[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Toolshed, a podcast covering all levels of professional baseball to help give you the edge in your dynasty leagues.
[SPEAKER_00]: From the MLB draft, all the way to the show, the Toolshed podcast has you covered with rankings, player analysis, and in-depth discussion.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, here's your host, Eric Cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's up, everyone?
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome into another episode of the Toolshed Podcast brought to you by Rotalballer.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is episode 444.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for joining me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host, Eric Cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can go on Twitter at Eric Cross MLB.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the show is at Toolshed Pod.
[SPEAKER_01]: Really, really excited for this episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bring back a name you all know, the name you all love, making his second appearance as a guest after nearly 400 episodes.
[SPEAKER_01]: as the co-hosts of this podcast for nearly five years.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's the founder at the Dianci dugouts and the 2023 IBWAA writer of the year, the one the only Mr. Chris Clay Chris, how's it going, man?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's good to be back.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was good to chat with you and just feels like all times as always.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we did it so many episodes over the years and just like riding a bike, just hop him back on and doing the thing again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, it's like, like, never, like, it's like, we were just exploring like last week and it's been, you know, nearly a year now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're now time flies, especially at the end of our life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Way too fast, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: Turn 132 a couple of weeks ago and feel it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm getting older.
[SPEAKER_02]: Doesn't bother me.
[SPEAKER_02]: My kids getting older.
[SPEAKER_02]: Fossibly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, the worst.
[SPEAKER_01]: do 100% you know, I'm 35.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be 36 in a few months and yeah, it's like, you know, I feel okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't feel too old.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, then I'm like getting all these emails and then stuff from my kid's school district that my daughter like, oh, high school in the fall.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, oh, Lord, like,
[SPEAKER_01]: This is I'm not ready for this that I can get high school and then my youngest is now 10 so it's like they're both double digits now and they'll be in middle school and the next school year after after so yeah it's like man they're not little kids anymore it's a blink and.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are teenagers and middle schoolers, and that's what I'm like, man, I'm old enough to have a, you know, a kid going into high school and my youngest being 10, I'm just like, don't like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, not at all, but yeah, it's life doesn't slow down so we can't either.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nope, and baseball doesn't slow down at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been really fun, you know, off season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously we're going through.
[SPEAKER_01]: We get spring break out going on right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, spring training has been great.
[SPEAKER_01]: World Base for Classic was phenomenal.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Venezuela taking it all down, you know, USA and Dominican Republic, you know, two great teams as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a lot of good baseball and we're going to do one of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think one of the fan or listener favorites, I should say, you know, over the years that Chris decided every year.
[SPEAKER_01]: we figured we'd do it again this year and do the prospect crystal ball episode here you know always a fun one to look ahead a year into the future because as we've seen you know prospect rankings tend to change you know a year is a long, long time in the prospect world with new players getting added in at their players graduating breakout prospects you know like look at Connor Griffin and McGon and go right now these guys weren't top 10 guys this time last year so
[SPEAKER_01]: It's always fun to look into the future and see who we might be seeing in the top 10 a year from now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yes, we're going to use that one year, kind of window, March 20, 27, getting into next season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully there is this season next year, but we shall see.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we'll start on the pitching side.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to do a little bit differently.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in the past we did like a top 25 or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to do a little bit differently to go our projected top 5 pitching
[SPEAKER_01]: can there and then our projected top 10 hitting prospects at another dark horse there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm sure there'll be some crossover, but we have not seen each other's picks yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So kind of fun to see how they line up, but we will start on the pitching side.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Chris, who is your number five guy here?
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so my number five guy is Kindred Shrio of the Royals.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's maybe Phil's a little hot take-ish, but I don't know, he was absurd.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not sure we've ever seen a pitching prospect move from the DSL in their first season to full season ball.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's exactly what we saw.
[SPEAKER_02]: Cheerio do this past season and I got to glimpse up at the end of the season.
[SPEAKER_02]: He made it to Columbia.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I got to see three of his starts and he was just electric to walk.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean like to see how mature he was just, you know, every time he pitched was just
[SPEAKER_02]: absolutely insane.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the commands there, I mean, the arsenal was incredible, like he's reached in the upper 90s, sitting in the mid 90s, consistently.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pretty good change up as well, like two variants of a breaking ball.
[SPEAKER_02]: And honestly what I've heard this spring is that, yeah, he's only getting better.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so he was 17 last year, age 18 season, like, he's going to go back single A, but he probably goes to high A at some point.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Kendrick Cheerio, Kansas City Royals, number five for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually when I made my initial list before I started like going to narrowing it down a little bit, I had him on there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a few of the guys in that range, a Kaden Scarborough, David Shields, a few of the guys that kind of like in that range of my rankings, but yeah, he definitely, you know, phenomenal seeing him like he said, rise up to where he did, you know, just the command and control he already shows while having a really good arsenal.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, that's a really exciting blend to have at such a young age.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, he's
[SPEAKER_01]: You can see he's got a couple of fun young pitching prospects for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's definitely a good one there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to start with a guy that I don't know if he's going to graduate.
[SPEAKER_01]: He might, but I feel like he's probably not going to graduate, but a guy that when I was going through my team, my team, prospect rankings, his office, there's always a few names that I'd like either a lot more or a lot less than when I started the process, which is why I love doing those.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure Chris, you're going to test that too, you do them as well, and one of those guys that I liked a lot more this year, Louis Staley on with the Baltimore Orioles.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the, you know, blend of spring and mist stuff and he even looks like his velocities even up a little bit, you know, this spring when I saw.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he was a guy last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Had a swing and strike rate above 15%, grumble rate above 55%, he was the only minor league pitcher to do that last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody else did that, you know, lefty.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he probably does, maybe get up to Baltimore at some point this year, but I don't think it'll be enough to to graduate, but with the velocity, you know, the second layer is a really good swing and stuff is there, you know, not a command specialist,
[SPEAKER_01]: I've given especially given the stuff he has it's just electric stuff and this is weird how he's not being talked about nearly enough like I bumped him in some of my top 100
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, this off season and I'm probably going to put him even higher pretty soon here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be starts to season off pitching well in the upper mind or so.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, name I like a lot, Louis Staley on, I think it's still a pretty good target and dinosaur leaves this again, the perceived value.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's nearly as high as it should be.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's stuff is nasty and maybe we see him debut later this season with Baltimore.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was number five and then I want to give a quick shout out to Travis Accora who I think is a good buy as well I didn't put him in my top five.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought about it But I think he'll still be in that range for me and might have even been in top two or three right now if he wasn't Gonna miss the entire 2026 season, but he's an am I as one the at least throw out there a little bit too So all right number four Chris who you got
[SPEAKER_02]: When Seth Hernandez, the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted last summer, obviously one of the best petrers that we've seen in some time, and I debated even potentially pushing him higher.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's a realistic possibility.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've seen the Pirates develop well, and her nandes does a lot of things extremely well for his age.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got a frame you want to see.
[SPEAKER_02]: People have questioned the fastball shape, but honestly like, it what point?
[SPEAKER_02]: If we not question everybody's fastball shape at some point, like I keep seeing stuff like other fastball shape.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like they question Paul Scheme's fastball.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't just go say that, yeah, they question Scheme's and then how that work out.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, like it's an interesting, I mean, he's already mid-90s touching triple digits at 18 years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: So like Hernandez is going to be good.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's said the change ups beautiful, get a curve slider, and it's a pretty impressive arsenal I think, where.
[SPEAKER_02]: He wouldn't be shocking if he just goes to single A. I'm not sure they're plans on that, but he may go complex to single A, but regardless, I think that Seth Rene and this stands a pretty good chance to really move up and have a really good season.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's already, I mean, somebody are already arguing maybe a top 5 pitch and prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of talent ahead of him that will graduate, which is kind of how I landed here on him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, a lot of these, that's a good thing about this doing this right when we are is a lot of these top guys are now going to graduate.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think out of my current top 10, I'm pretty sure six or graduate may be one or two more that are on the fence about, but and then like I think I looked down and like 15 in my top 20 overall,
[SPEAKER_01]: including, you know, my top two or three pitching prospects.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, Seth Hernandez phenomenal, you know, and Pittsburgh doing doing some good things there in their development recently.
[SPEAKER_01]: So and then make your guests see more more of that, you know, you're already seeing some of that at the major level now and I think they're they're trending up for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see if they can keep that trend going this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: guy that's you know electric electric stuff you're really really strong framing not like super tall but yeah he's six to he's not he's short there but you know he's a really strong athletic frame pretty much filled out I don't think he's of me adding any bulk but
[SPEAKER_01]: I got it already sits mid 90s, you know, can touch 90s, you know, 98, 99, you know, pretty good, you know, shape on the fast ball as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got like an upper 80s slider, you know, slider cutter hybrid, you know, mixes in, you know, a curve ball as well as, you know, kind of for a little bit further behind, you know, the other offerings, but just a really electric arm like the arm talent.
[SPEAKER_01]: is absolutely there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he was a big swing and misguide in college and just getting a guy that has this much arm talent into a system like Boston who has shown, you know, over the last couple of years that they've taken exponential steps forward in their pitching development.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it was kind of was lackluster for a long, long time, but the last, you know, handful of years, much, much better and look at last year, you know, the rise of
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, amongst several others, a few of them, which they already traded away, you know, like the Vajardo's and the Clarks of the world, etc.
[SPEAKER_01]: So really good system.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love they.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got this type of arm talent in this Boston system.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I think he could be, you know, a guy that becomes one of the best magic projects in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you could say that about several of the, the arms, the collegiate arms in this class, even South Fernandez, obviously Kate Anderson, Liam Doyle, like there's a lot of talented arms in that 2025 draft class.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'll go with a spoon here, especially if you, if you can develop that curveball, a little bit more, make that another weapon for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could really see him taking off.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got that in Rolex head to see probably later this summer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm assuming maybe get the double A, he and July August or so.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got that in Rolex head to see.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he'd make a big jump up rankings this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Kaison with her spoon is my number four.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christopher, you got number three.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, let's put with her spoon in, just missed.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I do like to pick a lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna go with a drafty to come in the summer and that's Jackson Flora.
[SPEAKER_02]: You see Santa Barbara, man, he is extremely talented and the thing last season, like that he was pitching alongside Tyler Brimner, like, what an incredible rotation that they had.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think that, you know, he's gonna go, maybe his highs, like,
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I'm not going to roll out.
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes to the top of the draft.
[SPEAKER_02]: The white socks may do something crazy.
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't know, but he has a, he's a stud man.
[SPEAKER_02]: He, he's got a lot to like starting with the, the frames.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's six, five, two hundred pounds.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, he's got some great arm speed mid-up or 90's fast ball that touches triple digits.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's heavy riding life at the top of the zone.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got a sweeper that's pretty impressive as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: And,
[SPEAKER_02]: this year he's added a kick change and a like curve ball.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it looks to me like he could be one of the better pitching prospects in the game.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you know the biggest question is like the competition level like
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the same thing with Brimner.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think that that really affects much when we're talking about pitching, you know, because if he's got stuff, he's got stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Flores got it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, he's been heavy, fastball slider in the past, but you know, he's incorporated this change up a little more.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm pretty intrigued to see, you know, what his development further looks like, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he was when I considered it as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, that's a good point about pitchers having the stuff and facing lesser competition.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's less of a thing with pitchers because yeah, you can make that case with hitters.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, all right, maybe if you're not playing a lot of power teams, you're not facing the best stuff from opposing pitchers, but you're still got great stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that usually translates in a lot of situations.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that pick a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was debating him too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a lot of a few really fun pictures in this upcoming draft.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Flora is ridiculously exciting for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go a guy from another guy from last year's draft class and go Kate Anderson, who maybe he makes a quick rise up.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he could do a triusavage rise up and he goes across three, four levels since pitching in Seattle in meaningful innings down the stretch this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Seattle probably should be.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in that postseason hunt, one of the better teams in the American league and you know, are they have a deep pitching staff, but a couple of injuries already to that staff.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I guess, I think you see Kay Anderson move quickly, probably you only like, you know, a few start handful of starts at each level and, you know, I think he's, you know, one of the better blends of upside and floor in the minor leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, really good, demonic control guy, you know, got that, he can locate that fast ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like, you know, he isn't completely, you know, blow you away with the fast ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, it's like that 93 to 95 range.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can touch a little bit higher.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got two really good breaking balls.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, pretty solid change up as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And not a guy that you say, oh, this is a future ace, but, you know, guy that you're a guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is going to be a guy that's pitching, you know, in the top half,
[SPEAKER_01]: of a good Seattle rotation for a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like number two, number three, type starter.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I do think he debuts this year, but not enough to get past that 50 innings pitch or the 45 days of service time threshold.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he probably gets suffer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like similar to you sad, maybe like 20, 25 innings something like that in the majors, late in the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: really really exciting arm you know one of the better arms last year's draft class which again was loaded with pitching talent you can make a case that he was the best arm in last year's draft class.
[SPEAKER_01]: but love the, love the upside, love the floor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, one of the better blends of ceiling and floor.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think of any pitching prospect in the game right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So assuming he doesn't graduate, I think he said be, never again, I can pretty good lock to be, a pretty high up pitching prospect ranking.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll throw him at number three.
[SPEAKER_01]: So who do you got at number two, Chris?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I had Kate Anderson graduating and it's probably a coin flip.
[SPEAKER_02]: So like, I have just a preface.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's not going to be in the ranks.
[SPEAKER_02]: I see it as a coin flip.
[SPEAKER_02]: It could go either way.
[SPEAKER_02]: I make it be completely off here and he doesn't.
[SPEAKER_02]: If he, he doesn't think he's certainly worthy of the, of a top three spot.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this one may be sneaky.
[SPEAKER_02]: I put Kate in Scarborough at number two.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, he's somebody that got to see a couple of times down the stretch last year, and he was just insanely dominant.
[SPEAKER_02]: He had some melanoma this off season, which essentially I wonder, hopefully had an effect on it all.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hope that he just comes back out stronger, but man, the stuff's just so good.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's tall frame, but he's got like a 5-2 release height.
[SPEAKER_02]: He sits like 95, 7 feet of extension.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he gets some decent IVB on the pitch from the release height, but he runs it well.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, 18 inches of run, that sweeper's pretty nasty.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was ready to strain like up to 19 inches of sweep.
[SPEAKER_02]: when I saw him and he was thrown into lefties and righties, which I like to see.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a splitter that's man, the splitter was nasty.
[SPEAKER_02]: I really hope he throws it more often.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was something we didn't see featured a ton, but man, that was a really good pitch that I saw.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do think that he could benefit from like a cutter or a gyro shape.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see what they do with them, but man, he was a really fun watch last year, a couple times.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the upside's there, I think, to be this kind of pitching prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's certainly major invest for me right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mentioned them earlier.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was my last cut.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he was the number six guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I love Kate that picked for Kate and Scarborough.
[SPEAKER_01]: Definitely a really fun one.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of fun arms in the Texas system.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're doing something.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're cooking something there.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see how many of these guys make it up to the major leagues this year and next year because a lot of injury prone guys and that Texas rotation, so they could be needing some of these guys sooner rather than later.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, my number two here who I think might be your number one, I will see, but I'm going Ryan Sloan here at number two, another Seattle guy, I mean, they already have one of the best rotations all baseball and they have really good, you know, crop of pitching prospects two of these guys, especially with Anderson and Sloan.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Sloan was, this is one of the nastiest pictures in the minor leagues right now, and already at his age, he's still 19 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got that really nice, you know, pitching friend that you love to say, you know, he's like 65, predictable like 250 and 220.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think he can still add a little bit of, of,
[SPEAKER_01]: going to bulk to that frame over the next year too.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's already got the velocity, the fastball is really good.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a really good feel for a change up, which I love to see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've said that time and time again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love when a really young inexperienced pitcher like this, like a high school guy, like 19 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: when they have a good feel for a change-up, because it's something that's going to be the last thing that you guys get a feel for.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's got a good sweeper as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you see video this year of a much improved cutter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yet a cutter last year that wasn't really used a ton.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you see the cutter this year, like some video coming out of the camp of the on that cutter.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just absolutely
[SPEAKER_01]: filthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's going to be a tough time hitting that as a lefty.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, uh, just another weapon for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I got that shown, you know, pretty good feel for all of his pitches.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's such a young age.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just for the change up really for for everything for locating.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's very advanced for his age as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So gives you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, some confidence that he's not there's another one on these, you know, young, 19-year-old prospects to have disgusting stuff, but can't really put all together.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you feel a little bit better, but I got like Ryan's thumb putting together when he's, you know, again, much more advanced for his age than the most 19-year-old pitching prospects if you'll see you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's really exciting wish I could have a chance to see him live in the minor leagues, but unfortunately none of Seattle's teams are anywhere remotely close to me, so maybe in an AFL live looking a year or two will see, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Sloan, super exciting pitching prospect and maybe the number one pitching prospect within the next year or so.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think he was a pretty fun one to put up in this top five.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he'll be my number two and who do you got at number one, Chris?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he's my number one swell, right, Sloan.
[SPEAKER_02]: The mayor's, I don't have anything really anything to add.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think you explained him well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think that he's been to my avloves since the draft.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he just, he did nothing last year to tell me otherwise, like that he wasn't going to be really good.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think you mentioned like the progression of the Arsenal this year is a 20 year old we pretty interesting to see, but yeah, he's he's very exciting for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I remember when we were going over that draft class, you know, on on this on the show years ago, like I remember you you being super high on Sloan from the get go.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, he's definitely really exciting one and the number one for me, I'll only back up both in these two Sloan and in
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I mean, I don't need much to head on him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He used to win him very well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, just kind of a similar thought process with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: This guy that has so much good stuff and pretty good feel for everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: That change up is this disgusting, the velocity, the, you know, a couple good breakers.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, everything you want to see in a good pitching system there in Pittsburgh, I mean, if he becomes what, you know, people think he can become, and really in the U.S.E.
[SPEAKER_01]: schemes, and you add in him, you add in like a Jared Jones, a hundred barco, I mean, like, this is a really exciting potential, you know, rotation for the the pirates in the handful of years there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Guy that's his only getting better still has you know some room to fill up that frame I mean a lot to like that with Hernandez so he's my number one So I have Seth Hernandez right in Sloan.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'd Anderson Christone with his moon and Luis Dalyone Chris went Ryan Sloan Keaton Scarborough Jackson Flora Seth Hernandez and Kendri Churio Oh, you get the dark horse in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry with that Chris who is your dark horse to potentially jump up into this top five next year
[SPEAKER_02]: My dark horse is Carson Bowman, who will be a drafty this summer.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's probably a bias pick because he's local to me and Greenville here.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's prep arm and I mean, just absurd what Bowman brings to the table.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's a big lefty, six, four, two, ten.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he looks like it tied in that would just absolutely bulldoze you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And just how good he is on the mound is absurd.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know it's high school, so like you don't want to get too hyped up about that, but I've watched him and I can tell you like he's insane and he's going to be very, very good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, here's the numbers.
[SPEAKER_02]: So his final on last year in the high school season and in the state championship game, he struck out 19 batters in the no hitter and no hitter, which is insane.
[SPEAKER_02]: So 55 and a third, six hits, eight walks.
[SPEAKER_02]: 135 case is 72% K rate no earned runs allowed last year and again high school stats whatever, but I think they're just pretty nuts, but he's he's a mid 90s fastball guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: He you know, locates the fastball very well.
[SPEAKER_02]: He'll drop a curve ball like in the top of the zone down the bottom of the zone.
[SPEAKER_02]: Very very advanced arm at those sliders well, change up at times, but even on the showcase, like he's just been really, really good.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I may be pressing a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a dark course for a reason, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm a big fan of Bowman, because he's a local guy that I'm a reformer, also because he's just a very, very talented arm.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and he absolutely is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he's what from what I've seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just like you said, he's nasty.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, that's definitely a fun one there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I guess I'll go back to I didn't realize I was doing two red socks here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll go back to the red socks well, because why not?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go one Valera.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another 19 year old pitching prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he's got that good frame, six, three, six, four, two, two, four, five, two, 10, something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's still pretty raw.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean,
[SPEAKER_01]: And he still, there's still kind of molding him in Boston, and he was limited last year, only at 10 stars, 38 innings, but I was in high A, so kind of a little bit of an aggressive assignment there, and you know, you can completely forget the ERA, so I don't look at the ERA.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was over five.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one gives a crap.
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't matter whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you look at he had, you know, 6% walk rate after being well over 10% the previous year, so, you know, showing better command and progression there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a really good fast ball that's coming because his bread and butter right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's an electric fastball.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the second areas are still, you know, they're still kind of being kind of molded here, but you know, a guy that shows good feel for the fastball.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, he's showing like limpses of having a good slider, you know, a good feel for a change up we'll see, you know, the percussion on those, and hopefully I get to see him later this year in AA.
[SPEAKER_01]: I assume he price starts back at high A, and then gets to AA at some point later this season.
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, another guy with a lot of arm talents, a bit more raw than some of these other names,
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the system, love what Boston's been doing, so I want to see what's in store for one Valera this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, he's my dark horse pick here, let's go over now to the hitting side, we'll do our top 10 for hitters and add a dark horse in at the end as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Chris, who do you got at number 10?
[SPEAKER_02]: I've got a Joeswar Gonzalez, I think he's a very fun bat that's poised to break out.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm not sure, I don't think we've confirmed it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think he's going to start the season and skip the complex and go to singlay.
[SPEAKER_02]: We do know that at least her name is a skipping DSL, just sign a January.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I'm looking at Joeswar Gonzalez and he's just a guy that just does everything well.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was a consistent or a consensus top prospect and last year signing class need lived up to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: That doesn't typically happen, but the well-roundedness of skills just kind of reminds me a lot of what we saw out of Hizu's mod A, where it was like a 90%-sewn contact rate, like a 9th percentilex of velocity of one of four in a 20% chase rate.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, it's not quite the data mod A has, and I'm not sure he's quite the athlete the mod A is either,
[SPEAKER_02]: But I do think that Joe Swarg and Zalas is going to be a top 10 prospect and maybe over probably over all this time next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's one that was he was one of my last two cuts as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: He definitely was one I considered here for my top 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a squad that, you know, there's just Joe Swarg and Zalas now and not, you know, the type of the day he zoos as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: definitely when I consider it as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go, I guess I'll start off with the collegiate bat here, and I'm going to go Justin LeBron, you know, from University of Alabama.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a really fun player.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you could argue for fantasy purposes that he might have a higher fantasy ceiling,
[SPEAKER_01]: then Rock Chalolsky.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure it'll be featured for both of our lists here upcoming, but you know, he's having a phenomenal year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, coming off a, you know, a couple of good years previously at Alabama, and then this year he's already been nine home runs, 20 steals, 22 games, you know, almost as many walks of strikeouts, you know, the power speed blend, really, really exciting, you know, he's a really good athlete, really strong, not like the biggest guy in the world, but it's really strong for a first frame.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, phenomenal athlete moves well, you know, aggressive on the base pass without getting caught too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you don't even call it once in 45 attempts in college.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I love to do that as well, but not quite the same hitter as Tulaski.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that's kind of like the one area of kind of concern, you know, maybe a little bit of red flag.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we'll see where the, where the context skill is wind up, but, you know, showing a better approach this year, which is encouraging to see.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I think, you know, he's a good guy to be drafted very, very highly, maybe even top five in the upcoming draft this summer, and I got, I think, jump into rankings pretty high and top 25 guy, and then maybe be top 10 by, you know, the end of the season and, you know, heading into 2027.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Justin LeBron is my number 10 guy here, Chris, who do you got at number nine?
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, I've got a Ryan L. Rod Regas of the Cardinals, and maybe it's a stretch to put a catcher this high, but again last year spent the entire years in 18 year old.
[SPEAKER_02]: He reached high A, it 20 home runs in 368 plate appearances, which is pretty wild near 400 OBP, 555 slug.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the data was just was pretty stupid to 9th percentile was 105 with really good barrel rates because he had some ideal launch angles, contact rates where we're solid and the approach is good.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the interesting thing is he's already kind of filled out and he's a catcher.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think the bat's so good and like we know that real lifeless are going to shove catchers like this that can somewhat catch and can hit.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think that when you got a guy with this kind of power and the respectable hit tool, like he's just going to get a lot of buzz and a lot of value.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've got Rhino Rodriguez, number nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: So do I.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the first one.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's on up on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I had that same thought process where I'm like when I was putting him up there and I was like I put him up there initially and then bumped him out and put him back in I was like kind of doing the hokey pokey with it and for that same thought process like he's a catcher and
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, for fantasy focus, obviously, you know, big difference, especially with catchers in the fantasy focus, first real life, prostate wreck is that's why you know, when you're looking at those rankings out there, you got to make sure like, I, right, these ones fantasy focused or real life focus, because you'll see a wide difference in catcher rankings, but I don't usually put a catcher this high unless I think the bat is that good, because even most of the time, you know, I get a lot of steel from your catcher.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's very rare, obviously, but
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was like, I like Samuel Basillo, you know, the bat is going to be ridiculously good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think Rodriguez could be that type of guy where, you know, you mentioned that, you know, the quality of contact with the really good this guy, you know, the home run potential down the road is pretty exciting and, you know, far from an all or nothing, you know, hitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, she's shown pretty advanced approach for his age, good field of hits, you know, maybe won't be the, you know, the greatest contact skills in the world, but not bad by any means either.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then if we got that with his quality of product being so good, I think he could still hit for a pretty solid average as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the high OPP guy too, so yeah, I think he's a server of if that ever was a catcher, you know, there's a lot of good catching prospects right now, you know, I feel that are graduating up to the majors this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, he said be the next one to come up and then be that potential top catching prospects.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I felt pretty good putting him there too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's a gale and they love their catching they love their catching prospects there They always have like, I mean, Rodriguez is about the other best one, but they always have so many You know, either good or great catching prospects.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're their adapters insane and they're going to trade some for sure Yeah, see who goes who stays, but all right who's who you got number eight?
[SPEAKER_02]: We're getting an interesting range and it's almost like guys they're just hung around for a while.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a post-way dipala where, you know, he's always been kind of like, you know, hyped up for his big power.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's never really turned much into game power.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's interesting to keep still in bases.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what, he's gonna be a big, still in base cabinet.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is power.
[SPEAKER_02]: The EVs are good.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got to lift the ball more, but there is 30 home run pop here.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's blocked.
[SPEAKER_02]: All the Dodgers are blocked effectively, so maybe they trade some of these guys to be interesting to see how this outfield shakes out because they do have a ton of outfield prospects, but who's why they pilot his hits and he's got the juice in the bat.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to say he's a good athlete, but he is still in basis, so he's somewhat effective there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I think Dave Paula remains a top 10 prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's kind of around that range, and we're getting a weird range now where it's like, okay, like a lot of these guys are, most of these guys aren't going to graduate.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think that are presently that high, so it'll be interesting to see, obviously, a couple of them will, but you know, they Paula will, he'll move up some, but I don't think he's going to like fall, it's going to be like the top prospect in baseball personally.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know if he's at that level of upside, but yeah, definitely, you know, probably go here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got a more Dodger names in this top 10 here before we before we get out of here, but including one right now, I'm going to Mike Sorota here at number eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another guy that he was a guy that got kind of knocked for
[SPEAKER_01]: not playing, you know, the greatest schedule in college.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he just, you know, first under the scene last year, obviously, he was drafted by Cincinnati, went to the Dodgers and that Gavin Luxury, and it's looking really, really good for the Dodgers right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, obviously, you know, limited to only 270 player appearances, you know, season got cut short, which is kind of put a little bit of a bummer on a really good season, because he was slashing 33, 452, 16, hit a 189 WRC plus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, collegiate bat, you know, low A high A.
[SPEAKER_01]: So some people are kind of big.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, he should be doing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was still a really good season from story at 13 bombs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got his he's got the power.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got the, you know, the good field ahead, you know, contact rates for a ring.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in the mid 70s last year, pretty consistently at both levels, not a lot of swing and miss in the game either he draws walks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good athlete didn't really run a ton.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know five steals unless you caught five times as well, so kind of see where if you see a little bit more aggressive this year Cause he's you know good runner above average runner as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think he could be at least be like a double digits deal guy down the road We'll see how this all pins out.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean everyone knows the Dodgers have a ton of good out field prospects and they already have a pretty good out field of the major league level.
[SPEAKER_01]: They kind of
[SPEAKER_01]: sign that contact or do the add into the mix this year too.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll see if any of these guys get dealt, you got to assume at least one or two of them do, but I like sort of a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's actually a good buy right now is because I think he would be maybe thought if it's like a top 20 prospect right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: if he was allowed if he didn't get hurt and could finish out the season and kept up that level of dominance.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had last year or so.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like Ceroda a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got him here at number eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chris, what do you got at seven?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, good stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: Another Dodger at Wardow, King Tarot.
[SPEAKER_02]: He may be higher.
[SPEAKER_02]: It wouldn't shock me if he hadn't been higher.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that there's
[SPEAKER_02]: only a handful of guys that could be like true five tool prospects and then can tarot could be one of those where he's got all the traits that you want to see he gets the ball hard not as hard as like sorota or they fall but he had a 104 90th last year he
[SPEAKER_02]: produce across the board like low chase rates, respectable zone contact, good athletes, still 47 bases last year.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think that he has all the skills you want to see to be able to like look at him to be a elite fantasy asset.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's very well rounded provides in power and speed.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as I talk about him, I wonder if it's even
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, not high enough for him.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll see how it shakes out.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I do think Kintaro is like presently like on the cusp of being the top 10 prospect and I think that he certainly moves into that range and maybe even higher like this season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, contiro love love the profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's definitely maybe maybe going to be on my list here in a little bit as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number seven will keep this Dodger train rolling that around here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got Jose de Paula at number seven.
[SPEAKER_01]: So fourth Dodger in the row talking about it's a Chris had him at eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't here at seven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's funny how you alluded to like, you know, the the skills that he has and where he's, you know, supposed to excel at and you look at like the surface stats that they don't line up right they they don't drive a you see like 32 steals it always a burner, no, not really, I mean, like he's got a little bit of speed athleticism, but not a guy that you think about as being a 30 steel guy down the road, but one thing that has always been there consistently even if the other things are kind of like coming gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: through out of his a few years with the Dodgers in their system.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just gets on base at elite clip, you know, walk rates, you know, 13, 14, 15% last year was actually 18.4% walk rate only a 20.4% K rate, you know, 3901 OBP last year in 2024.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was 404, 2023, 1996, 2022, 448.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just gets on base at a elite clip wherever he goes and he's been, you know, generally a little young for every level he's been at as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I still think that powers have come along to what degree in the what game power does he get to, you know, we shall see, but I still think there's at least like 20 Homer power in there, maybe a 10 steel guy and got a hits for a good average girl B piece, so maybe not the the flashiest guy, but he's going to be a very good hitter for a very long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm pretty sure about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll see if that's what the Dodgers or a different team, but yeah, I got the Paula here at number seven Chris, who do you got at six?
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so this is where it gets kind of interesting, I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: I went with Bryce Rainer, obviously, like he put up some really good stuff last year, season ended.
[SPEAKER_02]: A little bit early, dislocated shoulder, unfortunately, and he had surgery and he was out by early June, but really, really good in this debut.
[SPEAKER_02]: the under the hood numbers is where I really get excited because is a 19-year-old uh... rain or head of 108 mount-hour ninety percentilex of velocity in 92 mount-hour average exit velocity and despite is launch angles were kind of flawed but he still had a near-temporary chase rate
[SPEAKER_02]: 22% this own contact rate could probably trend up, but I think Rainer has like all the tools you want to see like to really take off, and I mean, I watched him pop a 14 and spring break out last year.
[SPEAKER_02]: So like this kid can hit and he just got the frame you look at and it's like, yeah, it's a student can play.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Bryce Rainer Lane lands in that spot for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was one of my last cuts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was playing around with him, Lebron, and Rodriguez, and like those last two spots, I ended up going with the other two, but yeah, Reiner was when I strongly considered here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Detroit, a lot of good hitting prospects in that system,
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Reiner, he's not the guy, I kind of like when I say was Seroda probably would be ranked, you know, 15, 20, 25 spots higher than what where he is for everybody right now, if he didn't finish the season hurts.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, love that pick a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm finally going to get away from the Dodger thing over here with my rankings too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I go to the white socks with Caleb Bonnermer, I guy that I just every time I
[SPEAKER_01]: I get a really good year last year that I don't think it's talked about enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was 281-401-473.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of that was in low-way.
[SPEAKER_01]: We did get a cup of coffee and with high-a-leaven games there later in the season, in a near 16% walkerate at both levels, right around the 21, 22% care at both levels, again, he was kind of young for the competition.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was facing 29 steals, 12 home runs, 30 doubles.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I got there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he's able to be a 30 steal guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's probably more of a, you know, especially once he fills out a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he does, maybe he's more like a fringe average guy, more like a 8 to 10 steal guy, but I do think it'll be a part of his game.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll kind of see how much down the road, but even if he's just a 10 steal guy, I mean, I think the bat, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: could be really really good.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's shown you know pretty good blend of contact and raw power.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he was above average contact rates last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not a lot of swing and miss only at 8.4% swing strike rate last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're kind of giving glimpses of that power potential where he could be in the above average or better, you know, power guy down the road, you know, the kind of depending on
[SPEAKER_01]: how he develops over the next year too, but definitely a really exciting guy that could be above average hit, above average power and an average speed, but this a good well-rounded profile and maybe even a plus hitter, plus power guy will say that could be a possibility down the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I like one of my lot, I think this is a very fantasy-friendly profile here, so I will put him at number six into the top five Chris, or do you got there?
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, and I've got Edward Florentino here.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, just a phenomenal year, probably the biggest prospect riser of all last season.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it might be fair to say.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me slash 2.9, 44548, 16 homers, 35 steals in just 351 plate appearances.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was 18 all last year.
[SPEAKER_02]: impressive frame at six foot four really strong lower half.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you runs pretty well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nine percent colleagues at Velocity was north of 104 miles an hour.
[SPEAKER_02]: Chase rate below 20 percent.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's on contact rate 88 percent.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says all the things really, really well.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that he's one that could continue to move up.
[SPEAKER_02]: It'll be interesting to see how this shakes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like in the actual baseball world, there's some mixed reviews on Florentina, but everything I've seen, I really like the data really supports it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I think for fantasy purposes, like he's going to push a stock up here to this range.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he just needs to continue doing what he did, honestly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, I quarantine a phenomenal year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you had to get talked about a lot more if it wasn't for that, you know, Connor Griffin, Fella, you know, doing what he did.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, 14, no, phenomenal year, last year in the Pittsburgh Express.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I like that pick a lot's, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: At number five for me, I'm going with Eduardo Cantaro.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, obviously, you just talked about him a couple players ago, you had him at number seven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Got this a very fantasy-friendly profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he just does a lot of things well.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, obviously, you know, guy that's been a menace on the base paths, you know, very aggressive, you know, pretty good success rate.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still 47 bags in the 60 attempts last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Naked home runs, you know, as well, 22 doubles, seven triples, just the extra base hit, machine, you know, good walk to strike out rate, guy that gets on base.
[SPEAKER_01]: at a super high clip is what kind of you know I say what the poll of this guy's just gotten on base wherever he's gone for 15 last year for 19 and 24 for 72 in the DSL back in 2023 you know we'll see you know the extra will be how much power does he ultimately you know get into down the road is he got 15 home or guy is maybe 20 plus
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we'll see how that kind of develops sort of next year too, but yeah, very finished fairly profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even the point where even if he's just a 15 to 18 home or guy, you know, he can give you 25 plus deals.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got, you know, good contact skills.
[SPEAKER_01]: Been in that, you know, upper 70s percent contact rate range.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he'd be a great OBP guy for those of you that played OBP formats.
[SPEAKER_01]: So even if he's just a 15 home or guy, he could still do a lot of other things.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he's 20 plus, maybe even 25, but everything clicks in the power department for him, I think it's a B, I really, really exciting offense of players.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, the easily, a guy that was gonna be in the top 10, he's already like on that fringe top 10 wrench for me right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got that could bump up a handful of spots here, going into 2027, four more.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get into the big boys here now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chris here to get number four.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I've got some bash and wall caught where we know he's not going to play this year.
[SPEAKER_02]: Had the internal brace, I'm not mistaken, but a prospect that's been a top guy for a while now.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's not going to do anything this year that vaults him up, but I think that he just kind of floats in the spot.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think there may be like, we'll talk about my next two names that I think will probably pass them, but it's just going to be hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think and others may dink him down, like just for not playing, but I think that
[SPEAKER_02]: you can afford at his age, like to just have them in your prospects, it's me miss a year, and it not matter, because you know what kind of prospect that he is.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the stuff's really, really good.
[SPEAKER_02]: He, it's the ball incredibly hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know,
[SPEAKER_02]: You're one of seven 90th and a max of one 16 contact rates actually got better this year that was a big improvement where we saw the contact rates improved and the chase rate was like around 25% so I mean I think he's a good buy if people are
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, moving off of them.
[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe it's one of those things where you wait a couple months, and it's the outside out of mind.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you invest in Sebastian walkoff.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I have a hard time like just shoving him down a list because he's a hitter that's having an internal brace.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't there's not an evidence that says like hitters that have had this get worse.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't think he's going to, especially this age.
[SPEAKER_02]: So still very much in all walkoff.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's one.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's probably one of the tougher guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, a rank right now because I've seen so many people that have just dropped him way down like 20, 30s even lower and I'm like, why, I mean, I don't have him top 10 right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've bumped him on a little bit, but he's so guy that is in that range.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can sit here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was one of the guys that was one of my first cuts out of here, but he's just so hard, where you see all you mentioned, you see all the talent.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he's got a little bit of a risk here with this injury though.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get I'm not like you're not digging them too too much for it, but yeah, he's definitely a tough one when it comes like elite prospects.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's one of the tough ones from me to rank right now, but yeah, I 100% agree he is a good buy because I see a lot of people that have dumped him way too far down prospect rankings, which I think is a mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, my number four here, you just had at number five, Edward Florentino, I mean, not a lot to add here, it's a really good all-around profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got that, I think is again, to more power as he gets older here.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got some projection on that frame.
[SPEAKER_01]: Already, I really, you know, you won't think he's 19 if you kind of looked at them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a guy that's very, very strong athletic frame.
[SPEAKER_01]: Got a good runner as well, efficient runner too.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I do wonder if that kind of ticks down as he gets older here and maybe he's more 15, 20 steals as opposed to like 25, 30.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think they could be with similar amount of home runs, like 25 home runs or so.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, a good power speed blend, you mentioned really good field of hit, good contact rates this year over 80 percent, not a lot of swing and miss, you know, good amount of, you know, high walk rate.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot to a lot to like here and I got that, you know, it wouldn't surprise me, you know, if we looked at him as number one prospect overall this time next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's definitely got a chance to be that guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: be the next number one for Pittsburgh and they had skins and giraffin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe they make it three years in the row here with Florentino next year, but yeah, definitely one of the more fun prospects in all the baseball right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I have him at number four.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like we have the top same top three at this point.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Though there was one.
[SPEAKER_01]: guy in my top 10 that I was very 50 50 on graduating.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I just like let me just knock him off, you get some other names on here.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to see if you have him or if you have one of these other guys graduating, we'll see.
[SPEAKER_01]: But all right, top three, where do you get number three Chris?
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've got a Rock Chilowski at number three and
[SPEAKER_02]: For what's worth, he could debut as the top prospect in baseball.
[SPEAKER_02]: We shall see, but I mean, he just looks like the surefire one one.
[SPEAKER_02]: He does just so much well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Last year, he had a 106 90th, which is good.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's just
[SPEAKER_02]: know like wasted effort in the swing, like he mechanically is sound the context skills are there, the approach is there.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's a decent athlete.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, like, this could be a 25 plus home run that.
[SPEAKER_02]: This still's 15, 20 bags and gets on base at a high clip.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sing Chilowski does a lot of things that you like to see.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think you could swap them around with any of my top three.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I wouldn't be upset.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you're offended in one of one, like I think there's a fair argument for that too.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I would not be upset by having Chilowski.
[SPEAKER_02]: And number one, but yeah, he should be the one one this summer to the white socks.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see how it all shakes, but I do think that he is a very talented prospect for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no doubt about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, one of the, you had a better collegiate bats of the last decade.
[SPEAKER_01]: And white socks fans, I've seen in my timeline, including, you know, our good buddy, Mike Carter, already this super excited for, you know, rocked to have joined that system.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, he's off to, I think he's had what his, how many home runs is yet to now this season?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like 13 or something ridiculous.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's, he's he's just been killing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and for you, for you, see you'll hide this here.
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, he's definitely guy that's gonna be debuting.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not often that you get a guy like right when they get drafted that go right into our top 10, but I think he's a pretty safe bet to do that for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just with, you know, the griffins and the gun goes and weather holds to the world, probably graduating by that point of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, number three for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got Leo de Vries and I went back and forth on these three guys a lot or done every which way ended up settling on de Vries at three.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, really, you know, good spring training.
[SPEAKER_01]: It three home runs three steals in a 47 player pair.
[SPEAKER_01]: And since this spring as a 19 year old, he'll spend the entire upcoming season at 19 doesn't turn 20 until the middle parts of October.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's funny too, like obviously traded for Mason Miller and, you know, Padres fans, even though they have the ridiculously good Mason Miller who hasn't given up an earned run since like early August, who has like a ridiculous strike at right, arguably the best closure in baseball, and they're still upset that they got rid of the breeze.
[SPEAKER_01]: That shows like how much people love this guy that, you know, hey, we have the best closure in baseball, but how we need to give up the breeze to get him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he, he has thought of incredibly highly in that San Diego system, but you know, they don't like to hold on to any top prospect as a top potato, you gotta get rid of them as soon as you get some hyper on them, but you know, joins the athletics team that, you know, is, you know, obviously on the rise, you know, with all the good hitting they already have there, obviously Kurt's debuting last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jacob Wilson, Brent Rucker, you know, it's soda straw.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a really good lineup already.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of want to see how they work that in the field.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do they move degrees to second to third.
[SPEAKER_01]: They keep wasn't that short.
[SPEAKER_01]: They move him off.
[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of want to see how that all plays out in the year two.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because.
[SPEAKER_01]: The reason is getting close.
[SPEAKER_01]: He might debut this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I once be surprised if he did.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's been kind of pushed a lot already.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, not very often, you see in the 18-year-old debut, but he might debut.
[SPEAKER_01]: I give it like a sub 40% chance, but if not, you know, probably debut at some point next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Got the double A this past year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Overall, 15 home runs, 11 steals.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the slash Ryan was good, 255, 355, 451.
[SPEAKER_01]: But just showing that he's this very, very advanced for his age.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you would think he's 22, 23 years old, not just 19 and was 18 for all of last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, good field of hit, you know, good power projection, and he could be above average the plus both in terms of hits and power, you know, speed, you know, he's not a burner by any means.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I got like, I think give you double to just deals, maybe even 15 to 20.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we'll see how much he wants to run down the road and if he has any bulk, but
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, getting into what should probably be a pretty good ballpark and a good line up, so you got that context to the factor in as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, the breeze really, really fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, everyone knows that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think he said, be, you know, near maybe even number one at this point next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's definitely in the running there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I can't hit him at number three up to number two.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you got there, Chris?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, Devries is number two for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I think that just, again, Uber talent's a bat, that I don't even think we've seen his best yet, you know, he's gotten him better and better.
[SPEAKER_02]: You over year, he's been pushed aggressively.
[SPEAKER_02]: He does a lot of things well.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the exit velocities are not as high as you'd like to see, but he just has such good launch angles that it really kind of counter-accid.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that he's at a place where he's going to tap into it eventually.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he's been a teenager, so yeah, I'm not particularly worried about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he, I mean, he looks,
[SPEAKER_02]: prime to debut before 20 years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think it's crazy to say that he could.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we don't see many short stops debut at 19, but I think that he might be one of the dust.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that'll be pretty interesting to see, but yeah, very, very big fan of what debris does.
[SPEAKER_01]: 100%, so we, you know, we flip flop two and three because I get rock Chalowski here at number two.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, you know, one of the best bats, you know, we've seen in the creature level and over the last decade or so, the one reason why I didn't have a number one, I don't think he's a be a huge stolen base threat.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think you should be at least double digits, but if he was like a 25 or 30, so guy, he'd absolutely be number one in my rankings here, but, you know, you're not going to find a much better bat than rock
[SPEAKER_01]: Blends contact approach power.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could just set it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's already hit like a thousand hones this spring already in like 22 games He's like like, you know one home run every other game or even maybe even higher pace than that so far So yeah, just a phenomenal bat advanced beyond as a year.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got this going to probably not be in the minors for very long Probably got a debut in 2027 at some point.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yep, whether it's the white socks or if they get cute and he goes to results
[SPEAKER_01]: whoever gets rock is going to get a really good bat that's going to move quickly.
[SPEAKER_01]: So easy peck here to be in this top three.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think we have the same number one, but Chris, who is that guy?
[SPEAKER_02]: But he's who's mod a for me and I don't expect him to debut.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe he does, but I'd
[SPEAKER_02]: of a hard time seeing it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, did reach double a last year, but between all stops, I mean, you may look at the surface numbers and not be wowed, he had six homerons, we stole 47 bases, but the slash was good.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, every time I saw him last year, he just looked apart.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, swings from both the left and right side, smooth, bat speeds of electric, loud contact.
[SPEAKER_02]: EVs are very impressive for his age.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was 18 with a 105, 90th, which you like to see.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the contact rates got better and better all year.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, people were kind of panic and early on, but they improved.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're very good at chase rate good.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I just think this is like a 30 30 type player like there's some some friends Let's go lend or traits here with Haisu Somade where I think he could just really take off and just be a super star in the majors like I would not be surprised at all If he was just a stud so very much in and I think yeah, he's a he's want to be very excited about and he looks like a number one prospect
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure does.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I have a number one as well, you know, I went back and forth with these top three with Made Teloski and Leo DeVries, but you know, settled on Made at number one.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I couldn't agree more with what you just said.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think the one knock and I see these people say on him, oh, he hasn't only tapped into that power in games yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has a, he has a ton of doubles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the powers there, he looks even stronger at this spring, you know, if I ever think I've seen so far.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I think this is going to be
[SPEAKER_01]: some more of those doubles, you know, get over the fence and, you know, he's he's still only, you know, he's still 18.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has even turned 19.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll start season the 18 in double.
[SPEAKER_01]: He got there for a cup of coffee late last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's been the entire year, I mean, at 18 slash 19 years old, another guy that, you know, you said, kind of similar to the degrees, maybe debut, I want like put a 0% chance on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think it's a long shot, but
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll see what Milwaukee does.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, Monday, phenomenal player, guys that has the good speed, has the good power projection, has the good feeling to hit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, he checks off all the boxes of a potential number one overall prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he was number one for both Chris Kleg and I.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the one guy I alluded to a few minutes ago that was, you know, in my top 10 right now that I have as graduating with us on the fence about was Max Clark.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have him as graduating as well, or did he miss your top 10?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I had him graduating, but again, it was like 50, 50 coin flips for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just like, I like you, so I kind of want to just put some other guys on there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I could go either way.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would not be shocked if he did, but also would not be surprised if he didn't.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll see, but yeah, it was a flip for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there was two, like two a current elite guys, one hit or one pitcher that I was like 50, 50 on, if they get enough time in the majors to graduate.
[SPEAKER_01]: and the hearing side was chlor.
[SPEAKER_01]: on the pitching side, Thomas White.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, maybe he doesn't come up to like July, he gets like 30 or 40 innings.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he was a guy that, you know, I was 55 feet on his well, but like I went, yes, let's get him off the list and get a couple other fresh names on here.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, Max Clark, I think he would have been top five easily if he was still a prosperer at this point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe even number one, but he definitely would have been in that three, they would have been a four person battle for the top spot for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm going to play her there with Max Clark, but yeah, there's a lot of other names that I've tried to sneak in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, sigh your hope if he, you know, kind of makes improvements with the contact he could be.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is absolutely in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's several others I tried to get in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you know, Luis Pena may be, I'm not super high as much on, on Pena as most are, but he's a guy that, you know, has a chance of maybe getting in there with some development.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, a lot of fun prospects here, but who is your dark horse here?
[SPEAKER_01]: I have like eight names written down that might share what my go with at this point.
[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of want to see where you go and I'll go at different directions, but who's your dark horse here?
[SPEAKER_02]: There's so many you could go with and
[SPEAKER_02]: I, uh, I really struggled with it to nail one down, but I guess when all was said and done, I landed on Kevin Alvarez of the Houston Astros, I mean, he's someone that I really liked in the International Signing last year, very impressive skillset, big bonus, any hit.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I know DSL stats are kind of whatever.
[SPEAKER_02]: He hit just two home runs and 190 plate appearances at 12 doubles.
[SPEAKER_02]: Three tripals in a 301-419-455 slash, walked more than he struck out.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's pretty good data too.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he had a his own contact rate around 90% and 9% out, exit velocity that
[SPEAKER_02]: to just potential plus power down the road.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's just explosive bat and it looks like a breakout is gonna happen with him.
[SPEAKER_02]: It wouldn't be shocking to me if he just dominates the complex goes to a single A and two.
[SPEAKER_02]: He may just go to sing, we'll see.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I do think Kevin Alvarez could be a pretty good dark horse candidate if you're looking for a prospect that could vault up ranking significantly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he was one, one of the seven names I had written down here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, my name is Rodrigues of Detroit, another one, two of the international guys from a year or two ago that I'm pretty high on.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, like that pick a lot, I'm going to go with one that this guy is I think a true boomer bus prospect, and that's Tyson Lewis with these Cincinnati Reds, you know, power speed blend is really exciting and he already started showcasing that last year, you know, really good power for his age, you know, he just turned 20.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, back in January, you know, last year was in swooped in the complex in Lowe, had nine home runs, 16 doubles, 27 steels, and they three 11 376 486 slash line, and this is 100% a perfect example of why.
[SPEAKER_01]: minor league batting averages are very misleading at times.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying they're completely useless, but you got to look at some of the other metrics for you like, oh, 3-11.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a great hitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, because that's the red flag with Lewis, the major red flag where the sky could just not even make it.
[SPEAKER_01]: at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: The context skills are, you know, well below 70% is a ton of string and miss.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, 21% string and strike rate, you know, a near 30% K rates.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, he was super young for, you know, the level.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, you gotta see how we develop, but that power speed blend, you throw in grammar American ballpark.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's obviously exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: So just, if you can just get up to, even just like a seven low 70% contact guides, even like a 250-ish hitter, where that could even be boosted by, you know, the Babbit boost of grammar American ballpark, that could be enough to make this guy a really fun, you know, fantasy, you know, because the,
[SPEAKER_01]: plus raw power of the speeds there, it's a really exciting profile if he figures it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: So maybe he doesn't, but if he does, this could be a guy who's one of the best fantasy prospects in the game next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: So takes the Lewis is my dark horse and that's gonna wrap us up in Chris.
[SPEAKER_01]: Always, you know, always fun talking with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, you know, you were such a huge part of this show for for so many years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Always great to get you back on and chat up some prospects with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So thanks again for coming on and what do you got going on?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you're super busy and you know, I was putting out the great stuff over at the dance you dug out.
[SPEAKER_01]: So where you got going on over there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's all the team rankings are in reports are wrapped up now, which is nice, updated.
[SPEAKER_02]: the dynasty rankings and we'll do a prospect of date probably after spring break out, you know, I don't like to do a lot of movement like in the spring.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just feel like there's there's something to take away, but there's not a lot to take away.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there will be some movement.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are
[SPEAKER_02]: but not a lot in the prospectoring.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's diagnosed to you, obviously, just for injuries, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, the prospector ranks will be out probably next week there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to look out for that and then just in the season will be here in two weeks, which is crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right now, it's coming right up.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got the opening day on the, what's the first game of 26th?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this is the first game of the season or 27th.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yeah, we're getting right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll have a meaningful baseball games that talk about here in the next next week or two.
[SPEAKER_01]: So obviously, looking forward to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And minor like season, major like season, everything's about ready to take off.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a glorious time of year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we got.
[SPEAKER_01]: baseball every day for the next seven, eight months, whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: So really fun time and thanks again for Mr. Chris Lake for coming on to do a great prospect crystal ball episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll have the data see version of this out early next week.
[SPEAKER_01]: But until then, everyone take care.