[SPEAKER_02]: Hello and welcome to another The Baseball America Prospect profiles.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are profiling the number one prospect in each and every major legal organization.
[SPEAKER_02]: And today, we are talking about one of the better pure hitters on the Prospect space, which is Cubs Catcher slash DH, Moises Ballasteros, who is the Cubs number one prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: We saw him a little bit in the big leagues already.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jeff, you write the Cubs for us.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you think of Ballasteros and you think of that bat, what really kind of stands out to you?
[SPEAKER_02]: What makes him such a polished hitter?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think it's just barrel control.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's few hitters that can hit the locations and variety of shapes that ballasteros can and sort of do what he wants to do with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's hit over power still, there's still a fair amount of raw power kind of lurking underneath.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's a concept here.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a guy that's looking to put the ball sort of inplay up the middle, more often than not.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's more line drives to the gap that end up going for extra bases for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Certainly not a burner or not a guy that's gonna steal a whole lot of bases or take an extra base all that often.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think in terms of approach, not a guy that expands the zone a ton, but does chase a little bit, kind of around the fringes of the zone, it sort of hit pitch, hit pitch for him, in terms of, you know, sort of his approach at the plate, there is underlying power there, not a guy that gets into a lot of pull side angles, or tries to launch all that
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe there's some tweaks that come over time with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in terms of hitting the ball hard, he hits the ball, you know, but I would say probably plus sort of EVs is maybe the work rate of put it.
[SPEAKER_01]: 105.198th percentile EV this year had a 112 in the miners.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he actually had a 114 or 115 in the majors.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll show it every so often.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a home run that I witnessed at PNC Park
[SPEAKER_01]: when ballast arrows was starting some games in September down the stretch for the cubs where he hit a ball almost clean out of PNC Park.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the impact is there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether or not he makes the tweaks to sort of get to that more consistently remains to be seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think is probably part of his profile that does need to grow as there's not a whole lot of defensive value here.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does struggle a little bit, especially with impact against left-handed pitching, so he's really going to have to maximize the damage in that profile to consistently get it bats and stay in the lineup.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of the questions that you have with ballast arrows, but certainly bats a ball and hitting for a higher batting average is never going to be wonderful.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ben, when we talk about pure hitters, one of the things that we see kind of time off your time, just kind of like a good news bad news thing, I would obviously have a foul stare.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's listed at five foot eight, and he's listed officially, I think at 195, then I can promise you that that number's actually larger than that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But a five foot a hit or the problem for him is that kind of does limit him as making first base, a candidate to play some first base, if he's not catching.
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, he kind of also probably helps him a little bit as far as that back control
[SPEAKER_02]: As a hitter, you know, I think that you also kind of fall like I do in this kind of, hey, if you, there's not, there's sometimes there's some advantages to kind of having those short levers.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you see from Bell's Steros as a hitter and kind of how he could develop?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's just a really gifted hitter.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we saw the swings in the video earlier.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is just so balanced and consistently on time.
[SPEAKER_00]: The bad path through the zone is really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just a really compact, adjustable,
[SPEAKER_00]: swing with great barrel accuracy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We rarely see him swing and miss.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been consistent throughout his career.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's done it up through triple A through the highest levels, though the minor leagues.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I mean, they're, they're strength behind that swing too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think his approach is geared more toward like being a hitter.
[SPEAKER_00]: first and trying to instead of trying to sell out for power, which I like, but I think there's a it's a really talented hitter with some power in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is aggressive, like for I wish he tightened up the strike zone, judgment just a little bit, but he's not like a free swinger.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miami means I see him being potentially a Pablo Sandival type hitter, somebody who
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, a people are going to write them off, or maybe earlier in his career would have written them off just because the body type, the way he, the way he looks physically, but don't overlook this guy as a hitter because he's a really, really good hitter.
[SPEAKER_02]: We talked about him as a hitter, Jeff, the other big question I think that balistar is faces and the one that probably is a little bit more of kind of a big question mark these faces is defense of him.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is a catcher.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is also hard to see him being the Cubs every day catcher unit that was in injury this year.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you see him playing kind of in the short, medium and long term?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this a guy who can stay behind the plate or is it more likely this is a bat who also can catch a little bit?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think you can completely write him off seeing 30 or 40 games behind the plate this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think in that sense, you know, potentially he can stick behind the plate.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's still incredibly young.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, he's 22 enter in the season this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we need to sort of keep that in mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: With catchers, even guys that have a wealth of college experience, high-level experience, pressure experience, a lot of those guys still need to improve as receivers and blockers.
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, once they get into professional baseball, the fact that his bad is so advanced, I think is maybe not done his glove.
[SPEAKER_01]: So many favors, and I think, you know, he still needs some time back there to learn it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we've written off guys with this body type before we've seen Alejandro Kirk turn into one of the better blockers in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a guy that's really sure handed back there was kind of on display in the world series last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he's going to turn into an Alejandro Kirk type defender.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do think that it's reasonable to think that that's his primary position.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sees some time as a DA.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has played some first base, but not a tremendous amount.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's better options there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think with Michael Bush and her contract for quite a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for me with Bala Steros, it's probably going to be predominantly catcher and DH, but I do think you'll still see some time back there.
[SPEAKER_01]: There might be maybe particular pictures that these feels comfortable working with and they kind of get them on a schedule on that sense, but I don't think they're going to completely move them off with the position.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's one of the things that the Cubs really value about Bala Steros.
[SPEAKER_01]: and one of the things that will probably keep him in the major of the act of roster for a long time.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, those are the things that we kind of want to watch for Ballesteras in 2026.
[SPEAKER_02]: How much is he going to play catcher?
[SPEAKER_02]: How much is he going to get to face lefties?
[SPEAKER_02]: This probably could start out with him being a guy who predominantly faces right handers, but you want to see him get that chance as Jeff mentioned.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a guy who's still very young for a guy who's going to be in the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then long-term, we just really believe in the bat.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you say, well, why is this guy here?
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I'm a one prospect and comes to organization.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's because it's been laid out.
[SPEAKER_02]: He can really, really hit.
[SPEAKER_02]: You take this kind of hitting ability, and it gives you the opportunity to kind of develop and kind of settle in at the big league level.
[SPEAKER_02]: He doesn't have the clear holes.
[SPEAKER_02]: He doesn't have the swing and miss issues that likely could derail a guy from ever really getting settled in at the big league level.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now it's just about the opportunity and taking advantage of it and we expect Moise's palesteros to do that in 2026.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is the number one prospect in the Cub's organization and the next the latest of these baseball-america prospect profiles.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello to another baseball America prospect profile as we go through the number one prospects in each and every major league baseball organization Jeff today we're talking about a guy who I would say is is when you're talking about rookie the year candidates he gets forgotten a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: But reds, third baseman, second baseman, first baseman, South Stewart, is someone that you should pay attention to because he's one of the guys who I think has the clearest path to regular at bats in 2026.
[SPEAKER_02]: What has you excited about South Stewart?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think it's obviously the bat.
[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't some standout athlete.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not somebody who's going to provide a ton of defensive value.
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably, I mean, I don't know what's the underover even is on whether he'll ever see five games at third base in the major leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: Could play a little second, probably mostly first base.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you're buying into the power breakout, 2025.
[SPEAKER_01]: The underlying power and physicality were obviously always there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a bigger guy, a little bit more poorly build.
[SPEAKER_01]: But generated some bad speed, but was more of a hitter with some power and never really fully tapped into that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The angles were a little bit flatter.
[SPEAKER_01]: But making contact, bats' ball, good swing decisions, none of that stuff was ever standing in Stuart's way.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just a matter of sort of hitting the ball as hard as he could at good angles without sacrificing too much of those plate skills.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did that in 2025 and skyrocketed up to the major leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's obviously one of the cushiest landing spots as well if he's getting full time playing time.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you need a park that's going to help your power play up a little bit and cushion your numbers a little bit, you know, great America ballpark is one of the best places to probably hit in the major league stage.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think you probably agree that, you know, it's a bat first prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what's really driving the profile would steward, but it's a pretty good one and has really good sort of underlying foundational hit tool skills that back the power and everything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: So could be a guy that, you know, has a very long, majorly career.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when I look at South Stewart, the thing that jumped out, like you said about the defense, I would say there are, I think this is the first base.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that this is the Reds first base, but they've been looking for one of those.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know Spencer Steer can play there.
[SPEAKER_02]: They've tried Christian and Christian and Christian on strand, but...
[SPEAKER_02]: I think this is your first baseman for years to come, and I think that's probably best for the reds and best for him.
[SPEAKER_02]: He has played a lot of third base coming up through the miners.
[SPEAKER_02]: We wrote about it at a baseball America.
[SPEAKER_02]: His arm would be the worst arm of any third baseman in the major leagues.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you unless it improved dramatically, it was last year at the end of the year.
[SPEAKER_02]: He can play second base.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say that's a little bit more of a viable position for him, but he's going to be a well below average range, well below average, you know, athleticism there at second base.
[SPEAKER_02]: they have better second baseman, not the claim is a much better second baseman than South Stewart.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you look at first base, look at DH, and like you said, Jeff, this is a guy who's going to hit, who should hit enough to where that's where his contribution is going to come.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's a little bit different than some of the other guys that they've tried at first base.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you look at South Stewart, this is a hit first profile as you said is now getting to power.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love guys who have that kind of profile.
[SPEAKER_02]: South Stewart's always been able to hit.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's always used to hold field.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now he's starting to be able to pull the ball and do damage when he gets a pitch to hit in addition to the fact that
[SPEAKER_02]: He really does make the picture kind of use the entire zone.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you know that if you come in on him now, he can do damage to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you stay away, he's also perfectly happy to just flick the ball to the opposite field.
[SPEAKER_02]: He'll take his bases.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that this is a guy who could hit 270 to 80, maybe even better than that down the road with some power potential as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that together, this could fill what is I would say very much a need for the reds because when you look at the reds
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, again, when you look at the difference between him and say like Christian and Christian and Christian and Christian and Christian and Christian has great power potential, but the problem is, is Chase's a lot of pictures out of his own, a lot of contact issues.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so very much a flip to a guy like South Stewart who is going to work counts is going to make it difficult for you to, you know, to kind of, he's not just going to
[SPEAKER_02]: give you ever easy-outs very often.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not going to run all that great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we say, it's not going to give you a ton of defense, but there's enough here to really be a productive and kind of a really an important middle of the line up back for the reds potentially over the long term.
[SPEAKER_02]: But Jeff, when you look at kind of these.
[SPEAKER_02]: hitters developing into power.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you said, he started show signs of it last year.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are the parts of it that you're looking at and saying, okay, this is where I feel like this is a guy, because when you look at the EVs with him, it kind of, it does offer some signs there that the exit velocities are there and all for this guy to have real power potential as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not a slap at her.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, not at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I think you sort of hit the nail on the head that, you know, he will take what a pitcher gives it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's also a guy that more or for not is going to put the ball in play.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's going to be his profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not going to be somebody running, you know, 14% walk rates or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to run a high batting average.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to give you really competitive at bats.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he has power.
[SPEAKER_01]: You kind of have to respect him on certain parts within the strike zone.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's where he really took that step forward was identifying certain counts, certain locations, certain pitch types that he could do damage on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's when you will see him sort of get into some pulsied power, which is not something he had done consistently in the early seasons of his professional career.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now as a major league or he's doing that, I think he had like over a 17% barrel rate last
[SPEAKER_01]: was kind of similar throughout his tenure in the minors last year, and then, you know, you just kind of look at the basic underlying stats.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not a whole lot of guys in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're prospects for that matter that run.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, an excellent inzone with rate of like 17 and a half percent last year across all levels with a 106.9 90th percentile EV.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's just not a lot
[SPEAKER_01]: swing decisions in a really aggressive way, but not overly aggressive.
[SPEAKER_01]: He attacks a lot of stuff in the zone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't chase a ton.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's more of like an average chase rate, but he's a fairly aggressive swinger.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you put that in context, more often than not, his swings come on pitches in the zone, come on strikes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was running high, high barrel rates all throughout the year.
[SPEAKER_01]: in terms of, you know, the point of contact where it was just playing over all launch angle, hard hit launch angle, or pull launch angle, all that stuff increased.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the reason he's getting to more power now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll continue to go and forward, like I said, and especially in Cincinnati.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you've been paying attention to the Reds for a while, you may be, you know, I said, South Georgia, I think is the first space for the future for the Reds.
[SPEAKER_02]: You may be asked to the question, well, what about Kim Collier?
[SPEAKER_02]: Kim Collier, obviously, first-round pick of the Reds, not that many years ago, Stuart and Collier kind of came up together.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were kind of doing a job sure at their base for multiple years.
[SPEAKER_02]: than this past season, Cam Collier got her in spring training, missed the first half season.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that kind of meant that Stuart kind of, his timetable is a little bit ahead of Collier.
[SPEAKER_02]: He got to be the everyday third base of him in Chattanooga, AA for first half season, moves up to AAA, not long around the time that Cam Collier kind of moved to AA, then Stuart made just the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Stuart kind of has that first mover advantage.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now he is there.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is going to get a chance to stake at Claim the position.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is a DHS, well, it's not like these two guys couldn't go exist.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you are talking about two first space fin.
[SPEAKER_02]: For a team that has really struggled to have a first space fin for quite a while since Joey Latter retired, this is a team now that has two first space fin, who won will be in the big leagues and won will probably be in AAA ready to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a little bit of depth that's developing here.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's our prospect profile on reds, number one prospect first space fin, second space fin, third space fin, sound free.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're back for another of the baseball America Prospect profiles.
[SPEAKER_02]: As we look at the number one prospect in each and every one of the 30 MLB organizations.
[SPEAKER_02]: And today's a fun one, because we are talking about one of the best prospects in baseball.
[SPEAKER_02]: JJ Weatherholt, the Cardinals shortstop, although we'll talk about that and kind of where defensively he may end up.
[SPEAKER_02]: But shortstop JJ Weatherholt, who ranks number three on the baseball America top 100.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jeff, weatherhole has been one of the best young hitters pretty much wherever he's played, going back to college where he was a D1 batting champ at West Virginia, looking in his pro debut in 2020 significant pro debut in 25 where he dominated at multiple levels.
[SPEAKER_02]: JJ weatherhole really can hit, but that's not all he can do, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think, you know, that's one of the things that sort of gets lost in the conversation about JJ Weatherhold.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he could be, you know, one of the few 300 hitters in the next couple of years.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really think that, you know, the underlying skills or they are, we'll talk about that later.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think the overall package here is something that definitely gets a little undersold.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a guy that, you know, if it wasn't for Mason when being the Cardinal starting shortstop for the foreseeable future, he could be a guy that would come up
[SPEAKER_01]: He's in a above average defender at shortstop.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think would easily be maybe plus at third base, plus it's second base if he ended up there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But a guy that can play multiple spots in the infield, that's in a above average arm, he's a plus to above average runner, maybe as he matures a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: But does move, can't steal bases, we'll take those extra bases, there's range in the infields.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we really saw the total package of JJ weather
[SPEAKER_01]: in 2025, which was something that we missed a little bit, got robbed from us because of his injury in 2024's final season at West Virginia before coming into the draft.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think now you can see why he was in conversations for that number one pick and a really stacked draft class, especially on the college hitting side.
[SPEAKER_01]: when we look back with guys like Nick Kurds, et cetera, whether whole to me is right there in terms of what the future projection is, what this player can be, I think we're talking about a guy that can make multiple all-star teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of that JG, I'm sure you would agree, is this hit tool?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's that combination of excellent basketball skills with really pristine, you know, discerning eye at the plate and in terms of his swing decisions,
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what makes for a great hit tool.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the only contemporary he has in this top 100 list or amongst top prospects right now is probably Kevin McGonagall.
[SPEAKER_02]: I agree with that.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're a Cardinals fan, I remember it wasn't that long ago, 2024 draft.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're sitting there.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are you going to get at pick seven and they were rightfully thrilled.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Cardinals themselves were thrilled to get weather home.
[SPEAKER_02]: You get a guy who was taken seventh overall in 24.
[SPEAKER_02]: And here we are.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the number three prospect in the game two years later.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nick Kurtz was taken ahead of him.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nick Kurtz is graduated and that had a rookie of the year season.
[SPEAKER_02]: But to be in the number three
[SPEAKER_02]: And I do think that people like we've got a lot of baseball America to study you know recently to just lays out like a number three prospect number one two or three prospect the game historically we've done the baseball America top hundred now this is our 37th year historically more than half of those players go on to be what I would describe as stars twenty plus war players more than three quarters of them go on to be solid long-term regulars ten plus four players.
[SPEAKER_02]: JJ weather holds expectation at this point.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it is reasonable to think that this is a player who's going to be playing for the Cardinals for years to come.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that the Cardinals have had kind of their run of players who
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they, okay, we're looking at Dylan Carlson and Jordan Walker and you can even throw maybe Nolan Gorman in their little bit and say, okay, these players haven't panned out to the full level that was expected when they came up.
[SPEAKER_02]: JJ weather halt Jeff to me is a different level of prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel much more confident that there's
[SPEAKER_02]: very little on the to-do list here as he had into the 2026 season.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's not many things I look at and say, oh, this is really a potential risk that could really trip up JJ weather.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I feel like it's more of a question of he's either going to be a very solid player or then he's going to be a star, but it's really hard to see him just completely falling on his face and not being a multi-year regular and productive regular for the cardinals.
[SPEAKER_02]: So my crazy to think
[SPEAKER_01]: No, because I think when you talk about, you know, Dylan Carlson, who early on in his professional career, looked like he was headed that way, thinks really sort of cratered.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, you know, Jordan Walker had glimpses and it's just never taken off.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I will say when you just look at, particularly in Walker's case,
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, it was the big power.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the angles.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, you know, sort of dreaming on the athleticism.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we were asking questions, where is you going to play defensively, you know, some of the swing mechanics at times, and some of the swing decisions, and some of the, the bat to ball in zone, the
[SPEAKER_01]: was a little bit concerning.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the case with whether home, whether halt is extremely polished at the plate.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what that does is it gives you a high degree of confidence that all of these skills are going to translate at the next level.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because they have translators, he's moved up and faced more advanced competition.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, finish the season in AAA and spent about half the year there with Memphis and put up excellent numbers, you know, had the Cardinals been in contention.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then there might have been a reason for them to call them up.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see the Nolan or an auto trade go down.
[SPEAKER_01]: It looks like he's probably going to be in that infield picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would imagine from day one as a starter.
[SPEAKER_01]: You look at those skills, the bat to ball skills, 15.6% in zone with rate across all competitions, a 17.4% chase rate with a 41.7% swing rate, which means there's a pretty big delta there, one of the bigger delta's between his chase and swing rate, and that shows us that he's more aggressive.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the zone, like I said, this is a 70 hit tool.
[SPEAKER_01]: These guys typically translate.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as he moved up and spent more time in AAA, really started to get into more game power.
[SPEAKER_01]: impact in the baseball a little bit more he talked with us about it at the future's game and then really took off in that second half.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm pretty confident that he's going to come up hit for some power, really hit for average, get on base and be, you know, one of the cogs really at the top of that Cardinals lineup for at least the next half decade.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, you mentioned also this is the guy who expect to be in the opening day or at the lineup.
[SPEAKER_02]: Are we almost surprised at this
[SPEAKER_02]: If Mason wins there, we've got a gold glove short stop on the team, so he's not a play short stop.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I do think it's worth noting that if Mason win was went down for two months or something, it's not implausible to think that whether he could play there, you know, we're kind of saying he's going to move more because
[SPEAKER_02]: They have a great defense of shortstop.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then it is that he clearly is just on incapable of playing the position or how, how would you describe his defense at second?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a little hard to describe it's second and third as much because he's played much more shortstop.
[SPEAKER_02]: But how do you see him kind of projecting at the different positions?
[SPEAKER_02]: Kind of depending a little bit on best fit, for the cardinal team of figuring out how they put these puzzle pieces together in what is still a little bit of a complicated picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, I think probably, you know, he's above average a short stop and it's an above average arm that I think is good enough to stick on the left side of the infield, which tells me he could potentially be plus at third base, I think the hands, the actions, the internal clock, he knows how to play the position.
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, there's range there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he's not Mason win.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, he's not Omar Viscale.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to be somebody that you're really covers just the entire infield, but you know, it wouldn't shock me if he's one of the better defensive third basement in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second base wise, middle and fielder has played there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think would be a fairly natural transition for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Certainly more than enough harm to turn those double plays.
[SPEAKER_01]: And enough range that I think could be a really stand out defender at second base.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's no questions, and I know that's exactly what the organization thinks as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: They view very highly in terms of his defense, the work that he puts in there, and just all the tools and skills that he has as an infield defender that he's going to be above average
[SPEAKER_02]: So that is JJ Weatherhole, the top prospect in the current organization, and one of the top prospects in all of baseball on the latest release on Earth, Prospect Profiles.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello, everyone.
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to another baseball America prospect profile.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are looking at the number one prospect in all 30 MLB organizations.
[SPEAKER_02]: And today we're looking at one of the best Brewers short stop hazes mod A brings very high on the baseball America top 100 been you to our Brewers list, but not only that, you also kind of spearhead our international amateur coverage.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'll start by just kind of asking, take us through kind of the development and the path of Hazus Moday from intriguing amateur to one of the best prospects in the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Hazus Moday was one of the brewers top prospects in their 2024 international signing class out of the Dominican Republic.
[SPEAKER_00]: credit to the brewers because obviously they signed him, they signed Luis Pena in that same class.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think anybody including the brewers expected Hasey's Monday to be doing the things that he's doing right now as an 18 year old.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously in the Dominican Summer League in his debut in 2024, we ranked him as the number one prospect in the brewers
[SPEAKER_00]: uh, when he was 17 coming off that DSL season, uh, it was very aggressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes things don't translate outside of the DSL when guys come over to the States, but that one is aging pretty well right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, I don't know how much more you can ask for from in 18 year old shortstop.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he just does.
[SPEAKER_00]: everything that you want to see in a young hit or I mean switch hitter who makes good swing decisions.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has a really nice swing from both sides to the play great barrel accuracy so it's very little swing and miss and a lot of batsby too.
[SPEAKER_00]: He hits the ball hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a good athlete, runs well, throws well,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, to be determined if he ends up staying at shortstop, you know, maybe depends on who else is on the team, Cooper Pratt, in the organization, I think is a better pure defender at shortstop and probably gets to Milwaukee first, but whether you put them at shortstop, second base, third base, wherever you want to put them in the infield, the bat, the upside is there for for him to be a star.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Jeff, been talked about this, but I remember talking to you about when Madae was coming up out of the DSL.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the reasons that we felt so comfortable being so aggressive with him was the rare kind of mix of hitting ability, power, and plate discipline here.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a guy who even as a 17 year old was already showing all the hallmarks of being kind of an elite well-rounded hitter, wasn't he?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's even more impressive when you consider the fact that, you know, Ma Day is a switch hitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not like it's just numbers where he's kind of perfected stuff from one side.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very clear that, you know, there's two different swings.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all those splits, et cetera, I'll baked into his numbers.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a guy that makes tremendous amount of contact, I think, especially when you consider the fact that he is a outsider that hits for power.
[SPEAKER_01]: Usually those few things aren't synonymous when we're talking about hitters.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't necessarily get guys who are switch hitters.
[SPEAKER_01]: who are contact and power guys usually.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one or the other.
[SPEAKER_01]: He balances that really well.
[SPEAKER_01]: The approach at times, I think, can border on passive, but still very rarely swing himself and out, especially in the left hand, in batting batters box.
[SPEAKER_01]: against the right handers.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not a guy that's expanding the zone.
[SPEAKER_01]: A little bit more when he's facing left, he's his right hand and hitter, but has the power from both sides of the plate.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's really, really consistent.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was 18 years old this year playing in full season ball at the age of a lot of these guys, even good prospects that are signing in the international market.
[SPEAKER_01]: Typically aren't skipping
[SPEAKER_01]: Domestic complex leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He goes right up to low A, where he spent a majority of a season, but continued to impress and sort of level up as he reached high A and then double lay by the end of the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's also sort of a a marker of elite prospects is they don't just sort of meet the challenge of the league.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're in each time at their present to a new challenge.
[SPEAKER_01]: They get a little bit better.
[SPEAKER_01]: They improve a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we saw that with my day.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I think the other thing that I wanted to go into a little bit too is just the EVs.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're really impressive for a guy who's his young and sort of the size that he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a small guy, but he's probably six foot, six foot, one, maybe a hundred, ninety, two hundred pounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's putting up above major league average, you know, average eggs of velocities, 90th percentile eggs of velocities and then max eggs of velocities.
[SPEAKER_01]: As the angles get a little bit better, I think this is a guy that could grow into 25 plus kind of home run power.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you mentioned bin that the brewers right now are stand out as one of the teams doing some of the one of the best jobs on the international market.
[SPEAKER_02]: You mentioned we got Jackson Trio kind of started this run.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have Avenue Avenue, Eurebe, and now we have, you know, we have Moday, we have Luis Payne, we have more to come.
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't that long ago, if you flip it back a decade basically, the brewers were arguably other than the Orioles weren't trying, the worst at producing Big Leagueers.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a, from 2012 to 2018, you know, 2017, I should say, they signed one Big Leagueer in five classes and they were giving a lot of effort to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: What has changed?
[SPEAKER_02]: What kind of is the approach change?
[SPEAKER_02]: Have kind of the leadership change?
[SPEAKER_02]: What has changed has kind of turned the brewers kind of into an international amateur juggernaut?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, everything changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, they, they re hired staff down there in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: They changed at the time, they hired Mike Grootman, who's now an assistant GM with the red socks to run their international program now, James Armstrong runs it, but hiring people
[SPEAKER_00]: Scouts who are also very heavily involved in scouting players in Venezuela, which obviously presents a whole lot of other challenges that you don't find in the Dominican Republic or other countries throughout Latin America, so you've seen them signing, you know, guys like Jackson, Churrio, Jefferson, Cairo, some other good players from
[SPEAKER_00]: Venezuela, guys like J.R.R.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aranamo, they traded to the race, but yeah, I think they've just implemented, you know, and they've hired a whole bunch of other people on the ground and in those countries, but they've implemented a very, very thorough process where it's hard because you have to, you know, you're scouting players essentially who are now, you know, 12, 13, 14 years old in Latin American have to make decisions very early on, so it's hard to build history or
[SPEAKER_00]: on those players, but they do a very good job of building history early on those players gathering a lot of information and just having a lot of good scouts on the crown to who work hard and know what they're looking at when they do see these guys to be able to identify them early.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Hesus Maude is not only the brewer's number one prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: When we are looking, he is one of the top prospects in the game right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the other thing that stands out here is, when we look at the players who are near the top of the baseball America 2026 top 100 heading into the season,
[SPEAKER_02]: Mate is probably the only one at the very top of that list who is unlikely to graduate in 2026.
[SPEAKER_02]: He could graduate, but we've said this a couple times before I believe that baseball market.com, but Mate is very much on the Jackson trio timetable.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you look, trio into the year that his low-a year started in low-a with high-a, then finished with six games in AA.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mate did effectively the same thing, just ended it with fog games in AA.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exception of a very tailion, cup of coffee at Triple A, spent almost all the year at Double A.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wouldn't be shocking to see my day do the same thing, make it to Triple A in the year, but he should be still eligible, prospect eligible, heading in 2022, seven, which also makes him likely our top candidate to be the number one prospect in the game, if he develops as we continue to expect in 2022.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, Zusmade, Ron, my Milwaukee viewers, number one prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for joining us on another of the prospect profiles.
[SPEAKER_02]: J.J. Cooper Jeff Ponceira, another baseball-america prospect profile, and today we are talking about the number one prospect in the game.
[SPEAKER_02]: Number one prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pittsburgh pirates, shortstop, slash center fielder, Connor Griffin, Connor Griffin coming off of an exceptional season where he started in LA, ended in AA.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you look at those tools grades, they are louder than loud.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is not often that we, you see a guy with that many plus tools Jeff.
[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, we can talk about the plus tools, we can talk about the athleticism.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the first thing that comes to mind for you?
[SPEAKER_02]: Having seen Connor Griffin in person multiple occasions now, what stands out to you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're playing the word association game, Explosiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's the first thing that comes to mind because it's something you see in all facets of this game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether it's the first time you see him swinging an actual bat and make contact, he's just able to explode with sort of an ease that few athletes can match and it's really high output in terms of the power
[SPEAKER_01]: lots of of contact and high quality of contact, which is a rare combination for a player, fresh out of high school for all intents and purposes.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the best runners in the minor leagues in top of the scale, speed, a guy who can play multiple positions in shortstop and center field or incredibly valuable up the middle type profile could be double plus and center field because of how explosive he is on his jumps and reads and how much make up speed he has because of that speed we talked about.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's the same thing in the infield and it's rare that guys sort of have that type of explosiveness that can translate.
[SPEAKER_01]: to both the grass and the dirt defensively.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just a part of this game.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not even that excited about the defense we are, but the thing that really gets us excited, J.J., is the quality of that hit tool with that power and that speed, just kind of looking long-term, could be a potential offensive monster in one of the biggest stars in baseball.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the sort of upside we're looking at with this player now.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is is something where you don't want to go overboard here, but anything that you start to kind of compare him to past players you start going what feels like overboard if you said where is he now and you compare it to Bobby with junior when he was kind of coming up it's a very similar tool set.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you look at their tools grades that we had at roughly the same ages, they're very similar, although I would say that Connor Griffin's it tool is probably a little further along than we thought Bobby would.
[SPEAKER_02]: Juniors was at the time and the Bobby wouldn't junior went out and eventually was battling for batting titles already in the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you look at him physically,
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't help but bring up what a young my trout look like because he has that kind of chiseled body, that kind of neck that seems to go, you know, be basically four sizes too big for his head.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is a physical specimen and then you talk about the hitting ability because Jeff, I mean, we've talked about this on the hot sheet show before.
[SPEAKER_02]: His hitting ability was kind of the big
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you see what he did in 2025, the improvements he's made, the improvements he made over the last offseason between 24, his pro debut and 25.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you see a guy who has already demonstrated that he can diagnose and adjust and make real significant adjustments that improve him as a player.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that I feel like we feel so much better about his hit tool now than we did at this time of
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think, you know, you made the Bobby Witch Jr. comparison.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's a great comparison point as to top of the scale athletes with speed and power, of course, you know, the infield defense.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's what makes Griffin so unique.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because now, with obviously, with 2020 and everything that happened, we did not get a minor league season, sort of like the platform year off of the draft, like we just got with Griffin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Griffin got up to AA, spent a good chunk of a season, you know, above-low-A, so in high-A and AA, and, you know, you look at the contact rate.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about the hit tool and the improvements there, the questions about, you know, is he going to make enough contact?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is he really going to hit for impact?
[SPEAKER_01]: He did both of those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I think he, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: really answered those questions with a resounding like absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have big power.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get to it in games.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to sacrifice, you know, the contact.
[SPEAKER_01]: was something that Roman Anthony, when he was named the number one prospect, a few years back, when we had done the interview with him, the one thing he kind of always called to mind was that he was a hitter with power.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's kind of a similar example with Griffin, and I think the hit tool might even be better than what it was with Anthony, with very similar power, and he's even younger.
[SPEAKER_01]: and has all those tools to decorate it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, just comparing him to Bobby with Junior, you look at his, you know, in zone with rate the season of 17.1% where in 2021, which was with final season in the minor leagues, he had a 26% zone misrate.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you're comparing the hit to on the hit tool risk of these players, if they potentially, you know, obviously, would enter his rookie season and Griffin now looking like he could be entering his rookie season in 2026.
[SPEAKER_01]: The quality, the consistency of contact, isn't even really close, JJ.
[SPEAKER_02]: The other thing that you've mentioned before is there's real defense of value here too.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, it could be center field.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's probably going to be shortstop.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think that you move a guy like this off of shortstop because you saw him in the postseason.
[SPEAKER_02]: You saw him in the postseason, the eastern league playoffs.
[SPEAKER_02]: And just watching the ease with which he does it.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a plot.
[SPEAKER_02]: The internal clock.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are the shortstop skills to go with the arm, to go with the burst, to go with the
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, is there any aspect of, you know, when you've talked to evaluators or seeing them in person, any aspect of him at shortstop where you say, you know, that might become a problem?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I think you could potentially look at
[SPEAKER_01]: the size of Griffin, he's 6364, it's a bigger frame, bigger body, but we've seen guys like that stick at shortstop and I don't know if many of them have been this athletic, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's another part that sort of makes Griffin very unique.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not a whole lot that I think you could knock the hands, the action, the arm is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a plus, plus arm is, you know, a pretty good prospect as a pitcher in high school as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you didn't have all this hitting ability, probably a guy that would have gone on the first few rounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think there is a lot of optimism around him sticking at shortstop now where that kind of wasn't the conversation coming into last season or even early on or coming out of spring training.
[SPEAKER_01]: And once again, he really proved that, no, I'm a short stop long term.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, when he was in the field, as Kevin McGonnie, the same field as Kevin McGonnie, on the other side, top prospect and other guides, a short stop, it was pretty clear that Griffin was the guy between the two that's going to stick at the position long term.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are,
[SPEAKER_02]: They're basically when you look at where Griffin is right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: You could absolutely see the case.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a guy who just got to double I late in last season.
[SPEAKER_02]: You could make the case that, okay, sin him to triple I.
[SPEAKER_02]: Give him some more time.
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, I just want to point out.
[SPEAKER_02]: For one, Connor Griffin is a guy who is going to be one of the best players in spring training for the Pirates.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's just a reality.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was crew kind of last year when he was a fresh faced and had basically no pro experience.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was already making kind of highlight plays day after day in spring training.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's that, but then on top of that, you have the fact that the Pirates just went through it with Paul schemes where they send him back to the miners.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brought him up not long into the season, but long enough that they no longer qualified to win an extra pick up prospect performance in the set of a PPI if he came up and then won the rookie there once a young.
[SPEAKER_02]: They would have had a pick if they had.
[SPEAKER_02]: And by the way, they didn't get a service time benefit either because if you win an award like that, you get a full year of service for that first year.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there may be some incentive to bring Connor Griffin up.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is the number one prospect in the game, easily the number one prospect in the private organization.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for joining us for another of these prospect profiles.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you enjoyed this, we have one for we are rolling out one everyday during spring training.
[SPEAKER_02]: The number one prospect we're talking about, everyone, the number one prospect in every organization so check out the based on American YouTube channel.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you on another of the prospect profiles.