June 4, 2024 • 46 mins
While The Rook is off frolicking on tennis courts, Nate helps listeners define "pretty boys" vs "b-sides" before sharing his findings while on a dig for the most improved lightly rostered pitching prospects. The customary run through of the past week's most picked up prospects and look ahead to this week's MiLB action follows.
Javier Sanoja 5:35
Ryan Lobus 8:51
Spencer Giesting 12:30
Yujanyer Herrera 15:01
Dylan Cumming 16:30
Trevor Martin 19:55
Austin Peterson 22:10
Joseph Montalvo 24:58
Eiberson Castellano 26:50
Jacob Steinmetz 29:40
Garrett Burhann 31:06
Robinson Pina 33:05
Walter Pennington 35:47
Javier Sanoja 5:35
Ryan Lobus 8:51
Spencer Giesting 12:30
Yujanyer Herrera 15:01
Dylan Cumming 16:30
Trevor Martin 19:55
Austin Peterson 22:10
Joseph Montalvo 24:58
Eiberson Castellano 26:50
Jacob Steinmetz 29:40
Garrett Burhann 31:06
Robinson Pina 33:05
Walter Pennington 35:47
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Not five miles an hour riding tohis head. He hopped down first with
the lumpbonius face, and on thevery next pitch he up and stole second
face with gretested he wasn't born hehad yes, uniforn. Welcome to episode
(00:29):
thirty five of the Prospect B Sidepodcast. I am made handy and the
Brook is not with us. Perhapshe joins us a little bit later.
Perhaps not. He is out ona tennis court somewhere in Oregon beating up
on some old ladies or something.But kudos to him being active, exercising
better than sitting in your garage talkinginto a microphone by yourself. I gotta
(00:53):
say we have had a lot ofbare activity in my neighborhood. Currently have
the garage door. If you listento the show, you know I said,
in my garage and do this.I don't know, non zero chance.
We might run into a bear duringthis episode, but it is too
warm for me to sit with thegarage door closed. But I'm glad to
be back. We took a weekoff because of the holiday. The last
(01:15):
episode we did we got into somepretty boy action and that was just disgusting.
So it's been several weeks since wegot into some real b side and
got into some real mudding. I'vespent these last couple of weeks getting pretty
dirty. Took the little hiatus catchup and work my way through my list
of players I hadn't watched yet andwanted to or wanted to investigate some more
(01:40):
in the like. I don't thinkI came across the next Barry Bonds,
but I do think I found someinteresting observations, interesting muddy observations to share
with you. But before all that, good friend of the show, Jesse
Severe of the Dynasty Sports Life podcastsent me a question. Good question,
very very sophisticated question, lots ofins and outs, very technical, and
(02:01):
Jesse, if you haven't listened tohis show and you play Dynasty Sports of
all sports, you should really checkit out. Jesse is a fantastic Dynasty
player. I have to say,he whoops up on me in baseball,
basketball, football, and I don'teven think those are his main sports.
I think he's mainly big sport ishockey. I think and imagine he's pretty
(02:23):
good at that one too. ButJesse asked, what makes a guy a
pretty boy? Just a guy makingpeople's prospect list, like Cayden Dana was
picked in the eleventh round, shouldn'the be B side? Can a guy
lose B side status and become apretty boy if he rises up too much?
Like I said, good questions,But for me, I think what
makes a pretty boy pretty boy issimply popularity, roster percentage, roster at
(02:45):
a high clip in dynasty leagues prettyboy. And I suppose too, if
there's a trendy hot name that mightmaybe the roster percentages haven't caught up yet
and is making top one hundred list, sure you could slap the pretty boy
label on him too, I think, Jesse, I'd have to say,
I definitely think a guy like CaydenDana could go from B side to pretty
(03:06):
boy. I mean, I thinkit kind of has. I think the
inverse could be true too. Ithink maybe a guy well, I don't
know. I think maybe once you'rea pretty boy, you're kind of always
a pretty boy. And yes,definitely I think a B side could lose
B side status and become a prettyboy. I mean, Tovar now is
very highly rostered, right, ButI don't know. To me, we
(03:27):
do the sort of like official Bside selections before every season at the time,
they will only be rostered I don'tknow, not created yet to one
to two percent of fan tracks leagues. But I think those guys, regardless
of how it may go, willalways kind of be an official B sider.
So I hope that answers your question, Jesse. Like I said,
it's very scientific, so I couldunderstand a confusion to be very educated on
(03:52):
the subject matter to understand. Butit's been a good couple of weeks as
far as I don't know. Ina way I kind of think a B
side had success story is if youfind a guy you think has a chance,
has such a little popularity amongst dynastyowners and they make the big leagues.
I think that's I think that's good. I think I think we call
that a win, regardless of howit may or may not go once they
(04:15):
get up there. But it's beena good couple of weeks in that regard.
I think Matt's Red's bat heard abestup in the Bigs right now.
We saw Kyder Montero, who Ithink was my first B side arm to
make the Bigs, got a spotstart during a doubleheader. Another one of
Matt's sort of older bats that hethat he picked out this last offseason.
Trenton Brooks is up with the Giantsgetting a little run justin. Henry Molloy,
(04:41):
who was a Brave selection after hisdraft, just got the call.
I don't he hasn't played tonight,but should be getting into a game shortly
here and definitely the first B sidebat to get called up to replace a
number one overall draft pick as theTigers sent down Spencer Torkelsen, which was
surprising, then maybe not surprising atthe same time. I think the struggle
(05:01):
has been kind of real for himfor a couple of weeks. Casey Schmidt
was a B side selection once upona time. He's back up with the
Giants. Brett Wisely, who Istill have hoped for, back up with
the Giants and swinging it. Anothermulti hit night tonight I saw and I
don't think that game is over yet. And Emmanuel Valdez had a two home
run game getting called back up acouple of days ago. And Tovar has
(05:26):
been, you know, pretty danggood all the way around. You know,
he's striking out a lot still,but he had the most extra base
hits in the month of May inthe National League. So despite the strikeouts
and you know, questionable approach bysome, he's still doing quite a bit
of damage. But over the break, I was pulling up a decent amount
(05:46):
of video of a former selection,Javier Sinoya of the Marlins. I know
Matt and I have brought up afew times. Perhaps I don't think we
ever got two into him, butwe both identified him as a player that
we just both were kind of fansof, and I think we had both
verbalized questioning if we ever thought hewas going to be a major leaguer and
being skeptical on that. I wantedto ask him if he thought maybe we
(06:10):
undersold all that or misread all that, because our man is twenty one years
old in Triple A right now andnot struggling at the plate. So last
season he started off in A ballgot promoted to HYA, and he started
off this year in Double A wherehe got in fifteen just fifteen games,
sixty one played appearances, and thenthey sent him up to Triple A,
(06:30):
where he's played in thirty five games, one hundred and fifty three played appearances.
He's hit a home run. Hehit one home run in Double A
as well, this year. Now. Sonoya is a small guy and I
don't suspect home runs will ever bea thing with him, But when we
see what happen, I like tocelebrate that on Twitter post it. You
can follow me on pitching specs.By the way, I'd like to post
(06:53):
some video of some things we talkabout on the show. Sonoya has stolen
seven bases total on the season.He did swape thirty seven total twenty twenty
three, so perhaps speed is alittle bit a part of his game.
We're talking about a very sort ofhigh contact profile man and I both liked
him as a guy who just kindof seemed like he was gonna he is
(07:15):
gonna get the most out of himself, just that kind of like player.
I'm gonna maximize what he's got towork with. And man, his triple
A run, he's only striking outsix and a half percent of the time,
walking ten and a half percent ofthe time. The ISOs A at
one forty nine. He's slashing threethirteen, three seventy nine, four sixty
three on the back of a threetwenty five babbit. It's a one eighteen
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WRC. Plus he's got eleven doublesin thirty five games and three triples.
Obviously, I don't think we wouldever tab so Noya as a future Fantasy
superstar. But I gotta admit I'mjust not totally sure what kind of dynasty
value to put on our guy here. I don't know, twenty one doing
(07:57):
this at Triple A. You gottathink being in the biggs is on the
table now and maybe relatively quickly.You know, so so format pendant,
high contact, potentially high ratios,chipping some steals. Defensively, he plays
shortstop and second base. I thinkhe's pretty dang good at him. So,
I don't know. Next time Iget to talk with Matt, maybe
(08:18):
we'll bring up Sonoya again and seewhat his thoughts are. But perhaps a
very sneaky dynasty play here, especiallyin like a thirty teamer, or maybe
just getting some run, might havea very young capable defensively up the middle
possibility to help out your teams.It's kind of wild player, this young,
(08:39):
having so much success at a higherlevel, and he's rostered in only
one percent of leagues. So habyour Sonoya, Marlins, I don't know,
help me out. Take a look. What do you think then?
The arm that has a lot ofmy attention over the last couple of weeks.
And this is totally because someone inbaseball hit me up and asked me
about them and started sharing some informationand putting him on my map. Is
(09:01):
Ryan Lobis with the Rangers, whojust recently got promoted to Hya. He's
a righty with I don't know whatyou want to call it, a three
quarter arm, somewhat side arm,kind of low, just kind of a
funky release, a funky right hander. But you know, the Rangers,
man, they they're kind of likethe pitching spec mutters of the real world.
(09:24):
They have picked out some of themost interesting undrafted pitching prospects over the
last several years, I feel like, but I feel like they might have
done it again here. Lobis wasundrafted out of Mercer. He's currently twenty
three years old, listed at six' two, but I've turned him on
a few times. The slider mightbe an exceptional offering, a real top
(09:46):
shelf, nasty sort of pitch postwell draft, I guess post signing last
year he got a little bit complexrun. Then he was in a ball
to start this year. I feellike they've kind of eased him into some
more innings and some more pitch countsand stuff like that. He's getting to
start now. He's a guy whoin a ball is running a thirty six
(10:07):
percent k rate to forty one percentk rate and high A Now I mean
we're talking it's seventeen and two thirdsA ball innings, fifteen and two thirds
high A innings, so still nota lot, but the strikeout stuff seems
there in spades. Now. Hethrows I think a four steamer and a
sneaker, not real high V lowper the data that was given to me.
(10:28):
The fur steamer I believe sits aroundninety one. They both sit around
ninety one, but I think shape, deception, release point, angle,
that sort of stuff probably helps thatpitch play up quite a bit. The
slider, like I said, isthe real nasty and I did see him
throw change up too, so thereis a change up in there. But
(10:50):
Ryan Lobis I think he's rastered inzero percent of leagues. I scooped him
up where I could, so takethat for whatever it's worth. He may
not be a buzzy name and dynastyworld at this moment, but from what
I have been told, he isa pretty buzzy name in the real world
on the ground. So Ryan lobisperhaps a fantastic sort of B side play
(11:11):
right now. So I wanted totouch on those two guys in the front
here. But what I ended updoing the last couple of weeks is it
basically just did a filter, dida statistical dive, and then vetted a
lot of names via video, andI formally did a write up here that
Clegg has and I think he's goingto put it out on the Dynasty Dugout.
(11:31):
There's some video included. But whatI did is I took a sample
size of about six hundred and fiftypitching prospects who and I know these sample
sizes aren't super large, that hadat least thirty innings pitched this season and
last season at whatever levels, pickedout some metrics that I like to look
at, and basically subtracted last year'snumbers from this year's numbers to just kind
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of see who might be making somebig jumps at least production wise, and
then tried to line it up withsome video and some other knowledge that I
might have about the pictures, basicallyto see who are the most improved pitching
specs this June, now two monthsinto the season. So then I wrote
up thirteen of them, the mostimproved and lightly rastered pitching prospects, the
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ones that stuck out the most forme in this exercise, in this homework
and might have the most Dynasty interest. I looked at walk percentage, p
percentage, whip x fit, groundball percentage, swinging strike rate, and
strike percentage. Those are kind ofthe main divining rods for me. Threw
in a couple other metrics, justmore out of curiosity, and then,
like I said, subtracted them alland see saw who was sort of sort
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of popping. And I have tosay the first arm on my list here
really kind of inspired you looking atthese numbers and things. Left hand pitching
prospect of the Diamondbacks, Spencer Geistingthrew him on a few times after he
put up some gaudy lines. Youknow, just in my other Northwest League,
looks have been eyeing him a littlebit and he's repeating high. But
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he's still only twenty two years old. I don't I don't care if a
pitcher is repeating a level, especiallyif they seem to be making the giant
gains that Geisting is and Hillsboro broadcastwill rave about how much better he is
this season. He's, like Isaid, twenty two year old. He's
listened at six' four. Hewas the I don't know, early second
day pick in the twenty twenty twodraft out of UNC Charlotte. Now it's
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tricky watching lefties in the Northwest League, and especially someone who's been there for
two years. You don't get anygood angle to really look at the stuff.
So that's still a bit blurry.But I don't think it is hard
to see how much more interesting hehas become, How much more efficient?
How much of a better pitch executioner? Is executioner proper to use here?
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Executionist? How about that this seasonthan last his you know, his strike
percentages up from fifty eight point ninepercent to sixty five point four. His
swinging strike rate is up four percent. His strikeout percentage is up almost seven
percent. He's basically turned seven percentof walks into seven percent case. Obviously,
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the sort of surface level stuff eraWHIP x FIP, I don't know,
is x FIP surface level. I'mnot sure if you categorize it as
that, but those are all waydown. The era is under one his
whips under point eight the numbers onthis dive or maybe one outing data at
this juncture. But nonetheless, thefastball slider, I don't even know if
(14:26):
I should call it a slider.Breaking ball. Execution just is leaps and
balance better than last year. Idid turn him on some from last season.
But he's another guy. He's twopercent rastered right now. It's hard
to think he's not asserting himself asa pretty legit pitching prospect in their system
right now. So, like Isaid, he kind of inspired this.
I'm like, man, he is. He is so much better. You
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know, pitchers developed sometimes, andso I want to see who else might
be developing in a manner that heis. Another guy that maybe helped inspire
this homework. A guy that I'vetalked about a little bit on this show,
Uhanier Herrera of the Brewers. Imean, just on these metrics,
he has had some of the biggestgains and he's doing it up a level
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now now. Granted, I thinkhe's only about twenty innings into his high
a run right now, but you'retalking about a guy who's improved his strikeout
rate by almost fifteen percent, hasdropped his walk rate by almost seven percent.
I mean, that's like a twentytwo percent swing and K minus BBB.
That's that's pretty wild. Walks hasmaybe been a bit of an issue
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for him in the past. Hedoes seem to be getting better in the
execution part. I mean for him, like we talked about, he tends
to pitch backwards. He's got apretty hard fastball that he doesn't really lean
on or use very much or nearlyas much as most guys that can throw
that hard down in the lowers.So I think the secondary execution is a
big part in his developmental gains.Here. He's throwing strikes seven percent more
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often, swinging strike rate is uplike six point three percent doing this dig
Like I said, six hundred andfifty something pictures, you've got about thirty
that were making these sorts of gains. Production wise, it's an outlier to
be improving this much, and it'seven more of an outlier to be improved
this much while jumping a level.The outlook of what he may become is
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still, you know, funny aquestion, quite blurry, but it does
seem like he is sliding into alegit run at being a starter here.
So the twenty year old, bigbodied Herrera in the Brewer system is definitely
pequing my interest on this level.Another guy that really popped in the Giants
organization who I'd seen before, butI don't think I had realized how much
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his K game has improved. Butthat's Dylan Cumming. Another undrafted guy the
twenty twenty two class who actually didn'teven get signed after the draft. I
think he spent a brief minute insome independent ball, but he was out
of liberty. Giants signed him.He was an able last season, started
off in Hi A, got thirtythree and two thirds innings in and then
(17:02):
they just recently promoted him to DoubleA, whereupon his Double A debut was
pretty good. I watched that hedefinitely struck out his fair share of hitters.
I think he went like four orfour and a third or something like
that and struck out seven or eight. I think I have those cut up
and put in the piece. Butmy man has increased his strikeout seventeen percent,
which is just pretty absurd. Yeah, walks have ticked down a little
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bit, I guess seven point sevenpercent and high A five point three,
and I guess I mean it's likeone an outing. So but I'm not
watching some video from last year inthis year. I don't know if like
his execution is really all that muchbetter or different. My suspicion is that
something somewhere in the arsenal there isa much juicier tool making it all play
(17:48):
up better. I think he's alwayskind of been a slider guy. He's
got you know, he's a bitwiry. Maybe it's just the hair or
something, but he's just like reallyintense and kind of gives you, like
some Dennis eckers The like vibes.And don't take that wrong, I'm not
saying he's Dennis Eckersley, but justaesthetically and sort of like energetically, you
get a little bit of that feel. But he's got this big sort of
(18:11):
like sideways hook, slower sideways hookthat seems to give hitters quite a hard
I think it's very easy to seeor just I don't want to say lazily,
but I don't know, just aninitial impressions be like, Okay,
yeah, this could be you know, this looks like a future in the
pen, and that very well couldbe the case. But he's gotten like
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I don't know. He just seemsto have gotten so good and the Giants
are giving him some more innings,giving him some starts. So I'm curious
to see what they might do withhim. You know, maybe we're talking
about a multi inning reliever, asort of prospect, but you know those
types of guys if they are goodat being a multi inning reliever, and
the way the war of attrition goeswith pitching, what have you. Maybe
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we do see Coming starting in thefuture here. I don't know, but
I can unequivocally say in this context, Coming is one of the most improved
pitching prospects in the minor leagues rightnow that isn't rastered at a very high
percentage. He's rastered zero percent ofleagues. We were talking about eighteen point
two percent increase in knus BB percentage. He's getting ground ball. He got
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ground balls at a fifty six pointthree percent clip at High A last season
was fifty one percent. He gota ton of ground balls during his Double
A debut. The swinging strike raidhas jumped like six percent. He's still
running about a low sixties percent strikepercentage. That hasn't really changed too much.
So again I think maybe his stuffmight have just somehow got gotten some
(19:36):
more teeth. I don't know.Without without any data on him, I
can't say with certainty, but I'mvery curious to see how the rest of
his season might go and how hefares in Richmond, which is a very
friendly pitching environment too, So Idon't know doing coming might be putting up
some gaudy numbers the rest of thisyear. Another guy who caught my attention
that I hadn't paid a ton ofattention to. And this might be a
(19:57):
little bit more subtle well than thefirst three guys we talked about, but
Ray's pitching prospect Trevor Martin Righty's rastledin one percent of leagues right now.
He is twenty three years old,big body, six' five. He
was picked fairly high, third roundI think in the twenty twenty two draft
out of Oklahoma State. He wasthe one hundred and fourth pick overall.
Now he's a you know, higherdraft choice college guy, still in the
(20:21):
high A. And statistically this dive, there's there's improvements pretty much across the
board, but nothing real big likehis strikeout percentage is up just under three
percent, his walk percentage is threepercent better, so has turned some walks
into keys. Era is a littlelittle bit better, his whips a little
bit better. Ground ball percentage isa little bit better, three point four
(20:42):
percent better. His swinging strike ratis about the same. His strike percentage
is up like two percent. He'sdoing that well, you know, jumping
up a level. Nothing has regressed, if anything, that's all gotten better.
But to me, this was more. This was more. Just like
video review, He's got four pitches, at least four pitches, and I
think he mixes them for an armto throw a fastball and then a breaking
(21:04):
ball and then a fuel pitch ina change up or something like that.
Like mixing those up is just ahigher level of difficulty than the guy who
might just be you know, whippinghis big fastball four steamer up there and
throwing in the slider right. LikeI see like a sophistication in his attack
with using all four of his pitchesthat you see him getting whiffs on all
(21:26):
four of his pitches. I've seenhim throw some right on the right change
ups, which Matt and I havetalked about him. We really like,
like it's just a more overall gamehere takes you know, some more polish
and some more intricacy rounding form,and I think just from last year,
I think it's just all looking good. It's all on a nice path and
(21:47):
has just become a much more interestingprospect to me long term. He's one
that I think might be kind ofkind of sneaking up for Dinas Smers and
like I said, one percent rosterand nobody's really in on Trevor Martin,
and maybe it is part of him, I don't know, maybe just having
a little bit of a slower ascensionhere, but I think, like I
said, there's more sort of stuffhere, more more nooks and crannies to
(22:10):
his game to round in the form, so that I don't know, maybe
that's part of it, but Ican't imagine a upper level tries is too
far away here for Trevor Martin.Another arm that's that popped here, who
I know has got a little bitof fantasy buzz and has been putting up
some really good numbers, but Ithink has folks a bit stand offish because
he's twenty four and in high A. But The Guardian's Austin Peterson, who
(22:34):
was the two hundred and seventy firstpick of the twenty twenty two draft out
of Yukon. So we're talking.You know, he's still just in his
second full pro season despite his age. You know, the older college pitcher.
Peterson's a big body, six'six. He was in a ball
last year, got in one hundredand seventeen innings. There, I would
say, pretty pedestrian numbers, nothorrible, not not anything that would make
(22:59):
me want to run and raster atwenty three year old and a ball.
But he's moved up to high nowhe's got I think fifty nine innings roughly.
Like I said, this might bedated by one outing. But his
strikeout percentage has jumped eight percent.His walk percentage he's cut down from five
point four percent, which was alreadypretty good, to just one point three
percent. Right now, that's aHe's got a twenty six point nine percent
(23:22):
K minus BB. He's got awhip under point nine. His ex FIP
is two eighty just all across theboard. His swinging strike rate is up
three percent is strike percent This isridiculous. But also I think part of
my hesitation strike percentage is seventy twopoint six percent, So you know,
it makes sense to a lot ofstrikes, you're not gonna walk a lot
(23:42):
of guys. But watching Peterson,who I hadn't until this year, ultimately
it's a bit of well, myAdam Maser concerns or questions were grooven.
A lot of strikes. He hasthe propensity to just kind of live in
the middle third, and I thinkhis stuff is good enough. I think
Clagghead mentioned that his stuff also jumpedup, whatever however that might be defined.
(24:06):
I don't know. Obviously, theMidwest League hitter, which there are
some pretty good ones, has ahard time with his stuff. You know.
I think he throws fairly hard midnineties. I think has a good,
nasty looking slider. There's I sharedvideo from an outing at West Michigan
which has a really nice angle,so a good look at some of his
offerings, but also a good lookat how my man earned a lot of
(24:29):
strikes and stay in the middle thirdand as you move up and as you
get more elite hitters, I don'tthink you can live like that, and
you know, until he can kindof show it, I don't know if
he's a guy who has the acumento live on the edges a little bit
more so, I don't know,definitely you can't deny how good he's been
this year, because he has been. But I think I think I kind
(24:52):
of want to see a little bitmore in the uppers before I get too
too excited. Here another arm thatwe have maybe briefly met mentioned in the
past. Here Rangers right hand pitchingprospect Joseph Montalvo, who was almost my
Rangers beside a selection this year.I went with DJ McCarty and the way
things are kind of shaken out,I I wish and maybe would have went
(25:14):
with Montalvo, but we'll see,we'll see. But he's a twenty two
year old. He was like aman, one of the last picks of
the twenty twenty one draft out ofhigh school in Florida. But I kind
of liked the look of him fromlast year. In a ball he went
last season, he went ninety one, or excuse me, he went ninety
five and a third at a twentyseven percent k rate, ERA under three,
(25:37):
a whip under one point two,a lot of fly balls. He's
kind of a flyball pitcher, whichcan be a bit precarious. Maybe more
subtle improvements with these metrics, butand maybe one sort of gaudier one.
But he's sitting at a thirty onepoint three percent K rate his first I
A run thirty one innings. Thefour point three percent increase moving up a
(26:00):
level, he's dropped his walk percentagethree percent. That's a seven point one
percent K minus BB increase. Stillhas an ERA under three. His whip
is even better at one point zerosix again, five balls, spatter ball
profiles kind of all the same.Swing strike rate is up just to touch,
(26:21):
while his strike percentage is down justa half of a percentage point.
But I don't think there's any magicnew pitch here. I don't think there's
any big velocity gains. I thinkhe's just a young pitcher who has jumped
up a level and met that challengeand is improving. He's got I think
he's got a good fastball. Ithink he's got a good breaking ball,
a good slider. So nothing reallike juicy here from my looks that I
(26:45):
can point to get you all excited. But I think a guy who's just
on the right trajectory here, aplenty of young still and getting it done,
you know, might be making aname for himself in their system.
Another guy, now this was Ikind of wish that I had talked about
him a little earlier because he justhad a thirteen strikeout performance. But been
(27:06):
watching a little bit of Ibersen Castaigoof the Phillies, bigger right handed Venezuelan.
He's twenty three years old, justgetting his first IA run. I
feel like he's kind of been Idon't know, maybe a little bit of
a slower burn. He's kind ofbeen going back and forth between starting and
relieving in his pro career. Kindof a weird fangrass page and that repeated
(27:30):
a ball last season and was likeproduced noticeably worse than the year prior.
But now he's up in High Aand doing much better now. These numbers
are before his big thirteen k outing, so maybe even some more improvements.
But a guy who just across allof these metrics has made a little bit
(27:51):
of a trump. He's walking aboutfour percent less, striking out about three
to three and a half percent more. Zra is down, his whips down,
his ex flips down, lions fivepercentages down eight percent, ground ball
percentages up three percent. He isgiving up a little bit more flyballs,
but it's still it's a twenty eightpoint two percent flyball rate. Swinging strike
rate's about the same. He's throwntwo percent more strikes, so nothing too
(28:14):
different there. I'm wondering if abig part of his gains here, maybe
maybe it's a combination of both.But he's proving to be a bit of
of of a spin doctor. Ithink, like, yeah, I think
he throws two different breaking balls,and I don't know if execution of them
has gotten better or they've got bettershape, maybe both. I don't know.
This last outing against Brooklyn Man,these breaking balls were just making the
(28:37):
hitters look look pretty silly. Now, I wouldn't say that Brooklyn has is
the toughest high eight lineup to strikeout in the world, but it was
pretty impressive his ability to just getthese guys way off balance and some really
ugly swings. And again, youknow, when you have a guy who's
who's putting up some gaudy numbers withyou know, on the back of maybe
(28:59):
a really good secondary in the lowers, I think you gotta take, you
know, take some of that witha grain of salt and maybe have some
little built in skepticism of how itmight play when he moves up a level.
But Castillano is has become much moreinteresting. I don't think we need
to like maybe sound some dynasty alarmsand stuff like that. But you know,
if he's going to be a guyputting up double digit k outings just
(29:22):
to sort of play the game withinthe game, kind of b side play,
like in a deeper league, maybemaybe that's up your alley. Maybe
that's something you're interested in. Butyeah, like I said, just kind
of starting to stack some pretty impressivegame logs in the video, doesn't look
completely uninteresting. Another guy who kindof popped here you on Jacob Steinmetz,
(29:45):
the d Becks. This is nota guy without some pedigree. He was
the seventy seventh pick of the twentytwenty one draft out of New York,
and this is just kind of,you know, so big frame. He's
listed at six six live arm.You know that that's why he drafted so
high. Some pretty nice clay towork with. And I just have to
say, every time I turn onor catch Steinmetz, he's just like better
(30:08):
than the last time I saw him. Like every time he just looks better
and better. And it's starting toshow. Now, yes he's repeating a
ball, but yes, he's twentyyears old. Last year he got in
seventy two and two thirds innings.So far, I think he's about thirty
nine innings. But you're talking abouta K percentage that has jumped seven point
two percent, a walk percentage that'sdown three percent. That's a ten percent
(30:29):
increase in K minus bb darn nearcut his ra in half. You know,
he still gives up some contact,but he's jumped his ground ball rate
a little bit, knocked down hisfly ball rate five percent, swinging strike
rates up a little bit. Strikethrowing is five percent better, which I
think is pretty significant. Fastball,big hook seems to be the gist of
(30:51):
his game north south until I turnon Steinmetz and he doesn't seem better than
the last time I saw him.He's going to continue to have my interest,
and he's currently rostered zero percent.Another guy who popped here was Tiger's
pitching prospect, Garrett Burhen. Ithink that's how you say it. B.
(31:11):
You are h e nn zero percentrostered two hundred and fifty fifth pick
of the twenty twenty one draft outof Ohio State. He's twenty four years
old. Thisted is six' fourand he is now up in Double A,
just got promoted up there this seasonafter roughly thirty High A innings,
which is where he was last seasonfor ninety three and two thirds innings.
(31:32):
Well, he's got I think threeoutings now three Double A outings in if
I'm not mistaken, and granted,you know, small sample size, but
all the jumps in these ratios Imight I'm gonna mention, have all stuck
since he's been promoted. So heseems to be, at least this early
going a guy who has jumped alevel and made the gains. But you're
(31:55):
talking about a nine percent increase instrikeout percentage, four percent drap in walks
twelve and a half thirteen percent increasein K minus bb era is down one
point sixty seven, whips down pointthree, eight x fips down one,
giving up a little bit more flyballsthan he has in a little bit less
ground balls. Swinging strike rate isup three point four percent. Strikes are
(32:16):
about the same. He's always,you know, looked to be a pretty
good strike thrower. He's at sixtyeight percent right now, was sixty seven
percent last year. I hadn't paidany attention to him last year, but
I flipped him, flipped some ofhim on from last year and this season,
and I think just when you geta decent look, get a decent
angle. Just generically speaking, thestuff just looks nast year last year.
(32:37):
I think. I don't know ifmy man did some work in a lab
or something, but he's got ayou know, mid nineties fastball and a
pretty good looking firm slider spots itpretty well. Executes those two pitches pretty
well, and he's got another pitchin there. So he's got all three
velocity bands. And I don't knowa guy it's pretty new to me,
but has got my interest for sure. Tigers Man, they're doing some stuff
(33:00):
with some arms. So Garrett Burnszero percent rostered. Perhaps some nice little
muddy find here another guy man whoI've kind of resisted talking about a few
other episodes, but another Philly herein double A Robinson Pina who came over
from the Angels. I don't knowwhat the story was. I don't know
if this was like some sort ofRule five pick or just a minor league
(33:22):
free agent situation or what it was. I didn't look into it. But
he's twenty five years old, six' five, big guy. I shared
some video of him from early lastyear and then there and you can just
see the difference in physicality. Ithink my man has been lifting some weights
his highest level. He did gettwo different Triple A stints with Salt Lake
City last year. While in theAngels system, which you know angels that
(33:45):
kind of checks out. They liketo, you know, push guys along,
give them most challenges. But Peniafor a few years would just kind
of show up, just putting upsome gaudy lines from time to time.
I watched a good amount of himover the last several years and just like
kind of always teetering on the questionlike is this a dude? Is this
(34:06):
a guy? You know, justconsistency wasn't quite there. But since coming
over to the to the Phillies organization, he's jumped his strikeout rate and half
percent. He's dropped his walk percentageby ten percent. My Man is only
walking three and a half percent thebatters this season and that is such a
huge gain for him. A strikepercentage increase of almost eleven percent, that
(34:30):
is top of the scale in thisdive here, swinging strike rate has increased
by two point two percent. He'sgone from a ground ball pitcher to a
fly ball pitcher and having you know, success with that. Shared some stack
cast stuff from him and some videothat points out he has a very different
(34:50):
arm slot than he did early lastyear with the Angels, and the fastball
movement is very different. He hasa lot more armside run to it.
But this is not a situation wherehe went to a new organization and has
this new look. This was actuallyan evolution that was taking place last season.
(35:13):
I also shared some video of himduring his last as Salt Lake City
start and you can see that itwas drastically different than early in the year.
So is Pina guy that I'm rushingout and rostering in deep leagues?
No? Is he a guy whodoes he have a major league chance?
I think so, especially if he'spitching like this now to what extent who
(35:34):
knows? I think the big leaguedream is revitalized here and you can't deny
that he is one of the mostimproved pitching prospects out there. Another guy
that I finally got around to watchingthat I kept meaning to is the Royal's
Walter Pennington, who if you doa K percentage search you will see he
is striking out a ridiculous forty onepercent of batters this season. The first
(36:00):
time he was mentioned on the podcast, Matt Well kind of joked around and
he had no idea you know whothis was. Neither did I. When
you're talking about what he's twenty sixyears old out of the Colorado School of
Mines, just down the road here, undrafted, free agent, rostered and
zero percent of leagues. He's asoft toss and lefty. His sinker averages
ninety two point eight, which youknow, actually for a lefty, it's
(36:22):
it's not really that soft. Whenyou consider the average lefties fastball in the
major leagues. I think it's likeninety three point something. But you're talking
a fourteen percent increase in ks,three percent dropping walks, it's a seventeen
point one percent increase in K minusBB. It's pretty wild. I mean
he's been he's been dominating one pointninety three er, a point eighty six
(36:43):
whip the season of ground ball rateof fifty two point one percent, four
point four percent increase in strike percentagesince last year. The big thing here
that is obvious, and I sharedsome stackcast stuff and what have you.
I think a big part of makingthis all work is he has added a
cutter that he threw to right handers. Last year he was a slider sinker
guy, and Righty's got him.That cutter has made all of this jrump
(37:07):
I shared usage changes and fifth percentagechanges and CSW and all that sort of
stuff. Now he has been relieving, so you know, that definitely dampers
some dynasty interest. But he's startingto get more innings, longer outings.
They're starting to up his pitch countswhere I think his last inning he went
three innings and I think got tolike shifty pitches. So sure, maybe
(37:30):
the obvious trajectory here is as amulti inning reliever or just a major league
reliever if it, you know,continues to all go well. But like
I said when we were talking aboutHerrera, you know a multi inning reliever
who does really well in that role, maybe the door on being the starter
isn't totally shut. If it's allabout how well you execute your best pitch.
(37:52):
I think Pennington checks that box bigtime. And then just the last
two guys. I added a couplemore guys in the write up. I
won't get in to them too muchhere have already kind of talked about both
of them, I think, butAaron Davenport and one Daniel and Canarcion I
think are both markedly improved. Theyhaven't gotten me super interested dynasty wise yet,
(38:12):
but they were kind of some honorablementions included in this piece here.
So that was, uh, youknow, as lame as it might sound,
was was kind of my main focusand what I spent the last couple
of weeks getting into the muddy canlack glory, but we'll we'll see here.
You know, obviously there's not alot of dynasty interest in these arms,
but I think they're I think they'reinteresting, and I got my eye,
(38:35):
I got my I think uh,I've rostered a few of them in
my deeper leagues. Which prospects aregetting picked up the most? This last
week I got to say, thenumbers, the percentage increases this time of
year getting to the beginning of June, are much smaller than they were at
the beginning of the year. Ithink we're entering a part of the season
that I think it's really fun andinteresting for us mutters. There's been you
(39:00):
know, some trendy names for afew months, guys who had some loud
introductions to pro ball and the like. You know, you got your Jona
Tong's, your Zwie Matthews. Youknow those types of guys, your classes,
and those guys are rostered up andpeople are going to hang on to
them and see and so maybe there'ssome less less churning and burning happening,
(39:22):
and I think that's reflected in someof these numbers here. But that's when
we start digging on the guys likeI was trying to mention, and you
know, gains and developments that mightbe a little bit harder to see than
a guy's numbers his first month ortwo of a season. Right, But
nonetheless, Matthew Lugo Red Sox prospectis up two point nine percent. Tobias
(39:45):
Meyer is still prospect on that Ithink he is, but you know that's
not surprising. He's getting some majorleague run. He's up two percent.
Brandon Sproute, who I know inthe Dynasty dugout. There's a lot of
chatter about a guy that highlight outof this first year player draft. He's
into some extent. He's up topoint two percent a total of fifteen percent
now probably would have been a reallygood b side choice. Trey Morgan,
(40:07):
I'm pretty famous from his LSU run, putting together a nice season. He
is up two percent a total ofeight percent. Screwballer guy with the Cardinals,
Gulian Nelly, I think is whatyou say, is up two percent.
He went from zero to two percentthis last week. That screwball looks
nasty and it's getting a lot ofattention. Just me personally, that doesn't
(40:30):
seem sustainable to me. I haven'ttaken a close look at how he throws
that pitch, but I was veryinvested in Martin Perez back in the day
when he threw a screwball, andthat just wasn't a sustainable pitch for him
and his UCL or his arm ohmentioned at the top Justin Henry molloy,
who's got the call, is uptwo percent. He's at thirty three percent
(40:52):
total. Yilber Diaz still some peoplehappen on that train. He's up two
percent total of ten percent. OnJaneo the Guardian system is up one point
seven percent a total of five percent. Folks get a little more interested in
my guy. Kevin mcgonagal. He'sup a percent and a half. Cader
Montero probably because you got the callis up a little bit, But yeah,
(41:15):
that seems to be the trendiest.I see. Spencer Geisting, who
we talked about, is uper pointseven percent a total of two percent.
Now, so I'm not the onlyone getting in on some Spencer Geisting,
but yeah, those are those arethe most trending prospect pickups of this last
week. As far as next week, what I might be watching in the
(41:36):
International League, probably again, Idon't watch a ton of Triple A,
but Jacksonville is at Charlotte. Iwant to see some more Javier Sonoya.
And then Sean Burke is back,and he pitched pretty well his first Triple
A appearance of the season. Andhe's a guy that I liked more than
Justin Steele heading into what last seasonas kind of a maybe sneaky good pitching
(42:00):
prospect close to the Biggs, andI was happy to see him not rostered
in a few leagues, and Ipicked him up when I did the White
Sox Top Prospects for Clegg. Iknow, I kind of shoved Burke up
there, because you know, I'mnot a guy who just forgets about injured
pitchers that are good in the PCL. Man I had I had Las Vegas
(42:22):
at all Passa because I wanted to, you know, see how Maser fared
against a lot of young bats inLas Vegas that are just back from the
bigs. I thought it would bea really good test for him. But
you know, Maser is getting calland it sounds like he is going to
start tomorrow, so he gets togo up against big leaguers still in the
big leagues, So that'll be fun. In the Eastern League, Hartford is
(42:45):
at Somerset. Whenever Hartford is atSomerset, that's probably my favorite Eastern League
series to watch. Both have youknow, exciting prospects Augustin Ramirez versus some
pretty good pictures for Hartford, seehow he fares again. Texas League Frisco
at Corpus Christie. Surprisingly just ateam numbers wise, Frisco has the best
(43:06):
pitching staff in that league, andI want to see how this mister irrelevant
goes against the best pictures and isthe best staff in his league. But
herraras so with the Astros, thelast pick of last draft, who's up
in Double A and swinging it,I want to see how he does against
them. Southern League, you know, and we're getting to the point of
the league. We're starting to getrepeats in smaller leagues. You know,
(43:30):
some of the same series just continueto be the most interesting. But Birmingham
is at Tennessee. You know,good Birmingham pitchers versus a good Smokey's lineup.
Sale League. Jersey's Shore is atGreensboro. There's a lot of good
Jersey Shore pitchers right now. AndI want to see how Charles mcadow's week
goes. I bet you he getshis because mcadow is legit. He is
(43:53):
good man. Who knows maybe maybehe moves up to double A. And
we don't even get to see thesematchups. Northwest League against slim Pickens,
but Hillsborough at Spokane probably the twomost interesting talented teams in the league.
I think Contaceelo and Pintar and thoseguys get to go up against Dolander and
(44:16):
Sullivan and all that. Midwest League. Man, Lake County at Beloit.
I'm excited for this one. Youknow that Matt and I are like the
Lake County lineup. You got whatNate Furman and Capus and Mooney Ingle has
been really good. But we getto see Noble Meyer and White versus that
really good Lake County lineup, sothat'll be their toughest protests so far.
(44:39):
I want to see how that goes. In the Florida State League, you
got Clearwater at Bradenton, so thisis a chance to see Davis Graves and
George Glassen from that really good Bradingtonangle. In the Carolina League, we
got Fayetteville Columbia. Neil Marrachoa hassettled in nicely, is a really interesting
bats with potentially some big upside.But he's going to get to go up
(45:04):
against some I think, some prettygood A ball pitchers for Columbia. But
then in the Cal League, youknow, Fresno's at Modesto, so again
we get to see how Matt's nutsmight do against those pretty pretty good for
the level Fresno pictures. So Idon't know that's that's enough of me talking
at youra. I hope Matt wonhis his tennis match against the six year
(45:25):
old women that he's playing against.He should be back next week. I
want to ask him about a fewof the guys that we mentioned and see
what he's been watching. It's beena while since we've gotten some word on
what his muddy might be looking likethese days. You can follow me on
Twitter at pitching specs, share somevideo, and if you were interested in
what some of these pictures that Italked about tonight might look like, check
(45:47):
out the Dynasty dugout. I thinkCleig is gonna put that piece up I
don't know, sometime soon here,and if he doesn't, I'll just share
it on Google Docs via Twitter.But we'll let Chicago farmer take us out.
Be well, Matt Volbel, sohave your mind for me and we'll
talk to you next week. Ladiesand gentlemen. We got him five miles
(46:09):
an hour, riding to his head. He hopped down the first with the
lump on his face, and onthe very next pitch he up and stole
second face with gradest speed. Hewasn't born. He had the dirdy yes, nifarn
Not five miles an hour riding tohis head. He hopped down first with
the lumpbonius face, and on thevery next pitch he up and stole second
face with gretested he wasn't born hehad yes, uniforn. Welcome to episode
(00:29):
thirty five of the Prospect B Sidepodcast. I am made handy and the
Brook is not with us. Perhapshe joins us a little bit later.
Perhaps not. He is out ona tennis court somewhere in Oregon beating up
on some old ladies or something.But kudos to him being active, exercising
better than sitting in your garage talkinginto a microphone by yourself. I gotta
(00:53):
say we have had a lot ofbare activity in my neighborhood. Currently have
the garage door. If you listento the show, you know I said,
in my garage and do this.I don't know, non zero chance.
We might run into a bear duringthis episode, but it is too
warm for me to sit with thegarage door closed. But I'm glad to
be back. We took a weekoff because of the holiday. The last
(01:15):
episode we did we got into somepretty boy action and that was just disgusting.
So it's been several weeks since wegot into some real b side and
got into some real mudding. I'vespent these last couple of weeks getting pretty
dirty. Took the little hiatus catchup and work my way through my list
of players I hadn't watched yet andwanted to or wanted to investigate some more
(01:40):
in the like. I don't thinkI came across the next Barry Bonds,
but I do think I found someinteresting observations, interesting muddy observations to share
with you. But before all that, good friend of the show, Jesse
Severe of the Dynasty Sports Life podcastsent me a question. Good question,
very very sophisticated question, lots ofins and outs, very technical, and
(02:01):
Jesse, if you haven't listened tohis show and you play Dynasty Sports of
all sports, you should really checkit out. Jesse is a fantastic Dynasty
player. I have to say,he whoops up on me in baseball,
basketball, football, and I don'teven think those are his main sports.
I think he's mainly big sport ishockey. I think and imagine he's pretty
(02:23):
good at that one too. ButJesse asked, what makes a guy a
pretty boy? Just a guy makingpeople's prospect list, like Cayden Dana was
picked in the eleventh round, shouldn'the be B side? Can a guy
lose B side status and become apretty boy if he rises up too much?
Like I said, good questions,But for me, I think what
makes a pretty boy pretty boy issimply popularity, roster percentage, roster at
(02:45):
a high clip in dynasty leagues prettyboy. And I suppose too, if
there's a trendy hot name that mightmaybe the roster percentages haven't caught up yet
and is making top one hundred list, sure you could slap the pretty boy
label on him too, I think, Jesse, I'd have to say,
I definitely think a guy like CaydenDana could go from B side to pretty
(03:06):
boy. I mean, I thinkit kind of has. I think the
inverse could be true too. Ithink maybe a guy well, I don't
know. I think maybe once you'rea pretty boy, you're kind of always
a pretty boy. And yes,definitely I think a B side could lose
B side status and become a prettyboy. I mean, Tovar now is
very highly rostered, right, ButI don't know. To me, we
(03:27):
do the sort of like official Bside selections before every season at the time,
they will only be rostered I don'tknow, not created yet to one
to two percent of fan tracks leagues. But I think those guys, regardless
of how it may go, willalways kind of be an official B sider.
So I hope that answers your question, Jesse. Like I said,
it's very scientific, so I couldunderstand a confusion to be very educated on
(03:52):
the subject matter to understand. Butit's been a good couple of weeks as
far as I don't know. Ina way I kind of think a B
side had success story is if youfind a guy you think has a chance,
has such a little popularity amongst dynastyowners and they make the big leagues.
I think that's I think that's good. I think I think we call
that a win, regardless of howit may or may not go once they
(04:15):
get up there. But it's beena good couple of weeks in that regard.
I think Matt's Red's bat heard abestup in the Bigs right now.
We saw Kyder Montero, who Ithink was my first B side arm to
make the Bigs, got a spotstart during a doubleheader. Another one of
Matt's sort of older bats that hethat he picked out this last offseason.
Trenton Brooks is up with the Giantsgetting a little run justin. Henry Molloy,
(04:41):
who was a Brave selection after hisdraft, just got the call.
I don't he hasn't played tonight,but should be getting into a game shortly
here and definitely the first B sidebat to get called up to replace a
number one overall draft pick as theTigers sent down Spencer Torkelsen, which was
surprising, then maybe not surprising atthe same time. I think the struggle
(05:01):
has been kind of real for himfor a couple of weeks. Casey Schmidt
was a B side selection once upona time. He's back up with the
Giants. Brett Wisely, who Istill have hoped for, back up with
the Giants and swinging it. Anothermulti hit night tonight I saw and I
don't think that game is over yet. And Emmanuel Valdez had a two home
run game getting called back up acouple of days ago. And Tovar has
(05:26):
been, you know, pretty danggood all the way around. You know,
he's striking out a lot still,but he had the most extra base
hits in the month of May inthe National League. So despite the strikeouts
and you know, questionable approach bysome, he's still doing quite a bit
of damage. But over the break, I was pulling up a decent amount
(05:46):
of video of a former selection,Javier Sinoya of the Marlins. I know
Matt and I have brought up afew times. Perhaps I don't think we
ever got two into him, butwe both identified him as a player that
we just both were kind of fansof, and I think we had both
verbalized questioning if we ever thought hewas going to be a major leaguer and
being skeptical on that. I wantedto ask him if he thought maybe we
(06:10):
undersold all that or misread all that, because our man is twenty one years
old in Triple A right now andnot struggling at the plate. So last
season he started off in A ballgot promoted to HYA, and he started
off this year in Double A wherehe got in fifteen just fifteen games,
sixty one played appearances, and thenthey sent him up to Triple A,
(06:30):
where he's played in thirty five games, one hundred and fifty three played appearances.
He's hit a home run. Hehit one home run in Double A
as well, this year. Now. Sonoya is a small guy and I
don't suspect home runs will ever bea thing with him, But when we
see what happen, I like tocelebrate that on Twitter post it. You
can follow me on pitching specs.By the way, I'd like to post
(06:53):
some video of some things we talkabout on the show. Sonoya has stolen
seven bases total on the season.He did swape thirty seven total twenty twenty
three, so perhaps speed is alittle bit a part of his game.
We're talking about a very sort ofhigh contact profile man and I both liked
him as a guy who just kindof seemed like he was gonna he is
(07:15):
gonna get the most out of himself, just that kind of like player.
I'm gonna maximize what he's got towork with. And man, his triple
A run, he's only striking outsix and a half percent of the time,
walking ten and a half percent ofthe time. The ISOs A at
one forty nine. He's slashing threethirteen, three seventy nine, four sixty
three on the back of a threetwenty five babbit. It's a one eighteen
(07:36):
WRC. Plus he's got eleven doublesin thirty five games and three triples.
Obviously, I don't think we wouldever tab so Noya as a future Fantasy
superstar. But I gotta admit I'mjust not totally sure what kind of dynasty
value to put on our guy here. I don't know, twenty one doing
(07:57):
this at Triple A. You gottathink being in the biggs is on the
table now and maybe relatively quickly.You know, so so format pendant,
high contact, potentially high ratios,chipping some steals. Defensively, he plays
shortstop and second base. I thinkhe's pretty dang good at him. So,
I don't know. Next time Iget to talk with Matt, maybe
(08:18):
we'll bring up Sonoya again and seewhat his thoughts are. But perhaps a
very sneaky dynasty play here, especiallyin like a thirty teamer, or maybe
just getting some run, might havea very young capable defensively up the middle
possibility to help out your teams.It's kind of wild player, this young,
(08:39):
having so much success at a higherlevel, and he's rostered in only
one percent of leagues. So habyour Sonoya, Marlins, I don't know,
help me out. Take a look. What do you think then?
The arm that has a lot ofmy attention over the last couple of weeks.
And this is totally because someone inbaseball hit me up and asked me
about them and started sharing some informationand putting him on my map. Is
(09:01):
Ryan Lobis with the Rangers, whojust recently got promoted to Hya. He's
a righty with I don't know whatyou want to call it, a three
quarter arm, somewhat side arm,kind of low, just kind of a
funky release, a funky right hander. But you know, the Rangers,
man, they they're kind of likethe pitching spec mutters of the real world.
(09:24):
They have picked out some of themost interesting undrafted pitching prospects over the
last several years, I feel like, but I feel like they might have
done it again here. Lobis wasundrafted out of Mercer. He's currently twenty
three years old, listed at six' two, but I've turned him on
a few times. The slider mightbe an exceptional offering, a real top
(09:46):
shelf, nasty sort of pitch postwell draft, I guess post signing last
year he got a little bit complexrun. Then he was in a ball
to start this year. I feellike they've kind of eased him into some
more innings and some more pitch countsand stuff like that. He's getting to
start now. He's a guy whoin a ball is running a thirty six
(10:07):
percent k rate to forty one percentk rate and high A Now I mean
we're talking it's seventeen and two thirdsA ball innings, fifteen and two thirds
high A innings, so still nota lot, but the strikeout stuff seems
there in spades. Now. Hethrows I think a four steamer and a
sneaker, not real high V lowper the data that was given to me.
(10:28):
The fur steamer I believe sits aroundninety one. They both sit around
ninety one, but I think shape, deception, release point, angle,
that sort of stuff probably helps thatpitch play up quite a bit. The
slider, like I said, isthe real nasty and I did see him
throw change up too, so thereis a change up in there. But
(10:50):
Ryan Lobis I think he's rastered inzero percent of leagues. I scooped him
up where I could, so takethat for whatever it's worth. He may
not be a buzzy name and dynastyworld at this moment, but from what
I have been told, he isa pretty buzzy name in the real world
on the ground. So Ryan lobisperhaps a fantastic sort of B side play
(11:11):
right now. So I wanted totouch on those two guys in the front
here. But what I ended updoing the last couple of weeks is it
basically just did a filter, dida statistical dive, and then vetted a
lot of names via video, andI formally did a write up here that
Clegg has and I think he's goingto put it out on the Dynasty Dugout.
(11:31):
There's some video included. But whatI did is I took a sample
size of about six hundred and fiftypitching prospects who and I know these sample
sizes aren't super large, that hadat least thirty innings pitched this season and
last season at whatever levels, pickedout some metrics that I like to look
at, and basically subtracted last year'snumbers from this year's numbers to just kind
(11:52):
of see who might be making somebig jumps at least production wise, and
then tried to line it up withsome video and some other knowledge that I
might have about the pictures, basicallyto see who are the most improved pitching
specs this June, now two monthsinto the season. So then I wrote
up thirteen of them, the mostimproved and lightly rastered pitching prospects, the
(12:13):
ones that stuck out the most forme in this exercise, in this homework
and might have the most Dynasty interest. I looked at walk percentage, p
percentage, whip x fit, groundball percentage, swinging strike rate, and
strike percentage. Those are kind ofthe main divining rods for me. Threw
in a couple other metrics, justmore out of curiosity, and then,
like I said, subtracted them alland see saw who was sort of sort
(12:37):
of popping. And I have tosay the first arm on my list here
really kind of inspired you looking atthese numbers and things. Left hand pitching
prospect of the Diamondbacks, Spencer Geistingthrew him on a few times after he
put up some gaudy lines. Youknow, just in my other Northwest League,
looks have been eyeing him a littlebit and he's repeating high. But
(12:58):
he's still only twenty two years old. I don't I don't care if a
pitcher is repeating a level, especiallyif they seem to be making the giant
gains that Geisting is and Hillsboro broadcastwill rave about how much better he is
this season. He's, like Isaid, twenty two year old. He's
listened at six' four. Hewas the I don't know, early second
day pick in the twenty twenty twodraft out of UNC Charlotte. Now it's
(13:20):
tricky watching lefties in the Northwest League, and especially someone who's been there for
two years. You don't get anygood angle to really look at the stuff.
So that's still a bit blurry.But I don't think it is hard
to see how much more interesting hehas become, How much more efficient?
How much of a better pitch executioner? Is executioner proper to use here?
(13:45):
Executionist? How about that this seasonthan last his you know, his strike
percentages up from fifty eight point ninepercent to sixty five point four. His
swinging strike rate is up four percent. His strikeout percentage is up almost seven
percent. He's basically turned seven percentof walks into seven percent case. Obviously,
(14:05):
the sort of surface level stuff eraWHIP x FIP, I don't know,
is x FIP surface level. I'mnot sure if you categorize it as
that, but those are all waydown. The era is under one his
whips under point eight the numbers onthis dive or maybe one outing data at
this juncture. But nonetheless, thefastball slider, I don't even know if
(14:26):
I should call it a slider.Breaking ball. Execution just is leaps and
balance better than last year. Idid turn him on some from last season.
But he's another guy. He's twopercent rastered right now. It's hard
to think he's not asserting himself asa pretty legit pitching prospect in their system
right now. So, like Isaid, he kind of inspired this.
I'm like, man, he is. He is so much better. You
(14:48):
know, pitchers developed sometimes, andso I want to see who else might
be developing in a manner that heis. Another guy that maybe helped inspire
this homework. A guy that I'vetalked about a little bit on this show,
Uhanier Herrera of the Brewers. Imean, just on these metrics,
he has had some of the biggestgains and he's doing it up a level
(15:11):
now now. Granted, I thinkhe's only about twenty innings into his high
a run right now, but you'retalking about a guy who's improved his strikeout
rate by almost fifteen percent, hasdropped his walk rate by almost seven percent.
I mean, that's like a twentytwo percent swing and K minus BBB.
That's that's pretty wild. Walks hasmaybe been a bit of an issue
(15:31):
for him in the past. Hedoes seem to be getting better in the
execution part. I mean for him, like we talked about, he tends
to pitch backwards. He's got apretty hard fastball that he doesn't really lean
on or use very much or nearlyas much as most guys that can throw
that hard down in the lowers.So I think the secondary execution is a
big part in his developmental gains.Here. He's throwing strikes seven percent more
(15:56):
often, swinging strike rate is uplike six point three percent doing this dig
Like I said, six hundred andfifty something pictures, you've got about thirty
that were making these sorts of gains. Production wise, it's an outlier to
be improving this much, and it'seven more of an outlier to be improved
this much while jumping a level.The outlook of what he may become is
(16:17):
still, you know, funny aquestion, quite blurry, but it does
seem like he is sliding into alegit run at being a starter here.
So the twenty year old, bigbodied Herrera in the Brewer system is definitely
pequing my interest on this level.Another guy that really popped in the Giants
organization who I'd seen before, butI don't think I had realized how much
(16:40):
his K game has improved. Butthat's Dylan Cumming. Another undrafted guy the
twenty twenty two class who actually didn'teven get signed after the draft. I
think he spent a brief minute insome independent ball, but he was out
of liberty. Giants signed him.He was an able last season, started
off in Hi A, got thirtythree and two thirds innings in and then
(17:02):
they just recently promoted him to DoubleA, whereupon his Double A debut was
pretty good. I watched that hedefinitely struck out his fair share of hitters.
I think he went like four orfour and a third or something like
that and struck out seven or eight. I think I have those cut up
and put in the piece. Butmy man has increased his strikeout seventeen percent,
which is just pretty absurd. Yeah, walks have ticked down a little
(17:25):
bit, I guess seven point sevenpercent and high A five point three,
and I guess I mean it's likeone an outing. So but I'm not
watching some video from last year inthis year. I don't know if like
his execution is really all that muchbetter or different. My suspicion is that
something somewhere in the arsenal there isa much juicier tool making it all play
(17:48):
up better. I think he's alwayskind of been a slider guy. He's
got you know, he's a bitwiry. Maybe it's just the hair or
something, but he's just like reallyintense and kind of gives you, like
some Dennis eckers The like vibes.And don't take that wrong, I'm not
saying he's Dennis Eckersley, but justaesthetically and sort of like energetically, you
get a little bit of that feel. But he's got this big sort of
(18:11):
like sideways hook, slower sideways hookthat seems to give hitters quite a hard
I think it's very easy to seeor just I don't want to say lazily,
but I don't know, just aninitial impressions be like, Okay,
yeah, this could be you know, this looks like a future in the
pen, and that very well couldbe the case. But he's gotten like
(18:32):
I don't know. He just seemsto have gotten so good and the Giants
are giving him some more innings,giving him some starts. So I'm curious
to see what they might do withhim. You know, maybe we're talking
about a multi inning reliever, asort of prospect, but you know those
types of guys if they are goodat being a multi inning reliever, and
the way the war of attrition goeswith pitching, what have you. Maybe
(18:53):
we do see Coming starting in thefuture here. I don't know, but
I can unequivocally say in this context, Coming is one of the most improved
pitching prospects in the minor leagues rightnow that isn't rastered at a very high
percentage. He's rastered zero percent ofleagues. We were talking about eighteen point
two percent increase in knus BB percentage. He's getting ground ball. He got
(19:15):
ground balls at a fifty six pointthree percent clip at High A last season
was fifty one percent. He gota ton of ground balls during his Double
A debut. The swinging strike raidhas jumped like six percent. He's still
running about a low sixties percent strikepercentage. That hasn't really changed too much.
So again I think maybe his stuffmight have just somehow got gotten some
(19:36):
more teeth. I don't know.Without without any data on him, I
can't say with certainty, but I'mvery curious to see how the rest of
his season might go and how hefares in Richmond, which is a very
friendly pitching environment too, So Idon't know doing coming might be putting up
some gaudy numbers the rest of thisyear. Another guy who caught my attention
that I hadn't paid a ton ofattention to. And this might be a
(19:57):
little bit more subtle well than thefirst three guys we talked about, but
Ray's pitching prospect Trevor Martin Righty's rastledin one percent of leagues right now.
He is twenty three years old,big body, six' five. He
was picked fairly high, third roundI think in the twenty twenty two draft
out of Oklahoma State. He wasthe one hundred and fourth pick overall.
Now he's a you know, higherdraft choice college guy, still in the
(20:21):
high A. And statistically this dive, there's there's improvements pretty much across the
board, but nothing real big likehis strikeout percentage is up just under three
percent, his walk percentage is threepercent better, so has turned some walks
into keys. Era is a littlelittle bit better, his whips a little
bit better. Ground ball percentage isa little bit better, three point four
(20:42):
percent better. His swinging strike ratis about the same. His strike percentage
is up like two percent. He'sdoing that well, you know, jumping
up a level. Nothing has regressed, if anything, that's all gotten better.
But to me, this was more. This was more. Just like
video review, He's got four pitches, at least four pitches, and I
think he mixes them for an armto throw a fastball and then a breaking
(21:04):
ball and then a fuel pitch ina change up or something like that.
Like mixing those up is just ahigher level of difficulty than the guy who
might just be you know, whippinghis big fastball four steamer up there and
throwing in the slider right. LikeI see like a sophistication in his attack
with using all four of his pitchesthat you see him getting whiffs on all
(21:26):
four of his pitches. I've seenhim throw some right on the right change
ups, which Matt and I havetalked about him. We really like,
like it's just a more overall gamehere takes you know, some more polish
and some more intricacy rounding form,and I think just from last year,
I think it's just all looking good. It's all on a nice path and
(21:47):
has just become a much more interestingprospect to me long term. He's one
that I think might be kind ofkind of sneaking up for Dinas Smers and
like I said, one percent rosterand nobody's really in on Trevor Martin,
and maybe it is part of him, I don't know, maybe just having
a little bit of a slower ascensionhere, but I think, like I
said, there's more sort of stuffhere, more more nooks and crannies to
(22:10):
his game to round in the form, so that I don't know, maybe
that's part of it, but Ican't imagine a upper level tries is too
far away here for Trevor Martin.Another arm that's that popped here, who
I know has got a little bitof fantasy buzz and has been putting up
some really good numbers, but Ithink has folks a bit stand offish because
he's twenty four and in high A. But The Guardian's Austin Peterson, who
(22:34):
was the two hundred and seventy firstpick of the twenty twenty two draft out
of Yukon. So we're talking.You know, he's still just in his
second full pro season despite his age. You know, the older college pitcher.
Peterson's a big body, six'six. He was in a ball
last year, got in one hundredand seventeen innings. There, I would
say, pretty pedestrian numbers, nothorrible, not not anything that would make
(22:59):
me want to run and raster atwenty three year old and a ball.
But he's moved up to high nowhe's got I think fifty nine innings roughly.
Like I said, this might bedated by one outing. But his
strikeout percentage has jumped eight percent.His walk percentage he's cut down from five
point four percent, which was alreadypretty good, to just one point three
percent. Right now, that's aHe's got a twenty six point nine percent
(23:22):
K minus BB. He's got awhip under point nine. His ex FIP
is two eighty just all across theboard. His swinging strike rate is up
three percent is strike percent This isridiculous. But also I think part of
my hesitation strike percentage is seventy twopoint six percent, So you know,
it makes sense to a lot ofstrikes, you're not gonna walk a lot
(23:42):
of guys. But watching Peterson,who I hadn't until this year, ultimately
it's a bit of well, myAdam Maser concerns or questions were grooven.
A lot of strikes. He hasthe propensity to just kind of live in
the middle third, and I thinkhis stuff is good enough. I think
Clagghead mentioned that his stuff also jumpedup, whatever however that might be defined.
(24:06):
I don't know. Obviously, theMidwest League hitter, which there are
some pretty good ones, has ahard time with his stuff. You know.
I think he throws fairly hard midnineties. I think has a good,
nasty looking slider. There's I sharedvideo from an outing at West Michigan
which has a really nice angle,so a good look at some of his
offerings, but also a good lookat how my man earned a lot of
(24:29):
strikes and stay in the middle thirdand as you move up and as you
get more elite hitters, I don'tthink you can live like that, and
you know, until he can kindof show it, I don't know if
he's a guy who has the acumento live on the edges a little bit
more so, I don't know,definitely you can't deny how good he's been
this year, because he has been. But I think I think I kind
(24:52):
of want to see a little bitmore in the uppers before I get too
too excited. Here another arm thatwe have maybe briefly met mentioned in the
past. Here Rangers right hand pitchingprospect Joseph Montalvo, who was almost my
Rangers beside a selection this year.I went with DJ McCarty and the way
things are kind of shaken out,I I wish and maybe would have went
(25:14):
with Montalvo, but we'll see,we'll see. But he's a twenty two
year old. He was like aman, one of the last picks of
the twenty twenty one draft out ofhigh school in Florida. But I kind
of liked the look of him fromlast year. In a ball he went
last season, he went ninety one, or excuse me, he went ninety
five and a third at a twentyseven percent k rate, ERA under three,
(25:37):
a whip under one point two,a lot of fly balls. He's
kind of a flyball pitcher, whichcan be a bit precarious. Maybe more
subtle improvements with these metrics, butand maybe one sort of gaudier one.
But he's sitting at a thirty onepoint three percent K rate his first I
A run thirty one innings. Thefour point three percent increase moving up a
(26:00):
level, he's dropped his walk percentagethree percent. That's a seven point one
percent K minus BB increase. Stillhas an ERA under three. His whip
is even better at one point zerosix again, five balls, spatter ball
profiles kind of all the same.Swing strike rate is up just to touch,
(26:21):
while his strike percentage is down justa half of a percentage point.
But I don't think there's any magicnew pitch here. I don't think there's
any big velocity gains. I thinkhe's just a young pitcher who has jumped
up a level and met that challengeand is improving. He's got I think
he's got a good fastball. Ithink he's got a good breaking ball,
a good slider. So nothing reallike juicy here from my looks that I
(26:45):
can point to get you all excited. But I think a guy who's just
on the right trajectory here, aplenty of young still and getting it done,
you know, might be making aname for himself in their system.
Another guy, now this was Ikind of wish that I had talked about
him a little earlier because he justhad a thirteen strikeout performance. But been
(27:06):
watching a little bit of Ibersen Castaigoof the Phillies, bigger right handed Venezuelan.
He's twenty three years old, justgetting his first IA run. I
feel like he's kind of been Idon't know, maybe a little bit of
a slower burn. He's kind ofbeen going back and forth between starting and
relieving in his pro career. Kindof a weird fangrass page and that repeated
(27:30):
a ball last season and was likeproduced noticeably worse than the year prior.
But now he's up in High Aand doing much better now. These numbers
are before his big thirteen k outing, so maybe even some more improvements.
But a guy who just across allof these metrics has made a little bit
(27:51):
of a trump. He's walking aboutfour percent less, striking out about three
to three and a half percent more. Zra is down, his whips down,
his ex flips down, lions fivepercentages down eight percent, ground ball
percentages up three percent. He isgiving up a little bit more flyballs,
but it's still it's a twenty eightpoint two percent flyball rate. Swinging strike
rate's about the same. He's throwntwo percent more strikes, so nothing too
(28:14):
different there. I'm wondering if abig part of his gains here, maybe
maybe it's a combination of both.But he's proving to be a bit of
of of a spin doctor. Ithink, like, yeah, I think
he throws two different breaking balls,and I don't know if execution of them
has gotten better or they've got bettershape, maybe both. I don't know.
This last outing against Brooklyn Man,these breaking balls were just making the
(28:37):
hitters look look pretty silly. Now, I wouldn't say that Brooklyn has is
the toughest high eight lineup to strikeout in the world, but it was
pretty impressive his ability to just getthese guys way off balance and some really
ugly swings. And again, youknow, when you have a guy who's
who's putting up some gaudy numbers withyou know, on the back of maybe
(28:59):
a really good secondary in the lowers, I think you gotta take, you
know, take some of that witha grain of salt and maybe have some
little built in skepticism of how itmight play when he moves up a level.
But Castillano is has become much moreinteresting. I don't think we need
to like maybe sound some dynasty alarmsand stuff like that. But you know,
if he's going to be a guyputting up double digit k outings just
(29:22):
to sort of play the game withinthe game, kind of b side play,
like in a deeper league, maybemaybe that's up your alley. Maybe
that's something you're interested in. Butyeah, like I said, just kind
of starting to stack some pretty impressivegame logs in the video, doesn't look
completely uninteresting. Another guy who kindof popped here you on Jacob Steinmetz,
(29:45):
the d Becks. This is nota guy without some pedigree. He was
the seventy seventh pick of the twentytwenty one draft out of New York,
and this is just kind of,you know, so big frame. He's
listed at six six live arm.You know that that's why he drafted so
high. Some pretty nice clay towork with. And I just have to
say, every time I turn onor catch Steinmetz, he's just like better
(30:08):
than the last time I saw him. Like every time he just looks better
and better. And it's starting toshow. Now, yes he's repeating a
ball, but yes, he's twentyyears old. Last year he got in
seventy two and two thirds innings.So far, I think he's about thirty
nine innings. But you're talking abouta K percentage that has jumped seven point
two percent, a walk percentage that'sdown three percent. That's a ten percent
(30:29):
increase in K minus bb darn nearcut his ra in half. You know,
he still gives up some contact,but he's jumped his ground ball rate
a little bit, knocked down hisfly ball rate five percent, swinging strike
rates up a little bit. Strikethrowing is five percent better, which I
think is pretty significant. Fastball,big hook seems to be the gist of
(30:51):
his game north south until I turnon Steinmetz and he doesn't seem better than
the last time I saw him.He's going to continue to have my interest,
and he's currently rostered zero percent.Another guy who popped here was Tiger's
pitching prospect, Garrett Burhen. Ithink that's how you say it. B.
(31:11):
You are h e nn zero percentrostered two hundred and fifty fifth pick
of the twenty twenty one draft outof Ohio State. He's twenty four years
old. Thisted is six' fourand he is now up in Double A,
just got promoted up there this seasonafter roughly thirty High A innings,
which is where he was last seasonfor ninety three and two thirds innings.
(31:32):
Well, he's got I think threeoutings now three Double A outings in if
I'm not mistaken, and granted,you know, small sample size, but
all the jumps in these ratios Imight I'm gonna mention, have all stuck
since he's been promoted. So heseems to be, at least this early
going a guy who has jumped alevel and made the gains. But you're
(31:55):
talking about a nine percent increase instrikeout percentage, four percent drap in walks
twelve and a half thirteen percent increasein K minus bb era is down one
point sixty seven, whips down pointthree, eight x fips down one,
giving up a little bit more flyballsthan he has in a little bit less
ground balls. Swinging strike rate isup three point four percent. Strikes are
(32:16):
about the same. He's always,you know, looked to be a pretty
good strike thrower. He's at sixtyeight percent right now, was sixty seven
percent last year. I hadn't paidany attention to him last year, but
I flipped him, flipped some ofhim on from last year and this season,
and I think just when you geta decent look, get a decent
angle. Just generically speaking, thestuff just looks nast year last year.
(32:37):
I think. I don't know ifmy man did some work in a lab
or something, but he's got ayou know, mid nineties fastball and a
pretty good looking firm slider spots itpretty well. Executes those two pitches pretty
well, and he's got another pitchin there. So he's got all three
velocity bands. And I don't knowa guy it's pretty new to me,
but has got my interest for sure. Tigers Man, they're doing some stuff
(33:00):
with some arms. So Garrett Burnszero percent rostered. Perhaps some nice little
muddy find here another guy man whoI've kind of resisted talking about a few
other episodes, but another Philly herein double A Robinson Pina who came over
from the Angels. I don't knowwhat the story was. I don't know
if this was like some sort ofRule five pick or just a minor league
(33:22):
free agent situation or what it was. I didn't look into it. But
he's twenty five years old, six' five, big guy. I shared
some video of him from early lastyear and then there and you can just
see the difference in physicality. Ithink my man has been lifting some weights
his highest level. He did gettwo different Triple A stints with Salt Lake
City last year. While in theAngels system, which you know angels that
(33:45):
kind of checks out. They liketo, you know, push guys along,
give them most challenges. But Peniafor a few years would just kind
of show up, just putting upsome gaudy lines from time to time.
I watched a good amount of himover the last several years and just like
kind of always teetering on the questionlike is this a dude? Is this
(34:06):
a guy? You know, justconsistency wasn't quite there. But since coming
over to the to the Phillies organization, he's jumped his strikeout rate and half
percent. He's dropped his walk percentageby ten percent. My Man is only
walking three and a half percent thebatters this season and that is such a
huge gain for him. A strikepercentage increase of almost eleven percent, that
(34:30):
is top of the scale in thisdive here, swinging strike rate has increased
by two point two percent. He'sgone from a ground ball pitcher to a
fly ball pitcher and having you know, success with that. Shared some stack
cast stuff from him and some videothat points out he has a very different
(34:50):
arm slot than he did early lastyear with the Angels, and the fastball
movement is very different. He hasa lot more armside run to it.
But this is not a situation wherehe went to a new organization and has
this new look. This was actuallyan evolution that was taking place last season.
(35:13):
I also shared some video of himduring his last as Salt Lake City
start and you can see that itwas drastically different than early in the year.
So is Pina guy that I'm rushingout and rostering in deep leagues?
No? Is he a guy whodoes he have a major league chance?
I think so, especially if he'spitching like this now to what extent who
(35:34):
knows? I think the big leaguedream is revitalized here and you can't deny
that he is one of the mostimproved pitching prospects out there. Another guy
that I finally got around to watchingthat I kept meaning to is the Royal's
Walter Pennington, who if you doa K percentage search you will see he
is striking out a ridiculous forty onepercent of batters this season. The first
(36:00):
time he was mentioned on the podcast, Matt Well kind of joked around and
he had no idea you know whothis was. Neither did I. When
you're talking about what he's twenty sixyears old out of the Colorado School of
Mines, just down the road here, undrafted, free agent, rostered and
zero percent of leagues. He's asoft toss and lefty. His sinker averages
ninety two point eight, which youknow, actually for a lefty, it's
(36:22):
it's not really that soft. Whenyou consider the average lefties fastball in the
major leagues. I think it's likeninety three point something. But you're talking
a fourteen percent increase in ks,three percent dropping walks, it's a seventeen
point one percent increase in K minusBB. It's pretty wild. I mean
he's been he's been dominating one pointninety three er, a point eighty six
(36:43):
whip the season of ground ball rateof fifty two point one percent, four
point four percent increase in strike percentagesince last year. The big thing here
that is obvious, and I sharedsome stackcast stuff and what have you.
I think a big part of makingthis all work is he has added a
cutter that he threw to right handers. Last year he was a slider sinker
guy, and Righty's got him.That cutter has made all of this jrump
(37:07):
I shared usage changes and fifth percentagechanges and CSW and all that sort of
stuff. Now he has been relieving, so you know, that definitely dampers
some dynasty interest. But he's startingto get more innings, longer outings.
They're starting to up his pitch countswhere I think his last inning he went
three innings and I think got tolike shifty pitches. So sure, maybe
(37:30):
the obvious trajectory here is as amulti inning reliever or just a major league
reliever if it, you know,continues to all go well. But like
I said when we were talking aboutHerrera, you know a multi inning reliever
who does really well in that role, maybe the door on being the starter
isn't totally shut. If it's allabout how well you execute your best pitch.
(37:52):
I think Pennington checks that box bigtime. And then just the last
two guys. I added a couplemore guys in the write up. I
won't get in to them too muchhere have already kind of talked about both
of them, I think, butAaron Davenport and one Daniel and Canarcion I
think are both markedly improved. Theyhaven't gotten me super interested dynasty wise yet,
(38:12):
but they were kind of some honorablementions included in this piece here.
So that was, uh, youknow, as lame as it might sound,
was was kind of my main focusand what I spent the last couple
of weeks getting into the muddy canlack glory, but we'll we'll see here.
You know, obviously there's not alot of dynasty interest in these arms,
but I think they're I think they'reinteresting, and I got my eye,
(38:35):
I got my I think uh,I've rostered a few of them in
my deeper leagues. Which prospects aregetting picked up the most? This last
week I got to say, thenumbers, the percentage increases this time of
year getting to the beginning of June, are much smaller than they were at
the beginning of the year. Ithink we're entering a part of the season
that I think it's really fun andinteresting for us mutters. There's been you
(39:00):
know, some trendy names for afew months, guys who had some loud
introductions to pro ball and the like. You know, you got your Jona
Tong's, your Zwie Matthews. Youknow those types of guys, your classes,
and those guys are rostered up andpeople are going to hang on to
them and see and so maybe there'ssome less less churning and burning happening,
(39:22):
and I think that's reflected in someof these numbers here. But that's when
we start digging on the guys likeI was trying to mention, and you
know, gains and developments that mightbe a little bit harder to see than
a guy's numbers his first month ortwo of a season. Right, But
nonetheless, Matthew Lugo Red Sox prospectis up two point nine percent. Tobias
(39:45):
Meyer is still prospect on that Ithink he is, but you know that's
not surprising. He's getting some majorleague run. He's up two percent.
Brandon Sproute, who I know inthe Dynasty dugout. There's a lot of
chatter about a guy that highlight outof this first year player draft. He's
into some extent. He's up topoint two percent a total of fifteen percent
now probably would have been a reallygood b side choice. Trey Morgan,
(40:07):
I'm pretty famous from his LSU run, putting together a nice season. He
is up two percent a total ofeight percent. Screwballer guy with the Cardinals,
Gulian Nelly, I think is whatyou say, is up two percent.
He went from zero to two percentthis last week. That screwball looks
nasty and it's getting a lot ofattention. Just me personally, that doesn't
(40:30):
seem sustainable to me. I haven'ttaken a close look at how he throws
that pitch, but I was veryinvested in Martin Perez back in the day
when he threw a screwball, andthat just wasn't a sustainable pitch for him
and his UCL or his arm ohmentioned at the top Justin Henry molloy,
who's got the call, is uptwo percent. He's at thirty three percent
(40:52):
total. Yilber Diaz still some peoplehappen on that train. He's up two
percent total of ten percent. OnJaneo the Guardian system is up one point
seven percent a total of five percent. Folks get a little more interested in
my guy. Kevin mcgonagal. He'sup a percent and a half. Cader
Montero probably because you got the callis up a little bit, But yeah,
(41:15):
that seems to be the trendiest.I see. Spencer Geisting, who
we talked about, is uper pointseven percent a total of two percent.
Now, so I'm not the onlyone getting in on some Spencer Geisting,
but yeah, those are those arethe most trending prospect pickups of this last
week. As far as next week, what I might be watching in the
(41:36):
International League, probably again, Idon't watch a ton of Triple A,
but Jacksonville is at Charlotte. Iwant to see some more Javier Sonoya.
And then Sean Burke is back,and he pitched pretty well his first Triple
A appearance of the season. Andhe's a guy that I liked more than
Justin Steele heading into what last seasonas kind of a maybe sneaky good pitching
(42:00):
prospect close to the Biggs, andI was happy to see him not rostered
in a few leagues, and Ipicked him up when I did the White
Sox Top Prospects for Clegg. Iknow, I kind of shoved Burke up
there, because you know, I'mnot a guy who just forgets about injured
pitchers that are good in the PCL. Man I had I had Las Vegas
(42:22):
at all Passa because I wanted to, you know, see how Maser fared
against a lot of young bats inLas Vegas that are just back from the
bigs. I thought it would bea really good test for him. But
you know, Maser is getting calland it sounds like he is going to
start tomorrow, so he gets togo up against big leaguers still in the
big leagues, So that'll be fun. In the Eastern League, Hartford is
(42:45):
at Somerset. Whenever Hartford is atSomerset, that's probably my favorite Eastern League
series to watch. Both have youknow, exciting prospects Augustin Ramirez versus some
pretty good pictures for Hartford, seehow he fares again. Texas League Frisco
at Corpus Christie. Surprisingly just ateam numbers wise, Frisco has the best
(43:06):
pitching staff in that league, andI want to see how this mister irrelevant
goes against the best pictures and isthe best staff in his league. But
herraras so with the Astros, thelast pick of last draft, who's up
in Double A and swinging it,I want to see how he does against
them. Southern League, you know, and we're getting to the point of
the league. We're starting to getrepeats in smaller leagues. You know,
(43:30):
some of the same series just continueto be the most interesting. But Birmingham
is at Tennessee. You know,good Birmingham pitchers versus a good Smokey's lineup.
Sale League. Jersey's Shore is atGreensboro. There's a lot of good
Jersey Shore pitchers right now. AndI want to see how Charles mcadow's week
goes. I bet you he getshis because mcadow is legit. He is
(43:53):
good man. Who knows maybe maybehe moves up to double A. And
we don't even get to see thesematchups. Northwest League against slim Pickens,
but Hillsborough at Spokane probably the twomost interesting talented teams in the league.
I think Contaceelo and Pintar and thoseguys get to go up against Dolander and
(44:16):
Sullivan and all that. Midwest League. Man, Lake County at Beloit.
I'm excited for this one. Youknow that Matt and I are like the
Lake County lineup. You got whatNate Furman and Capus and Mooney Ingle has
been really good. But we getto see Noble Meyer and White versus that
really good Lake County lineup, sothat'll be their toughest protests so far.
(44:39):
I want to see how that goes. In the Florida State League, you
got Clearwater at Bradenton, so thisis a chance to see Davis Graves and
George Glassen from that really good Bradingtonangle. In the Carolina League, we
got Fayetteville Columbia. Neil Marrachoa hassettled in nicely, is a really interesting
bats with potentially some big upside.But he's going to get to go up
(45:04):
against some I think, some prettygood A ball pitchers for Columbia. But
then in the Cal League, youknow, Fresno's at Modesto, so again
we get to see how Matt's nutsmight do against those pretty pretty good for
the level Fresno pictures. So Idon't know that's that's enough of me talking
at youra. I hope Matt wonhis his tennis match against the six year
(45:25):
old women that he's playing against.He should be back next week. I
want to ask him about a fewof the guys that we mentioned and see
what he's been watching. It's beena while since we've gotten some word on
what his muddy might be looking likethese days. You can follow me on
Twitter at pitching specs, share somevideo, and if you were interested in
what some of these pictures that Italked about tonight might look like, check
(45:47):
out the Dynasty dugout. I thinkCleig is gonna put that piece up I
don't know, sometime soon here,and if he doesn't, I'll just share
it on Google Docs via Twitter.But we'll let Chicago farmer take us out.
Be well, Matt Volbel, sohave your mind for me and we'll
talk to you next week. Ladiesand gentlemen. We got him five miles
(46:09):
an hour, riding to his head. He hopped down the first with the
lump on his face, and onthe very next pitch he up and stole
second face with gradest speed. Hewasn't born. He had the dirdy yes, nifarn
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