Episode 410 - AFL Week 2 Breakdown with Chris Clegg and Beck of Dynasty Dugout

New Prospect One Podcast


🌵 Arizona Fall League Week 2 Breakdown with @ChrisCleggMiLB and @Upper_Beck live from the stands

➡️ Esmerlyn Valdez 5 HR in one week
➡️ Charlie Condon catches fire
➡️ Walker Janek grand slams
and more


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Find Welsh on Twitter @IsItTheWelsh and on Instagram @IsItTheWelsh

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
In this league.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Podcast that work present Prospect one. Look Fantasy Prospect Podcast
Prospect one with your host Chris Welsch.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
This is the Fantasy Baseball prospect podcast. This is Prospect one.
Hello friends, I'm your host Chris Welsh, who you can
find on Twitter. Is it the Welsh on Instagram? At
is it the Welsh?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
And not?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Is it the Welsh on the web? But in this
league dot com. That is where my Patreon lives, and
that is where the top five hundred prospect ranks, top
four hundred Dynasty Ranks, top two hundred prospect ADP's almost
one hundred first year draft player eligible guys are ranked.
All of it is at in this league dot com.
Plus coming up in the near future, I'm going to
have my very early redraft ranks up there. All the

(00:50):
baseball world lives at in this league dot com and
you are directly supporting what I do. That I can
do Prospect one continuously go out to the Arizona Fall
League like I am so go to in this league
dot com, Join in the conversation, be a part of
the group, mee rooms, get access to the rank sheets
and more in this league dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I love you.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
This is the Week two of the Arizona Fall League
Breakdown show, where I'm gonna be talking through some of
the hottest players a la as Merlin Valdez talked to
you about a few lows some other highlight markers from
week two in the Arizona Fall Ley, and we will
be talking with in a dual interview on the field

(01:30):
or in the stands. Chris Clegg and Beck from the
Dynasty dugout. Both those fine gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Were out here. I believe Beck is still out here.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Clegg's already out, but both these fine gentlemen were out
here in the Arizona Fall League spending some time a
little bit earlier than usual. And I caught them over
at the Puria Sports Complex where we were watching I'm
forgetting the team or no, this was not pure I'm sorry.
This was at Salt River Fields. This was against Puria
and the Salt River team. And caught both of those

(01:58):
guys there and I was like, dude, we got to
do some talking. So we went over to kind of
the left field corner, right under kind of a camera area,
and we talked for twenty plus minutes about quite a
few players that are on their minds these we have
one negative and then talking about a few players that
they thought kind of shined out here.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
So as a highlight, we're gonna be talking about Hagen Smith,
We're gonna be talking about Charlie Condon and a few
more players. And we're doing it live from the stands
of Salt Riverfield. So there's a couple of caveats to understand.
You're gonna hear the PA announcer, you're gonna hear like
music in the background, and you're just gonna hear chaos.
If you've never listened to like when I do these

(02:39):
in the stand interviews, it just sounds a little bit
different than the normal podcast, So just don't be prepared.
But it's a fun conversation with both those guys, you know.
It's just very funny this early in the Arizona fo League,
like seeing some of my friends out here, but they
were coming out.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
To scout and there were some pretty good stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
We had something happen right before literally that that before
and I'll just tell you what did I say. A
couple of weeks ago or a month or so ago,
Tony Blanco was going to have an absolutely stupid h
was going to have an absolutely insane, stupid hit, and
I think I said, he'll hit one one nineteen in

(03:17):
the Arizona Fall League just look out. Well he did,
except he hit it harder. He hit He hit a
It was a double. By the way, you had to
be kidding me. He hit a double one twenty point four. Insane.
But the saddest part about it is we had just
gotten up. I was sitting, you know, doing my normal

(03:37):
camera area, which, by the way, I would have gotten
a phenomenal video of Tony Blanco. We get up, we
go over, Clake had to go do something. Me and
Beck we go and sit down over in this area,
and then Tony Blanco comes up. As we sit down,
we're talking for a second and then cuck a crack
Blanco just crawl. I mean, we saw the hit and
we were like, holy crap. It actually didn't look as

(04:00):
like hard hit from our vantage point, but we're like, well,
that's going to be a double or a homer. And
we took a guess and I think I said one
oh nine, and he's like, I'll take the over. Clig
comes over, he goes, do you guys get the hit?
And we said, well, we saw it. We took our guesses.
He pulls up when stat cast is up one twenty
point four, so that prediction was correct. Crazy Tony Blanco

(04:24):
is a super interesting guy. You know, we didn't really
hit him in this episode, but I am going to
talk about him because he didn't really play in the
first week. So we're going to talk about So the
two of us are going to talk about some players
that they thought, the three of us some players that
they thought really shined. I'm going to talk about some
players that I saw that really kind of stepped up.
I've got some video of a multitude of these players

(04:46):
that I thought had really great Week two's and you know,
their stars starts to shine. You know, there's a couple
of players specifically. I mean, I am going to talk
about enri Ku Bradfield, but you know, Bradfield and Cam
Colliers are very too specif a great player. Are two
very specific players where I thought they really struggled in
week one and they've absolutely picked it up in week two.

(05:09):
I actually had an interaction with Cam where you know
Cam in had he did a couple of rough games
where it in my mind he's a very contact bass hitter,
and what I have noticed is he really wants to
lock into that. And I think I told the story
where I was like pull side and he's like no, no, nah,
he wants to like make contact. But with that, I

(05:32):
think there might be like a book out on him.
And to me, what it seems like is like high
fastballs and that you know he's trying to choke up
and he's trying to like push the ball opposite field and.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Just make contact.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
That you know he's getting chased on like upper stuff
and he's had some bad strikeouts, so would he adjust Well?
Then he did and he absolutely crushed one like four
twenty six I think it was, and I would have
had the perfect of perfect views and I wasn't recording
at that moment and he crushed. And I had shared
a video earlier there's this goofy one of him getting

(06:05):
hit and then Jomfriendgun's Garcia getting hit and then hitting
the ump and I called it the triple play of hitting.
And he had commented on there and he's like, he's like, dude,
I was so pissed about that, And I was like,
but not as pissed as I was to miss the
video of your Homer. But both of those guys little
rough first weeks, really great second weeks. You're starting to

(06:26):
see adjustments. You're starting to see stuff that you want.
It's not about necessarily the numbers. There's a guy that
it does about the numbers, but it's it's about our
guys making adjustments. Are they are they trying new things?
Are they changing? Are they finding some success? Even success
sometimes is done without result, if that makes sense. You
can be successful in fighting off a certain type of

(06:49):
pitch that really gets you and then you know it
ends up being like a hard line out or you
know what I'm saying. You can be successful without result.
These guys are starting to find some success, and let's
see if it carries over for a couple more weeks.
Then you start to be like, oh, yeah, you know,
I like this. I like that Bridfield had a really
good week. I thought, can't call your really ended strong.
But you know, are we ready to be like they

(07:10):
are huge high risers in ranks. I don't know that's
what we're gonna determine, but I have a list of
players that I think are starting the rise. And then
there were two players I thought particularly that struggled this
week in a kind of a concerning way. So that's
what got in store. My Risers, a little bit of
a follower, Beck Chris Kleig, all of that is coming

(07:32):
up here in just a second. Shout out to SIDS Grafs.
Of course, my buddy Denis Sidler, who's going to be
out here this week doing a signing with I believe
Johnny Farmelo, Brandon Winnaker, leave Cam Collier as well. Listen,
go to sids Grafs. You can go on the eBay
social or the website and you can check out all
the incredible stuff that he gets with some of the
game's top prospects and players, Chris Sale, Corbyn, Carrol Jackson, Cheerio,

(07:57):
and he's got a handful of guys that he's working
with this week.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
I believe Luis.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Pena it might be in that group in a month
or soon, Bubba Chandler. It never ends, and hopefully I'll
get to spend some time with Dennis and maybe a
few of the prospects that he's gonna be doing signing with,
So go and check him out. Always appreciate Dennis's support.
So before we jump into the stuff here, some Arizona
Fall League notes when I said I really like as

(08:24):
Merlin Valdez last week, and then I told you that
he's this year's Josue Bersiino a la Jacob Marci that
has aged well, very very well. Now people can be like, yeah,
let me backtrack. Everybody is in love with as Merlin
Valdez right now, rightfully so, because he is setting records,

(08:49):
but like, no longer is this gonna work where I'm like, hey,
he's the most underrated. He's flying. As Merlin Valdez hit
five homers this week. This week he has seven homers.
I didn't I had this up and I'm trying to remember,
and now I'm going to completely fail. I want to

(09:11):
say the home run record was like, I'm totally not
gonna find it. I really wish they had like historical
on here so I could just click that. I want
to say it was in like twenty and sixteen. It
could be thirteen. Nine is for some reason a number
that keeps popping up to me. But I don't think

(09:31):
I'm just doing like a quick sort and let's see
ten last year was the big number. I'm saying, if
I could just quickly do it without you guys losing
your mind. Let me go back down to like twenty eleven.
Thirteen is oh there, it is Mike Olt. Mike Olt
had thirteen in two thy and eleven, and I want
to say that is the number, not that it really matters,

(09:53):
but what is important about that and God going back
on the old names ridiculous, is he's halfway there to
like the record as Mother Valdez has is taking this
little version of the prospect world by storm, so that
buying opportunity is kind of gone. It's crazy, whether you're
looking in like some people prospect search in like the

(10:15):
card world. Stuff is skyrocketing. Pipeline Baseball America. Everybody is
talking about as Merlin Valdez because he's showing off everything
that I talked about in that episode last week, and
it just was bigger this past week. Not only did
he hit five homers in a seven day period which
he didn't play a game, which I have a funny

(10:36):
story for that, he also walks seven more times.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
So he leads the AFL in homers, he leads the
AFL in walks. He is I think he's tied for runs.
He's near the top.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
It hits of.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
Course, hi Obi at like it's crazy. He's struck out
three times in eight games while walking thirteen times. He's
got a beautiful his approach is great. He's not getting
beat and one of my favorite moments. And this has
led to more funny experiences I've had with him. I'm
at Scottsdale and this is the Tuesday game, and this

(11:16):
is actually the game I saw Kleig and Beck and
this is it gets to a bigger version because of
like what like Charlie Condon and stuff was doing.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
So this is this game.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
As Merlin is up and I think it's his second
at bat, and he's fighting off. He's not getting beat.
He doesn't make bad swings. That's another thing, like you know,
something like Condon. I like Charlie Condon, but Condon has stuff,
you know, like breaking pitches and you know, the pitch
mix can get him off and he can make some
pretty ugly swings. I have not seen that with as Merlin.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
He's really dialed in. He's a big guy too, really
big guy.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
So he takes this at bat and he breaks his
bat and he comes back and they go to hand
him a bat and he goes no, no, no, and
he goes over and he go points to the exact
he knows exactly what bat he wants, gets it first
pitch with new bat. Bang gone. I get this video.

(12:10):
I'm super excited to get another as Merlin Homer because
I've gotten a couple. Unfortunately, I've only gotten two of
his seven Homers on video. So I get this Homer
put it out and I think I had already told
you guys about maybe I didn't. I'm days and everything
gets kind of lost on me. I also had an
interaction and if I didn't say this, I did a

(12:32):
video in Fantasy Pros and I think I did tell
you guys, and he hit me up because he watched
the video and we've had some conversations. So I get
this video, I put it out, I tag him and stuff.
He's in my five minutes after the game, he's in
my dms bro and we're just kind of talking. Our
conversations are very bro centric, just like imojis. He's killing

(12:55):
it and then he asked me, can I have that video? Absolutely?
So I get it to him, get him the video.
He's super super nice kid, just super nice, thankful, and
I'm like, don't even worry about it. Glad to do
it anytime I'm there, I'll get you video. And I
think I've even told him, like I'm planning to come
to a game in the next couple of days.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
So then I go out.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
I think this is on. This is the game where
I recorded this with Klegan Cross or Cleagan Cross with
cleg and Beck and I get there, get to the
stadium whatever, and as Merlin is out on the field
as I walk in, and him and Will Taylor are
out there, and I'm like, Oh, are they training or something?
And then I go, oh, no, I don't think he's playing.

(13:40):
So I go over and I catch him and he
comes over and I'm like, as Merlin, what's up, bro?
And he looks at me and he doesn't know, and
I'm like and I put out my phone. I'm like
it's me. Well so and he goes oh and he explodes, Bro,
that's as Merlin's bro and big dab up and he's like,
thank you so much. He's like I sent that to
my mother and I'm like that's awesome. Like I was

(14:02):
so happy, and I'm like, oh, that's so cool that
that wasn't I mean, I don't know what the guy's
used the video for but he's like he sent that
to his mom and I'm like, that's super cool, dude.
I'm like absolutely anytime he's like hey man, he's like
I got you, and I'm like, you got me, and
he's like I get you.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
He's like stay here.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
I'm like, okay, So we're just we're talking for another
this was We talked for another minute.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Then he said that, and then they go in.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
He comes back out and he walks up and he
hands me his batting gloves and he's like, I get you, man.
And he gets in and I'm like, okay, I didn't
ask for anything. I'm like, I don't need anything. And
he's like, and take these, and he gives me the
batting gloves and I'm like I'm like that's awesome. And
I'm like, my kids are gonna freaking love this. And
they are big, actually fit me obviously, big ass batting gloves.

(14:48):
And let me tell you when I told my kid,
I mean, he doesn't know who these players are. He
hasn't seen as Merlin yet. But I'm definitely gonna take him.
I tell you that to say, like, that's how cool of.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
A kid this is. I'm not asking i don't care
about any that stuff. I want to get the video.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'm one hundred out of one hundred times, get him video,
send him whatever he wants.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
I enjoyed it.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
I enjoyed and having a relationship with these guys. And
he is also the most thankful, nice dude. And he
is a murderer. He is killing the AFL. So on
top of all of that, I thought that was really
really cool that he wanted to do that because he
was so thankful. But that has been his vibe. He's
a big personality. It's got Eloy Jimenez vibes of the
personality when he was in here in the AFL. He's cool,

(15:29):
he's collected. And then here's another thing, just to give
you guys perspective, because, like I'm telling you, his swing
is great, his approach is great, his pitch recognition looks good.
He was at the futures game. He's showing ridiculous power.
Not just homers that are like a little bit. They're
fulying all of that aside. So let's talk in tangibles.
Super nice guy interacting. He's also like, you know, his

(15:54):
English is I think his English is good, but there's
a lot of like, you know, Dominican of players that
are uncomfortable with doing and even if they can speak
a little bit, they're kind of uncomfortable doing interviews.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
He's not.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
I've seen him do a couple.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
I'm gonna try to grab him soon. He's like, you know,
he's very comfortable. I love that, cool and calm.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
And collected all of that stuff. But here's the other thing.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
So that game that he didn't play, because when I
went and talked to him, I'm like, are you playing today?
And He's like no, And I'm like, dude, the whole
game he is standing up on the dugout, not just
like leaned and talking to dudes. When I tell you
he was, I've I'm really the only person I've ever
seen do this is either him and is he is
standing up on the stairs with the manager and he

(16:36):
is talking and rooting on the players the whole game.
Those are intangibles that I like, he's having fun, he's
dialed in, he's beloved by the players. And while we
were doing this interview, as Merlin was in front of
us the entire time we were back, we weren't like
in the front seats. We were on the section that
starts to go up at Salt River, so we're probably like,

(16:59):
you know, thirty forty feet away, but we're staring at
him the whole time. We were sitting like he's right there,
and I just thought that was another intangible so stuff
maybe you guys don't need, but like, this is the dude.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
This is as long.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
As things, you know, continue pace, this is the guy
that's gonna win MVP. He has a chance to break
some records out here in the Fall League, and there's
a lot of stuff that he's doing that doesn't feel
as fluky. Now, is he gonna be like a fifty
home run guy in the majors?

Speaker 2 (17:25):
I have no idea.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
But what I know is there are some like pro
pitcher here. You know, there's some starters, there's some relievers,
there's some dudes, and he's not getting fooled and he's
walking and he's crushing Baseball's eight of his ten hits
are extra base hits out here.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
That's nuts.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
So the secret is gone with as Merlin Valdez. Everybody's
talking about him and he deserves it. I told him
that the other day we were talking. I was like, dude,
I'm like, you're go toed right now. You deserve all
the attention, and hopefully I'm going to get to see
him some more this week, and he's probably gonna put
up some more video game numbers as Merlin Valdez is
the dude, and in my I've got a big change

(18:08):
in my update, which, by the way, my rank update
that's coming out.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
I I haven't changed him since this week.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
I don't feel that we need to go berserk because
he hit seven homers, because that's you know, that can
feel fluky ish. But with what I saw in week one,
it kind of reaffirms some stuff for me, and then
you know, he's just gone absolutely crazy since. So the
twenty twenty five Arizona follig is the Esmond as Merlin
Valdez show for sure, and I love the guy he is.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
He's the best.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
A couple other notes, DeAndre Smith and Enrique Bradfield tied
a single game record each with four stolen bases in
a game. What's interesting about that because I think I'm
gonna try to get Enrique here really soon to do
an interview. You gotta forgive me if I said this
last week, but I think I did. I mentioned because
I was the one that said to Enrique, are you

(19:00):
going to go for Durbin's record? And he asked me
about it. I told him about it, and he was
kind of just not dismiss a super nice guy, he
was into it. He's like, hmm, okay, thinking about it.
But I think I said he stole like one base
in the first week.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
He's the league leader.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
Now he has.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
Eight stolen bases. And I have a friend who is
with me and that that has kind of checked in
with him. He might actually be going for it. So
I'm gonna I bet he would be super humble and
probably not acknowledge it, but I'm gonna see if I
can talk with him and see if we can talk
about that, because it looks like he might have a
direct line into potentially going for that stolen base marker,

(19:37):
which is good because it's lining up with him starting
to find some success in the second week. So a
little bit of a little bit of Enrique Bradfield and
then I hadn't seen this before. I believe this is
the first time this has happened. It was essentially a
run rule in Scottsdale where they ended the game in
the eighth because the Scottsdale Scorpion scored twelve runs in
one inning. It's the most runs in a single inning.

(20:01):
Twelve runs in the second inning, which was highlighted by
Kevin McGonagall, who came up twice, got hits in both
at bats and RBI's in both at bats. He hit
a double in his first at bat and then a
single in his second at bat. So McGonagall starting to
heat up a little bit and the scott Steale Scorpions.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
I was.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
It was with a couple people on the Friday night
game and I got to I had to pick up
my kids, but I got to catch a little bit
and I looked over and I was like, you know,
I don't think I had like conceptualized this, but this
Scottsdale team.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
They're the best.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Like they are loaded, and obviously there's like superstars in
other spots, but when they can, they lead off like
Nick Morribido, who's like a good lead off guy. Then
go to Kevin McGonagall, Then go to Max Anderson, who
I think Max is the new as Merlin Valdez. Like
everybody knows as Merlin Valdez. Now Max Anderson to me

(20:54):
is the new most underrated player out here. He's going three.
Then Walker Janik, who we're going to talk about. Then
they go to Chris like they just got bangers. Have
to see for king, They've got a crazy good lineup.
They're gonna be really tough to beat, and they're I know,
you don't care about that. What's relevant is they've got
like prospects that are kind of thriving and feeding off
of each other and doing a lot of really good stuff.

(21:18):
In fact, we are going to talk about quite a few,
or we're gonna talk about at least well, actually three
of my six players are Scottsdale based players on the
rise up here.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
So let's take a break.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
When we come back, i'm gonna tell you guys about
some of the players that are kind of up and
down for me, and then we're gonna go and get
Clegg and Beck's opinions on some players that have caught
their eyes. So don't go anywhere more. Arizona Fall League
breakdown right here on Prospect one.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Say I like you. I like you so much, I'm
gonna make you my partner.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
All you has to do is find the gold and
I'll share with you fifty.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
To fifty prospect was the first player up.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
We are going to the Scottsdale Scorpions. He has been
one of the I mean, I guess I'm always like
intrigued when I'm kind of indifferent about a player and
then they just pop off. Obviously, I'm not talking about
Max Anderson in this one.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Though I should. Over the last seven days, I.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
Think I forgot he had three homers. I've got one
of his home runs. I think he's low key legit.
Maybe we'll save him for next week. But Walker Janic,
that's a guy that I want to talk about because
I've caught two I think of three of his homers.
I had a By the way, just f y, here's
a little plug that follow me on Instagram. I don't

(22:35):
know what Twitter is doing to me. I still cannot
to this moment. I don't know if it's somehow my
phone recorded it, but I cannot upload the Walker Jantic
video to Twitter no matter what I do. I've tried everything,
but it instantly went up on my Instagram. So if
you want to fall along with some of the videos,
is it the Welsh on Instagram? Follow there so I
can't put it up on Twitter. Hits a grand slam

(22:57):
in Mesa.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's stupid.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
He has huge, big, hard contact numbers. He's hitting in
the middle of the lineup. He is dialed in. He's
a tough out every single time. And this week alone
he hit three homers with an asinine fifteen RBI in
one week. And unfortunately he does have six strikeouts to
no walks, but he's also stolen three bases. Walker Janick

(23:22):
has twenty plus homer in power. If he could ever
get a cow rawly type of treatment, you know, where
you can have a catcher who can dh his bat's live.
That's what I think is most interesting about him. It's
not a situation where I'll give you an example. I
really like Alfredo Duno. But the more I stare at it, like,
is Walker Janic a better offensive an offensive bet than
Alfredo Duno.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
He might be.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Duno's a beast, looks like he's got huge, big power
and stuff, But you know, Duno is like a very
conservative type of player, Like he takes a lot of walks,
takes a lot of pitches, drives a lot of counts
and stuff like that. Walker Janik is like, you give
me your my pit and I'm going to do it.
So maybe Duno hits two eighty with you know, fifteen

(24:04):
to eighteen homers or something like that. Walker Janik might
be a two sixty hitter, but I legit think he
can get twenty five plus. He just completely dialed in here,
unfazed by everything, and two of the top three homer
un hitters last week. We're from that Scottsdale team. So
I don't want to, like, I don't want to barry
Max Anderson here. I'll probably give more conversation to him,

(24:25):
and he's warranted as a player to probably talk to
because I really really think he has looked phenomenal. But
that scotts Stale team as a whole, they're kind of
all carrying each other, and he's a he's a really
really big shiner. So again, seven days, three homers, three
stolen bases, fifteen rbi, and during the airs in a
fall league. He now he's up to eighteen RBI, ten

(24:46):
hits and.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Six of those are extra base hits.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
He's got you know, eleven hundred ops right now. But
the and this might be I don't even know if
it's like a scott Stale thing. There's something about him
and seever King the ball is always hit hard like
Big EV's. I should have probably pulled them up. I'll
try to pull them up for the next one, but
every piece of contact has hit hard, and you just
can't fool Janek. And the other thing I like about

(25:09):
Janet is they've been trying to throw him like off
speed stuff, and I think that's what ended up happening
with that grand slam is I think it was like
a slider a little bit on the outside, and janetk
just demolished it. Go and check it out on Instagram.
It's a phenomenal video, just.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Absolutely crushes it.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
Number two also on Scott Sales team, he was fourth
in homers over the last week. And this is a
player that I was pretty indifferent on, even though that
they had like big counting stats. Doesn't walk a lot
and that's part of his problem. But Christopher Swerrow with
the New York Mets is a dude. Swearrow has big,

(25:46):
big offensive potential. The problem from a season total, So
let me pull this up here because I didn't have
this up is batting average and strikeouts. So that's like,
and I had a couple multiple people kind of jumping
in a lot of Mets account and jump in on
this stuff. Sweared this season sixteen homers, thirty five stolen bases.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Slight backtrack. This is a catcher or listed as a catcher.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
That's kind of an important thing. I actually want to see.
Did he play anything else during the season?

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Okay, yeah, so he played a little bit of first base,
he played.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Some outfield in left field, but primary catcher. The reason
I say that is because he played left field and
he's been playing a decent amount of outfield out here.
And that's the game I saw that he ended up.
He ended up playing in the outfield. He had a
diving catch which I put on the instagram.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
Looks great.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
He had a double in this game. But he also
has an opposite field homer, and it was a really
impressive hit because it was kind of a longer at bat.
He's not a big walk guy. Last week zero walk,
six strikeouts, but in the last seven days he's had
five hits and fourteen at bats. Two are homers, three
year extra base hits. And you can see this this

(27:00):
opposite field homer, which it was a little bit over
the wall and you know, might be like a Yankee
Stadium type of homer. I'm not sure. It's going in
a ton of places. But he really fought off, showed
that raw power the guy can run, and the athleticism
for him to not only just be a catcher, but
go and work out in left field, not just like
play outfield. We're talking a diving catch he had in

(27:22):
that same game.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
I really like Christopher Suerrow.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
Now you know, the strikeouts are something that it's a problem.
He had one hundred and thirty nine strikeouts and one
hundred and fifteen games. I mean, that's a serious problem.
Three hundred and seventy eight at bats for one hundred
and thirty nine strikeouts, well over thirty three percent. I'm
not looking at fangrafts to see percentages. Was that thirty
five percent.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
A little bit over?

Speaker 3 (27:48):
So I would love to see him work on that here.
So I think that kind of caps maybe, like you know,
like the insanity of how you want to view the player.
That would be a big key for me. Does he
have power yes, Can he play outside of catcher, yes,
extra baseability yes, all of that athleticism for a way

(28:09):
more athletic I think than you would think on a.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Lot of kit I love all of that.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
Also, great vibes guy, unfhazed, super personable, all those things.
I would love to see him click into some walks,
lower some strikeouts. And I think that's a difference between
me telling you listen, Christopher Suero has top one fifty
prospect upside. If he were to get that under thirty percent.

(28:33):
This is a guy with the tools that he has,
he could be a top one hundred guy. I'm not
ready to anoint him on that, but I think that
he could get there. So Christopher Swuerro definitely somebody Suro
someone that should be on your guys' radars. It's twenty
one years old out here, and I really really like him.
He's a standout player. Number three, let's talk about Charlie Condon.

(28:57):
I said in the last episode, was a little bit
worried about Charlie Condon. Condon was kind of back to
some of those ways getting eaten up by breaking pitches.
Throw him like a high fastball up, then go breaking pitch.
Then he's kind of on his heels. Or you can
inverse it. You can start with the first pitch, breaking ball.
A little bit worried about that. He rectified that this week.

(29:20):
Charlie Condon ended up hitting three sixty eight. He had
seven hits of nineteen at bats this past week only
for strikeouts to go with for walks, which is impressive.
And in the game that I was at, he hit
a grand slam which I missed.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
But prior to that, he.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Absolutely destroyed a ball which is on Twitter and Instagram
you guys can go see online, which I thought this
ball was gone gone. I thought he was hitting it
to Glendale.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Huge high angle.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
What ends up happening. It's a pretty deep center field.
It's like for ten for fifteen hits. It hits at
the very tippy top right before the yellow and bounces off.
So I mean we're talking. He missed it by less
than a foot. He missed a homer and in the
video you see but what's funny about it? And I

(30:13):
asked him about this later. He could have had an
inside the parker because that ball, I think he might
have like slowed up a tiny bit.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
That ball.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
It bounced off the metal and into the infield, and
the center fielder doesn't like really become super aggressive. So
Jared Thomas is rounding. He ends up kind of pulling
up at third while I want to say, the cutoff
man in the infield started the throw and then it
was a bad throw. So had he gone home, that's
an inside the parker. Two days later or three days

(30:42):
or whatever, we have this.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Two days later.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
I asked him and I was like, do you think
you could have got that? And he's like, I don't know, man,
and he just kind of like little soft smirk, not
too much into it, like I don't know. And I
was like, you could have had that, And then the
video is funny as people were booing him because they
wanted him to go because he had it.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
I'll tell you we're.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Gonna talk about Charlie Condon or Clake's gonna talk some
about Charlie Condon. I've been impressed with seeing the adjustments.
What I do think though, is I'm starting to just
maybe understand who he is and who he is is
in that, like, you know, maybe he's like a two
fifty hitter. He's gonna have some really loud results, he's
gonna have some strikeouts.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Kind of seems unphased.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Which I think is pretty impressive about him, Like I
don't know, you know, he's not throwing bats or breaking
bats when he strikes out, like he just kind of
lets the game come to him, which that's like a
pretty big positive turn. Do I think he's gonna be
a three hundred hitter. No, I don't know, but like
that power is gonna play. That ball would have even
five hundred feet in Colorado. So I think the arrow's

(31:42):
ticking back up on Charlie Condon. One more hitter, and
it's because he started playing. This week, we just got
a shout out Tony Blanco for a couple things. Tony
Blanco finally got into some games, and yes he hit
one one twenty point four, love it. But in these
games he has seven hits and twelve at bats this

(32:05):
week alone, one double, one homer.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
He already has six RBI.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
He's also not striking out. He's twenty five percent striker.
He's three strikeouts, he's walked twice. When I tell you
he's a big human, he's a big human. Six foot seven,
six foot eight two.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
I guess they updated the weight two hundred and eighty
plus pounds.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
He's listed at still an athlete too. He is a
big dude playing.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
First base out here.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
Es Merlin is all about him, big support on him.
There might be more there for Tony Blancos it's a
young dude too.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
It is absurd. The problem is is like the power's absurd.
It's what I was gonna say. The power is absolutely ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
What he doesn't have is like the Oneal Cruz athleticism,
like Oneo Cruse. What you get so excited about, even
though he really struggles with his batting average and strikeouts,
is that, like, you know.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
It can be a game changer, you.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Know, whether it's infield or outfield. You know, playing positionally,
he can run and lead the league and sole.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
And bases that type of thing. Blanco can't do that.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
But Blanco is also showing some ability where I want
to see him a little bit more to see like
how pitchers start to attack him because he's such a
big guy. Is there going to be like a lot
of like low slider or breaking pitches on the outside
that he's going to chase because I'm not seeing the
chase stuff right now. What I am seeing is if
you make a mistake. Tony Blanco is a guy that

(33:31):
doesn't just like you know, you know that adage where
they're like, oh, he destroys mistakes, No, he kills mistakes,
he orbits mistakes, and he did that with like, that's
the hardest hit ball in AFL history.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
I know we don't have.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
Like the stat cast ata to for years and years
and years to prove that. I'm pretty confident about that.
It's like the fourteenth hardest hit ball in registered stat
cast era. Like it's ridiculous, Tony Blanco. There's something there,
but it does feel like it is not going to
be in the outfield. I don't think I've seen him
in the outfield. It's been first base only. Him and

(34:05):
Charlie Condon are kind of going back and forth about that,
so I know they list him as an outfielder.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
I think he's a first base guy. He has the
power for it.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
He's showing off some pretty good ability right now, especially
not having crazy strikeouts. I mean, the leader for this
past week was Peter Orlando.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
He had nine.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Strikeouts, just three, just three from Blanco. So let's keep
an eye on him because that power is like fifty
home run potential, ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Two pitchers that.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Stood out on the positive Anderson Brido Anderson Brito with
the Astros. That's another Scottsdale guy had a really good game.
I do want to point out Jake Bennett, who's on
Scotts Stille as well, had the most strikeouts in the
past week with eleven. That was over two starts. But
Anderson Brito had one start, which was in the Masas

(34:52):
start which I saw three innings, struck out eight with
two walks. His breaking pitch is nasty. He was pumping
ninety five. He was going between ninety two and ninety five.
Breaking pitch was getting a bunch of whiffs. Anderson Brido
definitely has the stuff. I should have gone and pulled

(35:12):
the stat cast stuff on that because I want to
say was like it felt like a cuttery and then
a big breaking pitch and a fastball. I'm not looking
at like the scouting report or anything that's on him.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
But super super poised.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
I will say that that MESA team is pretty swing
and Missy, Tommy White, Peter Orlando Brailer, Guerrero, There's a
lot of strikeout problems there, but Brito absolutely dominated them.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Did not give up a hit. He was ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
He did walk to something to watch, but Andersonbrido definitely
on the tick up. I also mentioned Luis Paralis had
another pretty good outing. He did give up I think
a few runs seven strikeouts. Walks are still an issue.
He had a good outing. I would mention Louise de Leone,
but we're going to talk about him with Beck here
in just a minute. Put a pen in that. But

(36:01):
how about Chinwei Linn Chinway Linn another. We have like
two like six foot eight guys that are out here
in the Arizona Fall League.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
He is one of them.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
You've probably heard his name before, because I want to
say Tim last year, like the year before this last
one had mentioned him, you know, as a cardinal that
he had saw a bunch. Linn has been out here
to clearly work on his command, and it looks like
it's paying off in this because he's a you know,
big bodied six foot eight dude who's out there long

(36:33):
extension and levers. It feels very like Noah Schultzi to you.
In this last start he went three and two innings,
struck out five, walked zero and gave up one hit,
had a point two seven whip. It's phenomenal and I
would say, so far it's been a rousing success. He's
got two wins, he's gone five and two thirds, striking

(36:55):
out nine, giving up only two hits, a one to
eleven batting average against and he had three walks in
his first start none in his next. It looks like
he is locking in chin Whalen had and they're using
him as like a starter, so they're trying to put
in So he went what was it like, one and
two third and then three and one third. I wonder
if he gets to four or five, so look out

(37:17):
for that. And then I guess I didn't plan to
do it. But one other Haigen Smith's second start was great.
He's now six innings and nine strikeouts, does have four
walks and four hits. Those guys are shining. But there
there's quite a few really good starting pitchers, and we're
going to talk about a couple of them with the
Beck and Clegg.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Last thing are the downs.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
It's still too early to go like nuts about players
that you think are like deserved to be down because
it also the caveat of course Arizona Fall League and
the ball travels and short stints and dah dah dad.
The difference that I have is I just I do
see these guys quite a bit, so it's not like
me coming and seeing one outing and then just making

(37:58):
a decision. I'll see them quite a bit. It's still
a period of time, but I want to point out
it is still really rough with Brailer Guerrero. We're also
Cleig is going to talk about Brailer Guerrero. It has
not gotten any better.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
You know. Orlando's kind of struggled.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
And I'm rooting for both of these guys because I
really like both of them, Orlando specifically, but Brailer Guerrero
has two hits in twenty four at bats. He's struck
out fifteen times, so it was like a sixty percent
strikeout rate. And I think the frustrations are boiling a
little bit. I think Cleig talks about a frustrating moment

(38:34):
that he had, so kind of be on.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
The lookout for that.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
I would love for the corner to turn, but we'll
kind of put a little pen in where the Brailer
Gurero stuff is going. And this is more advanced competition,
but it's like it's pretty screaming at you.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Right now the other one.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
And I don't know if there's a ton of application,
but I know there was a lot of excitement about
around Brandon Neely. Neely now has the second most earn
runs given up. He has seven oh I'm sorry that
was in this week alone. This week alone, he went
one in two thirds with seven earn runs given up.

(39:12):
He has seven total in four and two thirds.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
So the first start was okay.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
But the thing I want to point out is he's
hit multiple batters, he's walked three, He's only struck out three.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
He's given up a lot.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
Of earned runs. The command seems to be kind of
washy right now. I don't know if there's anything, you know,
crazy to read out of it. I mean, Jose Cornell,
you know, got hit up a little bit and he
has major league experience. I think there's a lot of
impressive guys. But what I think on the negative is
I need to see multiple outings of a lot of

(39:44):
these players, because you know, the ball can fly out here.
One bad outing can inflate numbers.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
But nearly looked.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
This was on the Tuesday game of last week, and
I think cleigen Beck kind of confirmed it with me
off air. He looked bad, he looked tired, he looked frustrated.
Did I think he hit two batters in that game?
The walks like it was pretty inconsistent, But just like
with the Bryce Cunningham thing, like he had one really
bad outing. Not ready to call anything off on any pitchers.

(40:13):
So the negative approaches to a player's rank, it's not
in full force right now, you know. And and also
be very careful about it because of this league specific
it's it's a lot easier to take positives out of
players than negatives, or like some people do, they take
nothing out of anything in the Arizona Fall League stats
or stats whatever. I'm looking for, like mechanical stuff. I'm

(40:34):
looking for approach and and and just pure ross stuff,
you know. And that is something that we get out
of a guy like Louis d Leon. To be fair,
that's something that Luis Prowess gets. Like his results are
not quite there.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
He's still kind of getting back with the strikeouts. But
his stuff is ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
Aspiinl stuff is ridiculous. I just didn't get to see
him this week. But you know, I would say, as
Marilyn Valdez is on an island of his own this week.
Walker Janic is becoming I think one of the most
underrated player. But I'd also say it's two A and
two B. Max Anderson and Walker Janik are probably the
most undervalued appreciated players here. That I think are really

(41:09):
true stock up players that you should try to go
and get in on. I think Condon has helped himself.
I think Christopher Suero is someone that has opened up
the radar. Tony Blanco should be back on the radar,
and really Anderson Brito should be another player. We'll see
where the results continue to go, you know, and we're
gonna continue watching guys like Innrikay Bradfield and Cam Collier.

(41:31):
But that's Week two. That's Week two in a nutshell.
Week three coming up. We've got a double header all
games or double headers on Tuesday, which is going to
be crazy. We've got Dennis that's coming into town this week.
They've got a weird weekend setup that's going to be happening.
So we've got a lot of games and a couple
of new players. Players leave, players added. Waler Frudo Antonez

(41:54):
is taking off the roster. Sad they replaced him with
Alphonse alfonsin Rosario, which is actually a pretty nice ad
for the Guardians aid twenty one homers this past year,
so I'm actually twenty one years old. I'm pretty excited
to see him. We still have not seen jos Wee Bersine.
I'm sorry, yoswe to Paula. I hope this is going

(42:16):
to be the week that he's going to be out here.
And there's always the potential for some other replacements on
injuries and stuff, so we'll see what changes happened. But
we are eyeing Braid Montgomery to come back to play.
He's here. We're dying. We're dying to see de Paula return.
And then we've got a couple of new guys. Chandler
Pollard took over for Sebastian Walcott, and then we've got
Rosario taking over for Antonez, who is out. I think

(42:40):
it had an ankle surgery or something. So we'll keep
at it and keep your ears pinned because the next
episode we're gonna try to do an AFL giveaway for
some AFL autographed stuff, so be on the lookout for that.
I'll tell you all about it in the next one.
But let's say one more break. We are going live
to saw River Fields. This was the Thursday game. I

(43:03):
think it's in the fifth inning. I think I talked
about it on there. Beck Clegg Dynasty dugout live from
Salt River Stands talking about a handful of players that
did catch their eye in kind of a positive and
we'll talk about ranks on.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
A few of these guys.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
So hopefully you guys enjoyed the conversation.

Speaker 4 (43:28):
Prospect Wall.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
We are officially live and back in the stands at
Salt River Fields for Theirs in a Fall League. Joining
me is the great and powerful Chris Cleig. We've got
Beck in the house. We are sitting in the stands
live while the game is going on.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
And gentlemen, a.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago, I said
that we are going to have a Tony Blanco hit
that is going to go one nineteen in the AFL.
We're all going to think it's so stupid. It is
guaranteed to happen. Literally ninety seconds ago, Tony Blanco crushed
a double that I guessed was one O nine because
I'm stupid.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Beck took the over. Cleig, you just looked what was
the number?

Speaker 4 (44:14):
One twenty point four?

Speaker 3 (44:16):
Give me a break. That is he is absolutely a
video game. He's silly. He's a silly gooseback one twenty.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Do you buy it? Though?

Speaker 1 (44:25):
I think the gun here is hot, but Tony Blanco
is an enormous man, he had a one to eleven
single earlier. I buy that.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
It's so ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
All right, so we are, we're alive in the stands,
so you're gonna hear lots of stuff the things I
love to do.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
This is week two of the AFL.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
And both of you gentlemen, are not here during the
first pitch time. You guys came out a little bit earlier,
so that's kind of exciting. We get to go, you know,
do all of this. Beck you're out here a little
bit longer. Cleig, I know you're gonna be heading out soon.
We're going to talk about some of the guys that
you guys have loved overall. But just first off, how
like how's the trail like? Without the whole crew of

(45:02):
the baseball industry, you're kind of coming out on your own.
You know, it's dynacy dugout that you've you know, you've
built up. This is kind of like a first This
is like a company f A.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
I kind of see R.

Speaker 5 (45:11):
Yeah, Absolutely, it's been good. I really enjoyed being out
here earlier. You know, sometimes we get guys to leave
this year.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
It may benefit to.

Speaker 5 (45:17):
Be here later because we'll get braid Montgomery and hopefully
it's wait to follow back, but you know, missing those guys,
but typically some pitchers leave, So I just want to
try something different and come out a little earlier, catch
some of the arms that they go away. Even though
there's not the elite arms, there's been some good ones.
And yeah, it's been a good time. The weather's been
perfect perfect. Yeah, came right after the hurricane, which who
came during the hurricane?

Speaker 4 (45:38):
After it?

Speaker 2 (45:39):
Right after it?

Speaker 5 (45:39):
But yeah, who who would have thought the Arizona that
a hurricane? They would have banged two days of games here,
But here we.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Are, you know, Okay, So real quick, before we talk
about the players, Claig said, you know, we don't have
like the Banger pitchers. I kind of thought the same thing,
except this feels a little like we might have the
best depth of pitching games.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
You and I.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
We're going to talk about a few pictures here, like
and you haven't got to see everybody, but there is
there has been kind of a like every single day
you're kind of getting a dude, right.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah, I mean we saw Daniel Aspino a few days ago.
He only threw one inning. Carson mill Brandt was good
yesterday we'll talk a little bit about Louise dal Leone
seeing David Hageman today, there's not I don't think there's
the same top arm that there has been in like
Shovin Teman. There's not exactly, but we do have maybe
ten pictures who are moderately interesting at worse.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
So okay, so let's do that.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
Then the focus here is going to be your guys'
impressions while you were out here. I've seen just about
everybody a lot. But the first guy that we're going
to talk about is actually someone I have not physically
seen pitch. I have seen around I joked around with
actually one of the games it's Louise dal Leone and
Louis prows was kind of getting you know, the build up, everyone.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Was like, hey, Louis Prowis is the big guy. But
after Louise.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
Da Leon's first start, everyone said, hold your horses, this
actually might be the best young pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles.
I have missed both starts. You caught the last one,
and I know that's one of the players that you
wanted to hit. So break down what you saw at
a Louis Dalleon.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Louise Dalleon was reaching back for ninety seven with the sinker.
He looked really good. He went just a little over
four innings. He made PJ. Moorlando look a little silly
with some sliders. It's a really low effort delivery. He
was in the zone a lot. It was a super
impressive outing for him, and I'm certainly moving him up
my Baltimore prospect list.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
Well, Walkay, what do you think, like in the grand
schepe of the scheme of the pitching world, what do
you think that looks like? Is he a top one hundred?
Does he have top one hundred stuff right now? Is
it one fifty?

Speaker 5 (47:37):
Like?

Speaker 3 (47:38):
How about compare it against Luis Morales, who a lot
of people think, is you know, right in the top
one hundred range.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
Yeah. I think Louis Paralys is a top ten arm talent.
He's got some russ coming back from Tommy John. He
was a little scattershot, but he was touching one hundred
on multiple occasions. So I think Louis Parrales is a
top one hundred arm. Not quite there let yet on
Luis d lyone, but top one fifty feels right to
me for now.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Any thing you want to throw in on daily on there,
like like rank wise and everything.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
Yeah, he's definitely moving up.

Speaker 5 (48:05):
I wrote up the Oriole system two weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
And had him like thirteen. It might be low.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
Because I was.

Speaker 4 (48:10):
Going through I was like, which Orioles Pitcher do I
actually like.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
Better than him?

Speaker 5 (48:13):
I'veter seeing him and I only came up with a handful,
and so I think. You know, the new splitter that
he was throwing yesterday looked really sharp, so differentiating between.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
The change up that was like mid to upper eighties.
It had like twenty inches.

Speaker 5 (48:25):
Of armside and then the splitter was like eighty three
eighty four with some pretty good trades and it was
like a clear different pitch. We got some close up
shots of his grips on him. One of our photographers
out here did the great job, Reagan Paka. He got
some pretty sweet shots of those grips, and man, that's
a true four pitch mix.

Speaker 4 (48:43):
Good command is low effort. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (48:46):
He still looks like you getta add some weight too.
He's sixty three, but he's got some projection. If he
does like he's average, like ninety six, he could if
he ticks up even more than that's a pretty special arm.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Yeah, he's kind of scary, by the way, if you
hear it, he's zipping by his literally under like a camera,
Like I mean, what is that like a slingshot, Like
it's a I'm not getting the right word, but there's
like a Karen Quinn zoom sooon right above us here
at Salt River. All right, move over to hitting for
a second. We were talking off here. You know a
couple guys that have stood out and impressive. We were

(49:19):
all we only got to hang out for a couple
of minutes at Scott's Sale the other day. But I've
had my stuff with Charlie Condon. I've seen him really
be in rookie ball beginning first week of the AFL
was kind of the same thing. And then literally like
I do this podcast and I'm like, I don't know
about Charlie Condon, and then he just rockets a triple
which could have been inside the parker, hits a grand slam,

(49:42):
And you said, you've actually been pretty impressed with Condon,
So let's hear a breakdown.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Yeah, the swing just looks back to where you want it.
Like I saw him a little bit when he was
at Georgia just being close to him, and then obviously
coming into pro ball, he wasn't the same, didn't look
anywhere remotely close. But he's making a lot of contact
out here. I just think the swing mechanics look back
dialed in because it's what we wanted.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
To see more than anything.

Speaker 5 (50:03):
I mean, you can hitters can put up big numbers
out here in Arizona, like really, who cares like because
the environment can really inflate for hitters. I just want
to see him get back to who he was, and
I think he's doing that. I've seen the approach look
pretty good. The contact skills have been good, the swing,
the mechanics all looked the part to me. And he's
been really impressive every time we've seen him, especially that

(50:23):
game in Scottsdale where he was just absolutely scorching. You
know that triple. It's the deepest part of the park
four thirty he got just right of the batters.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
There's this dumb fence on top of the wall.

Speaker 5 (50:34):
Yeah, and it hit off the fence and kick back
and play and then he had the grand Slam in
the ninth and I was like, one eleven off the
bat He's just doing a lot of things well, and
he's gonna have to he's playing first base now, like
he's going to have to put up power numbers.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
We know he's capable of app he's got.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
To make contact too, and you know, you watch him
the way he handles himself, Like I've been more impressed
with than.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
I previously thought I would be.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
But yeah, he finished the season strong, so this is
not like just a flukey week or so, like how
he finished in double A from August forty at like
nine home runs in the final month.

Speaker 4 (51:06):
All the underlying data was really good.

Speaker 5 (51:08):
So this has just been a good continuation of that,
and I think that he's back to where he needs
to be.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
The only thing that I've had struggles with, and I
don't know if you have any take on this back
has just been like his ability for secondary pitches.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
You know, he shows these flashes.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Where it works, but then you know, like he'll get
behind an account and sure enough if you throw some
breaking pitch low like he's he's gonna miss, but then
he has these moments where he explodes. I don't really
know what to take of that. As like an advanced
college hitter, he's still progressing. Do you have any take on,
you know, where you think his ability to make contact,
because the power is not in question.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
The athleticism is kind of there.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
It's just, you know, is he going to be a
two thirty hitter or is he going to be like
a serviceable to sixty to seventy type of guy.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Well, the ability to hit a fastball that he showed
at Georgia is still very much there. We saw it
twice the other night with the four hundred and twenty
five foot triple in the one to eleven Grand Slam.
When he's behind an account, that's where it gets a
little Shaky's good right handed breaking stuff down, like you noted,
can sometimes eat him up. And I think that's where
we're going to figure out next year against the upper
levels of the miners, if that's something that he can

(52:11):
work through or even outslug or if he can make
an adjustment.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Okay, so let's go to players number two. Back to
you for a picture. I'll let you hit it.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
You got a picture bigger name guy too, that you
thought was really impressive, So break it down.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Yeah, Hagen Smith has had a super interesting year, you know,
going from being hidden in the backfields in spring training
the White Sox, not letting anybody see him to walk
in the world, to strike in everybody out and now
here at the AFL. He had a good surface line
last night on Thursday. I think he struck out five
over three innings. What I saw though in the pitch
data for the fastball wasn't super encouraging. He was sitting

(52:47):
about ninety four and a half dead zone shape. He's
going to have to throw it harder if he wants
to be defective. The slider was pretty good. A guy
behind the dish was stealing some strikes from him outside
of the zone, but he wasn't really in the zone
with it at all. I think it was a thirty
one percent zone rate on the slider. So some shakiness
out of Hagen Smith, but you could see the ingredients
there that made him a top ten pick.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Yeah. I remember when I saw him in rookie ball.
His big thing was like he needed to work on
the change up. Everybody knows like he gets like the
inZone swing, so he's gonna have to some point figure
out like how to get guys out outside of the zone.
He kind of struggled in the first night, but it's
good that you were taking some encouraging stuff out of that.
So where do you think, like after getting to see

(53:27):
him in person again, seemed to get to do this,
like where do you think he lies? Because I thought,
I think feel like he'd been at some point maybe
in some people's minds, is like a top five starting
pitcher in the prospect world. There's arguments if things keep continuing,
a guy like least a leone could be more valuable
than him. Like, what do you think about Hagen in
respect to like other pitching prospects.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Yeah, I think it's all going to come down to
command for him. The fastball, you know, you can see
where the shape really degraded, but being able to be
in the zone a little bit more. He walked eighteen
percent of batters during the regular season. It was better
on Thursday. But I think that's the key for him,
and stuff is good enough, especially the secondary stuff, to
play in the zone more often.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
So we're obviously in the middle of an inning as
we're getting like the music hopefully not copyrighted to hell
here with all of this, so you wish.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
You knew you guys could probably follow along. What inning
are we in? If people, oh, we're in the top
or top of the fifth.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
We're going into now, so yeah, that, yeah, it is
a slow game. I was listening to that for a minute.
I didn't know if Farmelo was up here, but yeah,
we're a top of the fifth if you want to
follow along in a world of looking at a looking
at a box score.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
So anything you want to add on hagen.

Speaker 4 (54:34):
Man, he's interesting. I've struggled with what to do with him.

Speaker 5 (54:37):
I saw one of his first full season pro starts
last year when he was with Winston Salem, and it
was like, where's the splitter that he threw at Arkansas?
And last night he was only fastball swater through one
change up. I was it and it was really not
competitive at all, And so like that's my biggest concern.
I do have fears that the White Sox, they're big
three of arms all and up in the bullpen with

(54:59):
Schultz and Hagen Smith and Grant Taylor who's already in
the bull they got to pick.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
One though, Yeah, you can have them all in the bullpen, right.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
It would be a nightmare disaster for the work if
they did.

Speaker 5 (55:09):
But you know, Smith is just the commands kind of
spotty with the fastball.

Speaker 4 (55:13):
He had what back eighty.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Five percent in zone contact right on the fast Yeah,
people were not missing the fastball. The shape is just
not quite where it needs to be at that velocity.

Speaker 5 (55:21):
Yeah, so it's it's kind of a bad shape. The
released characteristics are all right, but like, I don't think
the shape's good enough at ninety four to ninety five
from the left side. So it'll be something to watch closely.
But yeah, he's not a tough uner prospect for me anymore.
I just I can't get there on the command and
then the two pitches with the fastball just being like
all right, So yeah, I'm uh, I don't know, don't

(55:44):
love it.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
Yeah, I'm not in love with By the way, foul
ball that was writing. I think I took you guys
away from a potential foul ball that might have been
with you guys.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Yeah, we can see Scully over there.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
He's just hanging. He should have comeing home with us,
but yeah, I think he was going to make a
play for it. Yeah, I completely forgot out. We are
in potential ball coming to us, which would be the
second time that has happened.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Okay, in not attempting to live in a negative world.

Speaker 3 (56:07):
We were talking to, especially you guys have short, shorter
sample sizes here, Having like definitive decisions on how you
feel about players can be tougher, but you know, you
guys are good enough on your evaluation. We all did
define a couple of players that have looked pretty gross,
and there's one in particular we were going to talk about,

(56:27):
and he just happens to be the youngest player here
in the AFL. And I mentioned it on my show
last week, Brailer Guerrero. It's still kind of continuing and
from your looks, you are going to co sign that
things are not looking great for Brailer.

Speaker 5 (56:41):
Yeah, and this is my I saw all pretty regularly
in the regular season. He's with Charleston, so a lot
of looks from him throughout the Carolina League, and it
just wasn't great.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
I mean, there's occasions where he can get.

Speaker 5 (56:51):
To power and I think, I mean, obviously that's a
calling card, but contact skills are not good, the athletes
not really great, and the body projection long term kind
of like what's gonna happen And they had him outain
right field a couple of times.

Speaker 4 (57:05):
It's just bad.

Speaker 5 (57:06):
I mean, he he should have made two or three errors. Yesterday,
they gave him hits. It was just like bad reads
bad jumps night remotely close. And you know, also in
the box he was eating up I mean the left
I'm with facing off against some of the lefties.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
He just got eaten alive.

Speaker 5 (57:22):
There was a moment he was six or seventh inning
where he had struck out again. I think he had
challenged a call at one point during that at bad
and he goes in the dugout and he throws his
helmets and he starts yelling, and we get.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
It, I mean we were probably it's hard to not
hear people. People can people over in rightfield can probably
hear what we're doing right now. So it's hard to
not hear a player when they slam a bat or
yell around here.

Speaker 5 (57:44):
Yeah, so it got pretty ugly and it didn't get better.
I think he struck out again in the his next
at bats in the game. But yeah, I mean, you
gotta get him a little past.

Speaker 4 (57:51):
He's young.

Speaker 5 (57:52):
It was an interesting decision for the race to send
him out here. I'm not really sure what the benefit
of that is. I know he did miss time this year,
but again, talking you know, an incredibly young player who
you know has not had that much experience, so you know,
give him a little bit pass.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
But again, like this is some my people were talking.

Speaker 5 (58:08):
About, is like a top fifty prospect for Fancy, which
is I never got there on him. But at the
same time, it's like, okay, like you got to show something.
He hadn't really shown that this year, and he's not
showing it out here at all.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Well, he dominated rookie ball and then you know, things,
as can happen by the way, you get exposed when
you move up levels, and unfortunately it looks like he's
getting exposed. Would you say it's fair to say he
is not a top two hundred prospect.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
Yeah, I don't think i'd have him there.

Speaker 5 (58:34):
That system is pretty deep, and I just haven't seen enough.
I've probably seen him ten plus times this year. I
haven't seen enough out of it to justify that. I mean,
sure there's upside, but there's other upside shots that you
can take after that too, that maybe have better body projection,
long term, better athleticism, et cetera.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
That I just don't see.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
There last thing I'm gonna hit you guys with, and
then you know, if at the end. If you've got
a guy that you just want to shout out, but
I got to get you to take on my guy,
as Merlin Valdez. I actually talked with as Merlin earlier today.
He's just he's such a great guy. But he's His
home run totals up to five. The only reason it's not.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Six is because he didn't play today.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
He's an absolute monster, leads the AFL and walks leads
in homers. He's really dialed in, young dude. We can
see him right there. He's just hanging in front of us.
What does your take on as Merlin Valdez? Do you
think he's a top one hundred prospect? Do you like
I said him in my last show, This is my year.
This is my Jose Bersinio. This is my Jacob Marcy.

(59:30):
And I know Marci was, you know, like it didn't
work well after, but I you know, I'm getting some
flowers now. Jose Bersinio kind of got held against me
because of Marci, but Brasinio really bounced back. This is
my Jose Bersinio this year. This is the guy that
I think that walks out that is criminally underrated and
is going to kind of continue.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
Do you co Signbeck?

Speaker 1 (59:53):
I absolutely co sign. He is leading the AFL in
homers with five. The next closest is a bunch of
guys tied two. And it's not just the environment out here.
He got to twenty six home runs during the regular season,
so he's up to thirty one in about one hundred
and thirty games. I think the Pirates haven't developed a
guy like this in a long time, and they're staring
down the barrel of a chance of a few guys
in their system between Griffin and Florentino and Zmerlyn Valdez,

(01:00:17):
who's looked really good. The only question I have about
him is defensive projection and whether or not he's gonna
be able to hit upper minors pitching enough to justify
a corner outfields abought at the big league level.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
Do you like the bat clague enough and the approach too?
By the way, Johnny Farmelo up and there's a single.
By the way, nobody I feel like in the AFL
has had more two runners on or a basis load
of the Johnny Farmelo.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
This is like at least the eleventh time that I've
seen him with that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
Do you think the offensive skill set, the approach, the swing,
like do you believe in what we're seeing because everyone's
gonna be like, oh, afl inflated, Like that's fine, that's
not not wrong. But he's walking a bunch, he's making
good decisions, he's crushing the ball, Like do you buy
this on Valdez?

Speaker 5 (01:01:02):
Yeah, And this is you know, somebody that I saw
five plus times in Florida this spring and spring training,
and then he was with Greensboro, so I got to
see him a ton this year and in the South
Atlantic League and that's all he did was was mash
And so you look at all the underlying numbers for
the season and people may question, like it's just power
only it is not. I mean he ran a twenty

(01:01:22):
percent chase rate, which is a very very good approach,
like with goods on swing rates, he had a one
oh eight mine hour nine percent of which is elite
for his age, Like that's top of the scale. And
then you're looking at like average contact skills as well,
and you know, even if he's a forty five hit tool,
I don't care, like the power's gonna play. And so yeah,
I'm a big fan of what he does. What he
did he was just outside of my one hundred at

(01:01:44):
the end of season, and I think he's just like
it's not just an AFL only breakout, because what he
did in the regular season justifies that, Like this is
not a flukey week that he's had. It's a continuation
of a great season all throughout the regular Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
And to be fair, it's not like it is different
than Prisinia and Marcy where it was like lower numbers
and stuff like that, Like it's pretty big, Like dude
made the futures game, Like he's not a nobody. It's
just I think it's a it's an evaluation of like
the perception going into the AFL versus leaving. I think
we're in different camps on that anybody else, Uh positive negative?

(01:02:19):
You just you can throw a quick nugget out. You
don't have to.

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
No, I was trying to think through some of the
other names that we've seen them stood out, Uh, sever
kings looked good. And this is another player that I've
seen a lot of over the years and since he
was drafted, and he's not been great in the regular season,
but this year he was kind of like one of
those like somewhat of a data Darling where he didn't perform,
but the underline was good, like he had made some
gradual improvements in the contact. The approach is still not great.

(01:02:44):
He's a kind of swing happy, chase happy type. But
King's a premium athlete and he's plus or better runner.
He's a shortstop, could play center field if they need it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
So either way, like, King's a good athlete and.

Speaker 5 (01:02:57):
He's shown some good things. I've seen him a couple
of times this week and he's been really good. There's
pop there.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
You should have wait, sorry, Blanco just ran up. I
was like, Clay, you should have put your hand up.
He should have Thrownto the ball.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
Yeah, he was almost as tall as the net. He
just sauted over.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:03:12):
So sever King someone that's really I think has a chance.

Speaker 5 (01:03:14):
To come into next year and he's maybe a good
offseason mix. He's got pop, he's got to be like
he's kind of like a fantasy prospect.

Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
That people should want. It's just you look at the
numbers this year like they were bad.

Speaker 5 (01:03:25):
But I do think that he has all the ingredients
under the hood to be good and be much better
in twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
Sexs that's kind of I feel about like Christopher Cerrow, Like,
you know, strikeout numbers are concerned, but he stole a
bunch of bases. He hit homers, these loud counting stats like,
I love him out here, super easy going guy. That'd
be another one of those where it's like, oh, you know,
he was super underrated.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
Anybody else you want to throw out back, well.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Just I mean Chris Suero if he was six feet tall,
he would be a slam dunk top one of a
prospect everywhere. I thought he was curious that the Tigers
sent Kevin McGonagall out here and then didn't pull him
to be part of the playoff roster. It seems like
the reason that is that he is working out some
at third base. First starts of his career at third,
which is pretty interesting considering the infield that they're going
to be bringing into twenty twenty six. So you don't

(01:04:10):
need me to tell you that Kevin McGonagall is good.
That is confirmed. He turned around an inside pitch yesterday
and tucked it down the right field line for a
really impressive double. But looks like the purpose out here
is for him to get some reps at third base,
all right, plug something. You can find me on Twitter
at upper Underscore beck all my writing. Chris will run
you down the website.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
You can also find them in the stadium in the
seats plug.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:04:34):
So we're doing all the offseason work. I'm riding up
top thirty prospects for every team this offseason again, So
that's the work and grind right now, doing some obviously
everyday AFL recaps and live recaps now and then kind
of sprinkling in some like MLB guys, like some breakout
performers is legit, like some some underperformers, like you know,

(01:04:55):
are these things? What does the inderline day? I said
about these performances, So sneaking those in here and there.
But yeah, something every day. Check it out the dug
out nice dugout dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
Boys, it's my favorite thing to do. It's I don't
know if I've skipped a year. Maybe I have, but
it's like five six years straight of doing interviews while
we're sitting watching a game. It's gotta be a weird
listening experience. But you guys came out. I didn't even
know you guys were here. You guys came and found me,
and I immediately you knew I was.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Gonna put you to work. I was like, dude, we
gotta go do an interview with.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
These These guys were absolutely chomping at the bit. So
I love you both. I'm glad to see you out here.
I'm sad to see you leave Pleegue, but back then
you'll be here for a bit so we get to
chop it up a little bit more. Thank you guys
so much for your time.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
Yeah, thank you, I appreciate everything.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
Good to see you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
Prospect one and there you go. Shout out to my guys.

Speaker 3 (01:05:41):
Hopefully they get to do a few more of these
during the ares on a fall, like especially when first
pitch happens or a few of the other players that
are hanging out speaking a first pitch. By the way,
I think I've mentioned this, you can live stream it
there it'll end up being.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
A big video or if you're here.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
But Joe Rico and I we're gonna be doing a
live podcast Friday night from first pitch. I actually was
just talking with Frankie Stamps. He hit me up and
he was like, Hey, what are you guys going to
talk about? So we don't have crossover, but we're gonna
be doing live podcasts there, so hopefully you come out
to the Fall League and I get to catch you.
I've got to catch up with quite a few people

(01:06:15):
that have hit me up, Hey are you at this
game and talk with some people. It's been a ton
of fun. So hopefully you guys do the same. And
you know, I will continue bringing the Arizona Fall League
news and notes because it is relevant, because hey, pipeline
is killing you with info. Baseball America is killing you
with info. And the reason behind it, more than ever before,
is because.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
It is relevant.

Speaker 3 (01:06:34):
So many of these players do hit the major leagues,
So many of these players are relevant in the space
of prospect ranks coming up, and that's why.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
We talk about them.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
So I enjoy doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
We do all.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
Hopefully you guys do as well. Make sure you subscribe
to Prospect one. You guys want to support me and
check out all the stuff I got going on in
this league dot com that's where you can get all
my dynasty and prospect ranks. Hopefully you do consider checking
it out and make sure you follow me not only
on Twitter at Isathwels, but do it on the Instagram.
Hopefully my videos work this week because I'm going to
be back at it. More Arizona fall League and prospect
breakdowns coming up in the next episode, but until next time,

(01:07:09):
this is a Fantasy.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
Baseball prospect podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:07:12):
Prospect one

Speaker 5 (01:07:15):
I Don't Know