[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody, JJ Cooper, Josh Norris, baseball, America, Prospect, podcast, and video on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_01]: And today we are talking all about the complex leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: Josh is our resident complex league, Maven.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is one of a few people I would say that doesn't work for an organization who can say that he has seen all three complexes this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: He went to, I think it was Florida, Arizona, DSL, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's your, that was your other way around.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, Arizona, Arizona, Florida, DSL?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think I did that way.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not a hundred percent sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: You saw the Florida Complex League, you saw Arizona Complex League, and then you spent some time down in the Dominican as well, saw the Dominican Summer League all-star game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, there is still a minor league all-star game.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't get those in the full season leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: DSL still has it, but then also saw DSL regular season games as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have written our Florida Complex League top prospects list.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have written our Arizona Complex League top prospects list.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you are currently working on now that the Dominican Summer League season is over.
[SPEAKER_01]: Congratulations to the DSL Padre's gold for winning the DSL title.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are now working on our DSL prospects.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, top.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, many prospects that number is going to.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thirty.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thirty hundred.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thirty hundred last year and the one didn't turn out.
[SPEAKER_03]: But, uh, you know, that thirty is pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It said,
[SPEAKER_03]: I think last year was like, two hundred players in the league or something.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'll just, you know, prep, prep is that by saying, I'm going to miss some guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I mean, thirty, twenty five hundred players pretty difficult.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's fifty two team league, which is almost the entirety of a classification in full season ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is the largest, like, it is the largest league in professional baseball.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think it's really close.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess to get really geeky, the closest would be, and it's not a comparison would be Siri A. One in Italy, because the Italian league pretty much includes almost all, they start with almost all their teams playing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to put a comparison though because that's like four tutos like prospect team is in the league at the first part of the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is fifty two actual professional teams who all battle it out and then have a extremely small and short postseason as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that you can fairly say congratulations again to Padre's gold, but at the same time.
[SPEAKER_01]: You blink and you miss the DSL playoffs for a league that there's a lot fewer teams in the playoffs in there than there are in the major league baseball with thirty teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a bigger playoff this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: The format changed this year and I forget which club it was might have been the pod days.
[SPEAKER_03]: They had no it was the marlins.
[SPEAKER_03]: They had there are two affiliates playing each other in the playoffs.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, that's kind of where we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I did want to ask with that to kind of set the stage because we know that some of you watching this are listening to this are probably not ACL, FCL, DSL experts.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Josh, if you could kind of start by just explaining to people what the complex leagues are and why it is important to care about them.
[SPEAKER_03]: The complex leagues are games that are played on the backfields of
[SPEAKER_03]: They're team spring training complexes.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's I think it's sixteen in Arizona and fourteen in Florida.
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously a little more compact in Arizona, a little less compact in Florida.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's for the youngest players.
[SPEAKER_03]: The last year's draftees who didn't advance the full season ball, the guys from the DSL, the year prior, a lot of rehabbers.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a more controlled environment.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then you might see, you know, a lot of teams coaches are down there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just kind of
[SPEAKER_03]: baseball are pro baseball in its earliest stages.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not the prettiest baseball you're going to see.
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, it might be the ugliest sometimes.
[SPEAKER_03]: You'll check a DSL score every once in a while and you'll see a team score thirty or fifteen runs in an inning or something like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, I saw there was a game in the DSL that I attended that was seven innings and it played was four hours.
[SPEAKER_03]: So like those kind of things happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it is the place where you go to see
[SPEAKER_03]: your favorite prospects before they become anything, most of the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, some of the big ones jumped to full season, followed most of the college guys from the draft.
[SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, your younger players, like last year's list, had Edward Florentino wanted to zone a top of a hundred prospects last year.
[SPEAKER_03]: At this time, you know, last July, he was in the DSL Wallstar game.
[SPEAKER_03]: His was my day was in the DSL Wallstar game for one memorable strikeout.
[SPEAKER_03]: Luis Payney was in that game.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is first, didn't count, pro home run.
[SPEAKER_03]: in that game.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, that's where they really start to pop and that's where if you're in our shoes, you get them before, you know, I won't say anybody because most these teams have YouTube feeds right now of their game for the flash, you know, all the track mandate if you want, you just have to kind of work a little bit to find them.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not sick enough to even watch those.
[SPEAKER_03]: Usually because it's not the greatest few.
[SPEAKER_03]: But that's where they really start to blossom and you try to get them before they're, you know,
[SPEAKER_03]: famous if you if you do I know one team that attempted to acquire Jackson Chorio in the DSL.
[SPEAKER_03]: The brewers knew what they had.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, uh, it was a smart attempt, smart attempt.
[SPEAKER_03]: Your caminero was traded when he was in the DSL or, you know, his DSL year.
[SPEAKER_03]: Guardians, I don't know if the guardians knew what they had, but if they did, I think probably wouldn't have traded him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but good job by the race scouting up again.
[SPEAKER_03]: They have a free heavy presence down there.
[SPEAKER_03]: and got him on the cheap for a guy that, you know, for Tobias Myers, he also didn't make an impact at Cleveland.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, another example of that, he had not played in a game yet, but you're now for us, traded from the Dodgers to the Astros.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then his first game is listed as DSL Astros, but it was after he had been traded, he was originally a Dodger.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can truly hit on franchise-changing players
[SPEAKER_01]: And the other thing I love about the complexes, I think you do too.
[SPEAKER_01]: You love seeing players and kind of learning about the next wave as early as you can.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: If I go to Charlotte this weekend and see Thomas White, this is a terrible example because he was never going to pitch in the DSL.
[SPEAKER_03]: If I went to
[SPEAKER_03]: First go this weekend and told you about Sebastian Walcott, well, good for you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Also, there's this stock called Nvidia that seems to be on the rise, you know, I can tell you about that too.
[SPEAKER_03]: But if I go to the DR, I'll tell you about such and such player.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, that's more advantageous for your fantasy guys or, you know, teams really don't take advice from us, but not much.
[SPEAKER_03]: But people in the public space to, you know, get their autographs or their, you know, get, uh, glued into their who they're just gonna start with their favorite team here in a couple years or more of the public, yes, I'll be yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing I would say about it is, and I enjoy this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I live missed this about what the appyly used to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the level, like when you said, when you go to Charlotte, if you do this weekend, the other thing about it is is when you watch that game, you may see something that open your eyes, but it's largely to add to a
[SPEAKER_01]: pretty hefty amount of information you already have about these players.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because when you see, like you said, you see Thomas White, your expectation going in is that Thomas White is going to look quite good because he's Thomas White and we know that Thomas White is one of the best pitching prospects in baseball.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you went down to the Dominican this year, you were seeing guys pop who
[SPEAKER_01]: You may have not known anything about them before they stepped on the mound, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's not, you know, you can, I can do myself a little bit of cheating on the test by reading Ben Badler's International Reviews, which usually come out before I go.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the guys should get the biggest money.
[SPEAKER_03]: Arnold was the best players.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, there's going to be multiple guys on this DSL top thirty that were ten thousand dollar shines.
[SPEAKER_03]: And one of my favorite stats was a couple years ago when the Philly's and the Astros were in the world series.
[SPEAKER_03]: The first three winners of the winning pitchers in the first three games signed for a combined forty grand combined.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's not always the big money that does it.
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, some of the big money players are really disappointing this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: But there are others who sign for far less, who, I mean, it's a rocket to that star.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're easy, easy, easy compact players.
[SPEAKER_01]: That kind of leads to another question.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the DSL is its own entity, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: The DSL is where pretty much all international signings and
[SPEAKER_01]: to the exclusion of anything else, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You are not.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are no draftees playing in the DSL.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: The DSL is for international signings and a key distinction about this in an era where there are strict roster limits about the domestic US minor league rosters.
[SPEAKER_01]: These players do not count towards the one to sixty five limit or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the reasons the league is fifty two teams is that this is kind of where teams and organizations are figuring out what they have there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you'd hit on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: What really the Florida and Arizona complex leagues have become in a lot of ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: especially early in the season, like again, very late in the season, you'll start season drafties filter in.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will always have some drafties from last year to are in the complex leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the vast majority of players who aren't really injury rehabbers or things like that in these leagues are international signies and it's kind of become the next step
[SPEAKER_01]: for the players coming out of the DSL.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the key distinction with that is, then they do count the minute a player comes to the states nowadays.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're a counter, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to, there's always been there's a limited number of visas and all for players coming over, but now we've added that wrinkle of
[SPEAKER_01]: If you being a player over for instructs, that player now is treated as part of your domestic roster, you know, they're, they're, again, spring training.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're counters now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have your off season list, but one of the season begins, they count towards your one sixty five.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your hundred sixty five minor league players that you're allowed in the US.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the beer act of bringing a player over from the DSL to play in the Florida or Arizona complex leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: By itself kind of indicates this is a more significant prospect than the players who are left back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't mean that repeaters in the DSL can never turn into, you know, solid big league players or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there is something to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I would also say with this, you talked about this when you went to Florida near Arizona.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those leagues are on the same level.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're the same idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: The players going in those, you have your teams that have spring training in Florida, basically, are your Florida complex league teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your teams that have spring training in Arizona, are your Arizona complex league teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that doesn't mean that the talent is distributed evenly.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was the case this year, wasn't not?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, but I want to back up for a second.
[SPEAKER_03]: You did make the point that I think one of the stress.
[SPEAKER_03]: With the roster limits in place now, there's less of a stigma on repeating that league.
[SPEAKER_03]: If I were to do this list, ten years ago, five years ago, whatever, five years ago, it'd be really bad because I was twenty, twenty.
[SPEAKER_03]: Short list.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it just defines the list.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would probably just ignore all the guides who were repeating unless there was like an injury scenario.
[SPEAKER_03]: This year, there's going to be multiple guides who are up high on this list who are repeating the league and, you know, sue it, just sue them for taking a little longer as a seventeen year old to maybe reach their peak or get into better shape or for their body to develop or what have you.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll just drop one Edgar Monterey with the A's.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be a pretty high on the list.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then he's a repeater.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he crushed this year and it was as an eighteen year old or seventeen eighteen whatever it was this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he was excellent and it's a top arrow prospect is going to be I believe somewhere in the top ten.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I would put less of a stigma on repeating the DSL right now just because of the way the mechanics were.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're throwing a curve ball at you this week for our arena club segment.
[SPEAKER_00]: As AJ has opened up a Pokemon slap pack.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did I say it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Pokemon slap man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pokemon don't ask me to say what that card is, but no, doing with that card.
[SPEAKER_00]: I already sold it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you going back, baby?
[SPEAKER_02]: I bought it and then I got more money than I paid for the pack.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I sold it straight back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You bought it for?
[SPEAKER_00]: Two fifty.
[SPEAKER_00]: You sold it for?
[SPEAKER_00]: Two ninety nine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can go get yourself something that you maybe know how to pronounce.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: What it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: I did it because I saw certain people open in Pokemon and they were making money and guess what?
[SPEAKER_02]: I got lucky.
[SPEAKER_02]: Made money off of it too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: But of course, if you're in the sports cards, that is something that you can find a ton of on the arena club marketplace by sell, slap pack trade.
[SPEAKER_00]: Twenty percent off your first slap pack or card purchase can be had at arenaclub.com slash foul.
[SPEAKER_00]: and used to code F O U L that's arena club dot com slash foul and used code F O U L. But you you mentioned it's Lord in Arizona leaks.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the talent was a little more slanted toward Arizona this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're prior, it was the other way around, or at least seemed a lot of the big names from that list have busted or have been injured.
[SPEAKER_03]: But some of it's just depending on the health of whichever systems at the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: all if the best systems in baseball are teams that have to be a Florida well, didn't the Florida Complex League stands to be better.
[SPEAKER_03]: Or it also depends on how aggressively people promote their players.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like a couple years ago, you know, you would have said, okay, Ethan Salas is probably going to be the never one prospect in this league.
[SPEAKER_03]: Nope.
[SPEAKER_03]: He gone.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's skipping over this league entirely.
[SPEAKER_03]: Same deal with Leo de Vries.
[SPEAKER_03]: Promote it.
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't count.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it kind of fins the potential prospect pool almost immediately.
[SPEAKER_03]: This year it was a lot of giants on the ACL list and really slim pickings in the I say really slim pickings but I went five farther than I did the year prior because I just can't exclude anyone that is my curse.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it was a little trickier in the Florida complex league where I could, I think I named like five giants.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm like probably could have put in two more.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Florida, you didn't think five or four.
[SPEAKER_03]: I said, but I did five giants in the ACL list was it was just that easy.
[SPEAKER_03]: I had that much talent to pick from.
[SPEAKER_03]: Florida, it was like, okay, this team maybe has one guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this team maybe has one guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's a couple, and there's some talented players who just don't qualify because you don't pitch enough or hit it up or whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you say with that, like if you're a prospect watcher, if you're someone who you're a baseball American, you read us, you want to know about the best prospects earliest, has it shifted a little bit from, because I also bring up with this, a lot of the players that you mentioned, a lot of the top players that you mentioned from your DSL list last year, skipped over the complex this year, or
[SPEAKER_01]: If they didn't skip over, Hizu's mod a Luis Pena guys like that skipped over it or in other cases like you said like a Fiorentino like there were guys who they may have passed through.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what we're seeing now a lot of times is as we are seeing kind of a top tier of these guys who
[SPEAKER_01]: As you said also, you mentioned the, you know, again, the Padres are a unique case, but Salas and DeVries being guys who are basically like, no, low-ase where it's at right away.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what I'm saying though is is we are seeing more of these top prospects either skip over the Florida and Arizona complex is, or if they do go there, it's just briefly to kind of establish themselves a little further and then bump up they go again.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think it's necessarily the case.
[SPEAKER_03]: It might be a little bit with last year.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm just I pulled up the twenty twenty four list as we're talking.
[SPEAKER_03]: The brewers do, you know, they are very similar to the progress in that if you are good, they will jump you over the complexly easily.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they will send you to, well, next year we will send this in recent years that had been Carolina.
[SPEAKER_03]: RIP love cats.
[SPEAKER_03]: RIP five county state at least.
[SPEAKER_03]: But there are some other guys that, you know,
[SPEAKER_03]: rewriting the Arizona and Florida lists are basically like rewriting the DSL list.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I'm looking at Yiro Padilla was on the Florida State League or the Florida Complex League list.
[SPEAKER_03]: Emil Morales was in the Arizona list.
[SPEAKER_03]: Joe Swalugo was in the Arizona list.
[SPEAKER_03]: The old friend Castillo was in the Arizona list.
[SPEAKER_03]: Brito Anderson Brito with the Astros.
[SPEAKER_03]: He did, you know, he did not qualify for
[SPEAKER_03]: He'd already moved up pretty quickly.
[SPEAKER_03]: As they've on Mehia was the number one prospect in the Florida list.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it was pretty quickly, but did qualify.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, he pitched most of the year in the Florida conflict.
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't move until like that season was nearly done.
[SPEAKER_03]: Renio Rodriguez, same idea, Johnny levels, same idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that was the top ten right there.
[SPEAKER_03]: And most of them can be found on the corresponding next year's lists.
[SPEAKER_03]: And some of them can be found in the top one hundred.
[SPEAKER_03]: These two of them, one of them.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, three of them are my saying.
[SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, I don't think it's necessarily a lot of guys jumped that quickly.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just kind of which players are in which organizations and are those organizations aggressive.
[SPEAKER_03]: If your pod raise or brewers, you're going to jump pretty quickly.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you're in others, you're not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that kind of leads into the perfect segue to set us up for we're going to talk about some of the players who stood out in each of these leagues this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, Josh did those lists.
[SPEAKER_01]: Josh has worked on those lists.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we are also going to, before we do that, talk a little bit about, if you are looking at the DSL, you think that there are things you should pay attention to and things that you should probably pay a little less attention to and we'll cover right that right after this quick break.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Josh, before we dive into players who stood out in these leagues, when you're in the DSL,
[SPEAKER_01]: Florida Complex League Arizona Complex League.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that we would say in general that statistics get more and more informative to closer you get to the majors, but at the same time they matter at all levels.
[SPEAKER_01]: But is it fair to say that when you say, oh, why is this player not higher on your DSL prospects list?
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at the numbers he produced as a hitter or as a pitcher in the DSL?
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are where the statistics are the least informative of probably any level.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that fair?
[SPEAKER_03]: Without question.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean,
[SPEAKER_03]: don't even bother looking at walk rate.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you and I could stand there with a bat and not swing and probably work a ten percent walk rate.
[SPEAKER_03]: That the pitching is sometimes just that bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you see a guy, oh, there's one guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to, I think he's going to rank.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll have a call here in a couple hours.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's got thirty more walks than strikeouts.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: but then the strikeout being low is nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: Look at strikeout rate.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't look at walk rate.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the official scoring is interesting sometimes.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you might have hits that were errors or you might have weird field conditions sometimes.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was talking to one guy and said, you know, he played at this field, which is a super pitcher hitter friendly field.
[SPEAKER_03]: Most of his home runs would not be home runs state side.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's all sorts of things that go into that.
[SPEAKER_03]: the kind of inconsistency of play that leads to those stats being a bit misleading.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll give you an example.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pablo Nounias with the reds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second year in the DSL with the reds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nounias had six extra bass hits this year, but he hit three twenty seven with a five forty two on bass percentage because he walked forty one times and he struck out six times.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, you may see that, Ango, we are watching the next-in carnation of Barry Bonds here, as far as OBPs.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be hard to carry that over to the next level.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing it, say, impossible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes, impossible's a good way to put it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that is something where you do see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the other thing you mentioned, there are fifty-two teams in this league.
[SPEAKER_01]: The quality of play
[SPEAKER_01]: in each circle in which they play is not even either.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was a case a couple years ago where a team was so injured that they had to sign dudes off the street and put them in game that's pitchers.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's worse than facing a position player pitching arguably.
[SPEAKER_03]: You just never really know.
[SPEAKER_03]: Contact is so important and that's why team scout these leagues fairly heavily.
[SPEAKER_03]: You'll see
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a really big prospect that you're looking for an ideal, like you'll see four or five guys there from one club looking at whoever.
[SPEAKER_03]: There are names on this list that I'm going to put out, I think Friday, that were asked for pretty aggressively at the deadline.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, let's just give one example, like as we kind of before we even get to the player's system out, we saw players traded at
[SPEAKER_01]: The deadline this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: Are they still in the Rosa with the Yankees dealt in the deal that brought devolved to New York.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, even before that, I think I post some stuff on him.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know band did.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I put him as guy to watch.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know I named him best breaking bone to the SLL.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll start again.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like if you read baseball America.
[SPEAKER_03]: You were not in the dark on Carlos de la Rosa.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like that was an up area.
[SPEAKER_03]: We were shouting from them, you know, from the mouth.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a guy to watch.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is an interesting pitching prospect.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not, you know, it's not like a future, you know, Paul schemes or anything, but it's a central rotation piece.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's a name who I would say there was out there like that was not the only team that was interested in him either.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like this was a player who there were.
[SPEAKER_03]: As I know, at least two that were interested in and one landed him.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's not like he was a foreign entity.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I want to ask you with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what is it that you are?
[SPEAKER_01]: What you're looking on that you're working on this list.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, some of it is just, you know, there are tools that you're not going to see like if you're a fan like that read baseball America.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to tell you about them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But on top of that, what are things that do have a little bit more
[SPEAKER_01]: staying power that a fan who's trying to pay attention to this who wants to dive into the DSL can kind of look at tools.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what a fan can look at, honestly.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I said, you watch those YouTube streams and their quality is obviously varies, but it's tools.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I'm not in the DSLR game.
[SPEAKER_03]: I do the superlatives off that game.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's not like, some of these guys, I don't know who they are coming into them.
[SPEAKER_03]: I get the rosters and I go, okay, I know this guy in this guy, but I'm not familiar with these three other guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you watch the game, then I take my video and hopefully it, the cameras,
[SPEAKER_03]: agree with me.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you go back and you look at it and you say, okay, this guy was the best.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like this year I named, I mentioned him already.
[SPEAKER_03]: Edgar Montaro is the best header in that game.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, why?
[SPEAKER_03]: Because he took ninety four ninety five in on his hands and pulled it one way.
[SPEAKER_03]: Any sat back on a breaking ball and shot it over the short of the top's head.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: That tells me he's got a pretty good swing.
[SPEAKER_03]: It looks pretty good from the left side.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's good enough for me.
[SPEAKER_03]: There wasn't any super standout performance in that game.
[SPEAKER_03]: and it's just interesting stuff like Alexander Garcia from the Guardians.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a pretty interesting arm, big frame, projectible, lively fastball pretty good slider.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, I'll name him best ball or something in that game.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just snippets of tools that you can dream on.
[SPEAKER_03]: And oftentimes the guys who are in the games are the biggest names, but they aren't always, there's a lot of bigger names that were in the games.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, okay, that we've covered, we've set the stage now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we do want to give you some names.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've mentioned a few already, but we're going to go through each league.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you want the full list, we have bigger list over at baseballmeric.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have rankings already for the Florida Complex and Arizona Complex leagues with scouting reports on thirded guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then we also have the DSL coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: the end of this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as you record, as you listen to this, it's right around the corner.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Josh kind of along those lines, who are two players in the Arizona Complexly, Gustoed out to you?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I'll just take the number one guy, uh, Johnny level.
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't really in the my week there.
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't I saw the Giants and in, you know, and in the ordinance amount of times.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but he didn't really do a whole lot stat wise, but all the rewards were like, disguise really good.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's, you know, not your, your prototypical body, although he's even a prototypical body, it shorts up anymore these days, uh, but he can
[SPEAKER_03]: He can hit.
[SPEAKER_03]: He can really hit.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's held his own more or less in the Cowley right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he's got really good swing from both sides of the plate.
[SPEAKER_03]: He takes mature at bats.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can see him in San Jose, which was ACL plus at that time.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was mature at bats.
[SPEAKER_03]: He can really throw.
[SPEAKER_03]: He can probably handle shortstop, but if you're not if you're really good second baseman.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he's going to be high up on the chances.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's top five giants prospect right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: And let's see.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's go.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't just cheat and go.
[SPEAKER_03]: Number two prospect.
[SPEAKER_03]: Chase Harlan with the Dodgers.
[SPEAKER_03]: Another guy they took on took a chance on last year.
[SPEAKER_03]: The news injured.
[SPEAKER_03]: He had a hip thing that
[SPEAKER_03]: kept him out of action.
[SPEAKER_03]: But they bet on the power.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so far, it looks like they bet right.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was probably the best prospect, best or second best prospect on the, the best Dodgers prospect in the ACL this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's done pretty well in the complexly are the California league right now too.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's we'll just take two from California there and say those guys are up arrow and their systems.
[SPEAKER_03]: bottom half of the giant system in general is starting to bear fruit pretty, pretty red.
[SPEAKER_01]: That, that would say like if you said it was the takeaway for an organization that stood out in the Arizona complex lake, I know the ACL angels won the title, but it was the giants who really jumped out to USC's like, yeah, I mean, I got to the first day and I went to see giant giants Dodgers and I don't know who's going because there's no probable people to really fish around for probable and they started a guy named Cainer Martinez.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he was really, really, really good.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I texted their front record.
[SPEAKER_03]: Who the heck is this?
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, well, he's getting ready from relief.
[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's mid to upper ninety with a banger slider and a little bit of a change up.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I saw him again later in the week.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he had even a better change up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, there's three pitches here.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's physicality, there's repeatability.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is pretty interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's done pretty well in the
[SPEAKER_03]: in the California League tube.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, there's another guy who's kind of moved up the ranks from unknown to, hey, this guy's pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, yeah, that was an interesting one.
[SPEAKER_03]: They had Johnny Level, they had our highness Kayama, who, you know, has come back from some pretty gnarly stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: He needs to pack on a little more weight before he's able to handle starters workload.
[SPEAKER_03]: They take the traded one guy off that club, Jose Beyo, in the Rafael Devers deal with my missing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, let's go look through here.
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, there was a lot of guys on that club that were really, really kind of interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, Luis del Toro, who I probably should have ranked higher.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I didn't, and I regret it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Left hander throws really hard and good slider, good change up or breaking ball good change up.
[SPEAKER_03]: I saw him again and he was pretty good in the Cal league too.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's kind of a split camp on whether he just started a reliever, but another guy that wasn't on my radar coming into the season who's pretty good.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, okay, well, that's in Arizona.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, said Florida was not as talented, but at the same time, there's still where players just stood out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who are played two players who jumped out to you from the Florida Complexly?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I mean, well, I'll cheat again and go to number one.
[SPEAKER_03]: As day by May, he was really good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a nice little payoff for chasing him around for a week.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was some
[SPEAKER_03]: off the field things that kind of kept me from seeing the one start while I was there, but I got him on my last day, you know, right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll cover that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the off the field stuff is as they had a tragedy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they had an off-camera.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the Orioles day.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I went to see him at the pirates and the pirates decided to bar all media that day, so all media being me and a photographer.
[SPEAKER_03]: Which, you know, the area where we were paned in, I got a nice view of his butt for three things before I decided to go home.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, and then I went to see him the last day against the red socks and holy goodness, you know, like I said, nine sat ninety nine to a hundred touched a hundred and two.
[SPEAKER_03]: Really nasty slider, really nasty change up.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's going to have to be some changes with the delivery.
[SPEAKER_03]: The arm action is, you know, like he's trying to shake hands with the second baseman.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that my camper has commanded control, but that day he was in total control.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's had flashes of brilliance.
[SPEAKER_03]: He had flashes of brilliance with Del Marba.
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe he's on the development list right now, which kind of a bummer because I was hoping to see him in that final series.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're on the development list right now and where we are in the season, you could get one more start, but chances are you're probably done.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he's probably probably hitting in his cap, but he was really interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: I did not see who else do I want to bring up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jorge Rodriguez was a really interesting one with Boston.
[SPEAKER_03]: Didn't know a whole heck of a lot about him, but that system is obviously very good right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: But certainly one of the best catch-and-throw guys in the low miners.
[SPEAKER_03]: He gave me two pop times of late four and one eight seven.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was just on the money both times.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was clocked up to like eighty seven miles an hour from behind the plate, which is elite elite elite.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, can hit a little bit too, but he is a, you know, a weapon behind the plate.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was, you know, another, the best part of this job is finding guys who I didn't know about.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's very hard to go in completely blind on anybody these days, but I didn't know about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: The lower level you go, the easier it is though.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I said with the DSL, you go and you go, I don't know what this is, but it's certainly interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's the fun part about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I said earlier in the broadcast, if I go watch Tom is white, I'm not going to be surprised about anything unless LSU Tommy White shows up.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that would be surprising.
[SPEAKER_03]: That would be very surprising.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, shorter and worse.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But not throwing ninety seven ninety eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but throughout the other throwing what the other hand to like I thought it was a lefty other than that, Miss Lincoln.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I know what to expect coming out of there.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, but I don't know what to expect with some of these guys something that I know like, okay, they're interesting, but I couldn't tell you what they throw or if the hype is real or you got it, you got it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's, that's the fun part about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you get to do that for a week.
[SPEAKER_03]: You leave a week in the DSL you think I need more time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, like, it happened this year that like Thursday, I looked at the boxers and like every arm I wanted to see went on Thursday and I just can't be at five different stadiums.
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't to go away tough.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, not yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But well, that leads in perfectly into, which is what are two players?
[SPEAKER_01]: But I did also want to throw this out to you and an organization.
[SPEAKER_01]: I say an organization because we said, if you probably know this if you're listening to this, if you are at the thirty five minute marker, so of this podcast and you don't know that there are thirty MLB teams,
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how this possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're listening this far, and you know that, and there are fifty-two DSL teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we say organization, because yes, some of these orgs do like kind of, this is the DSL Padres Gold versus DSL Padres, whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: But some, you know, Royals, then Fortuna versus Royals, Ventura, you know, things like that, something bouncing back and forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're looking at these as the organization, more than we are in the individual team.
[SPEAKER_01]: But start with the players who are a couple of players.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a little sneak peek of our DSL top prospects list as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll start with one Sanchez with the BlueJays.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, that was a weird day I had where you, there's very rarely.
[SPEAKER_03]: Night games in the DSL, but I had a chance on my last day there to do a double up and I saw BlueJays blue in the morning and BlueJays red at night and BlueJays.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, they didn't face each other, but BlueJay's blue faced the giants.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I got to see post-wargan Zollez who all spoil it.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to be your number one prospect in this league.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's on the top one hundred.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're following along.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's probably hard not to put a guy who's on the top one hundred in the number one spot in this week.
[SPEAKER_03]: But then you go to the next game and you see Sanchez and I knew who's kind of interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: You look at him immediately and it's one of those off the bus guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my, and it's, you know, clearly a guy built to demolish baseball and he absolutely did that.
[SPEAKER_03]: First at bat, I believe was a triple just missed being a home run.
[SPEAKER_03]: Second at bat was a home run that just missed, you know, entering orbit.
[SPEAKER_03]: A couple of you, I think the third at bat was a sack fly and then there was a
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, I had to leave early because I was a little worried that the Uber's would stop running.
[SPEAKER_03]: I did not want to be stranded that far from my room, but he doubled later.
[SPEAKER_03]: He just missed a cycle by a single.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you look at his numbers right now, I know what we said about stats, but my goodness, he has murdered baseballs with frightening regularity.
[SPEAKER_01]: That actually, that maybe think that was not the day though that your Uber broke down.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, that was a different day.
[SPEAKER_03]: Fortunately, they over broke down about three quarters of a mile from my room.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, before we, okay, little travel log, you know, break here before we get to the next prospect to stood out.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've now gone down to the DSL for two years, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it like for a baseball, if you are a baseball, not a baseball fan, but the DSL might as well be, you know, it's a concept you don't even really understand yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it like going to a game in the DSL?
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's the most our game is rock us.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like they have a lot of people there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's hard.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I checked my cameras every couple of minutes, but it's hard to do that because it's like imagine yourself at a really crowded airport gate and you're trying to get on the plane at the last second.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's just so many people there.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're diving in and out and whatever you can't really breathe.
[SPEAKER_03]: and they have a live DJ and the PA announcer who he is talking over the action.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, you know, there's a crucial moment in the game.
[SPEAKER_03]: And in Spanish he's saying, it's a crucial moment in the game.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here comes the pitch.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's like, what is happening?
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, or a guy would hit a ground ball and he'll say like, rounder to second and there's the third out.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a PA announcer and he's not always getting everything right.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the rest of the games
[SPEAKER_03]: Pretty, pretty tame.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's nobody there.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I went to that night game that I said with one Sanchez and they just decided to start playing like a half an hour before just the listed time.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, good thing I got here for forty five minutes early because they just decided to play whatever they were going to play.
[SPEAKER_03]: But there's, you know, it's the same as most complexes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Occasionally, you'll get some fans, some family and friends, not a whole lot of people there.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I went to one last year where I was the only person there not wearing a team, a team jersey or anything.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, so that's pretty tepid, but you know, you'll get to see.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you've got to see a wall is the rally rooster.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing you have to talk about is, is that there's also a rally rooster.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, wall is the rally rooster.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you, I mean, he's at the Marlos complex and he lives under constant threat, apparently from what I hear that the other team want to catch him and cook him.
[SPEAKER_03]: But they have their live stream and when they do get things or need to do good things, they'll catch him and put him in front of the camera and say, here's wall is
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, he he does seem like he actually has some pretty impressive powers does you know when he's writing a couple of chapters in our handbook this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's under nom de clos nom de plumage.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but anyway, uh, there's also, you know, you can see wild horses too.
[SPEAKER_03]: I hadn't seen wild horses before, but there was that last year at the brewerscom, like they were just hanging out behind the park.
[SPEAKER_03]: And also, you know, leaving
[SPEAKER_03]: One of the games, you see the security guard.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the security guards in America are annoying, and they are overbearing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, these ones have shotguns, and that's a little, little ratchet get it up a level.
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't see that in America.
[SPEAKER_03]: You might have handguns, but these guys have just shotguns, and they're just sitting there waiting for you to dare them.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's a great time.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you're a hardcore baseball fan, I would recommend it.
[SPEAKER_03]: You have the money and the domains to go down there and maybe tie a couple of games into a vacation, do it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's fun and you can go see your favorite prospects of whoever you root for.
[SPEAKER_03]: In an atmosphere where you're not going to be, you know, if you're not someone who likes mascots or MLB game, or the game is the thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, minorly baseball is a weird dichotomy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like your voice creek.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, worse than that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, of course.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not worse.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not worse, but more extreme than that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, Booze Creek, like, there were on field things or whatever I came.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, there weren't.
[SPEAKER_03]: Occasionally, they were trying a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, they weren't.
[SPEAKER_03]: I went to many a game of Booze Creek where I was like, nope, between an inch of us, like, maybe I, I don't know more, but any, in any case, like, it's just the game where it's like, in a minor league game, it's, you know, like, that's the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a game of nature.
[SPEAKER_03]: The game is the intermission between the various commercials.
[SPEAKER_03]: But that's kind of what I like about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's pretty, they do take a while sometimes, but it's just about the games.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say with that, a hundred percent, there are no games that take longer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether there is a pitch clock being displayed or not, the pitch clock has not come to the DSL and you have had, there have been near five hour games in the DSL this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of insane, but it's, it's one of my favorite times a year.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's right there with the AFL for me.
[SPEAKER_03]: And now I did all three complex leagues and I want to say, fifty days, which is a lot, but it's fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's a lot of video for you guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: But you wanted to get to the second player.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I see my first player was Juan Sanchez, who, I was your first player.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, it's just chose where I think I also mentioned one Sanchez and maybe I didn't mention to you guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll go for three more.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll go for three here.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, you know what we'll go into the organization and you know, I think JJ we talked off here.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're right.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is the marlins and it's a weird one because I'm going to say the marlins, but they might not be as represented as you would think on the top thirty just because a lot of the arms that are interesting didn't get much
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, like Johan for Santana touched a hundred for me, but he pitched like paintings this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's not going to qualify for the list.
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, Kifreti and Karnathione is a gigantic left hander who threw, touched a hundred like eight, nine times for me in a couple of linings.
[SPEAKER_03]: Little erratic control command.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but he, I don't think pitched enough to qualify for this list, but the, you know, the gem is Kevin DeFronk who is.
[SPEAKER_03]: A huge person is like six, four, six, five, two, six.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's something like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: He looks like a football player.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he throws a hundred.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's seventeen years old.
[SPEAKER_03]: He backs it with a nasty slider and a pretty good change up.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's probably the second best pitching prospect in the league, and maybe if Kendry Chorio is a little safer than Kevin DeFranke, he's got more upside.
[SPEAKER_03]: The upside of a true, like, front of the rotation starter.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you look at the Marlin's guys, mostly the pitching, they have Luis Aranya too.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: And Jose Castro hit the most home run in the league, I believe.
[SPEAKER_03]: But they all are just physical, just monsters.
[SPEAKER_03]: They could be a high school football team and go up against, you know, like IMG Academy, or, or, or, you know, a Dela Sal, or something in Texas.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, the thing that stood out I remember when you were down there and you saying like that that pitching staff really was one that jumped out and mainly reason it jumped out is this because it wasn't an arm it was did you see this guy or did you see this guy or did you see this guy which That's what makes it a little different you know again We are talking about players who are as far away as you can be from the major leagues and still be in professional baseball, but
[SPEAKER_01]: The best chance you have of producing a impact big league pitcher is to have a number of these very intriguing arms in the DSL.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some will follow along the way, but that's how you're going to get to having an impact guy in the big league down the road.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: And like I'm looking up to Freddy's numbers this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: I saw his debut is season debut.
[SPEAKER_03]: He pitched a total of three innings this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's over five outings.
[SPEAKER_03]: He had some disaster outings.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's last two outings of his night and sixteenth.
[SPEAKER_03]: He went to combine zero innings and allowed seven earned runs while walking nine.
[SPEAKER_03]: When I say the control and command needs to come a little bit, there you go.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he throws a hundred.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's left handed.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's physical and he is nineteen years old.
[SPEAKER_03]: So a lot to dream on there long way to go, but you won't see him represented on the DSL.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not thirty that be through three games.
[SPEAKER_03]: It makes my job a little bit easier.
[SPEAKER_03]: But you know, if you don't you do know about him because he's a little pretty famous, but if you don't know, know about him.
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't know that there's a lefty who's, but six, six, four, let's, six, four, that's probably short throwing a hundred miles an hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, and even throwing his best pitch in that day, he threw a couple changes.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's also something else that is useful about going to the DSL is this is changing a little bit now because special of hitters because we now have the FSL and the auto zone and all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: sometimes you get more accurate follow up measurements.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we've seen over the years, over and over, you see the players who are listed at my favorite one of recent years is Junior Caminaro, who was listed at his signing weight of a believe, a hundred and seventy pounds until like last year, which
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in multiple handbooks, I had to write Kemenero, who is at least fifty pounds heavier than his listed,
[SPEAKER_03]: When I wrote up Aaron Judge for the Handbook, I put him as, you know, six, seven, two, thirty.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he act tweeted me, I believe, and said, like, when did I lose forty pounds or thirty pounds or wherever it was?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I don't know, man, I don't have a scale and I don't follow you around.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, a lot of times, especially with DSL players are the most likely player sign, you know, like, you get listed at your signing height and weight.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you sign at sixteen,
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes, okay, this is JJ Storytime.
[SPEAKER_01]: The worst version of this was if you remember many years ago now, but one Duran was one of the two big international signings of the Reds.
[SPEAKER_01]: One Duran in Yorbin Rodriguez.
[SPEAKER_01]: Rodriguez made the majors.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think Duran ever did.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Duran signed when he signed as a sixteen year old, I believe he was six, three.
[SPEAKER_01]: And two years later, he was six, seven, pushing six, eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the problem was,
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't expect that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't expect that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there was no, like, oh, we knew he was going to grow into this.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just got too big.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, his body took like three years to adjust to that height that that gross part.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it never like he never kind of got back.
[SPEAKER_01]: He like lost some of the athleticism.
[SPEAKER_01]: He lost some of that body control that he had before.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, but the flip side of that is that you will see players who add literally forty pounds of good way and I know that some of you hear that and go, oh, yeah, I'm sure that that's, quote, good way.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, you are talking about players who, in some cases, it's sad to say it's literally the first time that they're getting top notch nutrition and, you know, working with nutritionist and sometimes getting their teeth fixed to where they're able to
[SPEAKER_01]: eat, you know, the way that they should to be the premium athlete that they are.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, bear story time.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was that that jumps off really nicely.
[SPEAKER_03]: Last year, I was in this league, isn't the DSL.
[SPEAKER_03]: And one secret about the DSL, it's not a secret at all.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it Reigns a lot?
[SPEAKER_03]: A lot.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm at the Rocky's Complex, and it Reigns, and I got wet, and then they, you know, they did the field, and they started up, and seven minutes later, it ran again.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was a downpour and a game zone.
[SPEAKER_03]: So,
[SPEAKER_03]: I am soaked.
[SPEAKER_03]: I look like I've been through a dunk tank.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the world worst wet t-shirt contest.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's terrible.
[SPEAKER_03]: I am a soggy mess.
[SPEAKER_03]: And fortunately, my cameras are fine.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the Rocky's people were nice enough to take me in, dry my clothes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Give me Rocky's gear and feed me.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's where I'm jumping into your story.
[SPEAKER_03]: The food was really, really good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was like a beef stew or something to fire remember correctly.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they had stuffed a drink and sides.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was like, oh my goodness, this is like,
[SPEAKER_03]: These kids are getting actual good food we prepared by a chef every day.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not insignificant.
[SPEAKER_03]: that these kids are getting really good nutrition.
[SPEAKER_03]: They mostly live in dorms that are near the complexes.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the commute to the field is walking downstairs a little bit.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I have heard tell of like some of the guys like different or whatever, guys were too big.
[SPEAKER_03]: They did have to get custom beds for some of these players because like you can't just buy a bed for a six seven guy off the rack.
[SPEAKER_03]: or wherever you buy beds.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm a five seven guy, it's pretty easy to find those.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, they all live together and they all, you know, form a sense of camaraderie in that area for a while.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's a little bit of that too in the domestic complex leaves as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's a very, like I said, controlled atmosphere for the first couple of years of the guys career until they move on to full season ball.
[SPEAKER_03]: And obviously things have gotten better in that regard too because they, you know,
[SPEAKER_03]: They pay for housing now and you don't have to scramble for a, you know, if you're, if you're like one photo back in the day, it was a two week lease at, you know, Harrisburg or whatever.
[SPEAKER_03]: But that's a long way of saying, yeah, things have gotten a lot better down there and they live in a more controlled environment and they can put on good weight rather easily and it not be like good weight.
[SPEAKER_03]: But, well, that leads us to, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was gonna say, I did hit on the org.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, the other org is standing out right now, are the twins and the red socks.
[SPEAKER_03]: They've got some pretty good position players coming up.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you read the hot sheet today, the twins have one of the best pictures in the league in Santiago Castellanos.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, those two orgs, I have, I have a, I'm sitting here with a twelve page note file on the DSL and probably a good page of them is twins and red socks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's, you know, so again, get ready to read a lot more about that at baseballamerica.com, but that leads us also into what we like to even with Jeff off this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're still going to finish it with our prospects of boxes.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we do every week, we're looking at players who are not in the top one hundred, who we find interesting for one reason or another.
[SPEAKER_01]: And speaking of twins, I'll start us off this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to talk about a twin because this is some of that you and I actually were talking about a little bit yesterday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you remember a couple of years ago, Gabriel Gonzalez was traded from the Mariners to the twins in the Jorge Polanco deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a deal that the twins didn't get a whole lot else out of to be honest.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Gonzalez and then Gonzalez went out last year battled back injury, back injury that kind of really struggled with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Didn't really hit this year, went back to hi-A to start the year, which is not a great sign.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're thinking, OK, this is the prospect who's probably, you know, got to really have a turnaround if he's going to kind of regain that prospect's status.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had a couple years ago when he was a mayor in his prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: That first corner out filter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, credit to Gonzalez this year, because all of a start of your high A, his way to AA, has now hit his way to AAA, three, twenty nine, four hundred, five, twelve overall with thirteen homers, thirty three doubles this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Key things are, he's been healthy and he did lose some weight because he got a little in addition to the back injury, which I'm sure this kind of tied together because it's obviously harder to work out, hardest thing, shape, if you are battling an injury like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you put it all together.
[SPEAKER_01]: You show more athleticism this year and he's shown a much better bat.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that one hundred percent he has turned himself back from being kind of he was a significant prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to have to hit it's a bat first profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you had that and then you had him kind of
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're a bat first profile and you're not hitting, it's kind of really hard to be a significant prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here we are again.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's hitting.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's in AAA.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's now looking once again like a guy who could be up in the majors in twenty twenty six.
[SPEAKER_01]: I definitely named a watch.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, twenty one twenty two twenty three twenty four twenty five.
[SPEAKER_01]: Rule five eligible the end of this season.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't imagine that the twins won't add him to the forty man, which
[SPEAKER_01]: If we were to talk about this this time last year to set a can imagine that the twins will add him to the forty man.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a very nice bounce back season for Gabrielle Gonzalez and a guy who if again, if you've kind of lost track of him after his struggles last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's really had a better year this year than he had in twenty three and twenty three kind of the year that you know twenty two and twenty three.
[SPEAKER_01]: He kind of hit enough to really put himself on the on the map.
[SPEAKER_01]: He kind of you know was was a very significant prospect for the Mariners.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's now that once again for the twins and a name to definitely watch going into the offseason.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right line.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm guessing you're going to go more obscure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am.
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't know what I was going to do before this one.
[SPEAKER_03]: I came up with an on the flat but I'll add yours.
[SPEAKER_03]: I tweeted it.
[SPEAKER_03]: their day, but he, Gonzalez, is one of two guys who in the miners this year who are twenty-one years or younger have four hundred and more plate appearances and are carrying a three hundred four hundred five hundred slash line.
[SPEAKER_03]: That makes he's right at four hundred on the on-base percentage.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he barely qualified.
[SPEAKER_03]: The other guy you might have heard of, his name is Connor Griffin and he's the number one prospect in the sport.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's pretty good company to be in.
[SPEAKER_03]: But my guy is Ramon Markets with the fillings.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's the right hander.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was in the back of the top twenty five for the FCL.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he has moved to the Florida State League and been pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was one really bad outing in there, but his last three starts.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's two and oh one, ninety three, fourteen, and he's ten hits, eighteen, punch out two walks, which nine to one punch to walk great is, I think that's good.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, he's got, you know, mid nineties fastball, slider and change of tap chance to be above average and still a little bit more improved command of all of the things, all of his pitches, which, you know, understandable given that he is just nineteen years old and most nineteen year olds do have to work under committed control, but it's an up arrow prospect for the fillies that, you know, we got into the top thirty after the deadline, but I've heard that name as a bundle watch in the spring.
[SPEAKER_03]: just kind of a keep him on your radar sort of guy, but they didn't have enough space.
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't think at the time, and he'd go, I happened to run into him in the Florida State, in the Florida Complex League when he was going against Johnny King.
[SPEAKER_03]: He also a really good arm in the BlueJay system.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was up higher in the top of the Florida Complex League, so that was a fun matchup that day.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he's an up arrow, interesting Philly's prospects to watch.
[SPEAKER_03]: Their system starts to be in a little bit with graduations.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good way to end it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So then another hopefully jam packed prospect podcast that you enjoyed.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you do enjoy this and you're on YouTube, please give us an up arrow that helps other people see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, that's the likes, subscribe as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to make sure that you get this every week, try to put these out every Wednesday, come rain or shine in season or off season.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Again, we can't do all this.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't send Josh to the Arizona complex, like the Florida complex, like the Dominican summer league without our, I guess we're going, guess based on your preamble earlier, I'm going to the Italian league next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, not yet, not yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll get fun and do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to, I might, you know, it, hey, if I have made it to Japan yet, that's my bucket list item, you know, you're not getting to go to Italy until I get to go to Italy.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not pushing for that real hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, but it would be, and we can't do this without baseball or subscribers.
[SPEAKER_01]: So thank you to our baseball or subscribers.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are what allows us to do this and provide the information.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, if you are a baseball or subscriber, there's a lot of this information over at baseballamerica.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: We would recommend that you check it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: For Josh, I'm JJ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So long, everybody.