Episode 385 - Arizona Fall League Week 1 Recap

New Prospect One Podcast


🌵 @MLBazFallLeague Week 1 Recap


➡️ Painter back to form

➡️ Emerson the doubles machine

➡️ Alderman's power surge

➡️ Where are we with Cags


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
In this league podcast that work present Prospect one. So
Fantasy prospect podcast Prospect What with your host Chris Wels.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the Fantasy Baseball Prospect podcast. It is Prospect one.
Hello friends, I'm Chris Welsh, your host who you can
find on Twitter and Instagram at is it the Welsh
and of course go to in this league dot com
today if you guys want to check out the ranks
the updates that are coming. People chomping and chirping, where
are we right right? I know, I know we got

(00:37):
to get rank updates, but it's Arizona Fall League time,
so I am trying to find all the time to it,
but actually today working on the Dynasty and the prospect ranks.
But this month we are going to get a prospect
update which is going to include the first year player
top five hundred by team and a Dynasty top five
hundred as well, which I know people are really waiting for.
So good in this league dot com. If you want

(00:57):
to support what I do in this league dot com,
sign up today and you can get access to the
ranks that I'm working on all season long and the
updates that will be coming via the Arizona Fall League
So today on the episode, it's just me, my boy Tim.
I'll probably maybe try to get him on every other
we're gonna be reek or I'm gonna be recapping the
first week of the Arizona Fall League. So then if

(01:19):
I can get Tim in next week, having two weeks
of it, maybe him bringing some questions, that'll be good,
and then kind of keep doing that third week just me,
then we'll be leading into first pitch and all that
fun stuff. But today I'll be recapping some highlights from
the first week of the Arizona Fall League, which was
a lot, which was eventful. It's a lot going on.

(01:41):
We had a major leaguer come to the Arizona Fall League.
We had an addition before we even did the show,
So between the Previewing Rosters Show and the start of
the Arizona Fall League, we had a big, massive addition
to the Arizona Fall League. As it happens, I've got
some fun stories, some news and notes for you, and
like I said, I'm going to highlight. I think I've

(02:04):
got like seven players here that I think have really
stood out some statistically, of course, some have just been
you know, that have caught my attention, My eye specifically
one player that I think is really moving simply because
like I'm getting eyes on them. Because it brings up
a bigger question, and it's the same question we always have.

(02:25):
It really just becomes about the degree of what do
you buy into with the Arizona Fall League. How much
fool's gold is it. I've had multiple conversations with different
people because A, it's a hitter friendly environment. That's Arizona,
so it's a little bit more hitter friendly. B. Pitching
is not great, probably the worst it's ever been.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
I loosely say that because there are a lot of
relievers here and there actually might be a handful of
more major league relievers long term. But from a starter perspective, nah,
it's not good. It's like Glendale has three start legit
starters and then maybe there's like two others in the league.

(03:11):
Not to say that there aren't gonna be a couple
other guys that stand out, but it's it's a it's
always a bad pitching environment. It's the worst pitching environment
it's been. So you take like this hit a friendly
environment with pictures and it can create this false hopes
or you know, just a concern for people of like
what should we buy into because I just hate to

(03:33):
tell you there are gonna be guys that are gonna
move up and down from the Arizona Follague and it'll
be right and wrong. You know, I still hold to this.
I've said this multiple times, Like Jacob Marcy destroy the
Arizona Follleague last year and then he fell apart, and
you know, so it was a great opportunity to sell
Jacob Marcy. The buye probably didn't work out. But then

(03:56):
in the same token, a guy like James Trianto's James
Trionto was awesome in the Arizona Fall League and that
was a guy you wanted to buy on, and he
continued that into this season. Like thing it's like forty
stolen bases, hit over three hundred power wasn't quite there,
but that really paid off. So you know, nothing is
one for one. You know, not every guy that dominates

(04:16):
here is going to come back. Not every guy that
dominates is going to fail. It's trying to figure out
as best as possible deciphering this stuff. And that's kind
of like the look and that's hopefully the conversation we
kind of tend to have around these is like, who
are the guys that are not just like just statistically
standing out, but they're showing outlier stuff. They're showing consistent

(04:40):
ability for contact, they're showing off speed ability every single day.
That's a big thing. This is I was telling someone
about this. What makes it really tricky is when first
pitch comes around, you get the whole industry that comes
in for three days, maybe a couple of people here
for five days. They see someone twice, and let's say
that guy has a really good week. It's not that

(05:00):
it's not going to be real, but it can inflate
some of the problems sometimes where you know, if you
get to see these guys for six weeks and it's like, Okay,
this guy every time he's out is doing something, then
that reality becomes a little bit more. So I'm preaching
to the choir, you guys know that stuff. But that
was kind of in full effect in the first week
of the Arizona Fall League. So we are going to

(05:23):
go through not really focusing necessarily on like stat leaders,
but there are a couple guys at the tippy top
that really have stood out, that have put up some
big numbers. And then one big pitching performance. So I'm
going to recap it all for you here today while
reminding you guys again in this league dot com if
you guys want to check out all the fun stuff
that I have got going on, and hopefully I see

(05:43):
you guys out here as well. I have had mounds
of people hit me up about I'm going to be
out here, and I'm going to be out at this
time and that time. Make sure to hit me up
if you've seen me, say Hi, Love to talk to
you guys, Love to talk prospects. Arizona Fall League is
also really interesting because there's like this there's this like

(06:04):
mode of like these certain people come in week one
and then a new set of people come in week two.
There's always these different groups of people that are always
churning in and coming in and that makes it kind
of fun. And obviously, you know, first pitch is like
right around, right around the corner. So here's let's talk
about this first thing before we get into the players,
and we'll break to go into the players. But a

(06:25):
unique thing that has happened a couple times in the
Arizona Fall League, and some of you guys saw I
went out to one of the games was we had
a major leaguer come to the Arizona Fall League. That
was Jeff McNeil. And this has happened what I can
recall twice in the last I don't know, five years.
I want to say it was. Once was Kyle Schwarber

(06:47):
with the Cubs where he had missed the entire season
and he was ramping up. They were in the playoffs.
He came out here for like three games and he
warmed up. The second was Tyler o'ne which was I
think two years ago. He actually came out for one
day and then the Cardinals got eliminated that day and
he left. He didn't do anything. I'm not even sure

(07:10):
if he played in the game. If I'm being honest
with you, I think he like came out and I
think they lost that day, or maybe he did play
that one game and they were eliminated. That is something
that can happen out here. You have exemptions, and especially
playoff teams can get these exemptions for players. And that's
what happened with Jeff McNeil, who missed a bunch of time.
Was I actually had heard this and I was like,

(07:30):
that's not happening. Jeff McNeil's not coming out here. Well,
the Mets kept metting. I'm actually, as we're recording this,
I'm watching the Mets beat the Dodgers in the NLCS
right now, and Jeff McNeil came out here for two games,
which is such a weird and interesting experience because you
have this major leaguer, but also this major leaguer joined
the most stacked Arizona Fall League team. You know, the

(07:53):
Scott Still Scorpions has Bryce Eldridge, it has Tamar Johnson,
it has two big says Jet Williams and Drew Gilbert.
You know, they're like they're a st Thomas to jay Z,
I think I'm er to jay Z on no, I
think so jay Z's on the Glendale team, but beside
the point, it's like a really stacked team. And he

(08:17):
comes out and you know, first night it's out in Glendale,
and it was funny him and Jet came out together.
So that was something I was really excited to see,
is for him to I don't know if you want
to call it mentoring or whatever, but like, you know,
you're around, you're with other Mets players, and that was
his guy. Because Drew Gilbert came out like later, him
and Jeff, Jet Williams and Jeff and Jeff McNeil came

(08:38):
out together. And Jeff McNeil's like just a super kind guy.
He took time for fans like fifteen minutes, was talking
to a lot of players and Jet. I kind of
felt like Jet was soaking that in one thing, I wondered,
I wanted to talk to Jeff mcdiald a butt. I
wonder if Jeff came in and did one of those
like you know, like a major leaguer rehab, you know,

(09:01):
like a double a park and you know, buys everybody
lunch or air pods or whatever iPods. No one has
iPods anymore, AirPods. I wondered if like anything like that
had happened. But beside the point, you know, I felt
like Jeff maybe had tooken taken Jet under his wing,
and you know, they were sitting, they were talking, they
were kind of doing all the stretching together. Drew Gilbert

(09:23):
wasn't really around. Tomar Johnson was also there. I will
say I felt like there were some interesting interactions, but
Tomorrow is kind of intense out here. I feel like
he's in a zone He's in this very concentrated zone,
and there was this this one instant, I think it
was the second bat. I felt like Tomorrow really hated
the calling, and but Jeff was like Tomorrow had this

(09:46):
instant where I think he like struck out and then
he was kind of arguing, and Jeff was almost kind
of like, let's move it. I thought that was kind
of a weird, interesting one, but this was a funny story.
So this is the very first at bat. Tomorrow is
leading off, Jeff isitting two, and this is the very
first one. I I want to say Tomar got on

(10:08):
or you know, maybe he got out in that very
first one. And then Jeff is up and Bryce Eldridge
comes over to the on deck circle and I'm with
a couple people and one of the guys goes man Tomorrow, Johnson,
Jeff McNeil, and Bryce Eldridge. He's like, that is quite
a lineup. And Eldridge is standing right there and he
looks over and he smiles and he goes, yeah. He goes,

(10:30):
how about an All Star Game twenty twenty six And
everyone's kind of laughing, and I think Eldridge had just
turned twenty by the way. The anecdotal thing about it
is I just thought it was funny that he accepted
that level of like confidence in that moment to have
fun with people. I've always loved when players are, you know,
interacting with fans. I remember Logan o'happy. He would every

(10:53):
time he'd come out, he'd say hi to everybody, he
would interact. I told the story two years ago, three
years ago when Bright since Scott was out there and
there was this just random guy going, you know, Bryson
starters blah blah blah ranked and then Logan Ohappy turns
around and goes, that's too low, and he starts interacting.
This reminded me of that where Bryce was like he
smiled at the guy, saying, all three of them are

(11:15):
really good, and then Bryce was jacked up. I actually
talked to Bryce like a tiny bit before the game.
He was really jacked up about having the Major League there.
I'm a twenty year old kid, and I just thought
it was great that he said that in that level
of confidence and fun. He was like, how about All
Star Game twenty twenty six with McNeil, Tamar and Aldridge,
And I was like, well, he probably has the best

(11:36):
opportunity of all of them. I don't know if in
twenty twenty six, but maybe probably be a rookie in
that year. But Jeff McNeil came out, got a lot
of fan fair He's in the NLCS right now. I
believe he pinch hit in the very first game. What
was interesting was first at bat, man does he I

(11:56):
think you forget about this sometimes and there are a
few guys that do this, but man does he choke
up on the bat like crazy choke up and he
punched one opposite field a hit. Didn't really run well,
so that might be part of him not playing in
the field. He did not seem to run super well.
He also had a miss player two in the Glendale game.
I didn't go to the second game, but a really

(12:19):
true professional of how you know, he treated people. He
gave time to the players, and I thought that was
cool and that was just one of the unique things
that happens in the first week of the AFL, and
I think it jacked up some of the players. Jet
played really well in that game. I didn't have Jet
on my my little little list to highlight of guys
going up or down, but you know, I've seen Jet

(12:40):
play twice now, and that batspeed is definitely on display.
I mean, I still don't know if I'm like massively
in love like some people, I can't get over and
I you know, I'm sorry. He is a tiny guy.
He is a really small guy, but he has what
a few of these guys have. This is something that displays.

(13:01):
When you have that comfortability and that control of pitches
that come to the zone, you'll let it travel more.
And Jeff McNeil, he just has a control of his
bat that he knows he can let it travel. He's
not trying to hit homers. He chokes up on the bat.
He can punch it opposite field. I feel like Jet
does this, and actually Colt Emerson does this. We are

(13:23):
going to talk about in a little bit. Those are
two guys that they're very comfortable letting the ball travel,
but in that they both have this tremendous bat speed
to catch up, and not not all players have that.
Like we I think sometimes we misuse bat speed. I
do it plenty where you know, well, a really good swing,
we're like, oh crap, look at that bat speed. But
sometimes that's just like the recognition, like being on the pitch,

(13:46):
you know, There are guys though that they have such
good control of their ability to barrel, and they they
know that bat speed is like a backup that like
they can let that ball travel. And that's what I'm
talking about. That's something that Jet does. And there's this
hit that's on my Twitter you can check out where
it's exactly what he does. He just he kind of

(14:07):
lets the pitch come to him. He reacts, He flicks
the wrists really quick with the bad speed, and he
punches it and I think it's a triple. He almost
hit a homer. He hits it to what is he
a righty? He hits it too. I guess it would
be opposite field. If I'm saying that incorrectly, I apologize,
but I believe he's a righty and he hits it

(14:28):
to I know, he hits it to right field, That's
what I know. And it hits up on the wall
and the right fielder slams into the wall, crashes, falls down.
We were hoping he's okay, and Jet turns it into
a triple, an easy triple. So dude's got speed. Dude
has really quick hands. He showed off some power in
that instant, you know, like sometimes the you know, the

(14:49):
ball can travel more in the day when it's like
hotter and stuff like that, and at night it can
it can kind of drop a little bit. He showed
off good power. I think, if anything, maybe it's like
bringing him back up because he had like you know,
suffering the injury and missed a lot of time. I
still don't know. I still don't buy it as a
top twenty five prospect like some people have him. But

(15:09):
I see and I feel like this maybe was out
there before. So apologies if I'm like taking this, but
I see a Bregman miss to him. For sure. He's
just smaller. He's even smaller than that. Like I'm gonna
look right now, I have no idea what I think.
Jet Williams has to be listed at five to seven
and I'm gonna guess he's five to six. They listen

(15:31):
him at five six, never mind, so five six, five
y five. He is definitely that. But you know, there's
some thickness to him and stuff like that. But I
have a hard set. I don't don't know if he's
ever going to be like a twenty home run hitter
or anything like that. But it's it's the possibilities are
out there, but he's a very talented player, and I
thought like it was good to see some of that

(15:51):
stuff on display with a guy like McNeil. And you know,
another little anecdotal thing that came to my mind, just
to let you guys know, that's what some of this
episode is going to be. By the way, I'm just
talking to you openly about some of the players in
my first week, so you know, forgive it may not
have like a form formulaic, super formulaic thing, but I
noticed that Bryce Eldridge was staring and really looking at

(16:15):
Jeff McNeil when he was at bat, and was watching
the the choking up on the bat because it's like
really pronounced some players, you know, some players like do
it in two strike counts and whatnot. Jeff is always
there and it just becomes more prominent on three strike counts.
And I notice Bryce in that instant kind of starting
to hold the bat with a little bit of a choke.

(16:37):
And I wonder something I'm gonna watch in the rest
of the Fall League if he implements any of that
maybe in like you know, two strike counts or something
like that. You know, he's kind of a free swinging
type of guy that I wonder if he kind of
hones that in and that's something to pick up on,
because that's another thing. That's something that's interesting about the
AFL too. You kind of love for multiple talented players

(16:58):
to play with each other to see what can rub.
It doesn't always, you know, I've talked to some players
who really I don't name the player, but I remember
being like, you know, hey, you're playing with all these
great players and you pick up anything and he's just like,
not really, and you're like, oh, okay. And then there's
other guys that are like, oh my god. You know,
playing with this guy it's been you know, that's what
you love to see. You love to see players that

(17:19):
are really open to picking up stuff and like keeping
their opportunities open. So Week one, Jeff McNeil coming out here.
It's not the only craziness. There's other craziness and we'll
talk about it after this. We're going to go through
some of the players that I think are deservative highlights
in the first week. A little bit of news. There's

(17:41):
one little piece I'm going to tell you that I've
heard in the grapevine about a player that is going
to be leaving the AFL and a player that would
replace him, and they maybe I'm just not seeing it
because I don't see any definitions of it, and you know,
and now that i'm thinking even the paper schedules, I
don't think say it, but I'm going to speculator. I

(18:01):
think there's a couple of players that are taxi squatted,
and I'm gonna let you guys know who a few
of those important players are. And the only reason you
might care is taxi squad players, at least how it's
always traditionally worked can't play more than two games a week.
That's like the rule of taxi squading. So it's like
eight total games, or I guess it's more than that,

(18:24):
but the rule is like, you can't play more than
ten or eight two games in a given week, and
that designates usually a taxi squad player, and there are
some players that played one to two games in the
first week. Now it's not guaranteed, so we'll talk about those,
we'll talk about the replacement player, maybe even a other
couple potential ones. And some of the first early week
one highlights. Breaking down my time here in the Arizona

(18:46):
Fall League we'll do it right after this. Shay.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
I like you. I like you so much.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
I'm going to make you my partner. All you have
to do is find the gold and I'll share it
with you.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Fifty to fifty prospect what so the.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Talk of the town. Someone mentioned this to me. They
said they listened to my podcast and they said, you know,
it was super funny how you and Tim spent a
bunch of time talking about how did Andrew Painter not
come out to the Arizona Fallague. I know that's all
we thought. And then it was announced that Andrew Painter

(19:23):
is coming to the Arizona Fallague. And I want to say,
I think it was announced on the opening day, if
I remember correctly. I think it was because I saw
I ended up seeing him on Tuesday, so he was
out here like that day and it was announced that
I guess there. Maybe they were waiting on some reports.
I'm not super surprised about this. Usually it's the verse.
By the way, though, It's like a player will be

(19:44):
announced and then it'll be like, oh, you know, this
injury has taken them out. I had heard Hunter Barco
was supposed to come out here, and then you know,
before the rosters were released, it you know, it was like,
oh no, some injury or just they wanted him to
rest and they didn't do it. You know, So it's
usually kind of the inverse. I don't usually see these

(20:07):
players like right up until the end they go Nope,
we're gonna We're gonna just bring you know, the number
one pitching prospect in baseball that is not named Jackson Job.
You know, that's an uncommon thing. So that was a pleasant,
pleasant surprise that he was added because it was a
really really as I mentioned, poor amount of pitchers that
are out here, but that team was stacked because they

(20:27):
got Connor Phillips, They've got Grant Taylor, and then now
they've got Andrew Painter. It's really good. And Grant Taylor
was the day one starter. He's the Tuesday starter as
they call it. And Andrew Painter is gonna be the
Saturday starter. And I talked to Andrew on I have
a funny picture with him if you guys see it,
just a goofy selfie shot that we did. And I'm

(20:50):
forgetting what day that was. It was Wednesday or Thursday,
but I did chat with him about you know what
the schedule looks like and he was saying, because I
think they announced like twenty pitches, he ended up pitching
twenty in his first that he's going to be out
here to pitch fifteen to twenty innings. And that makes sense.
And that also makes me think he's staying here the
whole time, because if he's only pitching on Saturdays, I

(21:10):
believe there's only six Saturdays to pitch, and if you pitch,
you know, two to three, that's going to get you
between that fifteen and twenty. So I'm speculating he's probably
going to be out here the majority of the time.
But anything can happen, you know. Job and Tiedeman were
gone after five starts halfway through because but that was
a little bit more of an innings limit. But that

(21:30):
was the other you know. So it was like Jeff
McNeal's coming, and Andrew Painter's coming, and we got his
first performance. The saddest thing is I was not able
to be at that performance. I talked I taught him
twice during the week. He's a big dude. He's rocking
a stash now. He said, he's feeling really good. He
was super excited to be here. And to get out there,
and the performance, there's a lot of video out there

(21:53):
was pretty great. I mean he got to give up
a I think a couple runs. I'm not looking at
the box score. I can let's take a look. Look
here while we're talking, he ended up giving up I believe. Well, here,
let's give the official one Scottsdale. Scott Sales a little
bit further from me. So that was why I wasn't
able to get out there that day because of other things.
But yeah, so he went two innings, gave up two

(22:14):
earned runs, struck out two. He did give up a
homer and he walked one. Ended up throwing twenty nine pitches,
eighteen for strikes, which is a positive. The bigger positive
was out the gates hit ninety eight, he touched one
hundred and if you really want the best sequence, so
many people have it out. My boy Jeff Ponce, who

(22:36):
was out here, who we caught up a couple times.
Jeff has a really great video of it. I think
multiple other people too, where it is the sequence of
fast I think it was three pitches to Eldridge. It
was fastball up, fastball up or fastball in, and then
he drops this low ninety sweeper on Eldridge, which he
absolutely just eats. And that's what Ponce has out there,

(22:58):
and that's exactly what you want to see. Who cares
about Who cares that he gave up a homer? Who
cares really about the hits? In this instance, it's like,
what's the stuff? And the stuff was ninety eight one
hundred high ninety sweeper. He felt good, he left without injury.
Those are the makings of him returning to being the

(23:20):
number one pitching prospect in baseball. It's dude, hadn't pitched,
and it felt like twelve years a fortnight, if you will,
Like it's been forever since he had pitched, and now
that we got to see him pitch out here and
the stuff was there, wheels up, baby, wheels up. That's
how I feel about it. So I'm all back in

(23:41):
on Andrew Painter, and I'm excited to catch this next one.
And it looks like he's gonna be pitching on every Saturday,
and I hope that. I gotta be honest, I hope
they build him up a little bit, even if it
does cost him leaving early. You know, I'd love to
see him like six times that's what I got with
teet him, and I saw four of five teet him
and starts love to see every single one. But you know,

(24:01):
if it cost him leaving a week or two early
for him to get up to like four innings, that
would be phenomenal, and I think we should all hope
for that. But I think the big takeaway is you
can feel really confident, as confident as you can with
a pitching prospect. I suppose with what he showed out there,
crap cares about the results. Nobody cares about the results there.

(24:23):
It is just boom. You did see strikeouts because the
dude's throwing a hundred and that sweepers disgusting. And that's
what makes me feel really good about Andrew Painter. So
he was probably the top dog to end up talking
about here because that was it was kind of the
biggest buzz that was around here. And again it is
it's attached to what was a really good week of performances.

(24:46):
You know, I didn't put these guys up, so but
we can yap about it. So Grant Taylor, you know,
he pitched, and I was at that game. I was
at the Evan Phillips and the Grant Taylor game. Grant
Taylor pitched on Tuesday. Was really good to start, and
then he unraveled, which was a little bit unfortunate because
he had been really good in complex side. But they

(25:07):
had this monstrous first inning. Glendale scored seven runs. Taylor
I think had a perfectly clean inning if I remember correctly,
I hadn't written it down. I want to say he
struck out two or maybe all three. He struck out
two or three in that first inning, and then he
got beat up in the second inning. I will tell
you that game ended up being twenty eight runs. Welcome

(25:30):
to the Fall League. Peoria scored five runs in the second,
so we left the second inning with fourteen runs scored.
So he made it one and one third of an inning.
He struck out four, gave up five runs, four hits.
He did walk a couple. Don't love the walks. He
had this really good, really good sequence. I actually talked

(25:52):
with him about after because he said the breaking pitch
felt really good, and that's what you want to see
from him as well. That he hit saw with high fastball,
high fastball that he absolutely ate both of those and
then he just drops what I what I think was
like a backdoor slider on him, and Saalaz didn't know
what to do with it, you know, Like, like what

(26:13):
I loved about that was that was advanced pitching. That
wasn't just like oh that's that was advanced, like I'm
gonna I'm gonna pitch every other direction that you think
I'm going and I really like that. So again, the
results didn't end up being there. It ended up being
in this wild offensive performance you know, or hot. It
was like one hundred and eight hundred and nine that day,

(26:35):
So again, like, don't read too much into it. He's
gonna go tomorrow. I'm recording this on Monday, so he'll
go again tomorrow, which hopefully I'm not actually one hundred
percent sure if I will be there. I'm gonna try
to be there to see the second one, but I
think you're gonna see a lot better results. He looked good.
And then Connor Phillips, who has been in the majors,
he ended up having the best performance of any pitcher

(26:56):
so far. If you're like, you know, if you're paying
attention to that stuff, I believe he ended up going six,
striking out seven and only gave up two hits. So
that's the type of thing I think Connor Phillips probably
not going to be here the whole time. Yeah, he
went four. I'm sorry. Hu went four innings, struck out seven,
gave up only two hits, walk none. Looked really good.

(27:17):
I saw Pipeline interviewed him after. This is the type
of thing where you know he might get like three
or four more of these because they're letting him go
deeper and then then just be like bye. I'm not
saying they will, but a majority of these guys are
just going like two or three innings. I want to say,
let's see, there are only one. There's only one. Connor

(27:41):
Phillips is the only pitcher to have pitched one outing
that's gone over four innings. The other two are Mitch
Myers and Cooper Adams, who have each gone essentially three
innings for MESA. So there's not a lot of big innings.
We have seen those in the past. You know, these
some guys will go like five or six in I
remember Max Freed pitch to no hitter in the AFL.

(28:01):
It was a combined no hitter, but he ended up
going like six innings when he was out here in
the AFL. That was the Ronald Acune year Monster year.
By the way, that was like Austin Reiley, Alex Jackson, Tukei, Tissaint,
Max Fried, Ronald d'acuna was ridiculous Braves team they put
out here, But like, that's the team to watch if
you want really good pitching, and that's the team to

(28:25):
you know, maybe simmy pay attention to the hitters against,
you know, and that is something that actually stands out
about the first guy that we'll talk about in his
cold Emerson. So, Colt Emerson in that game had one
of the wildest performances I've ever seen. And someone joked
because I was putting out lots of video because there
were twenty eight runs scored. Someone was like, yeah, we

(28:48):
can tell Colt is having a good day because every
video he's being driven in. Yes he was. Because Colt
Emerson had a five for six day, a five RBI
and four doubles. It was crazy. Now, yes, we don't

(29:08):
want to like go ballistic about offensive performances here and
stuff like that, but this one was just different because
it wasn't like, all right, you know, swinging for the
fences and first pitch pulling. No, this was like he
was driving counts. He was letting balls travel, he was

(29:29):
hitting off speed and fastballs and everything. He was driving
to the far outfield. Four doubles in that first game
he ended up having I want to say, it was
like eight hits in his first two games. And here's
another interesting thing. I went and looked this up myself.
So he currently has six doubles through one week. I

(29:50):
will tell you he played today. I have not looked
at the box score. There's one game on Monday. This
is kind of like a first week recap, so I
don't know what he did today, but six doubles. He
is on pace to destroy the most doubles in the
Arizona Fall League in history. We actually have two records
that might get blasted. I went and looked. The most

(30:14):
doubles in the AFL came in its inaugural year. I
hope that was right, as I stretched down. At least
since two thousand and five. Let me say that, because
maybe that's nothing Augury, because I feel like AFL has
actually been around for twenty five years, so maybe I'm wrong.
But since two thousand and five, the most doubles in
this league were fourteen by Kendre Moralesje's and Crackers. So

(30:36):
I mean he is on pace to have the most
doubles we've ever seen. I also want to point out
you can go and look at like, you know, homers
and you know stats get weird out here. There is
something uniquely crazy about when you go and look at
the leaders in doubles every single year in the AFL.
I know, it's like trophy and maybe annoying. I say
this all the time, like, hey, doubles can be a

(30:58):
really great indicator of power. Sometimes doubles also just a
really good indicator of like good hitters, you know that
are not just like putting in singles but getting extra
base hits. Dude, the guys that lead in doubles in
the history of the AFL, it's a it's a who's who.
You know you've got Nolan Aeronauto from A I mean,
Jacob Marcy unfortunately was last year, but you know you've

(31:20):
got Nolan Aeronaudo's of the world. I'm gonna se if
I can just click on some years and give you
guys a few names that might work. Heshton Kerstad was
two thousand and two. I'm just clicking random years to
hopefully this pays off. Pete Alonso and vlad were the
leaders in two and eighteen. I know Nolan Aernaudo was
one of the years. I'm forgetting what you're Cody Bellinger

(31:42):
was two thousand and sixteen. Let's go down to twenty thirteen.
See if it's a player. Chris Well. Chris Bryant was
two Number one does not work my narrative, so I'm
not even saying it. Two thousand and eight was to
be the last one. Be a good name. Oh it's
not Chris Petite. He was actually the leader before I
found Kendrey Morale. Let's do one more be a good one. Oh,

(32:05):
Sergio Santos was on there. Sam Fold No. I mean
there's a couple older names that are out there, but
Ryan Bron Ryan Bron in two thousand and six, So
it is quite an interesting list. If there was a
stat to maybe just like semi watch, that might be it.
But really, what I want to get to, and the
main thing I'm talking about here is like Emerson had

(32:26):
kind of like a weird ish year. It was okay,
but so far I've just been really impressed with his approach.
He leads the league in hits. He leads the league
in doubles. He's near the top a RBI. He's got
a stolen base, he's hitting five hundred, he's hitting at
the top of the lineup. He really looks like a
good leadoff hitter. He hasn't walked yet in the first week,

(32:47):
which you know that can be because it's just sometimes
the walk numbers get super inflated. Actually, I think Tramorrow
might have like five walks to one strikeout or something.
But I've just been really impressed with his approach, not
even necessarily the stats. I could have not looked at
the stats and been like, hey, listen that first game,
the way he approached every bat, he wasn't being fooled.

(33:11):
He wasn't being over aggressive, because I feel like I've
seen him be over aggressive. Another interesting thing was talking
with Dennis Sidler, who he has cult as a client.
Was the first video I put out. He goes, WHOA,
he looks like he's lost weight. He has. He had
bulked up, Emerson had kind of he still got that
like these really strong calves or not calves, thighs like

(33:32):
a thigh god like a saque. But he was bigger
last year it looks like he trimmed down a little bit,
and I don't know, maybe that's enabling him to kind
of tap into some more of that bat speed. And
you know that doubles power is hopefully going to translate
into future homer power. But you know, maybe he's going
to be like a twenty twenty high batting average guy.

(33:54):
But I've been very impressed with cold Emerson out here,
and that's just someone I wanted to make sure we highlighted.
The other guy, I'll just jump to him. I'm kind
of jumping around that. This isn't a particular order because
I'm just trying to keep with some narratives. The other
one is Kemp Alderman, just letting you guys know. Now
the home run track record for the AFL it's not
like doubles. And that's why I pointed that out, you know,

(34:16):
I mean, Greg Diikman, I believe holds the record for homers.
I could be wrong. I didn't go back and check
every single year. That's a real yeah, that's not right
because brandon Wood, Brandon Wood fourteen homers in two thousand
and five. As I'm going through this, Chip can, I
don't even know Chip cannon is that sounds fake, That
sounds like a player from an Adam Sandler movie. Matt Laporta,

(34:39):
I'm having fun. That was two thousand and seven Tyler Flowers.
So if you're getting what I'm putting out here, the
home run grant desmi geez, the home run track record
in the Arizona Fall League does not translate like maybe
what doubles are Connor Gillespie. So back to that. Not
to be rude to Kemp Alderman, but want to point

(35:00):
out Kemp Alderman had an insane first week and I
was not shocked, and I can't remember. It doesn't matter
if I said it or not, you know whatever. I
feel like I had said that Kemp Alderman was a
player that was really thrive here. Maybe it was in
my brain. He's one of those guys that put up
like absurd last year exit velocities in the MLB Draft

(35:23):
combine when he was out here. He didn't have a
great year, but he's got this massive power. Well, he's
hit five homers in the first week of the Arizona
Fall League. The record, as far as I can tell,
is braina would with fourteen in the last ten years
I want to say it was Greg Diikman, who former
Oakland A who had like nine We don't see these

(35:43):
big power performances. He might be coming for that record.
He played four games, five of his seven hits were
Homer's already, He's walked a couple times. He's got a
twelve hundred slug. He's the big power bat here. Again.
I don't think the track record works out. If anything,
I might suggest to you that there might be a
selling opportunity if you had an Alderman and people get

(36:05):
excited because he's got ridiculous power and the ball is
flying out here. I don't want to take away because
that power is pretty exciting. I enjoy watching him in BP.
I watched him in BP. You know, I don't know
if the off speed stuff is out there. I didn't
get to track it. I'd suspect these were all off
of fastballs. But Kemp Alderman might be someone to take
a look at. Now. Number two in the Homers is

(36:27):
definitely a player that I want to focus on because
this guy, I would say from the early on set,
I'm pulling something up here because I want to give
you guys his stats. If I were to give you
the player that has most impressed me from where I
walked in, it would be Jo Brasigo with the Detroit Tigers.

(36:49):
From my expectation to coming into the Fall League to
physically seeing him play night and day, Joswe Brasigo is
massively impressed. So in season two homers, one stolen base,
hitting two seventy eight, he missed like three months of time.
He's a big dude, six foot four to two hundred,

(37:09):
but man, I gotta tell you, from a like physicality standpoint,
he is. He's one of the most impressive looking players
out here. It is like six foot four, two hundred.
He's a catcher, looks like he could be a first
base brick house, and it's not. There's no fat like
you know. Sometimes the guy's like a little bit bigger

(37:31):
in certain area. He looks like he is jacked. And
Bersinio was kind of a contact guy before this. In
twenty twenty three, in fifty five games between rookie ball
and A ball, he hit three nineteen with a four
hundred OVP. He had almost as many walks of strikeouts
thirty walks, only thirty six strikeouts, only seven homers, but

(37:53):
he did have a bunch of doubles. This past year,
same kind of thing was going on. It looked like
maybe the strikeout rate was up a notch, but he
was twenty two to twenty six walk to strikeout ratio,
and he was hurt. Well, he's come out here and
he's banging the ball around. He's hitting three seventy five,
he's got three homers. He's second in the league in
home runs, and he is playing. It looks like they're

(38:15):
actually listing him as a first basement I don't think
i've seen him catch. He is playing more first six RBIs.
He's got six hits. Half of his hits have been homers.
There's a little bit of aggressiveness in the strikeouts. He's
got five strikeouts in sixteen at bats, a couple walks.
But I love his approach. I believe all three homers
actually may have came in one game, but I love

(38:36):
his approach. He can get lower in, he gets the
ball in the air, and this is one of those
guys that came from I believe like a higher contact
approach that he had said in I think some of
the injury time he had been trying to bulk up
and trying to build up that power, and I think
it's starting to be on display here so with his

(38:58):
ability to make contact and what I mean. And he's
already hit more homers, you know, in the AFL than
he did in the regular season. Take it for whatever,
but I think this is a guy who's perceived value,
which I have to assume is outside the top two fifty.
This is going to be a real one to change.
Hopefully it's not my next Jacob Marcy, but I mean

(39:19):
he's not a stolen base guy. I think this is
a really clean hitter, and I think this is a
guy that can play first He looks like a first baseman.
He's got like a more fit Pee Alonso kind of
look to him. I mean, there's probably a much better
comp that I'm not using for first base, but I
really really like the power potential and I think actually

(39:41):
in a league that's got you know, Kemp Alderman and
Kalai Rosario and Xavier Isaac, I think he might be
one of the more impressive power bats. And I think
a lot of people are hyper focused on Theyron Loronzo,
who they Tigers traded from the Dodgers because he's a
big boy. But Prasinio. That's my guy. That's my guy,
and I'm he's he's moving up the list because again

(40:03):
it's like, you know, where did I come from in
my perception of the AFL and it wasn't quite there.
And this is a guy I'm very excited to watch
a little bit more of and you know, and hopefully
be able to share more. But pay attention to him.
I think this is one of those good buyes. If
he's sitting out there right now, a lot of miss time.
He is younger, with quite a few young guys here,

(40:24):
and he is a little bit further away because he
only got to a ball this year, so he finished
a ball in twenty twenty three. He missed a lot
of time, only got to a ball this year. I
would suspect this is so they can get him to
hi A and he gets a double A and then
he's a twenty twenty six guy. But if he ends
up playing you know, more first, which now I'm gonna
look because he's listed as a catcher this year in Okay,

(40:48):
So in the miners he played sixteen games at catcher
and sixteen at first, and it looks like he's playing
a lot more first out here, so that might be
a sign of the future, which I actually think is
great because he one hundred percent has the power contact
ability to be a first baseman, you know, like a
worthwhile first baseman. Wouldn't be shocked if he became better
than Torkulsen. So I like me some Josue Bersinio. He

(41:13):
is probably the true standout for Week one, for as
much as it really can be. Of course, a couple
other guys, let's talk about Coulson Montgomery. I'm gonna be
doing a podcast actually in a couple hours here on
Future Socks. I believe it is a White Sox podcast,
and we're gonna be talking obviously about the White Sox guys.
I gotta tell you, I am impressed with the version

(41:35):
of Coulson Montgomery that we are seeing this go. Now.
Can it be fools Gold, Sure, absolutely we can. Got
kind of fooled by him. I was an apologist to
Coulson Montgomery last year where I sat around and I
and you know the one thing that was just like
in our face the whole time with COULSONA. Montgomery, And

(41:56):
I'm gonna prevace this too with he is. By the way,
he might even be hurt right now, I'll tell you
about it. But the whole thing with Colson Montgomery was,
you know, like, ok, yeah, he's striking through stuff, but
like listen, you know, I think he's just being a
hyper aggressive and he's gonna be okay. So so far
he's only had eight at bats. He's played him four
games and had eight at bats. The reason behind that

(42:19):
was in the first game he was hitting the shoulder.
He finished running the bases and then he left, and
then to yesterday. I say today, I think it was
yesterday or Saturday, No, Saturday, Saturday. He was hit on
the wrist. I haven't heard anything bad. It could be
by the way, but I so I got hit on
the wrist and he left the game. So all of

(42:41):
that to acknowledge, he's hitting three seventy five. He's got
three hits and eight at bats with a double, two
stolen bases. But more importantly, he has not struck out
while he's here. He's walked three times and has not
struck out. Nobody's struck out. I'm gonna check right now.
He's got I'm gonna guess, top three in strikeouts last

(43:02):
year on the Arizona Fall League he was Oh, I
was wrong. Where was he? Okay? I mean he was
a little bit further down here, but he was in
the top ten twenty seven strikeouts in twenty games, and
he hit two forty four when he was out here.
Last year he has zero strikeouts this year. He is
making way better decisions, way better decisions. He's not swinging

(43:24):
through every low breaking pitch. He's doing a better job
with off speed stuff, and he's trying to hurt fastballs.
But instead of only looking fastballs, I think he is
let he's understanding the counts more so. Last year it
was making excuses. This year he's showing off a little
bit better, and I think that's key because he had

(43:45):
a piss poor year. Let me pull up. I want
to say he hit like two twenty again. He hit
two fourteen, eighteen homers, eight stolen bases this past year,
one hundred and sixty four strikeouts and four hundred and
eighty at pats. Again, it's not great pitching, but that

(44:06):
he's not just doing it on fastballs is important, and
I think this could be potentially a really good buy
Kulsa Montgomery, even if, by the way, the wrist is bad.
I have not heard anything about it. I'm going to
type it in right now to see if there's anything
I will I didn't go out on Monday, but I
will be out on Tuesday and I'll see if I

(44:27):
can start asking around. But I just know he got
hit on the wrist and it doesn't look like I
see anything right now, and hopefully he's going to be okay.
But even if he wasn't, I would still be like, oh,
this is going to be something that I want to buy.
I want to end up buying on Kulsa Montgomery. But yeah,
look out for it left wrist. He was hit on

(44:47):
No Bueno, No Bueno. Two more players. I've talked about
him a little bit. Let's talk about Tamar Johnson. So
I got this great home run of tomorrow if you
want to check it out on my timeline. And it
was the most golfish of swings that I have seen
someone do. I'm forgetting the picture now, but just loops
a breaking pitch in and Tomorrow was ready and he

(45:10):
absolutely crushes it pull side at Salt River. Justoo, just
absolute moonshot. Love to see it. It was his only
homer here so far. He is hitting over four hundred
what you love to see. As I mentioned, he is
the most walks, five walks to one strikeout, so in
that game with Jeff McNeil, he did walk one of

(45:30):
those chances. He has not taken any opportunity to try
to steal a base. He has a triple, a homer,
two other singles, so he's been on seven times to
first base and he is not attempted to steal. That's interesting.
Not trying to steal out here, but very determined to
improve as a hitter. I think he's someone I'm going
to try to target if he wants to talk with

(45:52):
people a little bit later in the Arizona Fall League
to kind of catch up and see the mindset. But
I really like him. I can't get over Tomorrow. He's
someone I can't quit. Sometimes when I can't quit, guys,
it's not good, as you guys know, like I've been
able to ever quit George Valeria. There's something about Tomorrow
that I want to say is really held in, like

(46:14):
the decision making and growing as far as like the
pitches that you want to be aggressive on that I
hope we're starting to see here again. There's a lot
of bad like secondary pitch guys, Like there's guys that
can throw some fastballs, but you know, you get some
bad off speed stuff and he's he's seeing that right now,
and that's why the walk numbers are up. But I'm

(46:34):
hoping some of it is caught in just pitch selection
because you know, again, like we misuse it sometimes with
the word bat speed and stuff like that, but like
Tomorrow is at the tippy top. I guess I'd have
to say, like two of the best bat speed guys
are Tomorrow and Jet Williams out here, and that's also
like kind of well known that's out there. I'm hoping

(46:57):
this isn't gonna be like Heston Kira, where you come
out here after a bad year and you know, you
hit three seventy, you get an MVP blah blah blah,
and then it falls apart. Like I feel like he
is massively determined and the decision making early on has
been really good, and he's showing off, you know, some
of that big skill set with that huge home run,
he's got that triple, he's starting to walk. I think

(47:20):
it's something we need to eye. I would also put
him on that by list, you know, so like this
is a tough one because there are players that are
gonna play really well that are gonna be worth selling.
Is a guy like Kemp Alderman playing really well here
like worth selling? Sure, but what are you gonna get
for it? You need the names. You need the names

(47:43):
to perform at a level if you're trying to sell,
Like Robert Hassel is hitting five hundred out here right now,
he keeps going and someone's like, holy crap, I think
Robert Hassell's back to being a top one hundred. Like, yeah, sell, sell,
sell that type of thing. But I would I would
fully acknowledge that. You know, it's tough because there are
guys out here. There's only a handful of guys that
it's like if they pop off here, then their name

(48:04):
value then people can buy back in that you might
want to, you know, jump on. If you were to
ask me at this moment, Colson or Tomorrow, I would
lean tomorrow. That would be the one I would buy
on that has the highest upside value. I don't know
if he's the number one in the league. I think
Emerson's value dropped a decent amount, and I think Emerson

(48:28):
is putting himself into like that's just a major leaguer, Like,
there are a couple guys. Remember when I said this
last year, I felt very convicted about Chase the Lotter,
who's back, who's barely played. You know, I was like,
Chase the Lotter, that is a major leaguer when he's up,
and he will play for many years. I also came
from it like I do think he's going to be
like a super impactful guy. I don't know if I've

(48:50):
come to the decision on some of these guys, but
I mean, i'll tell you like Cole Emerson, absolute major leaguer,
and I know people get focused like, well, so many
of these prospects fail and blah blah blah. Yeah, there'll
be plenty here. Cold Emerson major leaguer for many years.
I think Trey Morgan is going to be a major
leaguer for many for many years. I don't know, Yeah,

(49:10):
I feel confident about that. What level those two might
be in a very different range. Those guys, Drake, Baldwin, Moist's,
Ballisterio's those are major leaguers for many, many years. And
there's more. But when you start talking about levels of success,
that's where things kind of open up a little bit. Tomorrow,
to me, is probably like top three of guys that

(49:32):
I would try to buy on that are low. Emerson
might have been low enough, Tomorrow is there, and I
don't know who the other one is at this point,
I don't know if I could determine, So maybe it's
only like a list of two. Maybe zayr Hope. Zayer
Hope rocketed a four hundred and seventy foot homer with
crazy evs. You're not buying him low. But that's one

(49:53):
of those guys that i'd be like, oh, his value
might not be to where it's gonna go. I'd love
to say Drew Gilbert, but he hasn't played well since
he's been here and I haven't really seen him a ton,
so I wouldn't put out. And then there are these
guys that are like already so high, Xavier Isaac and
Bryce Eldridge. You know, those guys are already so high

(50:13):
right now. But those would be the three that I
would be a big buy on. So let's talk about
one more player and then I'll give you my last
little news and notes. Jack cagleone we got to talk about.
Jackie is a very popular guy out here, so much
so you'll see this. It'll tell you where the guys are.
When the officials, the AFL officials, they won't be in

(50:36):
a spot for the majority of the game. And then
every time Jack Caglion comes up, there's one of the
photographer people that comes up to a seat where they
can get a picture. No other player on that team,
not the Louder, not Alejandro Zuna, nobody. They come out
for Jack Cagleon to try to get the video. So
he's got so much attention out here, it's been Okay,

(50:58):
I'm a little torn. He is physically the most impressive.
Maybe I said that a Persinio Caglion, Parsino kind of
a similarist body Caglion is. You look at him and
you're like, holy crap. That looks like what you think
like a major leaguer, looks like like physicality. I talked
with somebody and I likened CAGs though to like a

(51:19):
Joey Gallo, and that person had said, well, you know,
the one thing that Joey Gallo has is a really
good plate presence to walk, and Caglion doesn't have that.
So what is on display out here is a guy
that is putting up a serviceable statline three thirty three.
He's got six hits and eighteen at bats. He has
struck out a few times, but nothing alarming yet or

(51:42):
anything like that. Not much else, but I still feel
like there's some really bad decision making. And I think
you'd be an interesting guy to talk to, because you know,
he has had an interesting from Florida to Bridge League,
to a ball to instructs to AFL. That's a lot.
But there are things that are kind of continuously out there.

(52:04):
To strike counts are a problem when he doesn't see fastballs.
Off speed pitches are absolutely a problem. He's not really
able to kind of cut off of that. He's not
barreling the ball really great. You know, like he's the
type of guy where if he barrels the ball, he's
gonna hit it five hundred feet. Sure, but that's not happening.
And I do think I said this a couple of

(52:27):
years ago about Blake Spencer Torkelsen, where I was like,
there's a book out on Torkolsen, a scouting report that
says pitch him low off speed stuff. And then sure enough,
the very first game of the AFL, Mackenzie Gore just
did nothing but throw him like low curveballs, and Torkosen
was just trying to fight him off and trying to

(52:47):
you know, swing through them and stuff like that. And
I get kind of the same vibe from Jack that
there's a book. He gets a lot more off speed
pitches than anybody else. Can he just and change? Yeah? Absolutely,
you know he's got massive power. He was like a
home run setting college hitter like that that just doesn't
just come out of nowhere. But I do think there

(53:10):
are some major questions about what that hit tool is
gonna look like and how he's gonna keep progressing because also,
like you know, you get a college guy like that
and you think, okay, how much more growth, like like
physical growth has probably done. He's like maxed out, but
like how long? And what is this growth as a
hitter going to look like? Because maybe in college all

(53:32):
those years there was there didn't need to be a
whole lot of growth. It was kind of the same stuff.
Now this is a little bit different. I guess what
I'm saying is is like I feel like there's some questions.
I don't feel like I'm as high on Jack as
I as I once was, after seeing him as much
as I've seen him. I've seen him, you know, in
Bridge and instructs, and I've seen some nasty, ugly swings
I've never really seen and at bat where I'm like,

(53:54):
that looks awesome. He's had a couple of hits out here,
he's a couple of good days and stuff like that,
and I think he could be a dec player. I'm
just not sure it is the high end player, Like
there might be an overratedness that's going on, but I'm
not sure. It's way too early to tell. I do
feel like I have seen more at bats from a
professional level than most because of Bridge and instructs and

(54:18):
now AFL and have caught him multiple times. We'll keep seeing,
we'll keep seeing what growth looks like. But right now,
I feel like, unless there is mistake fastball or he
is on a fastball count, it's going to be pretty
hard to get results. And that's like the exact opposite
of someone like Emerson. Like Emerson creates the opportunities where

(54:39):
Jack waits for the opportunities, and right now, professionally waiting
for the opportunities is not like really working here right now.
So we'll see, we'll see where it goes. But I
will also acknowledge I'm not sure outside of the like
like Leo Dvrees, who's being challenged as like there's like
ten years it's the last seventeen year old was out

(55:01):
here Jack besides him, there might not be another big
challenge to a player than him and what he has
been asked of him in his first professional season. And
I've seen plenty of guys go through, you know, like
I remember Bobby Wit. Bobby Witt was, you know, you
got their high school and you draft and you come
to rookie ball and you're just kind of okay, and
your first full season and there's so much like maybe

(55:22):
so much more is going to happen with a real
off season of training and really doing like analytic focal
like pitch work and stuff like that. It just hasn't
been there right now, and I don't feel like, I
guess the other thing I'm looking for is I don't
feel like there's other things to lean on, you know
what I'm saying, Like like with Gallo, like Gallo's been

(55:44):
a mess, but Gallo does walk and you're just like, Okay,
this guy has the craziest power on the planet. Big
physical dude, but even though he's a disaster and a mess,
You're like, Okay, well, you know he can pull up
three walks in a game or something like that, Like,
that's not Jack Jack. I don't see the ability for
him to be a high OBP guy. I think his
OBP will be driven by how much he's hitting. And

(56:07):
the problem is if that's like two thirty, I don't know,
you know, like that Schwarber is the exact opposite. Hey,
Schwarber OBP, he's like a top twenty pick or something
like that. I don't know. I got some questions on it.
Hopefully we're wrong, but I'm feel like I'm a little
bit more pessimistic about Jack after seeing him a whole bunch.
All right, last little notes about the Arizona Fall League.

(56:29):
There's a rumor, a rumor out there that Nick Kurtz
could be joining the AFL, and he might be. So
there's another high drafted guy and he might be replacing
I won't say the player, I know who it is,
but he would be replacing a player on that Meson
team about halfway through, so that would be a huge addition.

(56:52):
I heard this, this woman talking to someone and it
was so interesting. Some people go to AFL and they
just want to talk the whole time, and the problem
is there's like two hundred people there, so then all
everybody can hear is that person talking. And this person
was like, oh, yeah, you know, the AFL is crazy
because they like turn off. They turn out the rosters
every you know, halfway through and it's all new players.

(57:14):
And I want no way while I get involved in
anyone's conversation, but I want to be like, no, they don't, No,
they don't at all. Like in the first week or two.
Sometimes you'll see players. If a player gets hurt, they
replace him. There was an instance with brainer Bonacci last
year which he got kicked off the team. Years ago

(57:34):
Alex Vradugo got sent home. Like yeah, then in those
they don't turn out the rosters. What does happen is
you'll get guys that play a lot of the first
half and then they slow down in the second and
they give time to other players, a lah, the taxi squad.
You might have those taxi squad players that move off
of that and then they kind of play more in
the second half, but they don't turn out the rosters.

(57:54):
So the idea that Nick Kurtz could be coming to
the Airs in a fall league. That's very interesting like that.
That's kind of a new development of a team sending
out a player halfway through the fall like an important player,
that I think would be a pretty cool trend. I
would love to see them end up doing that. I
had heard rumors about the Angels maybe doing that, and

(58:17):
with a player or two, and maybe like one other team.
I have heard nothing of anybody else or any other
player really named outside of this that we could see
Nick Kurtz. Now, this might not happen. I will tell you,
and our AFL guys in my group me rooms can
attest to this that I broke the Matt McClain news

(58:40):
in that room like four or five days before it
was announced. So this is the same along the same
lines of what I've heard people the same stuff rumors
sources that he would be coming out here and that
will be a big one. So you know, that'll be
kind of around the first pitch. If that ends up happening,
they might change their mind. They might say, Nope, screw,
we don't want to do that. There was one time

(59:02):
I heard Max Munsey. Max Munsey was actually on the
roster for the A's and he was replaced by Henry Bolt.
So maybe Munsey, you know, could come back out. Who knows,
But I do think it's interesting that teams are kind
of looking at that and considering, and then you throw
on top of it, like Phillies, Andrew Painter and you know,
the Mets, let's bring out Jeff McNeil. I kind of
wonder what else could be out there. You know, could

(59:23):
at some point maybe a free agent to be come
out here and do that, or you know, could you
have other prospects for teams? Could teams make this more
of a regular thing. I don't know, but we'll have
to see if it actually happens. A few of the
players that we have not seen a ton of that
we might see more. These are speculative taxi squad players

(59:44):
because people I've had people ask me about two of
these players saying, where is Cole Young, where is Leo Davrees. Well,
by the looks of Week one, I believe Cole Young,
David McCabe, Leo Davrees, and Edwin Arroyo might be listed
as taxi squad players or behind the scenes, they used

(01:00:05):
to tell us exactly who taxi squad players are There
is a physical paper roster they put out like every day,
and I haven't really looked at those and maybe they
are listed, but I speculate that those guys are Taxi
squad and or maybe they're gonna be indicators of players
that are gonna leave. So like, on what is it Peoria?

(01:00:31):
You know Peoria has got Emerson and now I'm forgetting
they've got another like high maybe it is. Let me
take a look here, who is the teams here? Peoria?
Because they've got all these middle infielders. They've got Colt Emerson, Devrees,
Cole Young. Yeah, so maybe you're gonna have a couple
of these guys come off. Maybe Emerson comes off. Possibly,

(01:00:55):
but they really haven't been using and Wan Bias been playing.
Maybe they're gonna move to those guys a little bit
later in the league, or if they're taxi squad, they're
only going to play two games a week. Edwin Arroyo
I think is solely not playing because of how ridiculously
loaded this roster is, and that I'm pretty sure Cees

(01:01:18):
and Matt McLain are gonna come off this roster about
halfway through, and then that would leave you know, Colson
Edwin and like sa jay Z to kind of play
every single day. Maybe so jay Z comes off too
and it becomes Colson Montgomery, Edwin Arroyo. I mean, they
got Sean McLain, Auto Camp, they got all these dude,

(01:01:38):
Tyler mccallaghan. They have a million guys to play the infield.
I think the lack of Edwin Arroyo not playing might
actually be more about Cees and Matt McClain. But you know,
it doesn't matter for a lot of people, unless you
like play some fantasy league with the AFL or something
like that. But I look at some of these teams
and I see some potential changes that are coming down
the pike on the rosters, but it's probably not going

(01:02:00):
to be for a couple weeks. The halfway markers usually
when some of these guys start to change out. A
couple other fun, little fun notes. There have been some
really interesting names that I've been out here in the
fall leagues showing up. Will Clark was there the other
day over at the Giants Stadium, and it looked like
he was working with Bryce Eldridge, like just talking him up.

(01:02:22):
I don't know, there's this thing that happens. Ellen Trammel
is famously comes out for like a week and hangs
with whoever the Detroit team is, which I believe the
Tigers are. They are now with Scottsdale, so he would
probably tail them with the Tigers players. Will Clark was
out here and then in the stands today in Peoria.

(01:02:45):
I wasn't there, but I had people report back to me.
Jim Tomy. Jim Tomy just hanging out in the stands
kind of one. Yeah, he was working as a special
advisor with the White Sox for a long time. Maybe
it's openings with the Marin I'm just throwing that out there.
But he was out there watching Puria play today, just
sitting in the stands. And that's the type of stuff

(01:03:08):
that happens. So you know, Trammel will be here soon.
We've had Oh, Corbyn Carroll was out at the first
opening night, sitting in the stands watching at Salt River.
Dude loves baseball. Nobody loves baseball more than Corvin Carroll.
He goes out and he supports dudes. He goes out
to you know, like was like little league stuff. He
goes out to AFL games, He goes to college games.

(01:03:29):
I believe he lives near Salt River, Like it's just
what he does. Dude loves baseball. So Corbyn, Carroll will Clark,
Jim Tome all in week one. Andrew Panter added, Jeff
McNeil playing. How the hell is week two going to
live up to all those expectations. I don't know, but
we'll find out and I will continue to give you
guys some breakdowns the next episode. Like I said, I'll

(01:03:52):
probably get Tim back and we will do you know,
a two week focus. I'll give you some maybe more players.
We'll talk about, you know, bigger stuff. There's some other
players you know that have not loved what I've seen
that at Ethan Solace so far. You know, there's some
concerns and some things that aren't fantastic, but we'll talk
about all of those. You guys can also hit me

(01:04:12):
up on Twitter is at the Welsh Instagram Instagram. I'm
putting out some videos. I'll do goofy photos. I'm putting
lots of videos out on Twitter as they come, and
just make sure you keep following. Oh another thing, I
have it all set. I just I got to tell
you it was just it was chaos the first week,
as it usually is for me. But I have this
live journal. I'm updating the journal tonight to be caught up,

(01:04:35):
and then I'm posting it on Patreon and that is
just my notes of players, some of the stuff we've
talked about. And now that i've I've got every team
and every player done, so now I can just go
in and go to the player so I can actually
use it. So I'm gonna start using it this week,
so if you guys care about that, I'll have my
AFL journal available this week and hopefully i'll have the

(01:04:57):
update this week too. I spent a majority of T
day on it. I'm gonna spend through tonight and maybe
in the next day or two i'll have it post it.
I like to get it posted at the middle of
the month, so be on the lookout for that in
this league dot com and just you're just supporting me,
so I really appreciate when you do it. And that's
all that I got for you. Man. It's great times.
Hope to see you guys out there. You can always
feel free to hit me up. Some of you guys

(01:05:18):
hit me up on Instagram. Sometimes I'll tell you I'm
worse about that, but so don't take it personal. If
I don't, I'm not on there a lot, So if
you guys send those messages, I might not see it,
but you can tweet at me if you've got stuff,
And hopefully I will see you guys out here, but
I will for sure talk to you next week right
here on Prospect one. I'm Chris Welsh. You guys have
a fantastic week. Talk you next time. I like it