[SPEAKER_02]: Pretty JJ Cooper Jeff Ponce, another baseball America Prospect podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: And today we are talking about prospects that you may know a little bit less about, but you should know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, I know that there's a wide range of knowledge out there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of these, some of you, I know are gonna hear these names see these names and be like, I know about these players.
[SPEAKER_02]: And thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're a baseball America subscriber, probably.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we appreciate that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there are gonna be others of you who are like,
[SPEAKER_02]: These are, you know, several of these names I've never heard before, period.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's also fine.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why we were trying to do this.
[SPEAKER_02]: But even if you do know about these names, I think that you will enjoy this.
[SPEAKER_02]: You will get something out of this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we want to highlight these are five players.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're all now in the top 100.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we've updated our top 100 prospects rankings a couple of weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we've kind of almost done a mini update here, not because we did a re-rank or anything like that, but because we hit the date where anyone who was on opening day roster graduated.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in one weekend, we had five players graduate.
[SPEAKER_02]: As we are recording this, we don't know if Conrad Riffin will graduate tonight or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if that happens, we will add another player tonight's slash tomorrow morning by the time you're watching this, listening to this.
[SPEAKER_02]: You may have a new number one at Baseball America, which we told you about on the podcast last week.
[SPEAKER_02]: It says this Monday.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're not going to have to, you know, we're not going to give you a whole lot of intrigue on that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But but Jeff could just see you and we're just going to dive straight into this.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are five prospect names to know here, but I think we should start off with a banger because this is one that the way I would put it is coming into the year top 30 prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you had told me on February 1st, that braves out through your air carton, and would be on the top hundred, I would have probably said you're crazy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even though he did have a solid year last year, still 48 bags in low a 20
[SPEAKER_02]: one of the best performers in baseball in minor league baseball so far this year what about Eric Hartman is kind of caught your eye so far and did he catch your eye out trying to think I think you did get a I'm like me you were at Braves breakout camera was he in the breakout game?
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe that he was in the breakout game if not I had
[SPEAKER_03]: Let me, let me look at that Braves versus Yankee's breakout game and confirm that he was in fact in that game, but I'm pretty sure I saw him, I remember.
[SPEAKER_03]: the the run times that I had clocked and seeing some of the power.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, so I'm going to double check.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have I'll look that up while you're talking about heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'll look up and find a few if he was part of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, I know I did see him on the backfields.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was a name that was, you know, kind of mentioned to us, uh, a little bit.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was.
[SPEAKER_02]: He started my speed one for two, but in the breakup.
[SPEAKER_03]: exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So probably have some video of them too.
[SPEAKER_03]: But we've got loud feedback, the data that we have access to for the full minor league suite.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not just, um,
[SPEAKER_03]: the public league, AAA, and Florida State League, we have some contacts that allow us to get access to everything.
[SPEAKER_03]: We've had those numbers, I've had those numbers for a very long time prior to my time here at Baseball America, so it's something that we're familiar with.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think the thing, I bring that up, JJ, to kind of put into perspective, we're very good at this point of knowing what signal versus noise in the first month of the season and the type of stuff to pay attention to.
[SPEAKER_03]: Contact and approach those numbers have not stabilized yet.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you get a general gist of where these guys lie.
[SPEAKER_03]: EVs and angles are
[SPEAKER_03]: much less noise, especially in a smaller sample size, they stabilize a lot earlier.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's things that you can pick up on by just watching a little bit of video backing it with some data, looking at even some of the public stuff in terms of, you know, pull rates and also of course ground ball and line drives and fly ball rates and all those sort of things.
[SPEAKER_03]: The thing that we noticed with Hartman is the power jump was pretty significant year over year.
[SPEAKER_03]: He had his hardest hit ball of his career with a couple of, you know, 110 plus balls and play thus far.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he was a guy with great, great speed.
[SPEAKER_03]: The swing and miss with the additional
[SPEAKER_03]: has actually gotten better.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a 17% in zone mystery coming out of the last month.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a little bit under 19 last year.
[SPEAKER_03]: I also want to put one narrative to bed.
[SPEAKER_03]: There were some numbers that were floated out there as 81 mile per hour average exit velocity in 25 for Hartman.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is incorrect.
[SPEAKER_03]: That double check with three different teams, three different sources.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's 85 miles per hour, is what his average was last year, a 102.4 mile per hour, 90th.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's more 105 this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: And by the way, that was a pretty good number based.
[SPEAKER_03]: If I want a terrible number last year, but it's a better number this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, per one, the 102.4 for an 18 year old and a full season level isn't bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: That, that is actually above minor league average at least, and it's certainly above like age and level average.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, he's above Major League average.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the hard hit rate is around 50%.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's hitting a lot of line drives.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's hitting the ball in the air pretty consistently.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's doing damage against both pitch types.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's got a 1000 ops against rightees and 1000 ops against leftees.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's hitting flash, fast balls.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's hitting spin.
[SPEAKER_03]: Changeups kind of fringy, but not terrible.
[SPEAKER_03]: Overall, his entire performance is excellent.
[SPEAKER_03]: the athlete, JJ, the 70, I've even heard 80 run times at times.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a good chance that he's going to stick in center field.
[SPEAKER_03]: It always has the tools for it.
[SPEAKER_03]: If he moves to right, it's going to be a valuable outfield or out there on the corner.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think we look at all this.
[SPEAKER_03]: We talked to scouts and we had a couple of scouts that had put average or better grades on him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Once we have all those combination of factors,
[SPEAKER_03]: it's really easy for us to kind of jump a guy like this on the list.
[SPEAKER_03]: Even if it's maybe not traditional, if it's maybe a little bit faster based upon what, you know, his pedigree was entering the season.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not often the 20th round high school picks jump onto the top 100 within a couple of years.
[SPEAKER_03]: But here we are and I think it's worth it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say that's the thing is that yeah, I think it's worth explaining if it was just that Eric Hartman had a good first month and we looked at the stats and said, wow, he's got one of the baddest WRC pluses in baseball right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: He would not be on our hundred.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was that now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I will tell you, we noticed, I mean, it's not like we didn't go.
[SPEAKER_02]: We write Jeff Wright's wires, I write wires.
[SPEAKER_02]: We do hot sheet, you know, we do that every week.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're a very aware of how good he's been as far as performance.
[SPEAKER_02]: But when you look at that performance, then you check it with data, you check it with scouting sources.
[SPEAKER_02]: You get from people like that not working for the brave.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, no, that's a top 100 prospect right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's when you're like, okay, we're doing it.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're putting them on the 100.
[SPEAKER_02]: We would never have considered it going into the season.
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, I would say, I don't feel like that this is a,
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like that this is not nearly as risky a addition to the 100 as maybe like a really interesting pitcher who's in a low-eye where you're like, hey, it's a looks really good.
[SPEAKER_02]: This stuff's really good, but we know there's about four more steps.
[SPEAKER_02]: You could get hurt.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's about 1000 things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Eric Hartman has power and has speed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Was we said he stole 48 bags last year?
[SPEAKER_02]: At this point, would you look at where he is right now?
[SPEAKER_02]: We are sitting here in mid-May and he has 12
[SPEAKER_02]: If you want to talk about a power speed combo, again, a 20, 20 season at this point would be a disappointment for a healthier apartment.
[SPEAKER_02]: That would be that his rate of Homer's and Steele's dropped way off.
[SPEAKER_02]: A 25, 25 is like,
[SPEAKER_02]: seems almost, again, for a healthy carbon, 3030 is not crazy at all.
[SPEAKER_02]: He stole 48 bags last year.
[SPEAKER_02]: 30 hovers, that's a big jump considering where he was, but if he ends up at 2040 this year, that's just, again, those are impactful numbers.
[SPEAKER_02]: You'd look at, again, but as you said, the development, also the, again, still noisy, but the improvement and contact rate we've seen even in season.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ian Kunder for us made a point of like noting that,
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, this is a guy who struck out 25 times in 22 games in April, and he struck out basically five times at nine games in May.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, and he'd look at playplaces, his strikeout rate has really dipped as the season has kind of long.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just a very interesting prospect, and one who really has kind of come out of nowhere.
[SPEAKER_02]: The next one we're going to hit with is one that I think we all are a little bit more aware of.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ike Irish was one of the top college bats in the class last year at this time.
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of questions at this time last year is you got a catch, is he an outfield or where he's going to play?
[SPEAKER_02]: The Orioles drafted him and basically said you're a hitter, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: They did everything we heard was this was not someone who's like, please, you will rip this catcher's bent out of my hands, you know, basically with my dying breath.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, he was someone who wanted to hit.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's gotten a chance to hit.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's really hitting.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's moved up a little bit in our, you know, again, in our top 100.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would just say, I would just ask kind of Jeff, like,
[SPEAKER_02]: Because again, it's going to have to be pretty impactful.
[SPEAKER_02]: His offense, his contribution largely is going to be offensively.
[SPEAKER_02]: But what is the upside?
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the ceiling here, do you think?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think what you're sort of banking on with Irish is a good sort of balance or blend of offensive tools.
[SPEAKER_03]: The fence of upside is not going to be huge.
[SPEAKER_03]: You could probably be a pretty solid first basement, maybe play a corner out field spot.
[SPEAKER_03]: What you're looking for, guy here, who's going to hit for a high average, walk at a high rate.
[SPEAKER_03]: hit the ball hard at good angles that was a loop that last part of that was a little bit of a problem for him at Auburn.
[SPEAKER_03]: He did hit some homers, he did hit for some power.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a little bit of a flatter swing that didn't generate a ton of loft.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Orioles worked with him on that in the off season.
[SPEAKER_03]: He is hitting the ball in the air a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can even kind of look year over year, though it's small samples from last year, like 20 games and 27 this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ground ball rate is down quite a bit in a more acceptable area.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you still wanna see him hit the ball in the air.
[SPEAKER_03]: maybe more like 55 to 60% of the time versus kind of the 50-ish per cent line that he's kind of telling right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: But good EVs, a guy who puts together really good played appearances, so chase a little bit, but I think it's reasonable.
[SPEAKER_03]: Honey Abatsby does real damage against velocities has.
[SPEAKER_03]: no handedness issues, he hits lefties pretty well in addition to really mash and writeies.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think we'll see some of the stuff tick up throughout the season.
[SPEAKER_03]: But good left handed power and kind of a good balance of skills and power.
[SPEAKER_03]: Which if you're a first-based man, corner outfield guy, you need a bag.
[SPEAKER_02]: You need to bang, he is doing that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, like this is a scenario system that does not have as many hitters banging as they did a few years ago in the minor leagues.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think it kind of adds to Irish's importance.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he is off to a very good start.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is moving up our top 100.
[SPEAKER_02]: Speaking of that,
[SPEAKER_02]: We've got a couple of young guys who we really are excited to talk about and we'll hit on, we'll head to them, right after this quick break.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we're back.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Jeff, speaking of guys who we, you just laid out with Eric Hartman, how we added him, how there's a lot of reporting behind this, how we feel really comfortable about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we don't think that we're rushing the gun here.
[SPEAKER_02]: I will tell you right now that I kind of thought when we were first talking about Luis Hernandez with the Giants, I was a little nervous because that was one where we were at least, we were, there was reporting behind it, but you haven't played a game, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, literally, he had not played a pro game when we added him to the top 100.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, we had very strong signs.
[SPEAKER_02]: We had reporting, been balleradoan reporting,
[SPEAKER_02]: in the Dominican, in Latin America before he ever signed.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Jesus can owe when he was with us, you know, was seeing him out there in the complexes, even before spring training, you know, leading up in spring training.
[SPEAKER_02]: We knew that he was, we reported that he was coming to the US skipping over, you know, going to the DSL.
[SPEAKER_02]: We knew all that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's still a little worry, like, okay, you put a guy on the 100.
[SPEAKER_02]: even with overwhelming noise about the tools about the possibilities potential all that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you start the complex league and you're like, okay, fingers crossed, don't, you know, I hope we're not stupid on this one.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't feel too stupid right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know about you Jeff, but, again, it is very, very short samples.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is seven games right now, but we will point out in those seven games, Louie Sernand has already has three home runs.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we, I mean, we had some idea of what the backfield work looked like during the spring and some of the, some of the games that, you know, he zoos and others that were out in Arizona.
[SPEAKER_03]: The other thing is, you know, he did have sort of an unusual track record because if I'm not mistaken, he actually maybe played some professional baseball games in a league in Venezuela.
[SPEAKER_03]: prior to signing, so there were some numbers and video of him against older competition.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't find those numbers on B-RF, but I'm almost positive that he did back when he was in this home country of Venezuela.
[SPEAKER_03]: So a really advanced 17-year-old, and I think it's always a great sign when these guys skip complex levels,
[SPEAKER_03]: It's usually very loud, kind of signal from the team that this is a dude.
[SPEAKER_03]: The guys that I can remember recently that did it, at least that we're, you know, had the hoop lawn value who around him like Hernandez is Leo de Vries.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's gone pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: And another guy by the name of Jackson Churio, which went pretty good, then he zoos mod a also gone pretty good JJ might be late in the days in the days case he did play in the DSL okay, but I'm saying, but he skipped comp he skipped the full season complex level so it's and just like churio play DSL and then skip I'm saying anytime guys are skipping complex levels it tip whether it's both which is the the degrees Hernandez situation or even just one.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's usually pretty loud signal from a team that they really believe in the sky and they feel that he's going to be comfortable doing self.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, I mean, sometimes it's DSL, sometimes it's the domestic leagues, depending upon, you know, I'm sure the number of players and you know, all those rules domestically that you need to sort of follow, but there's a reason Hernandez is here on the backfield.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it wouldn't shock me if this guy maybe by July, late July, early August.
[SPEAKER_03]: August is probably the latest, but I would predict he's going to see full season all before the end of the summer.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's part of what we say.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you come to the complex like this, to me, like there is a separation here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, yes, Medae, Cheerio skipped over the Arizona complex league and their second year they played full season ball.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that's it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you come now with the timing that it is now for the Florida and Arizona complex league, when those season run,
[SPEAKER_02]: You are essentially like in Hernandez's case, either he will shut it down as far as he'll be playing in like fake games and you know, bridge league and all that or he will move on to full season ball because the now how they've moved the timing of the complex leagues.
[SPEAKER_02]: otherwise he'll be done basically right after the draft right because that's when those seasons in.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it really does set him up that you're expecting him now to play full season ball in his age 17 season, which is um.
[SPEAKER_02]: really loud.
[SPEAKER_02]: And by the way, is the kind of thing that if you, like we see with Leo de Vries, like we saw, again, when you say, if you skip the complex, that puts you on that timetable that if everything goes perfect, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you have to do everything, everything still has to go right.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if everything goes perfect, that's where the 19 and 20-year-old big league are
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's also, I think the other part of it too, it's like Devries, is he was a little older for the class, we're like my day and cheer you a little younger.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, it's kind of all comes out in the wash. My days only a year and a half older than he is, which is kind of remarkable.
[SPEAKER_03]: The mod day perspective.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is still pretty remarkable, but yes, I would say he is another one who absolutely has kind of impressed and put himself on the map, you know, even further than he was.
[SPEAKER_02]: He already was on the map, but so far so good speaking of that man, it's it's it's a it's a team Canada, a team c kind of day here because last year
[SPEAKER_02]: Nathan Thuwelling kind of really did emerge, really kind of showed what he could do in Lowei.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I would say that Thuwelling really was the raise catcher was one of the more impressive performers and partly also wrote about this in the off season.
[SPEAKER_02]: young catchers don't catch that many games now that's kind of the general rule is is we don't want to wear them out you know it's it's catching hard there's a lot of it that's even like does it count in games but you have to do as well but Nathan flewlling last year
[SPEAKER_02]: Primarily it low I ended up at high at the end of the year but between those two levels he caught 78 games last year which for an 18 year old is a extremely large number.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are not many catchers in the last five years who have caught that many games in Pro Bowl at that age.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ethan Salas I think did.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's hard to find a whole lot others who did.
[SPEAKER_02]: But more than that, like he's impressive as far as like he really does embrace catching, you know, this is a guy who really does seem to really want to catch, but on top of that, and by the way, has, you know, I mean, impresses back there, like as a good arm has all the all the tools to do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But more than that, this is where I'm going to serve it over to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know you and I've talked about him a lot for a while now that this is a guy who's bat
[SPEAKER_02]: could be really special, especially when you consider that he's a catcher.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and he was a guy where, you know, the underlying numbers were excellent last year, but the slash line was like kind of underwhelming.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think if you look at like a WRC plus it puts Caroline and numbers in perspective, especially when you're comparing those against,
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, a more neutral Florida State League.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll say, depending upon the park that can play in the opposite factor, but overall Florida State League is a little bit more of an offensive league in your Carolina League.
[SPEAKER_03]: And of course, you got the Cow League, it's a very offensive league.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, so kind of skews things when you're comparing people just with public stats and slash line numbers, eat what 233, 341, 393.
[SPEAKER_03]: had a higher walk rate of like 20% in a fairly high K rate.
[SPEAKER_03]: This year, the numbers are starting to sort of match the underlying data.
[SPEAKER_03]: Takes a ton of pitches.
[SPEAKER_03]: He very rarely chases.
[SPEAKER_03]: His contact skills are really good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a 19% in zone misrate.
[SPEAKER_03]: with a lower chase rate, so they even mitigate some of the whiff that he does have in zone.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the power is 70 to 80 grade, it's a 107.7 90th percentile.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just on EVs.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, the angles, there's a lot of other stuff here that he does hit a lot of flyballs.
[SPEAKER_02]: But put that in context for people when you see a 19 year old with that 90th EV.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I see.
[SPEAKER_02]: just to put it into perspective 29 year-old Luke and Baker right now has it was a giant human being right who has a hundred and twenty hundred and thirty plus minor league home runs and we would say hitting the ball hard is his primary carrying tool going back to his days at TCU he has always hit the ball exceedingly hard and I want to make sure I'm not underselling him hundred and forty six minor league home runs for yeah
[SPEAKER_03]: Argin Namala, excuse me, Argin Namala.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's also on this area.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just read it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Brooks Brandon who I saw this week and I actually saw Argin Namala in the same series.
[SPEAKER_03]: Brooks Brandon, who made the hot sheet at a multi-home run game in front of me and at a 4-4 game in the following game.
[SPEAKER_03]: Huge power there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Big guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: His carrying tool once again is power.
[SPEAKER_03]: 107.690th percentile.
[SPEAKER_03]: Flewelling is above those guys, and he's got better plate skills in the hat.
[SPEAKER_03]: They have a couple of major leaders that are in this range, two Colby Thomas, Noel V. Marte, below him in EVs.
[SPEAKER_03]: Andrew Fisher guy who's been known for how hard he hits the ball, he's below him in 90th percentile.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he has one of the, of a among teenagers, I believe he has the highest heart hit rate for anybody
[SPEAKER_03]: in this sample that had 70 or more balls in play.
[SPEAKER_03]: Fluelling to me has power with skills, with defensive value.
[SPEAKER_03]: This might even be a guy that...
[SPEAKER_03]: Being ding ding.
[SPEAKER_03]: We kind of look back on and say, maybe we shouldn't even have them higher, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: And there'll be time for him to push us to do that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But there's a lot of reasons to buy into fluelling.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'll say right now, this re-system,
[SPEAKER_03]: might see one of the biggest arrow-up systems and it's not from the guys that you necessarily expect, though, a lot of those guys are getting great feedback.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the flew-wellings, it's the Cooper Fleming's, it's the Titan Graze.
[SPEAKER_03]: Those guys have phenomenal data, really good performance on the field, and we're getting great scout feedbacks.
[SPEAKER_03]: So when the analysts, the scouts, and the performance, the baseball card numbers, all match up, they're pretty good prospects.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's put it this way.
[SPEAKER_02]: You and I love to watch a lot of minor league games.
[SPEAKER_02]: most watchable team for me right now, night in, night out, trust him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, I think it's Charleston, Wilmington right now is loaded to Wilmington's team, which we'll talk about in a couple of minutes.
[SPEAKER_03]: That Wilmington team, that's pretty close, JJ.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a tough one.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a few out there.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's definitely one that I'm always honing into and kind of put in on because there's such a load of monster.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I agree, you know, also say,
[SPEAKER_02]: because I love that Cephanand has got promoted to Hi-A.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll get to see him get his better competition.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll get to drive and see him hopefully next Friday, maybe.
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, you and I've posted this on social media like having Cephanand as at Bradenton with one of the best broadcasts.
[SPEAKER_02]: a broadcast that would be great in AAA being done in the Florida State League with that angle with Velo's on the screen with ab sharp cameras that are field.
[SPEAKER_02]: I will miss that because it was so fun watching Zephrananda's pitch on that Bradenton camera angle where it was just you just knew you were gonna see everything you wanted to see.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not going to get that as much a Greensboro.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hate to say it, but we'll, you know, we'll live with that, but yes, that's our little nerdy, uh, my, my LBTV, uh, digression.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we've got to take one more quick break, but we get back, we will cover why you should be paying attention that will be tempting.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not running crews.
[SPEAKER_02]: We talked about running crews.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's someone else, a couple other people that you should probably keep in time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Be right back after this quick break.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Jeff,
[SPEAKER_02]: The last one that we're going to talk about today as far as the guys who really have raised their stock is one that I think very much fits in your wheelhouse as a guy that you really have been impressed with and really been talking up and doing the reporting on also, but what is it about Devon Fitzgerald.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the many, and I do mean many middle and short stops, but let's just call them a middle in fielder.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the many middle in fielders in the national system.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is about David Beater?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you can put him in the second base third base category, man, up at third long term.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've just been really impressed dating back to last year when he was still with the Rangers.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I thought this was a phenomenal target.
[SPEAKER_03]: by the, you know, the Tobody front office, they've done a good job of kind of going after guys that I think check a lot of boxes and a very similar type of players that they had success with targeting and Boston or in Pittsburgh with, you know, obviously Justin Horowitz was over there and had some success in terms of his drafts as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a very good scouting group.
[SPEAKER_03]: To me, he really is one of the unique players that blends plus contact, plus approach with above average power and pretty good angles.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's not a lot of guys that kind of check all those boxes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is he a standout defender?
[SPEAKER_03]: No.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think he's probably good enough to be kind of a fringy defender at multiple positions.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's not an absolute butcher in the field by any means.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just maybe limited a little bit in terms of range and physicality.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's enough arm there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Quick release is actions and hands are pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, you know, he's a, he's a coach's kid.
[SPEAKER_03]: His father is the head coach at, uh, Marjorie Stone of Douglas, uh, in Parkland, Florida, which obviously has produced many, many big leaders, uh, Hazus, uh, Lizardo, Anthony Rizzo, Guy by the name of Roman Anthony.
[SPEAKER_03]: and a couple others that are in that mix.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he knows what it looks like.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's been around ball as whole life.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think just when you look at the assignment with the very limited track record that he had at full season levels, because he had a shoulder injury last year, the fact that they were comfortable enough to assign him to high A.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's handled
[SPEAKER_03]: a very difficult place to hit, though it's look better because of how talented this team is.
[SPEAKER_03]: Very difficult place to hit and well, maintain and put up really good numbers.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's a lot of things to like about Fitzgerald and he kind of checks my pillars.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I three pillars of the type of hitter as I go after when I'm looking at data and it kind of match it up with other stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: But when you make really good contact, you make really good swing decisions, and you hit the ball hard at good angles, more often than not those guys go pretty good.
[SPEAKER_02]: And of the four guys we've talked about here, I've kind of been having some fun building up some kind of under the hood data.
[SPEAKER_02]: And but he has the best contact rate of the four that we talked about of the five we talked about the Hernandez we came really safe yet Hernandez has seven games.
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's don't even include him in this discussion.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the data I have has that he has the best contact rate of the of again a group of guys who all are pretty good at this.
[SPEAKER_02]: when you said like he's not a great defender, but the other key part of this dose is he's also not a zero as an defender, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we often get the question, why is someone so not higher in the top hundred?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why is someone so not on the top hundred?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I feel like I've kind of given this answer a lot of times which is, if you're a first baseman, like we can come out of five iris, but if you're a, we just, the reason we started with, you better be really good offensively.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're a first-based slash corner-out builder who's really a fringy defender in the corner-out field spots, you better really mash because you don't have a whole lot of chances if you don't.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you can play a plausible second-face third-base, if you could play shortstop in an absolute pinch, there are a lot more paths for you to get regular playing time.
[SPEAKER_02]: because there are teams who just don't have productive second-basement, productive third-basement.
[SPEAKER_02]: And especially if you have enough, because the thing that has always been talked about of Devon Citrodee said, coaches son, when you have savvy, you don't have to have like, I think we're seeing this with Kevin McGonagled, the big league level.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kevin McConnell just does all the little things really well.
[SPEAKER_02]: In addition to being a great hitter, I mean, he is still stretched defensively by what they're asking him to do, but he runs the bases really well.
[SPEAKER_02]: He does like all these little things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Devon Fitzgerald has, again, I don't want to say, he's not Kevin McConnell.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you've actually used that before, if you've said like, you know, he is kind of like, he has some of those tricks.
[SPEAKER_02]: No one has them all, really,
[SPEAKER_02]: We wrote about this in the offseason.
[SPEAKER_02]: No one has all of the hitting traits that Kevin McGonagall does because Kevin McGonagall really did check off like you, he was pretty much the only guy I could find over the last five years in the minors who it's like, nope, he is great at every one of the key kind of foundational pieces.
[SPEAKER_02]: You talked about it here where when you combine like, if you're looking at this analytically, how well does he make swing decisions?
[SPEAKER_02]: Does he understand the strikes them?
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you swing at pitches, strikes, and not swing at balls?
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, when you do, could you make contact, especially could you make contact in the zone at those?
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, the bat the ball skills to really do damage when you do.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you hit the ball hard when you do?
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you do it at the right angles?
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know where you're not just hitting a ground ball hard, which okay, at best is gonna be a single, unless you're a Bobby with junior, and you're hitting it down the line and carry carpet runs in the wall or whatever, but usually that's a single.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you hit it in the air and do damage with it?
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you pull it in the air and do damage with all these things?
[SPEAKER_02]: Kevin McGonag would do all of those things at an exceptional level.
[SPEAKER_02]: David, this show does a lot of those things at a very good level, does he not?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I think that's why through the McGonagirl compound, because there just aren't a lot of guys that do all the things that he does really well and check all the boxes that he checks.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's sort of why he's, he's in that mix, frankly.
[SPEAKER_03]: And why I use that, that comp now.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think it's an 80 hit tool, but you know, if he keeps progressing this way and the power gets a little bit better and the contact continues to tick up and
[SPEAKER_03]: He's taken those kind of a bats.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think it's a plus hit tool now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe that's a little bit aggressive, but I'm never wanted to shy away from big takes when the numbers back end in the eye test backset.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, it is, and I will say, like when you said like that Wilmington Club is extremely watchable club, and I completely,
[SPEAKER_02]: and totally agree with you like, and again, we just need to emphasize in one of the most inhospitable hitting environments that you can possibly be in, because I mean, again, like, I think that we were not even mentioning like an Ethan Petrie who's there.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's another, I would say really interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: But, but
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say that, again, the two teams of the summary point of this that I'll kick it back to you on is, I do feel like if you said, what are the two organizations that we feel most, I'd kind of like get the most improved award here we are, mid-May, 2026 from where we, at least perceive them to be coming into the season to now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say it's the race and the
[SPEAKER_03]: I think so, when you look at the, you look at the names that we've talked about and some of the other guys that we didn't even dig into, there just seems like there's a lot of green arrow uplayers in each of those systems and they're fairly talented systems to begin with.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, that kind of pushes it even further, that there's already a lot of talent here and a lot of the talent they brought in whether you acquisition,
[SPEAKER_02]: But well, that is the Baseball America Prospect podcast for this week, Jeff Ponce and myself, JJ Cooper.
[SPEAKER_02]: We appreciate the download.
[SPEAKER_02]: Please like and subscribe if you're on YouTube or leave a review if you're on the podcast feed.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as I've seen many of y'all do, because we are responding to a lot of comments now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for the comments.
[SPEAKER_02]: Please keep on coming.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is something where we love, I love reading them, but at the same time, it helps other people because it puts it in their feed to the algorithm does like to see people talking and communicating.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I get, I love the answer them.
[SPEAKER_02]: We appreciate you being here today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Check out all the stuff at baseballamerica.com.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have again more updates on the top hundred worth checking out.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have prospect coverage every week in addition to everything else that comes on at baseball America.
[SPEAKER_02]: For Jeff, I'm JJ.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a long everybody.