Episode 406 - Prospect Watch with Eric Cross - Prospect One

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
In this league podcast that word present Prospect one Look
Fantasy Prospect podcast, Prospect What with your host Chris Wels.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the Fantasy Baseball Prospect podcast. This is Prospect one.
Hello friends, I'm Chris Welsh, your host. You can find
on Twitter and Instagram at is it the Welsh and
of course over at in this league dot com that's
my Patreon Top five hundred Prospects, Top four hundred Dynasty
also got those prospects by team and position. We've got

(00:35):
over I think it's eighty plus or eighty first year
player ranks for the twenty twenty six first year player drafts,
you know, twenty twenty five draft class, all those guys,
and in the coming weeks, I believe in about two
weeks or so, we're gonna be doing the P one eightyps.
So coming in September, we will have a brand new
edition of the Prospect Top two hundred EIGHTYP. But we

(00:57):
got all the previous data there in this league. Go
and check out what I got going on. If you
like my ranks and some of my stuff there, plus
you're just straight up supporting. We've also got group me
rooms where you guys can come and hang out and
be a part of the community. People talking prospects, other
cool stuff in this League dot Com, in this League
dot Com. Today on the episode, Eric Cross is back

(01:19):
in the house. We're gonna be talking about I think
it's a ten prospect look at some prospects that you know,
high variance of, like ranks moving up, completely different collection
of guys from Dominican Summer League players to some players
that have got some big buzz. We have some theory
things in there. I think you guys are gonna like

(01:40):
it so and we end up hitting a few other prospects,
so ten plus prospects that are going to be breaking
down with mister Eric Cross. I think you guys are
gonna like that very much. It has been a very
exciting week of a lot of just different crazy stuff.
I got to spend time with a prospect that's the
top one hundred prospect, I got to break some news,

(02:02):
I got to get to Complex and see some players,
and I got a little bit more in front of
me and had a great conversation with my friend Dennis
Sidler about It's very funny when I've talked about this before,
but like when you get into like this overdrive of
just like every day you're trying to do your process
and prospects. I was doing these live streams, and I

(02:22):
really feel like I should figure a way out to
make them consistent and get themed to them. But I
was doing these live streams where it was just like
people could come in and bring up a player, and
we would break down guys and we'd start talking about dudes,
and then sometimes it would just you know, like when
you are forced into a deep dive of a specific guy,
you're just like, oh wow. We were doing that, me

(02:44):
and Dennis this weekend, and we were just he was
here out here in Arizona, and we were sitting there
talking about a couple different guys, and we had this
breakdown of one player and it really sparked in us,
and I guess I'll just jump into it instead of
trying to tease it. There's other things that have already teased,
But we were talking about a bunch of different guys,
and then the conversation got brought up about Hector Gonzalez.

(03:08):
There are quite a few prospects in this episode we're
going to talk about that had been parts of conversations
I've had with Dennis and other people and very relevant guys,
you know, like why are these guys not getting more
attention or things like that, And that was kind of
the conversation we were talking about Hector Gonzalez, and it
was this really insightful conversation that I realized after it
was like, man, this is the epitome of one of

(03:30):
those guys. It's kind of like these guys need to
continue moving and beyond your lexicon. And Hector Gonzalez with
the Reds, and that was kind of Dennis's take. He
was like, why does Dennis or why does He's like,
why does Hector Gonzalez not get more run? And I
was like, well, I mean I think he kind of does,
you know. I think he's hit really well, he's moved
through this system. But to your point, I don't think

(03:51):
there's a whole lot of people putting him in like
a high valued conversation. Like I'll just throw this at you.
One of the guys we're going to talk about in
this episode with Cross is Nate George Rookie level. I
think to low a outfield prospect with the Orioles, you
just had a sick year, just awesome. He's been one
of those guys that it's like, why are we not

(04:12):
talking about him?

Speaker 3 (04:12):
You know?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
So there's like there's levels. There are the guys that
you're like, everyone's to everyone talking about Louis Pana, Edward Florentino,
another guy we're going to talk about in a little bit,
you know, we're talking about those guys. Then there's the like,
we should talk more about these guys. But then there's
the like, we should talk more about these guys that
we're not talking about. Talking about more of these guys?
Does that make sense? And I think that's where kind

(04:34):
of hector fell in. So I just wanted to share this.
I was almost going to save this for another episode,
but since it's kind of the theme we were kind
of going through, and it's like, okay, you know, size wise,
I saw him in extended spring training with Noel Vie,
a little bit bigger than he was in years past.
He's listed out at five ten, two hundred. I think
there's some good projectability there. It's a twenty one year

(04:54):
old who's up at triple A. We got to give
you know, him the flowers for that. He's been the
twenty one year old this entire season in Double A.
This season hit two ninety eight, twelve homers, six stolen bases,
thirteen point nine percent K percentage, Like that's sick. Goes
up to Triple A. In Triple A, he's hit three

(05:16):
twenty two with a fifteen percent K percentage, three homers,
four stolen bases. So on the year over two levels
as a twenty one year old in triple A now
fifteen homers, ten stolen bases, seventy eight runs under fifteen
percent K percentage three hundred average, three sixty three OVP.
So I'm like, okay, cool, you know that service level

(05:37):
stuff is good. And Dennis got to see part of
like sometimes the process of a either just what I
would do normally or like what we would do in
those live streams where it's like, all right, let's let's
start going down the line. Let's see how many checks,
you know, boxes we can check as we go on,
because that sometimes will be the signifier, like yes, they
can check. This guy barrels a lot, or this guy

(06:00):
Elson has good hard hit numbers. But then it's like oh,
negative negative. But it's like when you start to get
to a level where a guy just continues to start
checking the boxes, you're like, yeah, maybe we're right. So so
far surface level, i'd say fifteen homers a solid under
fifteen percent K percentage is a massive check. Three hundred average,
not only at triple A but on the season. Those
are big checks with a little bit of stolen bases. Okay,

(06:22):
so we're cool, we like those, we forget. Oh yeah,
triple A. We've got some data. Eighty nine point nine
average ex velocity for Hector Rodriguez. That's very good. That's like,
I don't know if that's a check, but I would say,
like that's an above of maybe the expectations of him,
especially where people were like on his power numbers long term.
So it's it's like an almost check. But here's a

(06:44):
really good check. One ten point seven. One ten as
you know, has always said that's that marker of taking
that next level from a power department, So like that's
a from a you know, average power to maybe above
average power. So we have he's consistently hitting the ball
pretty hard. Card He's got a big max ev of
one to almost one eleven. That's great, forty six point

(07:07):
seven percent hard hit. It's a relative check. You'd like
to see it over fifty, but that's good. Gets the
ball in the air as well, ten point three degree
launch angle with a forty four percent poll rate, which is,
you know, it's better than it was in double A.
We're liking this homerr and the fly ball rates great,
so so far, so good. You know, we're we're kind

(07:27):
of rocking with all this stuff. This is where I
was then, like, wow, take all those check marks. Take
a player who you know, bodies progressed, doesn't strike out,
hitting for average, solid homers, hard hit rates look good. Now,
let's look at the contact rate. Eighty three point five
overall contact rate, good, ninety point eight zone contact rate.

(07:53):
When I saw that, that was the final check mark
because Dennison said something funny to me. He was like,
what's the negative? And it's like, yeah, what is the
negative right now? And I kind of sat on that.
I was like, Wow, you know, you got like good,
not great, but good, hard hit good ev numbers, good
maybe great contact, great strikeout ability. A guy that like

(08:15):
doesn't swing his swinging strike rate in triple A, I
think it was like nine percent not swinging through not
you know, not within making tons of contact, getting homers,
and an almost ninety one percent zone contact rate. So
we laughed about it because I looked and I was like,
you know what, we're not talking about Hector Gonzalez enough.
By the way, I'll throw this out here. Split wise

(08:37):
hitting three hundred against lefties and righty's, he's a lefty.
I mean also, I think if I remember correctly, three
of the five months he's hit over three hundred and
four or five months this year he's at two seventy
or higher. So I wanted to bring this because a
lot of this focused conversation is like maybe unappreciated or
you know, these are appreciated prospects that have more movement

(09:02):
to go. And specifically, one of the things we do
in this episode with Cross is be like the there
are players in the pe ADP drafts that there's a
valuation of, like where kind of everybody generally thinks they are,
and then there are guys that are just going to
beat those expectations and who are some of those players?
So we talk about that. I think Hector Rodriguez is

(09:23):
one of those just very undervalued guys who just has
a really great profile. Is it going to be special?
I don't know, but it seems wildly underappreciated in an
organization that's got you know, with issues with McClain, with
issues with Cees. You know, you got some prospects that
are coming. Noel Vee has done decent, Like there's something there.
I'm very, very enamored with Hector Rodriguez after that conversation,

(09:47):
I just wanted to share it with you guys because
I think he might be one of those players. Now,
why was I hanging out with Dennis? Why was Dennis
in town? Because Dennis was able to do a signing
with Mike Sirota with the Los Angeles Dodgers. So there's
a plug for him if you guys want to get
some Mike Sioda stuff. Very very cool guy too. Over
at Sidgrafs. You can check out Sidsgraf's on the socials

(10:10):
eBay is like the best place where he puts it out.
I was there for the entire thing, so you know, yes,
you're gonna have Beckett certification, but you can also have
Welsh certification. That I was there for and I got
to talk to Mike, found out some interesting stuff something
I did not know. He's Whitey Ford's nephew. Totally wild
and just to kind of recap with Mike Sarota. Mike

(10:33):
Sroota had an absolutely bonker's bonkers run as he was traded,
you know, his pro debuts with the Dodgers, he was
he was a Reds prospect. I told him I saw
him the previous year Bridge League, him and Tyson Lewis.
I think it was like Peyton Stovall and some of
those guys. And then he got traded over. So he
got hurt recently, but he so he finishes his season

(10:55):
because he's done two hundred bats, thirteen homers, five stolen base,
is a three thirty three batting average, a four point
fifty two OBP, almost more walks than strikeouts, an eleven
hundred or over thousand ops just top to bottom. And
by the way, that's a and Hya in his pro debut,

(11:16):
a little bit older of a guy twenty two, but
both levels super impressive. And you know, I got to
be around and talk and I'll say, you know, in
a summation of some of the stuff, smart kid really
loves being a Dodger right now. I had also asked him,
I thought this was interesting. I think this is fair

(11:36):
to say that it was, like, you know, because he
was really ooing awing about the Dodgers organization in general,
and I was like, did you do you attribute or
was there anything to like what you moving over to
the Dodgers in your success this year? You know, was
our correlation? And he was kind of I'm like, or
was it more about, you know, the changes you've made?

(11:58):
And he was like, it was me. He's like the
changes that I've made. He's like, I had such a
good spring that you know. He was like, they weren't
going to really even say anything, and it translated over
kind of like that confidence, but also like the comfortability
in the organization really really put him in a good spot,
and that he is very self aware, you know, of

(12:18):
all this stuff now, a good projectable body, by the way,
all that type of stuff. He is out for the
season and for all intentsive purposes, does not look like
a fall guy. It looks like it's going to be
a rest, you know, recovery type of thing for Mike Sirota.
So those are a few of the things I picked
up in there. Not to go any too crazy, but
you know, cool dude, good, interesting talking about a lot

(12:40):
of different stuff. I brought up Tyson Lewis and he
was like, Oh, he's Tyson's great. He's an absolute dude.
He was raving about Tyson Lewis. We were talking about
some of the guys in the organization as well as
a Dodger, you know, some of the complex level guys.
He thought that, Oh God, who is it. I think
it was Tunic Brandon. Tunic with the Dodgers was really underrated.

(13:01):
We talked about Harlan and Co. And very cool stuff.
So I just wanted to share that I got some
experience with good old Mike Sierroota and we'll have to
see him next year though, But crazy, crazy impressive season.
He seemed in a good spot. It's just kind of
a I think it was a shoulder recovery thing. He
was put on the sixty day and it also does

(13:21):
not look like there's going to be any fall based stuff.
So that was something I got to do, which was
really cool. A couple other pieces to throw out to you,
Arizona fall leak information is coming out, speaking of I
definitely was poking to be like, yeah, you're going to
be at the fall leak or anything like that, but
we're already getting some information out. As a matter of fact,

(13:42):
the Chicago White Sox have already released their their I mean,
I don't think they did, but it was somebody that
released it for him, which I don't know if that
was an issue or anyone got in trouble. But the
entire White Sox roster for the AFL is released, and
we're going to get Hagen Smith, Noah Schultz, and Brain
Montgomery and Sam Anotocci. So but the three big guys,

(14:02):
three huge guys. We're going to get. Everything else is speculation.
There's been a couple other people that are speculating the market.
I can tell you this. Players are already finding out.
This is way earlier than it's ever been before. Players
are already getting informed about the Arizona Fall League. The
conversations are happening, and it really feels like we are

(14:23):
going to get more information to drop.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Now.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Why is this important? Because you Buddy the Welsh always
does his prediction AFL Prediction show, and last week I
had actually started and I did my initial first run.
We now have a couple new pieces of information. We
literally have the White Sox. One person I had to
put on them on the roster was Walker Jenkins, and

(14:47):
we got a confirmation from the Twins that he will
not be there. So that's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Weird.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
We're getting players, we're getting teams talking about guys that
won't go there. It's news is already coming out, so
I can take Walker Jenkins off, I cann from the
White Sox, and I've got some other pieces of speculation.
So what I'm getting at here is I think we
are looking. I was gonna try to I think I'm
gonna still try to wait, but essentially the September first,
right around September first, I'm gonna drop the Arizona Prediction

(15:14):
Show and I have a sheet of all the names
that I think and I'm gonna post that on Patreon,
and then we will start the confirmation game. So we've
got this. I'll probably do this show next week's show,
and then the week after that, so it might be
like right before September we are going to do the
Arizona Fall League Prediction Show. We also got the full
Fall League schedule and we got the team assignment, so

(15:35):
that's gonna make it really great. Augay, October sixth, the
league starts and they're doing a new playoff format, which
is kind of interesting. So every team is going to
have a shot to get into the championship game and
then they're taking Mondays off a lot, so they changed
up a few little things, but just throwing that out there.
You know, if you guys plan to come out to
the Arizona Fall League, definitely hit me up. I will

(15:57):
get you guys some information, you know, as I go.
But I've got my initial list. I'm going to do
past number two and then that show will be dedicated
to going through each of the six Fall League teams
and I will give you guesses and then the strong prediction.
So I usually picked like three guys where I'm like
this dude, this dude, this dude, hold me to the
fire for these and these are my guesses and then

(16:18):
we'll kind of review after the fact. So all of
those things kind of went in together because it was like, oh,
it feels like he might be the type of guy,
but we got to get healthy and that kind of
lined us up to know what we're doing for the
Arizona Fall League. So last thing, so we're just kind
of moving through here talking and all of that was
kind of in line with my buddy Dennis, and you know,

(16:39):
we had our Hector Rodriguez conversation. I should say this.
We also were able to hang out and see Cason
Cunningham a little bit more case and Cunningham with the Diamondbacks.
So I've seen a couple times over last week. Saw
the Cubs know Ethan Conrad unfortunately wanted to see him.
Diamondbacks pretty much just down a case and Cunningham, who,

(16:59):
by the way, way just a professional hitter. You know,
even Dennis like then, Dennis is thrown back a little
bit by the size. And I think, you know, if
you see Casey and Cunningham in person, you're just like, wow,
Diamondbacks player. You know, they just do not care about size.
He's a little bit of a like. I think he
can grow thicker in that I think I've compared it
to like maybe in that Jose Ramirez mold but like

(17:21):
more athletic in the future. But he is just such
a such a pro hitter. And we had this great
at bat that Dennis loved after the fact, where you know,
he's fighting off some pitches, he's trying to pull over here,
and then finally last pitch, fastball a little bit on
the outside and he just lets the ball come in
takes it opposite field single, and he's just one of

(17:43):
those guys. He's got great bat speed, he's a really
pain in the ass to get out, like he's a
tough at bat, which those type of guys. And I
think it's just really going to be about like finding
his spot his pitch and being able to pull and
get the ball in the air. So he has Homer projection,
but he seems like he's going to have a really
high floor as far as batting average. And he can run.

(18:03):
He stole, he stole a base standing up. The other
day he had one completely stolen, but Lawler swung and
fouled it off. And then the next pitch he did
get a bad jump and got thrown out. But very
impressed with Caseon Cunningham and Dennis got to see him.
We got to hang doing that. But the final thing
was just another little fun piece was I was out
on Tuesday and I was out at the Rockies and

(18:27):
I was there to see Caseon Cunningham and Ethan Holiday.
If you follow me, you probably know this story. But
it was very funny. I get there, gates are just open,
and I should have looked at the guy's I'm I'm
forgetting what his name was. Let me see if I
can even acl Rockies. Let me see if I can
find it Rockies. Catcher comes out and he just straight
up tells me. He goes, he goes, hey, are you

(18:48):
going to see Holiday? Are you here to see Holiday today?
And I was like, yep, because I think Holiday is
very very popular here. He goes, just got called up today.
He's like, he's not going to be here, called up
like I think he said like hours ago. And I
want to say this was I had guessed this was
Blake Penzo. It's one of the three because they don't
have the numbers on them, which is killing me here.

(19:10):
It's either it's not Zach or Conky. It's either Matt
Klein or Blake Penzo. It might be Matt Klein. These
are the prospects of the Rockies. He come out and
tell me that I look no news of it whatsoever nowhere.
I search his name, nobody has information, and I go,

(19:31):
f it, I'm gonna put it out there. And I'm
I'm with my friend Joey who's out there, and he's standing.
He sees the whole thing, and I'm like, let's do this.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
So picture.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
I put it out there, boom break some news. But
then I'm kind of like, I'm waiting and I'm like,
let's see if he comes out. Let's see if I
got got doesn't come out. And then I'm like, Okay,
I think I got this, and I'm like, sweet, this
will be cool. You know, maybe one of the big
outlet guys are gonna, like, you know, say something, because
this is a big deal. By the way, if you
don't understand a high school player two weeks or whatever

(20:03):
after signing and everything is going to then go to
pro ball, that's not a common occurrence. Usually the Tyson
Lewis prime example. All year in the Bridge League, Mike Sirota,
as a matter of fact, didn't make his debut I
don't believe until this year. So it's uncommon. So that
was a big piece of news. But then I saw
people jack in my story or my breaking news and

(20:28):
no attribution. It was very disappointing, very disappointing. Couple you
know things. I know, I'll say one of them. This account,
it's you know, there's a big Instagram account. They don't
follow me on Instagram, but they follow me on Twitter,
like about forty minutes after I put it, they put
out breaking news ethan holiday going to Da Da Da
Da Da. And then my buddy, my buddy Joey just says,

(20:50):
screw it, He's gonna He goes under the comments and says, hey,
that Welsh broke that these dudes hid the comment. They
deleted the comment. That's scuzzy. Is that crazy? There are
a couple other are people out there that also listen.
I'm not Ken Rosenthal, not Jeff Passing. I don't I'm
not I'm not gonna die in a hill about it.
I'm not gonna cry about it. That's not where I

(21:11):
make my business in my world breaking news. But it
was kind of cool. I had Spader, who breaks news,
be like hey, great get I had a couple of
people being like this is awesome. I had some big
accounts retweeting it. Also had some people with and I
know for a fact they had no information about it,
taking my report and a couple of people even took

(21:32):
my picture and everything like that. Sad, sad for your boy.
The Welsh. Also the real get what we were looking for.
We didn't care about any of that stuff. Was I
was open an account like Passing or them were then gonna
have to cite me, which would have been the funniest
thing on the planet, someone having to be like Welsh
had it first. But I do have a timestamp, so
regardless of it any of those reports out there that

(21:55):
put it out there, I did get it before them,
and I got to break some news and I had
verification with my friend there, so it was fun. And
it became even funnier with other Like it was only
like three or four different accounts, and they were all
about fifteen to forty five minutes after me that were
really doing it. And then you know that one like
deleting my friend's comments and stuff like that about me,

(22:17):
which was wild. But then you know, it got confirmed
confirmed about an hour forty five after me Baseball Mayer
could put it out. They went through their sources and
stuff like that, and I'm sitting out here, I'm like,
my sources is teammate. He just left. So that was
the fun. And then by the way, I got to
watch casein and Cason had another base hit, so I
got multiple multiple base hits out there, got to break

(22:39):
some news, got to hang with Mike Sirota. That was
my week. It's pretty cool. Right, that's pretty cool in
the prospect world. And I got to open my brain
back up about Hector Rodriguez. I'm like all back in.
So those are some of the updates. So we got
AFL stuff coming, we got P and ADPs, we got

(23:00):
big updates coming. So I do hope you guys consider
hanging with me over at in this league dot com.
I unfortunately will not probably continue breaking any fun news,
but I'll just bring some fun topics. Speaking of fun,
Eric Cross, let's go talk to him. Eric Cross and
I were talking, like I said, ten plus prospects, guys
that you know probably deserve more attention P and ADP

(23:20):
related type of thing. So it's a it's pretty good combo.
I think you guys will enjoy it. So let's take
a break and let's go do it right after this.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
Shay, I like you. I like you so much. I'm
going to make you my pod.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
All he has to do is find the gold and
I'll share it with you.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Fifty to fifty.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Prospect Eric Cross in the house back on Prospect one
man done some pods over the last couple of weeks,
other people's pods. Did your pod? You're back on here.
We are talking about some prospect updates of Prospect Rank edition.
Before we're getting close to the end of the season.
We've got ten prospects that I think are very very

(24:00):
interesting conversations, from draft to pitchers to complex DSL. We
got a whole collection of them, and I got my
buddy air across in the house, Eric, what's up, dude?

Speaker 4 (24:14):
Not much, man, Look at look at us, still going
hard on the baseball even though it's football is trying
to creep into our timelines. I know you do a
bit of both here, but baseball still going strong.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
Man.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Football is in my face. But even when it's in
my face, I'm still still out in the fields, still
watching the guys, even when it's one hundred, no god,
thirty degrees out here. It's something I love. I know,
it's something I love out here. And you get how
do you not melt? Yeah, you know, I'm just like
it definitely is one of those like hot blood, cold

(24:45):
blood type of things, like you just kind of grow
accustomed to it. I do think about that, like when
I leave and I open my garage and then you
can feel the wave of heat. I'm just unaffected by that.
Where I think the initial reaction to anybody else would
be like cool, god, blah blah. But then there is
an element of like, it doesn't matter how customed you
are when you are out there and you're in the

(25:05):
sun and you are melted. Like when you can get
to shade, it does sounds stupid. You can tolerate one
hundred and ten degrees in the shade, you're gonna sweat
and stuff. You can tolerate it. When the sun is
on you. That is where it kills you, and it
puts it to a test. But that's also why you know,
there's not a lot of people out here that are
doing it. There are more than in the past. There's
actually a little uptick and you know, just like individuals

(25:29):
that are trying to kind of like break and do
some stuff. And then you know, like Baseball America looks
like they got a new guy that's out, you know,
so like there's some people that are out doing it,
but it's not many of us.

Speaker 4 (25:37):
Man.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
You know, we can't all have the beautiful East Coast
weather that you guys probably deal with. Like right now,
I have no idea what it's like. But if you
were to go out and isn't summerset near you and
the Portland seat, Like, what would the weather be like for.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
You right now?

Speaker 4 (25:51):
It is I think like upper seventy It was like
high of eighty three, eighty four today. Yeah, it's seventy
seven right now in Portland, Maine. A little bit humid,
but not terrible. It's kind of broke a little bit,
but yeah, definitely, we don't get anything even remotely close
to what you get, not even close.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
I think it's a testament to the players too.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
Oh absolutely, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
And you know what, the first guy we're going to
talk about here, this is one that multifaceted, just drafted
out here, moving up. And as I mentioned in the open,
the uniqueness I got to break. I was the breaking
news of this because there was nothing out there in
the public that and it was a little bit unfortunate,

(26:34):
by the way, because I was there to see him.
I went out to see the Diamondbacks and the Rockies
and Ethan Holiday was called up. Now the point of
this conversation, because you might have already had multiple first
year player conversations, I'm the Holiday guy, you guys aren't.
Which is you know, does James? I don't remember if
James had maybe James had Holiday at one.

Speaker 4 (26:56):
I do like Holiday. I think I'm in the middle.
I think I know the people are way off on him. Yeah,
his way out, but I think I'm kind of in
the middle.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
But okay. But so it's not to rehash that conversation.
It's I want to get your take on this, because
this is a quick move for a prospect. I don't
want to just have my thoughts on this. For a
high school prospect to be in the complex for a
week of ten days or something like that, like roughly
to let's let's call it two weeks that he was here.

(27:28):
He played a handful of games, five or six. We
could argue about the Rockies developmental system if we want,
but the Rockies said, no, we're sending him to pro ball.
This is not a common thing. Slade called Will last
year did not see professional ball. A lot of Tyson
Lewis did not see a lot of these guys don't
do it. This to me had very like Jesus made

(27:51):
we're sending him to High A vibes not They're not
making the process be a tiny thing. And what I
wonder is does that mean anything to anybody else else?
Because like I said, he's number one to me. I
know there were questions about like, oh, there's like contact
and swing and stuff. He looked fantastic when I saw
him hands up, I have a strikeout, have a bad
strikeout that he had, but you could see him in

(28:14):
that incredible bat speed, that bat path. And then he
goes and makes his pro debut and he's two for four,
already has an extra base hit with a strikeout. Though,
So my question in all of it is that I
think I've already had a lot of speculation. I got
to see him first, you know, in the professional setting.
Now everybody is what does this mean to you that
a high school player is pushed up to a ball

(28:37):
in the same season. Does that change? Do you think
that's a testament to him? Do you think it's just
the Rockies don't know what the hell they're doing. Does
it affect you at all? And maybe like how you
want to evaluate him moving forward? What's your overall thesis
on this big move on Ethan Holiday.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
Yeah, I think it would, you know, affect me a
little bit more if it was Milwaukee, if it was
the Dodgers, Cleveland, Hippo Bay, you know, any of the
you know, highly thought of developmental organizations.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Anybody about Rockies and like Angels, Yeah, pretty much exactly.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
Yeah, those are the two. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
For me, it's like I would never want to play
obviously I'm not gonna be a baseball player, but for
the Yankees is I'm a Red Sox fan, and then
the Dodger that the Angels and the Rockies. But yeah,
I know the Rockies are They're a really weird system
to evaluate for me, because you know, I think our
initial thought process whenever you know, any one of these
like buzzy kind of upside bats gets drafted by the Rockies,

(29:33):
like Benny Montgomery, Zach Viene, all those types, it's like,
oh yeah, like think of course field. But then it's
almost like, all right, that's a positive, potential, positive, but
it's almost canceled out and maybe even then some by
just the poor player development that the Rockies have had
for the for the most part. So I'm not reading
too much into that. I mean, I think it means
that they think obviously super highly of Holiday and maybe

(29:55):
this is something that was discussed behind the scenes. You know,
Matt was probably involved in the discussions. Well, but I
fully expected him to start in you know, single Light
next year. But yeah, it was kind of it was
a bit surprising when when I saw, you know, your
tweet go out that he was going up to to
low aid right now, because, like you mentioned, it's.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
Something that's very rare.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
Though we are seeing you know, a little bit more
examples of it here and there, so maybe this becomes
something that's a little more common moving forward.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
What do you think on that?

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, one hundred percent. I
think there's like a lot of things. I think we're
closing in on a territory where players being drafted and
playing in the AFL the same year will mean less.
Where players come over from the Dominican Summer League and
skip rookie ball to a ball means less. Where players
spend two years in a minor league system like Jackson
Holliday get to the majors means less. I think it

(30:43):
feels like it's more because it is new to your point,
but I think we're a couple of years away from
all of these these you know, these boundaries just being
kind of broken and this will mean less. But all
that aside, this is an uncommon thing for an organization
that has some weird stuff, and it could There's so
many ways it could be simplistic. It could be like,

(31:04):
you know, they I don't know, they don't want him
to be in the heat out here. They want him
to just face better competition. You know. The pitching said,
when you really fall into a great spot here in
the Bridge League is when you get rehabbing guys. You know,
the Rockies pitcher, I don't remember who the hell it
was getting to go up against Caseon Cunningham, Jordan Lawler
and Gabrielle Moreno, Like that's real competition. You don't get

(31:26):
a lot of pictures out here. So like maybe they
wanted him to be a little bit more seasoned for competition.
And or a third piece could be that they looked
at him in these small sample sizes and says this
league isn't for him. He needs better competition because there's
a difference between like we want him to be, you know,
we want to push him a little bit, and he
doesn't belong here. This is not serving him. And all

(31:50):
of those things could probably connect in some ways, But
I guess the question becomes like is one louder and
if the if it's the latter, if it's that he
is too good for this level and he needs to
be challenged more. Because this leads to he plays a
month or so of a ball and now he pushes
to Hi A next year, and they put him on

(32:12):
his brother's trajectory because they want him to be like Jackson,
And all of a sudden, he's breaking camp with the
team in twenty twenty seven. That's where I think you
want to start paying attention for the timeline stuff. But
to answer your question, like, yeah, I think the norm
is going to be a little bit more aggressive pushes
on teams. But sometimes we just don't know who the hell,
Like why was a run Escobar like in Low A

(32:33):
like the whole season, Like that's a guy that feels
like it should have been three levels, but we saw
Jackson move four levels. You gotta wonder do the Rockies
think that? So, like, let's say he finds some success
through this next month. I can't imagine. I don't see
a scenario where he's going to High A. He finishes
out Lowa and let's say, you know it's a reasonable strikeout,

(32:53):
let's just call it like twenty five percent. I'm not
saying that's reasonable, But like let's say there's you know,
whatever issues you have. He hits like two eighty plus,
shows off some power, doesn't have a thirty percent strikeout rate,
and got pushed to hy a, what does that do
for you? Because like, where did you have him? I
remember you had him? I'm forgetting now did you have
him like three or two or something like that? And
on the overall and does this will it change anything

(33:16):
if you see relative success at at pro ball instead
of like a bridge complex level.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
You know, it definitely would.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
And I had him number two, right in between Jojo
Parker at one and Eli Willetts at three.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
It was yeah, so you know you can really I
don't think it's a big.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
Gap between any of those three prep short stops, but yeah,
I think it would because I wanted to put Holiday one.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
I mean, I was tantalized.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
Obviously, I think the upside between those three prep short
stops is high. If you write them in terms of upside,
you put Holiday one. But obviously there are those concerns
about you know, how much contact does he get to
what's the k rate? App But if he can show
and you know, not the same degree, but like Connor
Griffin had some of those cons terms too, right, and
then this year he's gone out and had an above

(34:02):
average contact rate, he's approved the walk cred, et cetera.
And you saw him go from being like, all right,
this is a fun upside guy that we rank like
in the thirties or forties too. Now this guy is like,
you know, the number one or close to it prospect
in the game for many people. So I think, even
if it's a short sample size, as you still got
a few weeks left, if he goes out and has
a good showing like you mentioned, like there's a lot

(34:23):
of those things you just said, it kind of shows
all right maybe, and you can't like totally wipe away
any of those concerns in such a small sample size,
as you know, But if he goes out and kind
of quiets them to some degree, like all right, maybe
this isn't quite as notable of a concern as we
might have thought it had been. Because if you if
you go out making this guy could be fifty great

(34:44):
hit tool guy with the plug with the plus power
in you know, course field, then yeah, then i'd probably
bump him back up the number one. I think that
that that hit tool I think is the real huge
X factor as to like, all right, which one of
these three prep short stops is the best long term
and the highest rank going to the next And I
actually love it.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
I I think it's one of the few good Rockies
things that you know and hands up, maybe there's things
that have changing that we don't know behind the scenes,
because like they they I thought they were slow with
Condon and they let Condon get all the bad out
out here in Arizona because all I did is report
how disgusting he looked just eating sliders did not look good.
They found they found the right pacing. He got up,

(35:23):
and all of a sudden he's like finding success and
moving up the system.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
You know.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Maybe it's like, hey, if we know we put him
a month in a ball, it's not enough for him
to get under himself. If he struggles, We're not going
to hurt his development. He gets to see it, he
gets to get challenged with pitching, he gets to work
on having data at more of a pro level to
work on in the off season to fix that. Like,
these are all the things that I'm talking that, These
are the things that I like, we always just are

(35:49):
just negative about the Rockies. It's like, well, maybe they're
changing a little bit, you know personally the you know,
dad and brother like they have their kind of system.
I think they're very data driven. He's got incredible batspeed,
big power, can run good deal. Like I'm stoked about this.
I think it's more than just the Rockies being Rockies
type of stuff. I think it does speak some pretty

(36:09):
good vibes about him because I believe I'm correct about this.
I don't think there's any other high school based player
that is in pro ball right now. I don't because
I think Will it's just got to Complex. I don't
hear anything about Jojo Parker, Like there are college based
guys that have moved, Yeah, but there are no as
far as I know, there are apps. I mean, he's

(36:29):
going up with Max. I think it's Belua, the Texas kid.
They both played here in Complex. They both went up together,
so or maybe he went to Hya, but they both
moved up at the same time. So I just think
it is a testament, and I think he's going to
continue to have that little rise. Where do you have
him right now and where do you think the movement
is by the end of the year.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
So overall, I have him. I think it's around thirty five.
I have him thirty eight. Right now, all three of
the prep guys you know, will let's see each other
and Parkery. Oh, they're on the thirties, which actually is
like the lowest I've ever been I think with you know,
the initial ranking for in my overall of these FYPD guys.
Just as obviously as we talked about that nauseam, this

(37:12):
isn't like a super sexy top of the class as
opposed to in years past. But yeah, right now, I
got Parker at thirty two, I got Holiday at thirty eight,
and I got Eli Willitts at forty one.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Right now, see all in that kind of cluster of
ten guys.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Okay, very interesting. Well, everybody keep an eye on it.
You you know, that's the big rub is you weren't
going to get like looks on some of the high
school players, and that was the weird thing an you are.
And and to the credit, maybe some other teams will follow.
Let's check out over the next week or so, maybe
you get a Jojo Parker and Eeli Willittson, and then
that will really preach to the new trend of these
high school players. You know, because out here, I've already

(37:47):
seen Gavin Feen, I've seen Josh Owens, I've seen Brady Ebel.
Andrew Fisher just got moved up, so he left Ebel.
So you know, those high school guys the higher draft
that are valued high school players are floating around here?
Will they stay? I don't know, you know, I don't.
And also there's like a you know, it's like free
roster space here you got to have, you know, to

(38:07):
move guys at other levels and stuff like that. But
I'd be very curious to watch it. And it's kind
of a pretty big move. All right, let's talk about
some other players, some a couple of lower level guys
we'll move up a little bit. Had this conversation in
lots of different spots. I really want to get your
take on it and want to give him a little
bit more proper attention. But Edward Florentino, I just kind

(38:27):
of guess I'm forgetting. I guess maybe we had this conversation,
maybe I had this with Kanak. I'm almost forgetting now.
But from a valuation standpoint on Florentino, this is another
one of those guys that kind of popped up for
a lot of people rookie ball to a ball been dominant.
His season total incredible to eighty eight, fourteen homers, thirty

(38:47):
one stolen bases. Awesome. He's at two fifty at a ball.
It's a pretty dramatic drop from where he was, but
it's nothing we're going to pick on because he's still
in bases like crazy. Strikeout isn't a big big issue.
You know, he's got actra hits. But it was somebody
that had mentioned like that he might already be at
top twenty five prospect. Do you think Edward Florentino should

(39:10):
be viewed in the top twenty five range, the top
fifty range, because we're getting closer to the end of
the season and you know, probably three four weeks out
from these guys, you know, their season stats ending. Do
you think this season is going to get you putting
him as a top what level prospect?

Speaker 4 (39:29):
I actually just put him top twenty five in my
August update, him and Carson. Him and Carson Bench were
the two outfielders I put a stop there, and they're
back to back currently at Bench twenty three and Florentino
at twenty four. And I wrote this the other day
that you know, obviously the crown jewel of that Pittsburgh
system is Clinic Griffin, but Florentino is doing his best

(39:50):
to be like the robin to.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Griffin's batman right now.

Speaker 4 (39:53):
I mean, the upside isn't quite as high, but he's
had a phenomenal season and you kind of like look
under the hood and you know a lot of it
and of sticks. I mean, I don't think he's gonna
be this level of sole and base prowess, but he's
an efficient base still. I'll give him mats and you know,
the blend of contact approach power, I mean it could
be you know, fifty to fifty five hit sixty power.

(40:13):
And he makes solid swing decisions as well. He gets
on base of the high clip. Like you mentioned, he's
sitting two fifty and a ball as an eighteen year old.
He still has a three seventy nine obp nearly fifteen
percent walk right there.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
That's really exciting to see, you know.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
Well, you mentioned stealing ten of bags, eight home runs
at the level as well for the season, contact riad
around eighty percent, you know, doesn't swing and miss too much.
A lot of things you like under the hoods. Even
if he's not this massive speed threat. Maybe he's more
of like a fifteen steel guy long term, but hey,
if that comes with you know, good average, good OBP
and like, you know, twenty five to thirty home runs

(40:47):
or something like that, which I think is a solid
range for him to get to. I think this is
gonna be a really good offensive outfielder for years to
come and this point, you know, especially if he continues
stealing like this next year, I mean, this guy could
be in discussion for top ten. Yeah, I think I
think the speed will be the extractor if he continues
to run at higher levels. But if he does, I
think top ten isn't like crazy at this point.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Okay, So I've got the P and ADPs which I
haven't even told you about. They're coming up soon in
the next couple of weeks. I have to reach out
to everybody, but we had a little stall on it
before we do it, which as long as you're willing,
you'll be a part of it. As you've been, I
think every single one absolutely balance out the value what
you're talking about versus when people are drafting and the

(41:33):
hype that goes on because James is always signified that
his interest in my P and ADP's has been it
tells you market value. And what I mean by this
is like we have seen instances where Leo Devrees Hayesus
made at the time around the circles, we're not being
seen as in those I think it was like they

(41:55):
were not seen as like top twenty guys at that time,
yet they both went like inside the top eight. I
think there were like six respectively or something. In the
P and ADPs we had some like really high movements.
So when you say he's like, okay about top twenty five,
where do you think Florentino is gonna go? When you
think about hype upside, that type of game that people play,

(42:16):
what do you think the Florentino like if you had
the you know, let's say it's twelve team, If you
had the tenth pick and you take a guy at
ten and you come back around around fourteen, are you
going to be tempted to get Florentino knowing you're not
going to get him coming back for your third pick?
Is he that type of boost? So like take a cuestimation.

Speaker 4 (42:34):
I don't think I look at him there and that
in that scenario is because there's so many other names,
like right, that cluster arrange for me is like, you know,
the the first you know tier of outfield prospects. You
know that Jenkins, Kintaro, Clark, Hope, Depaula. Oh, those guys
are kind of in that range. So I don't think
he goes quite that high, but I do think it's
gonna be top twenty five or close to it, because

(42:56):
I think in the past people might have been a
little more hesitant to go with these guys that early.
But with how you know, let's look at the top
of rankings right now, for the most part, many top
tens have what five guys under age twenty with Griffin Walcott, DeVries,
Made and Pina. So it's like, I think people want
to be like, oh, like fast forward a year, if

(43:17):
like a Florentino or whoever is in that spot in
the year from now, they will be, oh, look, hey,
I drafted them, you know, twenty seventh overall.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
And you know Chris Walsh's ADP mox last year.

Speaker 4 (43:28):
So I think you're gonna start seeing a lot of
more of these these types of the younger lower level
pop up upside types go you know, higher and higher
in these ADPs because they you know, they want to
get the guy that's gonna be top ten soon.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
So yeah, I think he goes.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
I think in the you know, give or take a
few spots either way, right around twenty five.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
I think it's probably where it's gonna go.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
I kind of think he's gonna go inside the teens.
I think people might fix them. Yeah, I do, I
because I think I think, like you talk about Hope,
I mean, I'm looking at mine. So it's like, he's
not gonna go ahead of you know, Eldridge and Hope.
And I don't personally think he's should go ahead of Bazana,
and I think Luis Pana will get him and stuff.
But when you start to open up, like if you

(44:06):
put someone to the test of lazarro Montes or Edward Florentino,
I think you're gonna get people that are gonna be
like listen, Florentino, big physical upside, maybe more positional value.
He's stealing bases, he's destroyed at you know, in his
first look. He is a monster counting stats guy. And
then people will kind of do the old tired like, well,
you know, the contact percentages, even though you know Mantas

(44:29):
is gonna have like thirty homers this year. I think
you could see, like when you stand by the way again,
I'm comparing to mine. You might have people that are like,
do I really want George Lombard over him? I think
real scout worlds like I would love Lombard like Lombard's
you know, characteristics are incredible, but the average is dipped
down that I do think. I think there's the potential

(44:49):
for that to happen. Like I think if you were building,
could you do this off the top of your head,
Let's do the all top Let's let's create it together,
the top five buzz Prospect. And what I mean by
that is those are the guys that are gonna go
like people have to have. They are gonna rank higher.
Everyone's trying to be the top guy on that person.

(45:11):
Connor Grifven doesn't count. McGonagall doesn't count, Made doesn't count.
Those guys do not count. I would say number one
is Luis Pana yep. Or at least we could create
the top five and then we could change the order.
So you agree he's a top five guy, right?

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Yes, absolutely, Okay, we got it.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
I think Florentino is gonna be on that list, right, yep,
I agree with that. Okay, I'm trying to look around
if you have any other's throat. Again, this is all
buzz like where Ronnie Old Rodriguez. Maybe yeah, the yeah
to a lesser degree, but yeah, he's okay. Maybe we're
not sure if we're gonna put him on there. Maybe

(45:47):
we're gonna put him on there.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
I mean, do you think like a Carson Benge is
that level of buzzy.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
I kind of don't think he has the Maybe I'm comfortable, like,
let's keep him on the outscore. We're keeping him.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
He's not like he's not as sexy of a name though,
And that's what I'm going with here.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
You're you're talking about you, you're talking about You're talking
about the sex factor, my friend. You're talking about people
that are all worked up about these prospects, and they're
moving him up to really high degree. So let me see,
I mean, you could maybe in theory put some you
could almost put some of the first year player guys
in there. I kind of think Andrew Fisher might go
into that. Let me see who else. So there's a

(46:26):
guy I want to talk about in a second, that
I almost don't want to throw on this list. Maybe
Johnny King.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
Yeah, Johnny King. Yeah, Yeah, he's skyrocketing for sure.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
Okay, so that's for sure. Three we could in theory,
I mean add back the other two. Yeah, yeah, do
you have anything to add?

Speaker 4 (46:45):
This might be a little like I'm in the back
end of my top one hundred right now. But like
Tyson Lewis, Johnny Level, you think any of those types
would be that level of Bo Davidson, those.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Types Johnny Davidson or Johnny david mind the TB. Yeah,
I sat with the Bodavidson's mom in the AFL. She's
super nice. Us I think Johnny Level might be in that. Again,
this is kind of like where people are ranking versus
like the insane hype. You want to keep moving up
Elle on Penia maybe yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
I was about to say, what about some of the
international guys, like, you know, Joshua Gonzalez, Kevin Alvarez.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
You know that those types Unicer Cockeres.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Maybe I think Gonzales, Maybe I think Painia. Okay, so
Luis Pania, let's get our official list of our top
five and then we can order that we like locks,
Painia Florentino absolutely locked. I would have said gauge jump
at one point, but things have kind of calmed down.

(47:46):
John of Tongue is almost in that list as well.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
I think I was looking at Tongue. I think he
could be up and there maybe, like you know, before
he got hurt. I think Mike Saroda was kind of
almost said.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
Saroda too, which, by the way, I'm gonna see Soro
tomorrow like in person. Uh yeah, let's put so well,
now Sirota lost it because he's got hurt, He's got
to lose that list.

Speaker 4 (48:07):
I think I think that kind of killed some of
the momentum there, Tom maybe Thomas White.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
Yeah, but I think the buzz is kind of like, yeah, okay,
So we got the two hitters Johnny King, and then
we got two spots where I think we've said Ronniel,
Yo Swar, Johnny Level, ele On Payna, Jonah Tongue, Jonah
tong So what two would you want of those last
two would you want to put on that list?

Speaker 4 (48:36):
I think tong I think there's a I've seen some
people that are saying Tongue is the number one pitching
protect in baseball, So I think he's that level of
buzzy for some So I think I think I put
Tongue in the five, and.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
I mean maybe it's Binge, but Binge up in triple A.
Maybe that's the guy.

Speaker 4 (48:52):
But maybe he's too high yet, you know, maybe maybe
maybe Rodriguez and people love and I like him too,
don't get me wrong, but people love Rigez.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
So I think Rodriguez is kind of on that one.
So the main point of it, I was almost gonna
say we could just transition to just being a top three.
The point of that game is is when you identify
who the players are. The players like ranks or ranks,
everybody's different. Some will have high, some have low. I'll
be higher on this guy, You'll be higher on this guy.
Blah blah blah. But there way universally these players that

(49:24):
ever there's stepping stones that have the biggest buzz and
people are trying to move up. You can identify those players.
Those are gonna be guys that have the potential to
not just move like you know four spots, like oh,
these guy's common twenty and he goes in the teams
or even ten spots. That's when you identify those players.
Those are the players that A, if you can get

(49:44):
in on early is great, B you can get probably
huge returns. See, those are gonna be the players that
you're gonna get hit up in the offseason where people
are gonna be like, oh, would you trade that Florentino guy?
And D those are going to be the players that
are gonna get overreached in either a new startups or
valuations like this. So if we identify those players, I

(50:04):
think the easy math of that entire little Goofy experiment
we did live on air is Luis Paana and Edward Florentino.
Those are probably two of the biggest players that have
the buzz. The problem with Paana is some argue he's
already top ten in there, but people are going to
try to put him up as like, I think as
high as four. That's as high as I think Paina

(50:25):
could go. And Florentino's a guy that I think is
universally seen as a top forty guy that could be
as high as the teams. And when you play that,
I think that kind of helps in that full identification game.
And maybe maybe we missed a player two and actually
the next player we're going to talk about I think
deserves to be in that conversation. But I think that
that was a fun experiment, just kind of like working
through because the ones we easily got to and agreed on,

(50:47):
it's like, well, yeah, those are the guys, and maybe
to lesser agrees that you know, like Johnny level As mentioned,
jos War Gonzalez, you know, those type of players are
in there. That player that I've been alluding to. Though
it's wild because it's sometimes you know, you you move
away from paying attention to certain players and then you
come back and you're like, we're still doing this. We

(51:09):
don't probably talk enough about Nate George. Nate George with
the baltim Orioles, who, by the way, the Oriols just
went out and had, you know, killer draft. They got
a Nate George like player, a little bit smaller and
like Slater to Brun. You know, they got all these
great guys in fantastic draft. But Nate George has quietly
had a little bit of a Jackson Holiday like year

(51:32):
where he has already moved three levels. He just got
moved up to Hya. He's been rookie ball, he went
to a ball, and now he's going to high a
on the year three point fifty one average across three
levels four to twenty three OBP five aweight slug three
four five slug, four homers, thirty nine stolen bases. He

(51:55):
almost has more stolen bases than strikeouts this year forty
three strikeouts, twenty eight walks, thirty nine stolen bases. The negative,
by the way, is caught nineteen times. I mean that
number could be close to fifty stolen bases. So something
we got to look at, you know. I think there's
a power projection thing that's going on with him, but
there's definitely some extra base ability. He hit three eighty

(52:17):
three and rookie ball three point thirty seven in a
ball huge jump, and now he has one game under
his belt at Hya where he got his first hit
at Hya, he was able to put that in. Also
walked and got a stolen base in his first game.
Nate George probably deserves to be in the conversation of

(52:39):
what we just did and our experiment of the buzzy
players that deserve to go higher. I don't think he's
in the Florentino conversations because there's not as much body projectability.
But like I was texting, Jeff Ponce about this, and
you know, he was like, listen, this is the top
one hundred guy. This is if you're not putting him

(52:59):
in there, he's an easy top one hundred guy. We
were talking about there might be some he had mentioned,
and I think this was on one of just their reports.
But you know, there's like a where the difference between
Slade called Well or where Nate George starts and Slade
Caldwell starts. There's kind of an interesting gap in there.
But I just don't know if there's been enough conversation,
enough attention. And I kind of think if we redid

(53:21):
that now because I kind of excluded him, i'd put
George in that conversation, at least for me. I don't
know if the rest is going to go there. That
that's a guy that if you ranked him eighty, I
have no idea where you have him welast obviously here
in a second, But if you ranked him eighty, I
think that's a guy that could go fifty. If you're
ranking him fifty, I think it's a guy that people
are like, I just got to get him around the

(53:41):
thirties or something like that. I think he has a
ceiling of getting into the top thirty to thirty five
with what he's put together this year. But what say you,
where do you have Nate George and what do you
think about him? In that same conversation of like the buzzy.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
Dudes, Now, it's funny that you brought up slid called
well because there are two spots apart right now in
my overall rankings at ninety seven to ninety nine. And I,
you know, was way too late to the party in
Nate George earlier this year. I fully admit that did
not push him as high as I should have and
and even you know a recent update, I didn't put
him as highs I should have. So yeah, if I

(54:14):
just put him as I was looking looking into the
Baltimore system, A litit the other day and I was like, yeah,
I got to push up Nate George a bit higher.
But you know, and while people were like, oh, he
doesn't have a lot of power, I'm like, he's not
a zero power guy. I could this be like a
twelve fifteen Homer guy at some point. Sure, I think
he can get there. And like you mentioned, there are
some issues with you know, how much he's been caught,
but you got to love the aggressiveness, that's definitely, and

(54:36):
he's got the speed off he's like, he's a good runner.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
There's a little bit more power production there.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
And another guy that you know keeps the k rate
and check about fifteen percent literally every level, he's been
right around that fifteen fifteen and a half percent mark,
you know, pretty close walk rates in every level about
nine and a half ten percent. I've been very consistent
level to level and making contact too, it's you know,
around eighty percent on the year. So yeah, I like
George I bit again, I think he's one that I

(55:03):
think this type of profile in general gets a little
undervalued just because like there's not huge power people like, oh,
you know, what's twelve home runs. But when you look
at the rest of the body of work and you think,
all right, this guy could you know, give you a
good average, good OBP you know, plenty of steals. Maybe
he's the top of the order type of guys a
lot of runs scored and give you like thirty plus steals. Yeah,

(55:25):
you know, maybe it's not super sexy in the power department,
but it's enough where the rest of the profile added,
then this is a pretty damn good all round players,
especially for a fantasy focused ranking. So yeah, I think
Nate George, if he finishes the season, you know, strong
and high a and has a good few weeks there,
I think you're talking, yeah, Nate George top fifty or
at least close to it for sure.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Yeah, And I want to say I don't have him
inside the top fifty right now. So don't feel like
you got in by the way. You never have to
feel like you just to justify any of this stuff.
Like like I said, like even over the last month,
I just like came back to Nate George and I
was like, good lord, it's still going on. So you
make those ye at the same time.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
Yep, Yeah, you just have.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Those in season adjustments and stuff like that. But you know,
like I don't have see I think I had called
well too high probably shocker. And you know he has
taken a dip, especially for my next update. I don't
have them next to each other or anything like that,
but the gap is closing. So like this, I think
this is a super interesting one. These guys are within
five months of age, They're now at the same level.

(56:24):
Who'd you rather Nate George or Franklin Arius, because I
know I've had conversations with Clegg, who really is not
is into Arius as a lot of other people, and
I think he's flown around. What do you think about that?
Two different positions, obviously, but what do you think about
comparing those two guys against each other.

Speaker 4 (56:42):
I still have Arius ahead, but I've been sliding.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
The trajectories are much different.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
I Arius has been kind of steadily not like massively falls,
but he's been like steadily dropping ten fifteen spots every
update the last few months. Well, George is kind of
on a rocket ship to some degree. So right now
I have Arius ahead, but I could see this flip
flopping because I think you rank them on just purely upside,
I'd go Nate George because Arius is, you know, I

(57:09):
think one of the better, you know, back to ball
guys in the minor leagues.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
But where's the power at? Where's the speed at?

Speaker 4 (57:15):
I don't know if he's more than does he get
past fifteen in either of those apartments?

Speaker 3 (57:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
I tell those questions on if he's more than this
a fringe average power speed guy.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
So I think he's got a high floor.

Speaker 4 (57:26):
He's given the bat to ball skills and he never
strikes out, but is he gonna have a lot of
extra juice where Nate George might not be quite the
same bat to ball guy as you know, as Arius
still good in his own right. With with more I
think he has similar power projection and a lot more
speed production. So would you rather have a little bit
more average than Arius or a lot more speed in George?

(57:48):
So yeah, I could see this becoming a real close
debate and maybe even flipping the George here by end
of season or early next year.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Yeah, and I'll tell you in my next update. I
have George over Arius. I made that move. And the
interesting thing of talking about this long term is, you know,
George is the average guy. You know, Arius is hitting
like I think it's like two ninety or whatever. George
is hitting three fifty one. But to your point, if
he continues and the batting average stays and you see
that same kind of discipline at high A, he's really

(58:18):
meeting the levels. To me, those are really good justification
markers for going bonkers with players. That's why I can
be a little bit slower where it can be like, hey,
this guy is doing really well at complex ball and
people are like top forty and you're just like WHOA, Okay,
like this is great, but let's also see where this
goes because we've been down this road and then you

(58:39):
know I went because I had him top forty. Now
he's doing this like that's kind of the Florentino thing.
And it's like as soon as you get to that
next level and you start to do I mean, you
go to complex and you just like murder ball at
like Florentino does they deserve those type of things. I
just want to sometimes see guys like be able to
successfully dominate multiple levels of stuff, and that's something that

(58:59):
George has done. So that's why, like the rocket ship,
it's fueling up even further and it's like, wow, if
we at the end of this month, look and it's
like George hit three hundred at this level as well.
We really really got to pay attention to him. Another
guy we need to pay attention to, I think a
lot more. I think he falls into like a boring
conversation for people. I just wanted to bring up because
I never talked about him, even tho I'm a Diamondbacks fan,

(59:20):
but uh, lou James Groover Gino Gino Grover, who was
with the was with the Diamondbacks, was in the AFL
this past year. He is quietly having a really nice season.
He has played double a all season long. He's hitting
two ninety three seventy three OBP. We could do some
work on the slug and ops whatever, but ten homers,

(59:41):
seventeen doubles, strikeout rate, that is nothing crazy, crazy worrisome.
Yet he's walking some. He just drives the ball and
hits the ball hard. You know, he's going to be
one of those guys. It's going to be like a
ten percent barrel ninety average EV And if the hard
hit keeps to progress and the hit tool loos really
nice right now, you know, I don't think he is

(01:00:02):
going to be a top fifty prospect or anything like that,
but I think that hit tool is putting him in
the line to like, this is a completely weird comp
So forgive me, because you're gonna be like, oh, he's
a left handed but like I could see Geno Groover
being like a Josh Naylor type of player, you know,
like twenty twenty five homers, hits a lot of RBIs,
hits the ball hard in the middle of the lineup.
I mean, he's not going to steal twenty bases. I

(01:00:23):
just think Gino is quietly sitting out there, and I
don't know where people rank him, but I just thought
he deserves some attention. What do you think about Gino?

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
I've always liked Gino. I mean seeing him, you know,
out in the AFL. When was that year before last?
I want to say it was like.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
The last year it all come of bunch together that
it truly does. It's like, did I see him that year?
That year?

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
But yeah, I already kind of liked them then, but
this is seeing it. I don't think he even like
had like a huge stat line out there. I think
he was hitting form one of I think he have
for a good average, but there was like zero, you know,
maybe like one home run the entire time. But I
was just like being this guy is just a professional hitter.
I think that's the best way to describe. Gruber's like,
this guy, Yeah, he's gonna be a major league hitter.
I mean, is he gonna be a super high impactful

(01:01:08):
one or just more of like a quiet under the
radar type that still remains to be seen.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
But you can't argue with.

Speaker 4 (01:01:15):
You know, a guy that's had a contact rate above
eighty percent at every level, every area's gone last you know,
where there's complex, low, A high, eight, double A, it's
eighty percent every level. And you mentioned, you know, k
rate under twenty percent, you know, solid walker rate in
that ten percent range. And yeah, maybe maybe he's a
twenty homeer guy as opposed to twenty five to thirty plus.
But you know, I think if if you add in

(01:01:36):
the fact that he's probably a hit or high average,
maybe he's a two seventy two eighty guy eighteen twenty
home runs. That's still a pretty solid outcome. Maybe it's
like just just categorically statistically, you know, kind of what's
uh Alec Bohm has been kind of been doing for
a bit now, where it's you know, you know, never
the huge powder but he you know, booms aws, hit
the ball hard, mostly into the ground. But I can

(01:01:58):
see that type of outcome where he's like in that
Alec Bohm range of value overall, Like I have Grooverer
one forty seven right now in my overall and I
think I can make a case for him being top
one hundred by the end of the year. I think
it's definitely maybe ever gonna be a top fifty guy.
But given like he is one of the higher floors
I think in the minor leagues right now. So given

(01:02:18):
that and a little bit of power projection, yeah, I
could see a top one hundred at least in that discussion.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
I think he's like just he's totally one of those
battles between like, yes, there's proximity and he could have
value when he's up versus the upside play, like you know,
it's goofy enough because he still qualifies, But like Tyler
Lockley is one of those like you never super exciting,
but now he's like he's a diamondback in a great
hitting environment. You it's wildely known about, like the swing
change stuff. My god, he looks like Christian Walker. Can

(01:02:46):
you rank him inside the top one hundred or even
top one fifty, Like I guess you could. But from
a dynasty perspective, I think he's worth more than basing
him against prospects. And what I'm getting by that is, like,
you know, guys like Nate George, you know, or whatever
it is. You know, there's a million of these young
prospects where they're in low a They're far away, but
they could be the big thing. Is it worth a serviceable,

(01:03:08):
maybe platoony type of player if they keep working. That's
the big question. And that's why I think I think
Gino falls into that kind of same world a little bit.
These guys do not fall into this world. These are
DSL prospects who are dominating. These are gonna get people
riled up in the prospect analytics sheets world that you're

(01:03:28):
going to see these big numbers in the DSL and
we're going to pop them up. And I'm really really curious,
not only just your takes, but how do you evaluate
these guys. First up, it's Rockies Christian Argulus. I'm gonna
say R E A R g U E L L
E s Argulus argillous. He's an outfielder with the Colorado Rockies.
Five homers, five stolen bases, hitting four to twenty three,

(01:03:50):
just under two hundred bats in the DSL, got a
five hundred OBP, absolutely dominating extra base monster too. He
played over their last year, but in forty eight games
he's got twenty five extra base hits. Right now, more
walks than strikeouts. He's putting up crazy numbers. Some good
prospect projectability as well from a body and all men.

(01:04:15):
Tolentino with the Marlins, who's listed as a catcher six
to one, one sixty obviously positionally could move off having
a great run three ten average, four forty three OVP,
just under thousand ops and around one hundred and fifty
at bats, six homers, nineteen stolen bases. Another guy with
more walks than strikeouts in here a bunch of extra

(01:04:36):
base hits eighteen of his forty four hits or extra base.
Both of these guys I think are two big There's
a couple others I've talked about. Marconi Hermann was one
of those. You know. There's a few other guys obviously
that flow into this list, but these are two I
think near the top of the DSL, really big standouts.
Any thoughts on them and how do you approach the

(01:04:57):
rank of them, because you know DSL there's so much
to be had, you know, I don't I don't remember
how big your list is, but it's like, do you
immediately make them top two hundred? Are they like flyer
buzzy players that are outside the top four hundred? You know, Like,
how do you approach both of these guys again, Almend
Tolentino and Christian aregillous.

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
Yeah, these guys in general, you know, especially.

Speaker 4 (01:05:22):
The ones that were kind of pop ups that we
weren't like in on already, like the you know, the higher,
bigger names and the international classes. I usually don't go like,
you know, a super high jump on these guys. I mean,
I'll kind of push them. And Herman's yeah, Hermon's in
that same kind of arrangement too, Like yeah, I feel like,
I mean, let me just pull up Herman here just
because I said, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
While you're playing up and I wanted to say the
reason I'm saying same these too is because I don't
want you to feel compelled because I'm asking this question
that you need to be like, oh crap, you know
I got them at four hundred and forty four and
everyone's in a bubble. No, Like I'm in agreement with you,
Like I think, what there's a weird line of like
you want to talk about you can and identify the
players and what true value looks like, and it's like,

(01:06:04):
can you truly go like this is because of what
he's doing in the DSL, He's the top one hundred
prospect it's like, nah, dude, we got it, Like I mean,
stupidly always say that about yes, Fir Mercedes, Like we've
had enough of those, Like I think you need to
proceed with caution. But the league that you play in
can warrant if you can make those moves. Are you
play one of those big ass leagues where it's eight
hundred prospects? These are the dudes that you're on. But

(01:06:26):
if you only keep two hundred prospects, are you willing
to be like, well, you know, I mean just randomly, look,
you know, uh, Kindle George has been okay, Like should
I just dump Kindle George? You know, there's not a
lot of power even only stealing bases? And should I
go for one of these guys? I think that's where
you start to get into just like it gets messy
with that type of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
Oh for sure. And that's exactly what I was going
to say, is it really? And these are the guys.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
The deeper the format, the more churn and burn I
think is warranted, right because you got to you know,
be quick to hop on these guys, but someone else
does and then if it's you not working out and
they end up floundering, then yeah, you move on to the.

Speaker 3 (01:07:03):
Next hot name. So but yeah, it's I don't think
it's worth yet.

Speaker 4 (01:07:07):
Like if they you know, come over the Complex or
Loway whatever next year and you see them, you know,
continue to do some good things at the plate and
all right, then I think you can put them in
like all right, now they're warranted in like those two
hundred prospect roster type of formats. So yeah, I was
looking to Hormond because it's around like three fifty three
sixty right now, which I think is generally like that

(01:07:28):
three fifty to four hundred range is where I pop
a lot of these guys. I think, I think it's like,
all right, they're on the list. I did I do
my five hundred. They're in the list. They're not like
supertail ends. I'm moving up a little bit, but I
just want to see more. If they were you know,
one of the guys that were like, oh, like like
Michael Kort or someone at that who I love the
skill is on coming into you know him playing, I'm

(01:07:49):
more willing to go higher with those guys. And then
then these types like they're you know Aguallis and Tolentino
but yeah, I think they're definitely these are types of
guys like this. Go find you know, the DSL leaderboards
and see who's doing well, especially these guys like you
mentioned the these guys that have good approaches, Like I
don't if some guy who was hitting like a bunch

(01:08:10):
of home runs but it's striking out three percent of
the time in DSL, I don't care about that guy,
I really don't. But like you know, these guys that
are walking more when they strike out and doing you know,
some other good things to play, these are the guys
I actually will be more willing to be you know,
investing in right now. So yeah, I think in those
deeper three to fifty plus under plus roster, you know,

(01:08:30):
leagues with prospects, you know, the turn and burn is
more important.

Speaker 3 (01:08:33):
I think these guys fall into that chart and burn discussion.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
Yeah, And that's what I've been trying to do, Like
I try to, like the initial thing that I do
immediately when I identify like a DSL guy is I
try to pop them inside the top four fifty so
it's like, all right, they're not at the bottom, they're
in the four and then we just kind of watch
and then we kind of keep making the move. So
that's that's usually my like general approach of just continuing.
You know, a couple other Edgar Montero with the A's

(01:08:58):
as a player, Luist Covo with the Marlins, like those
are a couple of those players that are starting to
jump up. Let's move over to some pitchers. This kind
of an unheralded move in the trade deadline was surprising.
With the diamondback Scott for Iohane or I'm sorry for
mel Caroly Merrill Kelly that they got three really interesting
pitching prospects. I openly said that I think David Hageman

(01:09:20):
could end up being the best piece of all of
it when it's done, because I watched him pitch. He's incredible,
completely underrated, a lot of cold Drake fans out there,
and he looks like the higher proximity guy. But I
wanted to buzz you on Mitch Bratt. Mitch Bratt, twenty
two year old, moved over to double A. He's got
a three to one four ERA in twenty games so
far this year. Good strikeout numbers, pushed one hundred innings.

(01:09:43):
You know, solid low whip stuff homers. We're gonna have
to watch, especially when he gets pushed over to like
the PCL how that's gonna end up, but just really
fantastic year, Gonna be a rotation potential guy for next season.
You're you're more than willing if you're like, hey, I'm
so dramatically higher on Cold Drake than Mitch Bratt do that.
But I wanted to get your take in your rank

(01:10:05):
level on Mitch Bratt.

Speaker 4 (01:10:07):
You know, I think I have all three of these
guys fairly close in my rankings. I have Cold Drake
at see two sixty five. I have Mitch Bratt, yeah,
two eighty three, and that honestly, not that I'm saying
those numbers out loud, might be a little little low
number wise on the rank of both those guys. But yeah,
when I was kind of going over you know, you know,

(01:10:29):
writing up some of you know, recap articles and went
on the podcast and whatnot for you know, post deadline
stuff to kind of go over all the moves, I
was like, yeah, this was like sneaky good because Merrill
Kelly's well, you know, he's obviously solid arm thirty six
years old, definitely expendable for Arizona right now for them
to get you know, three solid arms and as you know,
well like this, their system is you know, for the

(01:10:50):
most part, predominantly more sexy on the.

Speaker 3 (01:10:52):
Hitter side lately.

Speaker 4 (01:10:53):
So yeah, you get to get these three guys to
kind of help kind of replenish that pitching side of
the system was really solid. And I think Mitch Bratt
get gets slopped a lot of these Texas guys if
they've had a lot, you know, the the Dava ViOS
of the world, you know, the Brats, the Drake. There's
a lot of pop up guys, like the last couple
of years, Aiden Curry was one. He's kind of fizzled out,
but they've had a lot of pop up guys, and

(01:11:15):
you know, and Bratt being you know, still fairly on
the young side, twenty two, you know in double A
now a lefty, he's got you know, he's got a
solid fastball. You know, I don't love the breakers, you know,
I think he's more of a high floor guy than
you know, like one of those like oh he's gonna
be an impact, you know, like dantasy darling. But I
think you guys, see, you know, him be one of

(01:11:36):
those guys that kind of sneaks up on you. You're like,
you know, you know a few years from now, we
look at end of the season, you're like, hey, you know,
Mitch Brot had a pretty solid year and it wasn't
really talked about, wasn't drafted for fantasy all this and that.
So I think he's gonna be a guy that keeps
kind of sneaking up with people. And you know, just
because he doesn't have the super sexy arsenal, that doesn't
have the huge upside. But this is absolutely, like you mentioned,

(01:11:56):
this is absolutely a rotation arm given the you know,
deep r arsenal, above average or better command and control. Yeah,
I think this is gonna be you know, a solid
major league go nup for a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:12:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
And I've got him inside the top two hundred. I
got him over Drake right now, even though Drake is
going to get a look shortly here and Bratt's not
gonna this year, but he'll be a guy for next that.
I just think he's one of those He has one
of those hitting arms. And the d bacs did you know,
drafting Patrick Forbes having him, Daniel Egan is progressed like
they do have some guys now, which is pretty interesting

(01:12:26):
Cole Drake and Hageman. So Mitch Bratt is someone to
pay attention to. A couple other pitchers, Owen Murphy. Owen
Murphy returned from injury this year. He's already I think
he missed the majority of the early part of the season.
And if I remember correct, this is coming back from
Tommy John.

Speaker 3 (01:12:42):
Correct, Yeah, I think it was. Did he get the brace? No,
I think he was Tommy John.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Yeah, from the Tommy John.

Speaker 3 (01:12:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
So he's already only had three starts so far this year,
but he's not given up an earned run. Eleven innings,
eighteen strikeouts. He's pretty much not giving up anything right now.
Zo point two toy six whip over those three stars.
He's in high A. He looks absolutely sick right now.
He had a one five four ERA last year before
being out. He just feels like one of those, uh,

(01:13:11):
kind of forgotten names. I don't know where everybody has
placed him, but he's got the feelds of a guy
that's floating in that one hundred. The problem is that
there's like a lot of like really interesting good pictures,
you know, whether I think JR. Ritchie I think is
near the top of that but I think Owen Murphy
is hugging that range. What do you think about Owen
Murphy and what rank do you have on him?

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
I can tell you I'm not sure everyone else has him,
but I'm probably lower than most on Owen Murphy. And
that's not to say I don't like it. I like
Owen Murphy. Don't get me wrong. I like Owen Murphy.
I just don't. I don't love Owen Murphy.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
I don't like you don't like. Oh, you're about to
be about to tell us what you don't like Owen Murphy.

Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
Let's see, I about to tell you exackly what I
said I don't do Uh. But uh, he's a solid arm.

Speaker 4 (01:13:54):
There's no doubt in my mind, like this guy's gonna
be a major league arm. But I'm just not a
fan of you know, I don't know if soft tossing
is a good term, but he's definitely not a power arm.
And this is my style in general. I've never been
super into like these like ninety one ninety two mile
an hour, righties, right. So that's why I think people

(01:14:17):
whenever I post anything that's to do with like pitching rankings, whatnot,
I usually get a comment about how, you know, oh
what Murphy should be up there with with Ryan Sloan
and this and that, Like, No, I don't. I don't
think he's on that level. But to your point, he
has been phenomenal since since he came back eighteen to
one strike out the walker.

Speaker 3 (01:14:34):
Race, siow, it's not two hits.

Speaker 4 (01:14:35):
He's not three base runner a four if he come
to hit by pitch, but four base runners out of
the thirty sixties face since coming back from you know,
basically missing a year and a few months time. You know,
he made seven starts last year, and he was dominant
in those seven starts as well. I mean five at
times as many walks as straight out to strike out
as his walks last year. So yeah, I mean again

(01:14:57):
I think, Ohen Murphy, we're going to have him in
my ranking. I have Owen Murphy at that's the wrong Owen.
How Owens are there?

Speaker 2 (01:15:04):
My god, I guess there's a lot of Owens. I
did the same thing when I did my search. It
was like Owen Carry and it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:08):
Was yeah, like Owen Wild.

Speaker 4 (01:15:09):
I'm like, oh yeah, I'm hitting all the the Owens
that are like way down my rankings. So I have
Owe Murphy around two hundred right now and then midaly.
That's probably a little bit low. But I'm I'm just
not ready to see him. If he continues dominating this
double A, triple A, maybe up more. But I just
don't see like the overly high upside here. I think
he's more like SP four type in my eyes. And
I now people probably see him, you know, view him

(01:15:31):
higher than that for the most part.

Speaker 3 (01:15:32):
But I don't know. I like Murphy. I don't love
Owen Murphy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
I see it. I mean, you know, you want big
vilas and stuff like that, but the stuff looks great,
uh good shape on the fastball, slider, curveball, curveball.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
Look.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Sometimes I'll see a pitch and it'll have like cutter
characteristics too, So I don't There's a lot of interesting
stuff about him. I'd kind of throw out, you know,
I mentioned at the open the AFL stuff. He might
be an AFL guy, you know, because he's just coming
back you want to build up. I would say he's
like the prototypical guys who'll probably get to take a
long look at him. I will admittedly throw this at
you where you say people are on your case about

(01:16:08):
Owen Murphy, I feel like one of the guys. There's
there's a couple guys in on the Patreon that I've seen.
Someone was like, so do you just not like him?
And it's Brody Hopkins. There are people on my case
about like my rank on Brody Hopkins with the Tampa
bay Rays, twenty three year old he said double a
three era, ninety seven innings, one hundred and eighteen strikeouts,

(01:16:30):
high whip numbers, it's around one to three right now.
A little bit of a walk thing going on as well,
fifty walks over those ninety seven innings. Where are you
at on Brody Hopkins? He's made some steady ish right.
I had an issue in an update where he wasn't there,
But like, I don't have him incredibly high. I do
think the season warrants like a really big conversation about

(01:16:52):
his value. But you know, also there's a rank conversation
to have where people are like, well, how could you
have this guy one eighty four and this guy at
two seventy And it's just like you don't understand how
small of a gap that truly is in valuation. It
just kind of works out that way. But I'll admit
I'm not gonna be like I love Berdie Hopkins. I'm

(01:17:12):
not sure I'm in love. I think there's some serviceable
stuff here. I wonder if this could go the way
of like an Ian Seymour, where he's a guy that
can stretch the innings but gets pushed to a bullpen.
I don't love the walk stuff that's out there. But
you tell me differently, where do you got Berdie Hopkins?
And do you think I should be higher on him?

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:17:29):
I don't think I you should be. Well, I have
him two thirty six right now, so I.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
Have him slightly lower than you. I've got him in
like two.

Speaker 4 (01:17:35):
Sixty, Okay, So it's so, yeah, we're both in that
two fifty issue and jib or take and yeah, yeah,
I've just you know, and I was talking in my
discord about this.

Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
I think it was a couple of days ago.

Speaker 4 (01:17:45):
People were asking me just about valuing these kind of
higher walk rate guys, and obviously, you know, it can change.
Like I was, you know, probably a little bit lower
on Mizierowski at certain points because the walk rate was
so high, and obviously he kind of, you know, made
some adjustments this year, so it's not a unfixable issue.
But I have just been not been one to rank

(01:18:06):
you know, these guys that have control command issues super
high and for the most part it's it's worked out
well for me. These guys oftentimes don't reach the potential
get pushed the bullpen. I do think Hawkins could be
a pretty solid bullpenk guy, like guy that's pitching high
leverage innings. The fastball slider combination is really really good,
you know, mid to upper nineties fastball. You know, slider

(01:18:28):
can Mispats is a super elite clip. You know, it's
like mid to upper eighties as well. Two playing break
I think those could be absolutely lethal in like a
seventh eighth inning role, you know, leading up to a
Pete Fairbanks.

Speaker 3 (01:18:39):
But I just I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:18:41):
See him sustaining, you know, being a starter for long term.
Just the lack of a good third offering is still
kind of eluded him outstead of that fastball slider and
and I walk grate being twelve plus percent. That's that's
that ranger I always mentioned, like if you're you know,
I call it the I think I've mentioned on podcasts
with you before, like the Freddy Perwult role. If you're

(01:19:01):
in that nine ten percent range with elite bat missing stuff,
you can live with it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
When you get that twelve plus percent range.

Speaker 4 (01:19:07):
Then I start getting really concerned and questioning like should
I drop you lower or you gotta be a bullpen
arm And says he's kind of flirting with that twelve
percent range right now that you why twelve pointy four
percent or whatever it is. Yeah, I mean there's talent here.
There's definitely arm talent for sure, no doubt about it.
But I got to wonder is that arm talent better
suited again in that seventh eighth inning role as opposed
to you know, in every fifth day starter.

Speaker 2 (01:19:29):
Yeah, and there's also like you got to play the
projection game with a lot of players. But it's like
in twenty three at Double A, like are we at
a level like can they fix that stuff?

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:19:36):
Absolutely, you can pitch mixes or change. I mean freaking
Brandon Fott made a change earlier in this year just
throwing I think it was what primary cutters stopped throwing
a fastball and started going, you know, cutting the ball.
Like you can have those type of change, but it's
like when is that going to happen. When is that
attention going to happen? So I'm just not a buyer
in it until it starts to happen. The final one

(01:20:00):
is again in kind of a pseudo theme to a
few of these players where I think, like Nate George
is like Edward Flortino has been loudly in our face,
Nate George has quietly had I think, this really great
year that doesn't get talked about. Elmer Rodriguez Cruz is
another one of those guys where it's like you end
up looking and you're like, this is is how quietly

(01:20:23):
has this season been put together where he's had just
really incredible results. Twenty two year old with the Yankees
two point zero two ERA one hundred and twenty nine
strikeouts over one hundred and fifteen innings, essentially a one
whip which is crazy fastball, cutter, really great curveball. He's
got a slider. I mean there's like variations on the

(01:20:43):
cut slide. He's got a change. I mean there's a
big offering with a big fastball, whippy arm. Kind of
get like uri vibes when you watch him pitch a
little bit that's floating out there, just really really good stuff,
a guy that continues to flow up ranks and no
surprise of the Yankees. But what say you, where's Elmer
Rodriguez in your valuation? And are you buying what he's
put together this season?

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:21:05):
No, I definitely am buying. I have him currently at
one forty nine in my overall and that's actually a
really fun I actually have four arms back to back
to back to back right here, so I have at
one forty eight.

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
These are really fun arms too. Sebon Mahea of the
Baltimore Orioles.

Speaker 4 (01:21:20):
Okay, Rodriguez Cruz one forty nine, your Angela Cintage at
one point fifty and Johnny Kingly fifty one. So really
four exciting arms in that range. Raylon Dowd he's in
that range too, Brendon Clark. So that's a really fun
range for for pitching prospects in general, at least in
my rankings.

Speaker 3 (01:21:37):
But yeah, no, I like Rodriguez Cruz.

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
I mean he kind of feels like, you know, there
are there are some you know similarities here, you know
from you know, the guy we just talked about.

Speaker 3 (01:21:47):
But Rigaz Cruz is you know, two years younger.

Speaker 4 (01:21:51):
I think he's only he's only twenty one right now,
he's almost twenty two.

Speaker 3 (01:21:55):
But you know, really good.

Speaker 4 (01:21:57):
You mentioned, you know, the fastball is electric, he's got
a you know good, really good slider, and I think
I think the rest of the arsenal, while you know,
those two pitches might lead the way, I think the
rest of the arsenal is a bit better, you know,
you know, in terms of the third and fourth offerings.

Speaker 3 (01:22:11):
And he's really kind of improved. Is his strike throwing
all year?

Speaker 4 (01:22:15):
I mean, look at in it's not even five starts,
but that's still thirty two innings. That's not like insanely
small sample size. The walker right in double A is
down too, has lost my spot here?

Speaker 3 (01:22:27):
What was it done?

Speaker 4 (01:22:27):
To six and a half percent after being ten point
nine and high A. So the fact that he's kind
of you have, the k rates also dropped about four
and a half percent. But you know, this is a
guy that is still fairly young for the level that
he's at. He can miss bats and that he's kind
of evolving the rest of his arsenal, you know, while
still making some improvements in terms of strike throwing. That's

(01:22:48):
really exciting. And even if the fallback is a bullpen
arm for him as well, where he can go dominate
with that fastball slider combo. You know, I think there's
a couple of paths to success here. And I'm really,
like I mentioned to you before we staid recording, he's
lined up to play up here in Portland on Saturday,
I think Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:23:06):
It was at a Friday or Saturday night.

Speaker 4 (01:23:07):
I gotta look again, but I'm definitely gonna go see him,
just to see him firsthand and see it's what the
you know, the arsenal looks like, you know, in front
of my own eyes, so really exciting arm Again, He's
in that cluster of those buzzy upside arms that all
could be top one hundred, you know, sooner rather than later.
So yeah, I'm definitely and I'm definitely in on Elma
Rodriguez Cruiz for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
He also threw at Esteban Mahia. You had a highway,
you say, like around the one forties. That's a that's
a nice healthy rank.

Speaker 4 (01:23:33):
Yeah, no, I I He's one that I struggled to
rank and I was probably too long on him earlier
in the year. But there's just so much arm talent
there and yeah, he's super, super young. He's only eighteen,
so maybe that's a bit aggressive, but it's gonna look
either look really good or really bad in the in
a year's time. This guy could be like a top
twenty five play prospect in a year's time, or he

(01:23:53):
could just be one of those another one of those
electric eighteen year olds that fizzle out. So I don't
know's he's a hard the rank, but I thought one
fifty felt pretty good. I gain that's a similar range
to a lot of really fun, younger lower level arms
from me right now.

Speaker 2 (01:24:08):
I don't know if you mentioned him too, Like Nate
Payne would be another one of those guys you probably
I would throw in that same general range out of Miami.
And you know I've heard some just outside the top
one hundred comps on Nate Payne as well, you know, uh,
finishing out one thing I just thought of, you know,
that game we played, I got a guy to add
to our top five, which would probably knock you know whatever,

(01:24:28):
one of those DSL guys out. But I would say
Kendrick Churio would be another one of those guys, like
I know, I've talked about it. I know Cleig kind
of started I saw him live, Cleig then saw him
like there's a lot of buzz and a seventeen year
old at low a, you know, that's that kind of
ethan holiday big push. I would say Cheerio is like
at least borderline into that, like him, Johnny King, you know,

(01:24:49):
then obviously Florentino and Paine. I would say he'd probably
be one of those top five guys that has so
much buzz he needs to be Like my personal list
would probably be like maybe even don't even count payin anymore,
but it's like Louis Payana, Edward Florentino, Johnny King, Kendrick Churio,
and Nate George. Those would probably be like the big
guys that I think could blow past where they're taken

(01:25:12):
or valued versus where rank people have them.

Speaker 3 (01:25:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:25:16):
No, Cherio, and he's the one that look at his
strikeout the Walk Rice Show. It's like, I forget what
it is, but it's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
He's sick.

Speaker 2 (01:25:23):
He's sick.

Speaker 4 (01:25:24):
Yeah, it's it's like seven strikeouts to everyone walks or something. Yeah,
and saying like that for a guy that's still not
even eighteen yet, I mean that that's that's just crazy,
Like yeah, he's definitely. There's so many really exciting young
arms are now, so it's gonna be fun. Like said,
a year's time from now, how many of these guys

(01:25:44):
take that jump? Continue what they're doing as they get
to like low, A high, a DOUBLEA whatever it may be.
And you know, are the are these guys like the
next wave and we're ranking them a year from now
where we're ranking you know, guys like you know Peyton
totally like traded you Savage?

Speaker 3 (01:25:59):
Those are they?

Speaker 4 (01:26:00):
You know in that top ten pitching process discussion because
there's so many names that they could make that jump,
it's really exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
Yeah, And if you turn that question a little on
its side to what originally said where it's like if
you if I were to say, who are the guys that,
based on where most of us have them ranked, are
going to go higher in the pew and ADPs. Churio
is a guy that's like, I think he'll touch the
top one hundred. I think he'll touch the tip one hundred.
You know, some of those type of things that are
going to flow out there there you go, some great
names giving you some extras out there? What do you

(01:26:26):
got going on?

Speaker 3 (01:26:27):
What do you what's going down on right now across
oh Man.

Speaker 4 (01:26:30):
Still cranking along the baseball and all my August rankings
up on my Patreon. Still cranking along on rotoball or
a few articles a week there, doing the Toolshit podcast
which you were just on a couple of weeks ago,
a few weeks ago, talk the draft, and yeah, still
going full boar on baseball. It's fun, as you know,
being you know, doing a lot of similar content. To me,

(01:26:51):
there's like no off season for us, even like October
November boom. We're doing off season lists, We're doing you
know AFL, you know articles, stuff like that. So never
never ending cycle. But you know, we do what we
love and I love doing this, so that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:27:05):
So I tell the people at my job over fantasy pros,
it's like the football guys they get some time off
and they'll be like, well, we got drafts, and it's like, yeah,
but you'll at least get a month. I get no time.
There's like not even just like January, but see even
not even January because that's like the real start of
like big baseball prep and shows, and they just there's
truly maybe December is the closest thing to it for me,

(01:27:27):
as like football starts to wind down and baseball is
in a little bit of a dead spot sometimes in December,
that's the closest thing. But yeah, we never break, there's
no time off. But I'm glad to do this stuff
with you, talk these prospects, and I know I'm going
to see him like two months I'm gonna see out
here in Arizona.

Speaker 4 (01:27:43):
Right, Yeah, literally a little bit less than two months. Yeah, no, no, no,
about two and a half months.

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
Yeah, two months, I'm sorry, two months AFL starts, so
you'll be a little less than three months when the
first pitch stuff is out here.

Speaker 3 (01:27:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:27:56):
Hey, it's already mid August, so it's only another you know,
a few weeks is going to feel like, and then
boom when I'm already boarding a flight going out your way.

Speaker 3 (01:28:04):
So looking looking forward to it for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:28:06):
Looking forward to seeing you. And thanks for taking some
time for me.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
Yeah, I always appreciate it, man, But there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:28:11):
That is the episode. Thank you again to Eric Cross
for taking the time for all these prospects, and uh
hot tip to my buddy Dennis as well for letting
me get to hang and meet Mike Sarota and do
all that cool fun stuff, get some fun nuggets, and
you guys can get some great autographs from him. And
I had some stuff he brought me from he'd done
Williar Bray, you and Ivan Herrera, Michael King. Actually one

(01:28:32):
of the coolest things I now own. I'll have to
show you guys a picture of this soon. I remember
he Dennis had said this to me and I completely
forgot about it. He got me a ball and I'll
show it soon. On the top of the ball, it's
autographed by Jake Berger. On the sweet spot, it's autographed
by Michael King. Yes, Burger King and Jake Berger inscribed

(01:28:55):
at the bottom whopper combination. That's the coolest ball on
the planet Burger King ball, and Dennis did confirm he
still I think has a few more of those, So
go to SIDS Grafts if you want to pick it up.
I completely forgot about that. It was so cool. Plus
brought some future game as Merlin Valdez and Lazaramntes. So
got some cool stuff for the collection, and you guys

(01:29:16):
can go and do the same. All right. That's it.
I got no more news to break, but I do
got afl stuff to start putting together. I got lists
to keep adjusting, a couple of prospects coming up the
top five hundred, and I'm pretty excited over the next
month of stuff we get to give you, guys. I'll
do a full Arizona with my Arizona Prediction show. I'll
do the Arizona kind of breakdown Arizona Fall League, and
then we will have p win ADP drafts, which, by

(01:29:38):
the way, if you want to take part in those,
make sure you're a part of my patreon in this
league dot com that is where we fill them. It's
usually like a third to half of a league is
industry people, and then we have it with my incredible
community and we create these ADP with multiple drafts, So
if you want to be a part of it, make
sure you're part of the Patreon and we're going to

(01:29:59):
be getting those filled soon. That's all I got. You guys,
have a fantastic one. I'm gonna go see some more
complex ball a little Billy Carlson planning to see here soon.
So we'll report back next week and we'll do it
right here on Prospect One.

Speaker 3 (01:30:11):
My friends,

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Episode 406 - Prospect Watch with Eric Cross

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 406 - Prospect Watch with Eric Cross