said, which prospect are you or optimistic about?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think from an optimism perspective, you could rank Alvarez one now.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think as more reports come in, we get more than a twenty two game sample size to sort of think our teeth into.
[SPEAKER_03]: which is the main problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the challenge we're facing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've just got done with our hot sheet chat before this is someone's asking about Nester Maronda for the tires.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is he showing the power that we expected because he had a bad year last in DSL and he's had a good year so far this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's eleven games.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I can really say anything conclusively about anybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you give me eleven games.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's twenty two games without the rest.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's twenty two games.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, high highly touted sounding out of Cuba.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's always been some rest the last few years with some of the Cuban players that come over, but he's really young, seventeen years old, kind of average age for a signing.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was some defensive ability.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think he ends up playing center long term.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's more of a right field corner out field kind of profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not the result.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to be able to actually play out there.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's getting a reps out in center field now.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's hit tool here with some power.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think he hasn't even tapped into all the power that he can get to.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's probably plus raw.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the numbers over those twenty two games, three forty two four twenty two five thirty four two homeruns.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's got nine strikeouts to six walks and four hit by pitches.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that kind of shows you what DSL pitching is like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: He has four hit by pitches.
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you factor those in, he's actually walked sort of more times than he struck out.
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, it is on my bucket list to go down to the Dominican at some point.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, see baseball in the Dominican at the same time.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you wanted to talk right now about the, if you want, if you miss five hour games.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're like, the stupid pitch clock, the game moves too fast for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: The DSL is for you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: Stream those games.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three hours, forty five normal for a game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen examples in recently of four plus hours, or is it a tent any game that went five to ten?
[SPEAKER_01]: Ten innings, five hours, ten minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to see innings where it's like, wait, that's two pictures in a row, who literally had no idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where the strike someone said all, that's the DSL for.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a different level.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but interesting players.
[SPEAKER_03]: So Kevin Averas, check him out if he's available and you're in a deep enough fantasy league.
[SPEAKER_03]: So two hundred plus players I would go at this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing about it is that what you're saying here is it's like, this is where this all gets challenging.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're talking about dynasty leagues, things like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: is the likelihood for him while you're like, you're talking about him versus Walker Yannick, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walker Yannick, the chances of who's going to be a big leagueer?
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say Yannick's is still higher.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has a catcher who has defensive skills to catch the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but I think the chances of one of them becoming a sixty is probably higher than average if he's kind of scaled out those probabilities.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, that's what we're saying here is this is that we know that people are, again, that's where the challenge.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's something like I did come on in this, you mentioned like Jackson Wiggins moving on the hundred.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was having a conversation with a B.A.
[SPEAKER_01]: subscriber yesterday who was nice enough to kind of point out we have a when we put up the thirties or some fillies issues so I called him to let him know that I was going to fix and we're talking about it and we're talking about Arun Escobar and I made the point with that and I was like the thing that's always tough about this is the difference between the guy who's seventy five eighty five ninety five on this list and the guy who's one fifty who's fifty spots off this list
[SPEAKER_01]: infinitesimal very small the difference between the guys who's ten on this list and fifty it's it is actually to me way easier for us to line up not okay you could say this guy's two versus three but the guys were on the top ten
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't get feedback generally from, you know, from scouts, we're like, okay, so on, top fifty prospects again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like, I like this guy better.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're the guys who are all in that range.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's how tier is easy to pick out, I think.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not getting the face a little more.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you talk about, like, when we get questions just like, why is someone some not on the hundred yet?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think he should be on instead of someone so it's like,
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you could be a hundred percent right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's sometimes a little bit what you're vitally, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, yeah, do you want the short stop of good defense?
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you want to like, and can even be in the same profile and it's just that small and it's kind of how the list line up where it's like Jonathan Long versus CJ K-Face.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can probably make a case for Jonathan Long, you know, over K-Face.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you could make a case for Caves is over long and there, you know, longest probably one forty in Caves is ninety one or whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like sixty five now I think, but like yeah, but still like that's that difference is and that's where especially when you talk about especially when you talk about like Carson Williams who slid down our list.
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe we went too far because like I think about it and I'm like okay way Taylor walls depending on which
[SPEAKER_01]: War metric you want to look at is like a productive player for the Mariners and Taylor walls is a guy who can't hit yeah, you know well Carson Williams is a really good defender's shortstop and yes real power you just striking out thirty plus percent of the time exactly and so that's the concerns the hit tool but like maybe but like that's easier though short spots center fielders
[SPEAKER_01]: Those guys are easier to figure out.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you talk about, like you said, Jonathan Long's C-to-K, bring up a first basement.
[SPEAKER_01]: The difference between being a first basement who spends eight plus years, ten plus years in the majors, and being that guy who gets cups of coffee and two hundred at that, at times.
[SPEAKER_01]: The difference between, like, okay, Jonathan Long.
[SPEAKER_01]: The difference between is Jonathan Long, is he going to be Matt Murvis?
[SPEAKER_01]: which means cup of coffee, but mainly a triple A guy, or at least that's what looks like the merch right now, who was kind of where Johnson Long was a few years ago, production lies at the same team, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or is he going to be a guy like Rodney Tulez, who I would describe as being just on the other side of that border, where he's probably probably got what, four plus five years of service time now,
[SPEAKER_03]: with like three different teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: That one is really small.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we're not talking about the line between Peter Lanzo and Matt Mers.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about that line between Ty France and Rally to Les.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the guys were like, he played four or five years of first base.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dominic Smith versus Jake Bowers who he used to debate
[SPEAKER_01]: all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's been right answers at different times that keep going back and forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: But one of us was like, oh, Dominic Smith clearly was, you know, the ended up being better.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now it's Jake Bowers who is stuck around longer than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, those work out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but it's funny.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like you, you know, there's so many different ways you can break it down.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so many different ways things can go to.
[SPEAKER_03]: a hundred percent an injury at the wrong time an opportunity at the right situation whatever might be yeah you know being in the right organization who's able to unlock something for you that's the one else even being around certain major leaders that can maybe unlock something for you like I mark the answer talks about how important JD Martinez you know being with the meds organization was for him breaking out taking a step forward JD Martinez leaves to be taking the step back with this year so you know all that stuff can matter to you know this stuff we don't even think about sometimes
[SPEAKER_01]: But so there's a lot more coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to, you know, we're going to say, we will be podcasting our next podcast project.
[SPEAKER_01]: Podcasts will be from Atlanta, because we will be done with the future scale at that point.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll probably talk about the future scale that we've been able to imagine on the next one.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also have the draft coming up.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have so much stuff over at baseballamerica.com right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also encourage you to check out everything that we have on the YouTube channel.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're watching this, you're probably going to enjoy the staff draft that we just did.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll put a link on that if you're watching on YouTube right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for Jeff Ponds, I'm JJ Cooper.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so long everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sweet.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, there we go.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_01]: You made that work?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think it'll be six stops.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, stop on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I won't touch that camera.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll let you do your thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm on that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was about to hit the recording off button and I'll let him do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stop on that.