Episode 38: Playoff Juices

The Rook and Nate discuss some current consensus values, some players getting their attention of late, and revisit a preseason exercise, wondering how they may be feeling today about not buying into a few preseason Top 100 prospects. (There's also a tease for a big upcoming episode.)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ninety five miles an hour riding too his head.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
He hopped down.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
First with the lump bonius face, and on the very
next pitch he up and stole second face.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
With gradest be He wasn't fun, he had yes uniforn.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, Hey, welcome to episode thirty eight of the Prospect
B Sides podcast. I am Nate, Handy and Natty to
the Natty is here. What it has been? What's up, dude?
It's been a minute. Apologies, like a life things, it's
just an episode a week. Thing just hasn't been happening.
But we're still at it now. My my freaking laptop

(00:49):
is on its last leg. It has been rough, dude.
I can I can watch a game, I can watch
a video where it's like if I touch anything, it's
like I accidentally touch a key, the thing just like crashes.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
So yeah, I know how that goes. I just got
a new computer myself, and it has been so nice
to have a computer that works. Yeah, of course, it's
just for work stuff, so it's less useful for our
podcasting and deep dives on deep league fantasy prospects. But
it is nice to have a working computer, except that,

(01:23):
like the computer works, and then have I told you
about this saga that I've been had going on with
my internet? Like I get it that the internet service
providers are monopolies and they're notorious for having the worst
customer service, but it's just different when you have to
deal with it. Like knowing that that's a fact and
that other people have to deal with it, you're like, ah,

(01:45):
that sucks. I hate Comcast, I hate CenturyLink, whatever. But
then you actually experience it, and it feels like I'm
in a dystopian future every time I talk to them,
where it's should you not? Today I was on hold
with them for three and a half hours today, three
and a half hours for the guy to say, I'm
gonna I'm really gonna own this problem. We're gonna get

(02:06):
it fixed. And he looks it up and it's an
area problem, he says, and it has nothing to do with me,
and he can't help me. And I was like, but buddy,
that might be true, there might be a widespread problem.
But also, here's these other three things that you guys
have done to my internet in the last month that
are driving me crazy, and you can't fix them. You

(02:27):
can't fix them. What's going on? And he's like, I
can't help you with that. What we'll call you back
when when we fix the bigger problem. I'm like, you're
not gonna call me back. I'm gonna spend tomorrow on
hold with you again. And it's just it's like being
a fan of the White Sox. I guess you know
where you're just like, you don't have a choice. You're
from the South Side and you're like, I'm gonna like
the White Sox. Maybe you had that one year in

(02:47):
two thousand and five where you're like, oh, this team
of Destiny and we won the World Series. I love
fat Mark Burley. It's great. And now you're sucked in
and you have no choice and you're a fan of
the team that's going to break the record for the
most losses in the season. I mean, it just sucks.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
You're poking a couple of sore spots there with me.
I lived that nightmare with the nightmare or with the
internet a couple of summers ago, Matt where I had
there's nobody who would give me the internet. I'm like, yeah,
it's a Metropolin, Denver and no internet, just none. No
one could help me. I don't want to talk about

(03:27):
the White Sox Man. But I do have to say
this might be a dangerous night to be doing a podcast, Matt,
because I'm in a mood. Man I am. I am
jazzed up. It's playoff season. I've just got like I've
just got like rage against the machine. Just like in
my head, I want to run into somebody. I want

(03:49):
to talk shit like it's it's like it's like fring
training and like this time of year where I'm just
like all the jerk juices just get flowing in me.
So just a pos I had a time. You may
catch a few strays here. I don't know what's going
to happen. I just my mouth is liable to run
off here.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Well, I'm here for it. I fought with an ISP
today and had a bunch of tough work meetings and
so I'm I'm I'm ready to get fisy. Let's go.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
We're right for We're right for a fight here. Yeah,
could get fun. This could get fun. Maybe start off
talking about the Welsh is p one EIGHTYP drafts that
he does. I participated in one. It's always fun. I
always like to talk a little smack. But I'm the
undisputed prospect mock Draft champion every year, you know, because
obviously no one can disprove that. But I sent you

(04:37):
over my little draft there, and I just wanted to
I wanted to pick your brain. And I make any
good choices that I make, any bad choices that I
represent this podcast well in my showing there. What do
you think so that he does five different drafts, twelve
teams a piece, you do one hundred and eighty picks
a piece, and then he just aggregate it all and

(04:57):
just kind of use that as a little barometer prospect
opinion that might be out there. And he does these
with you know, people who do content, people who play.
It's a good mix of folks. It's a fun time.
I had a kind of a fun draft. I think
Welsh was in it, and Beck was in it. Jeff
Ponce was in it. Nice, Nice, a couple other industry
for Beck was my my drafting neighbor. And he was

(05:18):
a good neighbor. He didn't he didn't piss me off
at all. You know, he was after he was after
his whatever losers, and that was taking the studs.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
You know. And the idea is this is like Roto or.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
It's not really generic, not really specific, yeah, more or less.
I mean Welsh is like he's like a head to
have cats player, I think is his main deal. So
I just kind of played it like that.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
Yeah, well, I love your first pick, which was Jason
Dominguez at sixth overall. You know, I think there's a
decent chance in a roto type format that he returns
first overall pick. I imagine what a holiday would.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, it was like would holiday Cam and Aro left. Yeah,
I don't remember who went like fifth and six, maybe Jenkins.
I think Jenkins might have went before Duke.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
But okay, yeah, no, no, I mean so maybe if
I was sitting at one, I would take Wood over Dominga's,
but that might be it for me. Like I know,
Domingas hasn't set the world on fire coming back from
injury this year, and you know, we'll see when he
gets to New York how things shake out. But people

(06:30):
forget that he steals maces really well, and I think
the power really plays. So I think that's just a
great pick.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
At sick, I figured that you would, that you'd endorse
that you've talked fondly of his dynasty value.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Yeah, and then at nineteen overall taking Andrew Paynter. I'm
surprised you waited that long, like I mean sitting him
there at six, Like, I'm I kind of think you
might have considered hovering over that key.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
At my top of my key was Jaye Amond on
Painter right there.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
Yeah, I'm not surprised. So that's I think good value
there too. Like there are not that many really great
pictures in the minor and Painter I still think is
going to be one of them. So I thought that
was a good pick.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Beck was right in front of me and he took
the first picture Job, and then I took Painter.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Oh okay, okay, yeah, I think I prefer Painter did job.
I mean, Job was great last year, but we might
have mentioned this that the innings were a bit of
a concern and then obviously the command has kind of
backed up this year for Job. Still like him long term,
you know, because what he did last year was really good.
But yeah, and the injury thing Painters at least was
just an elbow, right, we know about those jobs is

(07:34):
like Job's is like back and leg or something. I
don't know. So anyway, I like that thirty. I think
this is probably the first pick where a bunch of
other people were like, really, you know moistis by Asteros.
Do you get any chirps on this one?

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Uh? Not No, not too much, I don't think. But
I thought you'd like that. I thought you'd back me
on that.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
I certainly do. And at thirty again, like I might
have played the game a little bit and tried to
see if I can float him down into the forties
because I think most people don't have him that high.
But remember this dude is like twenty years old and
just crushing double A and triple A as a real,
real young guy. And I think, you know, people knock

(08:13):
him because he looks like a bowling ball. Fine, you
can do that, but he really really knows how to hit.
And I just love that kind of guy. So definite
co sign there. Again, speed's not going to be part
of his game. He's a catcher and that's probably his
best position. So if he slides down the defensive spectrum,
it's going to be more three or four category production.

(08:35):
So I could see like the upside being a little
bit limited there. But I think that bat is real, real,
so love that one.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
He's a hitter. To me, it's a hit or play
with position, whatever.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
Going down your picture real quick quick, Ethan Sallas. I
mean this time last year you couldn't have gotten him
at forty three. He's still super young, and I think
there's a lot of great baseball reasons to like him.
I still question what the fantasy impact parts to be.
Jordan Beck, I know you like him. We've talked about
him on the pod before. He was your next one
at fifty four, Caid Cavali at sixty seven. I like

(09:07):
this one. He hasn't shown as much as I thought
he would coming back, but just.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
He's came back for a little bit then been on
the shelf and I don't know what's going on with him.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
But yeah, we've talked about him before though that, and
I'm with you on this, like I think the skills
there are really good and hopefully the health pulls it
back together. That's the real risk with him and with
lots of pictures. And then I see your horse Caden Dana,
who I've been giving you a hard time that he's
more circus, uh Mary go around pony rather than true thoroughbred.

(09:36):
But he's very good and I do think he is
a solid picture. I think The thing about him that
is interesting that you've identified is that he does seem
to be able to hold his stuff and work deep
into games. I questioned the kind of ultimate strikeout upside
I see him settling in more as like you're who's

(09:58):
a good example of this? He says like, I don't
know Stroman without the ground balls. I just think that
the strike up upside isn't going to be huge with him,
but he's a decent pitcher and is going to get out.
Maybe that's more Merril Kelly kind of ask, is a
like upside version of this. Maybe I think that's fair.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
I've been impressed with just him literally adding just another
dimension to his to his game this season, Like there's
a lot more East West game yeah we had last
year and you know, still very young. Love to see that.
Who knows what he might be able to add, you know,
in the years coming and game and.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
He's very young too, and seeing him progress this quickly,
this young, I think says a lot. There are a
lot of high school pitchers who people have loved and
they haven't had this kind of progression. So honestly, kudos
to him. His development has been really good. And then
just a couple of quick hitters here. PJ. Moorlando, I
know you've talked a bit about him. Maybe we'll keep
that one on the D d L while we revisited

(10:54):
with our offseason stuff. Drew Romo, I like that pick
at one oh two. I've still think he's a really
good catcher, and he's sort of been quietly solid this year.
I think there's some other catchers that I mean, you
took two good ones already, so I might have diversified
away from the catcher position, but some lot.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Of times I was thinking about another catcher, but I
was like, dude, I don't want to go like that.
Got like two or three right now, Like.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
Yeah, And surprisingly, I think a lot of the catchers
have done pretty well this year in the minors where
we've talked about some of the other positions have been
kind of down maybe, but I feel like the catchers
have kind of showed out decently this year and moved
up boards pretty well. Then Maser and Burrows like both
of these guys, both near to the bigs, both sort

(11:39):
of like four or five kind of pictures maybe with
if they figure something out a little bit more upside.
But I'm a fan of both growing.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
I felt like at that point, I felt like earlier
it was like, all right, I'm not like super convinced
that there's a ton of everyday bats out here, Like,
who are some arms I don't mind taking a gamble on?

Speaker 4 (11:59):
Yeah, and those are good ones back in top hundred
and early top one fifty kinds good old Chucky McAdoo
Charles McAdoo now in Toronto, which is so weird to me.
But one of our boys got trade deadline. He was
a good pick. Us Baiaz another guy that we like.
And I've been a fan of Robbie Snelling though I
think that's the first one where I'm like, really, there

(12:21):
was nobody better than Robbie Snelling there at one sixty three.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
I'm not forgetting twenty twenty three. And did you see
the start that he had yesterday?

Speaker 4 (12:29):
I did not.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
He shoved for six innings. All right, that's fair. I'll
take some criticism on that. I think with him. Jesse
Severe had me on Dynasty Sports Life pod last week
and we just talked about some the prospects that got traded,
not pretty boys, the other guys just talking then, Like,
to me, a bet on him is just kind of
a lot of like intangible sort of stuff. Obviously, the
performance hasn't been that great this year, but it was

(12:53):
pretty freaking awesome last year. And then who knows, maybe
a little change of scenery might might be good for him.
Maybe a little bit more hands on direction with the
Blue Jays. I don't know, but that's the hope anyways.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
With the Marlins, right, Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. With
the Mars, Robbie, Yeah, and that regiment there in Miami,
I think they have done a pretty good job at
least of the targets they've gone after, and coming from
the Rays, that organization maybe has a bit more analytical

(13:25):
bent than they have previously. So it's not like getting
traded to the Marlins now is like, oh shit, that
guy's gone to a dev team that they don't know
anything about what they're doing. So in that case, I
think some people used to feel that way about the Marlins,
and rightly or wrongly, but yeah, it's not a terrible
landing spot for Snelling and he definitely has some talent.

(13:47):
But for me, at this stage in the one sixties,
one seventies, I personally probably would have been looking for bats.
But we are different humans and then you with your
guy Ryan Gusto.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, that was just a little fun one. Ye see
what happens there. He's still been really good man. Yeah,
and starts now that he is uh, he's carving.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
People don't give that enough credit, like you is no joke, man.
The run environment there is crazy and if you have
any kind of success like this is the ole. I
remember getting into a bunch of arguments about this with
with people a couple of years ago. I think it
was like Gavin Stone or something where I was like,
this guy's really good, Like he just chopped up the
PCL and that's really hard to do. And then you know,

(14:30):
had some bumps in the bigs and then kind of
has figured it out a little bit. But anyway, Yeah,
it's a hard place to pitch.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Do you feel like I represented us all right there?
Do I get?

Speaker 4 (14:41):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (14:41):
This is this is solid? This is really really solid.
And I don't have the whole board here, so you know,
I'm sure there's some that I would qubble with more
looking at the whole board. It's been a minute since
I've done any kind of prospecting draft like this, but yeah,
I think you did really well. At the top and
that matters the most, and then you got a lot
of fun guy in the middle of it. I think
are gonna very likely to return value, which is another

(15:04):
thing that's interesting about these Like you see people going
after your Mizerowskis and you're kind of super high upside
young guys that are doing great, but like you're George
Wolcose or whatever who have forty percent strikeout rates in
a ball and they're like, oh, but it's the power,
and you're like, well, but is he ever going to
touch the ball enough to make that matter? Like, I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
I think my biggest takeaway from being involved in that
was what I kind of felt to be. I think
the pretty boys are struggling right now. I felt like
there was a lot of grasping for some pretty boy hope,
you know, like Jenkins being a top ten pick.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
People love him man, and I just don't freaking get it.
The strikeout rates ticking up into the mid teens. He's
not hitting for power. I'm just like, like, I get it.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
I just I felt like the you know you talk
about first round, second round, top twenty thirty or so,
there's a lot of young, lesser proven bats that were
being taken than I think years past, and that might
just be kind of the way of the land right now.
I don't know, but I thought that was kind of interesting. Yeah,
And I'm like way more into sort of searching through

(16:15):
the higher level more I do maybe past B side
or B Saide esque bats right now for some teams
that I'm trying to you know, reload or get some
value out of pretty quick here. You know, like we've
had some some B sides that have recently got the
call up. Matt Baldwin, Natcho Herder, Gaparo, Tanya's back up.

(16:37):
I know he was, He's been up before, but up
with his new team the Nats now really kind of
thinking about what might be what might might be the
kind of next wave for guys like that, you know,
Sonoya Terso I think is real close. Yeah, real interesting. So,
I don't know, there's there's definitely my RAS thirty team.
I've definitely said. I even had some and made some

(16:58):
trades and had some younger guys and I said, you
know what, screw this, I'm going to cash all these
guys in to try to get these types that are
close and just just see how it goes. I like it,
have a little fun. And then that the last thing
on the P one ADP that I always find interesting
when we do this thing. It's one hundred and eighty
pick draft, right, there's five of them. How many total

(17:18):
players do you think we're taken across those five?

Speaker 4 (17:21):
I will say a bigger number this year than I
feel like usually, So I'm going to say two fifty.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Two hundred and sixty something, which I think might be
a little bit lower than the last time we did it.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
Really, Oh, I'm surprised.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
Now, let me ask you this, So what what's what's
five times twelve sixty? So there are sixty people that
took part in this. If you took like sixty people
from a MLB scouting department and they did something like this,
how many players do you think would be picked? More
or less? And this is just a hypothetical, fun question.
I have no idea.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
I feel like less. You think so, I think so,
I think so.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
And here's why I have it in my head that
if they got to go and do it, there'd be
like three hundred and fifty players taken. They'd way more.
But what do I know? I don't know anything.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
So here's the reason why I don't think that's true.
I think if that were true, we would see more
trades in the major leagues, and we did just see
a lot for the trade deadline. But if teams really
did have that wide of variance on who they liked

(18:31):
on other teams, such that they had like three hundred
and fifty different unique guys that they think should be
top one eighty, I think there would be more trades
where they were trying to leverage that preference right where
they wanted to do more minor swaps or old veteran
that it like maybe is fringy value, and they try

(18:51):
and pick up some of those we call them more
b side s guys that like we value, but those
guys don't. And I think the dynasty community has a
little bit more hurting, especially in like mocks like this,
where people really mostly are like they don't want their
picks to look stupid or something, and so they heard
a little bit closer together. So normally I would say

(19:12):
and something like that was five teams, I would say
like maybe two twenty two thirty, especially in years past
where I feel like the top one hundred was a
little bit tighter a little bit stronger, and then like
you look at Post one hundred, maybe there's two hundred
guys that you could make an argument for that, but
most people are still making an argument for the same

(19:33):
kind of fifty to ninety of them that fit in there.
And I think in teams that doesn't happen as much,
partly because they care more about defense and that gives
like a little bit more there's a little bit more
weight to a category that really dynasty owners ended up
not caring very much about, and partly because if there

(19:54):
was such big differences, I think they would act on
them more, you know. I think that's that's myhypothesis here.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Like I said, who knows, But my question would be
to that is how much time do you are MLB
teams spending looking at other organizations? I have no idea.
I've heard of a couple of organizations just in the
last year or two that were just essentially getting a
pro scouting department started. So who was doing this stuff?

(20:21):
I don't know. I have no idea what any of
that looks like. But I just always I think.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
It really depends, like there are teams that spend a
lot of time on this. I have heard folks like
the Brewers spend a lot of time on this. I
think the Rays spend a lot of time on this,
especially that would make the seasons like this where they
sold a bit, and then you look at some of
the guys that they got back. I thought they did
pretty well, right Like, they picked up some players that

(20:50):
I thought were really good, you know, like a bunch
of B side guys that we liked went for Zach Efflin,
right Like, that was a really interesting trade that was
like B side heavy. So I think there are some
teams that spend a lot of time focusing on that,
and especially the sellers. If you know your team isn't
going to be great, but you got a little bit
of capital at the major league level, I think they

(21:11):
might turn a bunch of the guys that normally spend
on development for their team or amateur scouting, and they
might turn them to like pro scouting, you know. So
maybe Miami did a lot of that this year where
they're like playoff team recently, but they knew pretty early
on they were going to be one of the few sellers,
and they focused a lot of their efforts that way.
So I wouldn't be surprised if they dialed that up

(21:32):
and down depending on the year.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
For no really reason at all. My dream is to
be a part of a P one ADP MAC and
find out that four hundred and fifty players were taken
in one hundred and eighty player drafts.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
That would be surprising.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
I love the diversity and opinions, and more players the
better to me. I don't know what you've been getting
into lately. Well you've been watching any guys, You've had
your ion. I've got a few year. It's nice to
see Cale Durban's back and he popped a home.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
Yeah, yeah, that was good.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Finally I'm miss turning that little that little spark plug on.

Speaker 4 (22:11):
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
I wanted to ask you if you've been paying attention
to like of mine for a while, Jordan Diez who
got DFA and no one picked him up. It's off
the forty man, but he's been like tearing up the
PCO a little bit here, and like, maybe did you
pick him up? Did you just pick him up?

Speaker 4 (22:27):
In one of our leagues? Was I was? I think
it was somebody else, but I like hovered over him
for a good ten minutes, I think because I was
scrolling through because that was in WGM, I think where
it was our last waiver run of the year. On Sunday,
I really looked at him and I was like, mate,
do I want to stash him on that team?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Right?

Speaker 4 (22:47):
I didn't, but he was the last change, the last cut,
because I still think there's a chance he's a solid
big leaguer.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Like over the last twenty two games three eighty one
four seventeen seven two slash with nine home runs and
six doubles fifteen strikeouts.

Speaker 4 (23:04):
Like that's pretty fun.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
I've always been drawn to this bat, and you know,
I feel like I broke up with him, but now,
you know, see him at a party and he's looking nice.
So I don't know. I don't know if I made
the right call there, but he's he's caught my attention.
Like I think we mentioned, I think Terso's pretty close
son of getting the chance when that might come for

(23:26):
the Padres. But you know, he's been on one for
a minute. I've been impressed with and these these are
all just former B side guys, Matt, but edgar Quero
has been.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
Doing it a yep, it looks good again.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, I mean, just the last couple of series. He's
just like hitting four hundred, slugging damn near seven hundred
and hitting some home runs. A couple of guys. I
wanted to ask you about that. I haven't watched a
whole ton of just kind of started turning them on
this weekend and trying to see some at thats. But
have you been noticing young Luis Castillo of the Brewer
system at all? He's down in Carolina, got called up

(23:58):
from the complex.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
I happened, tell me about it.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
I mean, this is more just you know, getting my
attention on the stat lines and just starting to get
in the video. But last twenty one games with Carolina,
he's popped five home runs, He's struck out fourteen times,
he's walked eighteen times. He's slashing three twenty eight, four
ninety four, six ninety, He's twenty years old. I think
they got him playing outfield. Maybe Mark, that guy has

(24:23):
someone to do some homework on. That's basically where I'm
at with him right now, and I checked. I think
he's zero to one percent rostered right now. Love that
the Giants have this undrafted I think it was twenty
twenty three undrafted free agent Bo Davidson, same story. I
want to just start watching him some more. But last
eighteen games, four fifty eight, five ninety eight, thirty one,

(24:47):
four home runs, four stolen bases, struck out twelve times,
walked seventeen times, so one four to one ops over
his little a ball run right now. I think he's
twenty one years old, college guy. But I know very
little about him, but want to learn more. And I
want to know, Matt, what you think about Luke Adams.

(25:07):
Do you have any opinions there?

Speaker 4 (25:08):
Yeah, I'm a big Luke Adams fan. I think he
gets knocked for having kind of a funky swing, though
I believe he's toned that down a bit this year,
at least last time I saw him, it look like
a little bit less funky. But the things that he
does well, I think he walks a lot, he hits
the ball hard.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
I think his slug isn't real high, right, but.

Speaker 4 (25:31):
It's it's Yeah, it's not super high, but he still
has decent power, even if it's less light tower power,
you know, I think he still can. He pulls the
ball a pretty solid amount. Yeah, I mean he's pulling
the ball almost half the time this year and you know,
his flyball rate isn't super high, but it's still good

(25:54):
enough that he's like doing damage on contact. And I
don't think he's a great base runner, but he's a
cup steals away from going back to back thirty seasons
thirty still seasons. He's not fast, and he does get
caught a decent amount, but I like the aggressiveness.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
He's kind of an odd duck. Huh. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
I mean I think he's like sort of one of
those classic, you know, not quite B side guys, because
I think he gets a little more love than we
usually get behind. But he is sort of odd in
his movements, you know, almost like Hunter Pence esque. I'd
say it doesn't look like it should work, but there's
some things about it that are are pretty athletic.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah, he's got some unnatural in him right.

Speaker 4 (26:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
And still in HIA, I got him in like a
little throw in just to throw him patting care or whatever. Okay,
you're gonna add him. Cool. But in RASS thirty where
you can only pe play twenty five guys and I
basically have fifty players on the bubble, I don't know.
I don't know if she's if she'd be worth it
there and that. I don't know. I don't really know
what to do with him. I've seen him. I think

(26:53):
he's gotten on some Twitter people's top one hundred lists
and stuff.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah, I think he's really good. And I think I
said this in the Dynasty I got the other day
and Craig poop pooed me for it, and I was like,
I guess, you know, like he's the classic scout View guy,
but he's performed pretty well the last couple of years
and I think he's I think he's good. I like
him again, probably for me, he's probably like top hundred
asking back end part of it as a hitter, he

(27:20):
does a lot of stuff that I like, and I
can see it all right.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
I saw some chatter going on today in the discord
about Jonathan Long, who I know we have, yeah, brought
up a few times, but he got promoted to double
A and like it's kind of been kind of been
hitting it man four two, five forty one, six h
nine slug over the last nineteen games, popped a couple
of home runs. Yeah, I think he's kind of an

(27:46):
interesting b side asked that, especially if that sort of
success continues. I know, I kind of like the look
of him at the plate. So yeah, So Jonathan Long's
promotion has been kind of interesting. Nat, I don't know,
have you ever turned on Peyton Williams in Blue Jays systems?

Speaker 4 (28:01):
From Yes, but it's been a bit.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
He was like almost my Blue Jays B side call
this year. I Am not saying roster him or anything
like that, but his bat has kind of come around.
You know, he's a big boy and he can he
can put a charge into one too, but there's like
a little blend of some hitting there. I don't know,
I wouldn't bet that anything really comes of it, but
putting together a nice back half of the season.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
Yeah, you're really selling him, selling him good.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
He's funny. You gotta get some love to the big boys, Matt.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
I do love a big boy, especially big boys from Iowa.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
To my people. All right, well, you know that's a
that's are pretty boring. Anyways. I want to talk about
an arm real quick, Matt. An arm that I'm kind
of getting more and more excited about the more I
watch him. And that's Iverson Castiano with the with the Phillies.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
I haven't watched him.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Talk to me about him I would have loved to
have been fly on the wall during the trade conversations
that the Phillies had with the Angels, because I'd be
super curious to know how the Phillies view Castillano compared
to those two, or vice versa, what the Angels may
have thought. I don't know how much they looked into him,
but U there are some It's definitely not one to one.

(29:14):
But when I watch him, I kind of think about
Ben Brown when he was with the Phillies a little bit,
and that is just kind of like, I think it's
a pretty good fastball. I don't think the slider shapes
are like the same, but I'd love to love to
compare Ben Brown's breaker and his breaker just on a
nice nerdy metric sheet and just see what the differences
are there. But Castillano has got promoted to double A.

(29:35):
He's made four starts there now forty eight innings, one
six four ERA a point nine to one, whip thirty
two percent, k percentage seven percent, walks, throwing strikes at
about sixty two percent. He's given up one home run
over those four starts and four earned runs. Maybe a
little bit of a bigger body, boy, I think he's
about twenty three right handed. Yeah, you know, just like

(29:58):
anybody that I'm gonna like. Man, it's a blend of
pitching and stuff. And impressed me with his move up
to the uppers here his first four goes at it,
I think, faring a lot better than maybe I would
have bet on right out the gate. But there's a
nasty breaker there that I think he can that he
uses pretty well. There's there's other secondaries. It's a potential
full kitchen sink. But I've already you know now that

(30:22):
sort of pop up season. I think it's kind of over,
and trade deadlines are nearing the end and playoffs are starting.
I'm starting to turn towards twenty twenty five B side work,
and I'm I'm harvesting my names and trying to turn
on video and they haven't gotten real too deep. But
if Castiano is sticking around at zero to one percent
like he is right now, this is a no brainer.

(30:43):
Twenty twenty five Phillies B side arm for.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
Me, I like it. Early early flag rays on Castano interesting.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, and I went, you know, after I traded away
a bunch of arms, I put my you know, got
a group together of arms. I was like, I see
how the rest of the season goes, and I'll pick
these guys up. And he was near the top of
all those lists for me, and so far, so good.
Haven't regretted. You know, I'm just taking a little flyer
on him and he'll be sticking around on some of
my rosters for sure. Nice. Your boy, Chris compos put

(31:11):
up a monster. Why on the other day did you
see that? Maybe last week I did not. He went
like he went like eight or something. I don't shut out,
but I don't have it in front of me, but
it was. It was dominance on the day. And I
have to admit you told me to go back and
watch him, and I have turned him on for like
a batter or two at a time and then got

(31:31):
way way into something else and haven't completed watching him
outing of his yet. But yeah, you might be. You
might be someone interesting pay attention to. I've seen a
little bit of chatter going on about him.

Speaker 4 (31:42):
I was just perusing the like last twenty one day
leaderboard that I go to every now and then on Fangrafts,
and he's a couple pages deep. I think he's still
doing well, but not not outstanding, but at the top
of this leaderboard is just like B side B side
B side, you know, Caden Dana, Mason Barnett, Ryan Gusto,

(32:04):
Chen way Lynd, Gary Gil Hill, Omar Cruz. So. I
don't know if we've talked about, but he's someone that's
popped on a couple of my leader boards last month,
or so Ander Suarez. It's just like a lot of
the guys that we we like have been I think,
rounding into form even after they haven't had great seasons.
Even Red Van Scooter, you know, RBS has had injuries

(32:25):
and a little bit of underperformance at double A, but
I think he's rounding into form as well.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yeah, and I've been of late, I've been liking what
I've been seeing from some of our B side arms
that didn't, you know, get the jumping popularity, like Jurmine
Rosario is getting double run. I've liked a couple of
last starts. I watched DJ McCarty. I think he's starting
to He's.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
Got a couple and then yeah, Mullins again still a
little wild, but he had an outing that I tuned
in for a bit of maybe been last week and
I think he went four innings, but it was like
eight punch outs and two walks or something. It was
like short and a little bit wild, which is kind
of what he does. But swing and miss still seems
like it's really there.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, so there might be Uh, it might be a
good year to double down on a couple couple of
B side arms for us. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
Oh, another one that I think I had mentioned this
offseason Braves minor leaguer Lucas Braun. Yeah, talking about Braun
in a system that there weren't a ton of guys
to really like. I think my official B side one
was di'a Villa, who's been fun and decent this year
and again. But Lucas Braun I think continues to be
one of those like under the radar, maybe back of

(33:36):
the rotation looking starters, but there might be a touch
more there, and he's throwing volume and get some strikeouts
and limits the walks. He's just another guy that I
keep every so often. Every week. That's another couple of
decent Lucas Braun starts in there, so he's another one
to come back to. Yeah, all right, here's here's one.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
I spend a lot of time this time of year.
Just looking at you know, smaller, smaller samples is what's
going on the last month, the last six weeks, you
see some lines and some small samples. Were like, man,
if this would have happened the first month of the season,
this guy would have been a huge jump in popularity.
So I think that's a big part of my sort
of b side process coming into next year.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
All Right, Nate, who is the full season pitching leader
in lowest walk percentage this year?

Speaker 2 (34:26):
Full season? I just looked at this, that would be
Zebbie Matthews, right.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
Indeed, it is mister call up and guy that I
think we both have co signed and said we really
really like mister Zebbie Matthews.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
We're on the eve of his debut tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
I know, I'm very excited for that. I think that'll
be great.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
I'm kind of secretly wishing that he gets rocked.

Speaker 4 (34:46):
And he might. I mean again, like, this is a
pretty aggressive set of advancements by the Twins, and he's
a command pitcher, but it's like he throws a lot
of strikes and in the big leagues that can get punished.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, filling the zone up there different than filling the
zone down there.

Speaker 4 (35:01):
That's true. I still am a believer. I think he's
going to be quite good, so that it would be fun.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
But I'd like to see him get rocked and get cheap.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Good luck with that. I think a lot of people
really like him. Okay, so who's number two?

Speaker 2 (35:14):
I just looked at this because I wanted to see
where Sean Sullivan was. I know Sean Sullivan's up there.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Sean Sullivan is number two. Yeah, And that's that's why
I want to bring this up, because I know you
had posted was that like a K minus BB leaderboard
perhaps in the Dynasty I got and there were a
bunch of Rockies in there, and the top number two
or something for.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
The top eight full season guys are.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
Rockets Rockies, and Sean Sullivan's up there, and our buddy
Chris Kleaig was poo pooing it because Sullivan's bastball isn't
good enough for him. What say you to that? Mate? Oh?

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Well, I say, you know, this is this is us
and the velocity number is something to be considered and
a component, but that an end all be all. You know,
Like Clegg's not interested because he doesn't throw hard, which
is fine, you know, that's probably part of a process
that will work well for some people. But ain't I

(36:09):
ain't crossing a guy off my board because his fastballs
wasn't he said that it was coming in at eighty eight,
eighty nine or something like that. I feel like i've
seen him, you know, lower nineties. But who knows. That
could be a discrepancy and the measurement, the tools taking
the measurement, who knows. But to me, it's more like
I asked him, like, well, and I don't know what
it is, but I'm like, what's the whift percentage on

(36:30):
that pitch? Because I see a lot of whiffs on
that and of course, you know hitters are going to
get better. Maybe he doesn't have that same sort of success,
but I've been I'm on it. I want to. I'll
place a bet on him to some extent that you know,
he's at least going to ascend well in the miners.
And who knows what happens pitching in elevation and then
away from elevation, but a guy like him could maybe

(36:52):
portend to better success than others. I don't know. I
just know it's a real funky different fastball. And we
just saw our guy who's got a different and lefty fastball.
Bradford do it again in the majors.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's back.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
And for Sullivan, I just think these like really low
walk guys get kind of underrated at times, which is
sort of weird to say, but like people are like, oh, well,
it's not going to work at the higher levels, but
it's a hell of a floor to start from when
you just like know you're not going to throw balls
like that's I don't know. And he gets whiffs more

(37:29):
than some of the other guys Like Pearson Ole was
my guy who was like this last year, but he
never really got whiffs even at the lower levels. He
just made it work because he refused to walk. Anybody
hasn't been as good this year, but Sullivan still gets whiffs.
And it seems to me my like the few times
that I've put him on for full stretches, the fastball
might not be overpowering, but to your point, it gets whiffs.

(37:51):
It looks kind of funny coming in and I think
his secondary's play like it plays off of that. It
keeps guys off balance even though they know like okay,
eighty six is coming or whatever. None of these guys
just squaring that up. I mean, I don't know, I
quite like him, and he's another one that to me
like screams, this is a bye to me, It's like, Okay, yeah,

(38:11):
he's a Rocky and there's problems at the big league
level with that, But what he's showing is I think
good skills there.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
I agree, And you know, I think it says I
think it says a lot in a good way that
an MLB team, even if it's the Rockies and you
want to make whatever joke. And I know that they
weren't the only team that valued him in this draft range,
but they took a guy who doesn't throw very hard
at all in the second round. I think that speaks
volumes about what they might think the total package and
success could be with him. So I'm in man, I

(38:40):
like Sullivan. When I put out that top twenty thing
that Sullivan was in it for me. You know, there
might be a horrible fantasy bet and I get that,
but as just a minor league arm to kind of ride,
I'm into that left handed fastball.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
Yeah, And he's right there with Quinn Matthews, Zebbie Matthews,
tug Bill Wilkinson for best CA minus BB and in
full season ball and just ahead of Jase Kaminska and
Chase Dolander, both Rockies as well. The Rockies seem like
they've got some interesting arms in there, and like the
jump from Sullivan to like pass Dolander and Jonah Thong

(39:16):
down to like the next set of like guys you know,
like called real pitching prospects that have good K minus
bb ear down to Austin Peterson, Jade and Hamm Parker
Messik at around just under twenty three percent CA minus
b B and like, sure, you want to discount this
is the minor leagues and all of that, but Sullivan
is what is that four percent clear of them? Four

(39:38):
four and a half percent clear of that next tier down,
Like that's that's a lot. That's a lot of CA
minus BB percentage to move. So I don't know Man's
He's one that like, I really really like. I've tried
to get him on the cheap in a couple of places,
but unfortunately the people that had him we didn't line
up in trades in a couple of places this offseason
or this trade deviline season. But he continues to be

(40:00):
one that I'm interested in for the longer run.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yeah, I'm with you. I think he got promoted. Did
you get promoted to double A? Did he make a
double A start? I think he did, didn't he? Yes?

Speaker 4 (40:09):
I think he did.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Yeah, some good eyeballs, good tests, good, a better idea
of how it we'll play against more advanced hitters. But yeah, Matt,
So you know, talk about trade season. We had some
fun this last off season and did some trades, right,
We were trading away some consensus top one hundred guys
for not consensus top one hundred guys or yeah, four

(40:32):
guys that were maybe maybe valued. Maybe some of these
guys that were in your trades were still top one hundred,
but much less so regarded than who you traded away.
And I just got curious and turn that show back
on just to see who we were talking about. And
our plan was to revisit these a year later and
see how we felt about them. So we'll reserve our
total final judgment. But you want to, you want to

(40:55):
take a look at these real quick.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
Sure, I gotta be honest, I don't remember. Yeah, people
we talked about.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
I remember I threw my three trades up here in
the discord, and nobody wanted my side of the trades.
I remember that. Let's see here, Matt, you traded away
young Walter Jenkins. Sure did yep in this hypothetical for
Max Clark, but you also said or Emmanuel Rodriguez. Now
I know in these ADPs that we did, these Welsher's

(41:23):
mock drafts that Jenkins I think went suldly ahead of
Emmanuel Rodriguez. Clark might have been there might have been
a few where Clark went before Jenkins, but for the
most part, Jenkins was before Clark. But how do you
feel about that? Right now? Would you still trade walk
Jenkins away from one of those two?

Speaker 4 (41:39):
I mean, for Emmanuel or Rodriguez, I would do that
a million times over. I just think that, like I
do not understand this, Emmanuel Rodriguez is passive and therefore
nothing else that he's doing is real. Like to me,
that take is so tired. He's passive, and sure he
gives up some strikeouts because of that, but he also

(42:03):
walks an absolute shit ton because of that, like twenty
five percent walk rate currently and double as a twenty
one year old. And he's had some injuries this year.
He had the hand thing. And I think he's had
some other Nichols here and there. Yeah, thumb thumbstrain, and
I think he's just now coming back.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
But this is the Twins top prospect problem going on.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
Yeah, gets hurt all the time. I guess I will
admit I did just trade Emmanuel Rodriguez away in my
trade deadline in one of my thirties to get Chris
Sale from my Points League thirty team or push like,
And I didn't really want to do it, but I
was like him plus some other stuff to get Chris
Sale and hopefully Sales my acetime down the stretch. And

(42:45):
I went a championship. And I won't regret this, but
I'm telling you I looked at in this format every
other team, every other prospect. I would not trade Emmanuel
Rodriguez straight up for any of them. Not for James Wood,
not for Junior Ki I'm an arrow, certainly, not for
Walker Jenkins. Like for me in this format that I
had him, he was the perfect prospect. And you know

(43:08):
I'm still aggressive with that. I'm going to trade them
away for valuable production now, especially at a place of need,
as I did. But Amanu or I guess for me,
is just a no doubt top three, top one fantasy
prospect in leagues like this where the strikeouts are aren't
going to matter less, Like he's not going to run
a two ninety eight average in the majors, I don't think.
I think it's going to be more like two fifty

(43:28):
to forty. But if you're in an OBP league, that's
going to come with a four hundred OBP. I'm telling me,
this kid is so good and he hits this shit
out of the ball when he makes contact when he
decides to swing. So for me, like this, this was
an OBP power focused points league, so I was like,
I wouldn't trade him for anybody in in the minors.
So yes, I would make that trade one hundred times

(43:51):
over day. A little bit less confident about that with
Max Clark, who has been solid, but he looks to
me more like a well rounded, okay player than a
star in the making, which is what I think Em
Rodriguez is going to be. Walker Jenkins, on the other hand, like, yeah,
he's had some issues, soft tissue ones now, like a
bunch of them, hamstring, quad whatever, quite a few issues

(44:14):
so far, and people were excited about his a ball
stand as a nineteen year old. You know, one P
thirty nine WRC plus a bunch of the peripherals look good.
Eleven percent strikeout rate, Like normally, this is the kind
of guy that I'm into, right, He walks some, doesn't
strike out much, hits the ball pretty hard, is reasonably fast.
I just look at it and I'm like, I don't
get why people are stuffing him so high. Other guys

(44:35):
that had this similar profile are like lottery ticket back end,
top one hundred type maybe, and people are shoving this
guy in top five in some mocks. He got promoted
to high A. And yeah, it's just forty five plate
appearances so far, but the strikeout rate has ticked up
to slightly above average than elite as it was. He's
not walking six point seven percent walk rate. He's popping

(44:59):
the ball up a bunch t which I had noted
earlier in the year was the thing that he was doing.
He's like hitting the ball in the air a lot
and has zero homers fifty four almost fifty five percent
fly balls and fifty five percent pull rate Nate, and
he's not leaving the yard zero home runs. His ISO
isn't very good. It's one twenty nine, I think right
now one twenty eight, and I don't think it's like

(45:21):
been looking very good. So I still think people love him,
and I think people are still like this is a
top five pick, generational type talent from a strong draft
class last year, and I don't think i've seen anything
that backs set up for me personally. I genuinely think
what someone like McGonagall has done has been way more impressive.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
That was gonna be my question.

Speaker 4 (45:44):
Yeah, I wont McGonagall straight up over over Jenkins personally,
and McGonagall just got to hurt too, himmate deal. But
I don't know, man, I just I really have not
been impressed by the live looks. I haven't been impressed
by the numbers. Just I don't get it. And maybe
this is just the guy that I never get that
happens sometimes. And maybe maybe next year he's going to

(46:07):
be totally healthy, he's going to settle in at high
and double A and really rake and I'm gonna look
stupid on this, but the way things sit right now,
I would definitely trade him straight up for Max Clark.
And even though Max Clark has been fine, not great,
but fine, and boy one hundred times out of one hundred,
I'm training him for a many or yes, no question.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
When I went back and was listening, you were to
this episode you were talking about you know, I think
I remember correctly Jenkins was lauded as an amateur because
he hit the ball really hard. That was part of
that was part of it. And you were referencing, remember
that somebody put up that chart what was it exivelocities
and contact rates or whatever from guys at the reps

(46:47):
at the end of last year, and you were like,
where's the hard hit? What is happening? And I know,
I think he was coming off. Was he coming off
of a ham at bone to or something like?

Speaker 4 (46:55):
It was a hammate? I think it was like a
ham string. Like I think it has mostly been.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Like getting ham Still, you were like, where's the hard hit?
And now it seems to be kind of continuing a
little bit. Now it's like where where is this?

Speaker 4 (47:09):
Like, yeah, I mean he's almost two hundred plate appearances
into the year again having missed some time, I guess,
including his complex rehab. He's two hundred plus plate appearances
into the year and has three home runs. It's all
been at low levels like, Okay, maybe it's you know,
some rehab stuff some whatever, But I don't know, man,
I'm just like, I don't think, at least from what

(47:30):
I've seen reported, I don't think the exit bulos are great.
His contact seems good to maybe very good. Like we'll
see how that shakes out, but it's if the power
isn't there and it's like above average contact, not elite contact.
I just don't know if you're gonna like what you
get is sound like he's swiping a lot of bags either.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
This feels like the kind of production that really kills
a fantasy team that you're like, you're not getting steals.
Maybe the babbit dips a little bit and now you're
not getting much return on anything.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
He's just not my guy. So yeah, I know I'm
doing this trade again, all right.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Just I wasn't planning on getting into these two guys here,
But because we're here, I'm bummed. I'm a bit disappointed
by both of these players because what we're like mid
August right now. I was hoping to have a real good,
juicy duel and debate going on about these two players.
But TJ. Walton has been a rough season. He just
can't say on the field. Yeah, but uh, I'm curious

(48:32):
what you're thinking of Little Woltz twenty twenty four.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
Yeah, it's not been very good, you know. And as
a as a Mariners fan, I'm rooting for him and
think that what he showed last year, I think I
said like he had done about as well as you
can do post debut to just kind of showcase the talent.
And I think one of the things that has been
interesting about Colt Emerson is other than his kind of

(48:57):
inability to stay on the field, like, the power has
shown up for him either. So you're a whittle walt
thing while he has left the yard and we have
video evidence of it. This year, still still just two
home runs on the year, and again he's now over
two hundred plate appearances on the year as well. Some
of this is the a ball. I think he was
hitting the ball in the ground a lot. He hasn't

(49:19):
been doing that as much in a small sample at Everett,
but still the power hasn't showed up just yet. But
I do wonder if there's some overlap in the kind
of hitter that Emerson is and Jenkins both are good
contact hitters and have decent approaches at the plate. But
the power, while maybe we've seen some underlying numbers, it's

(49:40):
just at some point they've shown some good power for
their age, it hasn't showed up yet this year. And
I'm a little surprised Emerson hasn't hit the ground running
at HIA a little bit more and wonder if this
is again for him, some injury rusts or whatever. But yeah,
there's some interesting parallels there and Emerson I was more
in on last year than Jenkin, and certainly at costs,

(50:01):
and I think it's fair to raise some of these
questions about Emerson at this point.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
All right, your second trade was you sent Carson Williams
for Jet Williams.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
I feel like that one I would I would want back.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
Yeah, what's I know? You were? You were pretty you
were pretty fond of Jet coming into the season, and
I haven't paid a ton of attention to him. But
what's the story there?

Speaker 4 (50:23):
Well, because he's been hurt. I mean, I feel like
this is the issue he had. Oh, I don't even
know what this is TFCC de bridement procedure. I don't
think I even knew what that freaking was and he was.
He was solid in his performance at Double A to
start the year. It was just fifty played appearances, one

(50:45):
hundred and three WRC plus is a twenty year old
in double A. Ten percent strikeout rate, six percent swinging
strike out rate for a twenty year old in double
as solid like good hit tool, and I think he
was trying to do his thing where he like pulled
fly balls and made magic happen that way. But he
didn't have any home this year before he got hurt
and then so kind of a lost season for for Jet,
so that one like stopped down for Jet and injury

(51:09):
maybe long haul.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
I think it's maybe still little yet to be determined.

Speaker 4 (51:13):
Definitely yet to be determined. And I will say I think.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Since I had some had some issues too, right, I
mean there's still a lot of isn't There still a
lot of chase there.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
There's a lot of chase, and there's swing and miss.
But he's I think, got a solid chance to go
twenty thirty five this year, depending on how the last
couple of weeks did the season go for him as
a twenty one year old in Double A. And the
strikeout rate, while high is at twenty six point eight percent,
which considering last year at Hi A, what kind of

(51:45):
what we were looking at. He went in a ball
and high thirty two percent and thirty one point eight
percent at those levels, so I was pretty worried about
the strikeouts. And then in its like brief cup of
coffee in Triple A, it was up to forty percent.
So seeing him post his lowest full season strikeout rate
at double A while still showing the power and speed.

(52:06):
And again I think we talked about this, but Carson
Williams could play a really good shortstop. I'm kind of
buying him as a very solid MLB defender at short
So I think Carson Williams certainly more than Jet Williams.
He showed a lot more this year. And I think
I mentioned this earlier in the year when we were
just looking at some early season performances. His early season

(52:26):
strikeout rate improvements. While they haven't stuck entirely, it's been
a lot better and it gives me a lot more
confidence in the overall profile. So like for me, Carson Williams,
he did a lot and a lot of this is
like the early part of the year. I think some
of this regressed a little bit, but he's good, Like
he is a very very good player and would be
firmly in my top twenty prospects.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
Right, and then you made a little catcher swap, you
sent Kyle Teal for Dalton Rushing.

Speaker 4 (52:54):
I still forgot about that one. I mean, I think
Kyle til He's done actually better than I thought he
was going to this year. My issue with him last
year is that so much of the performance was like
babbit driven, hitting a bunch of line drives and running
a high babbit. And he has still run a high babbb.
But I'm more inclined to believe that this is a
little bit more skill base for him. Like he does

(53:16):
hit line drives pretty consistently, he does keep the strikeouts
in check. Like he's a solid baptaball hitter and a
good athlete, and I think he's going to be a
decent catcher, Like I still think for the Red Sox,
like they're still very happy with Kyle Teel. I'm kind
of buying that overall profile as like an athletic, you know,

(53:38):
maybe look at it as like early career JT. Real
Muto with a few with fewer steals, you know, what
I mean, like athletic guy, really good catcher, but hit
lots of line drives with a little bit of power.
Like I'm still kind of buying that overall picture of him.
But for me, I'm still taking Dalton Rushing in basically
every format. I mean, I guess maybe if you really

(54:00):
really need like a catcher and you want the speed,
like he's going to have more speed. Otel is going
to have more speed than Dalton Rushing is. But Dalton
Rushing to me, is like an obp mashing catcher.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
Who they're playing left field.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
I heard he was taking some balls in left field,
and I think that's interesting, A little skeptical that's going
to work. Well, we'll see. I don't know, I haven't
ever thought of him as like super athletic watching him
run or even play catcher. I think he's a fine catcher.
But to me, that says more about their confidence, the

(54:33):
Dodger's confidence in his bat, and I'm I'm still I'm
still there with the confidence in his bat. You know,
he's kept the strikeout rates low in double A and
Triple A this year, at twenty point seven percent and
twenty two percent, respectively. The walk rates are above eleven
percent at both stops, and he's sucked seventeen homers in

(54:55):
with with a solid battterball profile. I mean, I just
think he's a really, really good hitter, and I think
that that's going to carry its way through. So yeah,
I still take Dalton Rushing's bat over Kyle Teels.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Now you had one more, the last one. I actually
kicked you off of our hypothetical team because you wanted
to make this trade. You sent Brady House for Brian Ramos,
who Ramos got a cup of coffee in the bigs.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
Yeah, and it hasn't looked as good this year, although
I think he's starting to round into for him again.
I saw he's back and he's hitting in the International
League a bit better. He wasn't great in the BIGS,
and I think wasn't great even in the miners earlier
this year, if I'm remembering right. But I still think
I like him better than Brady House. Brady House's approach

(55:41):
still bad, still not really hitting a ton of homers.
I mean, this has been his best year and he
as a twenty one year old in Double A ran
a one oh seven WRC plus that's like his and
he hit some homers, which was good. Brady House is
now at Triple A and scuffling again again, people lotting
the power. This is just ninety played appearance, but his
max TV has been one oh six, which is like

(56:04):
way way below m'lb average. And I don't know. I'm
sure that's going to come up as he gets comfortable
with the level. But yeah, twenty six point seven percent
strikeout rate, three point three percent walk rate. I just
don't think his plate approach is very good. He's hit
them all on the ground a lot. Don't really see
Brady House.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
It's funny how it works. I'm still I'm still Brady
House fan and hopeful. And this might have been I
think at the time, at least to me, this was
the most interesting debate I think of yours. And it's
just funny how it works, right and the like, we're
half a year later and it's like, h this might
just be debating poop and poop.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
Maybe maybe for sure, although like I said, I do
think that Ramos, you know, while he wasn't very good,
prety pretty bad in his major league debut, like so,
he got forty eight plate appearances, but his max TV
was the same as Brian Ramos is Brady House is
in Triple A, and his average EVE was higher and

(57:03):
he struck out less. So I mean, like you look
at some of the things that you have more control
over as a hitter. He was doing those better as
a twenty two year old in the show than Brian
Rama than Brady House is doing in Triple A. Now,
so you know, I don't know, we'll still.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Team House, but we'll see. No, I don't know, Matt,
you tell me here. I sent Drew Jones for Victor Barracoto,
who has not had the gatty season that I had
hoped for. But oh wait, wait, wait, there was a
second piece because that was just such an unfair trade
that I also got Joey Estes. So do you like

(57:41):
that still? I think I still like that Drew Jones
for Barracoto and Estes. I think I'd do it.

Speaker 4 (57:46):
I mean, it's still I think positive value for you,
but that's mostly because I think Drew Jones isn't going
to make the major leagues, and I also don't think
Barracotta is. So you got one somewhat interesting back.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
In somewhat interesting.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
Okay, all right, he said some good outings, he said,
some poop addings, you know.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
Yeah, all right. Uh. My second one I sent who
I think was sitting around the top fifty at this juncture,
Luis anhil Acuna or Darryl Hernez and man I had
a chance to really crush this one, I think, but
I picked the wrong B side. Arm I went with
Alessandro Ercolani.

Speaker 4 (58:27):
M G, would you feel better?

Speaker 2 (58:29):
Oh yeah, definitely, But I'm thinking, like even I think
I was thinking about Gary gil Hill so for some
style points, and I think he was but I went
with Erkulani, who you know, he's very young and whatever.
He still has that really interesting slider. But I think
this one's still yet to be determined. Renees is back
and getting some major league run, but he has not

(58:50):
done anything of note yet, but yeah.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
And hasn't been good or healthy either.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
So yeah, so you have to be determined there, I think.
And then my last one was centers, right, Yeah, I
sent Harry Ford for von Herrera, which I was really
liking and looking good when Herrera was getting some run,
and then he got hurt and they went with uh
pies instead, so he's down in triple A. I think
Herrera is hurt again, but I liked his showing. I

(59:16):
liked him for the most part. I thought he was
kind of doing his thing at the major league level.
But I also got.

Speaker 4 (59:21):
Horror is awesome. I like her a lot. Do they
think he can't catch it like I don't.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
I haven't watched him preferred defensively. I don't know. I'm
just speculating, but I know Pies also was swinging it.
He had like a he had some like fourteen game
hit street going on or something like. He wasn't nothing
at the plate either, So I don't know.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
Yeah, I like Herrera a lot. I think he's been
really good, and he must be bad by some catcher
metrics because they just like aren't They weren't even playing
him a lot when Wilson Caturs was hurt. I never
really got it.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
Uh, but then I also got Caten Dana in that trade.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
Oh right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you've done. I
think he did well, and I want to especially because
Harry Ford forgot how to hit homers in double A.
I think he hasn't had one a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Well, you know, Arkansas, I think that's I think that's
a tough, tough place. There's some bats there that I
that I didn't like that I do like, you know,
and I haven't been watching a bunch of them just
kind of box scoring it, but all of their productions
have sort of their service level stuff. His depth there.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
Yeah, and it's interesting because Harry Ford was hitting for
some fairly significant power early on. It was the thing
that I think it was. I think we had sighted
and said, they're like, I think he's going to struggle
to hit homers in Double A, and he came out
of the gates walking a lot, running, hitting some homers
and it looked really good. And then I think he's
just had a massive power out. So I don't know
what's going on there, and some of it might be

(01:00:41):
park and long and I'll be a season and all that,
but yeah, I was. I was, I think early in
the season when we briefly touched on this, like Harry
Ford was somebody that I had been really impressed with
that he was getting to the power in Arkansas and
and it has just disappeared. So yeah, and Avon Herrera
is awesome. I'm a huge fan.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Of his and it seemed to me doing that ADP
mock thing that Ford has has dipped in popularity.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
Yeah, I think that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
With those guys, but but yeah, I don't know. Matt.
It's good to talk to you again, man.

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
You too, buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Yeah, we'll try to do this again to you. Like
like I said, I'm starting to look toward twenty twenty
five B side off season stuff too, And what I
noticed on my tracker, I think there's like sixty seven
college bats from this last draft that are that have
hit full season already turning those those guys on a
little bit. We've got I don't know. I want to

(01:01:35):
say there's probably about a dozen or fifteen college arms,
but they seem to be mostly relievers that have hit
full season, no prep arms, because you know, they got
that Bridge League now, which is going to be a
bummer for us.

Speaker 4 (01:01:46):
I think, Matt, they're.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Gonna go there, They're not going to go to a
ball And then there has been one one prep bat
that made a full season debut, and that was PJ
Orlando and he had got one played appearance before he
got hurt.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
So that was classic Nate guy hurt can't play.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
But yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's like I said,
it's pop up trade season's kind of over, so I
think my B siding is shifting a little bit when
I'm trying to watch.

Speaker 4 (01:02:15):
You caught any of the demolition that Christian Moore has
put on the league so far?

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean shoot six home runs and then
knocking on the big league door evidently right with the
with the Angels.

Speaker 4 (01:02:28):
Just a cool three seventy WRC plus in his minor
league career so far. I remember gushing about how great
Wyatt Langford was after his debut after his draft last year,
and Christian Moore is like, hold my beer, Wyatt.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
Yeah right, yeah, so that'd be fun to see where
you know, where he goes during first year player draft season,
And well, man, I just I got to mention real
quick how awesome it was to see the Rockies score
seven runs in the bottom of the eighth to beat
your braves yesterday. That was that was a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
You had to say that twice.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
I still mean, well, I brought it up before we
started recording, so I wanted to get it, but I
think we'll let Chicago Farmer take us out. Then good
to get back and chat. This was episode thirty eight
of The Prospect B Sides podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:03:13):
Hey, and we have some fun stuff coming up. I think,
oh yeah, a little bit of.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
That, you know, yes, thank you, thank you. We're gonna
have an awesome interview. I don't know when it's gonna happen.
I don't know if it's gonna be the next episode,
next time we record, but I am super pumped. I
don't know how much how much should I tease Matt?

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
I don't know what to Yeah, I mean, you couldn't say,
like a really big deal college coach is gonna come
on like hot name, rising star kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
Well you just say it, Well you just did say it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
Yeah, yeah, So buddy of mine. Then I've I've cited
a couple of times on the pod. He got a
big new job, big promotion. And I just saw him
a couple of weeks ago and was talking to talking
to him about coming on the pod, and he said
he was down. So I think we're to get it's
an inside look into the college landscape. Big program, big

(01:04:05):
big college seasons coming up, and MAT's ready to geek
out about some pictures because he's a pitching coach. Unfortunately,
I do like pictures, so that's that's my misfortune.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
Too, I'm super pumped for making that happen. It's just
a little pipe dream of mine to talk to a
big time pitching coach and get into some of that,
So I'm super jazz for that.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
Yeah, we'll make it happen. It should be a fun conversation.
He knows his stuff for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
We'll let Chicago Farmer take us out. Be well. We'll
talk to you next time later.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
Now riding too is he?

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
You have him down first with the limp bone ass face,
and on the very next pitch he up and stole
second face.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
With gretest he wasn't born, he had you're the fol