October 15, 2025 • 26 mins
The following players are discussed:
1. Konnor Griffin (OF)
2. Bubba Chandler (RHP)
3. Seth Hernandez (RHP)
4. Termarr Johnson (2B)
5. Edward Florentino (OF)
6. Hunter Barco (LHP)
7. Khristian Curtis (RHP)
8. Nick Yorke (2B)
9. Esmerlyn Valdez (1B)
10. Wyatt Sanford (SS)
1. Konnor Griffin (OF)
2. Bubba Chandler (RHP)
3. Seth Hernandez (RHP)
4. Termarr Johnson (2B)
5. Edward Florentino (OF)
6. Hunter Barco (LHP)
7. Khristian Curtis (RHP)
8. Nick Yorke (2B)
9. Esmerlyn Valdez (1B)
10. Wyatt Sanford (SS)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon everyone. Today is the fifteenth of October, just
after five o'clock. Hope everyone is doing well. This is
our hot Prospect of the week. We're doing two a
week now doing our systems. We have done the Chicago Cups,
the Cincinnati Reds, and the Milwaukee Brewers, and today we
(00:22):
are on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pittsburgh Pirates. I mean, I
know I said that you can make an argument that
the Milwaukee Brewers are the best, the best minor league
franchise in baseball, but you can also make a strong
argument about the Pittsburgh Pirates. I mean that top three
of Connor Griffin, Bubba Chandler, Seth Hernandez, Tamar Johnson, and
(00:46):
Edward Florentino. I'm not sure there's a stronger top five.
And then you get right over to Hunter Barco at six.
I mean that top five is really, really impressive, and
we'll get it. I'll go through each one of them.
We all know Connor Griffin number one prospect in baseball.
Bubba Chandler should have been up earlier. Really struggled, but
(01:08):
you look good at the end of the season. Seth
Rnandez already you know he was down at the Pittsburgh
Pirates Dominican Academy, and he posted it himself and pretty
much broke the internet where he threw. He posted him
throwing four pitches, a ninety mile an hour and one
hundred minin hour fastball with crazy spin, like twenty six
(01:29):
hundred rpm spins, and then two sliders that were flat
out Nassey. Now you know, maybe that's the only four
good pitches he threw in the entire outing, but man,
the delivery looked great. It was awesome. So just go
to Twitter, just go to Google and say seth Rnandez
and the Dominican Academy and it'll prop run up. It
was pretty impressive. Tomorrow Johnson high floor guy. And then
(01:52):
you got this Edward Florentino, who you know, if he
wanted to put Edwin Florentino behind Connor griff and I,
I mean, I'm not sure I'd have too much of
an arguments. He's already a top one hundred guy right
at one hundred, between ninety five and one hundred and five,
kind of in that range, and a guy that's moving
really really quickly. That's just a really strong top five.
(02:15):
If you go take a look at my AI engine
or my AI assistant, excuse me, has kind of Griffin one,
Bumper Bubblo Chandler two and Edwin Florentino three. So he
likes Evan Florentino, or at least to remember. The AI assistant
is me, So that's I've taught him everything I know
about scouting. So he's he's basically looking at the upside
(02:39):
of Florentino, which he should be. He's got Tamar Johnson
as seth Rnandez. I bet you if I would have
put in what seth Rnandez posted last week, he would
have probably moved him up. Then he's got Barker's got
Kinder Delgado a pie I have him pretty far down,
and your dandy DiLeo Santo's and Tier three. He's got
(02:59):
Nick York, which you will talk about him in a
few minutes. A tough guy to evaluate my opinion, ezmra
Lyn Valdez, who's been on a really hot streak since
he's gotten to the arizon A Fall League or his
top and his Tier three, so you know he's got
some surprises. The most notable is Edwin Florentino a little
higher than I do. And I mean again, you can
(03:21):
make that argument. He has got that kind of talent.
Let's go and break these down one by one. Connor Griffin,
I'm not sure how much I'm going to say here
shortstop outfielders. Looks like he's going to be able to
stay at shortstop, so maybe the outfield won't be in
his purview. I think we need to just I mean,
(03:45):
you get Connor Griffins of the world every two or
three years. I mean, I guess the last one was
Jackson Holliday, who just tore through the minor leagues. But
Jackson Holliday was the number one overall player. Expected him
to tear through, even though that's not necessarily fair. But
you expect a lot out of the number one overall pick.
(04:07):
You don't get guys who go from low Way to
double A in a single season or what trey Ya
Savage did Low Way to the major leagues and looks
damn good in the playoffs though, I mean, look, the
Santa Mariners are giving it to him, so that Mariners
team they can really really pitch, and but I don't
(04:27):
think anybody's going to beat the Dodgers at this juncture.
They just look ridiculous and I feel bad for the Brewers. Man,
they got a good team. And hey, so Jackson Curio.
The first pitch off the bat off of Yamamoto's back
goes for a home run and no doubt or opposite
field home run, and he gives up nothing. I mean nothing.
(04:48):
It's just crazy good pitching and Blake's noew I say it.
I'll say it again. You can look at the day,
and I spent all day looking at data about baseball players.
I dare you to find someone that's got nastier stuff
than Blake Snell. Not granted he can't stay healthy and
he walks people, but pitch for pitch, there's nobody better
(05:10):
in the league than Blake Snell in terms of movement
and just flat out nasty stuff. And that's who they
face so far. And they still got Tani to get through.
Oh yeah, maybe Tyler Glasnow, who's top twenty nasty stuff
in baseball, if not top ten nasty stuff. It's just
ridiculous what you've got to go through. And then of course,
(05:32):
of course you got a Tony hitting and the Mookie Betts,
and it's almost unfair. What the what the Dodgers have built.
It's just a remarkable team. I don't know how you
get through them. Maybe maybe the Mariners can with that pitching,
can make it a bunch of two to one games,
and somehow Kyle Riley or Julio Rodriguez can hit home
(05:56):
run and they can take they can take the series.
But uh, anyway, I don't know where I got into
Oh Treyya Savage. You just don't see that that often.
But Condor Griffin has gone from you know a kid
that was a ninth overall pick. I think it was
a ninth did I write it in here? A ninth
overall pick? I'm going from memory. It just has blown up.
But we saw Mike Trout, the twenty third overall pick
(06:17):
in two thousand and nine, kind of blow up and
make it to the major leagues as a nineteen year old.
Kudi Griff's gonna make it to the major leagues next season,
and it's exciting. You see it again every three or
four years where these guys is ripped through the minor
leagues and all of a sudden, everybody thinks that all
prospects are like Conder, Griffin or you fill in the blank,
(06:38):
these kind of transformational players. Now we've seen with Jackson
Jackson Holly. He's not a transformational player by any stretch,
but he's a really good hitter and was able to
fly through the minor league. Now you can argue flew
through too fast. Now is Condor Griffin flying too through?
Fast through? Too fast? He could be, but nothing has
(07:00):
him down and nothing's slowed down Jackson Holiday as well
until he got to the big leagues. And oops, I
can't hit a breaking pitch. It's taking them some time
to make adjustments. I mean, Connor Griffin does have a
hitch in a swing, and you think that at some
point a crafty pitcher or a really good pitching coach
is going to be able to figure him out and
(07:20):
give him stuff that he can't hit. But it just
flat out has not happened. And he deserves all the
accolades a get. He deserves to be the number one
prospect in baseball, and it's I mean, I think, I
think Jesus my Day is roughed behind him, But then
it's a drop after those two. I mean, those two
guys are kind of similar players. I think my Day
(07:42):
is the better hitter. Connor Griffin has more speed, so
he's more of a well rounded fantasy baseball player. But
Maday's has got ridiculous power. So I mean, they're both great,
great players, going to be great players. But we'll see.
I still have that with Griffin. I still have that
thing in the back of my mind that's scouting. You
(08:03):
all the years of scouting, all the scout scout school
I've gone to, all the time I've spent with drive
Line and other kind of academies, that that swing still
bothers me with kind of Griffin And he hasn't changed anything,
and why should he. It's all working. Bubba Chandler again
well known, its already made up to the major leagues.
(08:24):
I always thought that he would be the number two
behind Paul Skins. He's not at Paul Skins level. There's
few pitchers in baseball that are at Paul Skins's level.
But Bubba Chandler is a really good pitcher. And I think,
you know, he did get into some problems and couldn't
throw strikes, but I don't think long term that's gonna be.
(08:47):
Probably is really athletic. In fact, these more athletic than
Paul Skins. Paul Skins has got better stuff, particularly better
secondary pitches, and can throw better strikes, but Bubba Chandler's
right there up behind him, and I think it's a
one two punch. They get at least six years of
team control with Bubba Chandler. It's starting with the Pirates
of Skeens has finished a second year, right, so they
(09:09):
still have four more years of team control. So that's
why again I think you're going to see Connor Griffin
moving through the system quickly because they got to get
these They got to get these hitters up to help,
you know, support this team so they can win with
some of these particularly with Skeens being maybe a you know,
a pitcher that you're not going to see for another
(09:30):
ten years. I mean, he is that good. So I
guess it's been uh, Terrek Scouble who's going to free agency,
So it's been six years since you've seen a guy
as dominant as Terrek. Scoob will come up and that's
Bubba Champ. Excuse me, that's up all Skans and but
they've got to bring these bats up, and I think
you're going to see them rushing these guys. But back
(09:53):
to Bubba Chandler. Number two starter playing in step might
be an Ace Seth Hernandez I mean, what can you say.
I mean, nobody wants to draft the high school pitcher
early in their first year player draft because tons of
stuff can go wrong. But go look at that video.
That deliveryou is easy, he repeats it. He's got I
(10:15):
mean ridiculous stuff. I mean you see these sliders, I
mean unhittable. It's a really, really good starter kit for
a guy to be an ACE. But you know that
the huge risk of Tommy John surgery and a kid
that's doing one hundred miles an hour eighteen nineteen years old,
so you know the whole drill. So you have to
(10:36):
decide at the draft table whether you invest in a
guy like seth Rnandez. And and look, the Paul Skimes
flew through the minor leagues. He was probably ready at
the draft table to pitch in the in the major leagues.
But Boby Chandler's taking a long time to get through.
And I you know, if you tell me that seth
(10:56):
Rnandez spends most of his time in Low A next season,
I wouldn't be at all surprised. That's why I have
his ETA at twenty twenty nine. He might have the
skill set to get there by twenty twenty seven to
twenty eight. But I think they're gonna take their time
with Seth Hernandez, and I think the pirate should. You
don't want to do anything to damage this guy potentially
(11:20):
blow out his elbow or shoulder. You want to make
sure he gets the Double A healthy. Then you start
airing him out. And I think he'll take two years,
full two years to go through low, low A and
high A. Maybe he'll see a handful of games in
Double A in twenty twenty seven. But I think they're
gonna take their time with Seth Hernandez. But I mean,
(11:41):
that guy could be really, really good. Tamar Johnson. Look,
this is a kid that was trying to be a
power hitter for a while. Came out of the draft
number four overall pick in the draft twenty twenty two,
and my belief was he was the best hitter in
that draft, one of the best ters in that draft.
Was going to be an on base machine, fifteen to
(12:04):
fifteen type of player. Maybe a little bit more pop,
maybe a little bit more speed some seasons, but just
a high floor guy. All of a sudden, then he
starts to and then he starts to try to become
a power hitter, started striking out a ton, particularly in
the lower levels of the minor leagues, and then you know,
it's taken him a little bit longer. I mean he's
on his next season because fourth year, which I think
(12:25):
he comes up next year along with Connor Griffin. So
four years ort guy with that hit toal it's just
too long. I think he just lost his way or
the pirates are trying to turn him into some player
that he's not. Now, he's just making better contact. He's
driving the ball. He's a double laiter that's going to
hit twelve to fifteen home runs and steal twelve to
(12:45):
fifteen stolen bases and potentially hit two eighty with a
high one basers. And so the player is it's a
really really good baseball player and a really good fantasy
baseball player. Not an elite fantasy baseball player, but a
very good one. Sorry, he's had a pause, this call
for a moment. Number five is that Edward Florentino. If
(13:08):
you haven't heard of him, which many people have not
because he's relatively popped up last season, a good signing
by four hundred thousand dollars, is you know, a chunk
of money, not at the elite level that a lot
of these international guys are being signed for, but blew
up in the complex leagues. You know, hit three forty seven,
(13:31):
then he went to low way kept hitting. I mean
it's a high it's a highly leverage swing. So you
love the angles that he's he's coming up on the
ball for that. So he's hitting a lot of home runs,
a lot of hard contact. There's plus speed there. There
is a little concern that there he hit so much
on an angle that there's gonna be a lot of
swing and missing his game. And it could be and
(13:53):
that might eventually come back to bite him. But he's
looking like, you know, another kind of Condi Griffin speed
and power and elite speed and power. This is serious
stuff going on with Edwin Florentino. So this is the
first that you're hearing about him. You need to read
these words carefully. You need to type in Edwin Florentino
(14:15):
in your Google machine or whatever your being machine, whatever
you use, and digest as much as you can about
Edwin Florentino, because this guy, I think could be the
real deal already a top one hundred prospect for me,
right there at it. Number six is Hunter Barco, left
handed pitcher we start. I mean that top five in
a class by himself. You do get a bit of
a drop here with Hunter Barker, but he's still a
(14:37):
really good, really good picture from the left side with
a ninety seven mon hour fastball. Has already seen the
major leagues. You know. I think it's going to come
down to if he throws enough enough strikes. If he does,
I think he could be a mid rotation or maybe
a little bit more. So, you know, he's probably if
(14:58):
you put at the end of next season, I think
Barco is probably your number four starter. I'm a who
was the guy that was injured all the all season long?
Six foot one guy throws ninety seven ninety ninety nine.
I saw him in double a twice a couple of
years ago. And that guy. So I'm assuming the next
(15:19):
season you got Paul Schames as your race, Bubba's your
number two, the guy can't thick up as your number three,
and Barco could be your number four. Who wants us
on that Who wants us on that team? Let's take
a look, shall we? Roster? Resource pirates do and Braxton Ashcraft?
(15:42):
I like Breckdon Ashcraft a lot. I'm wondering if they
moved Mitch Keller. I mean, it's a good picture, it's
not a great picture. It's not the same level as
the other guy. And Braxton Ashcraft had a really, really
good good year and I've always liked him a lot.
Of a couple of Dynasty leagues, I've been pretty pretty
bullish on that. But Mitch Keller, I think, is a
(16:05):
guy that maybe they try to move. His service time
is five years, so he's you know, he's on his
in his walk year, so it might be good to
try to move him. And because you got again Bubba
Chandler coming in, and then you're going to hopefully have
back Jared Jones. I was I was thinking of hopefully
have Jared Jones back. He had the had his brace surgery,
so that surgery is on May twenty first, so he's
(16:30):
probably not going to be back until what is Brace surgercy.
Maybe he can come back in May June. So maybe
they need to have it that Mike Burrows is okay,
But then you could throw it. You could bring up
Barco and maybe Barco takes Mitch Keller's place, and then
when you got Jared Jones back. You know, then you've
got a solid six man rotation, knowing that somebody is
(16:51):
going to get hurt there anyway, I like Hunter Barker.
The fact that it's from the left side as well,
I think is a big deal. I guess the Pirates
even a different kind of Look. Let's see h Christian
Curtis comes in. That's ooops. I'm got to go back
to Patreons like because that they're numbered at a Patreoon site.
(17:12):
In my word document, they are not numbered, by the way,
So this is out to everybody. The first ten will
be for everyone, and I encourage you if you're not
members of our patriots like please join. I think you'll
have a great time. We've got some openings coming up
in our Dynasty leagues. I'll be announcing that here in
the next week or two. I think six or seven
(17:33):
people maybe eight have told me they're not coming back.
That's out of ninety people in league. So that's that's
actually pretty good. But so there will be some opportunities
to jump on a league or a league if you
want that. So for a Patreon members, I'll be announcing
that in the next two weeks. So we've got those available.
You get all of the prospects. So I'm up to
(17:56):
six hundred and one prospects. I guarantee that I'll have
six hundred outs. I've already that's I'm at six zho
one and probably have another twenty five to forty still
to write to finish those up. So you get all
that get Tim and I went out to the discord
site last like just to see what was going on
a little uh uh, just making sure. I just want
to see what was happening in Tim. It's like a madman.
(18:18):
He's out there all the time. So so he loves
talking baseball. It's his thing, man, So so you get
access to him, you get access to me. It's just
a good time. Five bucks a month. Patreon dot com
form slized Prospect three sixty one. I've also gotten feedback
on just prospect three sixty one dot com. People really
appreciate the fact that I've taken all the ads out.
(18:41):
And again I would go out and just to check
on stuff and the ads had gotten out of control.
So whatever service I was using, and I think it's
just one of the big services that that word press
I use WordPress that they use as one they won,
one of the ones they recommend it. It was one
of crap, I mean, just the gotten out of control.
(19:01):
So I just said, screw it. I don't make enough
money off the ads anyway. So if you want to
support it, and that's so, I just put one ad
up there and it's join the Patreon site. Put it
on the right hand side, so it's all there for you.
But everything else is ad free, so at least you'll
be able to navigate through that. But I hope you
just can't come over to the Patreon site because you
(19:21):
also get everything on the Patreon side is ad free
because a subscriber support it, and you also get the
podcast ad free. Okay. Christian Curtis comes in at number seven.
Pretty good season last year, fastball touching ninety eight miles
and I look at that spin of twenty six hundred.
I mean there's two things that from a pitching standpoint,
(19:44):
particularly with the fastball, that we have learned over the
last five to ten years with the introduction at baseball
savantah all the advancing analytics. One is spen rate matters,
and the more spen you have on a pitch, particularly fastball,
it's it's a backsmen because you think about you get
(20:05):
the ball in your hand, you got your two fingers
on the top, and as you're spinning it, the ball
is coming out and it's its reverse spin, so it's
actually coming to the plate as reverse spin. So it's
going against gravity. So what happens when there's such high
spin on it, Gravity can't push that ball down as
fast as it normally does. So if you're a pitcher,
(20:25):
if you're a hitter, and you know, your brain knows
the wall of gravity, even though you might not even
understand the concept you ball, your brain knows that these
pitchers are supposed to drop at a certain point, and
because they got so much backspinder, they're not dropping. That's
why it's become so effective. Spinning with curveballs and sliders
(20:46):
and sliders and curveballs in particular puts so much additional
torque on the ball that you get a lot better
movement on it. We see the spin with sweepers in particular,
and that's what's that's the first thing that we've learned
about advancing analytics. The second thing is the importance of extension.
With pictures. You could take a guy that's throwing ninety
(21:08):
three miles an hour, ninety four miles an hour, and
put a seven foot extension. In other words, his stride
is seven foot and his stuff will play up just
because it's jumping up on batters. And then you throw
a large extension six and a half to seven feet
on to a pitcher who's got high backspin, and those
are your nasty guys you throw. In fact, if that
(21:30):
picture can throw eight ninety eight ninety nine miles an hour,
sign me up, Cam Shitler. That's that's who that guy is, right,
combines huge extension with big velocity and big backspin, doesn't
have very good secondary pitches, doesn't really have a change up.
It doesn't matter. Fastball is just tremendous. And that's what
(21:51):
we've learned. So we see guys like Christian Curtis that
he's not at the same level these Baba Chandler and
Jared Jones and of course Paul not An even Barka
not at that same kind of level. But it's good stuff.
Six foot five, big extension, big spin, good velocity, that's
what you're looking for. Nick York. Look, we've been talking
(22:13):
about Nick York for years. Started off as a Boston
Red Sox. I think he's a high floor guy who's
gonna be a lot of contact, ten to twelve home runs.
Is he Nick Gonzalez? He might be. It might be
really similar players. Nick Gonzales might have a bit more
power than Nick York does, but I think it's a
similar kind of guy. He pounds a lot of the
(22:34):
balls on the ground, that is Nick York. But I
think he'll be a good baseball player, probably a gamer
kind of in that uh oh, the second basement for
the for the Mets will help me here, let me
let me look that he had so many names going
through your head. Jeff McNeil, kind of a Jeff McNeil
(22:56):
type of player. Who good player you scrimped were Ustremsky?
That kind of you know, not not the the that
the grandfather, but the former San Francisco Giant Umsey kind
of those players. It's, you know, a good player, not
a great player. I think that's who Nick new York
will be. I don't think I have Nick York on
any Dynasty League team, which I play in twelve of them,
(23:19):
so I almost have every player on some team, which
I don't know. Is that fun? I was trying to
figure that out. Number nine is Ezra Lynn Valdez first
base of an outfielder, probably going to wind up at
first base. Huge power. Question of how much he's going
(23:40):
to hit. I've got him as a uh Celaire like volatility,
as a Jorge Claire as a as a comp that's
out there. Maybe Horus Hilaire has a half grade more power,
but uh, you know, he didn't play well once he
got looked like all world in high A. I was
writing him up seemed like weekly on a daily notes.
(24:01):
Then he got to a double A and struggled a
little bit, which I kind of expected. Again. Playing in
the Eastern Eastern league's tough. I mean, Somerset's a tough
place hit balls out where the Pittsburgh Pirates play. It's
actually pretty neutral there, but eerie. It is tough to
play at and forget about it. In Richmond, I mean
(24:23):
that's a miserable place to hit. The only place in
the Eastern League that's a hitters park is in Philadelphia
and Ready. So if you're ever in the East Coast
and want to go catch a double A game and
you want to see big offensive games, go out to Ready.
That's a great park. Everything else is pretty much plays
at Pitcher's Park. It's not surprised Valdez had a little
(24:43):
bit of a struggle out there, but we're seeing with
the thinner air in Arizona, it's got big boy power.
Number ten is Wyatt Sanford. Doesn't get a lot of love.
I really pumped him up here. Good defender, more offense
than I think anybody initially thought. It's still third four
bases before hitting the IL on August, so he could
(25:04):
you know, I would have been a forty stolen base.
Guy doesn't have a ton of power, so there could
be some utility risk here with Wyatt Sandford. But it's
a good player that again nobody is talking about. And
let's see where I ranked them on the top one
hundred two forty four. It's pretty good. So just you know,
(25:25):
Conor Griffin one, Bubba Chandler ten, Seth Rnandez thirty seven,
Tamar Johnson seventy one. So I have Seth Hernandez in
front of Tamar Johnson. Uh yeah, oh, I have him
ranked like that as well. I'm sorry Tomorrow Johnson at
seventy one and ed Edward Florentino's at one oh one.
He dropped a bit, probably from some shifting around, so
(25:46):
he'll be right at one hundred and ninety five to
one hundred somewhere in there. Barco won sixty five, Christian
Curtis won eighty five, Nick York two six, Ezra Lynn
Valdez two thirty eight, and Wyatt Sanford at two four.
Already four. I'm going to break now and let our
the general public go, and the rest of the podcast
(26:08):
will be dedicated to our Patreon members until next time, guys,
b while just play a quick go a music break
so I can see where to cut the cut the podcast.
Sem and I have been back on Sunday, by the way,
so you now
Good afternoon everyone. Today is the fifteenth of October, just
after five o'clock. Hope everyone is doing well. This is
our hot Prospect of the week. We're doing two a
week now doing our systems. We have done the Chicago Cups,
the Cincinnati Reds, and the Milwaukee Brewers, and today we
(00:22):
are on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pittsburgh Pirates. I mean, I
know I said that you can make an argument that
the Milwaukee Brewers are the best, the best minor league
franchise in baseball, but you can also make a strong
argument about the Pittsburgh Pirates. I mean that top three
of Connor Griffin, Bubba Chandler, Seth Hernandez, Tamar Johnson, and
(00:46):
Edward Florentino. I'm not sure there's a stronger top five.
And then you get right over to Hunter Barco at six.
I mean that top five is really, really impressive, and
we'll get it. I'll go through each one of them.
We all know Connor Griffin number one prospect in baseball.
Bubba Chandler should have been up earlier. Really struggled, but
(01:08):
you look good at the end of the season. Seth
Rnandez already you know he was down at the Pittsburgh
Pirates Dominican Academy, and he posted it himself and pretty
much broke the internet where he threw. He posted him
throwing four pitches, a ninety mile an hour and one
hundred minin hour fastball with crazy spin, like twenty six
(01:29):
hundred rpm spins, and then two sliders that were flat
out Nassey. Now you know, maybe that's the only four
good pitches he threw in the entire outing, but man,
the delivery looked great. It was awesome. So just go
to Twitter, just go to Google and say seth Rnandez
and the Dominican Academy and it'll prop run up. It
was pretty impressive. Tomorrow Johnson high floor guy. And then
(01:52):
you got this Edward Florentino, who you know, if he
wanted to put Edwin Florentino behind Connor griff and I,
I mean, I'm not sure I'd have too much of
an arguments. He's already a top one hundred guy right
at one hundred, between ninety five and one hundred and five,
kind of in that range, and a guy that's moving
really really quickly. That's just a really strong top five.
(02:15):
If you go take a look at my AI engine
or my AI assistant, excuse me, has kind of Griffin one,
Bumper Bubblo Chandler two and Edwin Florentino three. So he
likes Evan Florentino, or at least to remember. The AI assistant
is me, So that's I've taught him everything I know
about scouting. So he's he's basically looking at the upside
(02:39):
of Florentino, which he should be. He's got Tamar Johnson
as seth Rnandez. I bet you if I would have
put in what seth Rnandez posted last week, he would
have probably moved him up. Then he's got Barker's got
Kinder Delgado a pie I have him pretty far down,
and your dandy DiLeo Santo's and Tier three. He's got
(02:59):
Nick York, which you will talk about him in a
few minutes. A tough guy to evaluate my opinion, ezmra
Lyn Valdez, who's been on a really hot streak since
he's gotten to the arizon A Fall League or his
top and his Tier three, so you know he's got
some surprises. The most notable is Edwin Florentino a little
higher than I do. And I mean again, you can
(03:21):
make that argument. He has got that kind of talent.
Let's go and break these down one by one. Connor Griffin,
I'm not sure how much I'm going to say here
shortstop outfielders. Looks like he's going to be able to
stay at shortstop, so maybe the outfield won't be in
his purview. I think we need to just I mean,
(03:45):
you get Connor Griffins of the world every two or
three years. I mean, I guess the last one was
Jackson Holliday, who just tore through the minor leagues. But
Jackson Holliday was the number one overall player. Expected him
to tear through, even though that's not necessarily fair. But
you expect a lot out of the number one overall pick.
(04:07):
You don't get guys who go from low Way to
double A in a single season or what trey Ya
Savage did Low Way to the major leagues and looks
damn good in the playoffs though, I mean, look, the
Santa Mariners are giving it to him, so that Mariners
team they can really really pitch, and but I don't
(04:27):
think anybody's going to beat the Dodgers at this juncture.
They just look ridiculous and I feel bad for the Brewers. Man,
they got a good team. And hey, so Jackson Curio.
The first pitch off the bat off of Yamamoto's back
goes for a home run and no doubt or opposite
field home run, and he gives up nothing. I mean nothing.
(04:48):
It's just crazy good pitching and Blake's noew I say it.
I'll say it again. You can look at the day,
and I spent all day looking at data about baseball players.
I dare you to find someone that's got nastier stuff
than Blake Snell. Not granted he can't stay healthy and
he walks people, but pitch for pitch, there's nobody better
(05:10):
in the league than Blake Snell in terms of movement
and just flat out nasty stuff. And that's who they
face so far. And they still got Tani to get through.
Oh yeah, maybe Tyler Glasnow, who's top twenty nasty stuff
in baseball, if not top ten nasty stuff. It's just
ridiculous what you've got to go through. And then of course,
(05:32):
of course you got a Tony hitting and the Mookie Betts,
and it's almost unfair. What the what the Dodgers have built.
It's just a remarkable team. I don't know how you
get through them. Maybe maybe the Mariners can with that pitching,
can make it a bunch of two to one games,
and somehow Kyle Riley or Julio Rodriguez can hit home
(05:56):
run and they can take they can take the series.
But uh, anyway, I don't know where I got into
Oh Treyya Savage. You just don't see that that often.
But Condor Griffin has gone from you know a kid
that was a ninth overall pick. I think it was
a ninth did I write it in here? A ninth
overall pick? I'm going from memory. It just has blown up.
But we saw Mike Trout, the twenty third overall pick
(06:17):
in two thousand and nine, kind of blow up and
make it to the major leagues as a nineteen year old.
Kudi Griff's gonna make it to the major leagues next season,
and it's exciting. You see it again every three or
four years where these guys is ripped through the minor
leagues and all of a sudden, everybody thinks that all
prospects are like Conder, Griffin or you fill in the blank,
(06:38):
these kind of transformational players. Now we've seen with Jackson
Jackson Holly. He's not a transformational player by any stretch,
but he's a really good hitter and was able to
fly through the minor league. Now you can argue flew
through too fast. Now is Condor Griffin flying too through?
Fast through? Too fast? He could be, but nothing has
(07:00):
him down and nothing's slowed down Jackson Holiday as well
until he got to the big leagues. And oops, I
can't hit a breaking pitch. It's taking them some time
to make adjustments. I mean, Connor Griffin does have a
hitch in a swing, and you think that at some
point a crafty pitcher or a really good pitching coach
is going to be able to figure him out and
(07:20):
give him stuff that he can't hit. But it just
flat out has not happened. And he deserves all the
accolades a get. He deserves to be the number one
prospect in baseball, and it's I mean, I think, I
think Jesus my Day is roughed behind him, But then
it's a drop after those two. I mean, those two
guys are kind of similar players. I think my Day
(07:42):
is the better hitter. Connor Griffin has more speed, so
he's more of a well rounded fantasy baseball player. But
Maday's has got ridiculous power. So I mean, they're both great,
great players, going to be great players. But we'll see.
I still have that with Griffin. I still have that
thing in the back of my mind that's scouting. You
(08:03):
all the years of scouting, all the scout scout school
I've gone to, all the time I've spent with drive
Line and other kind of academies, that that swing still
bothers me with kind of Griffin And he hasn't changed anything,
and why should he. It's all working. Bubba Chandler again
well known, its already made up to the major leagues.
(08:24):
I always thought that he would be the number two
behind Paul Skins. He's not at Paul Skins level. There's
few pitchers in baseball that are at Paul Skins's level.
But Bubba Chandler is a really good pitcher. And I think,
you know, he did get into some problems and couldn't
throw strikes, but I don't think long term that's gonna be.
(08:47):
Probably is really athletic. In fact, these more athletic than
Paul Skins. Paul Skins has got better stuff, particularly better
secondary pitches, and can throw better strikes, but Bubba Chandler's
right there up behind him, and I think it's a
one two punch. They get at least six years of
team control with Bubba Chandler. It's starting with the Pirates
of Skeens has finished a second year, right, so they
(09:09):
still have four more years of team control. So that's
why again I think you're going to see Connor Griffin
moving through the system quickly because they got to get
these They got to get these hitters up to help,
you know, support this team so they can win with
some of these particularly with Skeens being maybe a you know,
a pitcher that you're not going to see for another
(09:30):
ten years. I mean, he is that good. So I
guess it's been uh, Terrek Scouble who's going to free agency,
So it's been six years since you've seen a guy
as dominant as Terrek. Scoob will come up and that's
Bubba Champ. Excuse me, that's up all Skans and but
they've got to bring these bats up, and I think
you're going to see them rushing these guys. But back
(09:53):
to Bubba Chandler. Number two starter playing in step might
be an Ace Seth Hernandez I mean, what can you say.
I mean, nobody wants to draft the high school pitcher
early in their first year player draft because tons of
stuff can go wrong. But go look at that video.
That deliveryou is easy, he repeats it. He's got I
(10:15):
mean ridiculous stuff. I mean you see these sliders, I
mean unhittable. It's a really, really good starter kit for
a guy to be an ACE. But you know that
the huge risk of Tommy John surgery and a kid
that's doing one hundred miles an hour eighteen nineteen years old,
so you know the whole drill. So you have to
(10:36):
decide at the draft table whether you invest in a
guy like seth Rnandez. And and look, the Paul Skimes
flew through the minor leagues. He was probably ready at
the draft table to pitch in the in the major leagues.
But Boby Chandler's taking a long time to get through.
And I you know, if you tell me that seth
(10:56):
Rnandez spends most of his time in Low A next season,
I wouldn't be at all surprised. That's why I have
his ETA at twenty twenty nine. He might have the
skill set to get there by twenty twenty seven to
twenty eight. But I think they're gonna take their time
with Seth Hernandez, and I think the pirate should. You
don't want to do anything to damage this guy potentially
(11:20):
blow out his elbow or shoulder. You want to make
sure he gets the Double A healthy. Then you start
airing him out. And I think he'll take two years,
full two years to go through low, low A and
high A. Maybe he'll see a handful of games in
Double A in twenty twenty seven. But I think they're
gonna take their time with Seth Hernandez. But I mean,
(11:41):
that guy could be really, really good. Tamar Johnson. Look,
this is a kid that was trying to be a
power hitter for a while. Came out of the draft
number four overall pick in the draft twenty twenty two,
and my belief was he was the best hitter in
that draft, one of the best ters in that draft.
Was going to be an on base machine, fifteen to
(12:04):
fifteen type of player. Maybe a little bit more pop,
maybe a little bit more speed some seasons, but just
a high floor guy. All of a sudden, then he
starts to and then he starts to try to become
a power hitter, started striking out a ton, particularly in
the lower levels of the minor leagues, and then you know,
it's taken him a little bit longer. I mean he's
on his next season because fourth year, which I think
(12:25):
he comes up next year along with Connor Griffin. So
four years ort guy with that hit toal it's just
too long. I think he just lost his way or
the pirates are trying to turn him into some player
that he's not. Now, he's just making better contact. He's
driving the ball. He's a double laiter that's going to
hit twelve to fifteen home runs and steal twelve to
(12:45):
fifteen stolen bases and potentially hit two eighty with a
high one basers. And so the player is it's a
really really good baseball player and a really good fantasy
baseball player. Not an elite fantasy baseball player, but a
very good one. Sorry, he's had a pause, this call
for a moment. Number five is that Edward Florentino. If
(13:08):
you haven't heard of him, which many people have not
because he's relatively popped up last season, a good signing
by four hundred thousand dollars, is you know, a chunk
of money, not at the elite level that a lot
of these international guys are being signed for, but blew
up in the complex leagues. You know, hit three forty seven,
(13:31):
then he went to low way kept hitting. I mean
it's a high it's a highly leverage swing. So you
love the angles that he's he's coming up on the
ball for that. So he's hitting a lot of home runs,
a lot of hard contact. There's plus speed there. There
is a little concern that there he hit so much
on an angle that there's gonna be a lot of
swing and missing his game. And it could be and
(13:53):
that might eventually come back to bite him. But he's
looking like, you know, another kind of Condi Griffin speed
and power and elite speed and power. This is serious
stuff going on with Edwin Florentino. So this is the
first that you're hearing about him. You need to read
these words carefully. You need to type in Edwin Florentino
(14:15):
in your Google machine or whatever your being machine, whatever
you use, and digest as much as you can about
Edwin Florentino, because this guy, I think could be the
real deal already a top one hundred prospect for me,
right there at it. Number six is Hunter Barco, left
handed pitcher we start. I mean that top five in
a class by himself. You do get a bit of
a drop here with Hunter Barker, but he's still a
(14:37):
really good, really good picture from the left side with
a ninety seven mon hour fastball. Has already seen the
major leagues. You know. I think it's going to come
down to if he throws enough enough strikes. If he does,
I think he could be a mid rotation or maybe
a little bit more. So, you know, he's probably if
(14:58):
you put at the end of next season, I think
Barco is probably your number four starter. I'm a who
was the guy that was injured all the all season long?
Six foot one guy throws ninety seven ninety ninety nine.
I saw him in double a twice a couple of
years ago. And that guy. So I'm assuming the next
(15:19):
season you got Paul Schames as your race, Bubba's your
number two, the guy can't thick up as your number three,
and Barco could be your number four. Who wants us
on that Who wants us on that team? Let's take
a look, shall we? Roster? Resource pirates do and Braxton Ashcraft?
(15:42):
I like Breckdon Ashcraft a lot. I'm wondering if they
moved Mitch Keller. I mean, it's a good picture, it's
not a great picture. It's not the same level as
the other guy. And Braxton Ashcraft had a really, really
good good year and I've always liked him a lot.
Of a couple of Dynasty leagues, I've been pretty pretty
bullish on that. But Mitch Keller, I think, is a
(16:05):
guy that maybe they try to move. His service time
is five years, so he's you know, he's on his
in his walk year, so it might be good to
try to move him. And because you got again Bubba
Chandler coming in, and then you're going to hopefully have
back Jared Jones. I was I was thinking of hopefully
have Jared Jones back. He had the had his brace surgery,
so that surgery is on May twenty first, so he's
(16:30):
probably not going to be back until what is Brace surgercy.
Maybe he can come back in May June. So maybe
they need to have it that Mike Burrows is okay,
But then you could throw it. You could bring up
Barco and maybe Barco takes Mitch Keller's place, and then
when you got Jared Jones back. You know, then you've
got a solid six man rotation, knowing that somebody is
(16:51):
going to get hurt there anyway, I like Hunter Barker.
The fact that it's from the left side as well,
I think is a big deal. I guess the Pirates
even a different kind of Look. Let's see h Christian
Curtis comes in. That's ooops. I'm got to go back
to Patreons like because that they're numbered at a Patreoon site.
(17:12):
In my word document, they are not numbered, by the way,
So this is out to everybody. The first ten will
be for everyone, and I encourage you if you're not
members of our patriots like please join. I think you'll
have a great time. We've got some openings coming up
in our Dynasty leagues. I'll be announcing that here in
the next week or two. I think six or seven
(17:33):
people maybe eight have told me they're not coming back.
That's out of ninety people in league. So that's that's
actually pretty good. But so there will be some opportunities
to jump on a league or a league if you
want that. So for a Patreon members, I'll be announcing
that in the next two weeks. So we've got those available.
You get all of the prospects. So I'm up to
(17:56):
six hundred and one prospects. I guarantee that I'll have
six hundred outs. I've already that's I'm at six zho
one and probably have another twenty five to forty still
to write to finish those up. So you get all
that get Tim and I went out to the discord
site last like just to see what was going on
a little uh uh, just making sure. I just want
to see what was happening in Tim. It's like a madman.
(18:18):
He's out there all the time. So so he loves
talking baseball. It's his thing, man, So so you get
access to him, you get access to me. It's just
a good time. Five bucks a month. Patreon dot com
form slized Prospect three sixty one. I've also gotten feedback
on just prospect three sixty one dot com. People really
appreciate the fact that I've taken all the ads out.
(18:41):
And again I would go out and just to check
on stuff and the ads had gotten out of control.
So whatever service I was using, and I think it's
just one of the big services that that word press
I use WordPress that they use as one they won,
one of the ones they recommend it. It was one
of crap, I mean, just the gotten out of control.
(19:01):
So I just said, screw it. I don't make enough
money off the ads anyway. So if you want to
support it, and that's so, I just put one ad
up there and it's join the Patreon site. Put it
on the right hand side, so it's all there for you.
But everything else is ad free, so at least you'll
be able to navigate through that. But I hope you
just can't come over to the Patreon site because you
(19:21):
also get everything on the Patreon side is ad free
because a subscriber support it, and you also get the
podcast ad free. Okay. Christian Curtis comes in at number seven.
Pretty good season last year, fastball touching ninety eight miles
and I look at that spin of twenty six hundred.
I mean there's two things that from a pitching standpoint,
(19:44):
particularly with the fastball, that we have learned over the
last five to ten years with the introduction at baseball
savantah all the advancing analytics. One is spen rate matters,
and the more spen you have on a pitch, particularly fastball,
it's it's a backsmen because you think about you get
(20:05):
the ball in your hand, you got your two fingers
on the top, and as you're spinning it, the ball
is coming out and it's its reverse spin, so it's
actually coming to the plate as reverse spin. So it's
going against gravity. So what happens when there's such high
spin on it, Gravity can't push that ball down as
fast as it normally does. So if you're a pitcher,
(20:25):
if you're a hitter, and you know, your brain knows
the wall of gravity, even though you might not even
understand the concept you ball, your brain knows that these
pitchers are supposed to drop at a certain point, and
because they got so much backspinder, they're not dropping. That's
why it's become so effective. Spinning with curveballs and sliders
(20:46):
and sliders and curveballs in particular puts so much additional
torque on the ball that you get a lot better
movement on it. We see the spin with sweepers in particular,
and that's what's that's the first thing that we've learned
about advancing analytics. The second thing is the importance of extension.
With pictures. You could take a guy that's throwing ninety
(21:08):
three miles an hour, ninety four miles an hour, and
put a seven foot extension. In other words, his stride
is seven foot and his stuff will play up just
because it's jumping up on batters. And then you throw
a large extension six and a half to seven feet
on to a pitcher who's got high backspin, and those
are your nasty guys you throw. In fact, if that
(21:30):
picture can throw eight ninety eight ninety nine miles an hour,
sign me up, Cam Shitler. That's that's who that guy is, right,
combines huge extension with big velocity and big backspin, doesn't
have very good secondary pitches, doesn't really have a change up.
It doesn't matter. Fastball is just tremendous. And that's what
(21:51):
we've learned. So we see guys like Christian Curtis that
he's not at the same level these Baba Chandler and
Jared Jones and of course Paul not An even Barka
not at that same kind of level. But it's good stuff.
Six foot five, big extension, big spin, good velocity, that's
what you're looking for. Nick York. Look, we've been talking
(22:13):
about Nick York for years. Started off as a Boston
Red Sox. I think he's a high floor guy who's
gonna be a lot of contact, ten to twelve home runs.
Is he Nick Gonzalez? He might be. It might be
really similar players. Nick Gonzales might have a bit more
power than Nick York does, but I think it's a
similar kind of guy. He pounds a lot of the
(22:34):
balls on the ground, that is Nick York. But I
think he'll be a good baseball player, probably a gamer
kind of in that uh oh, the second basement for
the for the Mets will help me here, let me
let me look that he had so many names going
through your head. Jeff McNeil, kind of a Jeff McNeil
(22:56):
type of player. Who good player you scrimped were Ustremsky?
That kind of you know, not not the the that
the grandfather, but the former San Francisco Giant Umsey kind
of those players. It's, you know, a good player, not
a great player. I think that's who Nick new York
will be. I don't think I have Nick York on
any Dynasty League team, which I play in twelve of them,
(23:19):
so I almost have every player on some team, which
I don't know. Is that fun? I was trying to
figure that out. Number nine is Ezra Lynn Valdez first
base of an outfielder, probably going to wind up at
first base. Huge power. Question of how much he's going
(23:40):
to hit. I've got him as a uh Celaire like volatility,
as a Jorge Claire as a as a comp that's
out there. Maybe Horus Hilaire has a half grade more power,
but uh, you know, he didn't play well once he
got looked like all world in high A. I was
writing him up seemed like weekly on a daily notes.
(24:01):
Then he got to a double A and struggled a
little bit, which I kind of expected. Again. Playing in
the Eastern Eastern league's tough. I mean, Somerset's a tough
place hit balls out where the Pittsburgh Pirates play. It's
actually pretty neutral there, but eerie. It is tough to
play at and forget about it. In Richmond, I mean
(24:23):
that's a miserable place to hit. The only place in
the Eastern League that's a hitters park is in Philadelphia
and Ready. So if you're ever in the East Coast
and want to go catch a double A game and
you want to see big offensive games, go out to Ready.
That's a great park. Everything else is pretty much plays
at Pitcher's Park. It's not surprised Valdez had a little
(24:43):
bit of a struggle out there, but we're seeing with
the thinner air in Arizona, it's got big boy power.
Number ten is Wyatt Sanford. Doesn't get a lot of love.
I really pumped him up here. Good defender, more offense
than I think anybody initially thought. It's still third four
bases before hitting the IL on August, so he could
(25:04):
you know, I would have been a forty stolen base.
Guy doesn't have a ton of power, so there could
be some utility risk here with Wyatt Sandford. But it's
a good player that again nobody is talking about. And
let's see where I ranked them on the top one
hundred two forty four. It's pretty good. So just you know,
(25:25):
Conor Griffin one, Bubba Chandler ten, Seth Rnandez thirty seven,
Tamar Johnson seventy one. So I have Seth Hernandez in
front of Tamar Johnson. Uh yeah, oh, I have him
ranked like that as well. I'm sorry Tomorrow Johnson at
seventy one and ed Edward Florentino's at one oh one.
He dropped a bit, probably from some shifting around, so
(25:46):
he'll be right at one hundred and ninety five to
one hundred somewhere in there. Barco won sixty five, Christian
Curtis won eighty five, Nick York two six, Ezra Lynn
Valdez two thirty eight, and Wyatt Sanford at two four.
Already four. I'm going to break now and let our
the general public go, and the rest of the podcast
(26:08):
will be dedicated to our Patreon members until next time, guys,
b while just play a quick go a music break
so I can see where to cut the cut the podcast.
Sem and I have been back on Sunday, by the way,
so you now
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