Dynasty Baseball Pickups: Ep 110 - September Callups and Week 22 Pickups

On this episode, Kyle (X:@Sonny_108/BS:@Sonny108) and Taylor (X/BS:@DynastyPickups) discuss the latest injuries, promotions, and this week’s recommendations including Kala’i Rosario, Raudi Rodriguez, Kelvis Salcedo, and Ramon Marquez.

Topics Discussed:

• Injuries, News, and Notes - 3:52
• Promotions - 13:37
• Kala’i Rosario - 33:25
• Raudi Rodriguez - 42:08
• Kelvis Salcedo - 47:23
• Ramon Marquez - 52:53
• Recommendation Rankings - 58:34

*Send us an email to [e-mail] to have your question answered on a future episode of the podcast*

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to the Dynasty Baseball Pickups podcast. Today
is September fifth. We are recording once again on Friday
night this week. I am Kyle Santeig and I am
joined as always by Taylor Courso how are you doing today, Taylor?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm doing pretty good. We're yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
We're recording later on a Friday, so hopefully I can
stay awake and engaged here because I'm pretty tired.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I feel that from the sounds of things, we both
had some maybe long and interesting days at our day jobs.
So let's make sure we get this one done in
one shot as well, just like we did last week,
and let's try not to make it too late of
a night.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Definitely.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Now Taylor football season has started, I know both of
us have our attentions maybe divided a little bit with
that now, but my focus mainly is still on baseball
because we are deep into fantasy playoffs at this point.
So I wanted to ask you just how your fantasy
playoff matchups are going, because I know last week you

(01:06):
didn't necessarily think that you, you know, had a great
shot in some of your leagues, but from what I
can tell, because we share a number of leagues, it
looks like you made some big comebacks over the weekend
last week.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
That's always been my m in the playoffs is I
usually come back at the end to win these matchups,
and I think I did that in two leagues and
then one a third that I had been leading all week.
So this week had a couple buys wrap up. So
overall a mixed bag, but more positive than negative. I'm
winning four leagues right now, barely losing one. I've got

(01:39):
a bye week, and then I'm tied in a third
place matchup for the money there. But the big news
is that I'm getting shut out by you in one
of our leagues.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, I wasn't going to bring it up. Someone said
at the start of the week when we wished each
other good luck this week. Someone brought up in that
group chat that we're going to have to just completely
revamp the episode this week and just duke it out
like our teams are. But there's not really a whole
lot to discuss there. My team is just going nuclear.
We were just discussing it before we started recording. I've

(02:11):
got a near three point fifty batting average. My ops
just dropped below one thousand for the first time all week.
I've got a sub three er, a sub one whip,
So I apologize for how ugly it's I had to
do it to you.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, I mean there's no suspense.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
I think I could maybe flip three categories out of
the twelve, but I'm currently losing twelve nothing. The only
saving grace there is I'm also shutting out somebody. I'm
shutting out Matt Thompson in the p Live League, but
it's two week matchup, and those categories are a whole
lot closer than ours. I'm not counting out Matt just yet.
I think that one's going to come down to the wire.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Speaking of that p Live League, I'm also in the
Semis over there and I am facing Greg at the moment.
And while I have a big lead there as well,
I believe last I looked, it was eleven to one.
Much like your matchup, we have very close categories there
as well. And again, like you said, it's a two
week matchup, a lot of things can flip. I don't

(03:08):
feel nearly as confident about that one as I do
about our matchup in the one League, but I've got
a number of teams doing quite well across the board
as well. I believe I've got six teams going right now,
two more that are actually still on by at the moment,
and then of those six teams currently going, I believe
I'm leading five of my matchups. The one that I'm

(03:29):
losing doesn't look great. There are a few close categories,
but I really need to pull it together through the
weekend here and then of the ones that I'm winning,
I feel pretty good about a lot of them, but
there are some two week matchups mixed in there as well,
so those are always a little bit risky, and you
can only feel so good coming into the end of
week one when you've got a two week matchup.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, definitely, all right, Taylor.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I don't think anybody is coming just to listen to
us talk about our leagues, though, So we'll get into
the rest of base ball as well, and we've got
a lot of news and notes from around the baseball world,
including a couple of late signings here in the season,
some more injuries, some demotions, promotions, and some big league
debuts with September call ups rolling in. And then we
are going to get into, as always our main topic,

(04:17):
a discussion focused on some of the names that you
will find in our Dynasty Pickups written articles this week.
But before we get to any of that, I do
want to remind you all about the incredible content that
we've been pumping out all year at Prospects Live, including
our daily sheets, the Dynasty Prospect and Open Universe lists.
There's the Trade Analyzer and Trade Matchmaker, p Live Plus

(04:40):
and Hobby Plus. There's the Dynasty Closer Hierarchy. There's our
Dynasty Baseball Pickups written articles. There's Sunday Smoke from Darren Eisenhower,
Diamond Diplomas from Lucas Morrell, three Up, Three Down from
Tom Gates, and Who's Up from Andrew Dahl. And on
the podcast front, this week, Nate, Drew and Reese released
episode thirty two of the On Deck Pod as they

(05:02):
discussed your Grandpa's favorite players, and then they took a
look ahead at the twenty twenty six season in episode
thirty three as well. On top of that, episode eighty
two of the p Live Dynasty Pod also dropped as
Greg Hucamp was joined by Darren Eisenhower and Lucas Morell
to discuss the top Prospect performers in the month of August,
and that episode actually features a couple of outfielders that

(05:24):
we will be discussing later in this episode today. So
as you can tell, there's a lot of awesome work
being done up and down Prospects Live. Whether you like
to read articles or listen to podcasts to consume your content,
whether you are into fantasy baseball, the amateur side of things,
card collecting, you name it. We have something for every
kind of baseball fan and it is all available for

(05:45):
as little as five dollars per month in one convenient
place at Prospectslive dot com. If you enjoy our podcast,
please rate and review us. We really appreciate the support,
and please give us a follow while you're at it.
You can find me at Sunny Underscore one eight on
X and Sunny one oh eight on Blue Sky, and
you can find Taylor at Dynasty Pickups on both. You

(06:06):
can also get a hold of us with all of
your Dynasty Baseball questions at Dynasty Baseball Pickups at gmail
dot com. Now let's get into some of the news
and notes from baseball over the last week, and this
starts with a couple of players switching teams, as Walker
Buehler signed with the Phillies after being released by Boston,
and Hussong Kim was claimed by the Atlanta Braves after

(06:27):
being let loose by the Rays, and he actually hit
the first home run by a shortstop on the Braves
all year already, and I believe just his second game
with the club, so he is immediately impacting that lineup.
But Taylor, at this point in the year, between Walker
Buehler and Hussong Kim, when we need performers in the

(06:48):
playoffs for fantasy, are you willing to rely on either
of them for your playoffs at this point?

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, I'm playing Kim in some leagues, so I guess
that answers that question. That's the one that I really
have the most interested in here because a lot of
the season he's just been hurt, right, and so he
hasn't had a chance to really get it going. Obviously
off to a hot start with the Braves there, but
he's a really intriguing one too, because Atlanta claimed him

(07:15):
and picked him up his contract along with his sixteen
million dollar player option for next season, so chances are
he's going to extra that option, So Kim's likely going
to be with Atlanta, not just this year, but next
year as well, and hopefully in Atlanta and lineup that's
healthier and more productive than it.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Was this year.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
So I think there's a lot of intrigue with Kim there.
I think if he's he's performing, I'm going to play
him in the playoffs this year, Walker Bueller, I have
zero interest in. He actually had to sign a minor
league deal because he was completely cut. He is not
supposed to debut with the Phillies until September twelfth, I
guess is the plan. So yeah, I have zero interest there.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
I'm with you one hundred percent there. Hussan Kim is interesting,
like you said, not only for this year, but next
year as well, And much like you, I do have
him coming in and out of my lineups a little
bit depending on the day in a couple of my
matchups as well. So fingers crossed for both of us
that Hussan Kim can continue this hot start with his
new club. But Taylor, let's move on to some injuries now,

(08:20):
and we start with McKenzie Goer, who is dealing with
shoulder inflammation. Edward Cabrera has an elbow sprain. Jonathan India
is dealing with a wrist sprain. Jason Adam has a
ruptured quad tendon, which just sounds horrible, and Lordscuriel Junior
is dealing with a torn acl also a big time
injury there. Roman Anthony has an oblique strain and he's

(08:40):
expected to miss the rest of the regular season, So
a big blow for a young kid who was really
starting to come into his own as a big leaguer.
Seth Lugo is dealing with a lower backstrain, and just
earlier today, Kyle Finnegan hit the shelf with an ad
doctor strain. So Taylor Obviously this time of year, all
the injuries are impactful because it is. But is there

(09:01):
anything here that you maybe see some long term concern with?

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, I think it's gotta be Mackenzie Gore. Just anytime
you have shoulder issues, it's always worrisome. He's just such
an enigma anyway, with the inconsistent performance. He looked like
an ace in the beginning of the year, really fell
apart as the season went on. So I think he's
one that I'm concerned with. Where's this going? Is the

(09:26):
shoulder issues related to that downturn in performance that he had,
so that I think that's the one I'm most worried
about long term. I think it's short term. I think
it's Roman Anthony. Obviously, that's a huge blow to lose
him for the rest of the year with how well
he was playing.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, I'm definitely feeling the Roman Anthony injury in a
couple of my leagues that are going right now. The
other one that I'm fairly concerned with long term is
Edward Cabrera's elbow spring. Not that I was really buying
into what he was doing this year, but he's absolutely
looked like a much improved version of himself in twenty
twenty five. And I haven't heard any news on the

(10:03):
severity of the elbow sprain, but obviously any injury to
a picture's elbow is going to be problematic and worrysome
going forwards.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, that's a great call.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
All right. A couple injury updates to discuss as well,
as David Festa had a setback with his injured shoulder,
and Shelby Miller looks like he is done for the
year and might need Tommy John So Taylor obviously big
time impact here as well. One of these guys for
sure is out for the year. But I would assume
that much like Mackenzie Gore, You're pretty worried about Festa's

(10:35):
shoulder injury as well. Here.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, this was a guy we were both really into
coming into this year as a breakout candidate. Hasn't really
worked out obviously, the injuries and then this injured shoulder. Now,
I obviously I'm concerned long term again, same thing with
the shoulder, but I don't think it's very actionable. I
think you just hold him where you have him. Shelby
Miller is one that I'm dropping non closer relievers looked

(11:00):
good this year, but they need TJ out for the season.
I just don't need that on my roster. So he's
getting cut for me in several places.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, I'm with you there too. I think I've got
a couple leagues where I've got some spare room on
my il, so he's sitting there for now. But if
I get to a point where I need to make
some cuts, he'll definitely be near the top of that list.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Must be nice to have spare il spots. I don't
know what those look like.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
I've got an overflowing il in most leagues. It just
so happens that where I've got Shelby Miller, I've got room.
It's a weird situation.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
It's been a terrible year for the injured list. But
we'll move off of injuries to a bit of a
weird emotion here because Code I Sanga has been sent
down a trip a by the New York Mets.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Now.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
He hasn't had a very good stretch since the All
Star break. I believe I saw earlier about a six
and a half ERA since then, and the Mets really
seem to be leaning into the youth motion in that rotation,
which we'll get to a little bit more in a
little bit here. But Taylor, how cans are we about Code?
Is Sanga going forwards? Now that we know that he's

(12:03):
probably not going to help our fantasy teams much through
our playoffs this year, I'm not.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Too concerned after this year. He was so good in
the first half. I have the breakdown here so prior
to the All Star break, one point three to nine ERA,
three point two two FIP, twenty three point eight percent
strikeout rate, ten point six percent walk rate, and just
a zero point four to six home runs per nine.
And I think that last number is really the key
one because you look at after the All Star Break
six point five six ERA six to eleven FIP, the

(12:31):
strikeouts went from twenty three percent down to twenty percent,
the walks ticked up to almost thirteen percent from around
ten ten and a half percent, but the home run
per nine rate quadrupled in the second half. So to me,
it's got to be something mechanical or maybe some kind
of pitch tipping or something like that. But I just

(12:51):
he was so good in the first half, and he's
been good when he's been healthy. I think I'm not
worried at all. And if he doesn't performer, we don't
really see him much in the second down the stretch here,
he's one that I might be looking to buy prior
to the start of next season.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, I agree with you here once again, I just
have the one share And it pained me to move
him down to the minors this week because he has
for not only much of this season, but much of
his career to this point. Like you said, when he's
been healthy, been a very valuable arm for fantasy. So
this is one that's much like you. I can see
him figuring something out in the off season, getting right

(13:28):
and coming back looking like the code I sanga that
we've come to know over the last couple of years.
As we get into twenty twenty six, Yeah all right, now,
let's get into some promotions and a professional debut here
to start, as the Cardinals have assigned Liam Doyle to
single A Taylor once again, we'll be getting some very
valuable information on an FYPD name here and a very

(13:52):
highly thought of FYPD name. So how excited are you
to get to see Liam Doyle make his professional debut.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
I'm exed, but I'm also checking my expectations because anytime
we see a pitcher pitch in their draft year, it's
likely going to be a short outing. We're likely not
really gonna learn much, so I'm not gonna read too
much into whatever his debut shows. Now, this is a
guy who Fancrafts gave an eighty grade on his fastball,

(14:21):
so this is a guy with insane stuff, some command
and control questions, so it'll be very interesting to see
in a short outing. I'm sure he's gonna put up
some amazing numbers, but very interesting to see what that
strike throwing rate looks like, what the command looks like,
but again, even if it's horrible, I'm not really gonna read.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Too much into it.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Again, it's likely going to be more of a short outing.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
I think that's a really good point, because, like you said,
it's likely going to be short outings. There's likely not
a whole lot that we can take from this. But
the one thing I do want to pay attention to
is how that big fastball performs, because if it is
getting these eighty grades on it from some of these let's,
it better absolutely dominate single A hitters. And if it's not,
that's where I might start to get a little bit

(15:07):
concerned with what we're seeing from Liam Doyle.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, and it's worth noting this time of year when
you talk about single A hitters, these are hitters that
probably began the year in complex league. They're definitely going
to be younger, more inexperienced hitters. Doyle's coming out of college.
He's probably going to be going up against guys who
are essentially high school age, so he should be able
to dominate. But again, weird gap in time between the

(15:31):
draft and pitching. Who knows what it'll look like.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, regardless of how the stats come out, you can't
take too much from it. There are little pieces that
we can gather little bits of information. But let's move
on to some names that we can maybe gather a
little bit more info on as they move up to
hie and we're looking at Rainiel Rodriguez of the Cardinals
as well and Jose Urbina of the Race. Now, Rodriguez
has been one of the biggest risers of the year,

(15:56):
especially at the catcher position. So my question here, Taylor,
because most people at this point are familiar with Rainiel Rodriguez,
is do you think he is going to stick as
a catcher long term or do you think he maybe
shifts to a position where his back can provide more
everyday value for fantasy owners.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, and people should have heard of Rodriguez by now
because we wrote him up twice last year, so I
think too correct and a third time this year.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Or do it our part to get the word out
there on Rainio Rodriguez.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
But I don't know about the fielding. The reports are mixed.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
I've heard negative things, there's some hope and a guy
at Hya. It's really too early to tell, but the
bat's gonna play regardless. Maybe this is like Moses by
Asteros Samuel Bosio situation. Maybe he's even better defensively than that.
But I think at the end of the day, the
bat is good enough that he'll find a way into
the lineup regardless.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, I'm definitely with you there. The Cardinals are going
to have to find a way for him to play,
So if he doesn't improve enough behind the dish, they'll
find somewhere for him to play. Now. Part of it
too here is it might not matter how good he
actually looks behind the dish, because catching seems to be
the one position that the Cardinals develop really well on
a consistent basis, and they've got upwards of half a

(17:15):
dozen different names that could be debuting or have a
shot at debuting by the time Rodriguez is ready to go,
So it might just be such a logdown there that
he needs to move off anyways.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yeah, yeah, I mean they'll, like I said, they'll find
a spot for him. I'm not too worried about his
ability to play long term.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Absolutely, he will be in the lineup at some point. Now,
moving up to double A, we've got the Red Sox,
Franklin Arius and the Jays Gauge Stanifer now Staniffer made
his debut today. The numbers don't look great, but over text,
I saw that Greg was saying he actually looked a
lot better than maybe the numbers would imply. Maybe nibbling

(17:54):
a little bit too much and that's why he gave
up as many walks as he did. But nonetheless, little
bit of a concerning debut in DOUBLEA for Stanafer, but
he has been a big time riser. So I moreso
want to look at Franklin Arius here Taylor, because I
think he's a player who's profile neither one of us
have necessarily been fully buying into. How much can we

(18:16):
maybe gather though from the last few weeks of his
performance in Double A.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Now, yeah, he's a weird one because there's people that
are super high on Franklin Arius. I think he's a
top twenty five prospect, maybe future number one prospect in
baseball type of thing. But the power that he showed
in complex last year has not really materialized this year.

(18:42):
He stopped running. He stole thirty five bases last year.
He's stolen eleven so far this year, and so there's
not a lot of power speed. There's fantastic contact, but
it's also fairly aggressive approach, doesn't walk a ton, at
least hasn't this year, So I don't know. Like you mentioned,
he's not a profile I'm really super high on. So

(19:05):
we'll see what he does in Double A. He's in
double at nineteen, so the hope is that he physically
matures and puts on more muscle, was able to figure
out how to lift the ball more and everything. But
I'm just not super high on him.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah, the concerns here, as you said, are definitely what
we're going to get from a power and speed standpoint.
He's got plenty of bat to ball ability. It's just
a matter of the overall impact that he's going to have.
He looks like he could be a tremendous points league player,
but unless he starts showing a little bit more power,
the impact that he's going to have in categories leagues

(19:40):
will maybe be a little bit more muted than like
you said, some of the people that are much higher
on him seem to believe he can.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Get to Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
All right, let's move on to Triple A now, where
the Orioles have promoted Enrique Bradfield Junior, the Marlins have
promoted Thomas White, and the Cubs have promoted Jackson Wiggins,
so we've got a couple of really exciting arms here
mixed in with a bat who, similarly to Arius, is
maybe a little bit divisive in fantasy circles. But I

(20:11):
think people are typically quite a bit lower on Bradfield Junior.
So Taylor, I want to focus on Thomas White and
Jackson Wiggins here. Which one of these two are you
maybe most excited for long term? But do you think
has the higher upside as well?

Speaker 3 (20:28):
I think White is the guy. I think they're fairly close,
but I do like Thomas White. I think upside's a
little bit higher there. The problem with him is can
he get the walks under control? So far hasn't hurt him,
but the walk rate's pretty high. I think he's one
of those that he's so good it doesn't matter as much.
But Triple A we'll see a lot of pitchers struggle

(20:50):
with the strike zone there, and Triple A we see
the walks tick up there. So I'm really curious to
see what we see with White Wiggins. I don't know
how much he's going to pitch the rest of this year,
because he's pitched three times since June, so it's weird
timing and that they're managing his innings. It's short outings,
barsly pitching. So maybe we see him once or twice

(21:10):
before the end of the season. But I'm not expecting
to get much intel on Wiggins there in Triple A.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, I'm with you there. They shot him down for
a while. I don't think people were expecting to see
him pitch at all through the rest of the year.
So it's exciting even if we're maybe going to see
a bit of a limited sample. But with Thomas White,
I'm definitely on the same page as you here. We
need to see the control get rained in a little bit.
But I wonder if at a certain point we don't

(21:36):
start thinking about him similarly to something like Jonah Toong
this year, if he can just continue to succeed despite
more fringy command than anything else. Again, obviously we would
love to see that take a step forward, but he
might just be nasty enough similar to Tong, that it's
not always going to come back to bite him. Obviously,

(21:58):
in Triple A and in the big leagues, you can't
get away with as many mistakes, you can't get away
with giving out as many free passes, so there are
going to be some blow up outings if that control
doesn't improve, but he might just be good enough where
he can still put up some really good seasons if
his control is just fringy.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah, no, I could agree, and I would expect both
these guys to be pretty impactful for even redraft leagues
next year.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah. Absolutely. I don't know if I'm necessarily drafting either
one of them to start the year in redraft leagues
given how late the promotion to Triple A is, but
they will be names that I am monitoring very closely
to pick up maybe halfway through the season, maybe around
the PPI deadline, maybe for September call ups. Regardless, they
are names that you're going to want to be paying

(22:44):
attention to next year.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Definitely.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, you don't want to make the Bubba Chandler mistake
and stats these guys from the outset because you never
know how that's going to work out. But yeah, I
would say these guys are going to be up by
the second half of next year and be performing as well.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Absolutely. Okay, let's get to some players who did just
recently get the call to the big some big league
debuts here and Let's start with maybe Reese White's favorite player,
Sal Stuart, who has had just an excellent season this
year with a combined nine oh seven ops and twenty
home runs between Double A and Triple A. He now
finds himself playing his home games in one of the

(23:20):
most hitter friendly parks in the big leagues. So what
can we expect from Sal Stuart this year?

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Probably not a ton.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
I think he's not necessarily going to be getting every
day at bats at this point. Maybe he can get
in more as the season wears on and the Reds
get officially eliminated there, but right now, he's not playing
every day. He's primarily playing first base when he is
in the lineup. I just I don't think we're going
to see much out of him this year, but I

(23:49):
still really like him long term. I know he's a
very divisive prospect. Like you mentioned, I think Reese and
Matt are pretty down on him, but several of us,
especially on the Dynasty side, are big fans of him.
We'll see what he does this season, but I think
next year is really when we're going to see him
get that full run. And he's a guy that I
want to have on my roster when that happens.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, I think the important note there, as you said,
is a lot of the people that are a little
more down on him are are looking at it from
more of a real life lens, while a lot of
the people higher on him are looking at the fantasy lens.
He's got a really interesting set of skills from an
offensive standpoint. The question falls with where he ends up
playing defensively and whether or not the bat can provide

(24:34):
enough value at that position. So far, he's been playing
a bunch of first base, so we'll see if he
maybe continues to hit for the power that position necessitates.
But regardless, an exciting name going forward, like you said,
might be a little bit more of a question mark
what we get out of him this year, but Taylor. Next,
we turn our attention to Brandon Sprote, who has seen

(24:56):
his stock slip a little bit with some poor performance
in triple this year, though he seems to have been
able to write the ship a little bit as of late,
and now finds himself set to debut for the Mets
this weekend. So Taylor, what are you expecting to see
from sprot and how does he maybe stack up against
fellow Mets rookies Nolan McLain and Jonah Toom.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, you mentioned riding the ship.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Since June twenty eighth, he's got a two point four
to four ERA, a near thirty percent k rate, and
a nine percent walk rate. He's been really good for
the last couple months. I think he had some hiccups
in August, but overall just looks like he's figured things out,
and I think look comparing him to the Ton tongan
McClain there, I don't know that he.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Has as high of upside as.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
Maybe McClain, but I think all three of these guys
could be very good starting pitchers. So I'm excited to
see what he can do. I'm really curious to see
if he performs well, can he stick around with Sanga
now down or if we see Sprote struggles Sega figure
things out, do we see Sprote get sent back down.

(26:03):
I think it'll be very interesting to see what he
does and whether or not he can stick around through
the last month here.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, definitely going to be interesting. Maybe a little bit
unfair to try to compare him to Nolan McLain and
Joonahtong because they have just been dominant at every level
they've seen this year, where sprot has struggled a little
bit more. I think, like you said, though, all three
are very talented pitchers and it's going to be a
lot of fun watching that rotation take form, especially next

(26:30):
year when I think all three of them get maybe
a full run at things for the entire season. Yeah,
all right, now let's get back into the batters box.
Taylor for maybe my favorite catching prospect in the game
right now, as Carter Jensen got the call for the Royals.
He hasn't seen a ton of playing time in the
bigs just yet, but he has shown tremendous power in

(26:51):
the miners this year, including some of the most impressive
batting practice at the Futures Game this summer. Now, he's
not likely to take over every day reps this year.
We all know Seal Perez is there. Obviously, you're not
taking over for him, and I believe they still have
blanking on who their backup catcher is right now as well,
but Jensen might take some reps from him. I think

(27:11):
the main thing here, though, is that Jensen's long term
future is what we can get excited about. So I
want to know if you are excited about that as
I am.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
No, I've never been the biggest Jensen guy. I get
he has lots of fans. I know you're a big
fan of his, but I'm usually lower on him than most.
Luke Maylee is the guy who's there, and yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
He can take lots of reps from Melee.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah, yeah, I'm really curious to see what he does
if anything, towards the end of this year. Doesn't look
like they're playing him a lot right now, maybe we
won't really see too much out of him, but I
think this does set him up to potentially spend most
of the year up with the club next year. I
think there's some really nice Fantasy friendly skills there. He's

(27:56):
got power, he's got some decent contacted buility. He's got
some athleticism too. You can steal bases, so there is
quite a bit to bet. I just wonder how he
fits into that lineup, how much playing time he's gonna get,
how long it's going to take him to establish himself there.
And I don't think we're gonna find many of those
answers this year.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah, the playing time questions are definitely the big ones here.
Like you said, he absolutely has fantasy friendly abilities, but
breaking into that lineup with Salve still there is going
to be tough. I think, like you said, next year
he probably gets a better run at it. They've been
transitioning Salvey into a bit of that first base dhrol anyways,
So the likelihood that he continues leaning further that direction

(28:40):
and we see Carter Jensen get more reps behind the
dish next year, I think is probably what we're going
to see from the Royals. Yeah, all right, now, let's
stick behind the dish for Harry Ford, next of the Mariners, who,
much like Jensen, really hasn't had much of an opportunity
yet and really doesn't figure to take over much playing
time this year either. So the question, once again, Taylor,

(29:01):
is how excited are you for the future of Harry Ford.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
He's another guy I've just never really been particularly excited about.
I don't think that he I don't even know if
he has as much future fantasy impact as Carter Jensen.
He's got more athleticism. He stole thirty five bases last year,
but he really hasn't showed that this year. He's stole
on only seven bases. It's really hard to predict a

(29:26):
lot of steals for a catcher going forward, they.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Tend to get run down.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
It's going to be difficult for him to steal thirty
plus bases at the big league level. And you got
cal Rawly there, So that's another big question is the
playing time and really how and where he fits into
that lineup there. He has played some outfield he did
last year, but nothing this year, So again, this is
another one where if he can get full time reps,

(29:52):
I think there are some interesting fantasy skills there, but
I think it's going to take a while for him
to really break into there, And I don't know if
I'm super excited enough about the ceiling to wait around
for it.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, I'm definitely more in line with you on four
than I am Jensen. I'm much more excited for Jensen
for like you said, not only does he not quite have,
in my opinion, the same ceiling as Jensen, but as
you said, it's going to be even more difficult for
him to crack that lineup in Seattle. I think he's
a player that really needs a trade to really be

(30:27):
able to find his footing in the big leagues because
cal Rawly is an everyday catcher at this point, you
can't take him out of that lineup. Yeah, all right, Taylor,
we will move to the outfield now, but we're gonna
stick with a player who might struggle to get much
opportunity this year, as the Cubs have called up Kevin
al Kintara. And I'll cut straight to the chase here

(30:48):
because I think there are even more question marks surrounding
available playing time in the Cubs outfield going forward than
with either of the catchers we just talked about. So
do you think al Kantara will have a chance to
play a meaningful role for the Cubs even next year?

Speaker 3 (31:06):
I think it's doubtful. There's just so many mouths to
feed there. He really needs a trade, you know. I
think that's pretty clear.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
I think a lot of people were pretty surprised by
the fact that neither Owen Casey or Kevin el Kintara
got moved at this deadline. It probably signifies what the
Cubs think about their chances of re signing Kyle Tucker.
But at the same time, there's only so much playing
time out there. When we're already looking at Saya Suzuki
and Ian Happ and Pete Crow Armstrong, then you add

(31:35):
in one of Owen Casey or Kevin el Kintara, regardless,
somebody needs to get moved here for everybody to get
consistent playing time.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, exactly, all right.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Now, lastly we will look at a bit of a
forgotten man as George Valera has made his debut for
the Guardians in what is his seventh professional season. Now,
injuries have slowed down his path to the big leagues,
so he's also seen his stock drop quite a bit
in recent years. Now, Taylor, is that just prospect fatigue
or is there reason to doubt what we might see

(32:09):
out of Valera, who was once a very highly thought
of prospect.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
I think it's a combination of just constant injuries, poor performance,
and some behavioral issues on the field as well. So
I think the combination of those things has really dimmed
his prospect star. He's actually was pretty good this year
in Triple A. I don't know if that's necessarily going

(32:34):
to translate to the bigs there, but definitely one that
I went out and grabbed a couple shares just in case.
I'm not really expecting it to pan out, and I
don't know how much of an opportunity he's going to get.
He's not really playing every day, but there there was
a reason he was such a highly regarded prospect before.
He's still fairly young, and he's had, like I said,

(32:55):
a lot of injury issues that have derailed his development.
So at twenty four, I've seen stranger things than people
be able to put it together at that age.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, there's absolutely still a shot here. As you said,
plenty of raw ability. There are just maybe some other
question marks like you said, behavior, injuries, all sorts of things.
So we will definitely be keeping an eye on George Valera.
But Taylor, that is it for the news and notes.
So let's get into this week's recommendations, and let's start

(33:26):
with the first player from your article this week that
everybody out there needs to know.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Yeah, that's Kalai Rosario. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly.
It's ka la apostrophe I. But he's a twenty three
year old outfielder in the Twins organization at Double A.
Let's sit six foot two of five, right handed hitter,
just three percent rostered on fan tracks so far this year,
all at Double A five hundred and thirty eight plat
appearances A two sixty three sixty one five h two slash,

(33:55):
twenty five home runs, twenty six dolen bases, twelve point
eight percent walk rate in twenty seven point si k rate,
so he's hit the twenty five to twenty five mark
for the first time in his career. He was a
fifth round pick in the twenty twenty draft and he
broke out back in twenty twenty three, and that's what
got him on my radar initially. I ended up adding

(34:15):
some shares back then, but he really disappointed in twenty
twenty four, and a big part of that was he
spent two and a half months on the injured list
with an elbow injury. But when he was healthy, he
made some under the radar improvements. So he did have
a near thirty percent strikeout rate on the year, but
even with that, he was able to significantly increase his

(34:36):
contact rate and decrease his swinging strike rate last year
and then this season while repeating double A, Rozari has
been able to keep those contact gains while hitting for
a lot more power. He raised his ISO this year
to a career high forty two to go along with
those twenty five home runs. I mentioned, and the significant
difference in the profile this year versus last year is

(34:58):
a nearly twenty point draw in ground ball rate to
a career low thirty six point nine percent. He's also
pulling the ball at a career high fifty point six percent.
And power has always been a calling card for Rosario.
He hit twenty one home runs in that breakout twenty
twenty three season. He gets plus raw power grade from Fangrafts.
One thing that hasn't really materialized before is the stolen

(35:20):
bases prior to this year, and again, he has twenty
six stolen bases this year. Prior to that, he had
a career high seven steals in twenty twenty two and
he's only been caught six times this year. So it's
not like he doesn't have the ability to steal bases.
But the funny thing is why he's stealing more bases.
A recent Athletic article by Dan Hayes explained that Rosario

(35:46):
decided he wanted to steal more bases after watching Caleb
Durban in the Arizona Fall League this past offseason and
saw how much havoc Durban was causing on the Babs
pass and thought, oh, that looks fun on maybe I
should steal more bases, and that's the reason why Cali
Rozzario is now stealing basis. So I think that's hilarious.
I think that might be Caleb Durban's biggest contribution to baseball,

(36:10):
what all said and done, because I'm not a huge
Caleb Durbin fan, but it's worth noting that Rosaro does
receive an average speed grape from fangrafts. He's always been
a fish and base dealer. He just hasn't really tried
that much prior to this year, and he's really showing
that it can be a pretty significant part of his game.
The other thing to keep in mind is Rosaro actually
got off to a really slow start this year. In April,

(36:31):
he batted just one seventy nine with a forty three
point five percent strikeout rate just a six point five
percent walk rate. But since May first, he's slashing two
seventy eight, three eighty eight five forty five, twenty four
point four percent strikeout rate and a fourteen point one
percent walk rate. Since May first, he has twenty two
of his twenty five home runs and twenty three of
his twenty six dolen bases. But He's been even better

(36:53):
since the start of August, a three oh eight four
thirteen seven h nine slash with a twenty five point
four percent strikeout rate fourteen two point five percent walk
rate in twelve home runs in his last thirty games.
While he has split time between the corner out for
the spots and DH, Rosario is actually graded by Fangrafts
as an above average defender, so he's not just this
defensively limited corner bat. He probably won't play in an

(37:15):
east center field, but he'll at least be a pretty
good defender in those corners. And it's also worth noting
that p Live plus absolutely loves Kali Rosario, and his
peak projections compare very favorably to other hitters at double
A there. On the negative side, Rosario has made more
contact over the last couple of years and has cut

(37:36):
his strikeout rate throughout this season, but the contact is
still a major concern. Fangrafts gave Rosario thirty five grade
on his hit Tool and a quarantine stats. His zone
contact and with rates are below average. He's also pretty passive,
swinging at under forty percent of pitches this year. He's
a guy who's been a little bit of a non
name again since that twenty twenty three season, but it's

(37:57):
worth noting that he's not only rebounded from his bad
twenty four this year, but he's taking step forward in
pretty much every single way with the newfound stolen basis,
improve contact, increase power, his on base ability, solid defense.
There's really a lot to like here, and the only
question for me is whether that hit tool is good
enough for those other things to matter. But I'm pretty

(38:19):
aggressive on him and thinking that it probably will love
to see him get the bump this year at the
end of the year to triple a there, but even
without that, I think he's a good pickup in leads
of three hundred plus prospects at this point.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Yeah, Taylor, when you mentioned that you wanted to discuss
Rosario today, I told you that you are going to
really need to sell me on him in your article.
And he's had a strong season. It was an especially
strong month of August. But this is a profile that
I just have a really hard time trusting. Because his
improved ability to lift and pull the ball is very

(38:53):
encouraging considering his skill set, but I just can't buy
into this approach or the contact rates, because even with
the improvements in those regards, he's still well below average
in every aspect except for out of the zone contact,
which is really the least important one in my opinion.
Add On, as you said, that sub forty percent swing rate,

(39:15):
and he just doesn't really get me excited because I
don't think it's a combination of skills that will find
success at the big league level. I think he could
continue to have success in the miners. I could see
it being maybe a rough first go at TRIPLEA, but
he seems to be the kind of player that can
adapt and adjust a little bit and improve the second
time around. I just don't know how much success he's

(39:37):
going to have at the big league level with an
approach and a contact a lack of contact like he
has now. All that being said, I do think you
did a good job of kind of tempering expectations with
your recommendation. And while I don't think I'll be quite
as high on him as you, I can see where
you're coming from. I think I'll probably have him closer
to four hundred than three hundred, but that deep in

(39:59):
the rank we're basically talking about one big tier anyways,
So I do really like this call out, and I
can see the upside. It's just not the kind of
profile that I can really get excited about.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Yeah, I will say, if you're looking at like TJ
stats page, yeah, there's a lot of blue. But if
you're looking at actually the progression of the year and
what the zone contact rate looks like, what the whift
rate looks like, and everything like that, it's pretty stark
improvements on those rolling charts. So I'm not saying expect
maybe even average contact. I think again temporary expectations there.

(40:32):
He still has some changes he needs to make, but
I think it's clear that he's getting better in that regard.
He's making some of those adjustments. The real question is
can he continue to make those when he gets to
tripa A, when he gets to the majors, And that's
really going to determine if he can hit enough to
make the rest of his skills matter. But there are
some pretty interesting skills there if he can figure that out.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah, real quick, Taylor. One question I just thought of
that I wanted to ask you, given his skill set,
when he moved up to triple A and we maybe
start seeing some pretty high and impressive quality of contact metrics.
Do you think he might become a bit of a
cell high candidate or is he someone that you are
going to hold and trust that the contact and approach

(41:15):
will continue to come around possibly be.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
A cell high Candon. It depends on how high his
hype gets. But I was thinking about this as I
was riding him up, and I'm like, is this just
a really poor man's a Manuel Rodriguez, Because you think
about a passive approach, the contact issues some pretty exciting
power and some speed there as well. I don't know,
it just popped into my mind that maybe this is

(41:38):
the really poor version of Emmanuel Rodriguez. But but yeah,
I think if he gets enough hype, sure he's definitely
a cell high. I'm not thinking he's going to be
a superstar or anything. This is more of he could
end up being a useful fantasy option versus is something
super high end. So yeah, this is more in that
George Valera bucket. Then I'm thinking he's going to be
a top one hundred prospect anytime soon. I gotta say, Taylor,

(41:59):
that maybe poor man's Emmanuel Rodriguez. All that comment did
was make me sad about Emmanuel Rodriguez.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
That makes me.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Feel really bad about him and rather than get me
maybe excited about Rosario here, but we will move on
from Rosario to Rodriguez. And I'm looking at Roddy Rodriguez,
a twenty two year old outfielder in single A in
the Angels system. He's listed at six foot one, ninety
zero percent rostered, and he came in at four to

(42:28):
ninety overall in our July rankings. Now, in one hundred
and twenty two games this year, he is slashing two
eighty six three seventy seven fourt eighty with fourteen home runs,
thirty six stolen bases, a twenty three percent k rate,
and an eleven percent walk rate. Now, the bulk of
those numbers are coming from April and August, because in
April he slashed three twenty nine four to twenty nine,

(42:51):
five seventy nine with one home run in six steals,
and in August he slashed four thirty four five twenty
nine six forty six with four homers and nine steals
and almost as many walks as strikeouts. Now, those strong
months are part of a trend of greatly improved power
and speed numbers this year that have seen Rodriguez jump

(43:13):
from just four extra base hits in twenty twenty four
to forty eight so far this year, while raising his
ISO more than one hundred points. He's also improved his
stolen base numbers significantly, jumping from four on six attempts
last year to thirty six on forty two attempts this year. Now,
I will note he only played in twenty nine games

(43:33):
last year, but even if we extrapolate out those numbers,
he would be on a significantly lower pace over a
full one hundred and twenty game season like he's had
so far this year. That being said, he also cut
his k rate a couple points, from twenty five percent
in complex ball last year to twenty three percent in
single a this year, while maintaining a walk rate above

(43:55):
eleven percent. On the flip side of things, I mentioned
the really hot April and August. They were spectacular, but
the start or sorry, so the start of September has
looked really good too, But Rodriguez really struggled from the
start of May to the end of July. He had
just a two twenty three oh seven three eighty seven
triple slash during that time, and when you consider the

(44:18):
fact that he had such a prolonged rough patch there
of three months as an older player for the level
at twenty two years old in Single A, it's definitely concerning,
But again we need to account for the fact that
he played just twenty nine games last year and the
year prior was his draft year, so he's really just
getting his feet wet as a professional this year. I

(44:39):
think the more concerning things for me are his approach
and contact rates. So similar to Cali Rosario that we
were just talking about, things have been trending in the
right direction as of late, but on the season, he's
shown a tendency to swing too much out of the zone,
be too passive in the zone, and not make enough contact.
So when you consider the fact that his near two

(45:01):
hundred ISO and his speed score is above eight, he
looks like a high end athlete. But he's really going
to need to make better swing decisions and more consistent contact,
and he's going to need to prove that he can
do it against more age appropriate competition. But if he
can make those adjustments, he could be on the rise
in twenty twenty six. Now, whether or not we trust

(45:22):
the Angels to help him make those adjustments is another
question entirely, but I do think he's worth taking a
look at in deeper leagues of four hundred or more.
Prospects rostered and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on
Roddy Rodriguez.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Yeah, I do have some thoughts.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
It's funny that you chose some splits there, because I
also chose some splits, but mine are different than yours,
soe paining a slightly different picture. So in sixty nine
games through June twenty seventh to start this year, just
three home runs a one to forty six ISO in
the fifty three games since eleven home runs in a
two fifty nine ISO, So it seems like he's definitely

(46:00):
made some sort of adjustment getting into more power, a
ton more power.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
So that's all positive.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
The negatives here are you mentioned it at that age
to level and twenty two years old now at single
A in an organization that typically is very aggressive and
pushing its prospects. Just tells me that maybe the Angels
aren't as sold on sort of his ability internally. Now
it's the Angels. How much you want to read into

(46:27):
that is up to you. The other thing I'll mention
is well. I don't know too much about his defense.
He's played a little bit of center field, but primarily
right field, so that does maybe put some questions about
his defense. Is he going to be stuffed in a
corner moving forward? And is the bat kind of play
enough for that to really be a good thing for
this profile here. But I think he's interesting. I like

(46:49):
the fact that he's getting hot. There's some power, there's
some speed. If that power continues, I'm going to be
a lot more interested. But like you mentioned, he's also
has to make some improvements with the contact as well,
so we'll see if he can do that as he
he moves forward at a more h appropriate level.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
There.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yeah, it's a relatively similar profile to Cali Rozario that
we just talked about, with even more question marks with
which may be hints at where they are going to
fall in our rankings relative to each other at least.
But let's move on Taylor to a couple of arms,
and let's hear your second name to know.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Yeah, let's talk about some arms. So my arm is
gonna be Kelvis Salsado. So he's nineteen years old in
the Detroit Tigers organization starting pitcher at single A, listed
at six foot one to eighty right handed pitcher and
currently one percent rostered on fan tracks. This year, between
complex and single A sixty five and two her thirds innings,

(47:45):
pitched a nice one point ninety two eer, zero point
eight two whip, thirty, two point four percent strikeout rate,
a ten point two percent walk right there, and Salsato
was a j fifteen signee out of Venezuela. In twenty
twenty three, he received a seven two thousand dollars bonus.
Struggled in his initial DSL season in twenty twenty three
with a six twenty er, but even then he had

(48:06):
a three point three to three FIP. He actually repeated
the level in twenty twenty four with much better results,
and then he made his state side debut this year.
He absolutely dominated complex ball this year. Struggled early on
with walks, as he had a seventeen point one percent
walk rate through his first six appearances ending on June seventh,

(48:27):
but control really began to improve at that point, and
since June seventh he has had a seven point five
percent walk rate through his last eleven outings. During that time,
he's put up just some insane numbers one point four nine,
ERA two point three eight, FIP zero point seven four
whip thirty six point eight percent strikeout rate to go
with that seven point five percent walk rate was even
more impressive, as half those outings have come since his

(48:49):
promotion to single A, and he's really done nothing to
slow down. He's consistently also demonstrated the ability to induce
ground balls. He's got a ground ball rate north of
fifty one percent or higher in each of his professional seasons,
so he gets a ton of ground balls. Obviously fantastic performance,
and the Arsenal backs it up. It's led by a
midnighteties fastball that reaches up to ninety nine that receives

(49:10):
above average to plus grades. He combines that with a
low eighty slider that consistently gets plus grades. He's also
working on developing a mid eighties splitter, but struggles to
command it at times. Pipeline gave it a forty five grade,
and the command and control are generally rated poorly, with
Pipeline giving his control of forty fangrafts giving the command
of forty five, but those grades were most likely based

(49:33):
on his early season performance that again has really turned
around since June. There, I will say the development of
a third pitch is going to be crucial to Salsado's
ability to remain a starter. He's a bit undersized, doesn't
get a ton of extension, and with those pass command issues,
there's a lot of reliever risk here, but potentially a
high leverage reliever, and obviously when we talk about a

(49:54):
teenage arm, we have to talk about the risk associated
with those arms. But Salsato's really exciting. And shout out
to Samata who profiled Salsato all the way back in
July and his p Live plus Deep Sea Diving article.
Like I said, he needs to find a third pitch,
but with two potentially plus pitches and the ability to
get both strikeouts and ground balls at a high rate,
there's a lot to like from a teenage arm that

(50:15):
still has time to develop. He's more of a deeper
league pick up for now, but I think that if
he continues to perform to finish out this year, he's
somebody who's gonna be rising up lists this offseason. And
shout out to Lucas for being the only one to
have him on their list back in July when we
submitted our last set of rankings really exciting here with Salsato.
For me, he's a pickup in leagues of fourner and

(50:36):
fifty plus prospects at this point, but that could rise
fairly quickly as he could potentially get more hype like
I mentioned, either to end this season or throughout the offseason.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Yeah, I really like this call out, Taylor, and I
gotta say, I think you need to get him hired
already because I'm starting to see a trend in pitching
prospects specifically where people are really chasing the upside where
you and I were maybe a little bit late or
low on players like Esteba Mahia and Kendri Churio, but
we've seen them aggressively getting pushed up ranks. So I

(51:07):
think that when we look at Kelvis Salcedo and the
upside here, for me, I'm looking at him maybe as
an ad in leagues around three hundred and fifty or
more prospects rosters, like I said, a little bit higher
than you've got him at the four to fifty mark,
because I really like this fastball slider combo. He's got
plenty of room and opportunity still to improve that arsenal

(51:29):
if he can develop a stronger off speed pitch. The
strike throwing here has been solid at around sixty six
percent overall. He gets plenty of ground balls now. The
only thing I'm not a big fan of is the
fact that he is giving up a home run on
nearly twenty percent of his fly balls in single A.
But that's a rate which likely isn't going to hold anyways.

(51:51):
And because he gets so many ground balls, he still
isn't allowing even one long ball per nine innings at
this point. As I said Taylor, I think there's a
lot to like here, and I think given the way
that kind of the fantasy industry as a whole is
valuing pictures and young pitchers with upside, I think we
got to push him up a little bit higher.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
Yeah, you make some good arguments there. I think the
only thing that sort of held me back from moving
him up just that lack of a third pitch, just
the undersized nature the reliever risk there. But yeah, one
percent rostered, I do think that is going to definitely
go up, and four fifty is fairly conservative. I think
you could definitely be more aggressive on him if you
find the room on your roster. I will say related

(52:32):
to the home run for a fly ball rate, it
was just three point eight.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Percent at Complex.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
This year, it's going to normalize somewhere between three point
eight percent and eighteen point two percent, because those are
pretty extreme both ways. But yeah, I think if maybe
he's landing in the zone just a little bit too much,
it's getting punished there. But overall, I'm not too worried
about that long term.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
No neither am I I think there's plenty to light there.
And let's move from one one percent rostered arm to
another and another player that I think we might start
seeing get pushed up a little bit more aggressively. Maybe
not this year, and I'll get into that in a moment,
but I am looking at Ramon Marquez here, a nineteen
year old right handed pitcher in Single A as well

(53:13):
for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Now.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
He's listed at six foot two, one hundred and eighty
two pounds, so he has some good size already, with
some room to grow into that frame a little bit yet.
Like I said, one percent rostered, but he was unranked
in our July rankings. But there's a lot to like
with Marquez, and it starts with the fact that he
was an international signee out of Mexico this past January,

(53:36):
and the Phillies skipped him over the DSL altogether. Now,
part of that might be because he's a little bit
older for an international signee, but regardless, they had him
debut in the Florida Complex League and then promoted him
too full season ball. When the FCL ended. Now between
Complex ball and Single A, he posted a four point
four to two ERA, one point twenty five whip, a

(53:57):
thirty percent k rate, and a seven percent walk rate.
You'll have to look past the ra and the whip
a little bit for this one, but when you dig
into some deeper numbers, we can see that there's been
some bad luck fueling those elevated marks, because he has
a three point fifty six babbit against on the year
and just a sixty nine and a half percent strand rate,

(54:18):
which fuel a FIP of three point three six, which
is more than a full run better than that er.
And then when we look at single A specifically, all
of those numbers, the babbit, the strand rate, those sort
of things, they get worse and his FIP app actually
drops to two point one point nine compared to his
four point twenty four era at the level now. On

(54:40):
the other side, some numbers that do look really good
for Marquez are his forty three percent ground ball rate,
twenty two and a half percent K minus walk rate,
and a sixty six percent strike rate, all of which
have actually gotten even better since his promotion two full
season ball and his first seventeen innings in single A.
Here now, our scouts haven't graded his arsenal, but MLB

(55:02):
Pipeline recently did when they added him to the Phillies'
top thirty list following the departure of some of their
higher end prospects at the trade deadline, and they gave
him a fifty grade fastball, forty five slider, fifty five
change up, and forty five control. The fastball is a
low to mid nineties offering with heavy sink, and his
change up, which is advanced for his age, as that

(55:24):
fifty five grade would suggest, it separates well from a
velocity standpoint and also tunnels well off of his fastball.
The slider has shown some promise, but does need some
work again, as the forty five grade would imply. And
I think he's got better control than the forty five
grade they gave him. I think it's at least a
fifty grade on the control considering he's got a seven

(55:47):
percent walk rate, it's a sixty six percent strike rate overall,
and he's got a first pitch strike rate which has
risen to fifty eight percent so far in single A.
He's also got a smooth and fluid delivery that I
believe will allow him to continue repeating his mechanics and
filling up the strike zone. Now, there are some reasons
to maybe think twice on Marquez, one of which, similar

(56:08):
to Salsado before, was a bit of a home run problem.
But on the inverse to Salsado, Marquez seems to have
righted the ship with the home run problem because after
allowing nearly one home run per nine innings and complex ball,
he hasn't allowed any over seventeen innings in single A.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Now.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
His pitch mix with the sinker slider heavy kind of
arsenal is also a little bit more conducive to higher
ground ball rates than strikeout rates. So it's definitely possible
that without a tweak or two to the arsenal, he
could see his k numbers dip a bit. And of course,
anytime we're talking about a teenage pitcher, especially one with
a relative lack of pedigree and relatively short track record

(56:48):
of success. There is cause for concern with regards to injury, durability,
and just being able to repeat this performance. So taking
those into consideration, I do have him a little bit
of a ways behind a couple of arms that I
just mentioned when we were discussing Salsato in Esteban Mahea
and Kendri Turio. But much like Salsato, I think Marquees

(57:09):
is a pickup in leagues of around three hundred and
fifty plus prospects rostered, and I wouldn't be shocked to
see either one of them end up quite a bit
closer to Mahea or Churio by this time next year. Now,
I think Churio is a little bit more slept on
because his overall numbers, the surface numbers, the ERA and
the whip in particular don't look quite as good. But

(57:31):
this is another young, volatile, exciting arm. So I'm really
interested to get your thoughts here. Taylor on Ramon Marquez, Yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
Nail most of my thoughts.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
This is a guy who's underlying numbers are a lot
more attractive than the surface numbers.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
There.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
He's improved in pretty much every regard since coming up
from complex to single A there. I will say one
of the most impressive things about him statistically is the
fact that he's had a strike out minus one operate
over twenty two percent at both levels, which is just
highly impressive. Great to see the ground ball rate really
tick up at a single A there. I will say

(58:09):
he's not gonna be a teenager for much longer. He'll
turn twenty later this month. He's a few months older
than Salsato there. But I think there's a lot to
like here. I do wonder about the change up kind
of first profile. It's not as exciting as if he
had a better fastball or something like that. Maybe there's
more ability for him to stick as a starter than
a Salsato. But I don't think there's nearly as much

(58:31):
ceiling there either.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Yeah, I think that's a really good point, maybe comparing
the floor to the ceiling here on Marquez and Salsato.
But let's see how that leads to them stacking up
in our rankings, because we do need to rank everybody
that we just discussed today, Taylor, So how would you
rank Cali Rosario Roddy Rodriguez, Kelvis Salsato, and Ramon Marquez.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
Yeah, so I'm gonna go with Cali Rosario first, and
then I'm gonna go with Kelvis Salsato second. Rosario, like
I said, I'm fairly high on him. I just think
proximity wise, in the upside of the power speed, there
is my reasoning for taking him first. Salsato too, I
just really like the ceiling, even though again he's a
teenage arm with plenty of risk. There's a pretty decent

(59:15):
gap for me between Salsato and Marquees, even though they
are the same age at the same level, and that's
really comes down to just ceiling. I just think Salsato
has a much higher ceiling with two plus pitches, whereas
Marquez his best pitches and above average changeup both have
some development time in front of them. So it's not
to say Marquez couldn't make improvements, but I think again,

(59:36):
Salsato just has a higher ceiling at this point, and
then Rowdy Rogeriguez is pretty close to Marquez for me,
but he finishes at the end here, mainly because it's
just a lot of things you have to take on faith.
The fact that the power increases, real, the speed increases,
real that he's going to perform when he's at a
more age appropriate level, that the Angels aren't gonna screw

(59:58):
him up. So there's just a lot more questions, I
feel like with Rodriguez than even these teenage pitchers here.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Yeah, Taylor, we've done it again. Our rankings are exactly
the same. I maybe going to get to them a
little bit more different than you are. I actually think
the first three in Rosario, Salsado, and Marquez are pretty
close together. But I think that when we look at
Rosario as the most well known name here, the player
closest to the big leagues, the one most likely to

(01:00:25):
contribute to fantasy rosters, that makes him a relatively easy
number one still over Salsato and Marquez, even though I've
got them pretty close together. And then, like you said,
the upside for Salsato over Marquez as well as the
fact that the strong performance this year at least from
a surface level standpoint compared to Marquez, where it's more

(01:00:46):
the deeper numbers that you need to dive into to
really start getting excited. I think that side of things
pushes Salsado just a little bit higher than Marquez and
then Roddy Rodriguez. Like you said, there's intrigue here. There
are just a lot of question marks that he needs
to answer, and potentially there's even longer for him than

(01:01:06):
a Salcedo or a Marquez, despite the fact that he
is in that Angels organization which likes to push their prospects.
But like you mentioned earlier, the fact that they aren't
pushing Rodriguez quite the same as some other guys definitely
makes you wonder.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Yeah, definitely, that might be one of the silver linings
of being eliminated or shut out by you in the
playoffs is we'll maybe I'll get to add some of
these teenage arms at the end of the week.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
Well, I'll see if I can hand you a couple
more categories here before things are done, so it doesn't
quite look so ugly, but it never hurts to be
able to go add some prospects.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Yeah, we talked about that a few weeks ago. We
talked about the playoff tactics there.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
So make sure that you're doing that, make sure that
you add some of these names we're talking about, because
these guys could be pretty valuable as soon as next year.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
That is everything we have for you guys today. Thank
you all for joining us. Make sure you tune in
next week and give us a follow while you are
at it. You can find me at Sonny Underscore one
eight on X and Sonny one O eight on Blue Sky,
and you can find Taylor at Dynasty Pickups on both.
You can also get a hold of us with all
of your Dynasty Baseball questions at Dynasty Baseball Pickups at

(01:02:14):
gmail dot com. All of that contact info will also
be posted in the show notes, and as always, please
consider subscribing to Prospects Live for as little as five
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(01:02:35):
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