[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to another baseball America prospect podcast top 30 deep dive.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are diving into the Texas Rangers top 30 today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Jeff Ponds.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm joined by my colleague, Josh Norris, who has done the Texas Rangers top 34 for quite a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: Josh, welcome to the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: How are you, man?
[SPEAKER_00]: Doing well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I don't think we need to waste any time here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with the top question.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is, how difficult was it to rank Sebastian Walcott number one in the system?
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time, he didn't have injury.
[SPEAKER_00]: We now know Walcott more than likely is to miss all of the 20, 20, 60s and at least most of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would that have impacted your decision?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think Scarborough would have been the one?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, I could also know what to answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So talk to the one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it would have been a well caught at one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm not real worried about a position player of missing time in Tommy John surgery.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just got set up, you know, the missed reps, which, you know, really helps, obviously.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the way I like to put this in perspective is like, we have, you know, rock shallows, get the UCLA short stuff, number one around draft board.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody thinks, you know, self-included, slam dunk, amazing player, high in the top 100 once he's a pro.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sebastian Volkatsu younger than him.
[SPEAKER_01]: and he was in double L last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it wasn't like the super loud fireworks type season, like a counter-driven type season, but it was pretty good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he spent the entire year in double L. He more than held his own.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's stuff to work on still.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's still a question about where he's going wind up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Eventually, that might be where the elbow stuff comes in, it's like, does that move him off the infield permanently?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that move him like to a left field or something?
[SPEAKER_01]: But,
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, he still got loads of potential.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just have to wait on it a little longer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the gap between him and Scarborough is pretty big as seen by our top 100 as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I kind of assumed that, um, but figured I would at least throw it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I won't say that with with Walcott maybe versus other position prospects because he's always been so young for the level that's kind of been one of the things that say you know I pushed him up to such lofty status.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the hit tool was grown by leaps and bounds over the last two years and the double a year though like it wasn't
[SPEAKER_00]: overly impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a solid season.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was absolutely young for the level.
[SPEAKER_00]: All those prerequisites, et cetera, apply.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what kind of player do you think he ultimately ends up as?
[SPEAKER_00]: We know the upside if all the tools click could be in all world kind of a player.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do you think is a more reasonable outcome for Walcott?
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, we'll have to see how the defensive side of the game holds up after the looking goes back in the surgery.
[SPEAKER_01]: If his arm is degraded a little bit, because right now we've got pre-surgery to have a pretty good arm, but you might look at a four tool player with a big time power below average hit and can do a lot of things on the bases and we'll see on defense.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does change to profile a little bit if he has to move to an outfield spot, steadily a shortstop or third base, which we're not out of the question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our own bill Mitchell enterprising photographer has already seen him taking ground balls at third base in surprise this year, so that I assume he's not throwing the ball, but at least just picking it up and dropping it in a bucket.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that change is a little bit, but I still think this guy has a really really high ceiling and now you just have to wait another year for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, maybe maybe this time he is the leader of the surprise squad in the Arizona fall league, you know, eight months from now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're always looking forward to the AFL rosters.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if I look forward to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is another easy question to probably answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how is this system better or worse than last year?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think with the wall cut news, is he even worse than it probably was a month ago?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's worse because they traded a lot of guys from it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They traded some of their better pitching prospects to get Merrill Kelly.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they traded some more their prospects to get Mackenzie Gore from the Nationals.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's just a take wallcott and you spike your number one prospect for a year and then you take like seven or eight prospects away from it, it's going to be worse, it's lower realm, I don't know exactly where it is in our top 30 organizations, but it's low, you know, right now it's there's there's some guys are coming back like Winston Santos could figure into the big leagues this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jose Cornelle already made his big debut.
[SPEAKER_01]: He could be back there this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Josh Owens is really interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Caden Scarborough, obviously pretty interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's some interesting guys, but the depth falls off pretty quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I would have to say, it seems like the trades in particular of, you know, been the biggest culprit.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, with the lack of depth in this system, because there was a period last year where it felt like they were starting to build back some of that depth, particularly on the pitching side, you know, you had, you had Scarborough obviously is a breakout, had him in was one that was coming back from injury and kind of started to show some signs of breaking out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cole Drake had a pretty phenomenal year and then was kind of somebody who, for them on a major league side, was kind of right in the cusp of the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gets traded in that Merrill Kelly trade.
[SPEAKER_00]: That Merrill Kelly trade looks really bad right now, especially considering Kelly went back and signed with a diamond back.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's almost as if you really got nothing for him at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the diamond back stuff, all those players back in their team,
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but I feel like that trade really cut into the core of it and then the gourd trade did as well, but I think that if you're a rangers fan, you can probably, you know, you're okay with the gourd deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not, you're not upset that they traded away the depth from the system to bring in a young starting picture that has a couple years of control.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but for a rental when you don't make the playoffs, I feel like that one stings a little bit because you ended up as a 500 team either way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, can you know, I'm never going to never ever going to criticize a general manager for going for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The name of the game is to try to win.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the thousand times they do not raise banners or hand out trophies for the best farm system in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: You try and we saw two years ago at this point, what it looks like, sometimes when you catch lightning in a bottle, sometimes it does end in a parade.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: But right now, the system is a little depleted.
[SPEAKER_01]: You mean, you lost your first rounder.
[SPEAKER_01]: You lost some interesting depth pieces.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing that really hurts this team right now is the last couple first rounders, not getting not including Gavin Bean, or the last couple of higher draft picks from 2024, did not have great years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Malcolm Moore was injured along the year and did not produce when he was healthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dylan Dryling showed signs of life, but that was an issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: Alejandro Rosario, obviously since traded, did not, it was out the entire year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could capitalize on it like even more than he already did.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I got an Isaac Tiger who's among my picks to click for this year, who was out the entire year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it just wasn't a lot of guys who were healthy and productive at the same time.
[SPEAKER_01]: this year and now there's just fewer players like I'm looking at the the handbook index from you know when we set the book to press there's like four or five guys gone from it already so if I were to start writing the next the 2027 chapter right now I would have to find five more guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the last thing you want to do between this and the Yankee system.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt like you just, your system is more than anybody else this off season.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have five systems, so you have more systems coming out.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they were particularly depleted as we went through this process.
[SPEAKER_00]: It felt like a trace that we were discussing from your systems.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember the gore trade I had driven.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to run the marines.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just got to where I was.
[SPEAKER_01]: I turned on my phone as he passed his notification away.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to go back home right now, you know, right that it's, it's a big one, that's a real big one and then, you know, the what the Ryan weather's trade with the Yankee system, uh, the Dodgers delts and guys, the fillies delts and guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think I lost probably 40 prospects between my five six among my five systems.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so this system is kind of way down and I felt like they were kind of tracking back up, you know, I won't criticize a general manager for going for it, but I will criticize a general manager for not
[SPEAKER_00]: making a good read on where his team is at competitively versus other teams in the division in the American League and the quality that you're getting back and in a Merrill Kelly and where that puts you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will criticize that a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do think young, it was a miscalculation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously he's one of World Series and
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, was already the year at one point, so it hasn't all been bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I thought that was a miscalculation on his part.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you swinging your miss when you get up to battle, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's how it goes and you play the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Josh, who is your guest to be number one next year in this system?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably going to be a Sebastian Walcott.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's one of those, you know, I just showed you a little bit of go.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you can probably write that capsule right now, more or less.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, as he's had or is going to have some sort of elbow surgery, I don't remember his internal brace or not, but you know, as most of the year, if I had to pick someone else, if, you know, if there's an outside dark horse contender, I think it's going to be Joshua and quite frankly, it's a tricky one, but
[SPEAKER_01]: I was really, I'm kind of becoming a little bit of a sucker for these two way guys, and it's interesting to see how his fortunes reverse, like I think our scouting report with we had him better as a hitter, and then he gets to instructional league and not look good as great as a hitter, but he's looking pretty darn good as a pitcher.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a lot of really fun traits and pitches to be developed there and athleticism out the gang.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if there's not Walcott, I would probably put my, again, my imaginary chips on hoes, but it's probably gonna be Walcott.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that's kind of the thing with this Ranger system.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't,
[SPEAKER_00]: to all these questions are very straightforward.
[SPEAKER_00]: Usually, there's a little bit more debate, a little more give and take, and it's like, I don't even know what direction you go, because maybe two weeks ago, if we recorded this podcast, but like, yeah, Walcott, maybe gets up, maybe graduate, maybe he graduates on service time,
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it was probably likely, but there was at least some possibility that that reality could occur.
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, he's almost certain to not graduate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless he speeds up in his way ahead of schedule and somehow comes back in, you know, August, which I don't even think is a remote possibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where you go, because like as good as Caine's car, I think Caine's car was a good pitching prospect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if he has a phenomenal year,
[SPEAKER_00]: he'd be pushing up to where Walcot's rank now, even with the injury, even if he moving back a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if Caine Scarborough is a great year, wins violently pitcher of the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jonah Tom was ranked like, what, three, fourth, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but what is it for?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's guaranteed that Scarborough is gonna be a top 15 prospect.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not, so I don't even know there's another option here at one that you can even really argue.
[SPEAKER_01]: All he'd have to do was he clips Walcott and you could probably fudge that a little bit like with Tom, he had this this Nolan McLean size mountain in front of them and then maybe a little bit of Carson Bench kind of at the path at the pass as well so that wouldn't be out of line, but there's so much more to do with Scarborough to get him to that kind of seal it and I was saying like even like the big step up like if it was a Tom level jump.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, um, but she doesn't even have to make that.
[SPEAKER_00]: as big of a jump as time.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like it's that big of a jump.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still not going to rank in the top 20 prospects.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's only the elite of the elite pitching prospects.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we saw this year we had a few more because we had a whole bunch of those guys pitching the big leagues and pitch really well in guys like a savage and a claim and totally et cetera.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like there were some in that mix.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I just don't know if it's even possible for Scarborough to get up there
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to move law caught down that much.
[SPEAKER_00]: The upside is still tremendous.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he would just get pushed down by like draft guys maybe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, which, you know, there's there's some some potential there, but they they pick, you know, middle of the first round, right, so no, but I guess I switch to the top 100.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you say it's top 100.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, totally.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a great, you know, and it's there's it's a good class.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's going to be a very good guys that rank pretty, pretty highly, let's move on to the last question here.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does this organization good at developing Josh?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me go to the Rangers, we look at what they have at the major league level, the guys that have come to the system where they're traded or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: What have they got, what have they got to a point where they're good at developing?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think right now they've developed pitching well enough that they've been attracted.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the three arms that they traded to Arizona were good enough to be attracted to get Marlcully.
[SPEAKER_01]: Believe there were some arms in the, yeah, a lot of Rosario was in the Gore deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of kids funny, like, Rosario hasn't pitched for a while, but he was impressive enough in that stint in 2024 when he still had value.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cole Drake, you know, that guy jumped out of nowhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he said, Mitch Brack on the velocity that he was
[SPEAKER_01]: Attractive in that trade and Hagemen once he came back from the surgery was was gangbusters and I saw his first pro start and Silly me I chalked up him you know being as good as he was to just like you know dominating children He's a college guy and in the early stages of the complex league, and that's what they should do I should have looked at it more in a vacuum and seen that the stuff was pretty darn good and Pro was good enough to play, you know low a high a and play pretty well and the fall lead to so
[SPEAKER_01]: they've developed enough pitching to get what they need and they've made strides with guys like Jack Lighter and to a lesser degree come our rocker.
[SPEAKER_01]: Although his stuff is a lot of there's a lot of injury issues and a lot of command issues but I think pitching is probably their strongest suit right about now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Although we're not that far removed from Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter is still a
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, I think that's true, but I think yeah, you look at you look at even like some of the guys that graduated as prospects and took some time like Jack Liter has turned into
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, a really good rotation piece now, honestly.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, had a really good year last year, had a really strong second half.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's kind of out of the woods.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and there's other arms that have come to the system.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cold rakeings obviously is another one.
[SPEAKER_00]: They traded them away, but it was almost overnight that he became a sensation with the royals that I don't really want to give them any development credit there necessarily.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think you're right with pitching.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they've gone in that direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: It makes some of their pitching draft picks when they make a few of them in the top five to six rounds, a little bit more interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: The things that I've heard about Josh Owens, it sounds like he could end up on the mount long term too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think they're going to close the door in the two way thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it sounds like who seems to turn them when I'm charging them one press by.
[SPEAKER_00]: but what took place when he pitched, then when he hit, and that was not necessarily how they viewed him on draft day.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, might be another interesting sort of ball of clay for them to work with here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Josh, any sort of closing thoughts here before we wrap up the video portion of this Rangers podcast?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not really, I mean, it's kind of cut and dry, you know, you have a big blow with ball cut and you have a depleted system thanks to trades.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you got to start building it back up again through, you know, they might get tricked creative at the deadline and deal big lead pieces to refurbish their system, see how to do in the draft, see how some of these injured guys come back, but right now it's not one of the better systems in the game and they would tell you that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, right.
[SPEAKER_00]: For those of you tuning in on YouTube, this is going to be the end of our show for those tuning in on the podcast feed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got more to come right
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, and we are back.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are talking more Ranger System.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the baseball America Prospect podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeff Ponds, Josh Norris, Josh, who moving on to the next question here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who are some of the sleepers outside of the top 10?
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I should say who are some of the sleepers outside like the top four.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha ha ha.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk to me about some interesting Rangers.
[SPEAKER_01]: They did mention I did mention Isaac Tiger a little bit ago and he was a guy that was supposed to me probably might sleep for a pick that's here if you go look at this podcast last year, but he missed the year with I think he was Tommy John and he's got big arm from the JC ranks, big slider, big fastball.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he makes an impact, you know, in the minor leagues this year he does what he was supposed to do last year this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm excited to see him at some point where
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so I got on here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jack Wheeler, Big Time Power, Big Time Athlete out of high school.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was pretty aggressive with it at 20.
[SPEAKER_01]: I liked Paxton Clang, a football prospect as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll take the chance on that long-term athleticism.
[SPEAKER_01]: Boy, you know, you can't quite quit Cameron Colley.
[SPEAKER_01]: I still like the Twitch there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And boy, did he look good in center field and some clips he watched on synergy?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I don't think short stops in the cards anymore, but he can really go get it in center field.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the system was intact,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think my last call was him versus the intellect Ortiz, and I went with Kali because I like the athleticism of more and the more paths to value than Ortiz who really has to band to have any value, and now he does steps to band for Washington.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was another one that kind of screwed up my 31 through 40, but you know, I, there's still something there I think with Kali,
[SPEAKER_01]: And Leandro Lopez, I'm cheating at number 11, always probably in the top 10 now at this point.
[SPEAKER_01]: They got him in better shape, he started throwing more strikes, he got a banner curveball.
[SPEAKER_01]: He might make an impact in the bullpen this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a long, long-term play that I'm really happy we were pretty early on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we were on him in the DSL.
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are some guys that I would think of that are kind of sleeper-ish, even though if Lopez is kind of cheating at this point,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think those are all really interesting names overall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me throw a Josh Norris specific question at you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are there any international guys coming over from the DSL ACL guys that are going to be in a full season level that we should be paying some attention to or at least be aware of going in the next year.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like the Rangers typically at least have something
[SPEAKER_01]: This might be the exception.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the lorky Rodriguez is kind of interesting, but they need to find a difference at home for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He hit pretty well in the DSL last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Polio Santana kind of angled a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mr. you know, a little bit of a wild car with Song Jun Kim coming over from overseas.
[SPEAKER_01]: We haven't seen him at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's only done stuff in Dominican Instruct.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this might be his first state side action this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: but other than that, it's not a whole lot come and over in that regard.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll see, I thought you're gonna ask if I was in a figure at this top there and I'm not out of the eligibility, but I'm out of athleticism and talent and anything to impact any system.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I am not, so I am not gonna be other.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you said Josh Norse specific, I was a little scared where that was going.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, do you think you can get out there and maybe man shortstop for one of the comments?
[SPEAKER_00]: I can get it by a pitch with the best of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's it's it's a it's a one tool skill set, but you know, if you do it if you do it well enough, I could you can get to have a walk ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could probably get you a lot of walk ready in the DR. That's about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I bet you could do that just by keeping the bat in your shortroom.
[SPEAKER_00]: The same there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I believe in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Josh,
[SPEAKER_00]: little bit tighter than our typical deep dives, but there's not a whole lot to deep dive on with the rangers right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So forgive us, but Josh, any closing thoughts here on this ranger system kind of look it back, moving forward, where does the system go from here?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do they need?
[SPEAKER_01]: The need bodies, but I'm really disappointed about the Walcott stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I thought for sure he was going to be maybe a big leave for this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the ceiling on him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the talent.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been really excited to see him since I saw that first year, whatever it was, 22 with this point went away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three in the ACL, or what was in the truck, whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I was down there to see Ethan Salis and it was there playing against
[SPEAKER_01]: Then on the back fields, it was pretty pretty fun to watch that guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm excited to see some of these other guys, Cornelle, I'll get back to the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll see what Owen's looks like on the mound.
[SPEAKER_01]: The further development of Scarborough, what he looks like when he gets a deeper arsenal.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll friend Castillo's going to be an interesting development story.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would love to see him out in Miliano, Teoto put it all together at some point.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know, there's it's it's not very very deep right now, which is what happened to me make a lot of trades.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you have it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been the Ranger system Jeff Ponds Josh Norris.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks everybody for tuning in and thanks as always for subscribing to baseball America will be back with another one.