Episode 395 - Early Risers and Live Looks

New Prospect One Podcast ⚾


➡️ Nick Kurtz insane start to AAA

➡️ Lazaro Montes answer the contact ?'s

➡️ Ryan Waldschmidt may not be in A+ for long

➡️ Live Looks at dbacks extended spring prospects

and more



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Find Welsh on Twitter @IsItTheWelsh and on Instagram @IsItTheWelsh

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
In This League podcast that work present Prospect one Books,
Fantasy Prospect Podcast Prospect one with your host Chris Wels.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the Fantasy Baseball prospect podcast. This is Prospect one.
I'm your host, Chris Welsh, who you can find on Twitter,
on the socials as well on Instagram both at is
it the Welsh if you want to follow, putting videos
out there, actually starting to put a few more videos
on the Instagram of some of the live looks, the
big highlighted ones I put on the Twitter, but just

(00:36):
follow me on both of those if you would, And
you can follow me over at in this League dot Com.
That is the Patreon where a you can support the
work that I do if that's your bag. If not,
I can also tell you that that's where my prospect
list is Top five hundred, Dynasty Prospects, Dynasty Top four hundred.
You know the drill. If you've been listening to this show,
we got the group me rooms, we got prospect ADPs,

(00:57):
I got a weekly sheet with redraft prospects and tons more.
I appreciate your support over at in this League dot Com.
Sign up today and you can also catch some live
streams we've got going on but I post that out
on Patreon and on our twitch. Moving the Thursday one
to Friday, looking later week to talk prospects. But welcome
in friends to the first real in season breakdown where

(01:20):
we have got not just like Triple A stuff. We've
got everybody going. We've got all the levels happening. I've
also got some live looks I was able to get out.
I was actually gonna go out to a game today,
but I'm recording here for you, but I might get
to one or two. I've got some live looks from
extended spring training. One Arizona diamondback prospect, not out of

(01:40):
being a homer, but a prospect I am very excited about.
And I got to see a live look at him
and talk to him for just a tiny bit before
the game. So we got a little bit of live looks.
We are going to be going through some of the
big prospect highlights from Triple A. A couple guys that
are really popping off, and we're going to do a
watch list. I've got what do I have for you here?

(02:02):
I've got seven players. I was going to kind of
keep it to an even six, but I want to
throw out this other guy of some players that are
moving up lists that we need to be paying attention to.
A couple looking here, I think we got a couple
guys from the most recent draft, and we've they're kind
of varying all different levels, but I think seven players
that deserve a very early season highlight that should in

(02:24):
some degree be moving up the charts. But obviously it's
all very small sample sizes that we're looking at with
you know, some of these players only having a handful
of games. Obviously Triple A guys have gotten we're in
like the two about the two week marker right now,
but first season, no crazy overreaction look, but you know,
specifically on the watch list guys, those are players that

(02:45):
it's like, oh, this early season thing, let's put a
pin in this because not only could this be like
a little bit of a bump up, these guys could
be on the makings for a big bump up. So
that's what we got some live look, some big Triple
A prospects highlights, and then the watch list last year
again we called it like the P ten. It's not
ten right now, definitely not going to go to that

(03:06):
level this early on, but you know, these seven players
caught my attention to move into ranks or to at
least be highlighted that I'm going to start making some
move Also, there's some news and notes. We had a
weird prospect trade. We've got a couple of big prospects
on the IL. It's crazy time, baby, it's crazy time
in the minor leagues. Extended spring training going on out

(03:27):
here in Arizona that kicked off on Monday. You don't
know who the hell is there. It's it's wild. You
don't know who the hell's going to be there. You're hoping,
you know, if there's a prospect that's not performing at like,
let's say the Low A area, it's very likely that
they could be at extended spring training right now. Also
knowing that the rookie season ball starts just a little

(03:48):
less than a month. I believe May third is the
debut of rookie ball, which is going to be fantastic.
It's going to be out here in Arizona and Florida,
and you know, I'm going to be there a lot.
They've got evening games and it works out perfect. So
I'm gonna be reporting back with tons and tons of
different videos. And that's also why you know, I'm telling

(04:10):
you about all the stuff. You know, the Patreon is
the best thing you can do to support I really
appreciate that. Follow me on Twitter. I've got these live
streams I'm doing twice a week on my twitch Twitch
dot tv slash in this League where I might actually
bring up some of the videos and we might start
looking at some of them, especially on the later week one.
But then I'm gonna do a better job of getting
some of these prospect videos over on the YouTube. So

(04:30):
Twitch dot tv slash in this League. Follow YouTube dot
com slash in this League. Follow. I apologize for all
these instructions. I'm asking you to do so much, but
I appreciate that you do so. This episode brought to
you by my friend Dennis Sidler over at sids Grafs.
We had the Burger King signing Jake Berger Michael King.
But he doesn't do just major leaguers, no big time

(04:52):
minor leaguers, minor leaguers that have turned into major leaguers, obviously, Jackson, Schurio,
Jackson Merrill, Corbin Carroll, and he's got a shlew of
great minor leaguers right now. Maybe you've heard of Bubba Chandler.
We're gonna talk about Bubba Chandler in a little bit. Yes,
Bubba Chandler an exclusive client of Dennis Sidler and tons more.
Go to sidsgraphs dot com. You can find sidzgrafs on
social or on the eBay. You can check out the

(05:14):
great store with all the killer stuff that he's got
going over there. You guys know, I love me memorabilia
and autograph stuff. Did some cool raffle things with tons
of prospects and in person autograph cards on my streams,
So I love that stuff. Even if you don't like it.
There's some killer unique stuff that you can go and find.
All right, let's talk about a couple of the prospect

(05:36):
news and notes, because the goofy thing that you've got
at this time of year is sometimes you don't know,
Like there have been some guys that have been, like,
you know, put on the IL that hasn't really been
promoted or you don't know yet. Sometimes you've got to
like dig, you gotta do like big digging to find
these out, and sometimes they're in your face. Two big
prospects put on the IL right now. Number one Kevin

(05:58):
McGonagall with the Detroit Tigers, and they've been a little
like weird about it. I feel like because they were like, yeah,
you know, he's he's got a thing and he's gonna
be out for a little bit. I feel like there's
been like a tiny bit of mystery with some of it.
I'm looking to see if there was anything else that
is telling that. I guess it was a rolled ankle,

(06:21):
so out of unspecified, so they didn't say what the
stint was, but it was a rolled ankle that has
him missing a little bit of time. So yeah, they're
calling it a right ankle sprain. I guess I'm looking here.
It was yesterday. This must have come out yesterday that
they officially put him on the EYA with a right
ankle sprain. So I guess the mystery is solved, so
not as horrifically damaging as it might have felt with

(06:43):
some of the mystery. But also, you know, rolled ankles
can take some time, and Kevin McGonagall is a fascinating
guy that like, well you can kind of bring his
body in that lower trajectory makes tons of contact. Like
there's so much upset with Kevin McGonagall, especially because that
bat is so live and I don't know where everybody

(07:06):
has him. I want to say he's probably a no
doubt top fifty prospect for everybody. Maybe he's in the
twenties for some. I've got him right in the thirties.
But as I'm staring at this, he's twenty years old,
Like I see a potential jump where he could go
up ten more spots and he could be into the
mid twenties easy. And we also are in graduation time,

(07:27):
so he's going to float closer to there. But that's
where I have him now. He's going to miss a
little bit of time. Nothing crazy. Walker Jenkins, that was
another of the big prospects, was just put on the
They put him on the seven day IL. That doesn't,
like you know, necessarily mean anything. This is also an
ankle injury. By the way, seven day IL with an
ankle injury. He has already struggled with multiple with multiple

(07:52):
injuries in his career, but this one is also just
an ankle spring so well, hopefully not too crazy severe,
but ridiculous too ankle injuries taking back some of the
big top prospects. And by the way, there are other
guys I know, like Ivan Melndez is on the IL.
There are some guys like I said that it's not
maybe carried over from spring maybe didn't get put on IL.

(08:15):
Sometimes what they do as well, and this is where
the mystery is is like they'll throw a guy on
extended spring training and they might not give any type
of an update. There might not be anything, but they're
over in spring training. Like I'll tell you one because
I don't believe he and maybe he's on the IL.
Now let me look at this one. But when I
was over at the Diamondbacks the other day, which we'll

(08:35):
talk about in a minute, Kevin sim was there and
I don't believe. I mean, again, I guess I could
be wrong about this, but I don't think he. I mean,
they do have him listed at the affiliate, so I
mean he was at High A last year. But see,
to me, that's the mystery thing. They call him active.
He was at High A last year. I think he's
working through some stuff. He was mysteriously. To me, it

(08:58):
was mysterious he was there. Also, like Christian pashe was
playing in the game. So it was like you had
a couple important rookies Jackie Joseph who's also moved up
a little bit Kevin sim was there was a really
weird game. But you know there's also like maybe they
don't have room for him right now or they're slow
going it. But that's kind of what I'm talking about there,
So I'm not trying to miss anybody else. But those

(09:21):
were the big public ones with other guys hiding around
it like extended the crazy thing that happened. And I
think this was a little bit crazy. Yofrie Rodriguez with
Well formerly with the Milwaukee Brewers, was in a trade,
maybe not super crazy, but they he was traded to
the Boston Red Sox and the Brewers sent Quinn Priester.

(09:44):
So on the surface, this is the dynasty guy coming
out of me. I'm like, what like Quinn Priester, Like
we're kind aren't we kind of done with Quinn Priester.
Jofie Rodriguez has got a ton of upside. He would
be one of those like fantasy dynasts prospects where you're like, oh,
I'm not really looking to move him unless it's something crazy.
He only hit last year seven homers, seven stolen bases

(10:07):
in one hundred and ten games of the two fifty average.
But I think there's a really good approach in there
when the strikeouts come down. I just thought there was
a lot more upside. I've also been around him. I
like him. He's a big, like happy, personable guy. Not
that that means anything, but you know, so even Quinn
Priester for Yo Free kind of jumped out to me.
Then the trade was the Brewers also traded a competitive

(10:27):
balance pick an a competitive balance pick that's a first
round pick, and then I think there's like a player
to be named later. You kind of like lose track
of yourself in Dynasty versus real baseball, where it's like, well,
Quinn Priester, they were able to put him into the
rotation already, and you know he helps in serviceable right now.
And I guess that's what you have to give up.
But I thought it was it was a great get

(10:49):
by by Boston to be able to get Yofri Rodriguez.
I think he's just that system. They know how to scout,
they know how to bring him in. Yeofre has already
played both levels. Across his five games, he is hitting
three sixty eight. Looks like the strikeouts are you know,
they're kind of like where you think he's walking a

(11:10):
little bit. He's got four of his seven hits are
already extra base, and he's already hit a double and
triple in hi A with the Red Sox. So I
guess all I'm saying to this is like, it's a
great git. It's a great git by the Red Sox.
I'm not sure why it costs you free and a
competitive like a first round competitive balance pick to do that.
It It's beyond me. But that was a surprising early

(11:32):
on minor league trade, and you know we are going
to have tons more from the DFA market to as
soon as the team decides they need to go all
in on like San die al Contra. You know, like
last year the Marlins, they moved Luis a raise early
simply because you know, they thought they had their best
market offer that was out there. I wouldn't be surprised

(11:53):
if teams, you know, start calling and starting to get aggressive,
and plenty of other players as well. I'm just using
him as an example. You know, there are going to
be teams that are going to get like hyper aggressive
early on, and you're going to see some big prospects
be moved. But we're in the very onset of not
a lot of promotion stuff outside of TRIAA to the majors.

(12:14):
I don't know. I would imagine it's May before we
start seeing, before we start seeing teams like, oh, this
guy doesn't belong here, let's move him here. The only
guy that is truly proving that he does not belong
where he is is Nick Kurtz, and we'll talk about
him in a minute. So Yo Free traded to Boston.
That's a great trade. Couple big injuries in that first
week of big prospects, at least not big injuries, but

(12:35):
big prospects going down missing a little bit of time,
and then you never know, they'll probably get some at
bats and extended they won't show up in the stat
sheet because these injuries have to go down in May.
So like if McGonagall had hurt himself next month, then
I think they would have like had him play a
couple of rookie ball games and you would actually be
able to see what he did. Extended. They don't track

(12:56):
any stats, any information. They like roll innings. That takes
us right into some live look. So opening day quote
opening day for extended spring training. Extended spring training is
it's wild, It's not you have to like you got
to put in the work or have that one great
contact to get the schedule. They don't publicize any of it.

(13:19):
I mean with the Diamondbacks, like it's got to like
go and open the door, like if you're you can't
be shy because you would look. You're like, oh, it's
the place closed, Like nope, just gotta go in. You
gotta get in there, open the door, get back. I
will say it felt like a rookie ball game because
it was like there were tons of players and players
were coming out from the locker rooms to watch. It

(13:40):
was a full house. There were scouts. There were a
couple of scouts. There's a royal scout and a couple
others that were I had a friend there and he
was like, Oh, are they scouting this guy? And I'm
like no. It's usually like area like they they've got
to get to every team and they'll have a checklist
of all the players they have to see. It's not
necessarily that they're all there to see like a certain player,

(14:02):
you know, but you did have Christian Pashe. You had
a man the a's pitcher that was there forgetting his name.
And it would take me forever to get over there.
But he was like Contes or something in Michael Contes.
He's a he was rehabbing. He's actually on fangraphs if
you look under like the first set of pictures. I
think on the major leaguers he was rehabbing. He's a lefty.

(14:24):
He was out there, so yeah, I mean they could
have been looking at guys like him or Pasche from
a higher level, but I think it was just kind
of peeking around, peeking around, checking boxes because there were
quite a few prospects in this game.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
The A.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
The A's only kind of had Shatro Moury, who I
did get to see. You know, I'll just get that
out of the way real quick. Shatora Mori is interesting
because he is the one. He's the two way player
that's like, you know, I want to be Well, what
did he say? It was like, you know, I want
to be Jacob de Gram on the mound and Otani
at the plate. Some some regards to that. He wasn't

(15:01):
in the game that we saw. They had him dhing.
He hit ninth on the team. He kind of has
an Otani esque return on his swing. He was pretty
patient early on. He watched a couple of balls, but
then he watched a couple of strikes and then finally
on the two and by the way, those strikes were
strike strikes, so he was really watching you know, this pitcher,

(15:23):
watching the count and then two strike pitching. He was
completely off on it. Bad swing. I got video of it.
That's on my Instagram if you want to see him.
But you know, relatively like kind of live bodied guy,
looks like a good athlete. I can see the approach.
There was just nothing there. I'm unaware of how much

(15:45):
extended spring training or minor league spring training he did
in and played in games, so I know there were some.
There's you know, people out there and stuff, so I
know he's done some. So I don't want. What I'm
getting at is I don't want to chalk it up
to like nerves, you know, like, oh, this is his
first game and stuff. This is not even a trackable game.
This is no different than extended spring or minor league
spring training. I think the nerves would come in more

(16:07):
for rookie ball, which I fully expect him to be
here for rookie ball. But did get to see Maury like, I,
you know, let me see real quick, what I want
to see what he's listed at because I thought it
was like he looked like a very average sized prospect,
you know, so, yeah, there you go, six foot one ninety.

(16:27):
Could you get more average right there? I didn't think
he'd looked overly small. I can see where the body
can grow in, you know, maybe there's a little bit
more growth in in. You know, in this game, he
could maybe get six one two ten. But like you know,
it's like a live bodied guy. I really like his approach.
I think it's a very passive looking approach. But it's

(16:48):
going to be interesting. Is this going to be way
more of a contact based guy or is there going
to be some flash and some power in there? So
that's what we're going to be looking for from Shatara.
I was in Chator Shataro Moury Show s h O
t A r O m O r II Shataro mory
shortstop pitching prospect. I expect he is mostly going to
pitch or I'm sorry, hit a lot of these guys,

(17:13):
oh Lynn, I'm forgetting his first name, shing un Lin
with the Reds two way guy as well. He only
hit in rookie ball and then he's now transitioned to pitching.
Almost every single guy has been like this, so it
is a very common practice for these two young two
way players to start on the hitting side and then

(17:33):
move to the pitching side. But let's go over to
the Diamondbacks. This was the very exciting one. Also, Blaize
Alexander was supposed to be rehabbing there, so I was
kind of hoping to get to see him as well
and see if Katel was floating around anywhere. But I
was pleasantly surprised that really strong extended to bring training
Diamondback team. You had Titus Cecil, who was playing second base.

(17:56):
Shout out to Titus two because his birthday was the
day before, just turnedeen years old.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
JD.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Dix, who we're going to talk about, was your shortstop,
Ivan Luciano was a catcher. All three of those guys
were in the recent draft class. Then you had Kevin
sim you had Christian Pashe JK. Joseph very very strong.
I mean that would be like, that's a killer rookie
ball team. I did ask both Dix and Cecil Cecil,
I'm saying Cecil, but now I'm thinking at Cecil. I

(18:24):
asked both of them if they were going to be
playing at rookie ball, they were uncertain. So I feel
pretty certain they're going to be playing at rookie ball,
though lots of these guys do not know if there
are like you know, send ups, if the A of
the Low A team they decided to make moves like
these guys are. I could see JD. Dix being a
player that pre pre rookie ball could maybe get pushed up.

(18:50):
But I also think Cecil is really interesting. But so
let's talk about these guys in general. You're not going
to see any stats on them unless they are moved
up to Low A for a little bit because they
are in extended to spring training. Cissel ended up leading off.
Liked him at second base, very interested in the bat.
His swing is what really got me. There's a great

(19:10):
video I put out on Twitter and on the Instagram
where you can see and it's just one of those
easy turn barrel's the ball puts it out in left,
No home or anything like that single, but just seems
like a really strong barrel, strong contact guy. I had
kind of Cooper Pratt vibes. Maybe it's in my brain
a little bit, and Cooper Pratt might be my poster

(19:33):
child for a little bit of that right now, where
it's just like these guys that have these really easy swings.
You can see that there's a little bit of uppercut
take to it that, Like I got Cooper Pratt vibes
out of him. Not as big though JD. Dix is
my guy though. This is the guy if you want
to take the Brewer comps, put Cooper Pratt and Eric

(19:53):
Batanti in together. He's not quite as big as Batanti,
but JD. Dix looks like a player who is playing
short stop who is probably going to probably gonna play
out of it. That kind of be my take on it,
I suppose, I mean, any of these big guys can
stay there. He's listed at six foot two point eight.
I think he might already be pushing that a little

(20:15):
bit six three, So I mean he's definitely not like
he's not physically too tall or anything like that. I mean, hell,
helly's there. But he's got the body type where I
definitely see that is going to fill out. I mean,
if I think a lot of people would agree with
me that if you look, I could see him in
two years being a six foot three, two ten type

(20:36):
of guy. So I get some third base vibes that
may get there. What does that matter. It doesn't really
matter where, especially for fantasy, where he is and he
ends up playing. It's just you know, is he going
to have that extra like fun of the infield? And
I think he will looks like a really solid infielder
and a great bat. That's the thing that any of
us care about here. So in his first two at bats,

(20:58):
switch hitter trip in both at bat from the right
side of the plate. That looks like that might be
the power generator. He takes one, and we're talking big
bat speed. This this is a very exciting prospect, big
big bat speed. Barrels up the ball, it's an opposite field,

(21:20):
right in the corner, you know, probably a double. For
the most part, dude's got wheels. He flies around the bases,
pulls in a triple, a little bit of extra time
with it. Next at bat, he's now batting as a
as a left handed hitter. He hits one right at
first base, but it's just out of the glove range,

(21:41):
so it's just over the base, gets into the corner
and he flies even faster this time, flies around, doesn't
even have a competitive throw. It's two straight triples, and
you know, like the fifty I see like MLB or
Pipeline's got like a fifty grade hit tool, forty five power.
I think there is way more power in the way

(22:01):
that he barrows up the ball. I think the hit
tool is higher. We've talked about him some here and there,
you know, throughout the last year as far as the
draft class goes, and how much we like him. If
it's you know, out of this draft class, it's just
too good right now for me to determine this. We're
going to talk about Walt Schmidt. Waldschmidt's going insane. Slave
Caldwell is a great athlete. I'm gonna just tell you

(22:23):
right now, I would not be shocked if we come
back and JD. Dicks is the best prospect from the
draft class. So I am moving him up after the
live looks that I didn't get to see earlier on.
I very very much liked what I saw out of JD. Dicks,
and I think he's a guy that you guys should
pay attention to. I think he's pushing that top one
hundred ish range. We got to see more out of him.

(22:43):
I got to get some more looks out of him,
but based on some of the adbats, the physicality, the
way he runs, he's just got the makings of like
everything that you guys are going to love out of,
like a top one hundred prospects. So I'm I walked
away from that specifically all about JD. Dix and Luciano.
I saw too, by the way, very scary moment he
got beamed in the head, just bam right in the

(23:06):
helmet by again whatever that A's picture was a lefty
kind of walks over right to where I am with
the camera, and I just didn't feel right, like it
felt weird like to keep recording, so I stopped it.
But as I had stopped it, he had just kneeled down.
Trainers came over. But then he smiles and he goes,
I'm okay, and he goes, yes, I remember my name,
And it was a very funny moment. I put that

(23:28):
on Instagram. I think he put that back out there.
His parents were there too. That was actually what I
was most scared for. You could tell his parents were
there because his mom had Luciano mom and a Diamondbacks
jersey and she was filming and he got hit and
I was like, oh God, like the you know what
you must feel as a parent to see your kid
get hit in the head by some ninety something mile
an hour fastball. But dude took it, stayed in the game.

(23:51):
I think he ended up scoring a run. I don't
know offensively where we're gonna go with there. He's a
little bit, you know, shorter. It's kind of like a
prototypical type of outfielder. But I'm excited to see him
a little bit more. But JD. Dix was the big,
big win out of that live look, so we're look
for more. Maury Tita Cecil should be you know, he's

(24:11):
like a top five hundred guy, like deeper play. I
like the potential upside there.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
But JD.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Dix is like the fantasy big fantasy impact player for sure.
All right, let's take a quick break. When we come back,
we will look at a few prospect highlights triple A
and then who are the players that I've got on
my watch list. I've only tipped my hat at one.
Ryan Waldschmidt. He is on there, but we've got some others.
So don't go anywhere. Some prospect updates here right after this, Shay,

(24:41):
I like you I like you so much, I'm going
to make you my partner. All he has to do
is find the gold and I'll share it with you.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Fifty to fifty prospect.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
What no one is hotter right now than mister Nick Kurtz,
Wake Force own Nick Kurtz in triple A. The most
aggressive of I guess the minor league assignments because we
had like Ryan Johnson skip the minor leagues. But the
most aggressive assignment put out there, Nick Kurtz, who last
year went to the AFL. That definitely kind of told

(25:15):
us something comes out. And he has been absolutely ridiculous
to start six homers in forty four at bats, hitting
three eighty six with a four to twenty six OVP,
A thirteen hundred plus ops. Right now he has seventeen hits.
Eleven of those seventeen are extra base hits. Absurd, absolute ridiculous.

(25:42):
There's a little bit of strikeout stuff, nothing crazy. He's
not walking a ton because all he does is destroy baseball.
We have a nine hundred slug. You don't really worry
about the you don't worry about the walk percentage or
anything like that. He's gone crazy. Some great stats out there.
I've seen this from a couple different people. I know
puts him out, but they have a sixty six percent

(26:02):
hard hit rate right now. His average EV is around
ninety eight miles per hour, but even more impressive a
one oh six EV fifty, So the top fifty percentile
of his ex of velocities are at one oh six.
Ridiculous contact rates in the zone, absolutely amazing barrel percentage

(26:23):
almost thirty percent right now. The guy can do no wrong,
you know, and obviously he'll do some wrong. He's going
to strike out and some stuff are not going to work,
but there's definitely an element of like what more can
he do? And that's really the only question that's going
to be answered at this point because there's not a
big strikeout issue. He's hitting the ball like crazy, he's

(26:45):
getting on base. It's just going to be like can
he sustain? And maybe like one B would be how
does he overcome adversity, you know, whenever he is faced
with I mean, I'm even trying to look here. I mean,
he has a hit in every single minor league game.
I was about to say, you know, when you have
like an O or whatever. He hasn't had an O
for game yet. So he will how does he work

(27:08):
through a big, big oh for game, or he's had
a three strikeout game, but he also had two hits
in those games. Like if you have a little bit
of a bad streak, how does he bounce back? But
really it's just he's blocked outside of the block stuff.
Just focusing on the value. I don't know where everybody
else has Nick Kurts, And you know, you want to

(27:29):
be careful about overreacting obviously, like too soon about stuff.
But for him to get to that level of challenge,
it's a hitter friendly environment, but also this time of
the year, you know, cold and stuff in some spots,
it's worth looking at him and saying, like Nick Kurtz
has got to be a top twelve prospect, and that's
where I've moved him. I have made that move, and

(27:50):
I do think it's probably my most dramatic of any
of the moves I've had off of the first like
two weeks of seeing some of this season. But what
I think you're just seeing from Nick Kurtz is a
major league ready bat who's just blocked at the major
league level. I'm not sure we're gonna have to see,
Like I said, that the adversity of like what you know,

(28:10):
is this a two make mirage and when things kind
of pop back down. But when you start comparing him
against some of the other guys, a guy like Bryce Eldridge,
who you know is injured, younger and everything like that,
versus Emmanuel Rodriguez, even Samuel Bissaio. I mean, we're gonna
see Kurtz before that. He has more power, he's less

(28:30):
injury prone than Emmanuel Rodriguez. Man Rodriguez is tooled up,
but we've had, you know, some injury stuff. Bisayo is
a catcher, though you know, he has looked good on
the early onset, but his batting average is kind of
tapered back down. He's also actually on the seven day Aisle.
I didn't even realize that versus Jack Cagleon, who's another
one that's on this list, or even Christian More. I

(28:51):
think Kurtz is just out the top. So I've made
a pretty dramatic move to push him up, and I
would expect we could see him at literally literally anytime.
Speaking of let's just do Jackson's We're here. Caglione doing
a great job in double A right now, hitting three
thirty three. He's got an over four hundred OBP. That's huge.
Run a six to sixty slug in one thousand ops

(29:14):
just over one thousand right now. More importantly than anything else,
he's not striking out a bunch, and that is something
that really seems to be carrying over, Like he really
started to click in the AFL had an amazing spring.
He's got two homers right now. Three of his seven
hits are extra base, struck out only five times in
twenty one at bats. He's also walked four times. Very early.

(29:36):
He's going to get challenged in double A. It's a
nice aggressive assignment. But from where that swing looked like
right after he was drafted to where he's at right now,
holy cow. Just any of the questions, I think they've
been answered as far as like where we can move
him forward, As far as the value goes, I think
it's the top twenty five prospect. I got him top twenty.
I don't know where everybody else does. But Caglione very

(29:59):
very good early, and I think there's an outside chance,
a if there's an injury, but be I think there's
just an outside chance he could get to the majors
this year. Not saying it's going to happen. I think
there's some stuff in his game that are just a
little bit more raw. I think they want positionally him
to keep playing more. They want some of that swing
and miss to get out of the game where Kurtz
is like, you know, practically ninety percent contact in the

(30:20):
zone and blah blah blah. Keec leone has some time
to go. But if halfway through the year there was
an injury to Pasquentino or they just say, you know what,
we want this bat we're competing, let's have him DH
and he can play some occasional first bam. I think
he is up and I would not be shocked at
it at all whatsoever. Also, in a prospect highlight at
Triple A, Bobba Chandler got right. Bubba Chandler's first game

(30:44):
this season was kind of messy, as many people know.
The results weren't crazy, but he was just kind of
all around the zone and he was walking some batters
fifty two pitches. Second game, he's been pushed up to
sixty pitches, which is a plus six and two thirds
twelve strikeouts he's got so far in the season. I

(31:05):
believe the last outing was four innings, eight strikeouts, two walks.
He was in the zone in a better spot. But
Bubba Chandler is clearly doing what I thought they were
going to be. They were doing I think, I said
on the show last week, fifty two to sixty. I
think the next one it pushes seventy. It's somewhere between

(31:27):
sixty five and seventy. I think they'll want one more
to push up to seventy five and then the clock starts.
Maybe he's up, or maybe they wait a little bit longer.
But they did send down Thomas Harrington today, so Harrington
is back down. I think that could open up that
window for Bubba Chandler. But based on that, you know,
what are the dates. It's like maybe at the back

(31:48):
end of April or the early part of May, I
think is where he's gonna come up. I think he's
not throwing enough strikes right now for them to feel comfortable.
He's really heavy, you know, fastball slider, and none of
them were in the zone in the first start. I
think they're going to want to see a couple outings
where he can push up the innings and he can
throw strikes. Otherwise he's going to get eight up, so
I'm not sure he's up too soon. Bubba Chandler is

(32:09):
right at the tippy top, and you know, the top
of the pitching market. It's really fascinating. So Zaki's okay.
You know, job is okay. Dolander I thought looked pretty
good in his first start. There's a lot of potential.
Schultz is down at double A, and then he got
Andrew Painter who's just officially going to make his first
start or just did in A and they're going to
work him back up. I don't know. I think there's

(32:31):
a lot of opening for a lot of these guys.
Bubba Chandler still has the potential to be like the
top guy, the best of the best out of this group,
and he was really good. This should have maybe gone
in the live look area, but I just want to
throw this out as another really interesting one was a
friend of mine. I put this out on Twitter, m
I LB inside or on Instagram if you want to

(32:52):
give him a follow. A friend that I know. He
comes out here during spring training and AFL and he's
traveling around and he's like, hey, he puts on his Instagram,
but he's like, I got some video I'll send to
you and if you want to put him out. So
I put out a couple videos last night that I
was not in. So if anyone's like, hey, were you
in Da Da dut? No in Arizona? But JJ Weatherhold

(33:12):
and Chase Davis. A great look at Chase Davis's homer yesterday,
and I love the I don't know if you call
it aggressive, just he's in double A. He should be
in double A and he's succeeding. But more importantly than not,
was jjit Weatherhold? He hadn't had a hit yet. He had.
I think it was a three hit game. He got
his first two hits. There's a single, and then the
one I put out was a double. He hit opposite field. Really,

(33:34):
I cannot reiterate enough to you about how much I
like this draft class. I mean you're talking Nick Kurtz,
weather Hold, cagleone more, Cam Smith, Chase Burns. I can't
do it enough. And just watching weather Hold is a
small like tinier ish, not tiny, but like smaller ish guy.
But he's built thicker, He's got that I've mentioned that

(33:56):
Corbing Carrol type of swing that I really like. There's power,
speed combos in there just it was a flick of
the wrist, nothing double the opposite field, finally getting that
hitting going. I'm just a big fan. I'm big a
fan of his. And the more I look at it,
it's like the top fifty is just littered with those

(34:16):
first year player guys. And I can tell you countless
years where you know, the guys get drafted, we put
them on lists. More time goes on, we kind of
keep adjusting and put them and then after the season
gets going, you look and you're like, all right, this
guy's got to go out. This guy and it's maybe
like you got like two to four right now, even
as the season's gone on, I mean, what do I have.
I won't even count Rainer, who's just outside my top fifty.

(34:38):
I've got one. I'm just doing the math on my
hand here, two, three, four, five, and I'm not even
up to the top. What a great podcast, six seven,
eight nine. I got ten. I got ten of these
dudes that were just drafted.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
No.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
Eleven. I wasn't even counting freaking Bizana, and if you
count s Azaka, that would be twelve in the top fifty.
It's just super strong and I think a lot of
the guys are performing. That's more important than just numerically
keep throwing these guys out. It is just like they're
super impressive. And right now, I guess that class to
me would be Suzaki, Bizanna, Kurtz, and Weatherhole. But those

(35:15):
are all top twenty prospects, so very encouraging. And my
friend had a lot of positive things to say about Weatherhold.
So we'll hopefully get some more looks. All right, watch
list seven players. We're throwing some stuff out here for
you on seven players that have caught my eye. This
is like the version of the p tens, but I'm
just not picking ten in this one. Number one, let's

(35:40):
talk about some Lazaro Mantes. This is a Welsh has
always been higher than everybody else. And we've seen a
lot of negatives, but we're saying some positives. But before
I get into those positives, the one negative would be
he is repeating Hya. Last year he was an a
ball three h nine, then the second half of the

(36:03):
season pushed up to Hya, hit two sixty, was still
pretty good, struck out quite a bit more. He's back
at Hi A. He's hitting four twenty nine with two homers,
two stolen bases almost double the walks than strikeouts. And
it's only five games, but you know, he's got six hits.

(36:23):
We're getting a better contact percentage, which was always the
key against him. I get vibes a little bit. It
reminds me from positive or negative. By the way, is
I think back to Rafie Devers, Rafael Devers when he
was in the minor leagues, and this he was the
first person I ever recall seeing the trend where it
was like, you know, he might get in and he's good,

(36:46):
and then when he moves a level, he would struggle,
and then once he figured it out, then he would
be good again and then move up struggle, blah blah blah.
That's kind of like a little bit of lazarro in
him being able to bounce back. He's not just like
playing well at at double A. He's absolutely destroying double A.
He's I'm sorry at hi A. He's hitting four hundred

(37:06):
so much so they're gonna have to give a legitimate
look if you get I mean, it's only five games,
but if you get fifteen games, in ten more games
and he's still hitting like three point eighty, you might
legitimately just need to tell yourself, let's get him out
of here now. You know, maybe there's a strikeout rate
that they don't love, or maybe he's not making enough

(37:27):
zone contact that they don't love. Those are definitely possibilities.
But at this level, I think you are like in
a ten to fifteen game span where you're gonna have
to give him the next challenge, which is gonna be
high A or a double A. But I just come
back to this that, you know, I think it was
I think it was on Tim Kinnak's show where it

(37:47):
was like, I've always always get picked because I got
Lazarro really high, and you know, I think I push
him up in the pe ADPs. But you're also seeing
the talent level. People really really got hyper focused on,
like well the contact rate, and it's like, well look
at this. I mean in the body is progressing a
great way. He's spent an off season with Randy Rose Arena,
He's spent a ton of camp with Julio Rodriguez. I

(38:07):
think there's huge changes being made. He's got a huge
power potential, and even though we've seen some lower contact
rates at the minor league level, it hasn't come with
bad batting average yet. He has never hit under two
eighty four in a full season, and looking at this,
he's only hit under two eighty four at one stop,

(38:29):
and that was last year at Higa, which is like
a huge push. So I'm very impressed with some of
the early stuff you're seeing with the Zara Mantes. I
think he still has the potential to be a pretty
underrated prospect because I know a lot of other lists
have had him low. I think he is in that
top thirty prospect range. So if even off of a

(38:51):
good start, you can get him at past a top
fifty prospect value, I think that's a really good git
right now. Now there's also the inverse of this. I'm
completely open to to say, well, he is overperforming and
he's a guy that has had some strikeout problems and
low contact rate cell cell sell, I think you could

(39:11):
see it as that, But I also this is a
little bit of a confirmation that, like, I think this
is a super talented prospect who's got a really big
bat and electric type of bat. And I don't think
any of the some of the stuff we've been sitting
on of like oh the body and stuff, I think
that's fixing itself in the minor leagues as sometimes it
does so. Lazara Montes definitely an early season pick up.

(39:33):
Thirty percent walk rates, seventeen percent k rate. That really
stands out. Number two. This guy, if given the opportunity
as far as like a spot goes, this would be
a guy that I think could be even higher in
like a redraft perspective. He is Alex Friedelan, who is
at Triple A with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Alex

(39:56):
Freelan has been a fun prospect as far as ranks.
I think a lot of people kind of struggle with
where he goes and what they want to do with him.
But at TRIPAA right now, he is hitting three point
fifty six a homer, five stolen bases. He also has
a four to fifty five OBP OBP and just under
one thousand ops, walked eight times, struck out twelve times.

(40:21):
He's stealing bases, He's got five extra base hits. Those
are pretty aggressive in here. He is pretty blocked at
the major league level. It would take a lot for
them to get another minor leaguer to be in there.
They've got Tommy Edmond who can come in and play
on the infield if there's any other injuries. Obviously you've
got Mookie Betts that's in there right now.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
So.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
It would take something, you know, we take some other
injuries for him to get there. But there is going
to be a point where they're going to look and say,
does this guy help us? Right now? He can play
a couple different positional spots, which I think is like
a huge key, and I think he's someone that really
like heavily has to be on Raiders radars right now.
You really need to pay attention to him from a
the redraft perspective. But also I'm pretty excited to encourage

(41:09):
about like the overall fantasy impact. Like guy still thirty
one bases two straight years. I think that'll come back down.
But there's a legitimate, you know, ring the bell twenty
twenty potential with this guy, because I don't think he'll
steal quite as much. He has got twenty home run power.
It's really key to see the strikeout rates drop. He
had one hundred and thirty three strikeouts last year in
one hundred and thirty six games. He's striking out every

(41:31):
single game. That has to come down. It looks like
it's down a little bit this year. He'll so walk
ninety one times last year. But there's a lot of
good fantasy potential in him, and I think the big
thing to say is look at this early season production.
Three point fifty six in Triple A, absolutely dominating it.

(41:52):
He went three different levels last year. He hit two
forty five at Double A, two forty three at Triple A,
and early on in eleven games, absolutely crushing with the
three four five slash. Make sure Alex Freelan is moving
up and maybe you can try to go and sneak
him in early because there's also a little bit of
a like, oh, well, you know, where's he ever going

(42:14):
to play? Is he ever going to get there? I
think people could, like I guess, like maybe make it
more acquireable is what I'm trying to say. You might
be able to get him because people are like, well,
you know, they just got so many guys inso the Dodgers,
but Alex Freelan looks like kind of that next run
of guy. Andy Peijas was able to kind of break
through and be that guy. I think Alex Freelan is
going to get that next opportunity because of some flexibility.

(42:37):
Number three on the watch list. We are going with
another hitter. I think I have this lined up as
I got three hitters, three pitchers, and then a little
bit of a deeper name I just want to throw out.
But Ryan Waldschmidt with the Arizona Diamondbacks has been very
biserko in his first couple games. We have five games
under his belt. He was sent to Hya member Slade

(42:59):
went down to Low So he's a college bat. But
you know, I don't call it aggressive. I don't really
know what to call it. It's just it's above the
class that he was drafted with. He's over there with
like you know, it's a really good group of guys.
Drew Jones is there. I think jan Soi Luis and
he is the standout right now, currently hitting six hundred
in fifteen at bats. He has nine hits, nine hits

(43:23):
now only two extra base ones, but they're both home
runs eight RBIs you love that he's got a six
ninety six OVP, a thousand slug, almost seventeen hundred ops.
It's all dumb, but look at this as well, six
walks to only two strikeouts in those fifteen at bats.
He is not striking out. He's getting on base. He's

(43:44):
making an impact on multiple sides of the plate. It
also plays a good defense. This is another one of
those scenarios where I think the Diamondbacks they're not like motivated,
especially with all the freaking outfielders. Dude, I mean McCarthy
and Alec Thomas and you got paid and Lords and Carrol,
you got so many guys. They're not wanting to push anything.

(44:05):
But he is most likely going to see triple A
this season. I think this is going to be a
three level move. There's only so long that he can
produce at these levels at HIGA where they're going to
say this needs to be pushed a little bit further.
And what I think it could be is like you
play April in Hillsboro. If you hit let's call it
three twenty or higher, move you up to double A

(44:27):
and then you probably play the predominant portion of the
season at double A with maybe a little push to
triple A. Very likely to see him in like an
Arizona Fall League because next year, you know he'll be
twenty three at the end of the season, so you know,
if you can get to all three levels, maybe you
play AFL as a twenty three year Old, a right
handed bat which the Diamondbacks always need in the outfield.

(44:50):
We legitimately could see him with the team next year.
And you know, this is James's guy, and he looks
really good early on. I mean really really good power potential,
really good back, great decisions, no strikeouts, walking a bunch.
Waldschmidt is definitely on a move up, So keep him
on that radar as well. Top one hundred prospect Ryan Waldschmidt.

(45:11):
Some pitchers, one of the best performances we've had early
on in the season was a guy that you probably
don't know about. That is Manuel Rodriguez with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Rodriguez went four and one third, struck out eleven in
that first start. Crazy crazy good only walked one, held

(45:32):
batters to a two hundred batting average, which you absolutely
love to see. Whip was under was under one. There's
another key marker. Rodriguez isn't like a crazy v low
fastball guy. Lives a ton on slider, ton on control,
so you know, he's got this big breaking slider that
he's going to get strikeouts on. He you know, in

(45:53):
variants to a cutter as well, and keeps really low
walk rates. Tons of control minor league level that can
inflate strikeout rates a little bit. So I'm not sure.
I'm not sure one hundred percent if this is going
to be like high strikeouts, you know, as we keep going.
But one of the youngest guys at his level going
up to High A right now. He was at A

(46:14):
ball last year. He's at High A. He's only nineteen
years old, and he's going to play a decent amount
of the season As a nineteen year old. That command
will get you a long ways early on having like
that cutter splitter combo already. I don't know, maybe we
could get like a beg a boobache type of thing,
you know what I'm saying, Like, if you can get
it to so I want to say, I think he
sits a little bit lower, lower nineties, but if you

(46:36):
can be pumping like ninety two ninety three on the corners,
you can do some stuff. Plenty of other guys are
also not having high velos. If you can control the
fastball more than anything else, great performance in that eleven strikeouts,
it's a it's a type of performance that we need
to put him even more on that radar. I think
there could be some Velo to be unlocked throughout the

(46:56):
organization as they keep going, so you know, pay he's
on the list. I think that's the big thing to do.
Low walks, strikeouts, I think are going to kind of
run high here and I really want to see what
that cutter does as well through the rest of the season.
But you know, it's a big slider and command guy.
Manuel Rodriguez with the Milwaukee Brewers definitely on the up
and that performance caught a lot of eyes. A very

(47:19):
interesting one as a player that I've seen a ton
of and I've been around this guy because I felt
like he was We have these jokes sometimes when you're
here at complex you're just like, this guy lives at
the complex level. And a guy that I feel like,
and maybe I'm wrong I have been seeing for two
straight years is Christian Oper. Christian Oper with the with

(47:41):
the Chicago White Sox has been out here for quite
some time. Finally got into a ball and had a killer,
big performance four and two thirds innings with ten strikeouts
in his debut at a ball. A good report here.
Should have hit up blessing to come on here. I
didn't even realize his blessing was at the debut and
he reported fastball ninety four ninety seven. It was fading

(48:03):
as it definitely does. And he's got a great video
you should go check out where he's striking out Welbin
Francisca hitting kind of that upper zone. There's some big
swinging miss stuff with Christianoper. That fastball is absolutely live,
and I think he's a guy to pay attention to
when it's funny because there are so many other big

(48:23):
prospects in that organization as far as pitching goes, he's
really low down there. But I think this is a
guy that could start rising up because I think that
fastball is going to generate some big strikeouts in the minors.
So we're going to keep an eye on him. Not
a huge, huge riser, but definitely a guy that is
moving up. And then the final guy of the big
six to take a look at. I was sent this

(48:43):
text from Tim Kannak, who is out at his debut.
I think this is his debut. Yeah, No, I think
it was a professional debut. Dasan Hill, who was drafted
last year. He was a competitive be overall sixty ninth pick.
Very nice for Dasan Hill. He was taking last year
pro debut, four innings, seven strikeouts, and let me even

(49:05):
pull up here, because so Tim had nothing but great
things to say. Kind of thought. He even compared into
that Thomas White type of range, and he's probably said
that on his podcast, like that type of level, wiry guy,
big breaking looper. You can see fastball was up. And
what's really interesting about that. Twins Player Development had pointed

(49:26):
out that he was sitting ninety two ninety four in
high school, but he was up to ninety seven. Nine
of his fastballs he threw were hitting ninety seven, but
big loop and breaking pitch average ninety six on the
fastball had a fifty percent with rate in that debut.
I love what I'm saying, and you can see too
if you check out it is just nothing but WIFF's

(49:47):
big loopy curveball. It looks like it's the slider. Yeah,
there's a slider right there. It was all breaking pitches
that he was getting strikeouts on, and that's set up, well,
there's one on the fastball on a corner, but set
up by just this big fastball. I eat Dassan Hill
does look great and Tim has got some video if
you want to check out as well. This video kind

(50:08):
of all around here, but seven strikeouts for dayson Hill
with the Minnesota Twins, I would actually say he's I
think there's the highest potential out of him between Oprah
and Rodriguez of what we're talking about. So these six
players all up, this was very early looks of like, oh,
based on where I have my ranks, all these players

(50:28):
need to take some moves up to different degrees. But
I would say Hill and Waldschmidt probably the most aggressive
as far as where the rank moving it. I already
had Montes pretty high, I got Freedom pretty high as well.
Waldschmidt and Hill are the biggest movers. By the way,
twenty six percent swinging strike rate for Dasan Hill, that

(50:48):
was a Daisan Hill I was like top twelve. I
think so far it's only one performance, but huge swinging
strike rate. And he also had a sixty six percent
ground ball rate, so he might be massively on the move.
The one tiny extra I wanted to point out, all
of the attention goes to Jesus Ma Day, but we
might need to start paying attention a little bit more

(51:10):
to Luis Pania. Madi doesn't have a hit so far.
I think he's only played like one or two games
in a ball aggressive assignment. Louise Pania twenty one at bats,
hitting three eighty one, has a five hundred OVP and
already five stolen bases. You're averaging about a stolen base
per game. Five stolen bases, twenty one at bats, very

(51:31):
very good pro debut. I've heard some good things kind
of across the board. There's been some positive talk about
with scouts. I don't know where the power potential is
going to be, but a super super aggressive base stealer
he's getting on base. Pay attention to Luis Pania kind
of floating in that like two hundred to one fifty.
I think prospect range really far away, so that could

(51:52):
maybe hurt you a little bit. But that was one
other very early one that kind of stood out to
me that I think we probably want to pay attention to.
And there you go for Breds. That is a very
early week one watch list also breaking down with about
two weeks of the Triple A season and some of
my live looks, got some live looks out there for you,
and hopefully I'm going to get another one or two

(52:13):
as well before I should actually get two or three
before the next episode, you know, cross our fingers with
all the craziness out there, but I hope to report
back some other fun stuff for you guys in the
extended spring training world. Again, go to in this League
dot com if you guys want to check out my
top five hundred prospect list. Next week is the update
Dynasty four hundred Prospect five hundred and we've got the

(52:35):
P one ADP info so you can kind of check
out how that all looks. The following update, I will
be adding a first run of draft things as well,
but you're going to see any of the major movement.
I'm reaching out to different people talking things I get
to see. That is going to kind of all come
into some of the big rank changes. But that will
be out next week and only at in this League

(52:55):
dot com. I appreciate you guys supporting when you check
that out. Plus, join me on the live streams Twitch,
dot tv, slash in this League. That's the easy one.
It's free to everybody. You can set up an Amazon
Prime account so you can like you know, not have
ads and stuff and that can be free. But that's
free to everybody. I do two streams a week. You
can always come in and talk prospects. But the second

(53:16):
half one, which is either Thursday or Friday, that is
the one I want to talk prospects a little bit
more about. So come in and we can break down
debuts and whatnot. So check that out as well. Go
to the YouTube YouTube dot com slash in this League.
Lots of stuff, lots of things. I appreciate everything that
you guys do. Thank you for subscribing to the podcast
and hanging out with me. Oh next week, Beck, yes,

(53:39):
the great bech over at the Dynasty Dugout, is going
to be joining me as we're going to be breaking
down some of the early stuff, so back into some
guest episodes. Beck will be back with me. He's been
working hard on all his lists and I'm excited to
chat with you all. Thank you guys for hanging out.
We'll talk to you next time right here on Prospect one.
Peace Out.