Episode 32: Leaderboards and Left-Behinds

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Not five miles an hour. Rattingto his head, he hop down first
with the lump bonius face, andon the very next pitch he up and
stole second face with gretest be hewasn't born, he had yes uniform.

(00:28):
Welcome to the thirty second edition ofProspect B Sides. I am May the
rook be with you. We arein the month of May. Had to
have a little Star Wars shout outin there for my nerd friend, the
Muddy b Side original himself. AteHandy, how's it going? Not too
bad. It's mighty windy outside tonight, so I'm I'm hunkered down in my

(00:49):
garage, just listening to things rattlearound me. But hopefully we stay online
and then good standing here with theinterworld. Yeah, the wind can get
you in. I think we weretalking about this a couple of weeks ago,
but it's been pretty windy, andI don't know if you've noticed that
and some of your film washing.I've even heard some broadcasts mention how much

(01:10):
windier it seems like it's been.I know the Midwest League heard that on
a couple of broadcasts. Definitely outhere in the Northwest. I heard it
on a broadcast for a Hillsborough gamethe other day, and I don't know
if you saw this, Travis Bazanahad himself a hell of a weekend against
the old Washington State Cougars. AndI'm pretty familiar with that ballpark. As

(01:30):
you might recall, Travis Bazana,left handed hitting, top prospect. You
know, he's very much a prettyboy from Australia. He was using what
we used to call the jet streambecause the way that the wind blows at
Bailey Brayton Field, it is eitherdirectly out to right field or sort of
out to right field every time,like that's the only way that the wind

(01:51):
blows consistently. And he hit anabsolute tank against the Koogs. I think
that that was Sunday or maybe thisSaturday. It was one of the weekend
games, and I was like,oh, yeah, I've seen that ball
get hit there quite a few times. But even with that, you know,
like I'd seen an Ike Davis homerthat was absolutely majestic out to right
field before, but I think Bazanaswas just as impressive. So yeah,

(02:12):
he's what he's uh, using thatwind out here pretty well. I think
you get what five home runs thisweekend something like that or this week,
and I think he hit I thinkhe hit like another one today, even
like he's on a streak. Didyou ever take advantage of that jet stream?
I did. I mean I wasa writing and so like that's gone
to Opo for me. But Ihit a couple out to right field.
Yeah, yeah, one one Iremember against I can't remember the pitcher's name.

(02:36):
He was a lefty for Oregon Stateat the time. I uh,
actually put a really good pitch.I want to say it was even a
two strike pitch, maybe fastball downin a way and I put it up
in the jet stream. Like Ididn't hit great, but I put it
up in the air enough and hadenough of the launch angle that it got
out. I mean it barely gotout, I think. But it was
Opo Homer, And I remember feelingpretty good about that one. I was

(02:58):
like, pretty good piece of hitting, man. I didn't usually get to
say that. My good pieces ofhitting was like I found the four hole
and the other way damn shot.Yeah, you know, so that one
was pretty good. What would yousay is like, was your max distance
on a home run? You thinkmax distance? I hit one at Stanford
that I think might have been myfarthest. I hit one. Yeah,

(03:23):
I hit one at home at WSUthat off of Arizona State's Friday Night Guy.
He loved to like pitch fastballs upand in and I was like sitting
on it because we had a prettygood scouting report on him that year.
And I hit a real pank outto left field, but again because it
was pulled, so it was likeprobably not quite as far as this one
at Stanford that I hit out toalmost straightaway centerfield and got pretty far out,

(03:45):
but like I didn't have great power, certainly not elite. And at
our Park the wind was often workingagainst the US righty's, so the lefties
at at our Park definitely fared betterwhen they when they turned on one nice.
I enjoy when I get you geta little bundy and yeah, and
talk about some of your past accomplishments. What are we going to talk about
this week, Matt? I thinkwe have a little a rhythm going.

(04:08):
I think I mean we've got youas usual. Didn't quite do your homework
and got distracted by some dumb pictures, and so we'll focus on some of
those pictures. I'm sure our mainfocus today is We're going to scour some
leaderboards kind of we're about a monthinto the big part of the minor league
season. There are some surprising leadersin some categories, some others that are,

(04:30):
you know, maybe more expected.But we're going to look at both
pitching and hitting and just kind ofhighlights some guys that we think it's interesting,
or maybe ones that we've seen oneway or the other kind of performing
well or maybe not performing as well. Just highlight some of those guys,
and then, you know, stickaround to the end. Nate's got some
hidden wisdoms to drop, and Ithink he's going to save it to the

(04:50):
very very end. And then ofcourse we'll preview the week upcoming, which
is one of my favorite things whereNate tells us who to watch because he's
just got impeccable taste as to whatthe best matchups are going to be.
So stick around to the end forthat. But I think that's the rough
order show. Did I miss anything? No, Yeah, we'll talk a
little bit about some prospects whose rosterpercentages are trending up, as we usually

(05:13):
do towards the end. That's right, And then I think you're also going
to kick us off with quick lookat some B sides this offseason. What
we started in what like October,Matt I think it was. And Matt
and I scoured video and spreadsheets andpicked out picture and a hitter from every
organization that was rostered at that timetwo to one to zero to not create

(05:34):
it yet in the fan tracks percentageand kind of pegged them with someone to
watch that might get a little bitmore popular. So after a month of
the minor league season, Matt Ijust took a little look at some of
those guys's roster percentages and that leaderboard. Now you took jo Handy Morales as
your national's bat and at the timethat he was very different because he was

(05:58):
rostered much higher, especially after firstyear player Draft season. Yeah, because
I mean when I took him,it was before the off season, so
it was like a lot of preFYPD. But I was just for highlighting
him as a guy that I hadn'tseen. He's on FYPDS, but he
was higher. Yeah. Yeah,he's at the top of the list at
nineteen percent right now. But Matt, I would say that's trending down.
Yeah, I means much more.Yeah, Yeah, do you know do

(06:21):
you have any guests that which ofour B sides might be at the top
of this list, or maybe Itold you. I don't know. I
think you did, but I alreadyforgot. So my Mariner's arm logan Evans
is that fifteen percent. He wasn'teven created yet I first talked about him,
So that's a pretty significant jumping popularity, I think. And I watched
his last start, Matt, andyou know, we've talked about Evans a

(06:43):
little bit, and wasn't quite surehow how much I was in and how
much I mean excited that this wasa guy that has popped for Dynasty owners
that was kind of the point ofour exercise, but still had a lot
of reservations after watching him. ButI got to say, this last start,
Matt was pretty impressive, and I'mkind of way more on the bus
than like, I have one shareand I was thinking about trading it and

(07:05):
I'm not thinking about trading it anymore. Matt, well, that was something
we kind of identified with him aswe'd watched him a bit, right as
saying he has this skill set.The slider I think has a plus shape
and movement, and he obviously hassome velocity and I think maybe some other
characteristics about his fastball that play welland that stuff gets Dynasty people excited.

(07:27):
I don't know if the Mariners arepretty high on him. Baseball America Jeff
Ponce and the crew were hyping himup and the in spring training. I
think there's a lot of pieces toreally like, and seeing a start like
last week, he really did putit together. I mean, the strikeouts
were there, he didn't I don'tthink he had a walk in that outing,
and it was like he went,he went, We had one hit,
which, if I remember correctly,was kind of a cheapie zero walks,

(07:47):
nine k's sixty two pitches only togo sixty or six innings eighty two
percent straight. You don't see that? Did you watch this one, Matt?
I watched a good bit of it. I didn't watch the whole thing,
but I think I went back afterthe outing and flipped through kind of
the first four or five innings,and I thought he looked really good,
Like that's the version of him thatwe'd seen in fits and spurts. Like.

(08:09):
I think that was kind of hisfirst inning in the breakout game.
The spring breakout game looked kind oflike this, and you could see why
it's super exciting and awesome to seehim do it over a whole start.
But I mean, I think that'sthe thing with him that I keep calling
him kind of an enigma, islike, I think he's got these starts
in him, but I want tosee him string a few of them together
before I really get jazz. Butyou know, early early signs are quite

(08:31):
positive with you know, watching someof his earlier starts, we noted like
there seemed to be a high percentageof secondaries being thrown and him shying away
from this fastball that was you know, getting a lot of buzz and accolades
to some extent, and I kindof felt like maybe that was intentional.
Maybe there is some some pitching todevelopment going on in those earlier starts,

(08:52):
and this one was you know,him using his weapons fairly well. Now
he's still I think there's still plentyof room for growth in the execution department,
but those two pitches working together arepretty freaking nasty, and him just
you know throwing them executing them decentlywell or all right, as we saw,
was quite successful. So I'm waymore into Evans after watching that start

(09:16):
than I was prior. Also onthe top of our B side raster percentage
leader board, third is will Dionyour guardian's arm selection, but he is.
He's at seven percent and that's hewas higher, So that might not
be trending in the right direction forDion. I mean, I think part
of it was he got bumped upto triple A and is you know,

(09:37):
starting and results have been kind ofundeone. Like so far, he's getting
k's, which is one of thethings that we were sort of worried about.
Would his low velocity, kind ofdeceptive fastball be able to play at
triple A. You know, whilethe International League is not the PCL,
it's still a tough environment for pitchers, like the run environment is still quite

(09:58):
high. The thing that's been surprisingabout Dian those he's walking a ton of
guys like he was one that Icircled on the International League leader board is
like he's eighth in walks so far, and that's not really like him.
So I'm wondering. I've only watchedone of his starts, and even that
I only watched a partial. Itdidn't look that different to me. So

(10:20):
I'm wondering if this is just abit of a rough patch, and so
some owners were like, oh,you know, he had a good spring
and he got bumped to triple A. Is he going to get some starts
in Cleveland? And maybe that's whyhis Brosher percentage was up. And then
the early returns are just okay.And I think Cleveland's rotation is getting healthier
rather than more injured, so thespots might be closing up, so I

(10:41):
can see him being a drop insome of those leagues. Yeah, my
Tiger's arm Jade Hamm is at sixpercent, that's going to keep going up.
Yeah, I think he's trending up. And then your Royals arm Mason
Barnett, who's off to a prettygood start to the year, is at
six percent, and Caleb Durban,Chandler Simpson and Troy Johnston, three of

(11:01):
your bat selections are at five percent. Small, but yeah, we'll see
what those look like a calendar yearafter we picked him. But I thought
after a month it was worth justtaking a little little peak. We did
have Matt Another b sider hit thebig leagues this week, yep, Brett
Harris. And yeah, originally BrettHarris caught my interest. You know,

(11:24):
he's a very good third baseman defensively, question was about his bat and then
he had a little string. Idon't know what would that have been.
Twenty twenty two where he started poppinghome runs made me start to wonder.
Chose him as an A's bat.So he makes his debut right, and
of course someone in a chat roomasked me about it. I'm like,
oh, this is my time toshine. Like you know, I know

(11:46):
about Brett Harris. I've watched himplenty. I don't think the bat's going
to be quiet enough to really domuch for you fantasy. And then lo
and behold, his first two majorleague hits were home runs. I mean
I would not expect a lot ofthat from Brett Harris. Still what he
had three in Triple A this year. Do you have any thoughts on Harris?

(12:07):
Have you have you dug around onBrett Harris at all? Yeah,
And I've owned him in places acouple of my deeper leagues before. I
think he's been a cut in thelast six months or a year or so,
so I don't think I have anyshares now. But Brett Harris is
sort of a classic B side storywhere I think he's got good contact,
plays good defense, and so youcan see a scenario in which he gets

(12:28):
a decent amount of run on theback of that. You know, I
think they've even had him playing downthe defensive spectrum a bit like third base
and stuff, and he's like apretty decent shortstop. I thought, Yeah,
I saw him a year and ahalf ago or so. Don't think
the power, certainly, not twohome runs a game kind of power is
going to be. I don't knowif he's ever hit two home runs in
a game before. Yeah. Yeah, Like he's got that kind of hitter

(12:50):
skill set, lower strikeouts, decentswing decisions that I like in hitters.
I feel like it gives him agood floor. So he's someone that I
do think that Oakland has done adecent job collecting some of these guys,
along with some of their boomer Busprospects that maybe they've gone after higher in
the drafts. I think they've founda nice collection, either trade or through

(13:11):
development to have some more well roundedbats like Harris or Darryl Hernez or that
kind of bat that I think helpscompliment the boomer Bus, like the Lawrence
Butlers and and soder Shrims and they'relike, you know, yeah, yeah,
so Harris, it was our seventhB sider to make a debut so
far this season. Hopefully we getsome more and the nineteenth ever, So
that's that's always fun to see.Yeah, And Maldonado is another one I

(13:35):
don't think we touched on because hemight have debuted right after our last podcast
or something like that. But AnthonyMaldonado for Miami. You know, I'd
identified him this offseason as a highleverage reliever, like very high probability,
and that's sort of what he's been, although they actually used him as an
opener in his in his very firststart, which is kind of funny,
Like he gets called out, he'sI don't think really ever started in the

(13:58):
minor leagues, and then he getscalled up and starts on his first his
first game, and he's looked good. I mean, he's he's like to
say yes later in the week.Yeah, I feel like that's something we
should Maybe I'll call up one ofmy stats buddies and look into that,
because I feel like that's pretty unusualto get a start in your very first

(14:20):
outing despite being a reliever in theminor leagues. And then also get a
save in that very same week.I feel like that's very unusual. So
anyway, he's he looks the samewicked slider, good cutter, and a
nasty sinker with a lot of run. I really like his his profile.
Yeah, I like I even pickedhim up in a smaller league. That's
my team's not very good and Idon't really have any great relievers. So

(14:41):
it's that guy. Let's see whathappens here and we'll just hang on to
him. Yeah, let's talk someleader boards. What do you got.
I don't know how you chose tocome at this, Nate, but what
I decided to do was look atsort of the raw numbers just to see
what that was going to tell us. You know, like, you can
get some funky stuff when you dorate stats, the surly and guys who
don't play that much or have beenon the shelf, you can get some

(15:03):
funky readings this early. But whenyou look at sort of the raw just
basic stats of strikeouts and walks forpictures, I just think it tells you
something that maybe the eras don't orsome of the other noisier stats don't.
So I went through all the leaguesand just kind of organized it by league
and just highlighted some guys that poppedone way or another. So like,

(15:24):
the strikeouts are good, the walksare bad. This isn't rocket science stuff
here, but it's more of anexcuse to talk about some of these guys
that either I've seen or Nate hasseen, and the International League so up
in triple A. This is likegetting closer to pretty boy territory. A
lot of these guys are going tomake the major leagues this year and be
contributors. And some of them areguys that we've talked about starting a little

(15:45):
bit on a downer note, justbecause I actually have shares of like a
bunch of these guys. These weresome of my sleeper starterish arms that I
think we're going to be depth optionsfor this next year. So I sort
of the International League leaderboard for mostwalks allowed so far, and number one
is Chase McDermott for the Baltimore Oriolsputs there and Naffolk I really like is'

(16:10):
he looked great. His last outingactually limited some his walks. I think
he only gave up one or twoand struck out eleven. He also shows
up on the leaderboard for the moststrikeouts. So he's doing a lot of
striking out or walking people and thusfar has a pretty decent ear ray,
partly because the defense behind him hasbeen pretty bad. I'd say, like
he's given up quite a few moreruns than he has earned runs. He's

(16:33):
gotten a bit lucky. He's alsobeen kind of hard to hit. You
know, eighteen hits in twenty eightinnings, but twenty five walks is so
many night, It's so many.This was has been a problem for him
in the past, and early onhis rotation mate Kid Povich has looked a
lot better way, fewer walks andalmost as many strikeouts, and so I've
been a little worried that Povich hasleave frogged McDermott. Neither really got a

(16:56):
shot at the rotation even as Meanswas out, so but they're both sort
of knocking on the door. Istill like McDermott a touch better, but
I think that gap it's like flipa coin now between him and Povich.
This guy in second in the InternationalLeague in walks is Lyon Richardson, who's
another guy that I had picked up. Is like, I think this guy's
going to pitch for the Reds.He's got twenty two walks in twenty six

(17:17):
innings and he's been super frustrating.I've tuned into a few of his outings
and it's like three and two thirdsinnings, six walks, you know,
like he's thrown some real stinkers inthere, but he's still striking guys out.
Thirty strikeouts in twenty six innings isstill a three eight one era.
Again, I think he's getting evenluckier, and he has not looked as
good. To me, McDermott stilllooks like pretty much the same guy,

(17:41):
just maybe he's been he's had acouple of tough outings where he hasn't been
quite as sharp. Richardson and thisother guy I'm going to touch on,
Carlos E. F Rodriguez. Theyboth are like kind of wild in the
bad way where you don't really knowwhere the ball's going. It's it's sort
of consistent wildness rather than sort ofstart start variance. I'm worried and you

(18:02):
see Carlos Frodriguez. His results havebeen way worse than Richardson's, but they've
pitched very very similar similarly so far, so I kind of lump them together
as like they're talented arms. They'vegot some interesting traits, and maybe there's
a starter in here, but bothare sort of trending down for me,
just because they haven't been able tocorral this walk issue. And it's something

(18:26):
that I'm watching, watching pretty closelyup to this point. International League Sam
Roberts is just my He's just mypitching infatuation right now. And so I
was perusing International League Triple A totalTriple A leaderboards in the light and I
couldn't help but notice something interesting withRoberts here. He's the only pitcher in

(18:48):
Triple A that's in the top tenin these four metrics. Matt ground ball
percentage he's at fifty two percent,that's seventh in all of Triple A.
He is top ten in K percentnow this is qualified qualified pitchers. He's
top ten and K percentage at twentyfive point seven percent, that's tenth.
He is fifth in walk percentage atfive point one percent, and he's ninth

(19:12):
in swing strike percentage at thirteen pointsix percent. Now you take those four
ratios filter all of the minor leagues, there's only two other guys doing that,
Zebbie Matthews with the twins who justgot promoted to Wichita, and a
pitcher that I'm not real familiar withbut has kind of been on top of
some filters and leaderboards. I waslooking at Jose Atensio of Fredericksburg the Nationals,

(19:36):
and those guys are at like twentytwo innings pitched on the year only
where Roberts is at thirty six.Intriguing, interesting little filter there for Roberts,
I think. And I watched someof his last outing, Matt.
I don't know if you saw anypart of it. He gave up a
homer to somebody that I like.Yeah, he gave up a solo home
run, and that was the onlything that stopped him from getting his third

(19:57):
FQO row. But he went six, gave up six hits and just the
one homer, right, So onewalk, six k's yeah, ninety three
pitches, sixty two for strikes.You know, we talk about how he
does not have a good fastball,but he has figured out a way to
work with it and get some resultsfrom it. The cutter and the slider
led the way. Again. He'sgetting thirty six percent with on the cutter,

(20:18):
forty five percent CSW. But againI'm just this is my big pitching
crush at the moment, and I'msuper curious to see how this might play
in the bigs. One thing thatwe'll we'll talk about in another of these
leaderboards coming up. Look at SamRoberts and Christian Scott, who just got
promoted. Guy, I think weboth quite like they they're right neck and
neck. You know. Scott thirtysix strikeouts to six walks, Roberts thirty

(20:42):
five strikeouts to seven walks. Verysimilar strikeout to walk raw numbers, and
very different fastball quality, very differentfastball qualities. And Scott did that in
twenty five in a third innings andRoberts, as you said, is thirty
thirty five point two too, Yeah, five and two thirds. So what
is that? And I think thatone of the next paris of guys that

(21:03):
we'll talk about maybe throws it eveninto starker relief. But which which of
those is sort of more impressive toyou? Maybe a couple of angles,
Like the walk stuff is more impressivefrom Scott, right because he's pitched more
walked less by the way around Roberts. Roberts pitch more walked less. Oh
oh, okay, you're right,You're right, right, Okay, so
that's more impressive. I'm so likeenthralled and interested and curious, but like,

(21:26):
it's super impressive to me that Robertscan do this stuff without a good
fast but with a bad fastball.So from a from a I don't know,
what do you say, pitchability standpoint, that's super impressive to me.
But yeah, I don't know.I think Roberts is just more impressive just
from from this angle. From Idon't really have a lean one way or

(21:47):
another, but it's it's something thatpopped up when I was looking at one
of the other leaderboards in sort ofa similar way. Now, do I
think Roberts debuts and is and isas an impressive as Scott was his debut.
No, I don't think so.I wouldn't bet. I just think
it's something it's something for us tokeep an eye on because, you know,

(22:08):
looking at the raw numbers, obviouslythe percentages, Roberts has a much
lower walk percentage than Scott does,even though both are good. But Scott's
strikeout percentage is significantly higher than Roberts. And I think what I would lean
towards is it's more impressive to dowhat Scott has done. That many more
strikeouts in you know, almost tenfewer innings, I think is slightly more

(22:33):
impressive. However, it's I thinkit's noticeable and impressive the longer that goes
on, and like, the moreyou should be impressed by that really low
walk rate as well. And Ithink that's that's my point, And it's
sort of a transition to talking abouta guy you touched on already in Jaden
Hamm just to jump down to theMidwest League real quick, ham has one

(22:53):
of just the very most impressive Kminus BB's in all of the minors,
twenty three and two thirds in sofar, thirty seven strikeouts to just three
walks. That's like video game levelstuff. But the guy who's second in
the Midwest League, I would nothave guessed this. If you'd given me
like thirty guesses, I don't thinkI would have got it. Austin Peterson,

(23:15):
who's a slightly old for level pitcherfor Cleveland, is second with thirty
six strikeouts, but he also onlyhas three walks given up. Now he's
done this in thirty four point twothirds innings, so eleven innings more to
get one and a fewer strikeout thanhim, like him more impressive, but

(23:36):
thirty four and two thirds innings andhe's only given up three walks Like that
has me pretty intrigued, and especiallyafter some decent interesting stuff last year too.
Like I don't know, I justthink there's Austin Peterson is not a
guy that was on my radar,and it's worth kind of monitoring a guy
like that who's showing that kind ofcommand. It's at high he's older for

(23:59):
the level, but I kind ofdon't care as much for pictures, and
so that was another one I justwanted to bring up. It's sort of
the same thing with like, Okay, you said that Roberts was more interesting
to you, Well, Austin Petersonis kind of doing the same thing,
albeit at a lower level to likethe more pretty boy Ham Scott comparison.
So that's what I just wanted toI was thinking about as an interesting set

(24:19):
of comparisons. Yeah, Peterson's theguy that I keep wanting to do homework
on but just not getting to him. I put it together our B side
arms leaderboard, Matt I found thisinteresting. Gary gil Hill leads in ground
ball percentage at sixty seven point fourpercent, which is up there with anybody
in the minor leagues. Yeah.I just wanted to note that because I

(24:41):
don't know if that was really somethingthat I had thought about with him or
attracted me to him as a Bside call when I watched very little of
him from last year. So Sliderand a couple of different cutters seems to
be getting a lot of ground balls. And that's, uh, you don't
hate to see that? Nice?Yeah, you know, speaking of B

(25:02):
sides, our fandoms and Nate,your prescience in kind of liking guys before
they're cool. You the hipster pitchingguru that you are. I In looking
at these leaderboards, I was astonishedto find how many Colorado Rockies farm hands
popped on the lower levels as theleaders, like from Hartford on down.

(25:26):
Pomp Quist number one in the EasternLeague, Handy Dark Candy, Rather,
you're Handy, he's Candy. Candy'sin the top ten I think in strikeouts.
So the two of them looked prettygood in Hartford, in Spokane,
in Higay like their top two.Sullivan and Dolander are I think like one
in three. Blake Adams isn't farbehind, and Mason Green is doing decently.

(25:48):
He's a first pager too, andSpokane's like not the easiest place to
pitch, and they're both They're allgetting a lot of strikeouts. And then
a couple of other arms in Fresnothat I have no information on. I
think I've watched a couple of themnow this year, but they're totally new
arms to me. Isaiah Kupitt,Coupe, I don't know, Jace Kaminski,
Jack Mahoney and Austin Eminer and Fresnoare all chopping like. They all

(26:12):
look really good so far, andI don't know. Man Like people give
the Rockies shit, and it isdefinitely a risk to invest in pitching prospects,
let alone Colorado Rockies pitching prospects.But this on the back of some
of the success that they have hadin developing or drafting guys in the last
few years. I mean, theRockies. I would not be surprised in

(26:33):
a couple of years, like maybeeven as soon as next year to have
one of the best sets of minorleague arms like that. After we see
a bunch of graduations from Detroit andPittsburgh, the Rockies just by pure volume
and stuff and things that we've seen. They might be next in terms of
like the next wave, So aton of interesting guys. I'm gonna try

(26:55):
and get eyes on these guys more. But that those kind of the numbers
in the collleague, like Coupey,Kuopit, Kaminsk, Mahoney and Emminer are
all in the top fifteen in strikeoutsin the colleague already. That's impressive.
So anyway, like the Rockies seemto be doing something right. I think
some really interesting names to follow therebecause a few of them too. Kaminska

(27:18):
and Coopey both have fixed or fewerwalks to twenty nine strikeouts. That's really
good so far in twenty one innings. Like that's that is note that shit
down. Like some other guys thathave gotten a lot of love are noticeably
worse, like King Grice is,you know, throwing fewer innings but has
five walks and fewer strikeouts. BrodyHopkins, I've heard people like anointing as

(27:42):
the next Truth, but he's gottwenty three strikeouts to twelve walks. Like
there are some much more impressive pitchingperformances happening, and they just happen to
be by Colorado Rockies. So manyColorado Rockies farm hand pitching rant over.
But they're doing some impressive stuff.It doesn't get much muddier than that.
Matt, good luck trying to sellthat to people. But mind you too,

(28:04):
a lot of the kind of biggerarms are not pitching right now,
bigger named arms. I'm pitching rightnow because they had time John last year.
Man, how about Sean Sullivan sofar? Yeah, I mean I
did mention the Sullivan. I thinkhe's leading to the Northwest League in strikeouts.
Yeah, you did it. Soyou sort the minor leagues by x
FIP one point two to one,and that's what thirty He's only given him

(28:27):
one walk. I mean, likeagain, he and Heal and Dolander are
one and two in the Northwest Leagueso far in strikeouts, or they're tied
at first. I guess Sullivan onlyone walk, giving up no home runs
so far, so they're off tosome great starts. I'm I'm intrigued.
Yeah, it's like they almost knowwhat they need the most and they're trying

(28:47):
to get it. I was lookingat that x FIP leaderboard, Matt,
minimum twenty innings pitched. You knowthis is this is probably pretty noisy stuff,
but hey, this is fun todig around in. You got Sullivan
on top, and Jonah tom Quinn, Matthews, and then maybe my second
biggest pitching interest at the moment,Johanniere Herrera the Brewers. He was the

(29:08):
first guy this year, and Ijust had some openings that I wanted to
had in the four Dynasty leagues thatI could. I picked him up across
the board after watching his high adebut with Wisconsin this week and going back
and watching some of his outings fromlast season. I think it was last
week. Talked about him a littlebit and about how he has a ninety

(29:30):
five ninety six mile per hour fourseemer that he does not throw all that
much. It's kind of wondering whythat might be. So I watched this
debut. He came in relief.He pitched the seventh, eighth, and
ninth innings, face nine hitters andstruck out six of them. Wisconsin's got
a pretty decent angle and it givesyou some velocity on the broadcast, which

(29:51):
is nice. I was really interestedin this fastball thing, right Matt because
what the first inning, I feellike he threw at a decent amount I'm
like, Okay, here we go. Now he's going to go to his
big weapon here and let's see howthis goes. But then he kind of
put it back in his pocket orthe second and third innings and he was
throwing he threw a lot more upsecondary. So I got real nerdy and

(30:12):
I watched the whole thing closely,and I charted pitchers Matt and his pitch
breakdown. He threw his slider fortyone percent of the time, through the
four seamer twenty two percent of thetime, two seamer nineteen percent of the
time. Now, mind you,there might be one or two of the
fastballs that I didn't wouldn't say I'mone hundred percent sure if it was a
four seamer or two seamer. There'sdefinitely two fast balls, So I don't

(30:33):
know. I would say he threwthose two fastballs about equally. And then
he threw the curveball nineteen percent ofthe time. There's definitely two different breaking
balls. Have not ever seen himthrow a change up, so I don't
think that's part of ours. Now, is he just trying to develop some
secondaries? Throw these more? What'sthe story? So I went back and
I watched a couple of his outingsfrom twenty twenty three, and man,

(30:56):
he was definitely throwing the four seamermore than anything else, and he was
definitely a lot looser with the executionof all of his pitches than he is
this year. To me, thisjust isn't something you see every day.
You see all the time in theminor leagues, especially in the lowers,
a guy with a higher velocity fastballthat is maybe his third favorite pitch to

(31:18):
throw, he definitely would shake offthe fastball to get to the slider or
a breaking ball or the curveball.I shared some video on Twitter at Pitching
Specs of him shaking some stuff off, and I think I shared his six
strikeout pitches. But for me,you know, a guy with perhaps a
well rounded arsenal that he does executefairly well. Now, he's more strike

(31:41):
thrower than you know. Pinpointing hisofferings, he threw strikes at seventy three
percent this outing. But I'm kindof I'm excited. I didn't want to
go the route of Logan Evans andbeing interested in guy and like not having
any shares of him. So Ihad some openings and I'm just gonna let
him sit on my rosters while welearn some more about Herrera here. But

(32:05):
I'm more than intrigued by what I'mseeing. That nice. He's one I
haven't watched yet, but I knowyou were texting me the updates when when
you were charting on him. Andit's interesting to hear that about the fastball
usage, that you don't see thatat the lowers that often, and I
do think that's something worth following.This was an interesting one too because of
the usage, you know, likehe's not just a on starter usage,

(32:29):
like I wonder if they're thinking abouthis usage sort of differently. And this
was against Great Lakes, not abad lineup, and these guys really,
I mean, he just kind oftook the bat out of their hands some
that. Like these guys just youknow, you see a couple sliders and
then a fastball over the place.They couldn't even couldn't even pull the trigger
spotting the breaking balls, especially thelefty sort of back foot like really well,

(32:51):
and you know he's righty, he'sbig. He ain't gonna be on
the cover of any fitness magazines.I'll tell you that. I wouldn't call
him like fat, but I meanhe's widest in the middle. You know,
maybe some horse power there. We'llsee. I'm anxious to see him
in Wisconsin, you know, gofive innings and see what that looks like.
You know, I think there isthe ability to attack in several different

(33:13):
ways here and you don't see thatfrom a lot of a ball pitchers.
Yeah. Well, just to kindof round out some of these other able
ones, I think the Florida StateLeague has most of the really interesting pop
up arms. We've talked about thema decent amount. Quinn Matthews, George
Classan, Jonah Toong Cade Smith,like, these are all guys, you

(33:34):
know, even Michael Kennedy I thinkhad some love last year and he's up
there. A couple other guys justto keep an eye on. Fernando Perez
is one that I hadn't watched,but he's six in the Florida State League
as a twenty year old for Toronto. So Perez is one that made my
watch list because he's got thirty twostrikeouts to seven walks. I think that's
impressive. Jack Weininger, he's gotthirty two strikeouts to six walks. And

(33:59):
Brian Edgington, who's older for thelevel but it's really dominating. Thirty one
strikeouts to just three walks, Likethat's I think pretty interesting. You know,
I don't even really care that he'sthat old, similar to Quinn Matthews
and George Classon, Like, let'sget these guys out of the Forest State
League at this point and let's seewhat they do at High A, because

(34:21):
I think that level there's just nota lot more to be to be proved.
Well, Tom did move up andmake his high debut, Matt That's
right, that's right, he did. Yeah, Yeah, I watched that.
I thought that was an interesting look. It wasn't hard to see the
nastiness and the uniqueness of his fastballthe first time we saw him, But
this this outing, I was prettyimpressed with his ability to land the breaking

(34:44):
ball, the curveball, especially likeinside the lefties glove side to lefties.
I know, he had three walks, and he's got a history of walk
stuff. Mind you. He wentfrom the FSL big plate to what I
thought was an umpire that had seemedto have a pretty tight strike zone from
what I could see. And Icontinuously get more and more hopeful with Tom,

(35:05):
and I think there's good things happeningin way of execution, and we
know the stuff is going to playif you can use it. Well,
yeah, Well, the other videogame numbers guy down in a ball is
tug Boat Wilkinson in the Carolina League, and he's pacing all minor leaguers in
strikeouts I think at this point,with forty six in his twenty five and

(35:27):
two thirds, and he's just givenup the one run and has held the
walks in check two with nine.I mean, he's looking really great again
as a college dude. Like,let's get him out of a ball and
see if this stuff is going toplay against some better hitters soft toss and
lefty with a lot of k's.Yeah, yeah, and you can see
he's got some funk to his deliveryand really nice slider for sure. So

(35:52):
we'll see, you know, aswe get better looks at him, especially
at the next level for Cleveland,I think you're gonna see the walks jump
up or at least have yeah cloutingswhere the walks get him because he's not
super cool. Agree with that.I would agree with that. You know,
he's he's given up nine walks inhis twenty five and two thousand innings.
It's okay, I'd say at thispoint, especially given the strikeouts and

(36:13):
how few hits he gives up.But it'll be interesting to see how much
the shape of that production changes ashe goes up. But a couple other
guys that I haven't heard anybody reallytalk about in UH are at the top
of this Carolina League leaderboard. Luisde Leon for Baltimore, Trey Gibson also
for Baltimore, Lucas Gordon for theWhite Sox, and Seth Keener for the
White Sox round out the top fivewith Wilkinson. They all like have interesting

(36:37):
numbers. Keener looks like he walkstoo many for me to be really interested
at this point, but dal Leon, Gibson, and Gordon like color me
interested. I'm gonna seek out theirnext couple of starts and see if there's
anything there, literally names that I'venot heard anybody talk about there. This
is why I'm always doing pitching homework, because it's at and there's always so
much to do. It's so boring. We're gonna We're gonna forward to some

(37:00):
of the rest of them. Thereare some there are some other interesting guys,
you know. I jotted down inDouble A in the Southern League.
Mason Adams my guy. I thinkhe's started off this season really well,
thirty six strikeouts just to just threewalks. Ian Seymour is another one that
I think his is sort of underratedfor Tampa that I really like what he
has done. I caught a bitof his outing this week and thought he

(37:22):
looked pretty good, and I thoughtit was sort of interesting. Kai Bush
and Jake Eater seemed to be doingpretty well so far for the White Sox.
In Erie Arty and Drew Thorpe akind of the ones who get the
headlines and are much farther up prospectleader boards, but so far when you
look at the strikeouts, Bush andEater are out performing Erie Art and Thorpe.

(37:43):
So just something to keep in mind. You know, that's that's an
interesting group to follow. There mightbe some good things going on with the
White Sox hitching development right now.I can't help with wonder and you know
me, I'm not one to givethe White Sox much praise, but I
did watch that Erie Arte's last start, Matt. It was interesting because erie
Artu was a guy that I jumpedon pretty early and guy and I've already

(38:05):
traded off all my shares, thinking, Okay, this is a guy with
like really good weapons. This isyour your stuffest sort of guy. I
don't know how much I love hispitching ability, so to speak, but
man, he was he was abit different version than I've seen in the
past, and that he was poundingstrikes. Man, he was throwing strikes
like I had not seen him before. But he ended up going seven innings.

(38:27):
He gave up eight hits, threeyearned runs, He watched one struck
out seven eighty three pitches, seventytwo percent strikes. I don't think we've
seen erie Arty get up to seventypercent in an outing before. I can
verify that, but I haven't.But point being, Matt is like,
I'm wondering if this is maybe apoint of emphasis here, and yeah,
I mean this right, guy who'sYeah, you're gonna see a guy who's

(38:52):
trying to you know, who's beenlike more like mad at or trying to
be more bull and more aggressive inthe strike zone. And he goes and
he gives up eight hits strikes outseven, which for him is far from
like a ton of strikeouts, andespecially in a seven inning outing right,
So maybe not the most impressive Eriartyline if you're if you're a stand but
I think in the development department wemight be seeing stuff going in a better

(39:16):
direction. I think, yeah,well that the whole Birmingham lineup, that
starting rotation for them is Adams,Bush, Eater, eri Rty and Thorpe,
and I think they've all looked quitegood so far this year, you
know, one reason or another.You know, I think Bush and eri
Arty still need to work on theirwalks. Like that's a great outing for
eri Arty, but he still hastwelve walks in the early going that's pretty

(39:39):
high, and Bush similarly thirteen walksthrough twenty seven and a third. But
all the other guys like are keepingtheir walks down pretty well getting their strikeouts,
and that lineup are that starting rotationrather, I think has been one
of the more impressive ones in allthe minor leagues so far. And Birmingham
it's a good team. And Birminghamas a park plays a little more on
the hit her friendly side too,so that's something to keep in mind that,

(40:01):
like, if you start to adjustthis for park factors, like I
think those starting pitcher lines tend tolook even better, So just something to
keep in mind. Might be somedecent pitching coming in in Chicago. Yeah,
Mason Adams has looked good man.A good call on your part there,
But just while we're at Birmingham,I just wanted to mention mat Now,
you didn't pick him as your Bside that, but you had mentioned

(40:22):
and talked about him. But Wilfredvaries. I don't know if I don't
know if you've been paying attention tohim at all this year. But I
mean, he's got a really he'srunning a really high babbit, but he's
putting up some numbers. He said, four home runs. But the biggest
thing that I wanted to note withhim, like, do you see my
man shape this year? He looksgood? He does, he has he
has lost some fat, because that'ssomething I was talked about. It's like

(40:44):
he was sort of a bigger guywho had sort of a control oriented stick,
but he does look better and hewas a fat guy stealing bases,
but like, yeah, he's he'slooking trim and has gotten gotten more interesting
to me. Yeah yeah, interestingteam. Yeah yeah, it is kind
of speaking through these last couple.I think the Texas League, my guy

(41:04):
Gilbert Diez looks great. He's strikingeverybody out. Walks are still a bit
of a concern, But that lastouting, I ended up turning that one
on Nate. Your guy, yourguy, my guy. He was your
guy first, But I didn't knowthat. I didn't know that he's he
looks really zark guy and he's ourguy for sure. He's a muddy b
sider. Yeah, what do youthink? Do you think I have a
hard time with him, Matt,Because I think I've mentioned before probably the

(41:28):
player that I've picked up and draftedthe most over the last couple of years.
If he's gonna what he threw seventypercent strikes this last outing, eighty
nine pitches, didn't walk anybody.Am I crazy? But if this is
a dude who can throw strikes likethat and be efficient, like, the
upside feels pretty large to me,agreed, I mean, like honestly enormous.

(41:49):
I mean, it was sort ofsurprising to me that his was so
low when I was looking into him, like it was a one percenter,
maybe even a zero percenter when welooked at him this offseason, because the
fastball is plus in just terms ofvelocity, But I think it's plus in
its shape too, Like you watchit and he just blows this thing by
everybody. Yeah, and that's whereGodi strake And that's been the story with

(42:12):
his fastball from first time I gothim, but that was yeah, yeah,
one hundred percent. But I wouldsay the issue and the reason why
you keep dropping him and why he'ssuch like a heartburn kind of picture to
own is because he had twelve walksin eighteen innings before that start, right,
Like that's awful, Like that's that'sreally really bad. That's Jacob Mazerowski
level control, right, and sohe has definitely not shown that the control

(42:37):
was there just yet. But thefact that you could turn in a seventy
percent strike rate in a full seveninnings start is like that's I mean,
that's the kind of stuff that you'relike, Okay, maybe we're taking a
step forward. So right, likethe beginning of the year, if you
would have shown this line to meand was like, Yolberdiez does this once
this year? Yes? Or no? Or been like hell no, yeah,

(42:58):
yeah, here we are. Ifhe starts bring in outings like this
or similar to this, like Iwill be picking them back up. Yeah,
you know some of our other favoritesin the Texas League. Roy Ver
Salinas still has some walk issues,but the strikeouts remain intriguing. Mason Barnett,
who we talked about with Kansas City. He looks really good so far
this year. Lots of strikeouts andis doing a decent job limiting walks.

(43:22):
Still a little on the high side. Chandler's Champlain. He's looked pretty good
for Kansas City as well. Theresults haven't quite been there, but the
strikeout and walk rates are looking prettygood. So I watched one of his
starts and was actually impressed. Ithought he was commanding. His pitch is
much better than he had in myreview of him last year. No Cameron
even has looked okay to start theyear. He's not someone I've ever been

(43:43):
super high on, but after Ithink everybody has written him off after some
middling years. The last couple ofyears he's looking better. And yeah,
that whole Northwest Arkansas rotation I thinkhas shown a little bit. So anyway,
there's there's a few interesting names amongstthe pretty boys, like your Team
Hences and Tacoa Robi's and even AdamMaser, who you know we both like,

(44:04):
and has shown some stuff too.Texas League, I think is really
headlined by Gilbertaz and everybody else isjust trying to play catch up quick bit.
In the Sally South Atlantic League,Own Murphy has looked really good.
A couple of times I turned himon. You know, the walks maybe
are touch higher than you'd like,but he's just blown everybody away. Winston
Santos also looks really good for TexasPYA. I think he's been well publicized

(44:27):
by Chris Klegg and others. Ithink he's seen him a couple of times,
and Winston Santos continues to put upreally really good numbers. Andrew Lara
for Nationals he's one that I knowyou hit talked about before and we might
have talked about him a bit thisoffseason, but he's off to a really
nice start to the year after Ithink we kind of said he needs to

(44:47):
show something after the hype he gotcoming out of DSL and Complex. But
he's looking pretty good finally. Andthen of course No Schultz is another the
headliners. He's just dominating everybody atnineteen or twenty, I guess, And
yeah, he looks he looks prettygood, pretty early returns at all the
gary Again, that's one we've talkeda bit about, as your Phillies B
side guy getting his strikeouts, limitingthe walks, and that Frisbee slider of

(45:12):
his really does seem to be befuddlinghitters. At this level. He's dominating.
You mentioned Winston Santos. I hadnot done my homework on him,
so I went back and I watchedsome this week. Matt. I don't
know if you've seen him, there'sno argument, like, you know,
he's producing right now. He's puttingup some pretty pretty dang good lines and
whatever. But I gotta say,just from like a Dynasty dannpoint, I

(45:34):
wasn't really like all that into it. The fastball is a slider. Now,
perhaps someone with redsheets telling you aboutthe great qualities of these two pitches
might be more excited. But thisis like, this is a two pitch
guy. He throws a change upthe lefties on occasion, but two pitch
guy kind of commanding it okay,and just really kind of dominating at this
level. Guys like that like yeah, great, sort of like flip investment,

(45:55):
potential flip investment, like pick himup if you can that's what you're
after. I'm a bit skeptical ofSantos or at least this version of Santos
as all right, moves up theladder, I don't know, not very
big. You know, we highlightedplenty of guys like that. Like I
think he's like a great sort oflike B side sort of arm but I
don't know if he's starting to creepup into more pretty boy like territory and

(46:19):
ranks. I'm not quite sold onall that or whatever. All right,
well, let's stop talking about dumbpictures. The only other thing I don't
think we touched on the PCL andwe had done talking about dumb pictures.
Jonathan Diaz, the Mariner's twenty sevenyear old guy that we talked about like
two weeks into the offseason that youdid a little deep dive into. He

(46:42):
keeps doing it like he's still turningin solid starts every time out. He
hasn't quite reached the heights of thosefirst couple of weeks, but I think
he was the PCL Picture of theMonth for April, and he's still leading
the league in strikeouts forty two strikeoutsand thirty eight innings. I don't know,
man, I think there's anything yeahhere, Like I don't think my
own evaluation really has changed. Butthat's a pretty impressive month for sort of

(47:04):
a journeyman type guy. Right,No, you can't deny that, but
I mean it's like he kind offeels like, look at Tommy Henry,
right, he's up in the bigs, gets shelled, he comes back and
absolutely dominates a PCL lineup. Youknow, like I'm skeptical on Diaz there,
but Matt, how could we not? We got We can't be done
talking about pitching without mentioning. JoandreSuarez is perfect six and a third innings

(47:27):
this week. Yeah, that wassweet. He didn't start the game because
who was it Magol or whatever wasrehabbing yea Tyler Magill. Yeah, and
I was watching that because I waswatching I was watching Candy start and I
had no idea that Suarez was goingto come in. He's still only two
percent rostered. But the Dynasty worldis just not not on this guy at
all. I'm getting And so hewent six and a third perfect, and

(47:50):
like it looked great. It wasn'tlike he was giving up a hard hits,
punched out seven. It was effishentYeah, don know, man,
Like it was nasty good the stretchat the end of last year, this
outing, I don't think there's beenany more dominant of a double a pitcher
than Suarez, Like, yeah,very least he's on the short list.
And so he turned tickets a coupleof tickets. Okay, starts to start

(48:14):
the year. But he's been awesome, Like really in April, he's still
awesome. Like you maybe want tosee a few more strikeouts so far this
year, but yeah, I mean, fuck, he's so good. He's
really really good. He gets somuch weak contact into the ground too,
like it's you love to see it. Just a note on Canny. You
mentioned Candy. Let's start, manLike, this is what I love about

(48:35):
him, Like he's just a grimyjust like he might not have his best
stuff, he might not be executingall that great, but just like figures
out a way to power through,get in it long innings. And we
saw him go seven consistently last year. This out, he threw fifty four
percent strikes. That's not great.He was struggling to locate, especially the
secondaries. And he goes five anda third, gives up one hit Wanner

(48:59):
and run walks, three strikes outsix Like he's just like a like a
lunchbucket sort of guy and curious tosee the war of attrition with pitching specs
how it goes for him in thatorganization. But I'm a fan of Jared
Candy, no doubt. Yeah,I mean bringing it back to where we
started Colorado doing something right. Yeah, And I just wanted to mention Cam
Weston made his double a debut.Looked pretty gard four innings of relief,

(49:22):
two hits, zero walks, eightstrikeouts. Very interesting to see how they
might develop and use him. Couldvery well be a reliever track. But
I don't think they're done giving himsome innings. And that we had we
had seven B side arms through fQoS this week. Matt, that's nice.
Good, it was pretty good.Aronde Eldegari again. Now Suarez didn't

(49:44):
make the start, but he wentover six innings, So Sworerez, Gilbertez,
Mason Adams, Logan Evans and Sundayyour guy Luis dia Villa through one.
Yeah, start stacking those and they'llget more popular. Talk some loser
hitter leaderboards. Let's do it.A guy who has shown up to me
Breus and some leaderboards. Is theCardinals infielder Caesar Prieto, who I have

(50:08):
lastered in the past. The Oriolessigned him originally out of Cuba. He's
the one with a super cool story. I don't know if you ever read
that, Like ESPN the magazine maybedid the story about his defection from Cuba.
Phenomenal, like great reporting, superinteresting. Yeah, really really good.
You should you should read that.I'll find it, I'll send it
to you, okay, sweet.But he's what he's top ten in K

(50:30):
percentage in triple A. He's numberone, Matt check this out, number
one in triple A and handy percentage. I love the handy percentage. Handy
percent You don't know handy percentage.You know it's a very telling, huge
metric. Matt one minus one percentageplus strike percentage. I like it,
and you want higher numbers at Ahe's at eighty three point six percent number

(50:52):
one in the land. Matt Manis hitting well. He's slashing three eighteen
three, forty eight, five hundredone e two iso three thirty three babbits,
so potentially sustainable and he's only rosteredin four percent of leagues. Twenty
five years old and triple A knockingon the door. He's available in some

(51:12):
of my leagues still because I thinkI had him and dropped him and no
one cared about him. I don'tknow, man, a guy who can
swing it some. I think hehits a lot of line drives. He's
got five home runs already this year. Interesting infield possibility for the Cardinals if
need be, I think, allright. Also sortin our b side bat
leaderboard, Matt, I know Durbandoesn't strike out very much, and you

(51:35):
love him for that. He's atten point two percent this year. But
you know, of course one ofmy bats is going to outdo him in
that department, Matt. And JuanBayez is only striking out six point seven
percent of the time, and heis playing he's in uh, he's in
low A. Yeah, he's likehe's like twelve years old. Dude,
Man, talk talk to me whenhe's doing that in a real league.
I mean, that's but I don'tknow, if you've looked at he's kind

(51:59):
of near the top of some someleaderboards, Matt. And it's interesting if
you look at his batter ball profile. Now he's a little guy, he's
young, but the batter ball profile. He hasn't hit any home runs,
but he's a guy. I kindof wonder if the sort of adage that
some power could come later might holdtrue. Here still an interesting young bat

(52:20):
that I got my eye on.All right, Matt, I don't you
know, we talked about the MidwestLeague bats quite a bit, but did
you see who won the Midwest LeagueBat of the Week this week? I
did not Cubs B side selection PedroRamirez. Yeah, he's hit a couple
of home runs. I think he'srunning a pretty high babbit too, and
hitting the ball on the ground alot like the Cubs on that level tend

(52:43):
to do. He's kind of producinga little bit more than I had kind
of expected to be honest. It'snear the top of our B side list
for ops and WRC plus. Interestinglittle switch hitter there. Well, who
else is standing out to you onthe hitter side? I had created two
thousand and twenty three draft lists,Matt, and was kind of looking at
those leaderboards, the prep bats andthe college bats from that class. Kind

(53:07):
of interesting how it works, right, I'm just looking at WRC plus.
Two of the top three guys arethose prep catching prospects that folks don't want
to go after. Right, BlakeMitchell granted. Mitchell's striking out thirty four
percent of the time. Aden Millersecond, and ralphie Velaskaez. They're off
to some I think pretty good starts. Now you know who are neighbors on

(53:29):
this list, Matt with A,Walt Emerson and TJ. Walton. No
way, we both have about sameamount of played appearances. Emerson's at sixty
two, Walton's at fifty nine.They're walking about the same rate. Now
there's a huge discrepancy a strikeouts.Right, Walton's striking out twice as much
as as Emerson. Walton's at thirtytwo point two percent. But your boy

(53:51):
Walt is hitting a lot of groundballs, Matt sixty two point five percent.
Walton's got the fourth hardest hit ballin Statcast's minor league database. He
had a well end up being adouble, but I think landed just past
the infield dirt and would have rolledall the way to the wall it was
hit that hard. But I thinkhe's got more extra base hits than Emerson

(54:15):
at this point. They both havetwo home runs. Walton's stolen three bases
been caught three times. Emerson stolenone base hasn't been caught. Like I
said from the very beginning, youknow, Walton might be a top five
prep bat of this class. Idon't know. I'm not ready to go
there. And I really want himto see to stop striking out so much.

(54:35):
Like he's you know, like figuredit out. I've been watching.
I've been watching him. He's gettingbetter, I think. And the fact
that both he and Colet have misseda little bit of time small naggling injuries
is sure that kind of sucks.Well, I don't know if far Walton's
was nagging so much. It wasa fastball to the face, but yeah,
I mean like he can't get allof the way of that, Like
it's not that hard man, uhyou know. I mean I'm just saying,

(55:00):
like we're looking at small, smallsamples for both and so like as
far as Emerson's ground ball rate,like I'm not super worried about that yet.
I don't think he had a particularlybad ground ball rate last year.
And Walton, it's great to seethat he you know, as we talked
about early on, our guy doesnot get cheated with his swings. No

(55:20):
swinging out of his out of hisbutt, and that's great to see for
a potential power hitter. And Ijust think, you know, striking out
this much at such low levels,it's not it's not like a death sentence
by any means for fantasy relevance,but certainly for leagues where you care about
a plus plate approach. Like nobodywho has a great plate approach in the
minor league or in the major leaguesran thirty percent plus k rates at this

(55:45):
level. So it's just something tokeep in minded to add into the context
for sure. But guys who hitthe hit ground balls at like sixty two
percent of the time don't really domuch for your fantasy team either potentially.
But like both of these guys,like I, we're far from like settled
in this season. They haven't playeda ton Like I'm just having a little
bit of fun here, But Ilike both of those guys, and I

(56:05):
think it's just going to be afun watch because they're very different types of
hitters. Definitely just eyeballs. I'mgoing to say that that strikeout rate settles
under where it's at right now bythe end of the year. Yeah,
I mean, I think it's trendingin the right direction, right, I
mean he started out like swinging ateverything, So yeah, I mean,
what's a hitter like that, Matt, What would you want to see his

(56:28):
strikeout rate at by the end ofthe year and you'd feel, you know,
all right, I'm still interested inthis guy. I think if he
gets promoted to Hi A, say, and between A and Hi A his
strikeout rate is in the mid toupper twenties, and he's like really showing

(56:51):
the power that we think is there, that's that's doable. I really do
think if he's at either level andhe runs a single dinificant sample size and
it's above thirty, big old redflashing warning sign that you're like, that's
a big thing you're going to haveto change in order to bring real relevance.
I mean, I think about theguy we talked about last week,

(57:12):
Jaysavina. He has put up somereally impressive exit velocities, has very good
batted ball shape for a power hitter, but has run thirty plus percent strikeout
rates at the lower levels and isjust now in the mid minors bringing that
down into the twenties. And Isaid that that's finally like, Wow,
I'm hanging on. But he's likesuch a fringy guy. And you're saying,

(57:34):
you know, TJ. Walton's inthe top five prep bats in this
class. I'm like, boy,that you don't run a strike out rate
that starts with a three and callsomeone the best top five prep bat in
the class. So that's I reallythink we need to see that in the
twenties. Fun Gambles number one,Fun Gambles maybe number one, maybe,

(57:54):
but yeah, I think that's whatwe want to see. I mean,
it's interesting because the guy that poppedfor me as I was looking at some
of these leader boards is Ariel Almonte. Are you familiar with Almonty? Uh
No, not really? Yeah,I wasn't really either. But he's thus
far showing some really impressive power forthe Reds in the Florida State League.

(58:19):
His strikeout rate is abysmal. Imean, it's thirty six percent, but
he's already popped nine homers and nowhe's twenty and repeating low A. So
he was at LOWE for all lastyear and was terrible. He's just absolutely
murdering the ball. So his ninetiethpercentile exit velocity is one oh nine.
Like, that's ridiculous for a twentyyear old that is really really good.

(58:45):
Legit in the top five in allof the published minor league stackcast database,
so literally just behind James Wood andMatt Wallner and Patrick Wisdom. Like that's
you know, major league plus twodouble plus level power out of a twenty
year old in the Florida State League. His contact rate is terrible, under

(59:05):
sixty percent, So like, thisis the kind of bat where you're like,
this is Joey Gallo esque in termsof power and swing and miss.
So even for him, I'm lookingat that and being like, he has
to improve his contact rate and that'slike near top of the scale power,
especially for his age. But he'ssomeone that I'm super intrigued by this early
season leaderboard data. So ariel Amanteis like, again you want to talk

(59:30):
about risky gambles. He seems likehe might be showing something here. And
while his strikeout rate is really reallybad thirty six point eight percent again as
a twenty year old in low A, that's not even close to palatable,
but his swinging strike rate is fourteenpoint eight percent and he's walking a decent
amount too, So it might bejust like an approach tweak helps get this

(59:52):
into more of an acceptable upper twentieslow thirties range. But the dude is
murdering BA balls so far, andI think is worth a look in your
deeper leagues. Some other fun earlyseason leaders. The stolen base leader continues
to be Chandler Simpson guy we talkedabout. He led the miners and steals
last year. It looks like he'sgunning to do it again. He's had

(01:00:15):
some really fun I've watched a coupleof his seals and he's like, very
very good at it. He hasyet to hit an extra base hit,
has walked thirteen times and struck outthirteen times, like he's one of these
like bonkers silly profiles. But he'sscored twenty three runs because the number of
times he just like gets on sealstwo bases and then somebody behind him knocks
him in is ridiculously high. Yeah, twenty three runs on twenty nine singles,

(01:00:38):
Like that's that's it, you know, that's crazy. Our guy,
Caleb Durban. He's fourteenth in theBIGS or in the minor leagues in steals,
but he's fifth in triple A andagain continues to walk way more than
he strikes out. You know,he's striking out now ten percent of the
time. That's obviously much worse thanhis like four percent that he had at

(01:01:00):
Double A last year. But it'sstill showing a plus bat to ball and
plus speed. What do you knowabout Duke Ellis? He's second in the
minors in steels so far. Isreally fast a catcher. I don't think
has ever thrown him out. Atthe times that he's been thrown off,
it's been like pickoffs. Oh interesting, like that. He can run.

(01:01:21):
He's really really skinny, really fast. He's in that fun, fun Birmingham
team in for the White Sox inDouble A, Yep, yep, and
they like to use them. He'llcome in to pinch ron steal some basses
and stuff like that. But Idon't know about a major league prospect there,
to be honest, yeap. Surprisingand not so surprising. Emanuel Rodriguez
continues to lead the minor leagues inwalk percentage if you're set your minimums at

(01:01:44):
an appropriate level, and even justin raw because he missed a little bit
of time he had a hamstring dealand a hand thing that might have cost
him a game or two. Buthe's got twenty seven walks in ninety two
played appearances. He's just two behindthe the raw leader, who has thirty,
yeah, thirty twenty nine plate appearancesmore than he does, so Manuel

(01:02:07):
Rodriguez. I mean, he's he'sjust looked I think great, like bringing
the strike out rate down below thirtypercent, murdering the ball, nine steals,
one caught stealing, and continues tobe mini Barry Bonds with his walk
rates. Again. He for melike he's in my top five prospects.
Easily. He might be number oneor number two by the end of the

(01:02:28):
season. I'm just like, Ithink that he represents closest to the most
productive version that a hitter can be. Absolutely great ax of velocities. He's
fast and then is really passive atthe plate, and then when they throw
strikes, he just tries to murderthe ball. So I'm a big sometimes
when it's sometimes when he's got twostrikes and they just lay one over the
middle, he doesn't swing at it, and that drives me free and he

(01:02:51):
should he should swing at those more. But yeah, he's twenty one in
Double A and might be the bestplayer in Double A, and like,
I don't know, He's incredible.I think he's great. Yeah. Alex
Freeland, who we briefly touched onlast week. He's one that I think
is having a really good start tothe year. He is running a higher
babbit, but I think a lotof the other things that he's doing have

(01:03:12):
looked really good to me. Walkinga lot more than he's striking out for
great Lakes and his hit while justtwo homers, he's laced ten doubles,
like he's hitting the ball pretty hard, and I like to see that.
Like guys that you know, maybenot lighting up the leaderboards with the home
runs, but are still managing tohit lots of doubles. I think that
portends good things as well. SoFreelan's one that you know, I think

(01:03:35):
you touched on briefly last week.But I just wanted to co sign that
I have watched a decent amount ofhim and I really like what I've seen
Matt looking at the looking at thecollege bat first year player leaderboard. I've
been wanting to bring this guy upa few times, but haven't gotten to
it. Minimum of sixty played appearances, who do you think has the lowest
K percentage? I was going tosay McGonagall. But he doesn't have sixty

(01:03:58):
play appearances yet. I don't thinkthis college bats. Oh just college bats.
U. Yeah, well you'll neverguess this, so okay, I
won't even try that. Who yougot, dude, Cole carrig. Wow,
he's striking out eight point three percentof the time in the Northwest League.
That is that is shocking to me. I mean, this is a
guy who maybe I just had itall wrong, but I thought this was

(01:04:18):
like kind of like big athlete projectat the plate, gonna have some swing
and miss issues and all that stuff. Right, it feels like a classic
sort of Rockies investment. But hehas been impressive, man like walking twelve
percent of the time, striking outeight percent of the time. He slashed
from two seventy one three fifty seven, four fifty seven and that's on a

(01:04:40):
two sixty six babbit hitting line,drives twenty percent of the time, ground
balls forty six point two percent ofthe time. Don't want to see it
that high. He's got twelve stolenbases, two home runs. He's been
caught stealing twice, like and Idon't know if did you see the play
that I posted where he almost threwa guy out at first, he almost
threwout Day's live. Actually first happento be. Yeah, I having to

(01:05:00):
be watching that game, and Iwas gonna say that his arm looked really
impressive on that throw, trying toyeah, he's like he's got some tools
and if he's not going to belike a big strikeout monster, like he's
gotten way more interesting to me.Pair that I wanted to compare Joy Loperfito
made the bigs super happy. He'salready had a little bit of success so
far. But the guy right behindhim in Homer's in the minor leagues is

(01:05:25):
Ryan Ward. You look at theirproduction and it looks really similar. Just
Ryan Ward is running in seventy pointslower Babbit and he is. Ward is
also walking a little bit less.But nobody's really talking about Ryan Ward in
the same way that they were talkingabout low Perfito and Ward was matching him
Homer for Homer. I mean,he has twelve in fewer plate appearances than

(01:05:45):
low Perfido and he's striking out lesstoo. I mean, again, the
walk rate is a significant difference andall of that, but Ward also seems
like he's fast, like he hasa higher speed scorer than low Perfito does.
Again, that's a noisy stat stillat this point. But I just
think, like to the conversation wehad about low Berfido last week, like,
yes, he had a great April. Yes, I think he raised

(01:06:08):
his stock a lot, and it'sawesome he's getting a shot with Houston.
They certainly have some places that hemight be an improvement, But I think
that the shape of low Perfito's productionis a lot rarer are a lot more
common than you might think, Andlike Ryan Ward is basically doing the exact
same thing, minus about ten pointsin walk rate and minus about five points

(01:06:30):
in strikeout rate. And it's likenobody's clamoring for Ward to get promoted,
right, like it was Sandy Payesthat got the call for them. So
I don't know, it's just likekudos to Ward for also a great start
to the year. And also likethat's the shape of production that Liberfido kind
of had, so temper your expectationsfor how that might translate. So Matt,
for I don't know if these guysare really like leaders and stuff,

(01:06:54):
but perusing leaderboards, there was afew guys got my attention and Dug around
and I've been why but uh,I just wanted to Charles McAdoo. Oh
yeah, last year I put outa little bit, put out a little
tweet, right, just doing alittle number, weighing in a little filter.
But it was guys in full seasonwho had a pool percentage greater than
forty one percent, the ground ballrate less than forty four percent, struck

(01:07:16):
out less than twenty two point sixpercent, home run to fly ball rate
fourteen and a half we're twenty oneor younger, and had a swinging strike
rate less than twelve point two percent. That filter brought up five names last
year, Matt White, Langford Cold, Keith, Jordan Lawler, Gustin Ramirez
and then Macado. Now McAdoo hadonly it was only one hundred and fourteen

(01:07:40):
played appearances, right, But thepoint was, and like we've talked about
some, I want to see ifyou know how that tracks this season.
Right, He's moved up a level, but those metrics are all right there
still or better. He's got fourhome runs. Now, mind you,
he's playing his home games in Greensboro, right, and they have pretty short
porches except center field, Like centerfieldis still four hundred feet The gaps are

(01:08:03):
still fairly deep, and then itgets just real sharp down the line right.
Well, the home runs I seehim hitting at home are still going
well over four hundred feet, soI don't think he's getting cheepies there.
He's stolen five bases he hasn't beencaught yet, slashing three h nine three
ninety six five point thirty one.You know, we were curious if that
little run at the end of theyear the Florida State League was something to

(01:08:26):
really be excited or now. ButI don't know, man, he might
be more real than mirage here.Yeah. You know, I'm a fan.
He's got a funky little swing,but he's such a strong athletic guy
that he's made it work. AndI haven't really seen a compelling reason to
say that he's not going to beable to keep making that work. Right,

(01:08:46):
He's off to a really, reallyfun start to the year. Yeah,
And of course I've got some MidwestLeague bats that I wanted to touch
on. Matt. Just randomly,I kept seeing Jake de Leo de Leo
d e l e O makes somereally loud outs just skipping around, So
I started digging around on some stackcast he was down at a ball,

(01:09:09):
but like I said, has movedup. And I don't know, this
is just an interesting hour speed guy. His numbers aren't going to jump out
of the page. You know,he's hitting two ten, he's striking out
not too much, twenty three pointone percent of the time. But I've
seen him just lace like one hundredand nine mile per hour line drives and
groundouts and not get anything for it. He's stolen seven bases on ten tracks.

(01:09:30):
He's you know, he's twenty threeyears old, but now he's in
Hyatt's his first pro season playing centerfield. I'm sure there's some swing of
miss stuff is wa he's below leagueaverage WRC plus, But I don't know,
interesting guy. I want to besurprised if he starts putting up some
like counting stats here and maybe getsa little more attention. And I can't
help. But notice, man,have you seen what Noah Miller's been doing
at the plate? Matt, Hmmm, I haven't followed. Now, Noah

(01:09:51):
Miller's like he won like a goldglove, right like minor league goal glove
shortstop got traded over to Dodgers fromthe Twins. He's still just twenty one
years old. It's been very light, that right all glove. But he's
popped five home runs this year.He's striking out seventeen point seven percent of
the time, walking fourteen percent ofthe time, slashing two thirty eight,

(01:10:13):
three forty seven, four twenty nine. And that's on a two fifty three
babbitt. Now he's hitting a lotof fly balls. He's pulling the ball
a decent amount. I don't know, like this is a guy if offense
comes along, like there's the glove, is probably a ticket to the Biggs.
And if some offense comes along.I love these kinds of sort of
b side plays. You know,a top shelf defensive shortstop, but maybe

(01:10:34):
starts hitting. Could could turn intoa dynasty, you know, gem of
a find. I think and gethim for nothing. So no I got
my eye on Noah Miller here.It was nice to see Alex Aidisernia finally
came back from injury hit a homerun. I think his first game back.
One of my favorite players. I'llbe watching him something mat I think
I'm gonna I'm gonna hold off onemore week. But if Johndrick Panango he's

(01:10:57):
doing what he's doing we're gonna betalking about him, all right, agreed.
Oh, Matt. Taking a lookat some prospects whose roster percentage is
trending up in fan tracks this week. Top of the list at a plus
thirteen percent is Brett with Krausky,the Brewers pitching prospect to just moved up
a level. We've talked a littlebit. I'm gonna have to do some
more homework and take another look athim, I think, Matt, see

(01:11:20):
what's up here? Cale Manzarto isup eleven percent with his you know,
his call up. Jason Black gotcalled up seven percent. Did you see
Black's outing today at all? Matt? I just saw the line looked bad.
He was really good the first timethrew the lineup, and then not
so good. It kind of kindof backs up our little dig that we
did there. Sam Roberts is upfour percent. Mike is it? Mike

(01:11:43):
Bovey tearing it up very much aall bat sort of profile, I think.
But he's up three percent. JayAllen's up two percent, Jonah Tong's
up another two percent, and thenBen Cowles did how you say it with
the Yankees, who's getting some buzz, is up two percent, looking ahead
to this week, Matt, somematchups that I might be putting my eyeballs
on. International League Norfolk at Memphis. I want to see Roberts versus those

(01:12:09):
bats Mayo Own Company, see ifthey get them for some home runs or
not. In the PCL, Ihaven't watched like any Miguel Vargas and a
B side blast from the past.Andre Lipschiz is having a pretty good season.
They're going up against first place Sugarland. Pedro Leone has been pretty hot,
I think, so maybe looking thereTexas League Ulsa at Midland. I'm

(01:12:31):
just kind of all about some JacobWilson watching right now. In the Texas
League, Matt, he's been swingingit and that's looking a lot more enticing
than I thought it might. Anda couple of pitchers that might be a
good test for him and Casparius andRobleski. Southern League. I mean,
it's hard to not put eyes onBirmingham. They're at Pensacola. There's some
kind of like crafty arms that mightbe a good test for Baldwin, Veris

(01:12:55):
and Kierro to go up against EasternLeague Binghamton at Portland. Man. You
know, I've got to tune inand watch Leandra versus arguably the best lineup
in the Eastern League. Whenever that'sgoing on, I'll be I'll be watching
that for sure. In the SaleLeague, Wilmington at Jersey Shore, I
want to see some more Eldagari,maybe some Andrew Laura And you know,
I haven't really watched Laura in acouple of years, So let's see how

(01:13:18):
that has changed, and see whatsome of these older bats who got promoted,
Like this Glasser guy was tearing upa ball and is now in High
A for Wilmington. I haven't watchedhim. Midwest League Peoria apploit check in
on some ISA Dicernia, this Delaoguy. See what they got going on.
Maybe Northwest League Spokane. It's atHillsboro. I don't know if you

(01:13:41):
saw, but Andrew Pintar had areally hot week. Yeah, another good
lefty test for Contescello versus Sullivan.If Sullivan's still there. I want to
see young Victor Horrez and see whathe looks like this year. I haven't
really watched him, and this willbe at Hillsborough. Will be a you
know what that is that the bestthat the Northwest League gets for a picture
I think it might be and it'snot usually and it's not that great of

(01:14:03):
an angle. Cal League Modesto atFresno. Let's see what some of your
nuts can do against these good Aball pitchers, Matt. It's going to
be an interesting test there. Imean that nuts lineup is ridiculous at like
top to bottom. They're all reallyreally good. But like I said,
that Fresno rotation, yeah, prettygood starts all yeah, and you know

(01:14:24):
they might be older pictures, butthat'll be a good test for them,
you know, definitely. And thenuh, Carolina League, I don't know,
maybe Salem at Columbia. I wantto see what Ronde can do if
you can back up his FQO thathe had. I'm wondering how much more
a ball is going to be.I think I think you might need a
little better challenge here. Florida StateLeague Saint Lucy is at Bradenton and Man

(01:14:45):
Saint Lucy has a slew even withwith Tom getting promoted as a slew of
arms that I want to watch atthat, you know, fantastic Brandington angle
Kate Morris was it Tesser Mercedes winningwinninger Thornton, but I I'll probably be
tuning in there a decent amount.Complex League is up and running, but
I mean, we don't get towatch those, but it's always a fun

(01:15:08):
time of year to see who startsgetting buzz and who gets dropped in.
I'm always curious players that my otherowners are going to drop to pick up
some of these speculations, because Iam not above taking some other folks trash
if I like it. Yeah,maybe that's something we can dig into in
the next little bit. I knowthat recently, after the kind of wave

(01:15:30):
of pop up pitching prospects that we'vetalked about, I've grabbed a few in
different leagues, and now I wouldsay most of my rosters are pretty full
and I'm pretty happy with their compositionat this point. Also, my injured
lists are full in most of myleagues. I don't know if you saw
that in our league to show Ican't fill a roster now we don't have

(01:15:53):
enough eyel spots. But it's goingto be interesting now with complex starting,
that's really where you see like theearly hitter pops. I'd say, like
I'm less interested in a complex pitcher, even if they're doing great because it's
just like, I don't know,the competition isn't really there, but seeing
which of these DSL guys really putit together in the complex that becomes some

(01:16:14):
tough ad drops for me too.So maybe that's something we can keep an
eye on and see if there areany any interesting ad drops in our many
leagues. Jeremy Cabrero is one ofthe few DSL guys that I still picked
up a few shares of and hangingon to us. So he's got two
home runs. He had a homerun in his first two games so far.
So Clegg or anyone else, writethem up, blow them up,

(01:16:35):
give me that trade value. ButI think that'll do it. For episode
thirty two of the Prospect B Sidespodcast, I am trying to put some
video out of things that I've cutup and watched over the week and that
I might bring up on Twitter atPitching Specs. We'll be doing some of
the same again next week, sametime, Matt getting dirty, seeing what's
out there in the mud. Yeah, if any of you listeners made it

(01:16:59):
through to the end, hit Nateat Pitching Specs on the twixter and hit
us up in the Dynasty dugout discordfor questions. What's proving helpful in your
leagues? What's proving useful as faras we talk about these guys, I
mean, I think we're probably notnext time, but think in the near
future we'll do another Questions episodes.If people have some burning questions or things

(01:17:20):
they want to get answered, letus know and we can do some deeper
dives. But yeah, or anyguys you want want me to really get
in on the video and cut upand stuff, I'll put it out there
for you. Just throw me thename. We'll let Chicago Farmer take us
out and be well. We'll talkto you next time. Adios Miles an
hour riding to his head, youhave them down first with the lump bonus

(01:17:45):
face, and on the very nextpitch he up and stole second thase with
greatest be He wasn't born. Hehad bad years. Uniform

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2

Dateline NBC

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.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 32: Leaderboards and Left-Behinds

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2

Dateline NBC

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

All Episodes

Episode 32: Leaderboards and Left-Behinds

Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2