[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome in to the Baseball America Trade Deadline Extravaganza.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Jacob Runder joined by JJ Cooper E&Cundall and Jeff Ponce.
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, do we have a busy show for you today?
[SPEAKER_00]: There has been ample action on the 2021 MLB Trade Deadline.
[SPEAKER_00]: The deadline has passed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can still see some things trickle in JJ.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to have you explain that in a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for the most part, all the big action is behind us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So,
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to break things down on the show today.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to go ahead on over to baseballamerica.com for all our content.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, we are running a promotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can subscribe with code trade for 30% off and read all of our analysis over there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now we are going to discuss it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are going to answer your questions as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So comment those, JJ, I'll go to you first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just explain for everybody the dynamic of what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are done with the deadline.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what can still occur?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll just grab this almost like as the raise paradox in that you don't have to you have to file your trade to major league baseball by the deadline.
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't mean you have to release the information of your trade at the deadline.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I would say by now, we're in our behalf, I think we are basically, we have cleared the decks.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, at 30 minutes out, we're cleared the decks, I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's not something where you can't have trades kind of trickle out as we kind of survey the carnage and the wreckage of a utterly wild day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, while they indeed, I think the biggest news of today, Adley Ruchman traded from the Baltimore Orioles for a hall of four prospects to the Boston Red Sox, and why don't you break down for us just the magnitude of this deal and whether or not it caught you off guard, did this surprise you at all?
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, I think a little bit obviously was clear that Craig Brousal wanted to make a splash this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the red socks have been the best team in baseball over the last month plus they just swept the Dodgers.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think, you know, in this American league, which is why it opened their team that
[SPEAKER_03]: 0.5 B.
[SPEAKER_03]: War for the entire season, Adley Rushman, you know, has had multiple seasons above four B.
[SPEAKER_03]: War.
[SPEAKER_03]: This season he was worth 1.9 B.
[SPEAKER_03]: War and only 60 just over 60 games.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's a massive upgrade on what they had.
[SPEAKER_03]: They paid a steep price to do that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think, you know, in past deadlines, Craig Breslow has been, um,
[SPEAKER_03]: But his indiscision has kind of cost him an unwillingness to push it even that further step to get a deal over the line has left them with having to settle for, you know, secondary options and in this case, it was clear he wasn't going to miss out on this one, you know, he talked about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's doing his media availability right now, but he talks about how they view out of the rupturement as, you know, a potential superstar, you know, we've seen that in the past, they don't know if we've seen that as of late.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is someone who has made it all start all start team three the last four years, but has seen his performance at the plate kind of decline, though he has bounced back a bit this season.
[SPEAKER_03]: In return, I mean, they gave up a pretty substantial hall, I'll kick it to JJ in a second and kind of give some context for how big that hall was, but I know talking to some executives and some other evaluators around the game people were kind of stunned by it.
[SPEAKER_03]: They gave up the pedliners Anthony Ionson who is the Red Sox number two prospect, top pitching prospect, pitched in the future's game this year, ranked number 33 in the current baseball America top 100.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's taken a major step forward.
[SPEAKER_03]: His secondary stuff is really advanced.
[SPEAKER_03]: His fastball velocity exploded in the spring has not held it at all.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's sitting, you know, kind of a little above where he was at LSU, but still he's been extremely effective.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's coming off
[SPEAKER_03]: And another very good start to end it where you had 10 strikeouts and 4 and 2 thirds innings made it onto this week's hot sheet.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's someone who I think with his VLO, there's kind of some variance in his profile because of the velocity fluctuations.
[SPEAKER_03]: If he gets back into the mid to high 90s like he was at the in spring training and during like his first starter to then you know this is a guy who probably has a chance to be maybe number two, number three starter.
[SPEAKER_03]: But with what where he's pitching at right now, which is more 92 to 95 miles an hour.
[SPEAKER_03]: He still has a chance to be a three or four because of the quality of his secondary pitches.
[SPEAKER_03]: He has multiple bat missing offerings there.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's added a cutter to give him a five pitch arsenal.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just a really advanced profile.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of strikes.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think he's somebody could be in the oral's rotation as soon as next season and immediately sloths in as their number one pitching prospect.
[SPEAKER_03]: After that, they've also, they're also getting kyson with his room who was the Red Sox first round pick in 2025.
[SPEAKER_03]: With his room is that an up and down season, they try to make some changes with his delivery and with his pitch arsenal earlier in the season, he didn't really take to them.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's kind of morphed back to what he was doing in Oklahoma to better affect.
[SPEAKER_03]: Results have still been a little inconsistent and I just when I looked at him, it was a weird pick at the time for the Red Sox because he just doesn't fit their mold of what they've targeted with pitching prospects.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's six foot two.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a high release height.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like those are just things that the red socks have not really gone after and it just doesn't seem like it clicked So he was actually a pretty strong change as senior you can to date.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that the Orioles who really do like their their higher arms lock guys He fits a lot better in their development program.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think then he did in Boston's So we'll see if they can unlock something him because coming out Oklahoma He was seen as one of the best college pictures in the draft then to round it out the prospect call in and as a car someone who currently we have number five in the red sock system
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you told me he had the highest ceiling of anyone in this trade, I wouldn't say no to that.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a 19 year old who's in high days, got 18 home runs this season.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's premium like potential plus raw power, high end exit velocities.
[SPEAKER_03]: He can elevate the ball.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like there's a lot to like with him offensively.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's just a ton of hit tool variance.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, this is guy who could be a 30 hit tool.
[SPEAKER_03]: He could be a 50 hit tool.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's a 50.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's got a chance to be an all star.
[SPEAKER_03]: If it's a 30, then you know, that's what will probably keep him from reaching his potential.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's swing and miss in his game.
[SPEAKER_03]: He makes good contact on pitches in the zones and pretty good swing decisions, but he's prone to chase especially on secondaries and I think that's the biggest thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: He has pretty substantial splits.
[SPEAKER_03]: He crushed his fast balls still learning to recognize breaking balls and off speed pitches, but if he can do that, I mean.
[SPEAKER_03]: there's a very high ceiling here because he's a good runner.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's probably an average to take a above runner.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's got a chance to stick in center field.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's got a strong arm.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like he checks a lot of boxes and he's super predictable.
[SPEAKER_03]: Six foot two hundred and seventy pounds listed right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Could easily see this guy turning into six foot two hundred and ninety two hundred and pound two way threat in the outfield.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think he's a great guy by ball to where he's one of my favorite prospects who was kind of lowered down in the red socks system and just rounds out what I think is a really, really impressive prospect all for the Orioles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeff, is this an admission of defeat if you're Baltimore?
[SPEAKER_00]: What does this mean if you're Baltimore, to be giving away a guy like Adley Rechman, who's under team control, who has the star power that he has?
[SPEAKER_00]: But what does it say about the state of Baltimore right now?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, I think it's a statement on where 2026 is going.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were sort of on the fringe.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think a mistake that you could probably say Craig Freslow was made before.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi, I'm Bloom certainly made in Boston.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is kind of maybe going on a little bit more of around the new expect being in the playoff picture, especially with these expanded playoffs.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the decision you have to make is sort of,
[SPEAKER_02]: I think, you know, at least win around, right, or not, even if you do get into the playoffs.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or is it a team where there's a couple of pieces here that if you sort of look at the whole team and the aggregate are valuable, but moveable pieces.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think you look at the Orials.
[SPEAKER_02]: um, they have the silo um, etc.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think, you know, that allows them to then move on from Adley Rushman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, trading him in the division, I think that's one of the reasons that the price tag was was so high.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but on the other side of things, you know, Andy and Andy as Ocar is a really exciting prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: I agree with with Ian on that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think he could end up being or probably is the second best player.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, you know, outside of badly Russian, but like the second best prospect going to the Orioles outside of ions.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, you know, it's still too pitching prospects and a guy who's in the lower minors that has some pretty not substantial, but at least questionable hit tool risk.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and then a player to be named later.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think that that's necessarily, you know, enforcement bias as well, but like I don't think that's a bad.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like a huge overpay, when you consider you're going to get, you know, potentially roshman back this year, maybe within a few weeks, I think that kind of helps change the dynamic your team, especially considering it's a switching bat that's at least a above average hitter, you know, at a position where there's very few above average hitters.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I think, you know, you sort of look at the hit rate of just prospects that are
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like it's a win for the Red Sox.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do understand why Baltimore get it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think, you know, ultimately, it's them looking down the road to next year trying to build, you know, more assets within that system.
[SPEAKER_02]: And over the last couple of years, the Orioles do deserve some creditive kind of rebuilding some of that system on the fly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just wanna add a little context on the return that they got here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two top hundred prospects and it's Jeff said, one thing's always gets tricky here, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You can say Tyson with her spoon top hundred prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were kind of tweaking maybe removing him or planning to remove him from the top hundred in our update that comes out on Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like he's on that fringe.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then as we said here also you're talking about you also have another guy in Azokar who's right on the range of that too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they're top hundred at range prospects.
[SPEAKER_01]: But since they had two, we only saw last year, two top hundred prospects traded entirely.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the entire trade deadline and those are obviously separate deals.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we saw zero in 2024.
[SPEAKER_01]: We saw three in 2023, but no one in the top 50.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you could say that this hall is the largest hall.
[SPEAKER_01]: that a team has received since the Juan Soto trade, which I think goes down as one of the greatest halls that a team has received as they should because Juan Soto was one of the best players in baseball and had many years of team control still ahead of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this is a big hall to receive.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that the overarching thing we saw here today and we've seen this week is
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have, there's very different rental versus team control for years to come.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can talk about some of the other trades that we saw this with because even if you are talking about a back-to-back Sian winner, the return while substantial isn't dramatically different than you see for some other guys who do have team control who are not as good.
[SPEAKER_03]: I also think that it shows the premium just put on the catching position.
[SPEAKER_03]: You look around the game, Hunter Goodman didn't get moved, Tyler Stevenson didn't get moved.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like Adley was really the only high end catcher to get dealt.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think they're on socks paid the premium for that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's why, I think he can be both things.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think the Rutt's socks can pay a lot.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll also be being a good deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: JJ, as far as return goes, does this stack up with expectation?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, the tricky part of the expectation on this one is I didn't prep on this one because I wasn't kind of an analyzing trade deadline deals for catchers with, you know, all star catchers with years left because I wasn't really sure that I was going to get out.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yes, I mean, you look at this and you say, you're kind of summed it up, like you're going to pay an ample price.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adley Rushman, a healthy Adley Rushman.
[SPEAKER_01]: could not only help Boston win a series, it could help them win multiple series in the postseason because they're going to go from a absolute net zero at best at catcher to, you know, having an impact player there.
[SPEAKER_01]: If healthy, key thing there is is we're going to have to see, are we going to see the Adley Rushman that we've seen win healthy?
[SPEAKER_01]: And obviously it hasn't been always the case for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the other interesting things about today was how the sellers perform.
[SPEAKER_00]: The angels had a very active day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought that that was productive.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to get into it more in a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: The giants looked really good today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought the Rockies made a lot of smart moves.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to get into all of those teams specifically.
[SPEAKER_00]: But broadly speaking, JJ, this seemed like a good day to be a bad team, if you can call it that.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a lot of very useful players.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I've said, I've kind of tried to study this as much as I can.
[SPEAKER_01]: These deals seem great today and a lot of them are going to end up looking back on them here going to say, oh, the team that sold,
[SPEAKER_01]: to get, you know, sit prospects away, to get a big league or generally won that trade.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because a lot of these guys, especially even when we're talking about back of the hundreds, especially when we talk about fringe of the hundreds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Especially when you get to top 150 to 500 prospect in baseball.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of those guys are gonna be role players at best.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of those guys aren't gonna be, they're gonna be like, oh, that guy was a 0.54 player for three seasons or never reach the majors and all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all gonna be true.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were more, oh, I didn't expect that guy to go trades today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like then we see in most trade deadlines.
[SPEAKER_01]: And something that Ian kind of got us prep for.
[SPEAKER_01]: I also a number of, that guy's no longer a prospect, but he was a pretty good prospect not that long ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I kind of like, again, I like the change of scenery approach of saying, hey, maybe we can really get something out of a guy who not that long ago
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get into this specific and we're going to do that by going to the chat again.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you do have questions, we want to answer them.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to spend as long as we're doing this, trying to answer some of these questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for Eric to get us started, how was the return for Soriano from the angels?
[SPEAKER_00]: He next from the Blue Jays, Arjuna Numala, one of the top prospects traded in today.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the deadline, Jeff, I'm going to go to you first.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think about the angels haul for Soriano?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, I think, um,
[SPEAKER_02]: It was probably, I mean, one of the stronger halls you're going to get, and I think it was good to see the angels also kind of be decisive and sell and make a decision to kind of steer into the rebuild a little bit, which has been something that the angels have just neglected to do for
[SPEAKER_02]: the better part of a decade, the better part of Mike Trial's career.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think it was kind of refreshing to see them do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, on the other side, not too long after trading Kevin Gaussman for the Blue Jays to turn around and then, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: trade for a Jose Soriano, which I do understand sort of looking toward 2027, etc.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because there's some control there, some leash, in terms of, you know, along you're going to have them.
[SPEAKER_02]: I understand it, but it was a bit of a surprise.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say it was probably one of the more surprising deadline moves.
[SPEAKER_02]: I like a dope was on SportsNet this morning, and they were asking me about Blue J's prospects.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, I think the model probably would be untouchable unless it was the right deal.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was traded 25 minutes later.
[SPEAKER_02]: So.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was fun, but I think when you look at Namala, there's been some, he's dealt with some hamstring injuries this year, seems to be the theme of the players that were traded at the Deadline, Hammond River Ryan.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think you have to look at the development of him, just as a pure hitter.
[SPEAKER_02]: The power has always been there.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's always been bat speed.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's had different bouts of being overly passive
[SPEAKER_02]: Last year he kind of got into a funk in the second half of the season as he tried to catch everything out front with a swing.
[SPEAKER_02]: He seemed to kind of find a happy medium this year when he's been on the field Still struggles against spins somewhat, but I think when you think about you know a young 20-year-old hitter He was you know an above average to potentially plus defensive shortstop that has above average to probably plus plus raw power right now and he's starting to get to it more
[SPEAKER_02]: the contact and getting to sort of like 50-ish contacts, cutting down on the strikeouts multiple years in a row, really showing progression there and knowing that there's probably just some more ceiling just based on another couple of years of pro ball where he's gonna be.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think this is almost like a built-in replacement for Zack Netto, if they decide to in the offseason, trade him.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think it's a really good return.
[SPEAKER_02]: Eddie McAletty is a nice, a nice bat.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not somebody who is a full time regular, probably an up and down guy at best, maybe like a high end or a guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a good bat, but not a guy that was pushing the back end of the top 30 for the Blue Jays at all.
[SPEAKER_02]: On Hill River, though, is a guy who would have been added to the Blue Jays top 30 in the next update, when we update in the next couple of weeks.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got from multiple evaluators that were down there in FTL that he was the best pitcher on that blue jays team that had a couple of different prospects, maybe higher name, bigger bonus guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, mixes for pitches, good foreseen fastball shape, you know, good ride, a lot of arm side run pretty good playing because he's a shorter guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the sweepers pretty good decent curve ball change that's kind of developing.
[SPEAKER_02]: But like a promising guy that I got like C1.
[SPEAKER_02]: So like a 45 sort of like number five, number six up and down starter type.
[SPEAKER_02]: So not a bad grab for them.
[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, you know, if they get the top player in the blue, in the blue data system.
[SPEAKER_00]: JJ, I think a lot of people see that trade and they're going to go, did the angels just get a better deal for Soriano than the tigers for tarq school.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's a fair question, Nabala's number 36 prospect.
[SPEAKER_00]: On our top 100 right now, zai your hope to headliner and that deals number 55.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the level of disparity in your opinion between what the Dodgers got or what the Dodgers gave and and and the view of was here with the blue jays.
[SPEAKER_01]: massive.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it still is because the difference between the next guys in this deal and that deal is a Casem, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We just said Jeff just laid out like we all like Rivera.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is a guy who is going to move on to the back of a top 30 in the next update, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, we're talking about river Ryan river Ryan if you want to say river Ryan's a top hundred prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's fine to me like he's he's in that range right he's in that range of that's another guy right there that you're not that you're saying in this deal is is not someone that you're saying okay, he you know is possibly something that's a guy who
[SPEAKER_01]: River Ryan, you say the keywords, if healthy, but if healthy river Ryan is in the tiger's rotation next year without a doubt, like he goes into spring training and he healthy river Ryan should be in their rotation.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing like that as a second piece in this Soryano deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I do think it's a pretty massive difference, but at the same time, to get Argentina Mala, who, you know, Jeff just like said, late, you could make an argument, he was almost at that range of untouchable
[SPEAKER_00]: Ian, any thoughts?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I just, I wanted to echo, I think someone in the chat mentioned it, but it just showed that the impact having control control control can have on a return.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because I don't think anyone would say that either Jose Soriano or Adley Rochman comes close to the player that Turek Scoobal is, but the fact that their package is both had a higher ranked headliner.
[SPEAKER_03]: granted I think the school package the depth is much better than this one is JJ said I think the depth is comparable to the adly package it just shows that teams value control that much and you know as Soriano he's had an up and down season he was obviously got off to a great start it's kind of backed up a little bit as of late before finding his form again but I mean I think it's a very strong return for the angels and I think it was
[SPEAKER_03]: nice to see them and a few other teams just pick a lane finally.
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like for a long time there have been a lot of teams that have been kind and holding on to hope when in reality they probably were not close to a competition window.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think we saw a few of those teams pivot pretty hard this season.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Orioles, the one we already talked about, the angels here and then probably the giants who I think we're going to talk about a little later really come to mind in that realm.
[SPEAKER_00]: All righty, let's move on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about those giants.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mario says, talk about the giants.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we shall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ian, let's just go right back to you on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: The giants did have a very busy day today.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were sellers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Robby Ray stays in the division.
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes to the pod rays.
[SPEAKER_00]: They get a number of two top 30 prospects for Elliot Ramos who goes to the Yankees.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you think of Buster Posi's debut with the deadline?
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought it did a really good job and funny thing is I don't think you even mentioned my favorite trade if there's was just the loose rise trade with the fillies.
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought that was that was a really nice piece of work for Buster Posi there, but I think you know this giant team was just a very weirdly constructed team you had high priced veterans then you had kind of young players having to play at a position for in efforts to those veterans.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think, you know, what they did here is they kind of just hit the reset button while still keeping some of the same shape they had before because you're probably not going to find a taker for Raphael Devers, William Domus, Matt Chapman, guys like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the best you can do is trade from the periphery around them.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's what they did.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think, as I said, the arrives return, I think Ramon Mark has this really good.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think he could be a top 100 prospect as even as soon as by the off season.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's one of the best changers in minor league
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean it's really good stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's mostly two pitches right now, which I think is kind of what keeps them a little lower.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he's a very promising player.
[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, I mean, they just went out and and I think the players they targeted were just were just very smart.
[SPEAKER_03]: The other one I wanted to shout out was John L. Rodriguez, who they got in the, I believe that was the Robbie Ray trade, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: That was he was someone who I know Josh when we get when he does his DSL top prospects list he's going to feature pretty prominently on that and he was someone that I heard from a source in the DSL that was one of their favorite players that they saw he can really hit and this is a guy coming out of Cuba 17 year old put a very good numbers in the DSL and
[SPEAKER_03]: I think he's someone that in a giant system just adds their staple of really promising young middle-infield prospects and I think, you know, it seems like they did a lot of work here because they wasn't just the primary pieces in the trade that were solid yet, the guys they were getting as their second and third pieces I really like too.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think they added a lot of talent, you know, their hi-A rotation looks like it's going to be one of the most intriguing we've seen in a very long time with Henry Lillane who we haven't mentioned yet, but yeah, I was very impressed
[SPEAKER_01]: RGJ, I'll just go say that kind of along what you said, the thing that stands out to me is they made enough moves that One of the things that we talk about is there's the balance of quantity and quality if you're a seller or if you're a buyer, I should say Okay, you always have that choice.
[SPEAKER_01]: You want the one elite prospect or do you want multiple more chances, but each one is more risk and it's kind of a little bit of a back and forth
[SPEAKER_01]: They took guys who have risk.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say they took a number of guys here like, I love Johnny O'Neill over there this as well, but we're talking about guys in the DSL, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's a lot of risk there.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's risk with Henry Lollane because he was great, that he had shoulder surgery, it was out for two years, and now he's great again.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you take a guy who has a chance to be really impactful here and another here, and another here, and another here, like you say like a Marquez and even Miguel Mendez
[SPEAKER_01]: You take enough of those guys the chances of getting one of them or two of them to make to kind of break through is much higher and especially and Jeff I'll kind of kick it to you on this, especially when you throw in the fact that this is joining a system that I would say that probably already had
[SPEAKER_01]: one of the best groups of talent in the class A and below levels of any organization out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that they're the same way at AA, you know, an above necessarily yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's a lot of young talent in that giant system in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think that sort of seems to be the strength of the organization at this point and good on the giants for once again sort of steering into a bit of the rebuild.
[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, they haven't sold off all their pieces or anything along those lines, but getting a lot of depth within that system and, you know, they have the top end guys, but I think
[SPEAKER_02]: The systems that produce the most major leaders are also the systems that just have the most, you know, 45 or above sort of future value type prospects.
[SPEAKER_02]: They did a good job, I think, of acquiring a lot of those guys today, some that are really exciting.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Ramon Mark has even though he's a change up first right hander is a really interesting picture.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a really interesting fastball.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's interesting arm angle.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a lot of power there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I sort of look at the giants as probably one of the biggest winners of the day without having to really, you know, trade away from any other core and bring in, you know, a lot of talent, maybe not the biggest splashiest prospects that we're traded today, but certainly a lot of guys that are trade rankings are probably right in that middle tier.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, let's keep it moving with the questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are new to the show, we are answering questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can submit them.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will answer them on the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matt M asks this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you guys please talk about the free us and rags the old trade to the Cardinals.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sounds like great prospects.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're unfamiliar, there was one of many intra-division trades today between the Cardinals and the Brewers.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Cardinals sent Dustin May and Jojo Romero to Milwaukee in exchange for two prospects.
[SPEAKER_00]: 18 year old.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alex Andrew, free us big left handed hitter with power and Josiah Ragsdale, a AA outfielder, another power hitter, JJ will start with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you think?
[SPEAKER_01]: I love this trade for the cardinals.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've already said that I think on on social media.
[SPEAKER_01]: Prius has been in our 100.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was in the 100 as this kind of breakout prospect in the lowmine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's complex league moved up to low a big time power, but really does seem to have a little bit more field of hit than a lot of guys kind of in that 18 year old profile of big power.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm the one that kind of, I think that I'll probably have become a bigger and bigger fan of just kind of every month.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Jeff wrote on them too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll kind of kick this a Jeff to kind of go more on this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just I a rags to who who just had a month, like if you want to say, if you're going to be
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, if you want to be contrarian about this, if you're going to sell high on a guy sell high on a guy right after he had a 10 home run month because just I ragsdale got promoted to double A and then basically turned into baby Ruth for about the year yet a stretch we run and how she today nine homers and 10 games and you know, it's just been, but the thing about it is is that.
[SPEAKER_01]: bigger picture on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Josiah Ragsdale, Brewers Development, hits the ball a lot harder this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's getting the ball in the air board this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's doing everything better this year and he's done it up to double a now without a whole lot of degradation in the context skills into some of those things that already were pretty good for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of made him a pretty well-rounded prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you don't like him in center in the long run.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you think he's more of a corner.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jeff, am I wrong to kind of think that this is a guy who's not a top 100 prospect right now, but that we could look back on and say, that was one of the best guys picked up at the deadline.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I think if, you know, you're looking at like underlying stack cast data, which is at, you know, all these different levels is not necessarily available.
[SPEAKER_02]: The public outside of a few, um, he balances a lot of skills really well.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Ragsdale is the exactly the type of guy that I'm going to write about over the next month or two, now that we have a much larger sample size, everything is a lot less noisy than it was a month ago, and you can really look at year over year skill improvements and we talked about it a little bit this morning, you know, offline and our our team slack, but.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ragsdale's EV numbers year over year are pretty substantially.
[SPEAKER_02]: The top end was I think around three miles per hour, but his average might have been like six or seven.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's now showing I would say like above average power metrics that wouldn't put plus on it, but there are angles to go along with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: The approach is really, really strong.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I say that I'm looking at numbers like.
[SPEAKER_02]: Chase in relation to swing rate, anything above 20% is really good.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got a 22.1% gap between the swing and the chase rate what that shows is that someone is not swinging outside of the zone, but also attacking in the zone, the heart numbers back that up with a 75% heart swing so pitches over the middle of the plate.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's attacking, he's hitting him at good angles.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's an above 50% heart hit rate.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's coming along with, you know, no deterioration, no deterioration in the plate skills.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's still in a above average in zone misread of like 17.2% with.
[SPEAKER_02]: The overall mystery obviously isn't bad.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's taking a lot of pitches for it that it looks like in a above average bat and this is the kind of sort of breakout prospect that you want to maybe take a gamble on and then when you tie in a really exciting, you know, high upside hitter like Alexander free us.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think this is a potential huge win for the Cardinals, and I'll just say as a bit of an aside, as someone who's covered the Cardinals now, since I've been at Baseball, America since 2021.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the best the systems ever been.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I've been saying that kind of over and over again, since last trade deadline, they've done a really nice job of rebuilding this system and targeting very different types of prospects.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think they were kind of known for power hitters and then like really boring pitching prospects.
[SPEAKER_02]: they have a wide variety of interesting prospects and I think that this is one of those systems where you could tell me a year from now, there's four or five guys in the system right now that aren't ranking inside the top 100 that will be top 100 prospects next deadline.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been a really good job by blue and company to kind of take the reins there and shift the focus and really build up a lot
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, and I think that goes to something we saw with I'm blubed it at the red sox is he's very good at building a farm system.
[SPEAKER_03]: He knows how to use every avenue to acquire talent.
[SPEAKER_03]: He does a very good job in trades of maximizing talent return.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think back to something like the Christian Vaskas for will your brain and a manual valedest trade at the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: No one really thought much other than you look at what will your brain is now and.
[SPEAKER_03]: I look at the trade he made today as the large new bar one is one that I think is really interesting too because the guys they got back from the Diamondbacks Danny league and in Sanders Santana on the surface it's a pair of double a pitchers kind of what Jeff said maybe on the more boring side, but I think Sanders Santana especially is a fascinating arm.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the guy getting really good reports on he was going to jump well inside the diamond backs top 30 is not my problem anymore Jeff, but he's now years, but he was going to jump way up in the system rankings because I think there was I talked to some evaluators who thought there was a chance he could pitch in the big least this year like it the stuff is improved that dramatically.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's really small, but he throws from a really difficult slot to low arm slot kind of a sinker at 97, you know, 95, 96, 97 miles an hour and he's got a really good slider that goes with it and you know, he's the type of guy that you see.
[SPEAKER_03]: can have success out of the bullpen.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a pure bullpen profile, as I said.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's very small, a really short strider, but he can really miss bats with his fastball, his sinker, or else he's me, his slider, and his change-ups.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's a really interesting guy, and I really like that get.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think Danieli, he's a solid pitcher too.
[SPEAKER_03]: His numbers this year kind of masked by what was a really, really rough April, where he's adjusting.
[SPEAKER_03]: to Armoreo, which was tough as a flyball pitcher, the Texas League has some really, really bad pitcher's parks and unfortunately he's playing in one of them.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I think it took him a little time to get adjusted.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was also his first time pitching with the five-man rotation, but as I see this gone on, he's got more comfortable at the level.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's really kind of felt it.
[SPEAKER_03]: found his footing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think, you know, I don't think he is the highest ceiling.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think he's more, you know, a back end starter at best.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he just adds another depth starter into what is a really exciting pitching group that the Cardinals are putting together.
[SPEAKER_00]: For those of you who are just joining us, welcome into our MLB Trade Deadline recap and analysis.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Jacob Brugger with JJ Cooper, Ian Kundel, and Jeff Ponce, 3,400 of you listening to us live right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't thank you enough for paying attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: To our coverage, it also is important to remind you of this.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's continue looking through some questions here.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to rally Squirrel 2011,
[SPEAKER_00]: who says this in hindsight was this more of a seller's market than expected with so many top 100 prospects moved or was that just for those isolated moves?
[SPEAKER_00]: JJ?
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think it ended up being a seller's market.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had teams, so what we did not know coming into this is which teams would sell that were on that borderline and which ones would not, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we saw a couple of teams that would describe it as the strategic, I'm going both ways, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt like that the marlins for a little bit, the blue jays were a little bit where it's like, I'm gonna sell the right price, but I'm also gonna buy it the right price.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you did see teams like I would say the Orioles for one,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what two and a half games out of the wildcar going into today and they sold, you had teams like the Tigers who really aren't that far out of it who sold.
[SPEAKER_01]: You did have a number of teams that a week ago, you couldn't 100% say, with certainty, this team's going to sell that did.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that meant in a market where, you know, I will say this, I saw some
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are enough talent moves that you're probably a little worried like did you fall behind a little bit today because this is not there are deadlines where it's like yes everyone got to got a reliever to help them okay whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was not that deadline.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was the deadline where you did see teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, the Dodgers, the Colossus added the best picture available.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you did see other teams as well that made real moves to kind of add and improve themselves, not just for the last rest of the regular season, but improve themselves in the postseason as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeff, thoughts?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, um, you know, I kind of just echo everything, you know, JJ said, and that record frankly.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's just roll on to the next one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, here we go, uh, from Grizzlebeez.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like the Met's Hall for Holmes Ian.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I mean, then it remind me, then it won't just for me and also for our viewers, let's find the exact trade on what that, because just so then the trade is fired.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Metzifier Jefferson Rojas, the comes number two prospect for clay holes and tyrone Taylor, Ian Bactio.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think, you know, we saw in some deals where I think teams went for more of a quantity approach where they were trying to acquire, you know, two, three, four prospects because they were lacking depth.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I, we saw them at, so I think do that in some other deals.
[SPEAKER_03]: I like in this one that they just went for the pure quality approach, you know Jefferson Rojas is someone who kind of hit has fit on the back end of the top 100 for a while, he stayed there all season.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's taken a major stride forward this year.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he was someone that just, and we had him, I believe he was on our, um,
[SPEAKER_03]: prospects who were blocked article that we wrote.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because you just looked at the way the cubs were also reconstructed and it just didn't really seem like a fit.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I think that the met's getting him, I think there's a much clearer pathway to playing time there at second base with Lendor is probably not going to be a short stop, but you look at second base and third base at it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if the met's have their long term answers there yet.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I think that Rojas is someone who gives them a pretty exciting option and hopefully someone that can fill one of those positions and be an everyday guy as soon as probably next maybe not next year, maybe 2028.
[SPEAKER_03]: But still, I think that, you know, for rental and clay homes, and that's probably why you did include Tyrone Taylor also.
[SPEAKER_03]: But for a pair of rentals, I think that's a really strong return for the match.
[SPEAKER_03]: JJ?
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the things I want to add is I want to talk about a little bit of the comes here and I'll probably loop in Jeff because Jeff does the cubs for us, but we talked about this I feel like last week or we do a lot of podcast and live shows and all that at some point we talked about how the cubs had a lot of players we felt like who would have value to other teams, but may not necessarily fit for them all that well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like they kind of, they kind of dug through the garage a little bit today and they found some things and they had a yard sale and you know, I'm not going to say you don't ever get full price at a yard sale, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like moysous palesteros would have returned much more a year ago that he did now, but between, but when we talk about Jefferson Rose and a moysous palesteros and a Jonathan long and we can kind of go down the list.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those guys didn't have a clear path.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, you've either got Pedro or Mira's or Jefferson Rojas.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like you don't kind of have both of them up in the near future.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jonathan long.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't really have a way that he's not pushing Michael Bush to side.
[SPEAKER_01]: You look at Moisa's ballasteros.
[SPEAKER_01]: The minute you said, this guy's not going to catch for us purely a DH.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can't even play another position for them really first base.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not very good, but it's also blocked.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are guys who, they were said, okay, rather than hold on to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think Kevin Alkatera still had Cub.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm sorry on that one, Kevin, because Kevin needs to be free from this too.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jeff, like, it does feel like that these are all guys who have value for someone else.
[SPEAKER_01]: May come back to quote, bite them a little bit, you know, maybe for a year or two, but they're not guys who are gonna play for them anyway.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I think that's sort of the question we've been asking about with this club system, it's top of this club system for a couple of years now.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are handful players that we kind of have expected to get moved.
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of those guys now, just within the club's rankings, even if they are still prospects, some of these guys aren't.
[SPEAKER_02]: They've slid a little bit from where they rank previously.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think that's the case with with Rollhaus, but I think, you know, when you're talking about somebody like Bala Stero's, et cetera, you know, Jonathan Long, of course, who was a top 10 prospect not too long ago, he really stagnated Long.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm talking about at AAA this year, after a really good year last year,
[SPEAKER_02]: Things, you know, he started to swing and miss a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_02]: He wasn't walking quite as much.
[SPEAKER_02]: He wasn't hitting for power as much.
[SPEAKER_02]: He wasn't finding barrels as often as he had been in the past.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think when you look at that profile, this though he does play a little bit of left field, you're probably never gonna put him at third base again.
[SPEAKER_02]: He saw, I think one or two games at second, but that's not a long-term viable option.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is really a first base only, maybe left field.
[SPEAKER_02]: prospects, this guy really needs to hit.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, I think he certainly has a better opportunity with, you know, Miami to potentially break into the big leagues and prove that he can do it in the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's enough plate skills there that if he does consistently get to his power and kind of figure out what this funk he's had been in this year is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then I think, you know, there's some chance for him to take a pretty big step forward.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hall for the match was was great, you know, that is a, that is a legitimate top 100 prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's kind of an on and off the list.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been a running joke for a while.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's really good bats at ball skills, probably above average to plus maybe 60.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's if it's a 55.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like a high end 55.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's power projection there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we'll continue to get stronger.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's a good in field.
[SPEAKER_02]: There may be not a short stop, but we'll be in a above average second baseman or third baseman.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just going to always give you quality at bats.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's always been really, really young for the level on his produced.
[SPEAKER_02]: So maybe he's a guy that gets a couple of coffee at the end of the year, but that's a really nice player.
[SPEAKER_03]: I also think when I look at what the Cubs did, and I think another team that did this is the twin this is, they dealt from kind of positions down the defensive spectrum.
[SPEAKER_03]: You look at the Cubs other than Jefferson, Rojas, it's a lot of guys who are corner out field corner in field profiles, even the someone like Ty South as seen is, I don't think his, you know, he doesn't have the arm for short stops, so you're probably looking at a second basement at best.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you look at the twins, I think they did a largely the same thing, which I just shows that I think the value and kind of the emphasis teams put on up the middle talent, you
[SPEAKER_03]: If you have a guy who can actually play defense up the middle, even if they have questions at the plate, you're going to get a very good return.
[SPEAKER_03]: I look at the rays.
[SPEAKER_03]: But at the same side, the same flip side, if they're not an up the middle guy, they probably have to have a really strong caring to what the plate for a team to be interested.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it was interesting that the Cubs, and as I said, the twins really dealt from that kind of those corner groups in a lot of their deals.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you if you're just joining us 3600 people listening to the baseball America MLB trade deadline recap.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking all things trade deadline.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Coming up here in about 15 minutes, California Post Dodgers Reporter Jack Harris will jump in and join the show to talk Dodgers deadline.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chris, let's keep it moving with our next question.
[SPEAKER_00]: KT Alexander asks, how do the Yankees not add any up the middle talent?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it possible they were in on Adley Ruchman and the Red Sox up the ante to outbid them?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ian, I see you nodding your head.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's a you?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, I think the reports were out there that the Yankees were very interested and I wouldn't be surprised if part of what the hold up was because the Adley rumors came out a couple hours before the trade was finalized.
[SPEAKER_03]: And obviously, there was a pretty lengthy medical review process in there, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was kind of some negotiating going on where it's like, hey, you know, if you really don't want up this offer, we'll just go back to the Yankees.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you were else did that, I think credit to them, you know, that's how you should approach this deadline.
[SPEAKER_03]: You should play teams off each other, especially rival teams.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think that's that's that's prop that is very like viable and could have happened.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think in terms of the up the middle talent I think the answer is they have an internal option that should be coming up any day now and that's George Lombard Jr You know, he's been on a tailor lately.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's continued to hit and I just I think that they looked at the available options and what do we not see really moved at the deadline short stops none of those guys went autolope has stayed back netostate
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think there was an upgrade for them there and that's because they have just one internal.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think we're just going to see George Lombard come up and I wouldn't be surprised if it's as soon as tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing I was going to answer that is we talked about it that how expensive catching was, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: The Yankees absolutely would have been useful for them to add a catcher probably at the deadline, but we also know like we didn't see a hundred good in the movie, we didn't see a Tyler Stevens moved.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think part of that is is that the cost was going to be very, very significant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Onward we go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see, how about this from Ras Smith, underscore 99 guys did the guardians make a great trade landing for foster Griffin from the National Seams like it because they traded four minor leagueers away and just to be on the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much for that one off.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll talk my head.
[SPEAKER_01]: Josh, go ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Will Dion.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was another, okay, then it was Nick Mitchell's the only non-pitch or the outfielder.
[SPEAKER_01]: This one, taking a deep breath here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Douglas Viguez, I believe, Venezuela and right hander, they went two different ways here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heartle and Dion are your thumb and lefty starter and your thumb and lefty reliever, 91, 92, but funk, locate all those kind of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then it's like, you know what, we'll add a Vargas in Vargas, you're talking 97, 98 with a slider that will dive away, control trouble.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they went, the opposite's a spectrum.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that they're going to love this trade if you're the guardians, because I like these guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: The guardians have a very deep system.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heartless number 28.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think on it before the drafties were added.
[SPEAKER_01]: He fell off the list just this, you know, this last couple of weeks, but these are guys were kind of that 25 to 45 range on the guardians top 30 or off the top 30.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nick Mitchell, like Jeff just wrote about a music guy who I actually writing Nick Mitchell up today.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you look at his slash line, you may be like, what are they doing acquire in this guy?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jeff wrote about him as kind of a guy whose numbers don't really reflect what he's done this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has a pretty well-rounded skill set where if you said, he kind of feels like the kind of guy that the blue jays acquire in one of these deals and then you will look up a couple of years later,
[SPEAKER_01]: How did that guy have some power?
[SPEAKER_01]: And now, now, Ernie Clements, a very useful player.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Nick Mitchell feels like a kind of an outfield version of that in some ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're all useful players.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm the nationals, I've turned found money that I found on the sidewalk because foster Griffin for a one year, $5.5 million deal that you turn into an all-star.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's that you've already won your contract there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now you've turned it into four players.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to be free agent at the end of the year that all makes perfect sense, but at the same time yeah if your guardians if you said There's no one you traded a miss that you're like no and you're pulling your hair out these are all guys who are like they have a chance But none of them are like oh, this is the guy who could end up none of these guys are gonna be junior camonero to put it that way if you're a guardian stand
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I'll jump in on Mitchell, you had a really tough opening like 40 games or sort of the season and since then, like the last two months has been on an absolute tear.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have, you know, numbers that will pull from month to month so we can kind of look at it and you could see the progression of like his numbers creeping back up to what the expected numbers were eventually got there.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, as a guy that the guardians had acquired from the blue jays a couple years ago, funny enough.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, uh, is there just a well-rounded outfielder, maybe he ends up a fourth outfielder, you know, potentially as JJ said, if they find a little bit more impact in the bat, I thought that was a pretty good get overall.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's one year of foster Griffin, of course, made an all-star team this year.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think the national's realized that, hey, we got a good get in the one year deal.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's get what we can for him.
[SPEAKER_02]: This doesn't really blow, you know, not your socks off or anything in terms of what the return it, but just kind of steady system depth.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's probably a few big leaders here and, you know, as I, as I had been pointed a couple weeks ago, I think, you know, potentially a nice prospect in Nick Mitchell that's maybe a little bit underrated.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we're going to keep it moving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scott, oh boy, Ryman 1695, I put you to your name, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of your thoughts on Cash Mayfield for Casey Mies, the entire trade there was Casey Mies and Gage Workman to San Diego in exchange for Cash Mayfield.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the former Podger's number three of our prospect and then left handed picture, Jackson Wolf, Ian will start with you.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's an interesting one, and I think it just goes to show again that with rentals, you know, even at case case case he might has been excellent this year, but with a rental, you know, builder turn is going to be limited by the lack of control.
[SPEAKER_03]: And cash may feel this at a great season this year, pitched in the future's game, where which was not a good great environment for a picture of his kind of type.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's not a guy who's ever going to light up the radar gun as fastball sits around 91, just over 91, 92 miles an hour, tops out at 96.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's someone who gets by really command and control deception.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's changing speeds, keeping hitters off balance, which is an interesting thing to say because he's really three pitch guides fastball change up slider.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's been able to be effective in the low minors and I think there are some questions.
[SPEAKER_03]: about how that's going to translate against better hitting, which is why he's not someone we really consider for the top 100 even with his really strong performance.
[SPEAKER_03]: So far this season, but in a weird way, I actually really like the Tigers fit for him because that ballpark is great for someone of his profile who's not going to miss a ton of bats.
[SPEAKER_03]: you know, his lack of overwhelming stuff kind of get demagnified there with when a long fly ball, you know, 400 foot fly ball can be an FA there.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think that it's a nice get.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's solid pitching depth.
[SPEAKER_03]: I wouldn't be surprised to see him move to double a pretty shortly, but I don't think he's a potential impact guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you're looking more like a back end starter, maybe if everything
[SPEAKER_03]: breaks right and you can gain a few ticks on the viola on his fastball.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe a number three, but probably more back end profile.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I like the fit in Detroit because of the ballpark.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's keep going.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cream City prospects asks Orioles re-acquired right-hand a picture of Michael Foren.
[SPEAKER_00]: How unique is that for a non-dain-dain-dain-dain-dain-dain-dain prospect, JJ?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, it's pretty unique.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is one, I'm gonna struggle remember the name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe someone maybe I'll jog someone else's memory to this.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Rockies and Reds did this a few years ago, much lower level prospect, but there was like, there was a picture that the Rockies traded to the Reds, and then the next year or the year after that, the Reds traded them back to the Rockies.
[SPEAKER_01]: May have been a very back of the type 30 type, probably around 20,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was like 21 or 22, which probably means it was like 17 or 18, but that's the one that comes to mind, but when you say unique, this is very unique.
[SPEAKER_01]: It also kind of explains where both teams are like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fred went from the Orioles to the race in the Shane boss trade and this is okay the race do this every year right the race trade guys kind of as a closer to free agency for guys who are further away kind of the perpetual spinning wheel of of players but I would say that like that was probably partly
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, boss, we're getting boss because we think we're going for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the rays are like, maybe we're not, you know, as much.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here we are, the rays have our in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The rays should be in the playoffs.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Orioles look like they're not.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so now they go the other way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, okay, Tyler Wells, you go to the rays and we'll get for rep back because he can help us next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Ian has done a lot of work on him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, kind of, we were talking a lot, kind of figure out where to slot him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Ian, it kind of seemed like the thing that jumped out about it is
[SPEAKER_01]: If you like him, it's because of proximity.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is more ready than almost any prospect that was traded today.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't like him as much, it's because there are a whole lot of guys who are traded today who, if everything breaks right, they'll be better big leagueers, higher ceiling big leagueers than for it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think you look at the range of the pitching prospects traded.
[SPEAKER_03]: A lot of teams went for that upside guys like remote Marquez Henry LaLon.
[SPEAKER_03]: LaLon excuse me.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think they just have higher ceilings and someone like for us for at those in triple a throw strikes.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's got a wide ranging arsenal.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's a starter's arsenal.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think the thing is it's just it's a bucket of 50s and 55s with some 45s next day.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's just no true.
[SPEAKER_03]: Plus pitch, maybe if you wanted to get there on on the splitter or the change up, I think I, you know, I could believe that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think, you know, he's just someone who he's a pretty safe option.
[SPEAKER_03]: He looks like, you know, a back end starter.
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously the horses are very familiar with him.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think, you know, kind of outsourcing pitching development to the raises at the worst idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the race.
[SPEAKER_03]: You could job with a.
[SPEAKER_03]: with their development of the pitching prospects.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think he for Rhett has gotten better this season.
[SPEAKER_03]: And now that Orioles have a chance to kind of reap the rewards of that and slot them into the rotation as soon as next year.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think, yeah, just what separates him is I just don't know how much upside there is because of kind of the averageness of his arsenal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peace Williams.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, what a poll.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is well done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well done, Jared.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well done.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is this case Williams.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bravo.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just got a JJ point for your random baseball knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to circle back to a topic that we talked about earlier in the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: From that guy on YouTube, too, with years of an atrocious farm system, does what the angels did today drastically improve the system or is it merely the small start with more work to be done?
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, okay, I agree with you on the years of an atrocious farm system, but the thing that I would also say it's not atrocious right now, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've done things a little differently.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this really did help.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a this did not a massive overhaul, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, they did some trades that was just more clearing the decks.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, but the Logan O'Hoppy Chase Silcev return is not one where you're like, oh, okay, this changes things.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you put it all together, they have continued to make steps forward now.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the other thing I'll say, I'm going to try to write about this for tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see other signs that they're doing things differently.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tyler Brenner is still in high A.
[SPEAKER_01]: There hasn't been a Angel's first-round pick in high A in August of the year after they were drafted.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the 2020s, they're usually in the, don't let shannuals in the big leagues by this point.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now they took a high school player in the first round, so they're doing things now that says I'm looking in the future, not I'm looking just at today.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are going to go a little bit early here.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to make a move to our guests.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are welcoming to the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: California post Los Angeles Dodgers reporter Jack Harris, who's kind enough to join us from Chicago, where the Dodgers are playing Jack, welcome to the show.
[SPEAKER_04]: Not just from Chicago, but from the back of the really feel press box where my laptop is currently on the printing tray of a copying machine.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I can work here on Deadline Day.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can smell what your, I, there's a distinct smell to that riggedly field press box that smells like, uh, old paint of like a thousand different layers all rolled together, especially back here.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, you get like the tall ceilings.
[SPEAKER_04]: We were non-beons, but uh, yeah, that's all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a busy deadline for for the Dodgers who've gone and made the biggest shake up in baseball with tarq school, making the move.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jack, let me get your impression first.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you think of the move?
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you think of the return?
[SPEAKER_04]: The move.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was not surprised to see the Dodgers get him.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, it was funny kind of watching the week leading up to the deadline really like a couple weeks leading up to the deadline.
[SPEAKER_04]: The Dodgers both publicly and privately trying to
[SPEAKER_04]: to sell like, hey, you know, we don't have needs, we're not going to do anything crazy.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, we are, we trust that our rotation is healthy and good.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then talking to everybody else in baseball just like, no, the Dodgers are going to get a tear scoop like you look at your farm system.
[SPEAKER_04]: You look at the teams that are going to be in this at the end.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just like something really unexpected with that happen.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think in terms of the package from a Dodgers standpoint,
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, you know, like I asked one person with the team, like is this about as close to a best case scenario, when you, when you look at the package and specifically kind of how it impacts them this year, um, and the fact that obviously no Justin Roblesky, even the fact that there's no him at she and and, you know, he, he gets left out of the trade and struggles yesterday.
[SPEAKER_04]: He had option today to triple a, um, but.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, like River Ryan just has not been able to for as good as he is and he looks so good back in the spring like I do think it's one thing that You know from a tiger standpoint you're saying if we get back to that guy like even coming off the Tommy John how he looked
[SPEAKER_04]: how his stuff was playing up, you know, just the depth of the arsenal that he has, you know, when he's been healthy this year, which I think we've seen it.
[SPEAKER_04]: So like long term, I think there's there's enough to sell there, but from the Dodgers standpoint right now, it was important for them to protect the guys who
[SPEAKER_04]: are tested at the big league level who they trust and even in the case of like image Ian, who I think they still feel confident that they can get right and triple A uses an important piece in their both and later in the year and into the playoffs like they did last season.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then from the minor league side, you know, as I your hope is the guy that always kind of made the most sense.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't think the Dodgers were ever going to give up, post way to Paula or Edward or
[SPEAKER_04]: They had a long jam that they kind of had to work through and for that to be the package You know, I think especially like when you look at the deals today and you look at like what have the rush We went forward what the pod rays gave up like I think if you're the Dodgers you're probably only feeling better about it With what you're able to protect in the farm system and the fact that you didn't have to subtract anything from a big league or ostrider
[SPEAKER_01]: Along with this lines, how much do you think the tarick school black position, I obviously adding one of the best pictures in baseball makes you better in the post season?
[SPEAKER_01]: How important do you think that was for the Dodgers versus not having to face tarick school in the post season also makes you better in the post season?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you know, Andrew Friedman was, was asked about this when he talked to us a couple days before the trade went down, you know, have you ever traded for a player just to keep him away from another team and he kind of laughed and goes, well, you know, if I felt that strongly about a player going to another team.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would probably want him and I would just go get him and I think that's kind of the way the Dodgers look at it like yes obviously it's much better to not have to face tarot school and not have a situation where he's paired with drinking this grass for you for sale or some other team you might have to face on the road to another world series but you know this Dodgers run office I think in the last three years and really like the last 12 months in some ways have just kind of evolved in how
[SPEAKER_04]: they look at these situations, and they look at these pursuits for superstar players.
[SPEAKER_04]: They are willing to be more aggressive than obviously most other teams are than even they were for the first 10 years that Andrew Friedman and his group was here.
[SPEAKER_04]: a lot of that has to do with, you know, the financial resources they have in the market for air of that provides.
[SPEAKER_04]: I asked Andrew Friedman about that yesterday when he talked about the trade and he didn't deny it, he was, yeah, I mean, we are blessed with this with the situation that we're in and it allows us to do things.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I also think with this year's team,
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, they recognize that there is an opportunity for history.
[SPEAKER_04]: No NL team is one three straight world series before.
[SPEAKER_04]: For as, I mean, they have cemented the dynasty, but they also have in some ways what feels kind of like the last year in which all of their guys are kind of still in their prime for the most part.
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe the last year that Otani can be a full time or full time enough to a player, like you're already seeing how difficult that is.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think it was a similar thinking in the offseason, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: They didn't really need Kyle Tucker.
[SPEAKER_04]: They didn't really need him to be as, but they were willing to be a little bit more aggressive than everybody else.
[SPEAKER_04]: And at the deadline, they really didn't need Derek Schoubel, but they had the pieces to make it work.
[SPEAKER_04]: They had the mindset that they were going to go out there and try to get him.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think that was the interesting part to me, listening to Friedman talk about this trade.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, so often, like they used this term, like, what we want to hang around the backboard.
[SPEAKER_04]: for star players and see if their markets kind of collapse or change and get something.
[SPEAKER_04]: This time they were boxing everybody else out and seemed like they were going in there with what they felt like it's kind of offer that other teams just weren't going to be able to.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're not going to be comfortable to match and they made sure they were able to get them.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's part of why this deal happened two days before we did that line and they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, great and active as the Dodgers were in terms of going and getting the best picture available.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think part of the story for them this week was also what they didn't do, which is dealing for some of their surplus, where you surprise that Eric Lauer was not on the move, or that maybe even somebody like Tiasca Hernandez, I'll be at very expensive with his contract, wasn't considered or traded.
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, yes, to start with the lower, that's the one I was surprised about, especially after Bluebitch was with Chris Bluebitch's out of today from the Royals.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, I think the, the, looking at it now, you know, they sit down in the emitsian, and they want to try to protect the workload for the rest of their pictures as much possible.
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, obviously they're going to have, for Otani kind of coming back, like if you've got
[SPEAKER_04]: get back off the mountain and rejoin the rotation this year, he's going to be building up any by-ending.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think they probably looked his mark didn't say, okay, we can get kind of like a flyer for a lottery ticket prospect.
[SPEAKER_04]: We can keep somebody who's been productive for us.
[SPEAKER_04]: We can help us get through the rest of the year.
[SPEAKER_04]: We can be someone of an insurance policy in some ways.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like a catastrophic situation happens.
[SPEAKER_04]: But that was the worst surprise in one.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think Alex
[SPEAKER_04]: the what his market was kind of the similar bucket right it's okay well we have a guy that in his two specific roles which just hit left hand of pitching and take tough advance he's been good at it's probably just more helpful for us to keep him in case there's an unexpected need that arises and with the Oscar Hernandez yeah like you said even if they were looking to build them much I don't think they were doing as openly as they were back in the offseason of
[SPEAKER_04]: Queen Andrews, who kind of then consisted for him, he's had, and obviously the 20 plus million dollar annual salary that he's got that goes to the end of the next part, it was going to be tough to find a deal for him.
[SPEAKER_04]: And he's one of these guys that, and I think this was kind of the common theme with all of them.
[SPEAKER_04]: And to ask your Hernandez, it's proof himself and I'm going to now score as part of this team last October airflowers, but I'm a pretty popular guy in the clubhouse this year because he's
[SPEAKER_04]: They've won every game that he started and I think they looked at just kind of the pros and cons this year and said We're probably not missing out on that much value of trying to sell some of these guys Let's just keep what we have.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's obviously working.
[SPEAKER_04]: We don't want to deserve anything And let's give this group even with some of the pieces on the margins the chance to go out and try to complete a three-pin
[SPEAKER_03]: with Tealsker and Ann is the struggle in Kyle Tucker seem like you know been a little bit inconsistent I would say so far do you think there's any pathway for some of my coastway to pollen to come up this season to make an impact because obviously he has to be added to the 40 man roster the off season either way so there's no there's nothing there's no real service time considerations to hold it back is that something you think could even play even though he's only in double a right now
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean, that was probably one of the more interesting things that happened today is that as part of the Dodgers getting Hunter Fiddusa to give them catching death, they trade Jackson win ski off of their triple A roster to maybe help free up this log Jan without the orders they have and I think the hall is the guy that will get the call up to Oklahoma City first.
[SPEAKER_04]: Once he gets there, I think it'll be interesting, you know, they're going to have as far as like a September call it goes.
[SPEAKER_04]: A lot of interesting choices to make between him, between James Tives, between where they want to bring Ryan Ward back.
[SPEAKER_04]: In the other thing, if there's one thing that this current Dodger bench doesn't have,
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a left-handed adoption that you would trust outside of like when Dalton Russian is healthy.
[SPEAKER_04]: He can be that.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I am curious.
[SPEAKER_04]: They have a lot of good young left-handed hitting prospects that I think we're going to see at least a couple of one or two of.
[SPEAKER_04]: down the stretch this season.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if there's an unexpected injury, if there's under performance, if they feel like there's a need, I don't think it's impossible for to call it to crack the big league this year.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we've seen the Dodgers, you know, with young players that they feel are talented enough.
[SPEAKER_04]: even if they don't have a ton of big experience, if they feel like there's a role that somebody can play even in the postseason, I think that's still kind of a far-fetch scenario, but it is something that with the move they made today and what might happen over the next couple months.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm very curious to see kind of how his year progresses from here with the improvements that he's made and also so far.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Jack, we can't thank you enough for taking the time to join us again from Chicago where the Dodgers are playing the Cubs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we let you go, tell people where they can find you.
[SPEAKER_04]: California Post Sports.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you don't know, New York Post launched a California paper.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's where I'm at now and go to California Post.com.
[SPEAKER_04]: You find me on Twitter and to buy Jack Harris.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks, Jack.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alrighty, thank you again to Jack Harris at the California Post for joining our show.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're just joining us, this is the baseball America Trade Deadline extravaganza, the big recap after a long day of moves.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, with every trade deadline for as much as is moved,
[SPEAKER_00]: There is equally some intrigue on what is not moved, the antithesis, if you will, of the trade deadline.
[SPEAKER_00]: JJ, there were some big names this year who I think fall into that list, Mason Miller, Hunter Goodman, Zack Nettos, CJ Abrams, and the list goes on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why don't you talk to us about the guys that maybe surprised you?
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll still play where they were today.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing that stands out on all these is we're talking about a whole long list of guys who are not rentals, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: These are guys who are
[SPEAKER_01]: without having any insights like I haven't been texting GMs, like, what are the ideals that you turn down on these guys at the deadline?
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're going to trade, if you're the Rockies, and you're going to trade 100 good, by the Rock, by the Rockies are now announcing that it looks like they're signing Mickey Moniac, another guy who would fit into that list, signing him to a two-year extension.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, but Jake McCarthy, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's guys who you could see being traded who weren't, but at the same time,
[SPEAKER_01]: Like when the Dodgers said like when when Jack said about with a Dodger like they didn't trade Eric Lauer maybe or they did because they just weren't going to get the return worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: you better be wild.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if you're going to trade 100 good bin for the Rockies, if better be something where you go, I can't believe a team was willing to give us that much, because as much as they aren't going to win anything next year, it's not bad to have a good player on a bad team, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, and they are making strides.
[SPEAKER_01]: At some point, you want to get better.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's to kind of got to get better around.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Zack Neto,
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that this precludes the possibility that in the offseason or next year, because obviously, I don't think Arjuna Mall is going to be someone where they say, he's got 33 games in AA right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to be something where you say,
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the new angels.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not going to say, hey, he's got 33 games in double a, bring them on up.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're going to now say, you know, maybe it helps to have a little time to kind of develop and get settled in and you can go to rocket city for a little while and then, you know, maybe next year mid season he's ready and those are kind of the things that you're looking at.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think that that I think that that really kind of summarizes that you don't make those moves unless you're wild.
[SPEAKER_01]: We did see like the angels traded Soriano plenty of years of team control left, but they were wild.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that they got a wild return.
[SPEAKER_01]: They got argin them all in that deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: You do them if you can.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't do it if you can.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, let's keep it moving from Andrew Adler 5178.
[SPEAKER_00]: If Biasteros was still a prospect, would he be a top 100 guy, the cubs traded him to the angels and exchange for Ryan Zeffer-John, JJ, what did you think of that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I want to get Jeff's thoughts also because he does a capitalist force.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to say, no, I don't think it's even actually to be honest, like, and we saw them return, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that I think the return also kind of tells you this was not a top 100 prospect return.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not eligible anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think the key thing that we saw fallist arrows, and this is where you talk about that when you talk about prospects, there's this window of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like how Jeff talked about with Jonathan Long, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jonathan Long never had like this massive
[SPEAKER_01]: You could tie in the Orioles with this, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: When they had all these guys up in AAA, there's a level of stagnation sometimes at AAA that happens to guys where all of a sudden their value starts to peak, then it goes down.
[SPEAKER_01]: But also like a guy like Balisteros.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we were talking about Balisteros two years ago, we're talking about the bat and how good the bat is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you're like, you know, if he can get to a guy who can catch 50 games a year, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Catch 50.
[SPEAKER_01]: DH50 or 70, that's a guy, and then he comes up, and it becomes clear after he catches a couple of games at the company like he's not catching 50 games.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not catching five games, maybe for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And once that happens, now instead of you dreaming about what this guy can be and projecting what this guy can be, the answer that you're kind of handed is, he may not be able to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in Ballastero's case where he gets tougher is this,
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the thing we always talk about with defense of profile, especially Ian talked about corner batch, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: In Ballosterosis case, if you do not think that he is going to get to playable at catcher in the big leagues, and you say, well, where else is going to play?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to play in the outfield.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you do not want to put Moses Ballosterosis in left field.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he even, like, you could put him at first base in a certain scenarios.
[SPEAKER_01]: For everything I've heard, when he's tried first base, it's not been good.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're a DH only, it's really hard to kind of carve out a playing time in that case.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jeff, what do you think he's a top 100?
[SPEAKER_01]: Still.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, I actually think that there's kind of a less and a little bit in a player like Balistero's.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like we got so caught up, and a lot of evaluators, it wasn't just us, obviously, it's not just our opinions here.
[SPEAKER_02]: A big part of what we do, probably the biggest part of what we do is going out and getting opinions from those that are working in the game involved in these decisions and these discussions behind closed doors for MLB organizations.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think a lot of people bought into what the hit tool was, and maybe the possibility that he could just catch enough to be in a rotation as a catcher.
[SPEAKER_02]: But catching never really developed as he started to try to develop more power and never really got there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think he sacrificed some of the things that made him unique.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I also think, you know, it's another example of, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: giving up sort of one side of what makes you good, you know, tweaking the knob in terms of maybe sacrificing some contact for some power.
[SPEAKER_02]: etc.
[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't always work.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a sacrifice with anything that you're sort of trying to improve you're probably going to have something that deteriorates a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think that happens.
[SPEAKER_02]: I still think he has, you know, special baths of ball skills.
[SPEAKER_02]: If he does kind of figure out, you know, the angles and is able to get to power.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think there's still a chance that, you know, potentially can develop into a pretty productive maybe like second division regular DH.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think without the catching and without the power development, the hit tool is a little, is a little bit empty and players like this have to walk.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's another big part of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we look at how teams value these guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: They can have those context skills, but it can't be a guy who's a wild swimmer who's not going to work deep into it bats.
[SPEAKER_02]: grind out, you know, each picture that he's facing, you know, throughout a game, all that stuff really matters and just in terms of, you know, cumulative in the lineup and producing runs, producing offense.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think ultimately, he doesn't do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's a clogger on the base path.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was kind of a one-tool prospect.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think ultimately, that's what's kind of sinking by our stereosis.
[SPEAKER_02]: The development of those other areas never really came along.
[SPEAKER_00]: already.
[SPEAKER_00]: Onward, we go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thoughts on the Meyer trade.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Meyer trade was this.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Red Sox traded Marcelo Meyer.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the giants and exchange for left handed pitcher Eric Miller and minor league outfielder Carlos Gutierrez Ian, I will go to you first.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think there's two interesting aspects of this number one, I think similar to what we just talk about the Ryan Zeffer John Shrade controlled relievers who throw really hard and miss bats were at a premium this deadline both Zeffer John and Eric Miller, who is a part of this trade got to former top 100 prospects for it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously in Myers case, he was a lot higher rank than Bellisterus was.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think it's something that was kind of inevitable.
[SPEAKER_03]: It seemed like
[SPEAKER_03]: Meyer was a prime change of senior candidate, someone we featured in our call about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was probably, I think you might have been the impetus for that call, honestly, because the writing was kind of on the wall.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was, I just think with the way that he just didn't fit with the Red Sox.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then I think this is something that's gone back a few years.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just his personality, just the way he played, it was just not the way things were the direction they were going and that it was very obvious with the way that outscorer approached his, his, his,
[SPEAKER_03]: Ultimately, I just don't think the player fit in Boston, and that's why I think that going back to California where he's from going back to the West Coast, where he's comfortable kind of smaller media market, not as much attention being paid, I think would be better for him.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that if you're the giants, I think this is the kind of deal you should be making, though.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, they traded a reliever who has control issues for a former top five, top 10 prospect in all of baseball.
[SPEAKER_03]: And
[SPEAKER_03]: say what you want about irony as it's for you know he really struggles on pitches down in the zone and the hit tool is not progressed I think the way people hoped and obviously injuries have limited to under 100 games and every season he's played so far but this is still someone who was seen as the top high school position player in his Roth class number four overall for all pick you know there's a lot of prospect pedigree here and he does where he will show flashes of the talent that made him such a highly regretter prospect both as an owner of sharing coming through the miners and
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think, you know, as we said, as I said, it wasn't going to work out in Boston, but it's a blank slate in San Francisco and to get someone like him for just, you know, Eric Miller, who's nice reliever, you know, throws really hard.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really good stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think this is a really nice swing for them and and something that, you know, could pay off in the long run substantially.
[SPEAKER_01]: One thing I just want to spring off of that is when Ian mentioned about the value of cost control, you know, team controlled relievers, big league relievers, the other thing that stands out and I completely get and kind of understand and agree with this approach.
[SPEAKER_01]: The amount of.
[SPEAKER_01]: players who are traded, prospects who are traded who fit in the, this guy could end up being a cost-controlled, under team control for a long time, optionable reliever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the thing that I will say about that is is that when you talk about like the best hitters in baseball, best hitting prospect,
[SPEAKER_01]: That's something where it's kind of like a pretty small group and you kind of know who it is and normally there's not guys who come from completely out of the blue and you're like, oh, no, what imagine that he would be a good hitter in the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here he is he's now a five-war year all start that doesn't really happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does really happen though is is that if you said,
[SPEAKER_01]: throw darts, just find me 10 productive relievers right now and say, what are their stories?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, Raleo Brian was in the all-star game this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Raleo Brian was kind of just kicking around for years is kind of a guy who would get traded as kind of like the throw in in the deal a lot of times kind of thing, and now he's good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it stops surprising to see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I will say a lot of times it may be that these teams acquired these relievers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Usually they're coming up on a rule five,
[SPEAKER_01]: They may not even be the team that benefits from this long term.
[SPEAKER_01]: It may be that two teams from now, after they've been left unprotected in the Role 5 draft, go on picked, hit minor league for agency, get in minor league deal with an invite.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then three years from now, one of these guys is gonna pop.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I feel like that I wrote up and we were trying to figure out how to rank a whole lot of guys who could be described as, this guy has, if he control, he's not a starter, but he's got, he throws 98 and he's got a second pitch
[SPEAKER_03]: I think one aspect, too, of the trade that is worth mentioning, is the Red Sox to get back a real prospect.
[SPEAKER_03]: Carlos Gutierrez ranks inside the Giants top 30.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's an outfielder.
[SPEAKER_03]: Under size, I think he's listed at 5-9.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's in high A right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, he's got some strong contact skills, good swing decisions.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's kind of freeing its average to solid EVs.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's the kind of improves bats beat and elevate the ball to the pull side more, which are obviously things the Red Sox prioritized.
[SPEAKER_03]: and have been able to develop with players.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think he does fit the mold of kind of the contact profile they look for and the thing they think they can elevate with position player prospects.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's definitely worth the mention is more than a throw in a net trade.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Giron Foster, nine, five, six, oh, if I'd missed pronounce your name, sorry about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does Tafura, Sammy Stafura, project long term as a short stop or do you expect the Mets to move from somewhere else on the diamond?
[SPEAKER_00]: Any of you guys take it?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's a good chance that he's a short stop.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the defense has always been a pretty solid reputation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the bigger question is going to be, is his swing going to make for enough contact for him to get to the big leagues playing short stop, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he'll still be a short stop.
[SPEAKER_01]: The big question, the reason he's not a higher rated on this.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had a great month.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Jeff just wrote him up in the standouts from July.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was Josiah Ragsdale from probably here,
[SPEAKER_01]: But the way I would say this is the bad is not in the zone on plane for very long.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a pretty small margin of there to me for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a guy who, when he connects, it's going to be really productive.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's just a question of how much he connects.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jeff, I know you wrote him up recently.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I think, you know, as far as the glove and sort of the actions and all that sort of thing, that's not what's going to keep them off a short stop.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's kind of a questionable arm, some of that's going to be timing release, you know, just sort of feel for the position, which he does have, so maybe he can survive there a little longer.
[SPEAKER_02]: If he moves to second base is going to be a phenomenal defensive second baseman.
[SPEAKER_02]: The big issue is JJ said is that those contact rates.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's good swing decisions.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's not overly passive.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll get his walks.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the ball for really, really hard consistently.
[SPEAKER_02]: What the contact rates are well below average.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's pushing up on like a 30% insomeless rate.
[SPEAKER_02]: overall like a 36% with rate which is you know well below average.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the trade off of adding more power has certainly showed up in improved contact quality.
[SPEAKER_02]: Certainly with a month that he had right now, it's improved overall numbers.
[SPEAKER_02]: But how sustainable those changes are and being able to actually produce numbers like that at higher levels and eventually the major leagues, I think is pretty questionable at this point.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to have to find a happy medium and just find a way to, you know, make even if it's like a fringe average amount of contact because he's in that sort of scary zone in terms of zone miss and also just overall with.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we are nearing the finish line of our grand MLB trade deadline show before we get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to go around the room here and ask you guys this what's one final thought one one conclusion one thing that we haven't covered yet in our show that you want to get to Ian will start with you then we'll go to JJ and then Jeff.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so kind of playing off, we just talked about Sam used to four who are obviously the Met's acquired.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just thought their deadline was really interesting because they acquired a ton of prospect capital and the profiles just all over the place, you know, with Stafora and Aden Smith and Billy Amick, you have guys, you know, with big power, really, really questionable hit tools.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll kind of see there, but then on the flip side, you have guys like Cole Mathis and Emiliano.
[SPEAKER_03]: Petri who are extreme contact profiles.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it was kind of hard to nail down with what the Mets were going for.
[SPEAKER_03]: It seems like they kind of just hit every dart.
[SPEAKER_03]: They kind of filled every square on the board in the profile of position players.
[SPEAKER_03]: They were targeting it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think kind of you know, weird way it makes sense, you know, that this is a team that has moved so much prospect capital of the last few years that the system was just getting a little thin.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think this year you look, they've also had some pretty disappointing performances from players at the top.
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you're going to restock the system and you don't really have an archetype player that you're been good at developing lately and make sense to kind of go across the board grab a bunch of different guys and see what what clicks.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I thought their deadline was very interesting in the sense just with how much volume of prospects they brought in.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing that jumped out to me that we haven't really covered is I look at what the rays and the guardians were able to do and to me when we talk about prospect depth.
[SPEAKER_01]: That to me, this is a perfect example of it, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been trying to keep updated and I'm still got some to catch up on I know but I've got to try to keep updated or are ranking of the deadline prior to prospects all day all weekend really.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the thing that stands out with that is we're not trying to be fixed to what we ranked a guy on July 1st because that's really when we did last top 30 update, true update.
[SPEAKER_01]: But
[SPEAKER_01]: But we try to be, you know, it doesn't mean a massive amount that's changed in thin.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the thing that jumps out is that you had raised guys and guardians guys who were not in their 30.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you're saying where do we line these guys up, they were pretty clearly lining up above guys in other organizations who were like,
[SPEAKER_01]: 18, 22, 25, and their systems, and I bring that up because when I say the value of this, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Adrian Santana and Braden Taylor and Gary Gil Hill, and guys like that that the raise traded, they have value in a trade.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I think that those guys are all guys who you can path chart paths to them being in the big leagues.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there to go back to something we keep talking about,
[SPEAKER_01]: Adrian Santana, like the path for him to be the raised long-term short stop, runs through about six guys who are probably as good or better than him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he has value because he's a good defender, he's contact monster, he just can't hit the ball hard, but he has value in a trade, having those kind of guys gives you the
[SPEAKER_01]: And you really are kind of dig it around in your pockets for what do we have to give them in return.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's something that gives you an advantage over a team who has to really sit there and think it's like, do we want to trade our best or our second best shortstop prospect in a deal?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a little different when you're saying, do we want to trade our fifth best shortstop prospect in this deal?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you still want to keep value, but that to me really did stand out from this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there are other teams too, but those are two teams that really jump out with.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think, you know, kind of, close and things out here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Since the playoffs have expanded, I think it's really changed the dynamic of the trade deadline.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the sense that there's far fewer true sellers that remain.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think when we talk about the teams that I've kind of won on the trade deadline, certainly there's Dodgers and teams that have bought, but,
[SPEAKER_02]: It's teams that we're willing to go into the deadline, move some potentially valuable pieces, especially guys in expiring deals, stars, guys that could be very productive maybe for an additional year of team control and like Rushman or new bars case.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you're in that kind of a position, you're in a spot that allows you to really sort of work the market, try to get the
[SPEAKER_02]: It does seem like that upper echelon, a prospect in terms of the top 15 to like 20 guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: The true top 15 to 20 guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was kind of top two, two and a half tears at the top of the top 100.
[SPEAKER_02]: Those guys are just very rare in terms of when they move.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was while I went Leo to Freeze was moved last year in the Mason Mill of Deal.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was such a big deal.
[SPEAKER_02]: We had heard names like Frank Anarius, you know, potentially mentioned as,
[SPEAKER_02]: a potential trade chip and maybe even bigger deal and then Rushman, there were a lot of kind of crazy rumors and names that were popping up there with the red socks.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I do think, you know, we're seeing that it's maybe a better time to be a seller than it's ever been.
[SPEAKER_02]: in terms of what kind of returns you can get.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can get a lot of depth.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not always necessarily the scuba, so the expiring stars.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes it's sort of those like 50 grade big leegers with reliever starters, you know, a right hand to power bad.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're able to maybe bid three or four teams against each other, you're in a really advantageous position to bring some good talent into your organization.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will offer a final thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that the angels have been really bad at being bad for some time now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And today, I felt like the first time in a while that they'd got better at being bad, if not good at being bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that this was a true capitalization on an opportunity when it came to just finally doing some sort of fire sale, which we've seen them avoid.
[SPEAKER_00]: And JJ, I know that you have a piece coming to baseball America, I would mention my next point.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a piece coming to baseball America on the angels and some of the things
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[SPEAKER_00]: One more thing though, excuse me, almost almost got away with something that I would've gotten in trouble for.
[SPEAKER_00]: He zoos can know our guy, he zoos, we miss you too, and we thank you and everybody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: All 5,000 of you officially for joining us.
[SPEAKER_00]: on a Monday evening on the trade deadline to hear about this.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Jacob Rubber and we will see you next time.