[SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, J.J. Cooper, Ian Kundel, baseball man, like a prospect podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to start off with a apology.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not on my normal camera.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not on my normal studio.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in Philly for the all-star game.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can't find my headphones.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have a good microphone.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to clean it up as much as I can.
[SPEAKER_01]: I apologize about the audio is a little bit worse than normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really, I really am sorry about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we still wanted to come to you and talk to you because we were at the future's game yesterday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'll try and also cover the draft, which was a little bit too much of a good thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we wanted to share our thoughts about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're moving it up a little bit to this week because we thought, you know, we do that fresh before the all-star game, Ian.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first thing we'll ask you is is is it your first in-person feature scheme, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: What was that like it was fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it was it was definitely different.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't sure what to expect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, I've washed on TV every year, but I think being there just felt different if I'll tell a lot bigger in person than I feel like it does on TV.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it was a lot of media there.
[SPEAKER_00]: stands aren't packed, but it's, you know, it's not very often that you get to see that many talented players on the field at once, because I think that was something that I really, you know, you're prepared for, but I don't think you really understand it until you start watching the game in person, because obviously we owe tons of minor league games per year.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're never seeing anything close to that much talent on one field.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and I think it really showed then the area that really showed it's most of me was just kind of how the game felt pacing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It felt like if I looked away for a second, I was missing something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whereas, you know, when you go to a minor league game during the regular season, there's parts of the lineup where you know you can, you know, catch up on some notes from earlier from the guys that you're targeting or, you know, you can, if you're talking to a scout, you can, you know, those are the times of the lineup where you talk to a scout.
[SPEAKER_00]: there was none of that there was this was you miss one pitch and you're scrambling to find out you know which guy just through a 99 mile an hour fastball or which guy just through a hammer breaking ball that got a whiff like it was just a lot and I as you said I don't think the draft being on at the same time helped um that was I think there there's definitely some ways that M.O.B.
[SPEAKER_00]: could structure this better um
[SPEAKER_00]: I obviously recognize that it's a little tough because the later you make it in the day, the less time the players have on their break, which maybe that the solution is just extent, the minor league break for the full week instead of playing on the abbreviated three game series.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think that, you know, it was a very cool experience batting practice was, was very interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, get to be down on the field, you know, you're right in the action, you're right close to the players.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that was one thing that was extremely helpful was adding to really see like,
[SPEAKER_00]: how physical some of these guys are on the flip side, how slight some other ones are.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's something when you watch on synergy or you're watching at games, you can see it with guys who obviously you see frequently, but this is a time where you've got players coming from all over the country, you guys coming from the north, Wesley, you guys coming from the Cali, you guys coming from down in Texas, like you were getting access and getting to see a lot of the players that we don't see during the regular season.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think for that aspect, it was very cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know it's just it's different it's it's just it just felt very different but I think it had a good way.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is I think my 15 features game and the the thing that jumped about this one that I will say counting viewers this is a 12 o'clock start now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry it's too early it's too early for the players.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will say like for the fans like if you're on the west coast future skins a big deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: You better be ready, like setting, okay, so 9 a.m. start, that's asking a lot, but more than that, let me just lay this out.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have players who flew in on Saturday from the West Coast, who then showed up at 8 a.m. to take the field by 9.15 to be at batting practice at 9.30
[SPEAKER_01]: They're never taking BP at 630 in the morning during a normal schedule.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, yes, I know that there are daygames.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that there are the education days on Tuesdays of Wednesdays at 11 sometimes.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they don't do on those days.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't take BP.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a show and go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the the easy solution to me and I and a recognizes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of talking a little earlier is just there's no sign in at MLB game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Make the futures game the Sunday night MLB game on the like the Sunday before the All Star Break.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be a stand alone slot.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would not be going up against the draft if they want to continue putting the draft the same weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you would not really have any of those issues that you had with the players, you know, coming from the West Coast and then going in to be like, I don't really feel like swinging about at 930 in the morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just going to go up there and.
[SPEAKER_00]: throw my hands at a ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, we saw you as a diploma.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I'm not even blaming him for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, like, you know, he, I don't blame him at all, but it's, it's one of those things that I think there's an easy solution.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, and the counter is I understand, like, because talking to players after the game, a lot of them, they just want to get home with their families as soon as the game was done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, there were some guys out of there, ace, I'm which,
[SPEAKER_00]: completely understand.
[SPEAKER_01]: It happens in the all-star game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, we saw that last year where it's like why are these the guys in the home from Derby because they're still there Yeah, the guys who played in the first to fifth.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, just extend the break three days like all these guys We're gonna go back and play a Friday Saturday Sunday series wherever their affiliates are
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just get rid of that series or add it at the end of the season and then you could they will still like I feel like you would have more buy into because it would be like okay, you know, this is the day I would be playing anyway and then I can leave Monday like all my teammates are instead of what you have now where it's a lot of the teammates, you know, the teammates are going to be home by Sunday night where is if you play the night game that's kind of like you're missing a full day basically well that wouldn't be the case if you just extend they were wouldn't be as big of a deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think if you extend the break.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're going to get into the players to stood out and all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll do that right after it's quick break.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Ian, let's start with the pictures.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is really to be honest, a picture dominated event as you would expect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the pictures go out there and they get to just blog asks for
[SPEAKER_01]: really 20 pitches.
[SPEAKER_01]: In some cases for, I think one case too, you know, but, which is not ideal us also seven in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: But okay, who stood out to you, pitcher wise, who are the pitchers?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who was the first pitcher?
[SPEAKER_01]: pitcher stood out the most.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think the clear winner on the pitch outside was Seth Hernandez.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that he's someone who JJ you talked about it on a tweet that I think no one actually got to see.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that I got banned on Twitter, but I write right limited multiple times for tweet into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, there was too much baseball going on, blame MLB's calendar.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Seth Hernandez had kind of had some video fluctuations in the last couple of weeks, which is understandable, and it's actually something I talked to him about was that
[SPEAKER_00]: Proceeds it's hard, like for someone like him who is used to throwing for three months basically, you know, he's surpassed how long high school season it was already.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it was good to see him go out there and just look like the Saturday night as we saw in the breakout game in the spring when he was fresh coming off a, you know, a whole off season.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sat 99 to 101 miles an hour.
[SPEAKER_00]: Had strikeout on 99 mile an hour to see him or to the I guy or she that was just there was nothing I guy or she could do with that pitch.
[SPEAKER_00]: It started on the outer half or on the outside corner and ended up
[SPEAKER_00]: six inches off the plate at 99 miles an hour and he had that and he also had it was one of the best changes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I've seen him throw he turned it over at Lake Mitchell at 87 miles an hour pitch just started
[SPEAKER_00]: look like a striped like right look like a normal fastball right there and then all of a sudden it just wasn't there and you could tell Mitchell walking back to the guy was like what you want me to do that like there's nothing I there's nothing you can and it was just it was a vintage performance which was nice to see consensus bump up to high it you know there's been some struggles there's been some inconsistent outings but this was kind of the Seth tornadoes that we know we've seen him do at the beginning of the season.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why he's one of the top 10 prospects in all of baseball because when you're a guy who can go out there and probably has multiple 70s and probably a couple 60s as well with really good athlete, you know, six foot four frame.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this guy's the limit with his ceiling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this is, it's completely clear why he's a top-ton pitching prospect.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, this is he checks all the boxes and you saw it in the outing what kind of like his stuff can look like in a short burst.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, the key is, can he hold it for an entire season?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the big question.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's something that I'm really looking forward to seeing in the second half.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say also the other one, which is again not a surprise, these are two top 10 prospects in the game by our rankings, which I'll tell you again, check out baseballmerica.com, updated every month, but Brian Sloan was filthy, the mayor is right-hitter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Sloan, another guy who joined the triple digits club, he hit a hundred miles an hour with his fastball.
[SPEAKER_00]: He mixed it a cutter in like, that was like 93 to 95.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just one of your fastball was not that long ago, let's just think about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a splitter and a sweeper, um, you know, the fastball got a whiff on the fastball, got a whiff on the splitter, and you want to talk about someone who looks like a workhorse starter.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's way more physical than I imagine, like seeing him kind of in person.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what I think what I was talking about earlier, something that was really beneficial with this, I think with the pitchers, especially, is you can see the guys that are, you know, maybe not, not as built as physically, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: But strong right now and Sloan is the opposite.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sloan has tree trunk legs.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's jacked like this is this is what a starting picture looks like especially which is crazy Give nobody's 20 years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think He hasn't been in his both or have pro bodies right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will not they will grow into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and The it's present stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's present feel He only threw an inning, of course, but like everyone will not everyone but elite the Mac most you're gonna get in this isn't inning
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I mean, I think that it's going to be a fascinating watching him and Seth go back and forth, probably this year and maybe next year, though Sloan's probably up in the majors at some point next year, maybe something this year who knows, but yeah, I think that he was really impressive, what's hard about this is that there were so many impressive pitching performances like his teammate Kate Anderson, I thought was really impressive and it was fun to see someone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do it a different way.
[SPEAKER_00]: His kid was sitting 93 to 95.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not, he's not going to be hitting triple digits like Hernandez and Sloan R. But he was able to navigate a really difficult top of the order.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miguel C. May Jr., another one hit the fastest pitch.
[SPEAKER_00]: 101 miles an hour.
[SPEAKER_00]: For him, this is a guy who started the season in low A.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was 19 years old, pretty big stage.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, even though the line wasn't good, I thought he showed some flashes of some stuff, especially the change up, which something
[SPEAKER_00]: He's only thrown about 35, 38 change-ups this season, and he had the confidence to bring it out against Walker Jenkins and Field Gillin, two of the best outfield prospects in all of baseball.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would really stood out to me, and I understand if you asked him, I'm sure he'd be very frustrated with House Performance Wed.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when he had some control issues, gave up a couple of hits, gave up a run, but
[SPEAKER_00]: To bring out a pitch to your using like 5% of the time in a showcase game like this with two strikes to two of the best left handed hitters in the game that are left handed hitting prospects in the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really impressive stuff and it just it gives me some confidence with CMA that you know he's more than just a fastball slider pitcher which I think was kind of the risk was hey the command will see where it goes but you also you know working on he's got to add more pitches to his arsenal seems like he's starting you know what the nationals are doing with him is is really impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I mean, I can keep going if you'd like there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll just say with this like the one thing and I was going to go one the other way, which is, I know it wasn't the best outfield, allowing my cash may feel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kate Anderson kind of pulled this off, but I would say I don't think that this environment is as good for that type of really good picture as the Ryan Sloan who throws 100, miles and out, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, yeah, cash may feel
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't get to set up.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't get to basically carve a journey through the hitters.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are going out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, here's my stuff, and now you're done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think that that's just like, if you throw a hundred, I think that's better suited for you a lot of times than if you say.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's really good at mixing pitches, but it's not on your mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that you saw with some of the other guys like Nolan Perry, Brandon, and little trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was another one who was more like 93 to 95.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ethan and Einstein who ended up getting the win, but he, he had a walk like, I think what it showed it, I think this is something that, you know, talking to some of the pictures is something they can take away is like, you know, your stuff and kind of, with minor league lineups, again, there are a couple of guys and you just line up that it's, you don't really need your best stuff to get out.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you, the more you move up the ladder, the better the hitters get, obviously.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to get out these, even these top prospect hitters, some of whom are, you know, teenagers, some of whom are still in the low minors.
[SPEAKER_00]: These guys are going to have to be on their game at every point, you know, the pitch is that you're used to executing right now in the minors, even in someone like Anthony science and up, you know, his slider, which you, which is a pie with pitch from his time and high end double.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess these guys, they're just going to spin on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's a, it was a good, you know, litmus test for those guys, as you said, the guys who maybe don't throw as hard, you can't rely on their overpowering fastballs to get guys out that there are definitely still things we got to work on here, you know, there's refinement with our secondaries and you just have to be able to execute.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, command execution, the higher you go up in the ladder, the more it gets magnified and I think a showcase environment like this is actually was a good situation was a good learning lesson for a lot of these pictures because they saw that hey, if you missed your spot by even a few inches, they're going to punish you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to bring up that him and Alfredo Duno, one thing also we got because it was in a big league park.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got that speed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And those two prospects, the reds, catcher, Alfredo Duno, Blue J shortstop slash.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think down the road probably more like third-based and Joe Joe Parker.
[SPEAKER_01]: Both had the best best speed at the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I would say that the surprise of that in that group, rolled the burrito, which I did not expect that Charlie Condon was, because, and again, we have all this discussion of the basketballies in my article today, which JJ was very helpful on he wrote some very key parts about batting practice, which I'm sure we'll talk about a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: But,
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the burrito being up there was impressive because this is a guy who's 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's smaller.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you look at Parker is very physically developed for his age.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know's a monster.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's, you know, just what six three 230 40 pounds and Charlie condons like six six 220.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Bredo doesn't really fit in that group.
[SPEAKER_00]: So to see him as as some one of the highest bats be guy, I mean, it just showed how tooled up he is like the swing is quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was the fastest runner in the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's extremely tooled up.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I didn't think that the pitching, you know, across the board, it was there were a few, you know, few bats, few guys didn't execute and they they paid for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for the most part, I think especially with the American League, the American League pitching, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: was in control throughout.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't think they only gave it four hits, three walks.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they also only did strike out three, which I think is interesting, because you compare the national team at nine strikeouts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it was just, you know, you look at the American League pitchers, other than Ryan Sloan and Kendri Cheerio, it's a lot of guys sitting in the mid 90s rather than more of the high 90s stuff you saw from the national team.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, okay, so we've talked about the pitchers.
[SPEAKER_01]: We obviously got to get the hitters too, and we'll do that right after another break.
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, I would say with the hitters, the downside of the future scan, especially now that it's a truncated seven inning future's game, is when you say the hitters who stood out, you really, like, I think that BP is very important to this because in-game, you may see nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we had batters who were hit, like, well, what do you do?
[SPEAKER_01]: You got hit by a pitch.
[SPEAKER_01]: What happens next to that pack?
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't have another up pack.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, you know, but you throw in BP and you do get really good if I would say a lot of cases good fields.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I said the hitters who stood out, we got obviously talking about Jojo Parker.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got to talk about Nathan Flewell and Nathan Flewell and had the probably the biggest hit in the game with a two-run home run.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't think it was even as best swing necessarily, but
[SPEAKER_01]: But I would say that we saw a hint of that before because he was one of the guys who would be pee, really stood out where we were saying, that's really easy power.
[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't look like he was having to really, you know, you can see guys who are absolutely impressive, but they're impressive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Josiah Hartchorn was extremely impressive.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does it in a,
[SPEAKER_01]: He's very rotational, and when he fires, it explodes.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were other guys out there, I felt like who's like, blah, blah, and it was going over the fence.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's still not to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: Floaling is obviously one of them, and we did a great job.
[SPEAKER_00]: He put together a graphic, which shows where every home run from batting practice landed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we cross-checked it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We put a lot of work on this.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're interested in seeing how often up here, it'll be on the video when we're on the YouTube video.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I think, you know, you can really get a feel for guys power and batting practice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will say, and at JJ, you've been a lot more these to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought the batting practice pictures were not the best.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I've seen better BP thrown.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how you felt about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree, because so that there was variance between the groups, because you had different BP pictures and some of them were a little better than them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The American League one who had what was at the Jenkins Flawling Velasquez group, that guy was, because that was, you know, that was where we saw a Blake Mitchell, I think was in that group too.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I think that it was, it was also cool to see though for the guys, some of the guys who stood out in Maddie practice that carried over the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you said Nathan Flawling, obviously he's the MVP of the game, he had the biggest swing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the thing that
[SPEAKER_00]: you know forget it's easy for him how young he is like he's already in high age probably going to end the season in double as an nineteen year old playing the entire season as nineteen like does the catcher as a catcher and he's there's been no let up the season you know he even if he has a you know a bad week he's bounced back immediately and this game bad and practice he finished second tied for second on the American League and home runs with six and as you said it was easy power I believe he had won upper deck shot like this is a re- this is a
[SPEAKER_00]: hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought the thing that was really impressive with me was in the post game press conference that he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: He talked about how he had a very good plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he really thought about his abilities.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I've never seen the guy before, but Walker Jenkins was the hit or before.
[SPEAKER_00]: He, uh, the hitter, uh, pan from the fillies, walked Walker Jenkins.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what did flowing?
[SPEAKER_00]: He went up there looking for a pitch and he got that exact pitch that he was looking for and he put a great swing on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's that kind of aptitude, which was really impressive to see, especially for someone who's 19 that he's thinking, hey, you know, this guy just did this guy just did this.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is he going to do to me without having to go without having time, you know, because in the regular season, you're looking at,
[SPEAKER_00]: the iPads you're looking at you know you know what to expect from these guys in this one for the most part they're going to blind you know i talked to one of the hitters you said that they would talk to like the their teammates and see if anyone's facing during the year and that was kind of like the info they were getting was directly from that flowing one up there with a plan he got the pitch and you saw it it was a very free and easy swing you know this was not him having to over rotate or really selling out for power this was him trusting his hands trusting his swing and trusting his
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, the biggest swing of the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I thought he was really impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jojo Parker, as you said, another one, the bat speed he gets from his from someone his young is very, very impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got legit power.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he had four or three or four home runs and batting practice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the fact that he was able to get to 101 and access it like that was really impressive and it was talking to him after the game, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about how
[SPEAKER_00]: he was late on the first fastball he saw from CMA, but it helped him time them up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then, he spits on a change up, gets another heater, and he's like, I'm not going to be late on this one, and he caught it out from the plate and he was able to pull it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to see those kind of in it bad adjustments is really encouraging for someone his age.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that what we've seen for him, I think in the first half, is like he's really grown into becoming a professional.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think at the start of the season,
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of had a slower start, you know, the numbers weren't there, but as he's got more comfortable, I think the performance of starting to show and I think he's someone who I think could really take off in the second half.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't do it as easy because, again, it's too explosive, is what I would describe his swing as, which it's not bad versus blighting, but it's more like, again, his, his is that he explodes, explodes into the pitch.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, but the other part I would say about it is, is that,
[SPEAKER_01]: when he connected, it was some of the most impressive home runs this all in VP.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we'd say him, Charlie Condon, probably the longest, maybe Blake Mitchell too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Mitchell had an upper decker, I think it's made in the furthest upper decker, potentially.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, obviously, upper decker's also like, if you were left handed hitter, you had upper decker as an option, if you were right handed hitter, it was you were trying to get to the con course.
[SPEAKER_01]: And no one, I would say though, but no one hitting to left field, I'd say have a ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: hit as far as some of those upper deckers up to ahead.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, get on it would be, I think, on it at the furthest right hand at home run.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I agree with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought hard to run.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also had one of the loudest outs in the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had, like, I think was a 104.2 or something around that.
[SPEAKER_00]: line, line drive, fly out, speaking of hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that Caleb Bonnerman had those surprising stuff, I think, of the day I'll kick it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Caleb Bonnerman.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you look at him, it's kind of a boxy frame, very strong, very physical.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's stocky.
[SPEAKER_00]: Keep put up a plus run time on his ground out, which I, by the way, love to see someone hustling like that in a showcase game, because there were definitely others who didn't a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: But.
[SPEAKER_00]: Plus run.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we got, I'm just saying, like, we didn't toss it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ian timed it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I know Stackcast had it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we also, Ian timed it three times to make sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we got a legit four to two.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: From the right hand box.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean no question that's and that's like for him someone like him who I think the athleticism is a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was really encouraging to see You know, he he was another one who had some really good swing steering padding practice his powers very real We'll see where the hit tool goes, but That was impressive Another one that I think was worth mentioning was Ethan Salas he had the hardest hit actual pit of the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe
[SPEAKER_00]: Kasew Smoday had the hard-to-highest EV, but his was on a ground out.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Ethan Salis had 104.4 mile an hour single to left field or to left center field.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think what really stood out to me was just how professional his approach was.
[SPEAKER_00]: He walked in his other at that.
[SPEAKER_00]: handle pitchers well and I think with Salis you know it's just it's cool to see him healthy cool to see him out there performing because obviously this is such a talented player who has had a lot of injuries in his career and to see him out there and just how easy he makes the game look is a good reminder of why Padres fans can be so excited about someone like him.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know this is just a really polished player who has immense talent and it was nice to see him be able to show it on display in this game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another guy wanted to mention he didn't have any hits in this game was Walker Jenkins though.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went out of the field.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you didn't know it was going to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he went over to with two walks.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I thought the quality of his bats were excellent, you know, and I think this is something that he's really having to work on is kind of trading off that, hey, it's okay to swing and miss because trust your approach, you'll be fine if you fall behind.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, you know, you want to get to more power and in batting practice, we saw his power.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't, I don't know, I think he only had one upper deck home run, but he was the one who was hitting them to write center, like the deepest part of that ballpark.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was hitting them to, I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll always call center feeling.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, and like that was very impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, he's another one.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's free and easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He looks the part, you know, six times.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, he's fastively physical.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like the, the tools are all there with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a health thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he can stay healthy, I wouldn't be surprised if he's up in the majors this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know we've dropped them a little bit on our rankings, but see the wise he's still among the highest of any outfielder and pro-based ballmye opinion.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the only reason he's dropped is that, and he talked about himself and he talked to you is that soft tissue industry injuries are the main of his existence and they're hard to recover from and he's had a collateral of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it's it is on a durability issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only question really the only I would say that we don't really have much of a question about his power, even though it hasn't shown up in games that much.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like it's going to come.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the real question is just.
[SPEAKER_01]: He hasn't yet had a season where, and again, this year, his big injury has been, I would say, more of the fluke variety, which is running to a wall, they can't catch.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's the thing is, like, what did he supposed to do not make the catch?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know what I mean, like, it's, it's just sort of really unfortunate part of baseball where sometimes if you make a really good play.
[SPEAKER_00]: there's going to be a big hard structure that you're going to run into making it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the way of all park sugar signs.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're trying to play to win, you know, I'd rather he do, I don't want him to get hurt.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I'm saying, I'd rather you try to make the play than let up and, you know, be afraid.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I'm in the past.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just going to make another, in the past, though, it's been leg injuries, it's been ankle.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been the kind that's like not you ran into a wall.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been
[SPEAKER_01]: the I you pull something and then it takes you a while to recover from it and the more of those than the average player.
[SPEAKER_00]: definitely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I would say Walker and Jenkins was really impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: We should say we should mention Blake Mitchell.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did leave the American League team in home runs.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he only got one if out in the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he got one about a walk.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, what we were talking about like these guys, you know, some of them if if it's an uncompetitive walker get basically getting, you know, one if that or one played appearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you had the American League in home runs.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's real power.
[SPEAKER_00]: Seth Hernandez, he did was very meeting him like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That sequence was tough.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's the thing with Mitchell is, you know, what's the contact going to be?
[SPEAKER_00]: The power is probably 70, we're all.
[SPEAKER_00]: But how is it going to actualize, you know, there's questions about that because of the swing and miss.
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple of other names just wanted to shout out, Theo Gillin, he's told up, like we saw him batting practice, he had an upper deck home run, he's very strong, very physical, but he's also easy plus runner.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was, he had one of the fastest run times in the game, he's really impressive, I feel very good about where we have him ranked after seeing him in person this week, I don't know how you feel about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was another one.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll same way Josiah Hydstrom, by the way, Josiah Hydstrom, we have really kind of stuffed him up our top 100.
[SPEAKER_01]: I came away from this, like, yep, that's exactly what we thought again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know, like, thankfully nowadays, I don't want to make this sound like that we've just kind of been stumbling around in the dark, and then we see him in person as like, yeah, but everything that, every evaluation we had on, excuse me,
[SPEAKER_01]: on heart shorn, is that he has real power with some hitting ability.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a corner out to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, physicality was very apparent all that, but I want to bring up also a couple, because there weren't as many defensive standouts in this game because they're really just weren't that many, you don't get the opportunities.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a seven-in-game, there are a lot of ton of opportunities.
[SPEAKER_01]: The one I would say that the one player I'd say defensively got a chance to shine,
[SPEAKER_01]: was Brewer's third basement, Louise Payne is not only a third basement, but two games have been shared.
[SPEAKER_01]: This feeling like, what's like a third basement?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I would completely agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was obviously in Deference to his team, it was not his organizational teamators to say, hey, Sue's Mata, you've planned third base.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second, I guess this would be his third start there this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he looked like a natural.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, when we see short stops move to third base, you can tell their actions are just different, because they still have that short stop influence to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we saw from Painia today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean this in a complimentary way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was very comfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: He made it great over the shoulder catch and ranging behind third base.
[SPEAKER_00]: One that it's, it was a very difficult play.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, the left is certainly, it could have been very easily a single.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like in that vermuda triangle of that perfect spot or the left field or the short stop and the third base and all are gonna have trouble getting to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it showed great range there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think the play that really impressed me the most was he, he made a play on a slow, slow ground, like a slow chopper, where he did the short stop thing, where he positioned his body so that when he fielded it,
[SPEAKER_00]: his front leg was out in front and he could just easily transition without having to take that extra step to get the runner because I believe it was a fast runner running down the line.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was just a little thing but the way he could contoured his body and just how fluid he looked making the play really stood out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you said, it gave me a lot of confidence that, hey, this guy has to move it to third base because I thought his arm was fine there too, like he threw a strong accurate throw there.
[SPEAKER_00]: that he's someone that, I mean, the blues are an envy of the amount of it feels that I don't know what they're, I don't know where they're going to play on these guys, because Cooper Pratt is up in the majors right now, they've got defensively is better than Hazard's, but they in my hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And probably paying it to at short stop.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't think about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would say like that's even like if you were hearing them defensively short stop to me, it is Pratt, Medea, Pena.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and we're just,
[SPEAKER_01]: cocking and raving about paemia.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and he's the third of that group.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, at a position he's barely played this season.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure even how many brown balls he's taken there before games.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I thought that was really impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Throws wise.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought Xavier Nian's best in field arm.
[SPEAKER_00]: He threw an absolute seed across like he did.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will also say I felt like it was a little Mason Lin to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whereas like he had time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's like he had time.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had time really to be like
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, he's like, I'm only going to get one ball here, and I'm on a stack cast data, and it was ninety two ninety two seven, I believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the, for the outfield Mike's wrote a big really strong throw, which I thought the catcher actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was a, it was the hardest throw of the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was ninety four.
[SPEAKER_01]: 94.7 yeah and so also like it's not a great throw for the outfit like you can absolutely see 100 mile an hour for a guy who has time to get behind it and throw but yeah still on that yeah and it was an accurate throw too which you care about obviously so we need one bounce and the catcher tried to
[SPEAKER_01]: And he missed it, and then they called an error on Sarota, which I'm sorry, but like it was, I know it hit the ground, but that was intentional.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't short hop, and he didn't catch him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did not catch the catcher in between.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are making a throw from the outfield, if the hop is far, far away and true, which it was, that's still on the catcher to catch that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the catcher, maybe they were true trying to do the swipe tag, but he swipes before the ball was there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was the issue there, but I thought it was an interesting one because
[SPEAKER_00]: Like all the plays, there was some like more difficult plays like Haseo Smoday made a nice play, ranging up the middle, had a strong arm, but I thought for the most part like it was a pretty clean game other than that, like the defense like guys were playing out of position, you wouldn't know like EI will, it's was playing second base, he looked fine there, you know, which I thought it was interesting to see these guys playing different positions in that regard, especially in the infield, because there's obviously the majority of the guys are going to be short stops.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a second of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: So seeing those guys kind of like out of position, but still showing, you know, hey, I'm a great athlete.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am a good move, or I know what I can do here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was very interesting, but there weren't, yeah, it was just it was weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, guys weren't really given opportunities to make that many great plays.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt like
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's, again, if you think about it, it's a, there were 42 out of the decade.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and all together, we were really talking about there were like 60 plate appearances, you know, a little less than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's just not going to be that many again.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing that's the only thing that is disappointing about the future to game every year is I feel like it starts and then I look up and it's over.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that it's going to be a year before we get another one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I think we're at a point where it should go back to nine innings, like I felt it was it was rough after at the end of the game in the ninth inning, the American League at three pictures in the seventh inning and they had guys multiple guys through two pitches like it's just an unfortunate situation with the way the rosters are constructed that back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joe, if you were a norals fan, you're like, okay, I can't wait.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to see Joseph Zeroa.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Zeroa basically, I think it was two pitches.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I talked to you after the game about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was like, yeah, what can you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's like not ideal, but you know, it's fun to go out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, very, as we knew, very tall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, legit, six eight.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I will see you go back to nine innings.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that would be an exclusion.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say with that, like, one of the things that they've done well now is that they've now mandated that you have to bring relievers, actual relievers, Mason Aguire, was there being graves that we had guys there who, if you had an inning that got away from someone, it would be okay, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say that your solution to that really kind of is is, look, if you go
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have to bang and inning, bang and inning, is it for this or I think the other solution is just have the host team provide a couple arms for each team from one of their affiliates that's the closest and you know, I'm sure those guys would love the opportunity to eat if the game like that and you don't even have to put them on the roster.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: you see it during the spring breakout games, teams will backfill a couple of spots on those rosers with guys who are just there in case, hey, we have this scripted ending set up, but if this guy's unable to finish, you're going to go in and get one out or two out so the next guy can start with a cleaning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think anyone is going to complain about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talking all the players, they love the experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: They thought it was awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you add a couple more players like that, who they don't even have to be the top pro, so just take whoever the
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and by the way, you come knowing, hey, you're going to get to experience it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You might not even promise you we're going to get you in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone else, we promise, but you are here as almost like the taxi squad guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if needed, your guy can get up and get ready and come in because that's your role.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and we're going to reward it to like, I mean, if you said, we're going to reward it to two kind of veteran life for relievers every year, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know, those guys too, you know, because they're grinders.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I just think it would just be just make it the product like I think the future's game is great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I loved it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was very toxic, but I think they're just some small tweaks that could make it even better and put more of a showcase on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I generally think that MLB, this is something you want to be highlighting.
[SPEAKER_00]: These guys, the talent that was on the field, you do not get to ever see that at
[SPEAKER_00]: And that needs to be fo- like highlighted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the common person, common baseball fan should know who Seth Hernandez is now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I feel like if that was a prime time game on one of their network partners, they could accomplish that and they could start marketing behind the league's way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would ask, I feel like right now because everything that's going on and again, we were in the weeds.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I feel like there was suffering as didn't the Spring Breakout game, which was much less talent on the field than today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then after that, you should say.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what he did there is probably resonated more than what he did yesterday because when he did it in Spring Breakout game, it was kind of like, well, what else is going on right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: Whereas when he did it yesterday, it was like, did you see what suffered and I did?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I was watching Paul Scheme's pitch at the same time.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, as a pirate's fan, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you had your base on the mound in a game for your big league club at the exact same time the suffered andus with pitching.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you can also say all but also on I was listening to the, I was in the 10th round of the draft at that point, seeing who my team was picking.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, you then had a full slate of games of
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a lot too much of a good thing but, you know, again, these are, these are first world problems.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would much rather have a future's game of seven innings and wish it was more and wish it was later than not have it, which didn't use to make a case, but at the same time, we are rooting for to be better because we love it and we want more people to love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is the baseball America Plus Big podcast for this week again, we're doing it
[SPEAKER_01]: We're making it do this week because we're all over the place, we're covering this stuff and it's very valuable for us, again, Ian and I and Jacob brother are all got to see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Literally, I think almost half of our top, you know, well over a third of our top 100.
[SPEAKER_01]: In one day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the top 100.
[SPEAKER_00]: Got the top 100.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Liam's number of top 100 prospects he's seen in person almost doubled.
[SPEAKER_01]: You went from like the mid like 38, I think and he said you're probably
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's awesome for that standpoint, you know, we, we love it, but we thank you also for the downloads.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're on YouTube, please click that subscribe, but it does help us because it means more people will find the content.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love putting this out for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want more people to see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: For Ian, I'm JJ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So long, everybody.