Episode 37: Return of the Mud Eye

Nate and The Rook are off their hiatus and back mudding around the minor leagues. Some players discussed: Demetrio Crisantes, Allan Castro, Devin Saltiban, Otto Kemp, Jared Dickey, Axel Plaz, Tirso Ornelas, Rosman Verdugo, Jadher Areinamo, Jairo Pomares, Victor Bericoto, Nick, Cimillo, Jack Brannigan, Peyton Williams, Ricardo Olivar, Brewer Hicklan, Nehomar Ochoa, Aron Estrada, Gustavo Campero, Franklin Arias, Engelth Urena, Kyle Karros, James Gonzalez, Kade Morris, Tyler Schweitzer, D.J. McCarty, Michael Morales, Isaiah Lowe, Nick Sinacola, Ryan Gusto, Chris Campos, Joey Gartrell, Sam Stuhr, Nick Brink, and a little serving of pretty boy MLB draft talk.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Not five miles an hour riding toohis head, he hopping down first with
the limp bonius face, and onthe very next pitch he up and stole
second face with gradest. He wasn'tborn. He had to do yes,

(00:27):
Beautiforn. All right, Hey,hey, hey, Episode thirty seven of
the Prospect B Sides Podcast. Weare back. It has been far too
long, but the long lost rookieshere, I am here, and we've
got what a month's worth of baseballand happenings in mud try to rehash.
I'm a bit overwhelmed here, Matt. I'm not totally sure what all I

(00:49):
want to talk about. I feellike there's so many things we could but
it is nice to see you,my friend. Well, I'm just overwhelmed
by how long it's been since I'veseen this beautiful nug Nate, I miss
buddy. This has been way toolong since we since we mudded and talked
about the goodness that is happening allover the minor leagues. And it's trade

(01:10):
deadline season for a bunch of dynastyleagues too. I don't know if you
want to touch on some of that, like how's your how are your teams
doing what's what moves is the bigNate handymaking one of my thirty teen points.
I'm I'm all in, I'm goingfor it. And then got the
best record in the league. Idon't know if I got the best team
in the league, but it madesome moves, tried to put the finishing

(01:30):
touches on a hopeful champion, gotsome relievers, and I was just all
about trading all those b sides andfree chips and whatever I could for help
me now pieces. And then theone that the show, the one that
we're in together deadlines tonight. UHjust forever have been kind of like borderline
playoff team or just making the playoffteam, not one of the best teams

(01:55):
in the league, and just neverreally able to make the big blockbusters at
the deadlines. So just a coupleof little tiny moves there that might help
me a little bit, and Iprobably will have to get very lucky to
uh to get a championship there.But that's always a fun one. That's
always a competitive league. My divisionis like a three way race right now.
So yeah, I don't know prettymuch other teams are trashed. Well,

(02:20):
the show that that league that we'rein is a tricky one. I
feel like my team, like cominginto the season, felt pretty solid.
And then I had a bunch ofthe guys that I was really banking on
being cornerstones. Your Austin Riley's,your Cody Bellingers really were terrible for long
stretches. And I hunted on prospects, like in the dispersal draft when I

(02:40):
joined the league, and even aswe were doing the off season free agent
auction, I wasn't really looking forprospects, but I landed a couple.
Bit are in hot supply. Whatdo you think about Debbie Matthews? Ever?
He's asking about him, and I'mreally just looking for some relief,
and I can't stomach giving him.Zebbie Matthews, who's already up in Triple

(03:05):
A, still crushing. I hearhe's elite. I can't send him for
a stupid reliever, can I?I mean, I think when it comes
to, you know, trying toput together a championship run in a playoff
like that, I think anything goes. Anything that isn't going to help you,
I think is on the table.But yeah, I mean, Zebby's
pretty, He's sort of he checksa lot of the boxes. I think

(03:28):
for both of us and what welike to see with pictures. I mean,
you want to talk about a guyusing his tools very well. I
mean, I don't know if there'sa picture, a minor league picture out
there that does that quite as wellas Zebby right now. So he'd be
a tough one to trade off.But I mean everyone's got their price,
right yeah, And I might considerit for one of the elite relief arms,

(03:52):
but thus far it's more like goodholds types relievers, and so I'm
I'm leaning towards holding him, butI might have one or two more deals
to go before we close this deadlineout there. And then the WGM,
the other thirty teamer we're in together. That team just got destroyed by injuries

(04:14):
early and I don't think was superwell put together. When I took it
over, it was like very topheavy with like eight great players and then
forty terrible are like very middling players. I tried to do a bit of
a retool and that one that teamI think is in better position now than
it was, but it's still isthat I'm out of the playoff race by
a long shot. So hopefully toplay spoiler for some of those other teams

(04:39):
down the stretch. I'm for that. Yeah, you know, so,
I don't know. This last probablymonth or so, I've got a good
slew of lightly rostered hitters and pitchersthat I've been pretty impressed with this last
month, have watched a good amountof and one of them complex pick Up
that we talked about, I thinkthe last couple of times, very briefly,

(05:00):
I was kind of in the sameI used him as a trade chip
and a couple of these recent dealshere, but I was curious, what
are your thoughts of Demetrio Cryssants mightbe. I know that we were both
intrigued by his you know, statline and rookie ball. Now he's up
in Visalia. I think he's gotwhat like twenty three games in now.

(05:21):
I've tuned in, watched a goodchunk and it was tough to kind of
send him off. I was tryingto send off some different pieces. But
Croissantis here man pretty impressive first monthsingle a yeah, he went three ninety
eight forty one, five point fiftyfour, striking out and walking roughly at
the same rate. I've really likedthe eyeball test him Mechanically, he kind

(05:44):
of will slow it down and happilylays a single, but he can still
like put a charge in one pullone, especially like an inside fastball.
I've seen him hit a couple ofthose real hard. But yeah, I
don't know. Have you have youtuned into him at all? Have you
seen him? I have watched hima little and have been super impressed.
He's somebody. After we had identifiedkind of what he was doing on the
complex that I started poking around,picked him up for free in a couple

(06:08):
of leagues, watch listed him ina couple others, and I think I
traded for him in two leagues insmaller deals before he got promoted to low
A, and he's been awesome.He reminds me in some ways of what
I liked about Hansel Luis last year. Just a little bit of a smaller

(06:28):
guy, like slighter, young Latinplayer, really clean actions, especially his
right handed swing, I think isjust I like the contact that he gets
to. I like that he's showingsome power at nineteen in the Cow League.
Also for those leagues where you're playingin a Roto dynasty, he's really

(06:49):
showing a propensity to steal and he'spretty good at it. In my couple
of looks. I don't know howyou felt about some of his jumps,
but it seems like he's swiping bagslike pretty easily. You know, he's
not going a ton, but whatwhen he does. At least what I
saw or a couple of the games, it was like he stole it without
a throw, and I think he'sgot some skill there. So he's off

(07:12):
to an awesome start and a balland I'm not sure it's all going to
hold up. Like he's running apretty high line drive rate that will probably
come down a bit, and it'llbe interesting to see whether that goes more
to the flyball side or the groundball side, because he kind of showed
a bit of flyball tendency on thecomplex according to his battball profile, and

(07:33):
I think that'd be great. Ithink he's got enough power to make that
work I wanted to do. Inoticed, at least his first couple of
weeks, the pitchers were seem toreally be testing him with velocity up in
the zone, you know, whichI think makes a lot of sense,
but that could to potentially lead tomore, you know, balls in the
air. Just been pretty impressed there, and of course it's what he was

(07:56):
a seventh round prep pick a coupleof drafts ago. You're not familiar.
He was kind of on my radarjust a little bit and perfect game stuff,
and I didn't even pay any attentionto what he was doing last year.
But he definitely has shown up.And I think his roster percentage is
up to like five percent now maybe, so I mean people are taking notice
for sure. Yeah, yeah,definitely. I don't know. That's a

(08:16):
sign. That's a co sign forme. I have really liked what I've
seen out of him and hope hekeeps advancing with this kind of skill set.
This is a mix of a lotof things that I really like.
Yeah, another bat Matt that wehave talked about before because he was both
of our Red Sox B side selectionAlan Castro. Now, it was it
was very slow, you know,potentially rough first couple of months of the

(08:39):
season in Greenville. I did notwatch a whole lot of him, so
I don't really know what was goingon. But my lord, did he
have the last month. He hasjust been smoking hot, dude. Nine
home runs in the last twenty games. Wow, two ninety seven, three
sixty six A seven thirty slug andhe's got five doubles in the last twenty

(09:01):
games as well. This time ofyear, Matt, you know, we've
got half a season of ball inright, A lot of names popped up
gotten more popular. I don't knowif you remember when we were choosing our
B side selections. A lot ofthem, you know, season lines maybe
weren't super eye popping, but itwas a lot of guys that had great
second halves. Point being, Ithink we're getting into like the really good

(09:22):
Mutting season here. We're gonna havethe draft just took place. There's gonna
be first year of players getting somerun. There's gonna be guys like Castro
that maybe nobody paid attention to,but we like the skill set from last
year. Love to see him maybeget challenged at another level. But a
great month from Castro, who didn'treally make our selection look all that great

(09:43):
the first couple months of the season, but he has just been smoking hot.
Yeah, it's it's awesome. Andthe things that we liked about him
were kind of some of those underthe radar things that we thought he was
a pretty athletic. In my looksat him, it looked like he had
been making adjustments over the court ofthe season last year. It was one
of the reasons why I was sortof encouraged even though the overall line was

(10:05):
sort of underwhelming. It wasn't aton of stuff that wasn't anything eye popping.
What he has done at high A, especially over the past month is
just been one of the best hittersin the minor leagues, which is awesome.
You love it when a B sideguy gets to that kind of level.
Mind you, you know, he'sstill just twenty one years old and

(10:26):
hi a so still I think that'sstill young for a hitter. Yeah,
and still only one percent rostered.And you know, just like we like
what we were attracted to do.I think he's just kind of all around
just seems like a pretty good hitterand player. So I don't know,
my interest has rekindled here, Yeah, and with I have castro in a

(10:48):
couple of places, but there's Ithink as one of my Dynasty leagues,
I'm one of the top two orthree teams, and I'm shoving chips in
pretty aggressively to pick up a couplemore win now pieces, and in doing
so, I'm talking about giving upsome of my very favorite minor league prospects,
and so I'm looking for guys tobackfill and Castro was available in that

(11:11):
in one of those leagues, oneof those thirty teamers that I'm in,
and so I'm trying to push oneof those deals through and Castro is on
my short list to backfill it.As I was going through some B side
guys and some other crowdsourced a littlebit of who else might might make that
cut, Castro was one that Iwas like, ooh, he's available,
and he's been really churning things on. And I also wouldn't be surprised if

(11:35):
after the break he gets promoted toDouble A. So it was I think
around August early August last year thathe got promoted to High A, and
he had like a kind of amonth month and a half of High A
at the end of last year,and so I could see him getting a
promotion post All Star break over toDouble A with the Socks. That's when

(11:56):
you start to see this performance reallytranslating to major league project arm translations as
well as that's when other Dynasty ownersI think, start to take interest.
So this might be a good buyingopportunity for mister Alan Castro, Yeah,
definitely. You know a lot ofthis list, and what I've been watching
is exactly what you said, likestarting to backfill all the prospects I sent

(12:18):
in trades, Like all right,what's out there that maybe he's getting unloved,
But uh yeah, Castro definitely kindof in that ilk for me right
now, as soon as some spotsfor you up here. Might have to
take a look another guy like this. Now, he was a later round,
first year player draft pick for mein several leagues since dropped him just
because they were more interesting, betterthings I thought I could do. But

(12:41):
Philly's third round pick from last year, Devin Saltaban, has kind of been
on one last twenty games. He'sgot five home runs, stole four bases,
He's slashed in two seventy nine,four forty nine, five point fifty
nine. Now, mind you,this is a you know, it's a
young prep guy, and the firstcouple of months of of pro ball for
him. I mean, I thinkit was a bit of a struggle.

(13:03):
I think he was hitting under theMendoza line or close to it. But
I think he's figured some things out, and you know, five home runs
in twenty games in the fsl isis pretty impressive. Been tuning in on
him. I don't know if folksout there haven't seen him or whatever.
You can think maybe and this mightbe a little bit lazy because he's Hawaiian
too, but like you know,maybe Shane Victorino ask a little bit more

(13:28):
physical, a little bigger perhaps,but maybe that's sort of like you know,
long term dream if you will.He's got more interesting to me again.
Another guy that I might go backto and roster Nate. I haven't
watched too much of that Clearwater teamof late. Is Walton getting any plays?
Has he been hitting? And howhow's the rest of that team doing?

(13:50):
I know they had some struggles earlyon. Well, so TJ.
He had that injury, but Idon't know, a couple of months ago
whatever it was, he came back, got into one game, I think
he swung the bat twice and thenwas out again and out for a decent
amount of time. But he hasjust returned. He just got a game
in, maybe two games in rightbefore the break in Clearwater. So not

(14:13):
really much to report on my guyTJ. But a guy was and how
saltim On's k rate? I knowit was a little high early. Has
he brought that down during his hotstreak. I think, now this might
be half a serious half a weekold, but he was on the season.
He was at twenty seven percent overthe last twenty games, sixty eight
at bats. He's struck out twentyone times, but has walked seventeen times.

(14:39):
But the Clearwater team, another guyon my list here started there.
And this is why Matt I don'tKemp. I think we might have touched
on him a little bit in thechat room the other day, but I
think kind of a good example ofmaybe why you don't want to just right
off an older guy in a ballbecause he's moved up three levels already,
and man, he just torched indouble A so far. I mean,

(15:03):
maybe maybe Torch is a little strong. But five home runs in twenty one
games at reading two fifty seven threesixty four five hundred slug. He has
struck out twenty three times, he'swatched eight times. What initially attracted me
to camp Well, I mean,besides eyeballs, he's got a pretty interesting
batter ball profile, one that youknow might have good home run shape,

(15:26):
home run potential. He popped whathe's got six home runs is that right?
In Double A? Four in HighA, and then he had one
down in Clearwater this year, Sokind of infield guy who you know might
have some power. Now he's olderat twenty four, but you know what,
is this his second pro season andhe's doing well in Double A.

(15:46):
I think that's that's acceptable. Yeah. I love watching for those fast moving
guys that maybe did start as alittle old for their level, but then
they hop a couple levels and you'relike, oh, that's sort of now
a pretty interesting performance. There's somereal signal to that, that kind of
noise, and for some guys that'slike that's just the way, like whether

(16:08):
they were slowed after the draft byan injury, or they were blocked by
somebody else who was higher up thepecking order and they wanted to keep them
getting at bats. Like, there'slots of reasons why a guy might start
somewhere lower down in an organization,and then paying attention to when they move
and keep the performance up I thinkis pretty important. You know one guy

(16:30):
that has I think along that kindof path that is one that we've talked
about a lot this year is Cjkapasyou know like he wasn't an advanced level
last year, but then he justhas kept mashing at every level this year.
Macadou too, like he was ana ball only guy for part of

(16:52):
the season last year and then nowhe's still crushing it in Double A.
And so I think kind of searchingfor those guys is pretty proper Bowl.
Yeah, and Kemp zero percent roster, you know, deep league. I've
picked him up to backfill and youknow, especially a couple of leagues where
I don't really have very many batsin my system at all, just to
see what happens the rest of theseason. Here another guy who is maybe

(17:15):
a little bit similar in that whatkind of attracted to me. Him to
me was just kind of as badas ball shape early in the year.
And we've touched on Jared Dickey before, but man, he's this last month
or so has been pretty dang hotas well. In the last twenty one
games, he's three forty two foursixteen five nineteen. He's hit just two
home runs but struck out sixteen timesseven walks. Now, he's a bit

(17:41):
how do you say, he's alittle bit goofy. Had to play a
little goofy looking a little untraditional looking, but you know, like I said,
if there's a guy who you know, he might be the type that's
really going to maximize his bad atball profile and bat at shape to you
know, pop some home runs anddo some damage with the bat. So
he he's still in high A atquad Cities, but wanted to note him.

(18:03):
He's a guy who's just kind ofbeen on the fringe of some of
my rasters. I just kept aneye on. But he's a free try.
He's zero percent. That's an interestingshout. I like that one one
I wanted to highlight because A hisname has just stuck in my head and
and B he's on a bit ofa hot streak now. And I remember
this guy because in I think itwas my off season like Open Universe Player

(18:30):
Draft in one of my thirty teamerstwo off seasons ago. Yeah, I
think it was two off seasons ago. I in the like second or third
round. This is like deep wherewe're one hundred and some picks into this
FYPD, and I was between twocatchers that had performed in the DSL and
one had performed on the complex,and I went with Axial plause of the

(18:56):
Pirates and I was like pretty excited. You know, had run a two
hundred and nine WRC plus in theDSL that year, and I was like,
oh, this is a bat that'sgoing to move really quickly. I
think Longenhangen at Fanografts had dropped anice blur upon Plause, and so I
was pretty pumped about it. Butthe guy that was my second choice here

(19:18):
and ended up going I think likea pick or two later, was Samuel
Bisseo. So I really regretted thatpick for the last like year and a
half, but I wanted to highlightPlause because he was pretty bad all last
year. He spent most of theyear as a seventeen year old on the
Complex, was striking out way toomuch, the power wasn't showing up.

(19:41):
It was just like a really lostseason. And then he started at the
Complex this year and in you know, just like a short sample, he
was bad again. And so eventhough he had SAT, I had dropped
him in a roster crunch and hewasn't on that roster anymore, but I'd
kept him on a watch list.Then he got promoted to a ball like
a month ago, a little morethan a month ago, and has been

(20:04):
had been pretty good to start,but has really turned it on of late.
He's mashing homers. He's got twelvehomers in the Florida State League in
forty one games. That is mashingthere. Overall line good for a one
thirty three WRC plus in the FloridaState League, and Plause just keeps banging.

(20:26):
There's more swing and miss than youwould like. Still, it's a
twenty five percent k rate and sortof a nine percent walk rate, so
the plate approach doesn't seem great,but I think he can kind of sting
the ball a bit. Pretty interestedin the bad at ball distribution. He
seems like a guy who's going tohit a lot of fly balls, and
I think that's a good thing forhim. It's a good thing for his

(20:48):
profile. So Actuel Applause, youknow, I was so mad at him
for like a good year and ahalf, but he's coming back around,
and I picked him up in adeep league as a catcher who might hit
for some significant power, even thoughthere's some swinging miss right on Matt.
Both of our Andre's B side selectionshave had some pretty good months. I

(21:10):
mean they're on opposite ends of thefull season ball. But you know,
we we've talked about Urso arnellis butwhat this last month three ninety five,
four thirty eight, six point fiftyone, he's pop seven home runs and
you I mean he's still what,he's still only twenty four years old.
Yep, we know that he canhit the ball really hard. I don't

(21:33):
know what the Padres situation is.I mean, I think they're doing pretty
well and they got some good outfielders. But not to be forgotten, Urso
man, he's uh, he's beenon one and he's still sitting at two
percent. And then my young youknow, my kind of hail Mary selection
at the end of our draft,and you know, it's been up and
down season. He's still very young. He still strikes out a lot.

(21:55):
But man, Russman Verdugo has hada pretty good month too. I've been
in watching. Yes, yeah,he's about three home runs three point fifty
one, four sixty two, fiveeighty one. He doesn't steal bases,
but uh, I don't know.I still like just the look, the
eyeball look of this this young Mexicanswing, Like I think he has it
in him to hit the ball prettyhard, especially for his size. So

(22:18):
I don't know. I'm still stillfinding myself a little intrigued there. Yeah,
Verdugo's ks still give me a littlebit of pause. But if that
continue, if the power continues toshow up, it might not matter quite
so much. And that's been encouragingover the last month. I think he
has been hitting the ball a lotharder and getting rewarded for it. Yeah.

(22:40):
Another guy that we have talked abouta little bit and it's starting to
get a little more popular. He'sat four percent. But our batwaggle guy,
Arian Amo man he in Mammo fouroh eight, four seventy one,
six point fifty eight this last month, four home runs, four stolen bases,
but he has been caught three timeshitting for a little bit more Popu.
I thought maybe was in him watchinghim last year, Matt, you

(23:03):
think that might be true? Agreed? Still only at like what one or
two, I've seen him getting pickedup. This might be a little old.
I had him down at one percent, but you might be creeping up
a little bit now. I thinkone of the things that's causing him to
get picked up too is that he'sstealing more bases. I know he's been
not quite as successful as that thelast couple of weeks. But he's got
twenty seven on the year already andshowing some fairly significant pop at High A.

(23:30):
That's not bad, right, Likethat's for my twenty year old at
high A. That's still young forthe level. I really love the back
to ball. He is so consistentat this. Check this out across the
DSL the complex Low A, HighA over the last three years, strikeout
rates of twelve point six percent,twelve point eight percent, twelve point seven

(23:51):
percent, twelve point four percent,and currently has a strike at rate of
twelve point three percent. And there'ssome fluctuation here in his swinging strike raate
and he's been a little more aggressiveor less aggressive, and it showed up
in his walk rates. But theguy has a good back to ball,
funky swing notwithstanding, and seeing himshow a little more power, like that's

(24:14):
pretty interesting to me. When youhave that kind of strikeout rate floor.
He kind of reminds me of alittle more athletic like Jose Miranda type,
you know what I mean, Like, yeah, good back to ball.
There's gonna be some babbit fluctuations,there's gonna be some hot streaks and cold
streaks, but the good contact skillshelped give the their a floor. And
it's not elite power here, andI think the speed is maybe a little

(24:37):
oversold by his twenty seven bags,but he is athletic and that kind of
spraying line drive y hitter that ispretty competent at the plate. I think
there's there's a real hitter here.So and again he toned down the batwaggle,
but there's still some of it there. And I love a funky swing.

(25:00):
Helio Ramos, the giant, youknow, very highly thought of,
then not so much, and thenjust gets his MLB chants and he's killing
it right. So I'm thinking abouthim a little bit when I'm watching like
Gyro Palmars and a guy Victor Barracoto. This last month or so, Barracoto,
especially the first month and a halftwo months of the season wasn't so

(25:22):
great. I think he started gettingit together or whatever. He's three forty
nine, three seventy five, fourforty six. This last month he was
popping some home runs. Kind ofthe maybe month before or half a month
before, but both these guys iskind of Richmond's a tough place to hit.
Man so I don't know some ofthese giant giant bats, if we're
just like scouting the stat line orwhat have you, maybe there's a little

(25:44):
bit of the park factor stuff goingon. And Palmars is a guy that
just, you know, for thelast what three four years, anytime I
watch him, he just he looksgood to me, and he passes the
eyeball testing me. I think he'sgot you know, he's one of these
guys who just kind of surprises himso with not like hitting squaring up the
ball the greatest and like still poppingsome home runs. Like I think there's
some like really still some interesting juicein his bat. But he's had a

(26:08):
decent month with four home runs.I mean, I don't know how much
I'm into Pomerius here Rostering, butagain just a backfield guy. He's at
four percent, Barracodo's at two.I still like Barracoto, but been tuned
in some Richmond and both those guysstill kind of keeping me very interested.
Nice. Nice. Have you watchedmuch of Greensboro with I was watching a

(26:33):
good amount when Macadoo was there.Yeah. Now I was also very like
you know, focused and picky andarchiving and going back to just like mcadoo's
at bats, but i'd see someother stuff. Yeah, because a couple
of guys I did some of thesame early this year as I was following
McAdoo and he was lighting it upthere. But there's a couple other guys
that are performing there, and Iwondered if if either had caught your eye.

(26:56):
Nick Sameo, Samilo Sameo, Ican't remember they say that. Actually,
I can't say I've seen much,but I've seen a few at bats.
And then Jack Branigan, who Iremember from the Florida Stately last year,
is like an older guy. Butboth I think are are hitting for
significant amounts of power. They're botha little old like they're again guys that

(27:18):
I didn't check, but I don'tthink anybody owns either of them. What's
those guys' pool percentage? Do youknow? Do you have that in front
of you? So I know bothof those guys, and I don't want
to I don't want to make thislike a blank blanket statement. I've seen
both those guys pop a few homeruns this year and they were both pulled
down that extremely short line in Greensboro. Yeah, and both are Definitely,

(27:41):
both sides are very very short,and especially for Writy's I think, and
these guys are both older, rightybats, yeah, and both of them
are above fifty percent on their pulledyeah percentages. I'd be a little bit
careful looking at like home run numberswith guys in Greensboro if their pool percentages
are high. Mcado is hitting theball. You know a lot of his

(28:03):
home runs were center field, soit wasn't so much of that. But
but just something to think about ifyou're just looking at numbers. Definitely a
valid criticism of both these guys.Both of their homer to flyball rates are
pretty high, yeah, and Ithink some of that is the park.
But they're both watchless guys for me, as ones that I think nobody's going

(28:25):
to own and they're just going tolike quietly keep moving up the ladder until
they turn into Jacksonwinsky or something likethat, you know what I mean.
Like nobody was on Kowinsky and thenhe hit thirty homers in the bigs,
you know, So these are theseare just watchless guys for me right now.
But if you need something to balanceout of trade, or you need
somebody to backfill in a power focusedleague. I think both are kind of

(28:47):
interesting in Jack Bran again and NickSimeo to the lip. You know,
I didn't like the Blue Jays whenwe were making our B side selections.
But Peyton Williams, this big,big boy from Iowa, was was kind
of on my short list. Ijust couldn't quite bring myself to do it.
But he's had a pretty pretty goodmonth in High A. It's ball

(29:07):
on the ground a lot, butyou know, he's big, he's powerful,
but he's gone three twenty one,four twenty four, four ninety four,
it's about three home runs, fivedoubles, walking almost as much as
he's striking out. But he's he'sstill just you know, on the fringe
of being interesting to me. Andthen then Cardo Olivur with Cedar Rapids,

(29:29):
who's had a great season and Iknow he's a catcher, but he's still
he's only twenty two years old andhe's still only at one percent roster.
He had another killer month, hewent three twenty nine, four seventy three,
five fifty seven month. Yeah,so he continues to to kind of
rake and be a pretty interesting HighA hitter, I think. So I

(29:49):
know you said, you don't watchmuch Triple A. I've been watching a
little bit more though, because there'ssome guys up there that I've been watching.
The Sonoya, watching Natro before hegot hurt, I was watching some
Jose Tania, you know, beforehe got you know, called up to
not play and then sent back downformer B side selection Jose Tania. By

(30:12):
the way, one guy that stuckout to me is I was perusing some
leaderboards and I went back and watcheda few games of is Brewer Hickland.
He seems like a B side guys. He just got called up, not
technically called up. I don't thinkthey put him on the forty. But
they didn't call up oh really yeah, okay, And I'm not sure whether

(30:34):
that's like in advance of a postAll Star break call up or what.
But he's twenty eight. I believethis would be his debut. But he's
having a great season. Power speed, blend, nineteen homers, twenty six
bags, thirteen doubles, four triplestoo, strikes out a bit, but
still is you know, walks betterthan average from in the International League.

(30:59):
I think he's kind of an interestingbat. There's power there, you know,
decent Max. He's bounced around acouple of organizations, but he's looked
pretty good. Might be a quadA type guy, Like there's a chance
he comes up and is like athirty five percent is strikeout rate kind of
guy. But I saw enough ofit that I was like, man,

(31:22):
I could see him getting some runhonestly, and as an injury back up
in Milwaukee or hanging on somewhere elselike that. He's shown enough that it
looked to me like this was areal hitter with some viability. I got
like that for free in a lotof dynasty leagues. That might be helpful
depth for your stretch rum if hegets a little bit of luck on the

(31:45):
playing time front. So yeah,I just wanted to give brew Hicklin a
shout, like I think he gottiny cup of coffee with Kansas City two
years ago. Yeah, he's aninteresting one. I had drafted Neil mar
Achoa in a few leagues first yearplayer around pick and I traded them away
and then I started watching him someand you know, maybe I'm wondering if
I shouldn't have done that, ButI was really surprised to see that he's

(32:08):
only rastering in three percent of leagues. I know that there's a lot of
strikeouts, but I'm in one leaguethat's like it's a smaller league. I
think it's fifteen teams, sixteen teamswhere we have like huge minor league benches.
I think there's like big, abig dream here, big upside if
you will, And this guy's likea physical, huge dude, and you
can run and you can hit forpower. He's had pretty good months.

(32:29):
He popped five home runs, twosixty five, three eighty four fifty eight
twenty four strikeouts, but he hasdid walk fourteen times and stole six bags.
So I don't know. I wasjust kind of surprised that he is
as lightly rostered as he is.I think it, you know, maybe
it's a little simplified, but hedoes very much feel like, you know,
it's like a big boom or bus, like a gonna be a superstar

(32:52):
or nothing or a star or nothingtype of guy. And I think there's
leagues where I'd be more inclined tofish and grab few of those types.
Have you watched him at all?I mean he's like a get off the
bus dude. Man's big watched muchof him. I think I watched a
couple of bats. I don't know, maybe a month or so ago,
but I have not watched much aboutYou should check him out if you get

(33:13):
a chance. He's interested. Iwas in the Rass thirty draft and I
was talking to I don't know ifMatt Thompson and I were trying to make
a deal or something, but youknow this off he said all He's like,
he's the guy that I'm not leavingwith because it's you know, like
I said, all or nothing.One last bat that I haven't watched.
I just kind of started watching alittle bit Matt, and I wanted to
ask you if you've seen any butthe Orioles have this young nineteen year old

(33:35):
and a ball Aaron Estrada quite thelast twenty two games three twenty five,
three ninety four, five point fiftyfour. He hit three home runs,
stole nine bases, caught twice,struck out fifteen times, walked nine times.
I think there is a little bitof buzz on him. I think
he's moved up to two percent rosternow. But this was someone new to
me that kind of want to watch, and I haven't much, but I

(33:55):
was just curious if you had anythingon him. I haven't watched him.
I think he popped up on aleaderboard I was looking at a while back
because he had been stealing bases adecent amount and everything else looked pretty interesting.
But I have not watched any ofhim live. Yeah, I'm gonna
have to get in to see what'sgoing on there a little bit more he
might be. I know he's availablein a few of my leagues that I

(34:17):
might need to show the miners here. Well, we can't leave quick rundown
of some of the guys who've beeninterested in without doing victory lapping, because
if there's anything that the fantasy communityis about, in the Dynasty community in
particular, it's victory lapping, right, Like, that's why we do this,
That's why we talk about this.I think that's why we're in the

(34:40):
Dynasty discord. Is just a victorylap. I think that's the only reason.
Right, you're with you on that, right, Like, that's that's
the whole that's the whole point.Well, I think there has been no
better hitter in the minor leagues overthe last call it three weeks, four
weeks. Then my Los Angeles Angelsb side the Young Fire hydrant capture,

(35:02):
outfield extraordinary. Gustavo Campeto. Man, this man has been on one.
Have you seen what he's done overthe last like three weeks. It's it's
been pretty insane, Like I don'tknow what are they doing. They're just
all right, he's going to beour Double A all Double A, all
star guy. Where sit there anddo it, I guess, And hey,

(35:23):
maybe they'll promote Himenough to Triple Aand he can light the PCL on
fire for a bit. But Ialso wonder if like they're going to trade
you know, Ward away and thenthey've got some more openings in the outfield.
Maybe they trade adela way too.I don't know who knows what the
Angels are doing, but Gasavo Campero. Over the last three three ish weeks,
he's got a two hundred and fiftysix WRC plus in Double A.

(35:46):
And yeah, he's quote unquote oldfor the level. He's like twenty six
or something. And he's been throughwaivers like multiple times, I think,
or through the Rule five draft multipletimes, and nobody wants him. Watched
fourteen point seven percent of struck outfourteen point seven percent of the time.
Triple slash of three seventy two fiveoh five, seven fifty six slug.

(36:07):
That's his slug. Like major leagueaverage OPS is like seven thirty this year
or something. He's got a twelvesixty OPS over that period. He's swiped
eight bags in three weeks. Likethis little fire hydrant is so fun,
still Nate. Before we started recording, I haven't been keeping up with as
many of the minor league games thatas as I usually do, But I

(36:30):
saw this heater that he's on,and I watched a few of these bats,
and he is as fun as ever, Like just huge hacks, just
lacing balls all over the yard,swiping bags and his helmet flies off,
Like this dude is so much fun, and I'm just so pumped he's he's
having such a great middle of theseason. No, you were spot on
with that preseason. He is.He is one of the most fun guys

(36:52):
to watch in the minors, Ithink, and just then destroying the Southern
destroying it. It's wild. Andagain, like I think I said this
when we when we talked about likeI don't think this is really a guy,
like I don't think he's he mightmake the major leagues. Is like
a utility guy or whatnot. Buthe's so fun and whenever he has any

(37:13):
success, I'm just like so pumpedabout it, just because he genuinely was
my favorite player last year to justlike stumble upon and watch him play.
So he's still doing it. He'sa perfect trash panda and hopefully, hopefully
he gets promoted up to Salt Lakeand we see him in the PCL soon.
Yep. I think that's that's beenthe highlight of the Bats. I've

(37:35):
kind of been getting into this lastmonth. Matt, You've got anybody else
or should we get to the goodpart of things. I mean, there's
a couple other like complex guys thatI'm pretty interested in seeing them, and
obviously like we can't watch him yet, but I think Clig had highlighted a
couple of these guys a while back, and I was in again one of
those spots where you needed to adda few guys, and so I popped

(37:59):
Franklin Are from the Red Sox andEnglish Urana from the Yanks. Both they
look awesome, like stat sheet looksawesome, and I think both have had
really good reports. So those areones that like, again I haven't seen
live have been like I've popped himin a couple of leagues and I've been
pleasantly surprised about what it done sofar. And then we talked about this

(38:21):
guy on the discord a little whileback when Spokane was playing Everett. Kyle
Carros had a great series and hasjust kept that going. His knock for
him, like he's sort of beenlauded as a plus defender and nobody was
sure if he would ever hit forenough power or just like hit enough in
general. You know, he's twentyone in hi A, Spokane is a

(38:45):
good place to hit, and there'sa couple other decent parks in the Northwest
League to hit. But he looksreally good and it's almost been like since
that Everett road trip for them,he's just kept kept it up and it's
really smoking the ball. So Ijust wanted to highlight him as like plays
for the Rockies. So if hekeeps going and makes the bigs like,

(39:06):
it's going to be a good placeto hit. And he plays really good
defense, which say what you willabout the Rockies overall, but they've had
a pretty significant commitment to guys thatcan actually play defense really well, and
he seems to be in that moldto me. And so if the hitting
keeps up and he can play goodd and he's playing in coors a lot
of time, he's someone that Ithink isn't getting enough love. But I

(39:29):
quite liked my looks at him.And I could keep talking about hitters because
they're the best. But I seeNate fidgeting, he's drinking his beer.
He's like, God, get usoff the athletes and talk about the nerds.
So let's go talk about the nerds, the smart ballplayers, ones that
matter the most. Pitchers this lastmonth or so, I'm just talking zero

(39:50):
one percent here. So again,some guys, if you've traded off some
prospects, maybe some arms, tothink about filling up your rosters with and
seeing how the rest of the seasongoes. But we've talked kind of in
depth about several of these guys,Matt, because they were our B side
selections. But your guy, JamesGonzalez has gotten up the double A.
He remains pretty dang interesting. Ithink it's what he's gotten, what eleven

(40:13):
games in now in double A,striking out twenty one percent, walking eight
and a half percent, you know, one point three to two whip.
But he's had some like, youknow, he's had some big outings.
I think he's had a couple wherehe's gotten maybe beat up a little bit.
But you know a guy in theuppers who continues to have some success,
I'm intrigued. And he's a bigboy. I love a big boy.

(40:34):
And Gonzalez has just been pretty consistentthroughout the year. I really like
him. Yeah, And of course, like this isn't you know, you
know, roster James Gonzalez be like, all right, this is going to
be, you know, front ofmy rotation someday. But you know,
just Matt more and more, pitchingmore and more. I watch. It's
just like guys can make some bigjumps, like we've talked about. And
as long as you're just like winningthe war of attrition and moving up having

(40:58):
success, you get yourself in bigs. You pitch well a few times,
like if you can stick around andreally get a chance to be a part
of the important, most important partof development, you know, going up
against big league hitters and you gota chance, and you look around.
Look at the All Star Game theother day, like there's several pitchers having

(41:19):
great, fantastic starting seasons that youknow, weren't pegged as future number ones
or front of the rotation guys,Like that's just a super I don't I
don't like to. I don't liketo frame it and get myself thinking about
arms that way. I don't know. Of course, the schemes is pretty
obvious to you that like, hey, he could be really good, you

(41:40):
know, he could be really good. He could be an ace, like
yeah, but there's there's more subtleaces out there that come to be after
many years of learning how to pitchin the bigs, and you don't always
need an ace. I mean,those guys are great to get, but
you know, the types of leaguesthat we play in, arms that are
consistent, like mid tier time sixtyto one hundred and twenty starters like those

(42:04):
are useful and win championships if you'vegot you got those guys, especially if
you've used your opportunity cost well onthe athletes, on the hitters, you
know, then you've already rostered thegood players and you just got to backfill
with the dumb nerds that everybody elseoverlooks. Yeah, my Mets, beside
arm Kate Morris has been pitching muchbetter of late. I still like him,

(42:27):
you know, again, just kindof a sum of all parts.
I think there's plenty of big leaguepitchers in there. I think his execution's
getting a little better. I likehis athleticism still in high A. But
I'm wondering if, with all thenew college guys that might be coming in
what have you, if he isgoing to get a double A chance before
the season ends. He's had somereally nice outings of late. I think

(42:49):
he just had an FQO if Iremember correctly, my guy Tyler Schweitzer.
Now, I remember when we weretalking about Schweitzer Matt preseason. You asked
me if I was worried about hischances in Chicago, and I was like,
I'm not worried that talents will getin the way of his chance,
but you know, the White Sockshave added quite a few arms since then.
True, Well, he's recently he'sgot five starts in now I think

(43:13):
at double A, and he's beenpretty good. He can just be kind
of frustrating because you can see howgood he can be at times, and
it's just you know, a lotof minor league pitchers are like this,
but a whole starter's kit he canreally execute his whole arsenal well and really
pitch well, and the other timesit's just kind of getting hit up too
much. But like I said,he's in Birmingham now and showing out a

(43:35):
bit. I'm still very much intoSchweitzer and he's sitting at what he's at
one percent Still TJ McCarty has hadsome nice outings of late, going deeper
in games, striking at the walkshave come down for him. Still like
his funkiness and his robotic demeanor onthe mound. I'm curious again with some
new college guys coming around, ifhe's going to get a double A shot

(43:58):
sitting at I think about sixty inningsfifty six innings or something like that on
the season so far, and Ithink there's been some pretty obvious improvements in
his execution as I've watched him thisseason. And I wanted to ask you,
Matt Now. I know, Ithink he got blown up the other
day. But a guy in theMariners system that you weren't super high on,

(44:20):
Michael Morales, have you paid anyattention to him recently? I mean,
I think he had a pretty wellHe's got two starts in double A
now. I think the first onewas pretty good. In the second one,
I think he got blown up alittle bit. I haven't watched much,
but I think he's having his bestpro season so far. I haven't
watched him much this year. Asyou note, he was a guy that
I was mildly interested in maybe twoyears ago and was kind of a watchless

(44:47):
guy for me that hasn't really evercoalesced. So I I haven't seen either
of his double A starts, andI haven't followed him that closely because I
kind of I kind of wrote himoff a bit, And that is it's
just one thing to note, likesometimes you do that, you just write
off a guy that like he's ajag for me, just a guy and
you can only focus on things somuch, and it takes quite a bit

(45:09):
to pull you back in a guylike that. For me a while back
was Ben Joyce, where I wasjust like, look, he throws hard.
He made a bunch of headlines whenhe was at Tennessee because he hit
one hundred and five, and Iwatched him pitch and I was like,
he actually sucks. He doesn't strikeanybody out, he has bad control,
he has one pitch I wrote himoff like I had a chance to keep

(45:31):
him for free in a league thathas like namesake prospecting kind of thing,
and I passed on it because Iwas like, I think this is a
reliever at best and a bad one. And now he seems to be a
pretty good reliever. But it's justan example of like a guy that I
wrote off and lost out on youin the long run, and then Matt,
I didn't look. I haven't lookedat ba's top one hundred. I

(45:52):
don't think all season. But isit true that I hear right? Is
Gary gil Hill their top one hundred? Now? I haven't. I haven't
seen. I know they've written himup pretty glowingly a couple of times.
I think he's getting some real helium. I think that was a great call
about you. I think you gotit well. I think he got his
tit slit his last outing. ButI didn't bring I brought him up because

(46:14):
I wanted to talk about Isaiah Low, who was my what padres beside arm.
But Low has been really freaking goodand racking up fqos down in a
ball. He's at thirty one pointthree percent strikeout, nine point six percent
walks, I kind of think justfrom an arsenal standpoint, just my view.
I don't have you know, metricsand numbers like I find his arsenal

(46:37):
as intriguing and nasty looking as Garygil Hills, and nobody's on Low Man
he's one percent rostered. Still,I think he's actually one guy that I
have well because you know, thevalue on the trade table wasn't meeting how
I value him at all. Itwas easy to trade Gary gil Hill,
but I've managed to hang on toto Low and he might be my most

(46:59):
exciting Paune prospect after trade seasons overin some of my leagues. But he's
been really good and I think reallyslept on and again that I think some
of that is the West Coast thing. Yeah, he's been good in San
Diego. I don't know what youthink about this, but I feel like
they've done a pretty good job withsome pitching development overall. I think maybe

(47:20):
they're hitting development isn't isn't quite asgood, but they've definitely developed some pictures
that and have shepherded them through thesystem. Maybe maybe this is dated a
little bit now. I don't knowwhat I've gathered about the Padres pitching development
over the last few years that they'revery hands off. Watching Maser a lot.
I think some of that kind ofshows, I think they kind of

(47:42):
just and they tend to push.I think I think they push a little
bit, and I think they letguys just kind of figure it out.
And I don't think their at leastthis is what I was told. They're
not like Super. I don't knowlab Ish and into all that as much
as some other organizations, but Ido agree they do tend to pop some
pitchers in the draft. They didit again just the other day, some

(48:06):
amateurs I've kind of had my eyeon, and they tend to take some
of those guys. So I don'tknow. I don't know how I totally
feel about all that. I wishthat Maser maybe had a little bit more
guidance learning how to pitch. Butthey seem to always have some interesting arms,
I think, or at least overthe last four years or so,
well, my b side arm fromthem. Austin Krabb, the lefty with

(48:30):
pretty good control. He's had apretty bad year so far, like certainly
the first few. He's turned iton a little bit of late He's had
some good outings lately he has.He's one that I think started the year
with like extremely bad luck. Ithink his BABIT was high. I think
his left on basis really low,and it was a lot, and he
wasn't doing quite as well on thebas runner prevention side of things, walking

(48:52):
a bit more than he had inprevious years. But I think he has
righted the ship. At double A. It has looked more like he did
of late training into one of hisstarts a couple of weeks ago, and
it looked more like I remembered fromlast year. I was sort of surprised
that he'd been having so much struggle. He seemed like a back end starter,
good control, good command kind ofguy, and he hadn't been showing

(49:13):
that so far. But I thinkhe's sort of righted the ship and is
another one to look at as likea high probability back end starter rotation.
Yes, yeah, you know,at the beginning of the year, I
was kind of wondering if Crab mightbe ahead a Mazer for a major league
start, But he was so badto start the year, wasn't It wasn't
to be. I don't know ifyou've watched any Nick Cinecola or the Giants.

(49:36):
He's been up in double A forabout six or seven starts, and
he's striking out thirty percent up thereand walking six percent. I think historically
I've never really been a big fanof his executionist command and that sort of
thing in the brief watches. Ithink I watched him, you know,
several times when he was with Eugene. Maybe he was still a ball last
year. I don't know whatever itwas, but he's kind of I got

(50:00):
my attention a little bit just thestrikeout, you know, ability twenty four
year old double A. We'll seehow that goes. But Giants are kind
of a fun b siding franchise becausethey I feel like they just give a
lot of guys a shot and theythey'll rotate through and that can be a
little bit frustrating, you know,it could take a little bit longer for
a guy to get more settled inthe biggs. But Sinicole, I've definitely

(50:22):
picked him up to back Bill ina few spots. Another Oriole that I
want to watch some more of.But Blake Money down an a ball has
put up some interesting numbers. Iwant to watch him some more. A
couple more I know Rockies, butMahoney and Adams have been pretty good,
but Matt. The guy that hasbeen most interesting to me of late is

(50:45):
Ryan Gusta of the Astros. Nowyou look at his season line, he's
twenty five in Triple A. He'sgot a I think five thirty two era.
Forgive me if these are dated bylike an outing. Fourteen starts,
sixty nine innings, twenty one pointsix K percentage of ten point two,
walk percentage two eighty six average onesixty two whip a five thirty two er

(51:08):
right, not like sexy looking stuffright now. Of course, he's in
the PCL, so there's that.But I watch I've watched, I think
when we were doing our B sideresearch, I was watching a little bit
of him from last year. Butman, he has been on a tear
in the PCL. His last sixstarts thirty five point one innings, one
point two eight eer, a pointnine to one whip twenty four point six

(51:30):
percent, k a five percent walkrate, strike percentage of sixty eight percent,
zero home runs, only five earnedruns. So I have been turning
him on. You know. Ofcourse, it's Triple A, so it's
fun. You get the savant stuffwith it, and man, this guy
is just looking now. Of courseit's small sample, but he is looking

(51:50):
like our kind of dude, man, like fucking good stuff. You're talking
lots of stuff. You're talking lotsof ways of attacking hitters, executing it
well. His fast ball seems tohave gotten more lively. He throws a
couple of different ones. Now,the breaking stuff looks good, the change
up looks good. He's getting likehigh percentage of whiffs on all of the
pitches at different outings. What hisI think this was his last outing,

(52:15):
or at least it was the lastouting of his that I watched. But
he threw he threw a four steamer, a change up, a curveball,
a cutter, and a slider right, and he got csw fifty three fifteen
forty five percent, ten whiffs ontwenty swings with his four steamer, four
whiffs on ten swings with his changeup. And you know, so watching

(52:37):
the video, like, all right, how sharp is this guy looking?
And this is this is interesting.I don't think I've ever watched the guy
and thought about this before, orat least as much, Matt, But
you see him he has misses,right, he misses his location, and
he'll miss it by i'd say agood amount, right, But man,
he's got such a high percentage ofthese misses just still be like great pitches

(53:01):
on the edges. Like Ketcher willcall for a fastball down in the way
and he'll just paint one high andin right, And it's like to me,
I'm like, man, is thiscoincidence that so many of his misses
end up like located extremely extremely well? And I'm starting to think watching like
his last three starts, like isthis guy just not listening to what his

(53:23):
ketcher wants? I don't know,like honestly, like binge, watch his
last three four or five starts andif you don't think about that a little
bit, because I am like,if I if I had a chance to
interview him, that'd be like thefirst question I'd ask him, are you
just doing what you want? Butyeah, dude, and so you're talking
you know that, like WGM,I'm competing having starting pitching depth is always

(53:45):
nice. He's zero percent rostered.He could be close, So I'm like,
yeah, I'm gonna pick him upin case I just need an arm
or whatever. But some legit interestsover here on Ryan Goosta. I think
maybe, however you want to callit bit a late bloomer or what have
you. But and it's only sixstarts, but very very excited to see

(54:05):
how the rest of his season goes. Yeah, Gus is an interesting one.
I haven't watched or don't recall watchinghim. I've watched a decent amount
of the PCL this year, butI don't recall him standing out. And
you look at his line and it'sit's again like nothing pops in it,
you know, like you go backfive years worth of minor league data and
nothing is like stand out. Ohmy god, this is incredible. But

(54:27):
it's been pretty consistent and pretty He'sheld his between three five and four five
fit for most of that time.Yeah, and doing it Doing that in
the PCL is no joke. Yeahthis year. So yeah, he's carved
up some pretty good lineups of late. And you know I have taken notice.
Nice, Sorry, have you watchedany of Sorry it's a Dodgers pitching

(54:52):
prospect. So maybe I know theanswer to this. But if you watch
any of Chris Campos this year,no, I don't think I have.
Campos was like a seventh rounder.I think a couple of years ago out
of the West Coast Conference, andso I'd seen him. He pitched for
Saint Mary's and I'd seen him andthought he was kind of interesting coming out
of college. Pretty low slot guy, like he's not big, you know,

(55:16):
he's maybe six foot if I recallcorrectly, but pretty low slot delivery.
And I always thought his fastball playedbetter than like the VELO looked on
it. And I also thought thathe had pretty good control, And it
seems to me over the last thisyear, he's like last year he kind
of struggled and was totally forgettable,and so I think I dropped him off

(55:39):
a couple of watch lists. Butthis year he's really stopped walking anybody.
I mean, he's down below fivepercent on the year walk rate and is
striking guys out at like twenty sevenpercent or so, and he's up in
Double A now and pretty much choppingthat league. He's a guy that like

(56:00):
went from, oh, this issort of interesting. And I don't know
if he's popping on other lists oranything, but he was one that popped
for me and I was like,oh, this is pretty interesting, and
I remember liking him. He's wonChris Campos for the Dodgers. That encourage
you to see if you like it. I actually be really curious if you
like the arsenal. I find thatI have enjoyed how it's played in Tulsa.

(56:23):
I think I saw him, Imean against Amarillo, he had a
really solid start. But yeah,anyway, you should watch him tap a
Campos and see if anything pops foryou. But he's an interesting one for
me. I'll take a look.See what's up there that think you dadger?
All right, Matt, So enoughof that mudding. Let's talk a

(56:43):
little bit. Well, let's justdo a different kind of muddon. Let's
talk about the draft real quick here. You know, for us we're not
like huge followers of amateurs, right, but I mean we're not super naive.
I think the draft now is whenI start to really do my homework
and dive and get into some stuff. But I know you have. You've
been out to some University of Portlandgames, right, They had three pictures

(57:05):
draft yep, Sam start is thathow you say it? Right? Brown
for the A's yep, Nick Brinkseventh round to the Marlins, and then
Joey Gartrell YEP fifteenth round to theBoston Red Sax and Gartreil would have gone
higher if not for TJ. Thisyear, he okay through I think it's

(57:30):
like four games is their Friday Nightstarter. Ninety five ninety six fastball,
but a ton of sink and runand a good slider and solid command.
Gartreil is kind of a horse likethat's that's a sort of sleeper one to
put in, Like nobody's gonna drafthim in an FYPD and he's not going
to be like a big K guyI don't think in the pros. But
I think his sinker is going toplay and he'll be He'll be an interesting

(57:52):
one to follow, Like I wouldn'tbe surprised if, like two years from
now, we're seeing him chop updouble a with like a eight k per
nine, like a sixty five percentground ball rate or something. Okay,
they had three pretty good arms thisyear then THO they actually had more than
that, but those are the threethat went. And for the West Coast
Conference to get three pitchers drafted,I think Gonzaga did it two years ago

(58:15):
with the Hughes draft. I forgetthe other two guys there, but they
had three pitchers drafted, but itis very rare. I'll brag on my
buddy who was their pitching coach,like he did an awesome job with that
pitching staff, like turning those guysinto really really strong arms. I'll give
you the quick overview on each ofthem. Stir Went the highest. Not

(58:38):
that surprising because he's like up toninety seven. I think he gets up
to ninety nine and bullpens and stuff, but in games it's more like ninety
four to six I think, andhas a really nice slider, but the
command is okay rather than excellent.I think he got by on just having
better stuff than the West Coast Conferencefor the most part, less consistent than

(59:01):
Gartrel when he was healthy, andcertainly than Brink and Nick Brink. I'm
pretty sure I didn't double check this, so I'm pretty sure he was WCC
Pitcher of the Year this year.Super well earned. Like this guy was
incredible, very very smart. LikeI would talk to the scouts in the
stands and they would all be like, this guy's like wildly smart, almost

(59:22):
like I don't know if you knowscouts like this. Sometimes they're intimidated by
that. I feel like this guy'sway smarter than me, and they would
almost take that as a negative sometimes, and but Brink turns that into really
really knowing how to pitch. Andhe's got like four pitches that he's pretty
confident using. And I actually lovedhis changeup and his confidence in using it

(59:45):
in interesting spots, which is likeone of my favorite things to watch as
a pitcher. His fastball's mid nineties. His slider is a bullet slider that
really works, but I always thoughthis changeup was his best secondary and he
had really good command of all threepitches. He toyed with a sweeper too,
but I think he mostly was abullet slider guy or gyro slider guy.

(01:00:07):
And the one thing about Brink otherthan like the weird thing that some
of the scouts had with his likebeing really really smart, is he has
an odd delivery in one pretty specificway. And I actually sat there for
one of his games this year talkingwith like three of the other scouts there
asking them what they made of this. And Brinks strides pretty open lands with

(01:00:32):
his front foot like pretty far tothe left side. He's already pretty far
to the left side of the mound, and he still like gets down the
mound pretty well. Obviously has goodvelo, has good control, but it's
one of those things that I couldn'treally come up with a starter that had
a similar stride alignment, if youknow what I mean. And I don't

(01:00:54):
know if you have any off thetop of your head, mate, but
we couldn't really come up with anywith this group of scouts that I was
sitting with. I wondered if thatimpacted his velocity just it seems like he
was like off center enough that maybeit was eking a little less velocity out
than he actually has in there.And I wondered whether the slightly atypical delivery

(01:01:15):
knocked him down a bit in thedraft, because you look on performance and
he was better than like some ofthe Gonzaga arms that have been popped in
the second round or something. I'msort of surprised that he fell to the
seventh I know that Miami guys likedhim, so I'm not super surprised that
Miami is the one that took him. But Bring for me, is the

(01:01:36):
best of those arms. And Ido wonder if a team like Miami,
who I think have especially on thepitching side, have done more of the
lab type stuff, whether they cancoax even more velocity out of him,
and again whether he needs that ornot, whether that might lead to injury
down the line. Like who's tosay, But I think it's an interesting
landing spot for Brink, and he'sone that I would say is from what

(01:01:59):
I had seen in the last maybetwo years, like he's one of the
best pitching prospects that I have seenin person in college. I'm sure he's
not going to land high on anyFYPD list, and we'll probably circle back
to him this offseason as we getready for FYPD season. But for me,
Brink is like a flag plant typeguy. I just think that guy's
going to have success and he's goingto be a good, a GID pro

(01:02:22):
pitcher too. Fun. I hadto ask you about those guys because I
figured you had some experience with them, some intel quite a bit, quite
a bit. Yeah, I don'thave nearly as much, but I was
kind of not surprised and maybe kindof excited to see the Angels took Trey
Gregory Alford, Colorado prep pitcher.Big kid throws really hard, pretty electric

(01:02:46):
stuff. But I had a fewhigh school coaches out here the same ones
that kind of tip me off onMartin when he was like a sophomore in
high school. I think that heis like the most electric arm that they've
seen out here. And you know, the Angel kind of gave him the
Cat and Dana treatment again. Youknow, he's not a nothing prep guy.
You maybe came on the scene alittle bit later. But like Perfect

(01:03:07):
Game has him ranked, had himranked thirty fourth, but they popped him
in the eleventh. I'm sure they'llsign him for a million dollars or whatever,
similar to what they did with Dana. And you know, the Angels
like to move fast. So I'mkind of excited to see him in pro
ball and probably pretty soon here.Yeah, that could be interesting, you
know, first year player drafts andstuff, but work and stuff. Those

(01:03:30):
sometimes those day three guys who getpaid like Day one or Day two guys
don't get the attention they deserve.So yep, maybe maybe a sneaky guy
there to keep an eye on.We'll have a lot more to talk about
with the draft and whatnot. ButI don't know any any pretty boy thoughts
off the off the top of yourhead, any reactions from you with the
pretty Boys first round or whatever.Well, I mean, I think the

(01:03:52):
best guy went first, which Iknow there was a lot of speculation about
the Guardians sueing something kind of creativewith that. Do you think that because
you saw him this year you weren'tI know you weren't impressed with the defense
very much. I wasn't impressed tothe defense. You're right about that.
I saw him twice when they cameup to University of Portland and Bazanna.

(01:04:13):
In one of the games, hadthree balls that I would say a good
second basement makes, and he didn'tmake any of those plays. He made
all like the normal plays. Maybeit was just like a one small sample
because in the second game that Isaw him, he made all the plays
and it was fine, like therewas nothing of note. But I did
think it was interesting in that onegame he had two tough balls up the

(01:04:34):
middle that he didn't get to,and then one tough ball in the hole
that he got to and didn't makethe throw, so it was sort of
like a long infield single. Ithought that was sort of like, again,
at the very very top of thedraft, you kind of pick knits,
and I just from that, Iwas like hard for me to say
that that's a no doubt plus secondbasement. I think he's more of an

(01:04:57):
average to blow second basement maybe,but boy, can that guy hit and
and I do. It's also interestinglike he's five nine maybe. I know
he got listed at six foot Ithink in one of the things, but
he's short, He's like really reallyshort, but he's absolutely jacked. I
think the swing decisions were pristine watchinghim hit one of the games, I

(01:05:20):
think he hit two home runs,a basis loaded, just smashed single up
the middle, a hit by pitchin a walk, didn't get out and
was just crushing pitches. And theother game he had a homer. Like
I think he's homered every single timeI've seen him, as I saw him
two years ago too. Yeah,he's the real deal at the plate,

(01:05:41):
I think, and maybe just goodenough to play second base, first second
baseman ever taken number one, andlike if the defense isn't like gold gloveish,
I think that says a lot aboutthe bat. Yeah, and I
do think that that's earned and unlikesome of the SEC guys who there's somewhat

(01:06:02):
rampant speculation about are they juice intheir bats? And are like are they
goosing the scouting reports or do theyhave live cameras going like I will tell
you some of the inside chatter thatI had heard from the gossiping scouts at
these games. And bear in mindthese guys don't usually scout many of the
SEC guys because they're more Northwest basedscouts, that they had heard that this

(01:06:27):
was actually a concern for some ofthese top of the like first half of
the first round bats at the bigSEC programs, that they were worried that
some of this stuff, some ofthis incredible performance from some of those top
guys might have been a little bitof a mirage and that it was giving
some of these guys like half grademinuses to their internal evaluations. I thought

(01:06:49):
that was interesting, Like it alsocould have been like you know, scouts
loved the bullshit and blow up arumor, But I thought that was interesting.
And nobody that I have heard hassaid anything to that effect about Oregon
State or Bizano. So so yeah, maybe that was another just like small
separators from those top kind of fiveor so guys at the top of the

(01:07:11):
draft. Ye, I don't know, I won't I just I mean hack
me. I'm super curious to seehow some of the power plays out for
some of these bets when they getin the pro ball here because it's interesting.
I'm a little bit wondering slash skepticalof some of this, and I
mean, just again initial I gotI want to watch a lot of these
guys and get more familiar. ButI thought Weatherholt to Saint Louis was pretty

(01:07:35):
interesting. You know, that's probablya type that I'd feel pretty good about
drafting in a especially a larger league. And for the record, for me,
like I know, I've seen somesome like mildly negative reports about Jock,
but I think Jock for me wasthe guy that I want to bet
on in the like FYPD sense,he showed interesting improvement in the things that

(01:08:01):
he was bad at right, Likehe was like chasing too much and it
was leading to a slightly elevated strikeoutrate. Even if you like knock four
miles an hour off his reported topend exit Bilos, it's still elite power
there. And maybe somebody that isn'tFlorida can teach him how to actually pitch,
which we have seen before, right, Like we've seen college pitchers come

(01:08:25):
out of Florida with talent and noidea where the ball's going terrible pitch shapes,
bad sequencing, and it gets better. If Kansas City wants to try
him two ways, maybe he cando it. I'm not saying he's Otani
on either side of the ball,but if I'm gonna bet in a dynasty
league and I have it in anearly FYPD pick, He's probably my number

(01:08:47):
one, like just on the upsidechance. Bazana would be two for me,
just like a little bit safer.But Jock, I just think that
that guy, there's a world inwhich the contact and chase games that he
made this year at the plate playthe power is real, Like he's not
juicing the bat and not cheating thepitches, and he's a closer, like

(01:09:11):
a legit ninety nine mile an hourlefty closer coming out of the pen.
And I think that's a really funand be pretty valuable in a dynasty context.
So anyway, that's that's of thepretty boys. I think that's like
the guy that I was most impressedwith what his improvements looked like. Yeah,
Bizana for floor and Jock for sealing. For me, I liked seeing

(01:09:32):
Orlando get picked well, I meanby Miami whatever, but uh, sixteen
after I don't know, for whateverreason it was being said, he like
kind of fell off this summer tosome extent or whatever. But you know
me, I love the no stridestuff, and yeah, yeah, that
kid, I know it's a littlefunky, a little different, but that

(01:09:54):
kid can hit the ball really hardwith no stride and that that intrigues me
quite a bit. And then Iit was kind of interesting that the Orioles
went back to North Carolina and gotHoneycut after they took after they took Horrorvath
in the second round last year.Right, but I pay a little bit
attention to North Carolina, watched someHoneycut and went to went to an order

(01:10:14):
that kind of seems to know whatthey're doing with hitters. I think that's
an interesting one for them. Imean, he's tooled out the wazoo and
I think is a really good defendertoo, which real teams care about like
watching him, like he doesn't getcheated in his hacks, but it also
means he misses the ball a lot. I mean Horrorvath was kind of like
that too, right, yeah,bit a bit, Yeah, Yeah,

(01:10:34):
he definitely had some some contact concerns, but his like played approach to me
was always a little bit better,Like even in college, like he was
like two guys are like they're they'reputting their ace wing out there a lot.
Yeah yeah, yeah. But withHorrorvath, it was like he would
let fringe pitches go and walk alot. Because of that and Honeycutt,
I think is a little less selective. What did you think about the Mariners

(01:10:58):
pick the ambidextrious guy. Yeah,yeah, I don't. I mean,
I don't know. I haven't Ihaven't really watched some pits, so I
don't know, but you know,I played against Patti, like is a
gimmicky I don't know. Yeah,well, you know I played against Pat
Vendetti, who was the oh reallyswitch pitcher. Yeah, he's like the
original, wasn't he. Yep.It was a trip playing against it.

(01:11:20):
It was weird, like I gotto hit it against him a couple of
times obviously as alrighty and like you'angelo sint g. Is that how you
say his last name? I thinkso, I think I think it's like
that. I think it's something likea sint g as a lefty. Vendetti
threw a lot slower. He wasmuch more like a funky like side arm
lefty with the big sweepy slider asa lefty, and that as a righty,

(01:11:43):
he was more like a Johnny righthander like eighty eight to ninety two,
with a like more north south slider. And so mostly when when we
were doing our platoon against him,I got to face Vendetti because like he
was sort of murder on lefties likethat and was just kind of an okay
college pitchers a righty. But Cincy, I think it's like ceiling well above

(01:12:03):
n Ditty and Betti made the bigs, so there's something interesting there, and
the Murners have done a decent jobdeveloping pitching. So I thought it was
a fun pick. I'm interested.I can't wait to start seeing some of
these guys in full season ball.It'll be fun see where's where's this year's
mcadoo's and baldwins and stuff like that. I love Day three. Day three

(01:12:24):
is my favorite. I'll spend moretime probably digging on Day three guys.
And yes, we'll do a lotmore digging on this and find some some
more sleepers that we like for sure. Yeah, man, it's good to
see you again, my friend,you too. Apologies. I know,
trying to make this an every weekthing, but you know, life happens,
and things happen, and vacations happen, and tennis happens happens. We're

(01:12:47):
in the we're in the playoffs now, Nate. Yeah, it's playoff time
and well not quite yet in tennis. I mean, oh, tennis,
and tennis playoffs start next week.We hide for first, but we lost
on the tiebreaker, so we're thesecond seed. Well, best of luck,
my friend. I think how muchyou got anything else you want to
say? I think we'll wrap upepisode thirty seven of the Prospect B Side

(01:13:12):
podcast. Here, wrap it up, my friend. All right, well,
we'll let your cago farmer take usout. Be well, we'll talk
to you next time. I waitfive miles an hour. Riding to his
head, he hop him down firstwith the lumpbone ass face, and on
the very next pitch he up andstole second face with gretest speed. He

(01:13:40):
wasn't born, he had the badYes, UNI born