Episode 410 - AFL Week 1 Breakdown and Final MiLB Stat Leaders - Prospect One

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
In this league podcast that work present Prospect one. So
Fantasy prospect Podcast Prospect one with your host Chris Wells.
This is the Fantasy Baseball prospect podcast. This is Prospect one.
Hello friends, I'm your host Chris Welsh, who you can

(00:22):
find on Twitter and Instagram at is it the Welsh
and of course at in this league dot Com. In
this league dot com houses my top five hundred prospects,
my top four hundred dynasty. It's got the Prospect one
P one ADP that is two hundred players prospects within
ADP plus I've got first year players and more ranked

(00:45):
in this league dot Com. You can sign up today
get access to those ranks, and if you want to
sign up at a little bit higher, you can get
in the Group me rooms at the LT or captain
level get access to everything. But you can have access
to me awesome community. The Prospect one room is poppin'
And the final piece of it all is if you
just want to support what I do in this league
dot com, I very very much appreciate it. It allows

(01:07):
me to be able to go out to the Arizona
Fall League like I'm doing, which this episode is kind
of a Twofer meant to have an episode before this
Arizona Fall League. Just boom, it just exploded on me
and I've been out at it and we're going to
be doing a week one breakdown, but I also want
to do a little bit of recap for the end

(01:28):
of the season for some of the prospects stat wise,
So this is a two parter. This is the end
of season prospects stats and the first week of the
Arizona Fall League. A note programming note is I'm going
to be doing episodes on Mondays because that is the
off day for the Arizona Fall League. It's a pretty
crazy day for me in general's my recording schedule. But
we did have an ITL Baseball episode the way too

(01:50):
early twenty six MOC which pushed this episode a little
bit back. But Mondays is going to be the plan
to break down the previous week with the Earth in
a fall league. I am looking to do some player
interviews here shortly, and then you know, the first pitch
conference is going to be here next thing you know it,
and we will be doing some interviews through there. So

(02:11):
that's the plan this episode. There's a lot of prospects
stuff because we're gonna kick it off with a little
bit of in season stuff and then we're gonna jump
into the Arizona Fall League. So, you know, the last
couple weeks have obviously been crazy that all the regular
season prospect stuff has ended. You've had some guys coming
out and playing in instructs. Talked to quite a few
players instructs. There are some camps going on as well.

(02:35):
That's kind of the weird hidden trick is yes, you've
got instructs, but like take for example, actually talk to
him today, Jerangelo with the Mariners. I saw today he
came out to watch an Arizona Fall League game and
I caught him for a second, and they're doing a
performance camp and it's a lot it's like everybody, like,
well not everybody, but the majority of their system. Kate
Anderson is out here, Durangelo, Lazara, Montes, Michael Royo, a

(02:59):
bunch of those. I think even Cold Emerson might have
popped in. I don't know if he's there for the camp.
But you know, there's a lot of the stuff that's
going on. And then of course there's the Arizona Fall League.
So the Arizona Fall League has been popping. That is
our extension to the prospect minor league season. But I
do want to put a bow in some finality on
the minor league season. These are things obviously that you

(03:20):
guys may have already checked out, can check out. You
could discuss what level of like important some of it is,
but I want to go through just you know, some
of the basic stat lines and how they finished and
who those players were. One caveat to what I'm going
to do, though, is I did put a filter using
Fangraft's minor league page of twenty four younger. And I

(03:43):
did that because I just don't want to muddy the waters.
And I think it also makes it a little bit
more interesting when I don't put the thirty one year
old minor leaguer that led in homers or the twenty
seven year old that was second in hits, you know
what I'm saying, like that type of stuff. So I
set this as a twenty four or younger stat leaders.
So when I say Connor Griffin led all the minor

(04:05):
leaguers minor leagues and hits, just know that reference and
don't be like, oh, but well, you know, like I
get it, Like I'm doing this purpose. And by the way,
Connor Griffin did have the most hits of any minor
league or twenty four younger wild he's a teenager, by
the way. So we're gonna go through some of the
hittings of the pitching, give us a baseline to kind
of the finality of the season, give me just a

(04:27):
little opportunity just to kind of talk through some players,
and then in the second half, we're gonna jump into
what happened in the first league of the Arizona fauling
because it was wild. I've got three pitchers, I saw
almost all of the super exciting guys, and I'll break
down because there were really great performances. I have got
some players that I thought really really popped in the

(04:48):
first week slash today, and then a couple of players
I thought were on the bat. But we'll discuss all
of that here in just a tiny bit housekeeping sidsgrafs
dot com. Go and check out Dennis Sidler. Today. I
actually got to hang out with his son, who as
it goes to college out here, came out and watched
a game or two with me, which was great because
he's he's such a baseball mine and so good with it.

(05:10):
We had a great time looking at, you know, a
bunch of different prospects, guys that he was kind of
familiar with. And that's not the point of SIDS Grafts.
The point, even though you know, shout out to the
whole family, SIDS Grafts brings you some of the best
prospects in the game where you can get memorabilia, autograph
cards which I obviously love, Baseball's which you know I
love from my background, that's jerseys and more. And they

(05:32):
have an extensive list of guys from you had Jackson
Merrill and Corbyn Carroll and Jackson Churio, guys that are
in the playoffs right now, how about Cy Young Award
winners like Chris Sale almost potential. I mean they've had
a great draft record of Rookie of the year's too.
Drake Baldwin's kind of up for that. But there's even
guys that are out here in the Arizona Fall League
that are with Dennis Johnny Farmelo, who we're going to

(05:55):
talk about today, Brandon Winnaker and more. You guys want
to check it out, go to sidsgrafs dot com, go
on eBay, and you can also check on socials, you
can check out all the great stuff. And I know
Dennis is going to be out here very soon. I'm
going to see him in a couple weeks as he's
gonna be doing some signings with some of these bad boys.
So shout out to Dennis. Check out Sidsgraphs today and
appreciate all the support Dennis has. Also, before we do

(06:18):
the break and go into this first set here, make
sure you're checking out what we're doing over on Fantasy Pros.
I just dropped a video and I want to share
this because I thought this was really funny. I don't
think I've had this quite happen before. So We're gonna
be doing a couple like off season videos. I'm gonna
be doing a Dynasty episode, which you guys might really
care about. I think I'm gonna be doing it this

(06:39):
week on Fantasy Pros. So be on the lookout for
that YouTube dot com slash Fantasy Pros MLB or Fantasy
Pros MLB on YouTube or on whatever podcast platform. Make
sure you're subscribe. But on top of the episodes, I'm
also doing these short videos. He's like sixty to ninety
second videos where I'm breaking down some prospects, and I
just did one. You guys should check it out. Three

(07:01):
prospects are on there. I'm not gonna give them all away,
but I'm gonna give the first one away because the
first one I talked about and I'm going to talk
about in this episode is as Merlin Valdez with the
Pittsburgh Pirates, who he's been one of the more impressive
players that I've seen out here, really really impressed. He
was the first homer I caught. I got great video
and in that and I guess I'm spoiling a little

(07:23):
bit of some of the conversation in that video, I
talk about how not only is was he tied for
the league league which, by the way, as of today Monday,
he took the league lead in homers. He's got more
than anybody. He also leads to the league in walks.
It's a pretty wild number. I'm not sure I remember
anybody doing that. So he's got eight walks, he's already

(07:46):
got three homers. Kind of a beast he's out there
playing right field. But the point of the funny thing was,
I do this video, this short, I share it. By
the way, you know, follow me on Twitter a lot
of the stuff I do is on Twitter, but also
my Instagram. I'm trying to build that thing up. But
you know, Instagram has its own life of itself. And

(08:07):
I share the Fantasy Pros video to my story and
it's like, you know, hey, blah blah blah Prospects and
as Merlin's first, I share it to my story. We're
about an hour call it, yeah, like an hour and
a half, an hour twenty before game time. I post
it five minutes later. I got a ding as Merlin

(08:27):
Valdez is in my DMS and very funny dude, really
nice guy. And it was just like two I emojis
with the video. And so he watched the video where
I've I'm shouting him out and he gives me two
I emojis. So I hit him back and I go,
what did I say, Let's take a look. Here I go,

(08:51):
my man, And then he comes back and he goes
bro ready ready with fire emojis, and I do a
little LFG. Then he hits a homer today. I didn't
get to it. He puts it out. I hit him
back and he goes bro I emoji's with fire. I
mean we're like, I'm a forty year old guy. This
is a twenty year old you know kid I'm talking with,

(09:13):
But we're just Amoji. Sharon and I have like a bond.
I feel like I have a bond with Valdez right
now because like I'm on it. He knows I'm a
big fan of his. He's hitting me back about him
killing it. So I don't know his level of comfortability,
if you know, with doing an interview in English, I
really have no idea. I'm gonna check in about it
because I'd love to talk with him. He's a big personality.

(09:37):
He's a monster out here. And it was a very
funny moment. The Fantasy Pros video had me and him
essentially having what is a ridiculous conversation probably for a
person like me, where we're just going back and forth
about emojis, about how ridiculous he is. But it's a
very funny moment and you can do that by fire.
You can follow me on Instagram at is It the
Welsh but also the Fantasy Pros Instagram. We shared out

(09:59):
that video and there were two other guys that I
shared along with video. I've got tons of AFL video
that we've been doing, so make sure you're following me
on the socials, but again, we'll talk about that here shortly.
Let's take a break. Let's put the final cap on
the twenty twenty five season, just briefly, going through the
minor league stat leaders with a filter of twenty four

(10:21):
younger Shay, I like you. I like you so much,
I'm gonna make you my partner. All he has to
do is find the gold and I'll share it with you.
Fifty to fifty prospect what all right, So let's start
with hits. I've already told you it's actually really impressive
when I do this. I already told you. Connor Griffin

(10:43):
is the leader moving multiple levels. Hit one hundred and
sixty one this year. That was the league lead. With
that filter put on it, he is. Yeah. God, he's
been nineteen. The whole season's birthday is as wild birthdays
two days after mine, what like twenty something years. It

(11:04):
makes me sick. Connor Griffin, at nineteen years old, led
the minor leagues in hits with one hundred and sixty
one in one hundred and twenty two games. If you
needed a tiny extra pen in why he's so impressive
and why he is so far into being my number
one prospect. That's there. It is right there. I'll say also,

(11:29):
I feel a tiny bit more reaffirmed. And this is
not meant to be the super big negative, but you know,
I'm like watching Kevin McGonagall in multiple games, and I
think there's a lot to Kevin's game that's playing out
a little bit different here and stuff. But when you
think of like the physicality, you think of the monster
stolen base numbers, you think of where the power is,

(11:50):
you think of how he hit, it's just so far
beyond that it is Connor Griffin as the number one.
So your top ten in hits is a very impressive list.
And there are three Arizona Fall League players that were
top ten and hits. Again caveat with the filter that
made this list. One hundred and sixty one for Connor Griffin.

(12:11):
Gabrielle Gonzalez second in hits. What a turnaround. If you've
been with me for a couple of years, you know
my love for Gabrielle Gonzalez. Two years ago when he
was a Mariner, he fell off when he got traded
to the Twins. I think I've told this story. I
think it was last year or the year before. I'm
sitting in the stands and Gabriel Gonzalez comes out and

(12:32):
sits right next to us, and we're watching it because
they do the Mariner camp and he's coming out and
watching his boys. I love Gabrielle Gonzalez. He really seemed
to kind of lose some stuff. It's back one hundred
and fifty nine hits, fifteen homers, eight stolen bases, hit
three twenty nine this season. Strikeouts were low eighty strikeouts
in five hundred and fifty played appearances. Gabriel Gonzalez kind

(12:55):
of back up that list. Number three Jonathan Long with
the Cubs super underage AFL alumni from last year. Twenty homers,
three zero five batting average, very impressive. Aj Ewing twenty
years old, and that was one of the things that
caught my eye, which I started to do the thing
where I talk and then I talk myself out of

(13:16):
what I was talking about. You, if you've listened to
me long enough or been around me, you know how
I do that. Three of the top four players that
led the miners and hits were twenty one or younger.
That's crazy. Aj Ewing did that one hundred and fifty
three hits, three homers, seventy stolen bases. Crazy with three fifteen.

(13:37):
Number five Jesus Rodriguez, who hit one hundred and fifty.
So you had five players of one hundred and fifty
or more hits that were twenty four younger. He had
seven homers, twenty one stolen bases. Pretty impressive stuff. And
then the bottom half of the top ten Hector Rodriguez,
who remember I talked about a couple episodes back. I
know it's been inconsistent if you remember, one hundred and

(13:57):
forty nine hits, nineteen homers, fifteen bases. Number seven current
AFL guy who we are talking about in this episode,
Max Anderson, one hundred and forty nine hits, nineteen homers,
three stolen bases with a two ninety six batting average.
Very impressive kid, and it's only become more impressive as
I've watched him. Number eight is also here in the

(14:18):
Fall League. He's the oldest of this crew because I
put that caveat on the age filter. Bralyn is twenty
four years old, one hundred and forty eight hits, seventeen homers,
thirty seven stolen bases, hitting two ninety six and then
the final top to Justin Crawford with one hundred and
forty seven hits at twenty one years old, hit three

(14:38):
thirty four, forty six stolen bases, and Joshua Coroda Grower
with the A's who is out Here one hundred and
forty seven hits, only two homers, twenty seven stolen bases,
only forty nine strikeouts in four hundred and ninety seven
at bats or four hundred or five hundred and forty
nine plate appearances. That's like, you know, Jacob Wilson level stuff.

(15:02):
So it's a very impressive list of the top ten
and hits, six of the ten had double digit homers.
Only two of the top ten and hits had twenty
or more homers, and that was Connor Griffin and Jonathan Long,
So that kind of stands out to me. A couple
other standouts from the eleven to twenty marker Lou James

(15:23):
Grover Gino was twelfth with one hundred and forty five hits.
Tommy Troy was thirteenth with one hundred and forty four.
Colt Emerson one hundred and forty four hits, sixteen homers,
two eighty five Nelson Rada was in there at fifteen,
Christopher another I didn't realize this. Christopher torn another diamondback
was in there, and Homer Bush one hundred and forty two.

(15:44):
So those are your big hits leaders that were on there.
I'm gonna do this real quick just to give you
guys a perspective because I'm making such a big deal
about it. I'm going to take off the filters for
a minute because i just want to tell you how
this would have differed. Connor Griffin was one. Connor Griffin
would have now moved to five. Ryland Thomas, twenty five
year old with Seattle, had the most hits, and that
might be relevant, by the way, twenty five years old

(16:05):
Royland Thomas was the most Yathrin Perlazza twenty six year
old with the Padres, Samad Taylor twenty six year old,
and Ryan Ward a twenty seven year old. The rest
of the list would have held down until seventeen. But
I just wanted to kind of give that perspective again
of like, you know why I'm doing that, especially because,
like you know, the conversation around this isn't just to

(16:28):
rattle off every single stat It's to kind of rattle
off like the most relevance, Like really I could have
done like twenty two or younger. But you know, I
think like Braylen Wimmer kind of shines in this and
he's a very interesting prospect. I haven't seen I think
I've seen him play one game so far with the
Colorado Rockies, but they've got an interesting group Jared Thomas,
Wimmer and Condon out here and the rest of that list.

(16:48):
You know, there's some sneaky names in there, and I
think I think Tommy Troy is kind of an underrated
player still. Nelson Ratta has absolutely no power to speak of,
but you really wonder if that could somehow develop in
this offseason. You know, hit two ninety two, the dude
attempted over seventy stolen bases. He got caught more than anybody.

(17:09):
He had eighteen caught stealing of the top hit leaders
in there. But there's some big stolen bass players in
there that had a bunch of hits. So now let's
move to a number I think is really important to
take a look at its doubles. Adage powers the last
thing to develop. Yeah, and Nay, it's not like I
don't think it is like how it used to be

(17:30):
way back in the day where it was like you know,
you know, like very stringent in it. It's just I
think when you find and I give a pass, when
you find these guys that are just like really really
good hitters, you can give a little bit more grace
to a player thinking that, you know, the power can
come later. Plenty of players are going to try to
work through all of their pieces. They're going to learn

(17:51):
to walk, they're going to learn the zone, they're going
to learn to cut strikeouts down. And then once they've
kind of gotten through that and they're they're looking to
take the next step that might be bigger swing adjustments
to try to hit for more power or to optimize.
You know, a guy like a guy like Spencer Jones
doesn't need more power, right, you know, he's got the power,
but he's kind of a he's got some stuff that's

(18:12):
a mess. So the thing, you know this offseason was
doing swing analysis. That's why he ends up using the
torpedo bat. I tend to think that's that that speaks
a little bit more to that power is the last
thing to develop. So doubles are always really interesting to
me with a player, especially when a player's high end
on doubles and maybe lacking a little bit in the

(18:33):
homer department. You don't know how many were just missed.
And it's not a one for one because like I
see a guy in here, I don't really buy necessarily
as a big power hitter. But you know, like Jose
Devers is number two on this list thirteen homers, which
actually impressive, thirty six doubles. I don't really look at
Jose Devers as as that power hitter, but he might

(18:53):
be slowly developing into that number one on the list. Though.
We're back to Gabrielle Gonzalez. Not only only was he
number two in hits, he was number one in doubles
across all the minor leagues. With our caveat on it,
that's crazy. Fifteen homers, eight stolen bases, low strikeouts. Again,
another reason why we need to do deeper dives, why

(19:16):
Gabriel Gonzalez might be way more interesting than we're giving
credit for leading minor leagues in doubles. Devers was two,
tied with teammate I Guess Cooper angle played for the
same team in Cleveland. They both had thirty six doubles.
I think there's more power in there for angle, but
he only did have ten homers thirty six doubles. You know,

(19:37):
maybe I'm giving him more of a pass than I
should for devers. Number four was Aiden Longwell, twenty three
year old. I guess the highest level was high A
thirty five doubles to go with three triples and fifteen homers,
so that was ranked fourth technically third. There were four
players with thirty four doubles, ranking from fifth to eighth.

(19:57):
Salth Stewart who made it up to the majors. Felix
Reyis twenty four year old, who are pushing the cusp
there with the Phillies. Jet Williams twenty one year old,
thirty four homers, seventeen homers and seven triples, more triples
than everybody. It's very Corby and Carroll esque. Braid Montgomery,
there's our AFL guy that's out here, Braid Montgomery who's

(20:19):
not played yet, thirty four doubles with twelve homers, also
had four triples, two seventy average, Mikey Romero thirty three doubles,
and then there's really actually a long list, so I'm
just going to run through them. This is ten through
seventeen all had thirty two. This is just whatever the
metric for fangrafts ordering them. You had Jet Heir, Ironamo

(20:42):
who's with the Brewers, Luis Laura who was AFL last year,
Juan Mathis with the Yankees, Jacob Rimer with the Mets
who had a really good pop out season, Alfredo Duno,
who's out here right now a ball nineteen year old catcher.
Eighteen homers, by the way, second most homers of anybody
on this doubles list, beside Sal Stewart, Edward Otate, Lees

(21:03):
Bel Diez, and George Lombard. George Lombard thirty two doubles
only nine homers, had the worst batting average of any
of these players, yet ranks higher in ranks than any
other single player. Kind of stands out, you know, like
we got to consider also looking here, man, I didn't

(21:24):
realize this. Lombard the more strikeouts than any player on
this doubles list. So he had the worst average, more strikeouts,
yet he gets the highest pass something to consider. His
raw tools are just so good, but it's messy. I
do want to give a shout out the next list
of thirty one doubles. Max Anderson pops up again, boy

(21:45):
Max is impressive, and Kevin McGonagall they both had thirty
one homers on this list, and then it goes down
Denser Guzman, Alex Freeland, Lamar King who's out here in
the Fall League, and Brayln Wimmer. So you know, some
of this could be an equation into potential future power.
However you end up, you know, assessing it if you

(22:06):
just listen to people like me, or you go into
like real scouting. You know, there are guys that I
look at Duno and I go Duno's a monster. He
hit for average, he actually walked more than he struck
out ninety five walks to ninety one strikeouts. Those thirty
two doubles could easily turn into instead of eighteen homers,
thirty homers. That's a guy that the doubles potential could

(22:29):
move way more into the power department. Max, like Max Anderson,
I kind of think that's his game, you know, like
high doubles, decent homers. But looking I think Braiden Montgomery
is another one of those that he could go either way.
You know, Braden could be like a George Springer s
guy you know that just kind of does a little

(22:49):
bit of everything has lots of doubles, or those doubles
could be turned into more power, and then you could
dream on players like Gabriel Gonzalez and Jet Williams. You know,
maybe swing changes, but those guys are getting extra base hits.
It's a lot more quality and there could be some
future power in there. So however you want to, you know,
chalk that up. There are some very very interesting names
on that list. Let's go to homers. This is the

(23:12):
big stuff. Speak of the devil. He is still twenty
four years old, or at least as it's set on
the Fangraft's chart. Spencer Jones led the way. There were
only two players of our age filter that had thirty
or more homers, and it was Spencer Jones and laz
lazarro Montes. Spencer Jones a lot of strikeouts, but he
only had ten more by the way than Lazaro Montes,

(23:36):
but he had a few less at bats. Spencer Jones
did finish with two seventy four average, but boy, it
just felt messy with big ups and downs. Lazarro Montes
average really struggled this year. Probably doesn't feel like that
hit only two forty one has a ton of strikeouts,
but he also walked eighty three times, which was crazy.

(23:56):
Thirty two homers. The homers, the power's already there. That's
a guy that it's not a lot of doubles. This
is a wild stat. I almost don't believe this as
I'm reading this. Las had seven triples. Hold on a second,
I didn't look. Let me look at the league leaders
in triples last meet the first page. That's crazy. The

(24:18):
league leader was fourteen. Rowdy Rodriguez, by the way, who's
here in the Fall League? Dante Nori was third. Who's
here in the Fall League? With twelve there were only
six players with double digits, but dude laz had one
less triple than Leo da Friese. That's a that's wild
to me. Maybe maybe not to you, but that's I
don't know. That just blew my mind. Ryan Clifford shout

(24:41):
out to Dennis Sidler, who's got Ryan Clifford as a
client and did signing with Lasa Montes. So you want
some big power guys, and number five on this list
we're going to talk about. You want some power guys,
go to Dennis. Ryan Clifford hit two thirty seven, so
there's another batting average issue, but walk like create eighty
five walks, ninety three, twenty nine homers with twenty three doubles,

(25:04):
so we're well over the fifty marker of extra base hits.
Ryan Clifford, he's one hundred percent one of those guys like,
can we make it? I'm still shocked he wasn't here,
like they sent Nick Morbido here. DeAndre Smith came back.
I like Chris Sarro, who's out in the AFL. Why
did Clifford not come back out there? I mean, I

(25:27):
guess he had a full slate, played one hundred and
thirty nine games, so that's probably it. Probably don't wear
him out, but I'd love for him to come out
and work on some stuff. All that aside twenty nine homers.
He was third junior Perez with the A's only twenty
three years old, hit twenty six homers, but he paired
that with a two thirty one average. My man is

(25:48):
Merlin Valdez, who also did a sign that. He was
the third guy who did a signing with Dennis at
the Futures Game. Is Merlin twenty one years old, twenty
six homers, hit two eighty six second best batting average
of my filter in homers and the other guy was

(26:09):
in the majors at one point. Don't sleep on as
Marlin Valdez number six, Bryce Eldridge twenty five homers in
one hundred and two games, so the homer rate is
really impressive with him. Cali Rozario alumni AFL, had twenty
five Abbamelic also AFL, twenty five Rhese Hines AFL and
Majors and Marco Luciano another actually guy that made the

(26:31):
Majors but still twenty three or younger at twenty three homers.
A couple others Carson Williams and Luis Sespell both had
twenty three homers. That's a shout out to c Spell
twenty two years old, twenty three homers but only at
two eleven batting average. Some other guys that stand out
Rafael Flores, he popped up in our hits department and
doubles and he got like a small little cup of

(26:53):
coffee with the Pirates. He got traded from the Yankees
to the Pirates. That might be a really good bye
on him. If you're looking for some I don't know
two catcher league, you're looking for some more power. Vussovich
is Ajavusovic with the Diamondbacks hit two eighty four with
twenty two homers. That's not bad, Kemp Alderman, you're gonna
like this. Twenty two stolen bases to go with twenty

(27:14):
two homers. He was out here in the Fall League
this past year and with a two eighty five average.
Loved to see it. Joe Mack twenty one homers down
here on the list, he was at twenty three. Connor
Griffin we mentioned. I don't know, there's a couple other
guys like Joshua Bias was inside the top thirty, Ralphie
Velaskaz at eighteen. I don't know if anybody else jumps

(27:34):
out to me. Drell Perez had twenty two homers with
ten stolen bases, only hit two forty four. But you're
also talking about a twenty year old. He was near
the bottom of like level two and he's aged two
level so there definitely might be a lot more there
with Drel Perez, hit some doubles, hit some triples, strikeout

(27:57):
rates not insane. So you know that was a former
Dodger to the White Sox, so look out for Darrell
Perez I'm not going to really go crazy on runs
or RBI, just want to point out there were four
players that had one hundred or more runs this year,
and that was Connor Griffin number one, one hundred and seventeen.
Shout out to Ryan Waldschmidt one hundred and fourteen runs

(28:19):
scored in one hundred and thirty four games, Spencer Jones
with one hundred and two, and Eduardo cantant Cantaro with
the with the Dodgers one hundred and one. Two under
twenty year old scored one hundred or more runs this season.
That's bonkers. Special consideration Kendall George, who not only had

(28:42):
ninety three runs, but we're going to talk about I'm
gonna tell you this right now. He had ninety three runs,
he stole more bases than runs. Hector Rodriguez remade the
top ten. Jet Williams is in there, Jared Thomas, who's
here in the Fall League. Those are some interesting guys
and the RBIs I'm just kind of blazing through this.
Speaking of Blaze Jordan number one, Connor Griffin, number two,
Ryan Clifford number three, Long Ortiz Montes, that's your top six.

(29:05):
Max Anderson was also top ten in RBIs with our
filter in the miners league's god Max Anderson keeps going walks.
Ryan Walschman had ninety six frickin' walks. That's crazy. He
had more walks than singles in the minor leagues this year.
Quite a few guys did that, by the way, especially

(29:26):
on this list, but that's an insane Number Number two.
Alfredo Duno ninety five walks. He's built as such a
big power hitter. You think dude had ninety five walks.
That's crazy. Max Clark had ninety four. Nathan Fluelling was eighteen,
by the way, an eighteen year old with ninety four walks.
Ryan Jackson, who's out here in the Fall League, Slade

(29:46):
Caldwell two Diamondbacks. Kintaro was number eight. Joseph Sullivan, who
I just talked to today with the with the astros
is out here. He was ninth in walks. And we
talked about George Lombard. He did have a seven walks
this year. He was number eleven, so impressive list on
that final On the offensive side, let's just look at

(30:08):
stolen bases, Kendall, George had twenty more stolen bases than
the next guy. He had one hundred. He was supposed
to be out here out in the Fall League and
he didn't end up coming. Jordan Sprinkle was number two
with the White Sox. Patrick Kloissi had seventy nine for three.
He's out here in the Fall League. He plays with
the Braves. He's already got five. He leads the league.

(30:31):
I taught or actually got he muscle had one. Today
he got his sixth. I was joking with Enrique Bradfield
in the first night of the AFL, telling him about
because he stole a base, telling him about Caleb Durbin,
and I said, are you going to go for the record,
And then he's like, what's the record. I'm like, I
think it's twenty nine or thirty. And he's like, man,

(30:53):
I'm like, you gotta essentially steal won every single game. Unfortunately,
Enrique has not taken to the task. Kloisi is He's
got six stolen bases in four games. I think they've
maybe played five. Look out, he might be a guy
that goes for the record. As Beel Gonzalez is the
youngest player along with Griffin, but as Bell stole seventy

(31:13):
eight bases with the Royals ewing. Connor Griffin is back
on this list. You know some good names, but Connor
Griffin is the one of only two players that stole
sixty or more bases with double digit homers. The other
one is Austin Overne with Baltimore. Austin Overne, twenty two
year old, hit thirteen homers sixty four stolen bases. God

(31:36):
didn't look at number twelve Aiden Miller if he had
just come. Dantey Norri told me he was actually banged
up a little bit, so I thought maybe he just
wasn't coming out to come out. But Dante Nori said
him and Carson D. Martini, who did not come out
to the AFL, were both kind of banged up. So
sad face, sad face, sad face. Okay, let's go take

(31:57):
a look at the pitching side and then we're going
to talk about the first week in the AFL. Thank
you guys for hanging out with me on the pitching side.
Your league leader, Elmer Rodriguez Cruz, at twenty one years old,
had one hundred and seventy six strikeouts. I believe even
when I take off the filter, let's do that real quick.
When I take off the filter. I think he was

(32:19):
still the leader. Yeah, he was. As a matter of fact,
everybody on this list is golden. The eleventh player is
the first, like over twenty four year old player where
my filter wouldn't work. But Elmer Rodriguez Cruz led the
miners with one hundred and seventy six strikeouts. He had
a two five eight ERA super super impressive season, especially

(32:40):
with the strike throwing that he did, and he paired it.
Look at this with Carlos Lagrange, who had one hundred
and sixty eight strikeouts, but maybe more impressive probably when
we look at the K percentage. Elmer had one hundred
and seventy six and one hundred and fifty innings. Lagrange
or Lagrange, however you say it. I'm gonna have to
have Dennis do. I think Dennis is doing a signing

(33:01):
with him. I'll have to get the pronunciation from him.
He had eight less strikeouts in thirty less innings. It
was very reminiscent to me. This is just a total
like anecdotal thing. It doesn't mean anything, but it reminds
me of my If you guys saw this, my big like,
here's why you bet on Garrett Crochet to lead the

(33:23):
league in strikeouts. It was all these dudes, Da da da,
And then you look at Crochet. He was projected to
have like ten less strikeouts than the top three guys
in like forty less innings. Lagrange kind of has that
as well. Like look at that one hundred and sixty
eight in one hundred and twenty innings. Super impressive. Robbie
Snelling my man number three, one hundred and sixty six

(33:45):
strikeouts and even better era than Elma Rodriguez a two
five to one in one hundred and thirty six innings.
Also the second least walks of the top ten strikeout
pitchers who led. He had the second least of all
pitchers and he's only twenty one. Bye bye bye, Robbie Snelling,

(34:09):
Love him. Trey Gibson with Baltimore, he had one hundred
and he was actually tied with Robbie Snelling four to
six ERA. Second worst ERA on this list was him
Gage Stanfford with Toronto, only twenty one years old, two
eight six ERA, one hundred and sixty one in one
hundred and ten innings. You could argue that's maybe more
impressive than Carlos John wats Brown. He was sixth with

(34:32):
one hundred and fifty eight. TJ. Nichols, he's also u
of A with Tampa twenty three year old had one
hundred and fifty six. He had the lowest number of walks,
So when we look at Robbie Snelling, they were almost
the same amount of innings less walks. He was the
number one on there. Chris Clark with the Angels one
hundred and fifty three, Brandon Davis with the Cardinals one

(34:53):
hundred and fifty three, and Daniel Egan with the Arizona
Diamondbacks who had a wildly great season two nine to
nine ERA, one hundred and fifty three strikeouts, fifty two walks.
You'd like that to come down just a tiny bit,
but really really impressive. Oh another stat I forgot to
let me just backtrack here. When you look at pitchers

(35:16):
two with this level of innings and strikeouts, I like
to look at homers. Elmer Rodriguez Cruz gave up only
three homers the whole season. That's Bizerco Gage Staniford gave
up four, and Brandon or Branden Davis with the Cardinals
also gave up only four. Those are wild numbers to

(35:37):
have that level of strikeouts, not absurd walks and only
giving up three homers. It's crazy, It's super crazy. A
couple other standouts Mitch Bratt, who got traded to the Diamondbacks.
He was fifteenth with one hundred and forty eight only
twenty one walks this season, three three eight era. Not

(35:59):
just trying to be like, you know, Diamondback homery or
anything like that, but that's super impressive. Berdy Hopkins, you know,
Bertie Hopkins. I've been kind of like wishy Washing. I've
had some people ask me about my ranking and stuff.
Hat tip. He was top twenty five in strikeouts in
the miners this year, but he was up there on walks.
He had sixty walks in one hundred and sixteen innings.

(36:20):
My guy JR. Ritchie one hundred and forty strikeouts with
a two six four ERA. That is like the second
best era inside the top twenty five. Number one was
Griffin Herring with the Colorado Rockies. You know, but you
know Rockies. So I thought that was interesting, that's on

(36:40):
your strikeout list. Let's actually want to jump over and
kind of stick with this for a second. Let's take
a look at we're Gonnak at K percentage and K
per nine K percentage with at least one hundred innings
gauge stand for number one. We also said he gave
up no homer. A thirteen point one seven K per

(37:03):
nine is berserk. He had a two eight six ERA,
as I mentioned, an expected uh, that's a FIP, but
his FIP was two seven even better. An expected FIP
of three point one that's nuts. But a three thirteen
point one seven if I said three apologies, thirteen point
one seven, he's crazy. Number two Carlos Carlos a grange

(37:25):
twelve point six with a three point five to three ERA,
but he had an even better FIP and an expected
FIP that was lower than his ERA. That makes that
even more impressive. We'll look at the K percentage numbers.
These are gonna be a lot of the guys we
just talked about. Braden Davis twelve point four to eight,

(37:45):
Trey Gibson twelve point four to two. Do you want
to mention this? He didn't have the qualifications. But Anthony
Asketadio with the Texas Rangers in the Dominican Summer League,
had a twelve point one three K per nine and
a two point nine three era. That's impressive, but our
real number five is Daniel Egan eleven point seventy four,
Patrick Cobet, Copin, John wats Brown, Adam Sirwanowski, Blake Money

(38:11):
that's the best name in baseball, had an eleven point
twenty seven, and Griffin Herrings, so that's our top twelve
in k per nine, Robbie Snelling, Hopkins and Bratt they
all made the top twenty. Elma Rodriguez was twenty, so
he was just a tiny bit lower. But K per
nine very impressive number. I think it becomes more impressive
when you pair it versus like what the walk numbers
look like. But I'm not gonna do walk per nine

(38:33):
because We're gonna do K percentage and then K minus
walk percentage, so K percentage is going to be similar
to the K per nine. Number one was Gage Stana
for thirty five point five. Braden Davis was actually number
two thirty three point eight, which, by the way, the
thirties are absurd numbers, absolutely absurd. Just so you know,
Lagrange's number three, and on the miners thirty three point four.

(38:55):
Astadillo didn't qualify, but thirty two point eight Daniel Egan
Trey Gibson, hair Ring, Watts Brown Snelling was number eight
with a thirty point three, and Snelling is the end
of the thirty K percentage guys. The last couple on
the list that qualified Blake Money TJ. Nichols Bratt is
on there. Those are in the twenty nines. So a

(39:17):
really good important stat to look at is K minus
walk percentage. And I think you guys know, but it's
something I'm gonna pay a big attention to just simply
because it creates the value of the strikeout. If you
have a guy, you know that's a thirty percent K percentage,
You're like, sweet, but they got a fourteen percent walk rate,

(39:38):
and it just kind of slams down the value of
what those CA's are really getting. You know, you know
how to do this, you know what the drill is.
But sometimes you can also see these guys that, yeah,
maybe he's two percent lower K percentage, but he's walking
only five percent. That's a whole nother ballgame, and that
actually comes into play here. Anthony Astadio is not under

(39:58):
my qualification because I'm doing one hundred innings, but I
do want to point out he had the best minor
league K minus walk percentage of twenty four younger twenty
five point nine percent So that takes his thirty two
point eight K percentage and then it minuses the six
point nine walk percentage and he comes to twenty five
point nine, nineteen years old than the DSL. I don't know,

(40:21):
we'll see, but the Texas Rangers are an absolute powerhouse
of pitching development, so I don't want to be dismissive
of it. So keep Anthony asked to do on top
of your mind. But the number one when we take
the K minus the walk percentage is a former Texas
Ranger now Arizona diamondback, Mitch Bratt twenty five point one

(40:44):
K minus walk percentage because he only walked four point
two percent of batters. That's nuts, that's really good, So
he technically is our leader. TJ. Nichols number two, twenty
nine point eight percent K percentage five point seven walk
twenty four K minus walk percentage. Trey Gibson comes in

(41:05):
at twenty three point seven. Robbie Snelling twenty three point two.
Gage Stanaffer has the highest walk rate of any of
the top ten, but his K rate was so enormous
it created it to twenty two point seven. Do you also
want to point out he has the lowest batting average
against of any of the top ten, so that also
makes it impressive. Bryson Motts, who was actually here in

(41:29):
the Arizona Fall League twenty one point six last year,
Marcus Johnson, twenty four year old high a, Daniel Egan
another diamondback twenty one point four percent, Blake Money also
twenty one point four percent, and shout out to Carlos
Lagrange twenty one point one because he had kind of
a higher walk rate. So that's this is a much

(41:50):
more applicable stat when you're looking at the value of
the strikeout, because you know, you can see like it's
kind of a Dylan C's number. You know, when he's on,
he's not walking any buddy, and he's striking out like crazy. Also,
I think it's interesting to pair this against batting average,
because not every like Mitch Bratt had kind of a
higher batting average against this year two fifty four asked
to do two fifty nine. But you know, Robbie Stelling

(42:14):
was two twenty two, Gage Stana for one eighty two,
Daniel Egan won eighty nine. Those are pretty crazy numbers.
I don't know if we're gonna get anything out of
a whip here. I'm just kind of taking a look.
There's a lot of under one hundred. Shane Murphy with
his Chicago White Sox, he's twenty four years old, though
one hundred and thirty five innings, had a point eight nine.

(42:36):
Melvin Hernandez a Ball eighteen years old with the Brewers
had a point nine to nine. And then we kind
of get into the low ones with guys like JR. Ritchie, TJ. Nichols.
You know, you're getting some of the same players that
are kind of popping back up. All right, let's look
at era leaders. You're gonna have to bear with me
because I didn't put the filter. Well, I guess I

(42:57):
could do this right now, Let's do innings pitched, and
let's do one hundred, and I think we have to
do greater than all right, so this will snario. Now
you don't have to deal with my bull crap. Okay,
here are your era leaders in the miners. Number one,
Shane Murphy, as mentioned with the White Sox, had a
one six six ERA. Only one other player had a

(43:18):
sub two Griffin Herring. Mind, you we have not only
the twenty four year old filter, we now have the
one hundred innings pitch filter on. Melvin Hernandez comes in
at number three again eighteen year old with the Brewers Interesting.
Robbie Snelling number four A two five to one era,
Josh Hartle with the Cleveland Guardians two point five Yeah,

(43:42):
two point five four era. Grant Umberger with the White Sox.
So a couple of white Sox on this list two
point five six, Rodriguez Cruz two point five eight, Zion
Henderson with the I don't know if I said that right,
I know I didn't with the Cardinals I x A
N two point five nine, Jo Watson two point six. JR.
Ritchie two point sixty four. Those are your leaders in era.

(44:05):
Brody Hopkins gets a shout out at twelve with a
two point seventy two anybody else Gage stan A for
two point eighty six. He's kind of one of the
biggest poppers on this list that he just showed up
on every single metric that we looked at. The last
one we're gonna look at is swinging strike percentage. So
I'm gonna take the Let's see what happens when I

(44:28):
take this one hundred innings pitch filter. Oh, it's gonna
get messy when I do that, isn't it? All right?
We're gonna lower this to seventy five. Let's just see
what that does. Let's see what number that spits out
for us. So these are the guys that are getting
the swinging strike so their stuff is inducing the whiffs.

(44:48):
This is definitely what you want. It's a lower number,
you know. So like that number one is at seventeen percent,
so if you're in the like thirteen fourteens, it's looking okay.
Number one was Aiden Davis, who've talked about with the Cardinals.
Kate percentage was good, seventeen percent swinging strike rate. That
was tied with John Watts Brown, who had a seventeen

(45:10):
percent swinging strike rate as well. Number three Jonathan Santucci.
I will tell you Santucci was kind of hiding in
all the stuff we were doing. He never quite got there,
but swinging strike rate sixteen point four. I think these
are sneaky guys you got to pay attention to for
their stuff. Blake money again sixteen point one, Gage Stanaffer
fifteen point eight, Ryan Gallagher fifteen point seven. Also at

(45:31):
fifteen point seven, Carlos la Grange, Daniel Egan, Grant Umberger
with the White Sox, and Mitch Ferris with the Angels
at fifteen percent. Ten players with seventy five innings are
more pitched and are twenty five or younger had a
fifteen percent or higher swinging strike rate. If you can
follow all that, I think Staniffer, I think John Watts, Brown, Egan, Lagrange,

(45:55):
those are all players to pay very very heavy attention
to when looking at the finality of the minor league season.
And that is just a fun little experiment, you know
where I mean, there's a lot of data that's not
publicly out there. Obviously, there's a lot of other ways
we could approach this. You know, we don't care about
wins and stuff with pitchers and the miners, but you know,

(46:16):
those are things that people are going to kind of
carry into the off season, like where some of those
leaders are and it you know, sometimes you get these
guys that kind of float around that are just kind
of like hiding in the ethers, like how impressive were they?
Like gauge standard for very very impressive stuff. So that
puts a cap on statistically the end of the minor
league season. But it doesn't end prospect talk. Not only

(46:38):
it's every prospect person out there getting set to do
their write ups and their ranks and stuff like that.
But we got Arizona Fall League, and that's what we're
going to talk about next week. One of the Arizona
Fall League is in the books. Let me tell you
about some stuff, let me tell you about some standouts,
and we will do it right after this Prospect one. Oh,

(47:01):
you guys know, I love it. If anything, I feel horrible.
I wasn't able to get that episode right before to
kind of set the stage because you know, there's a
lot that has kind of happened. You know, the first
set of it was players in the Arizona Follague that
didn't make it or did anyone say they got booted.
No one got booted, but players that for whatever reason

(47:22):
didn't come Kendall George off the roster, Aiden Miller off
the roster, De Martini not here. You know, there were
quite a few of those there. Now I'm forgetting there
was like another one or two that didn't end up
making the roster. So that was definitely an unfortunate There
were some interesting players that got replaced. There's some other
anecdotal things. Jeolsuet de la Paula has not played. He's

(47:44):
not reported. Maybe he's reported as of today, as I
heard a couple of days ago, he was reporting quote late.
So he's not in games and he did not play.
I was not at the game today, so I don't
know if he was looming around. And the reason I
say that is Brain Montgomery has not played, but he's
here and he's with the team, and he's been with

(48:05):
the team since day one, So I don't know what
the difference is. You know, Depaula might have a family emergency,
or there could have been some other obligation. You know,
it's not my business. All I know is he's not here,
but they're saying he is going to come back and
he'll be out there. Rhet Lauder was a kind of
late addition. It was like on media Day he was

(48:26):
announced he was coming out here. That was also part
of my predictions. I told you I knew he was
coming out here. Doesn't look like I'm going to be
right about Jamie Arnold. I still heard some stuff, but
there aren't any floating rumors as I know currently that
there's any players that are going to be like joining
halfway through like the A's had done. But the A's
did announce that Max Munsey is back, so he's back

(48:49):
out here playing, you know, third base, doing that stuff.
So that's where you know, the the additions and the
subtractions and stuff have been super interesting. I've been onto
a ton of games. I've been kind of floating around.
I have seen a majority of all the great people.
I'll tell you a guy I didn't see and I
really wish I would have seen, and you know, and

(49:11):
of course it got kind of the buzz of like
this might be the guy, and it's Louise da Leone.
I did see him today walking around. But Louis de
leon in his first start last week I missed, went
four innings, struck out seven, walked to gave up one
hit with one run, had a point seventy five v
a point seven to seven batting average against his stuff

(49:34):
looked electric. I saw a little bit of video on there.
Absolutely looked electric. But I did get to see the majority.
The other guy is David Hageman, by the way, Hageman,
who I said, you know, might be the bell of
the ball in that trade that they did. He ended
up going three innings, struck out five, gave up only
one hit. Ridiculous. But I saw all the other big
guys and we're going to talk about some of those

(49:56):
players also on the hitting side. There's been some really
really fun performances. But your leaders so far in the AFL,
men just do a quick one currently. This is counting
now the Monday games. Oh that's the other thing. I
forgot to tell you. We had storms come through here,
totally weird for Arizona. We ended up having one game

(50:18):
on Friday, get rained out Glendale. That's why they're a
game behind. They were supposed to then, and it was
raining in the game I was at on Friday. It
was really nice. By the way, you can see some
of the video you can see the storms. I have.
I think I have one video of Dray Jamison where
you can just like see the rain coming down. They
were supposed to play in Tucson on Saturday. They just
straight up canceled it, and then we were and then

(50:41):
they're supposed to play on Sunday, canceled it, and then
we were told they're off day Monday. They were gonna
make up the games, canceled it. So the dudes Glendale's
had four days off until today. These guys have had
three days off on games, so the stats are like
a little wonky. So it's actually not the worst thing
in the world that I've added these guys from today's performance.

(51:06):
So you at least get four to five games in
for these guys. So just a quick primer through it.
Your hits leaders. Cutter Coffee actually leads the AFL with
seven hits. Leo Balcazar number two. Actually he's tied to
a couple players. Walker Janek, sever King and Jensa Luis
all have six. Max Anderson, Owen Ayers, who I think

(51:27):
when the two players of the week I believe were
Owen Ayers with the Cubs and Luis de Leone, Kenny
Castillo with the Diamondbacks, Johann fred Garcia, and there's a
couple other players with five doubles if we care. Max
Anderson absolutely with three. Not surprised about it. Home run
leaders as Merlin Valdez, he's the tops with three. Number

(51:48):
two is Will Frado Antonez with the Cleveland Guardians. He
plays for surprise, I've seen it. I saw quite a
few of these homers. Josh Adam Zuski from saying it
correctly with the Brewers. I watched this homer. It was
a freaking bomb. He's a small dude. He hit this

(52:08):
thing almost to the concourse. It was wild. He's got
one homer. Luke Adams same game, murder Bold to left field,
crushed it. And then there's just a bunch of other ones.
By the way. Max Anderson he hit one today. Who
I saw Dylan Campbell. I was there for that one,
you know, so quite a few guys, so it's really

(52:29):
Antonez and Valdez are the top walks. As Merlin is
the league leader. Luke Adams, Max Anderson, Caden Connor, Braden Carpathios,
Josh Kassovic, and Kevin mcgonald all have five, but as
Merlin is kind of at the tippy top. Stolen bases.
Patrick Loisi has six, Stanley Tucker has got four, so

(52:50):
he's number two. Sam Antonachi, Cayden Connor, Nick Moribido with three.
So your top five have three or more. What else
do I want to show you slugging percentage? You kind
of guess the players. We'll go over to pitching, just
to give you a primer. Jake Bennett, who pitched today.
Is your league leader. Now he pitched in like a

(53:11):
relief standpoint thirteen strikeouts. And let me look because I
think today I didn't actually pay attention to the numbers
as I was watching the game, because I was at
this game today. I've got some video he was dicing
up to some dudes. I want to say, like, he
must have struck out like seven in this game. Yeah,
he struck at He went four innings, two hits, struck
out seven, walk none. He is your current league leader

(53:35):
with thirteen. That's going to open up and change though,
because like Louis da leone is number two, he's got
to start coming up soon. Corey Avant also with seven.
Luis Paralis, who we're going to talk about, has six
in two outings, he's got a little bit of a
walk issue. And no one else really of note to
be in there. Your innings leaders Jake Bennett, Louise dalyone.

(54:00):
So we won't go too much further into that, Okay,
So that kind of gives you a baseline of where
the Arizona fally is that. Let's talk about some players.
We're gonna start with Louise Prowess. I did not get
to his start today, which I am bummed about, but
I was at his first start. Everything that I'm talking about,
go and follow me on Instagram or Twitter. I've probably

(54:23):
put out videos I think of every single player I'm
going to talk about today, I've got videos of them,
and for better or for worse, Louise Parrales in his
the start that I saw it was a little dicey,
you know. There was kind of a like love fest, like,
oh my god, Louis prou We're not worthy of Louis

(54:44):
prowl as being out here, and it's like, okay, he
really was. He had no command whatsoever. He hit one hundred,
he sat ninety eight. It's very impressive. I think he's
very impressive. It's probably rust, but we got I need
to see a a couple more starts just to like
gauge it more. His command was really spotty. The reason

(55:06):
he's getting those whiffs is because he's throwing one hundred.
You know, he's got a breaking pitch and then he
drops his fastball in in a league where people aggressive
swingers and stuff like that, like, yeah, he's gonna get
strikeouts here. So I don't know if I'm in as
love and love as everybody else is. But you've got
a lot of Boston fans are out there. He's impressive,
and you know he's missed a lot of time. That's

(55:28):
why I want to see, like start three and start
four and see if he stretches out a little bit longer.
Because he went one inning in his first start and
it looks like he went two and one third today.
That sounds about right. He's got four walk, six strikeouts,
he's given up only one hit, like no doubt he's
got big power stuff. But you see that type of

(55:49):
command issue and you're like, oh, you know, is there
gonna be you know, walks relief, Like you start thinking
like that. But I love them, love them to the
point where I gotta admit, this actually might be one
of the better pitching classes we have seen, maybe since
I've been doing the AFL. Mind you, we had Tiedeman

(56:10):
and Jackson job last year. I guess I'd have to
go back and look and see did we have you
know what other collection? But you go down the list
of parals to Espiano to Louder to de Leone, I
know I'm forgetting Hageman. I think has to be thrown
on that list, Hagen Smith, I didn't even mention Anderson Brito.
This actually might have just snuck up on us that

(56:31):
it's one of the most impressive pitching classes that's out here,
but there's some vulnerability with it, you know, because the
ball can fly and if guys are working through stuff.
There was this guy, Dang, what was I mean? I
think I have the box score up. I think it
was Serwa. I don't know his first name. He's a tiger,
and I think he's like a twenty six or twenty

(56:52):
seven year old pitcher. He's a knuckleballer, and he came
out here today and he was serving up some meatballs,
but he's working on his knuckleball. There were some inconsistencies. Uh,
he got rocked a little bit, but like that's what
you're out here to do sometimes. So that's where the
numbers sometimes can like have that misleading state. And that's
why I want to see these guys as much as possible,

(57:13):
because like I think the numbers are maybe slightly misleading
with Parless, but I also acknowledge like there's a lot
of miss time that's out there with him. But like
you know, he kind of he's struggling through the innings,
but again miss time. Speaking of miss time, Daniel Espino,
I felt I felt on the opposite end of where paroless,

(57:33):
like maybe I was being like two judgy eyed on parals.
It was I think it was like one of the
first games I went to. Daniel Aspinho's outing was wildly impressive.
I believe he's gonna be pitching tomorrow as I'm gonna
go see him. His family was out there, which was
really cool. Daniel Spino physically looks great. Yeah, I mean

(57:53):
he's he's like a built dude. He's a built, built dude.
He came out firing. He did give up. I want
to say it might have been a leadoff hit to
Starling Kaba, and it became a whole thing because Caba
got on and then there was like a pass ball,
and then Caba went to second, and then Cabba stole

(58:14):
third on him and I shared that on my Instagram.
But what was so impressive about Espiano was his composure,
his consistency. It was fastball slider. He was throwing for strikes.
He went one inning, everything out was else was clean.
He ended up with two strikeouts in that inning, five whiffs,

(58:36):
through that one inning. It was some dirty stuff. He hit.
Oh god, I think he hit ninety nine. He was
like ninety eight point seven. He hit ninety nine and
he sat ninety seven. It was a really really good
outing for a player that has missed so much time.
Now with that, that creates a little bit of a
scenario where you know, like in development, is he going

(58:59):
to be super slow rolled? You know, could the arm injury,
could all the injuries equate to maybe there's like a
relief thing in the near future. I think they're building out.
I'm very excited to see if this next start, if
he goes two innings and they're stretching him out to
maybe get to four by the end of the Fall League.
I really want to see him in a second inning
because I think he laid it out on the field.

(59:20):
He was pumping fastballs and then he was dropping sliders.
Tom I think it was Tommy White absolutely got eight up.
Tommy Tanks got ate up by him. He looked really,
really good. It's super encouraging. That's what I'm getting at here.
Super encouraging about Daniel Espinho in that if he carries
that over, we're back to him being a starter. No doubt,

(59:40):
and that was probably my favorite pitching performance. The third
that I want to talk about is Rhet Louder. Now,
Rhett is kind of a little bit of a different situation,
you know, because this is a guy that's been in
the majors. He missed the entire season. I kind of
want to dig into more because he was just here.
I caught him, and he must have had a setback

(01:00:02):
that I just don't remember, because if you remember, at
the beginning of rookie ball, I got to see Rhet
Louder versus Clayton Kershaw on a rookie ball backfield and
I talked to Rhet that day and he was like,
just get some starts in. I'm ready to get back
to the boys. And he never got back to the boys.
So there were clear like other setbacks that seemed like
they were kind of quiet. So he's out here. I

(01:00:23):
kind of thought he might be put in a situation
where it was similar to Oh, it Chased a Lotter,
where de Latter was only with the team last year
when he would play and otherwise he was gone. We
found out that's not true today because he was with
the team and he's not pitching today. But I got
to see him the other day and that was an

(01:00:44):
outing I was very very impressed with. On top of it,
one of the main reasons was he absolutely was able
to eat up Charlie Condon. And that's a video, you know,
for better or for worse, Like I've had some of
my off speed stuff I've I've talked about with With Condon,
he really like had a fantastic season once he got

(01:01:05):
out of rookie ball. But Louder ended up going two innings.
He gave up two hits, he walked none, he struck
out three. He was trying to pump in strikes. It
was a masterclass on the Condon one. That's what you
need to go look at because it was, you know, immaculate.
It was three straight strikes. One I think two were swinging,

(01:01:25):
one was looking. He threw off speed stuff. It was
the exact reason of like why you fall in love
with Louder because you're like, oh, yeah, Louder's a guy
that he doesn't have that big power stuff, but he's
got a multitude of pitches with incredible command that he's
going to get guys on. Now. This is a lower
class of talent that he's going up against so I

(01:01:46):
think it's gonna be really important if he can get
a couple more starts, go four innings. You know, I
don't know, Like I guess the Salt Sal River team
is pretty talented. It's got you know, it's got Condon,
it's got Thomas, it's got Is Merlin and stuff like that.
There's a little part of me I like, I almost
like for him to go. I wish he could play
against the team he's with, so I want to see

(01:02:07):
him go through like a murderer's row of hitters, a
lot of contact. I want him to go up against
contact guys. So maybe it's like the Scottsdale team, you know,
with McGonagall at the top and Morbido and Max Anderson,
like try to go through that and see how he
fares and see if his stuff still goes. The main
point is it was all systems go with Rhet Louder,
really really good first start. I'm thoroughly encouraged, and you know,

(01:02:30):
to be frank, if I hit saw Luis dal Leone
or David Hagan, they probably would be in discussion discussion.
But as I told you, they were awesome, and we're
going to talk about the more. But those were three
guys that I got looks on. So now let's go
over to the hitters. I don't know, really, I guess
I kind of already spoiled all of it with as
Merlin Valdez. But like listen, I really like him. Everyone

(01:02:51):
should like him. Minor leagues liked him. He had twenty
six homers top ten. He made the futures game. Like
I was talking with someone today that I was like,
you know, as Merlin might be one of the more
criminally just underrated players coming into the AFL. Just wasn't
talked about a ton I mean, I talked about the
laughing of there's gonna be a point in the near future,

(01:03:13):
I said, to be Tony Blanco, but I said, as
Merlin will kind of do that too, where you're gonna
get some like hilariously stupid exit velocity that's gonna come
out of a guy. And that was the fun part
of it. But what it is, don't thing you realize
is just what a complete ish player as Merlin kind
of looks like right now. You know, it's a twenty
one year old who's out playing right field. He's got

(01:03:34):
a solid arm, he's got a really really great sense
of the zone, and that was that's been the thing
that's most impressive, because you absolutely see guys that are
out here suh winging, you know, just swinging through. They're
just looking to get stuff up in the air. Some
guys don't care about being out here. You know. There's
like a multitude of tons of ways that guys approach

(01:03:54):
all this. Everybody's a competitor, but they're definitely guys are
just like, okay whatever. Like as Merlin is having fun,
he's making it look easy. He's taking breaking pitches out.
He can hit fastballs and if he doesn't get the
pitch he likes, he's taking walks. It's very early. I've
seen him twice now, want to see more. But he

(01:04:16):
might be one of the most underrated guys out here.
Gotta be careful because we know Welsh can get super
excited about AFL and we can pump up players. But
you know what, I pumped up joswet Bersinio last year
from seeing him in the AFL, and that got muted
by so many people because they're like, oh, well you
did that to Jacob Marcy. Jacob Marcy looks pretty good

(01:04:36):
right now. Jose Bersino looks pretty good right now. And
I'm telling you right now as Merlin Valdez is my
Joswe Bersinio. Now. The thing that really clicked in about
Bersinio last season was every time I saw him, it
was the same kind of zone control and he was
getting hits and getting hits. I want to continuously see
that before I put the stamp that Valdez is the

(01:04:57):
criminally underrated prospect from the AFL that's going to do
the things. But that's the feel right now, that's my
feel on him. I really really like him. That's why
I did the video, That's why he's in the DMS,
and hopefully I can do something to take a picture
with him at Worse because that's the guy. That's my
AFL guy right now. But I think he's kind of

(01:05:17):
a stock buy. He's a player that I want to
buy some stock in this offseason if he continues this pace,
because I'll tell you about a player I really like
who started hot and I was already kind of tapered off.
If he continues this pace and then you get all
the other prospect people that are out here, you're going
to get more pumping of z Merlin, and that's inherently

(01:05:38):
going to create push the value. So in my mind,
if he's floating around in like some you know top
you only keep like two hundred prospects or something, and
he's out, there's a free agent, you can pick him up.
Go do that. If you're playing in a bigger system
and you can go get him, I would personally be
trying to do that right now. Oh the player by
the way, and I'm doing like a couple of these

(01:05:59):
are the guys that haven't look good. I had Cam
Collier in the Look Good and I love Cam Like
I've had lots of good interactions with Cam. He interacts
with my stuff when I put it out on Instagram,
you know, like I have rookie ball players that are
very interactive with me, as you know, I come out
and they get to see me AFL. That's happening right now.

(01:06:20):
It's as Merlin and Cam Collier on my stuff, which
is cool. It's super fun and I love Cam. Cam
came out hot. He's playing first base. He looks really
good by the way, little flubby thing today, but then
also made like an incredible diving catch. He made three
amazing plays in the opening night and he is exclusively

(01:06:41):
playing first base out here a plus had. I joked
with him on opening night because I was right in
the front with a friend of mine check him out
his Instagram count MLB Insider, And we're sitting there and
basses are loaded. Cam's kind of sitting there. Something was
happening with pitching, and I looked over and I said, hey, Cam,
that right field wall's calling your name. Three p forty.

(01:07:04):
That looks like a really good pull. And he goes, no, no, no, no,
no no, Like because he's a contact hitter, he wants
to and he ended up and it did kind of,
by the way, look a little bit and like one
of the I think it was the second swing, like
he might have been going heavy pole side. You know,
he chokes up on the bat. He's an all fields
contact hitter. I love the guy came out really hot.
He's out two rough games that I've seen him striking

(01:07:26):
out a lot, swinging through a lot of stuff, and
that may be kind of him figuring out, because I
do think he's a very conscious all fields hitter. Letting
the ball travel. He doesn't care about I mean, he
literally shoot me off. He doesn't care about pulling the
ball and just wants to make contact, which I think
that's a great trait for a hitter. But you know,

(01:07:47):
after the first two days, i'd have started to be like,
oh man, bye, bye bye. Last couple days, you know,
we got to see him get through it. I can
tell he's pretty frustrated. It's a lot of strikeouts. I
think it was. I mean, let me see if I
can look. I want to say he struck up at
least today, whereas I start out three times today he
was zero for four, did score a run? Three strikeouts.
I want to say the last game I saw him,

(01:08:08):
there was at least two strikeouts. Let me see. He's
not leading in strikeouts, is he? He is third most
strikeouts in the AFL with eight. I do not believe
he belongs there. That is not his game. So I
think he's pressing right now. But again that's the fluctuation
of what happens. It can go up and down really quick.

(01:08:31):
I would still say it's a good bye time. But
as Merlin, very special, all right. Number two. Johnny Farmelo,
Johnny Farmelo is looking locked in and this can't be right.
They must not have updated this because I'm not seeing
he absolutely has multiple doubles. Yeah, it says he has one.

(01:08:52):
There's no chance because I have multiple video. Oh you
know what it was. I think he had a triple.
He had a triple the other day. That's on my timeline.
I put one out today where he crushed a double.
I'm increasingly becoming super impressed with his swing. And I
can't put my finger on who it's reminding me of
right now, but he's kind of doing the like I'm
going to let the ball travel, he will explode on

(01:09:15):
the ball. He's got a four hundred ovp out here
to eighty six average. He's got a triple, he's got
a double, he's got a couple stolen bases, he's been
pretty aggressive with I'm liking a lot of what I'm
seeing out of Johnny Farmelo, and the reason I'm targeting
him here is from a standout perspective. I've seen multiple
extra base hits. He's a really big name. I think

(01:09:35):
he's becoming increasingly more comfortable, and I think he's one
of those guys that because when he came back, he
didn't light the world on fire. He might have like
a lower prospect evaluation. You know, in some people's minds,
like people might not be like super super excited about him.
Let me see if I'm actually now that I want

(01:09:58):
to look here, mind bog everything down here. I wanted
to take a look because I'm not remembering. Let's take
a look here, sorry, follow along with me. Here where
he was in the pe ADPs because I don't think
it was top twenty five. Let's take a look here.
I'm looking at my sheet, which you can do over

(01:10:18):
it in this league dot com on the top Prospect,
Prospect Dynasty, and Prospect five hundred. There's also a tab
for the P one eightyps and I'm at it. And
Fromlo was thirty, he was fifty one in February. He
ended up being thirty three point three in this one.
What were his ups and downs? He was okay, so

(01:10:40):
this is interesting. He was as high as twenty two.
He went twenty seven, but then he had some in
the forties. It's kind of what I'm talking about, Like,
I feel like Formello, if you could buy him as
someone that thinks he's like in the forties or something.
I'm just I think he's really finding his pace. He's
kind of becoming a little bit of a leader on
this team. He's very comfortable. It's his home stadium. I'm

(01:11:02):
loving his swing. I feel like homers are about to
start clicking in out here Farmelo's. I mean, all these
guys are kind of like buys to me because I'm
liking them. But I'm just liking everything I'm seeing out
of him. I think he's looking very complete. I don't
think he looks super trigger happy, you know, like Colsle
Montgomery would get trigger happy. I'm not seeing that out
of Farmelo. I'm seeing just a very good ease to

(01:11:24):
it bats. He definitely has some moments where he's swinging
through so you know, maybe a better example might be
like he's kind of chased a lotteris ish where you know,
dealater can have some bad swings, but like when he
makes contact, the ball flies, he can fly around the bases. Yeah,
I think that's a good comp hopefully hopefully not with
the injuries. All right. Here are two players that our

(01:11:45):
lower name, well Es Morl Valdez was a lower name.
Farmelo is a bigger name. Here are two players that
have really stood out because I've caught them a couple times.
Max Anderson and you probably were going to get that
from what I was saying earlier. Max Anderson and I
brutal moment. Today, my son calls me. It was like,

(01:12:06):
you know, middle of the inning and he was showing me,
you play. He's one of by the way, he's a
beast on Rocket League. And he's showing me this car
that he got and he was like, hey, can we FaceTime?
And I'm like yeah, sure, And I'm standing, you know,
and I'm sitting in the front row and he's showing
me this car. And then he's kind of playing for
a second, and I'm like, this is awesome, dude, you know,
he just got this. And I'm like, I'm like, okay, hey, Bud,

(01:12:28):
so I gotta go. I gotta film this thing. He's like, oh, okay, bye.
As I click by, I go to hit the camera.
Max Anderson boom crushes one and I'm like, oh my heart,
you know, kills me. Crushes one to left field. He's
the league leader in doubles. Right now, he's up there

(01:12:49):
and hits. He's hitting five hundred. He's only played three games,
but five hundred over eleven hundred slug He has more
walks and strikeouts. He's very impressive. He doesn't have like
the the like the physicality feel like when you look
at a guy like Johnny Farmelo, but like Max Anderson
makes it look easy. He's playing third base, good energy, guy,

(01:13:12):
makes a ton of contact. The power is for real.
Crush that first homer. He's got that doubles power. And
you know that. The thing that really stood out to
me and stands out to me is he's a player
that you don't feel like he's gonna get beat. They're
definitely players that really feel like they're gonna get beat.
Then they are players that can get beat. You know,
Condon gets beat, Farmelo for that, for that kind of

(01:13:34):
can get some of those where he gets beat. Not
Max Anderson does not feel like he's gonna get beat.
If I could pick two players on this list that
I'll everybody I've talked about that I would be in
the by mode, and I'm including Parals, Espino, Louder, I
think it's Valdez and Anderson. Those are the two that
I because I think their cost is so low that

(01:13:58):
I want to buy before it starts to push up.
Pralys has already kind of seen as a top one
hundred guy, maybe a Spino. I'm a little worried. There's relief,
you know, Louder, you know, Farmelo, Max Anderson in Valdez
would be two players. I'd be trying to get out
there if you can't, If you can, try to maybe
catch a broadcast on AFL. If you're coming out here,
get to a Scottsdale game, you're gonna want to see McGonagall.

(01:14:20):
But Max Anderson, you know, he might kind of steal
the show. So very very impressed with him. Walker Janick
another one of his teammates. Walker Janic, I've got the
homer on my Twitter if you want to go check
it out. Absolute murder ball today. Crush the ball. He
has some loud stuff. One thing I need to do
and I haven't done yet, is probably go collect some

(01:14:41):
of the evs. But Walker Janik hits the ball fricking hard.
Hit his second homer in the AFL. He's hitting three
seventy five. He's got six hits so far. I guess
this is his first home He has two doubles. Crush
this bomb, and I think he's near the league leading
in RBI. I want to say that homer was a
three run shot. Three run shot looked really good. I

(01:15:03):
really like Walker Janik kind of a total pro and
I think he's just one of those monster ev guys.
He has the feel of a guy that's going to
hit like two seventy with twenty plus homers at catcher.
Walker Janick is on the way up, very impressive and
just side notes, you know, I picked up those players

(01:15:24):
you probably want to know about. Kevin McGonagall. I don't
really think mcgonagal's looks super great out here so far.
He's only hitting two fourteen. He's had some strikeout stuff,
but he walks a bunch. He's had a couple doubles,
of course I've missed them every time. He didn't have
a great day today. He just hasn't stood out yet.
So if you're kind of living in that world, I
really want a lot more to Bradfield. Bradfield hasn't done

(01:15:45):
a whole bunch. I do think Josh adams Eski and
Adam Zuski with the Brewers has been a super, super
impressive player. And there's a couple more players I'm like
kind of dying to see more of, but those might
be on your mind. Leo Balcazar has looked really good,
sever king hits the ball really really hard, jensl Luise.
Those are some players guys that have not looked good.

(01:16:05):
Charlie Condon. Charlie Condon, I just don't think has looked
super good. I'm rooting for him, but I feel like
we're back. We're kind of back into that space that
I talked about in rookie ball where I'm like, Okay,
you know we're not hitting the ball again, so you know,
take that for whatever it is. I want to see
more before I start kind of going all in on

(01:16:26):
that type of stuff. But I haven't seen a ton
out of Charlie. A lot of swing and miss. He's
hitting one twenty five. He only has two strikeouts. I've
seen them both. He has two hits in his four games,
so we'll see if there's more. I just don't think
the approaches look super great. I think Jared Thomas has
looked better than him. He's getting beat again with the
whole fastball, good breaking ball combination. But I don't know

(01:16:49):
what to make of it because in rookie ball it
was this, then he went out and was like freaking
awesome in the minors, and now he's back here. Maybe
he's tired, but it hasn't been a good ghost so far,
but it's been a week. An unfortunate one in my
eyes who has not looked good is Brailor Guerrero. Brailor
Gurrero is hitting zero point seven to one, has fourteen

(01:17:15):
at bats with nine strikeouts. He's the youngest player out here.
He's physically one of the more impressive players out here.
I hate his swing. I don't realize. I don't know
they're seeing in person. It's this really weird, crouchy, crunchy
and then then he kind of expands on it and

(01:17:36):
then he's he's an impressive athletes, so then he's able
to kind of like reget back to it. But there's
just something about his approach. I feel like, just please
change his approach, just make it easier, because like I said,
he's kind of up and crunchy, and then he opens
up and then he has to like get I just
I hate it. He's getting demolished out here. He looks
really really bad, and it breaks my heart because I

(01:17:59):
love him. Also, my guy Pjmorlando, I've only seen him
in one game, hasn't really looked bad. The results aren't
quite there. You know, he's not striking out like a ton.
He just hasn't made a bunch of contact. The other
one would be on the pitching side, Bryce Cunningham. Bryce
Cunningham had a rough outing the game that I saw.

(01:18:19):
I believe I'm trying to take a look here. I
think he's only had one outing. Yeah, and he gave
up four earned runs in two innings. He walked to
struck out one. Some messy stuff. He's got some good stuff,
but his command was absolutely all over the place. I'm
trying to remember who the hell the team was Masa

(01:18:40):
versus oh Is Surprise and Surprise was just absolutely all
over him. Sebastian Walcott was in that lineup. I'm trying
to remember who the other dudes. I think Dante Nori
got to him. Marco Dings was in that one. I
don't know what it was. The walks seems super apparent.
He only went two innings. I think the walks might
have both been in the first inning. Hit really rough
first inning, he gave up a homer. Didn't love what

(01:19:03):
I saw out of him. So Bryce Cunningham had and
you know he's a again that incredible pitching class we
talk about that looks so amazing He's definitely just one
of those guys, so I'm very excited to see his
next outing. But the standouts of the guys that did
not look good in week one, which by the way
doesn't necessarily mean anything, Charlie Condon, Brailer Guerrero unfortunately gets
the lead for that. Not Condon. Guerrero was the worst.

(01:19:26):
Then Condon, and then on the pitching side, Bryce cunning
There are some pitchers that you don't know of that
had some like really rough outings I would point out.
I mean, maybe you know Jackson Bowmeister, he walked five
in his first outing, but you know Ryan Costio with
Salt River walked four in one on one third, Like
there were some bad outings on there. Gean Carlos Laara

(01:19:47):
with the Braves went two innings, walked four and has
struck out none in two appearances. Bryce Cunningham specifically, to me,
looked off, but he was locked in before the game.
So the second outing is to be super important. But
that's a look at week one of the AFL. Week
two is started, came back up today. I'm going to

(01:20:08):
be out in a majority of games. I won't probably
be on the weekend. A Ton and we'll be breaking
down every Monday. We're going to break down the previous week.
As I said, I'm hoping to bring in some guys
for some interviews. We'll have some industry people out there.
A couple other notes. If you come out here, say
hi to me, hit me up, catch me at a
Game First Pitch conference. I will be taking part in

(01:20:30):
a panel, and I believe I'm going to be doing
a live podcast if you guys want to check that out,
so you can check out Baseball HQ if you guys
are out here do that type of stuff. But I'm
locking back in the Prospect update, which you guys probably
want to know about. The plan is for this week.
I got to do my big overhaul for this run,
and I'm doing a big overhaul for the Dynasty because
I'm doing the Dynasty episode on Fantasy Pro. So I

(01:20:52):
will have an update here for you within this week
and then in November, I just want to put this
out here. We'll have the update, but I'm also going
to have a redraft rank update. So if you want
to get an early look at redraft ranks and then
have the updates here, please go to inn this League
dot com. I very much appreciate your support helps me
do what I'm doing, and hopefully we're going to do
some cool stuff during the AFL. We are going to

(01:21:14):
be back to consistent with the AFL and kind of
moving forward. I say that a lot. I guess I suppose,
but AFL an easy plan. Monday's episode, hopefully we'll start
getting some interviews in here and the first pitch conference
will pop off. A bunch you guys want to find
me and have any questions about anything Prospect or AFL
related at is it the Welsh on Twitter? Please go
follow my Instagram as well, trying to, like I said,

(01:21:36):
build that thing up a little bit more. And I
do have videos on there that I sometimes don't like
the Starlinkaba Stolen Base of Third I didn't put that
on Twitter, that was just on Instagram, So go and
check that out interact with me there, and that's all
I got for your friends. Hope to see you out here.
If not, hope to see you on in the pod world.
You guys are hanging with me and I will be

(01:21:57):
back next Monday from the field to break down week
two of the AFL. That's all that we got. Hope
you guys have a fantastic one. I'll talk to you
next time right here on Prospect one.

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Episode 410 - AFL Week 1 Breakdown and Final MiLB Stat Leaders

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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

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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 410 - AFL Week 1 Breakdown and Final MiLB Stat Leaders