Episode 39: Mud Jumping

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nine, five miles an hour, riding too his head. He
hopped down first with the lumpbonius face, and on the
very next pitch he up and stole second phase with
greatest me. He wasn't born, he had the dirt.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yes, beautiful, all right. So Episode thirty nine of the
Prospect B Sides podcast. Welcome, Thank you for turning us
on if you have not listened to this podcast before.
Myself and my buddy Matt. Here we are getting muddy,
getting into the dirty, grimy, maybe hard to see full

(00:46):
season ball, trying to dig around and find some interesting
prospects that might not be real popular in the Dynasty world.
And I think we got a good little little muddy
exercise to get into this episode. But Matt, how are you, buddy?

Speaker 3 (00:59):
All right? I'm good, Nate, I am good. Spending a
bunch of time working and dadding and then squeezing in
any little bit of minor league baseball that I can watch.
I mean, I was mentioning this to some friends that
I hung out with last weekend. I was like, yeah,
I watched way less major league baseball these days, just
because like when I have a free minute, I'm like, no,

(01:20):
let me peruse some minor leagues, and let's catch up
on a couple guys that I've put on a watch
list because one of my leaderboards has them as interesting.
And you know, to build on your point, we're not
really talking about the pretty boy prospects. It's pretty rare.
We'll dive into anybody on anybody's top one hundred. We're
really trying to identify some of those guys that we

(01:42):
think maybe belong in some public top one hundreds but
aren't there yet, or we might have an eye on
as a riser. But yeah, we're mostly interested in talking
about how the pretty boys, as Nate likes to say,
aren't actually all that pretty and maybe you can get
some discount. Pretty boys wipe off.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
The mud exactly. And you know, Matt one, you know,
my main I don't know, maybe lack of a better term,
process is just watching MiLB dot TV. That's what I
like to do. And part of the benefit and what
I really like about it is a lot of times
Matt eyeballs are faster than spreadsheets or gouting reports. You know,
I think we saw that maybe some with some of

(02:21):
the arms that we picked this offseason, right we turned
on a few innings of a few guys, and we
were kind of, you know, interested before they started hitting
lists and getting blurbs and whatever. And in the dynasty world,
deeply especially, that's the name of the game. We got
to beat your opponent to the punch.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, it's also paying attention after the beginning of the season.
I think you mentioned this on our last pod, But
some of the performances that we've seen in midsummer to
late summer, where guys have started to turn it on
or maybe come back from injury and are really performing,
or we saw some kind of a change and now
they're really succeeding. They'd been doing that in April, everybody

(03:00):
would be talking about them. Yeah, you know, just think
about how quickly people jumped on some of the hot
names early this year, and now some guys are putting
up similar kinds of performance, but nobody's really talking about them.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, you know, And this is a good time to
do some mudding too, because I think a lot of
you know, a lot of people played fantasy baseball and
fantasy football, and all those footballers are getting ready for
their football drafts.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
You know. Yeah, yeah, you do such a thing. But
you know, some people do, apparently.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
So Matt and I before the season started this year,
back way back in October, almost a year ago now,
Matt getting to be a year, we went back through
and picked a pitcher and a hitter from every organization
that was either not created yet in fan tracks to
maybe two percent roster. There was a few occasions maybe
we went a little over guys we think might have
sent get more popular, become a good trade chip for you,

(03:53):
a prospect for you. Right, And we had three more
guys hit the bigs just this last week. Matt, think
that brings our total up five bad?

Speaker 3 (04:01):
And is that thirty five across? Like your Yeah, I'm
doing this because you because yeah, because you had a
few more that have had some time to percolate. Do
you know what it is from our last offseason?

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Oh, I don't have it right in front of me,
but I could count that up. You've done well. You've
been two guys going at it tonight in the same game,
Brent Herder, who's I think looks pretty good and is
what three.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Or four outings he's just sporthouting.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, he's got an opener going for him, but he
like went six last time. Then Matt tonight. He uh,
he took like one and ten and eleven line drive
off the leg and like trying to finish the play,
and I think faced one more batter after that before
he got a pulled, probably a little prematurely because of that,
but he's looked good still. I don't know what the
story was in triple A why his numbers weren't better,

(04:48):
but I think that was a good call by you.
He's just like funky and nasty. Yeah, yeah, I feel
like that.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
It's interesting what Detroit has been doing so far. Wonder
if it's like an innings management thing as much as
anything in TRIPAA. I feel like his era was elevated
largely due to Babbit and just some left on base luck.
I think that he was more or less the same
guy that I saw in twenty twenty three, twenty twenty two.

(05:20):
You know, International League. It's not the PCL, but it's
still a pretty tough place to pitch, especially with the
strike zone the way it is. I think that might
have affected it. He posted his highest walk percentage that
he ever has, and I feel like he hasn't walked
anybody since he's been up in the bigs. Right, like
at least the three outings that I've seen, I think
he just has one walk and yeah, and they're piggybacking him,

(05:40):
but I do wonder. You know, we've talked about Detroit
has a pretty good pitching staff and especially upper miners
depth as well. But I still like Herder as a
guy who's going to settle in as a pretty useful
big leaguer for them. So again, kind of funky lefty
with some sink and some change up and some slider

(06:01):
that keeps the ball on the ground a lot.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Definitely.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, I like him a lot, and I haven't been
discouraged by his triple A this year at all personally.
You know, he's run a five to eight ear, but
his FIP is like a run and a half lower
than that, and the x FIP agrees that he's just
been getting unlucky. So I don't know, I'm still quite
a fan of Brent Herder.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
We do not shy away from loving on some soft tossers,
some soft toss and lefties especially, and Hearder doesn't throw
all that hard. It works, you know, I'm just getting
to see this run, you know. To me, that's the
biggest question, Like, all right, how is this gonna play
against major league hitters, And like tonight he had some
Cubs just looking goofy man, so the funk I think

(06:44):
can play then.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
In the same game, Matt, your boy Jack Neely, who
was traded to the Cubs, made his debut. I shut
it off right when we started recording here, and he
looked like he was in a little bit of trouble,
but I think he's promising. Looking bullpen a possibility for
the Cubs. And then we had True Romo get called
up after the Rockies released Elias Diez.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, And so Matt, you know, you were talking about
if some players we've been looking at now had started
off the season like they're playing right now, how different
there may dynasty reputation would be right now. And to me,
at the top of that sort of list is young
Bo Davidson. Last episode I mentioned him and Louis Castillo
as a couple guys i'd turned on a few times.

(07:29):
We're putting up some numbers, needed to do some homework
on still, and I did that. I have to say,
Luis Castillo doesn't really strike my interest too much. He's
hit a lot of home runs, but he's kind of
a wild, swinging looking lefty. I'm not so sure about,
but Bo Davidson man undrafted out of junior college. I
think the story is he didn't start playing baseball until

(07:50):
a handful of years ago, came back from an injury
on July twentieth, and he has just been on fire. Dude,
in my opinion. You know, stats are one thing. He's
not going to keep running a five point fifty babbit
or whatever it is. Whatever it's been, right, But you
saw some of them. I've been watching, and I think
the eyeball test piques my interest just as much as

(08:10):
those numbers. What do you think, Matt.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
I think one of the things that I've liked about
my looks at Davidson so far, just from an esthetic perspective,
is seeing how much the power has played to all fields,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Like he's more of an opposite field hitter. I think
he's grooved and they hit left center, and he's got
the power to hit him out that way. More of
his home runs have gone opposite field than pulled.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
And he has that kind of spray Looking over the
data that we have so far that he does spray
it around the yard like it's not he's not super
pole happy. For some guys, I think that that's a
conscious choice that maybe they don't have the exit velocities,
the swing speed to really take advantage of you know,

(08:58):
pulled homers, pulled eyeballs. Yeah, but I think the very
best hitters are the ones who can get to their
power no matter where the pitch is and where the
ball goes. You look at Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Ronald Akunya,
Shoheo Tani, like these guys leave the yard to center

(09:19):
and to their pull side and to the opposite field.
And one of the things that has been I think
separating Bo Davidson for me from some of the other
guys that we get excited about at this stage is
he's showing that power to all fields, and I think
is pretty special. You know, he's a little bit old

(09:40):
for the level. He was twenty one on the complex
to start this year coming back from injury, and now
he's twenty one in a I.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Want to interrupt that, Matt, because this was brought up
before he started the season in a ball, got hurt
and then.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
And then came back to comy.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, right, and he also he just turned twenty one
July fifth, Yeah, and if you look up on Baseball Reference,
that makes some point one year younger than the average
hitter in the calg Now, which.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Is which is what I was going to say. It's like,
it's not it's not like he's seventeen in a ball young,
but it's also not like he's a college kid that
just got drafted and is performing and taking advantage of
the lesser competition post draft in a ball right, Like
what I was mostly going to do that as a
positive as far as like kind of the mental adjustment

(10:29):
that you do for hitters, I do think that they're
like I think there's two components to the age to
level thing that I like to look at personally. One
is the power projection piece. And I know we've talked
about this before. I have some amount of skepticism about
when we look at a player as a nineteen year
old post draft like and we say, oh, he's super

(10:51):
athletic looking and tall, and he's going to pack on
the pounds and then the exitbulers are going to follow.
My contention, and I've done a little bit of research
into this, is that those gains are are somewhat limited
like that we should actually temper expectations there. And so
the power projection piece is one part of the age level,
and the other is the mental library, Like have you

(11:12):
built up the reps of being able to see pitches,
make good swing decisions, and then do damage on the
pitches that you are swinging at, And that one is
way more complicated, and it's one of the reasons that
gives me pause about people that are new to the sport.
So lots of people like to point to somebody that's
new to some aspect of the sport. So they were

(11:35):
a two way player, now they've given up pitching and
now they're hitting full time. Or they were a multi
sport athlete in high school and really were actually better
at basketball, but they picked up baseball and they're going
to run with that now, and that's a reason to
be optimistic about their development. And I've looked into this
a little bit and I'm a little skeptical of that. Like,
to me, that's the one flag I have for Davidson.

(11:57):
He's new to the sport and is immediately having success.
And so one of the narratives around that is even
more will come because he's still learning. He's still like
building that mental library, and there isn't a lot to
nitpick about his approach so far. Maybe a touch high

(12:17):
on the case side. It's not bad by any means,
but it's a little bit elevated. But he's got good
walks and the swinging strike rate maybe a little bit high,
and so maybe he's being smart and passive and letting
the balls come to him. Like I like that kind
of hitter personally. As we've talked about before, I do
wonder how this is going to go as he starts

(12:39):
to get challenged at levels right, and as there are
people who have spent their whole lives building up that
mental library, Like how much of that discipline piece is
going to stick? So for me, the only like sprinkle
of cold water I put on Davidson is that the
new to Baseball narrative is one that is actually a
minus for me, and it's one that gives me pause

(13:02):
about like, maybe this is just a pretty impressive hot streak,
and we should expect quite a bit of regression, especially
in things like his plate approach. That said, I have
been very impressed by the power piece, and while I
haven't seen any underlying data, I don't know if you have, Nate,
But I haven't seen any underlying data about his exit

(13:23):
bulos yet. I suspect they're impressive, Like I suspect that
we're looking at like really good ebs.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
I just know Clegg had chimed in and he didn't
give any specifics, but he kind of signed off and
said that the data that he has all looks legit.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Oh interesting. I haven't seen that, So that kind of
jibs with my looks at him and kind of seeing
what he's got. I think that plays with the like
opposite field power when he's gotten into balls to the
pull side or just straight away like they're mashed, and
even for a twenty twenty one year old in the
Cow League, like that's different. Like, you know, I watch

(14:01):
a lot of the COLL League. You watch a lot
of the Collleague guys when the hit homer is there,
like yeah, it's quote unquote of no doubt, but it's
like ten feet past the fence, you know, like it's
really not they You see these guys, they're younger, they
don't hit bombs. And a lot of those parks, at
least the ones we have good views for, they're great
hitters parks you know, like especially for power. So when
he gets into some of these balls and really nukes them,

(14:24):
you're like, Okay, that's impressive power. Like that's kind of
the kind of power that we were seeing from Likelzara
Montes down there.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
I've made some home run montages before video, I can't
say that I've ever really made one that looked like
like that with that high percentage of opposite field and
letting the ball travel and getting the barrel on in
some different spots and putting charges in them quite like
that opposite field. If you're not familiar with Davidson, he's

(14:52):
an athletic guy. He's good sized, he plays center field,
he can run like it just strikes me as an athlete. Yeah,
get me, man, I'll tell.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
You what it would just go really like they seem
he seems like a real prospect, like one is worthwhile
in I would say even like sixteen twenty team leagues,
Like this is to me, this is a guy that
there's enough signal here from the eyeball view and the
numbers that he's putting up that like he seems like
a top five hundred guy to me with a chance

(15:22):
that that looks stupidly low in another six months or
you know, early next year. So I'll tell you like,
I acted on this in a couple of leagues and
snagged him over some guys that like might be helpful
for my competing teams because I was like, there seems
to be some lightning in the bottle potential here and
he was still on the waiver in a couple of thirties,

(15:43):
so I was like, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna try
and scoop him.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
He kind of checks some boxes for me, just like
mechanical stuff. But I like to look for he's he's
got a pretty still, calm, balance, still head thing going
on that I like to look for. He doesn't have
to like wind up to get into it, you know.
I mean, I think he's a legit prospect. He's on
the back of pipelines trying his top thirty. Like, I

(16:06):
don't think we're the only ones who might think that
he's pretty good or has the chance. Is maybe the
best way of what I'm trying to say here. I've
seen guys that were taken in the top five, young
guys taken in the top five of the drafts before that,
I was way worse mechanics than he does, and we're
lauded for their athleticism and what could be and what
have you. So, and I'm not getting hung up that

(16:28):
he is an undrafted guy. We're down to twenty rounds.
Lots of guys in the BIGS who were drafted past
the twentieth round. Some of these undrafted free agents still
signed six figure signing bonuses. You know, given his story
and where he came from, I'm not surprised that not
a lot of teams were on him. He's from some
junior college that no one has ever played pro ball

(16:49):
from before. You know, they have lou Davidson man a
bit of fun middle of August early August sort of
mud find here. And he's still at I think zero
percent roster. I would like to see what that's going
to look like at the end of the year. I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
Well. I did notice that Chris Clegg talked him up
a couple of times recently, and had seen a couple
of tweets come through the Dynasty dug Out discord, And
I did notice that there's a real cleg effect here.
When Clegg posts something about somebody, you see that numbers
start to tick up. I think he went out zero
point four percent. Like in the day after Clegg talked

(17:24):
about talked about him, so Chris quit talking about our guys.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
So cleg roster a Clegg endorsement is worth zero point
four percent the roster percentage increase? Is that what you're
telling me?

Speaker 3 (17:35):
I mean, it seems it's it's not nothing. I'm not
going to attribute at all to him and all that.
And there's lots of leagues that you know, he's still
probably is a watchless guy instead of a must add.
But he's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, yeah, super interesting. So Matt, I don't know this
last week, last couple of days or so, I kind
of did something I haven't really done before. A little dig,
a little exercise. I think I've done things like this,
but maybe quite this thorough. But I was looking at
and watching a player that we had mentioned in passing
a few times, I think, but we never really talked
about that. I was like, hey, you know what, this week,

(18:08):
we need to shout this guy a little bit more
and get into him. And that led to this he
is one of these. But I was like curious, I'm like,
how many guys have like legit jumped two levels. This year,
I've gotten two real promotions. And I don't mean fill
in for an injury. I don't mean rehab assignment. I
don't mean a guy who was in High A last
year or Double A at the end of last year

(18:29):
was maybe coming back from something. I mean, like legit
moved up two levels. And I think this time of
year is maybe a good time to do that. As
a minor leagues start to gear up for the playoffs,
you might get some guys that get bumped up just
for that little run and go back. You see that,
and you see that with the White Sox, I think
often with what they do with their Double A and
what have you. So so I just got curious. I

(18:51):
scraped every player in the minor leagues that had played
at three different levels, and matt that probably returned I
don't know, between four hundred and five hundred guys, and
then I did the tedious task of vetting all of them.
Which ones are legit you know, moved up two levels
not you know the other things that I talked about.
There'll be some complex guys that'll jump up and fill

(19:11):
in for a week and Double A and things of
that nature, and I don't mean those guys. How many
bats do you think legit received two promotions this year?

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Bats that received two I'm gonna say.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
So that's played in three levels. If you were promoted twice.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
I'm gonna say fifty.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
This is not super scientific. I could have missed a
few guys. I could have deleted a guy off my
list for maybe in that appropriate reason. But Matt, I got,
I think you're looking at more like thirteen.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Oh wow, that is a lot lower than I thought.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, you got guys. You know, maybe I may have
deleted a couple guys that are in the majors too,
so maybe it was a little bit more than that.
I think the point that I was trying to make,
and it's like, not nearly as many as you might think,
or at least I thought. Right, So you got Christian Campbell, right,
he started in high he's gone. He's up in triple
A now he got Password Garcia started at A, balls

(20:04):
in double A. Now Dezenzo, who started off in double A.
He's in the Biggs now, right. Alex Freelan hya to
triple A. Jacob Wilson, of course, he went double A
to the Biggs. Trey Morgan started off a ball. He
just got to double A. And then Will Wagner was
what he was at, like high A, double A, and
then the Biggs right after after the trade, and those

(20:26):
guys are all on the map, right we know these guys,
these guys are fairly popular. And then the guys who
aren't roster zero to one percent at o Kemp we've
talked about a little bit. Peyton Elis Eels, who I've
seen some buzz around. He was a guy that the
Twins signed from Independent Ball, kind of the speedy, top
of the order type guy. Uh, he started off in

(20:48):
a ball. He's up in triple A now. Philip Glasser,
he was a college draft he who maybe kind of
started lower than maybe he quote should have, but he
was a ball to start the year. He's up to
double A now. We've mentioned him in passing a little bit.
And then the guy that started this whole thing off
for me, Romeo Santa Bria, who we've passing a little bit.

(21:09):
But and I guess maybe there's there's one more guy
that I don't know if you really fit this sort
of these guidelines, but there's a young I guess, middle
infielder with the astros Ja Maal incarnacion. I don't know
if you've seen him at all. I didn't really realize
what his season story was. But he's played at a
ball for a few weeks at a time. Hiated a

(21:30):
few weeks at a time double A and then like
back to highest. So I don't know, filling in where
they need. But I don't know. I think it's a
little bit more than that. He's he's a nice looking player.
To me, he's he's speedy. I think he's good with
the glove. He's stolen like thirty six bases. He's popped
only three home runs and like his ISO and slug
is pretty low. But the home runs that I saw

(21:50):
him hit, like dude, they were jacked man. And he's
twenty years old, so I'm not you know, this doesn't
go rush out, but he's kind of put himself on
my radar or something. I'm going to pay attention to him.
I don't know if he totally fits this criteria. So
I don't know these guys that are still in the mud,
I don't ken. What do you got any thoughts on him?
He hit pipeline. He's at like number twenty eight for them,

(22:11):
and I saw BA named him like the first half
Phillies prospect of the year. I kind of like him
in a Yeah, I think this guy has a chance
to make the big sort of sense fifteen home runs,
seventeen stolen bases on the year. I think there's solid
contact ability to slug. I don't know about the defense.
I think he plays around several positions in the dirt.

(22:32):
But yeah, I don't know. I don't ken you got
any thoughts.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
I think I watched him a little bit. This was
maybe a month or so ago, maybe like early July.
I want to say he'd been on a pretty hot heater.
I think I think this was probably when he was
still in high A in Jersey Shore. I want to
say I watched him a little bit. And I think

(22:56):
this was after you had mentioned him and you had
said that you were pretty in interested in him. And
what I saw was a lot of similarities to what
you were saying in that he does lots of things
pretty well.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, I didn't think there was kind of up your alley.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
It is. I like the kind of well rounded skill
set of he doesn't strike out a lot, shows a
propensity to walk more than average. He didn't seem super
fast to me, but he seemed like he used his
speed pretty well. I think I pulled a couple of
games where he had stolen bases and there looked like
like he, you know, is an athlete in that sense
that he kind of is taking advantage of his athleticism

(23:33):
that he does have. I think the thing that slowed
my role as far as like a full throated endorsement,
was the we hadn't seen this kind of performance out
of him in his previous two minor league seasons. Especially
when I looked at him, he was like a twenty
four year old in high A, and I was like, okay,
does look good, but given where he has been, it

(23:57):
was like, all right, this is kind of underwhelming performs
the last couple of years. I at the time, my
evaluation was like this is solid, like somebody that I
do think could make the major leagues. But I wasn't.
I wasn't thrilled by any anything in the profile that
I saw, you know what I mean, Like, to me,
he looks like a guy that might end this year

(24:18):
at Double A, start next year at Double A, maybe
make it up to Triple A. But then it's now
he's twenty five. What makes him difference from a Matt
Kruhn or something like we talked about, who was kind
of an older guy that had performed for the level
and then was stalling out in the upper miners for
the Phillies. Right, So he reminded me in some ways

(24:39):
of Krune, although a Krune does some things differently than
he does. But that was my look is like, hey,
there's stuff like here, but I don't know if this
is somebody to get super excited about.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah, Philip Blasser with the Nats is kind of similar
to accountant. Yeah, maybe not quite as much pop, but
I think he is be a bit more athletic. He's
got twenty two stolen bases on the year, But some
of that I'm just talking up to, you know, a
ball pitchers and catchers not being good at controlling the
run game. Maybe he's an auto kemp light if you will.

(25:14):
And it doesn't strike my interest a whole ton here,
but worth noting. You know, he's moved up a couple
levels and not a lot of guys are doing that.
I was surprised to see that Glasser didn't get a
top thirty designation by pipeline for that system. I kind
of thought he would fit in the NATS top thirty,
but yeah, what do I know. And then Matt I

(25:37):
saw some I don't know if it was a tweet
or somebody sharing in the dugout, but Peyton Elis was
getting I think a lot of love from some sort
of stat based system or something something of that nature. Right,
He's twenty four seven home runs, He's stolen thirty bases,
he walks fifteen percent of the time, strikes out than

(26:00):
that thirteen percent of the time on the season. As
a whole, I've turned him on a little bit. My
whole thing is like I have gleaned a liking to
a few independent ball signees over the years, and it
just never really turns into much more than having a
really nice minor league season before they're released. But at

(26:21):
least for hitters, this is kind of a I think, Yeah,
like I said before, I think top of the lineup
sort of guy. Maybe he's a bit slappy, I don't know.
I haven't watched a ton of him, but yeah, I
don't know. I point being is, I'm not like over
the moon that this is some b side gem here.
But nonetheless, a guy, you know, doing some things but

(26:44):
could very well fall into like a career triple A
or I think.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
Pretty interesting for this is really Peyton Eel's first full season. Yeah,
and you know he's another one that like I think
he's super short, right like him.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Up, Yeah, I don't think he's very big, and you know, lots.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
Of people hate on that, but I'm certainly no grtist here.
If you can play the game, you can play the game.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
So so yeah, and then the guy that started this all,
Matt Let's I want to talk about Romeo Sanabria, some
who was catching my eye watching some cal League earlier
in the year. He was putting up some good numbers.
He's got a really nice left handed stroke. Again, a
lot of the same things I talked about earlier that
I like to look for, just calm, quick, direct, balance,

(27:35):
still head and I was kind of surprised. I didn't
really even realize that he got you know, he was
obviously got promoted to high and then what last week,
week and a half ago now he got promoted to
double A. I don't have the numbers in front of me,
but he scorched his first week with San Antonio saw
him rip a double, but he's only twenty two years old.

(27:56):
Eleven home runs on the season. He swiped a few bags. Now,
I think he's listed as a catcher in places, but
he has not caught this year. He plays first base.
He's got an on base percentage throughout his three levels
combined at four to twelve. He's slugged four sixty three.
I so, you know, maybe we'd like to see that
a little higher, but he is. He has had a

(28:18):
nice season at the plate. And this is a guy
who's jumped three levels and is only rostered in one percent.
Pipeline put him number twenty four in the Padre system.
Now they've jettison some guys, so there's some room on
that list. But I think Santa Bria is a pretty
underrated prospect here, Matt, are you with me or not
so much?

Speaker 3 (28:38):
I am intrigued. I will say, I don't really think
he's that athletic. I mean, he's he stole three bags
in Low A this year and is zero for three
in High A and Double A combined, So I don't
think that's going to be a big part of his game.

(28:59):
And then the first space profile only is one that
you should look at with some degree of skepticism, right,
like that it's hard to make that position work in
the fantasy realm and in real life baseball too, so
that like, starting from that perspective as Okay, this guy's

(29:19):
really probably only going to play first base for you
or you know, DH, I guess you should. He's really
got to be showing some other skills that you're into
for you to, like, I think, be excited about rostering him. Luckily,
for Santa Bria, I do think he has some of that.
He's another one who his played approach and his back

(29:39):
to ball skills seem pretty good to me having watched
a little bit of him, and I think the numbers
back this up a bit. I don't think he swings
and miss misses all that much, and while he can
get himself worked into deep counts and then maybe chase
because of that, I've on balance thought that his approach
was a plus for me, you know, not super elite,
but not He's not chasing a ton, he's not being

(30:02):
overly aggressive, and I think that that leads into some
of the other positives, which is he seems to hit
the ball well but at like pretty good angles, Like
I think he's a guy that I don't know. I'm
not going to comp him directly to like a Freddie Freeman,
but he's got that kind of vibe to me of
a guy who's going to run a little bit higher

(30:23):
than average line drive rates and he's not going to
be like you're kind of elevate and celebrate kind of
hitter at least I don't think. I don't think he's
like selling out for fly balls or pulled flyballs. He's
I think to your point, like you called that, you've
seen him just smoke some doubles. That's kind of what
I've seen out of him too. It's not as much

(30:45):
over the fence power as it is like he just
kind of laces these line drives all over the yard
and that leads to you know, slightly higher babbitbs. Like
he's run high babbits the whole time in the minor leagues,
and right now he's at babbit at double is absurd, Like,
you know, ignore that really it's super super high. But
I like him in that gonna run a little higher

(31:08):
babb gonna hit lots of line drives and doubles, and
I think he's got a pretty reasonable plate approach, and
all that to me says that this guy might be
a real solid, kind of real life hitter, a little
bit like the like the blame crim kind of archetype
you know that I have talked about before for the Rangers.
Like that, he's just he's not gonna leave the yard

(31:30):
forty times in any season. I don't think that, like
that's not the kind of upside. But he does everything
else well enough that you're like, this is a big
league regular quality bat. Now whether he can sustain this
kind of thing and does he stall out at the
uppers because he's a first baseman without like that true
light tower power, I don't know. I don't know. So
I'm I'm round down because of the position inflexibility, but

(31:53):
the rest of it looks pretty interesting to me. And
I do think he's a bat to be not fu
but like I would add him in places if he
were available.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
I haven't done this with a hitter this year. I
don't think. Well, I guess I guess I did like
all of Brooke Baldwin's bad at ball events, But I'm
kind of thinking, man, when we get to the off season,
I might like try to view all of his at
bats because I've seen a good handful, it'd just be
fun and I don't, like I haven't seen it at
bat was like, oh that was a bad swing. That

(32:27):
was a bad choice, Like, oh he got really full there,
Like he just seems so solid to me. You know,
the numbers aren't like gaudy, right, there's not anything over
the top. But why is that? I guess is what
I want to know? What's missing? Yeah? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah? And to me, the only number that like stood
out to me when I was reviewing his profile was
that the babeps have been pretty high and in his
couple of weeks in double A, like he's just hitting
everything on a line. Yeah, nobody does that. Nobody, even
the very very best guys can't sustain a forty percent

(33:04):
line drive rate, Like that's gloser eyes can't do that,
Freddie Freeman can't do it. Nobody can do that. Right,
So that's the part, like it's gonna that is gonna
come down. You might expect some of the other numbers, like,
you know, his strikeout rate might tick up a little bit, walker,
it might come down a little bit. And then he's
a first baseman in double A who's like a little

(33:24):
bit younger than average, like twenty two year double a
that's still comfortably below average, but that WRC plus now
maybe evens out to like one twenty or so after
those regressions, and then you're to your point like what
what's the thing wires and he leaving the yard, like
what else do we want to see here? So it

(33:46):
seems to me that he might be more of a
good doubles as kitter than like a corner matcher. The
plate skills and the batted ball profile are really strong,
so like maybe there is more power coming, or maybe
he will run into thirty homers a year at some point.
I don't know. That's the part that keeps me interested

(34:08):
is that there isn't anything to point to that's like
an obvious like, Okay, yeah he's super hot, but this
can't possibly sustain. There's enough here that you're like, you
could see him running a three thirty BABP and you
could see him running a twenty five percent k rate,
but everything else looks really good, and you're like, yeah,
that's a good hitter.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
I agree. Maybe some off season homework there, maybe he
stays at one percent, And that's that's my bat for
this offseason. But we'll see that's premature at this point.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah, we're too early to make those kinds of calls.
But good to put some guys on shortlists. Yeah, do
you have any more of the double Mover guys that
you wanted to highlight?

Speaker 2 (34:46):
No, that was it. That was it for me.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Well, I wanted to contribute something, you know, I rarely
do on these podcasts, but I wanted to do something
for the people. And I don't know if this guy
is a well I feel like he's definitely not a
household name these days. I've not heard much about him,
but he's someone that I wanted to highlight as Like,
as you know, I spent a lot of time in

(35:10):
a Ball because I'm always really really interested in the
guys that we've never seen, whether that's from you know,
high school where we've just seen like showcase stuff or
college or the Complex or or the DSL, and then
guys that can promote it to a ball. It's like
our first view of some of these guys that maybe
we've read about or we've seen some interesting lines and

(35:31):
first first time to like actually get eyes on guys.
And one of the guys this year that I had
I think I had him on a Complex watch list
when I was just going through like really young guys
that had performed well at the DSL last year, and
then I was like, I really like to watch all

(35:52):
of those guys. Basically every sixteen year old or seventeen
year old that gets at bats in the DSL kind
of regardless of how they perform, that they're at young
playing at a level. You know. Again, dsls can be
variable in quality, but to me that's a good leading
filter that there might be something here. And this guy

(36:13):
for the Guardians, Luis Morejo, he had a pretty good
DSL last year, popped a couple homers, walked some, didn't
strike out very much, but had an interesting flyball prin
City that I was like, hmm, that's kind of interesting.
Played kind of all over first base third base again,
like at the DSL, if you're already playing left field

(36:34):
or something, that's like can be a bit of a flag.
But anyway, he was a guy that I thought was
interesting and then he was really bad on the Complex
to start, like punching out all the time, power wasn't
showing up. It was like I was like, Okay, I'm
not that interested. And then I forget what I think
I did some like complex ret rolling filter, and he

(36:55):
showed up as like having a really good couple of weeks,
and then he got promoted to Low. That Lynchburg team
had a couple of I think it might have been
a couple of weeks ago when they were playing down
East or there's another team that I was pretty it
might've been down East. That might have been Columbia or something.
They were playing another team, and it was like an

(37:16):
interesting bunch of guys that had just been promoted or
were like I think you've mentioned this before, like the
Carolina League is often really full of interesting guys, and
so I turn on this matchup and am watching like
a bunch of different kind of like an interesting set
of guys on both sides and Morejo just showed out.

(37:37):
He had two bombs in the game. He was absolutely
scorching the ball. He's this big, framed, athletic looking, you know,
corner guy. They've mostly played him at first base thus far,
although I know he's gotten some time in the corner
outfield spots as well. And you know, six ' four
or something six three one ninety ish to me. But

(37:59):
in the first bad of this game against I think
it might have been fan Bilt, maybe it was fanfil
this one I was looking at. He takes this slider
that's below the zone and right on right, so righty
batting slider just below the zone, and he takes this
hack and this pitch is definitely like knee level or below,
like this is not some hanging ball, but he takes

(38:20):
it and just muscles it out to center field and
it was like, not the longest home run that I've seen,
but it was a really impressive swing on that kind
of pitch. He homered again later in the game. Somebody
around this time might have posted some nugget about his
exit Bilows being really really impressive. I think somebody might

(38:41):
have shared this in the dug out. Maybe it was
Maddy Backpack or somebody who I think also really likes
somebody that. So he's now eighteen, is in full season ball,
has done nothing but hit, and I kind of think
there's real power here, and I suspect there's a sneaky athleticism.
So I'm curious what Cleveland's going to do with the
defensive position. It's nice that they haven't pigeonholed him just

(39:04):
to first base or third base. Even like he's they're
already trying him out in different spots. While he's still
mostly playing first base. He's playing around the diamond still
a little bit, and I think he may have the
athleticism to make that work. But the power, to me,
seems pretty interesting. I've made a couple of like small
bets on him in a couple of deeper leagues as

(39:26):
somebody that I'm cautiously optimistic about for the next year.
He's a guy that I could see kind of dominating
a ball and maybe even high a next year and
then being considered a legit kind of power focused prospect.
So Luis Morejo to me is one of the most
interesting guys that I've seen at a ball that I

(39:46):
hadn't had eyes on before.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Sweet, I like that.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
Have you watched him at all? Have you caught him
at all in the Caroline?

Speaker 2 (39:52):
I don't believe. I don't believe.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
So he's just been there for like three weeks maybe,
But yeah, he's he's fun and I think you'll dig
his swing. Who do you remind me of a guy
that you liked, big, righty swing? I can't remember who,
I thought I remember watching him last week and being like,
I feel like he looks like one of Nate's guys.
That it's kind of a big swing, but like still

(40:14):
head and good stuff to like for sure.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
You know, this is a good time of year to
keep an eye on some teenagers that might be hitting
full season. We've had some, you know, edgar Quero came
across my radar in that fashion and that's turned out
to be a pretty dang good b side.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Yeah, definitely a good time to keep an eye out
for these kinds of players. And again, like lots of
your league mates, like you said, they might be playing
some other stupid sport instead of our interesting one.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
You hear a lot of chatter like, oh, they need
to promote this guy, like oh he needs better competition,
like oh he's too old for the level, and like
just a lot of the times it's just incorrect. They're
not too old for the level because all the levels
have gotten older and nobody moves up to two uh
levels in a year, like unless it's like somebody like

(41:06):
we mentioned, right, I mean, just it doesn't happen like that. Yeah,
you guy was killing abell. He got up to high A.
He had a good couple first two weeks and let's go,
he's got to go to double A. It's like, eh,
slow roll, give it a couple months, and a lot
of times a couple months later you're like, yeah, you
know he's struggling now, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
And there's also the contraction of the minor leagues plays
into this too, where I think we see some of
the younger guys get pushed a little bit more and
some of this maybe team focus, like they're trying to
promote guys so that maybe they have a hot couple
of weeks leading into the trade deadline, and now they
pop for the model based teams, like the teams that

(41:49):
really really care about age to level. There's some gaming
the system that I think can happen there, But there's
also with the contraction, there's just fewer spots to go around,
so like maybe a guy does get aggressively pushed up
to double A, but then the double A and triple
A lineups are filled with guys that are on the
forty man, are almost on the forty man, and there's

(42:11):
nowhere else for them to go. And we saw this
with the Orioles. They had a ton of guys that
were interesting up and down their system, but the very
top of the system, including the major leagues, they just
don't have roster spots for all those guys, Like they
don't want Tearstad and Mayo and Holiday before he came
up the second time and crushed like that. They don't

(42:32):
want them just to languish on the bench for four
out of seven games in a week, like they want
them seeing reps and seeing at bats. And at some
point you have this good problem of like you don't
know where to put everybody. And we've said this about
some of like that next tier down of the Orioles prospects,
that they're really good, We're really interested in them, and
I think they did an awesome job identifying some of

(42:54):
the guys to send away to consolidate, Like it was
very Dynasty Baseball level trade when they sent you know,
et Seul and Horvath and Bonmeister for zach Eflin, Like, yeah,
I love that trade on both sides, Like those are
three guys that I think are really interesting and one
guy that went healthy looks like a sp number two,
although the other effort is hurt now and it's so

(43:18):
bad timing I think for you too, Right, you have
Efflin in a couple of important places. Yeah, it's brutal.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
So if you're out there, if you're on fangrass and
you do this sort of of a filter and look
at guys at three levels, this is not something that
I was naive to. But you will also catch a
lot of names, Matt that started in the complex, started
in a Ball, moved to Hya, moved for a few weeks,
moved to double A for a few weeks, and then
we're released. It's like one last quick shot, throw them up.

(43:49):
I don't know what what all the thinking is behind it,
but there are a lot of guys that was the
end of my vetting road with them was like, well
you got released after your little whirlwind of the system.
But another interesting part of this, Matt, So I'll just
tell you so you know, this is one of five
thousand reasons pictures and pitching is so much better than hitting.

(44:12):
But there's about twice as many pictures that have had
these sort of true double promotions this year, or more
then your dumb hitters. But on the total list, on
the total list, Matt, a third of these guys we're
from the Houston organization either still with them or traded
away and did you see Matt Pipeline and those guys

(44:36):
put Houston Houston System at number thirty once again, and.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
I did see.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
That drives me bonkers, dude, How well you know, we
don't know, you know, the talent isn't there. They develop well,
but we don't know where it comes from. It's like, well,
then your process is screwed up, man, because the whole
point of a system is to produce major lead talent
help and Houston does that better than anybody, but yet

(45:04):
never gets recognized for it. So I just I just
wanted to note that a third of these guys that
have jumped up multiple levels are from that system.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
It's interesting for lots of reasons, like Houston's a fascinating
system for over the past decade for lots of different reasons,
from the Super Tanky years to the early adopters of
a bunch of the kind of cutting edge tactics that
we see in player development, the under the radar kind
of moneyball at two point zero esque identification of what's

(45:36):
valuable and what's going to be good going forward. They've
been fascinating. And now they've got Dana Brown at the
helm and that's an interesting shift in their approach. I
did think that their trade for Kukuchi this offseason was
probably not one that someone like Michae Elias would have done.
I don't know what did you think about that? Like

(45:57):
to me, it felt like a trade I might do
in dynasty, where I'm like, these four guys, I think
maybe three of them are going to be big leaguers,
maybe like a below average big leaguer or two, but
they're like they belong on a big league roster, is
what I felt like. But maybe none of them is
going to be a star. And Kakuchi's like a good

(46:18):
depth arm that I'm happy to roster and plug in
as my fourth best starter or whatever. I felt like
it was an interesting shift in tactics from the Astros.
But to your point, the point of a minor league system,
for if you're really trying to win, is to develop
major league assets, and whether you do that by trading

(46:39):
them away or turning them into major league assets, I
think is part of the trick for a major league team.
It's an interesting shift in their surplus value chasing approach.
I think right like I feel like under Alias, they
really cared about the dollars and cents of it because
they had a strict payroll budget. They were going to

(47:01):
be lean until they were sure they had stars and
then try and extend them on team friendly deals. And
it was an interesting sort of shift, like Kakuchi's a
rental and they sent four guys away who have decent
shots at being productive mlbers that are all pre orb
they're all in their first or second year eligibility right
first year right like they sent nobody away that was

(47:23):
It's an interesting philosophical shift. I will definitely agree with
you that I think Houston is doing a bunch of
things right in the searching for value where other teams
still are ignoring, and their player development does seem to
be pretty good. Like, you know, we had talked about
low Berfido a year ago and we're like, he looks
like a pretty interesting guy, and nobody was really on him.

(47:45):
And then he had an awesome year this year in
the upper minors and I think found himself on the
way to some top one hundreds. I'm still skeptical that
he's like a major league average or better player, Like
he looks to me more like a one more to
half a war kind of player at Steady State. Hey,
they netted a good player on them. I don't know.

(48:06):
Houston is just a fascinating organization, I think, to both
of us. And it's not always for the reasons that
you would think.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
Trade the wait Gilbert, you know, their first round pick
from a few years ago. And I think they're almost
like how I would how I want to fancy myself
in dynasties, like oh, I don't care you want my
pretty boys or my trendy guy, like we take them,
you know, unless I really really love him and believe
in them. Right. I think the Astros kind of spoke

(48:35):
that those players weren't super valuable to them, right, and
they're just gonna backfill and they're gonna develop some more
guys and just keep it coming. And I don't think
they gave away anything that they can't live without.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Definitely not, definitely not. I know it was a bit
of a meme in The Dynasty. I got discorded this
offseason that I was kind of low on Lowferfeedo and
then he just went nuts at Triple A and was
just hitting a bomb every day, and I kept getting
tagged about it. I forget which member was was doing that,
but it was it was a good bit. And then

(49:09):
you know he's been in the bigs for most of
this year and was the last I looked like an
eighty w RC plus player had like two bombs or
something in the bigs, and that was three. I guess
now at seventy eight WRC plus now you know, striking
out a time, not walking us like that looks like
the guy that we saw just he was on a

(49:31):
hell of a heater in in Triple A. So it's
it's interesting how that works out.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
I want to get into some of the pictures here.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
We have to.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
There's some good ones, man, There's and and some a
few guys that were new to me that I turned
on a little bit, mostly from the Houston system. But
so you got your obvious guys, right, Waldrip it was,
you know, first round pick whatever. He's moved up three levels,
and I gotta say, I think he hasn't really lived
up to the first year player draft tight this year, Matt,

(50:05):
I would, uh, we got George class, you know, I
was traded and now he's up in Double A. First
couple of Double A starts, Matt, where's all those strikeouts
that that big nasty fastball was supposed to get your
boy Logan Henderson, God, I love him, been pretty good.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
He's so freaking good man. I I wish if he
hadn't gotten hurt in that Breakouts game, right that he
got hurt, Yeah, it was if it wasn't for that.
I wonder if we were would see him in the
show this year. He has just been so fire.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Yeah, you'd still take him over miss Rawski, Yes, definitely, Yeah,
I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
I think is gonna end up being an awesome reliever,
like stuff is so impressive. But I think Henderson is
going to be a really good starter.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Matthews, of course, who's started at HYA, has made a
couple of major league starts now, amazing season for him.
Andrew Morris, also in that same system, went from High
A to now in Triple A. Andrew Morris is pretty
good dude. I have to admit that he's a guy
that I probably the first couple of times I saw
him when he first came up, probably underestimated him. But

(51:20):
he's gotten to be a pretty dang good picture. He's
twenty two years old now in Triple A. I think
that's a dude. But I was too late Brandon Sproute, right,
he's moved from high A to double A, Triple A.
Thomas Harrington. Quinn Matthews, which is a good call by
you this preseason. By the way, how many innings has

(51:40):
that guy lock now the last two years? Quite a few?

Speaker 3 (51:44):
Huh, probably a lot. Yeah, I know that when we
looked at him last year, when I was saying that
I liked him, as you know, I'm shy on pictures
going out coming out of the draft generally, and it's like,
I don't know, there's gonna be some pop ups that
we don't really know who they are, and so I
just kind of picked Quinn Matthews as a guy that
I had seen that was good in his time at

(52:07):
Stanford and obviously had that great was that super regional
or regional game against Texas and when he went one
hundred and fifty six pitches or something. But yeah, he's
logged quite a few innings, and it's interesting this year
that I think he's held his pro velocity games still
even if he's made it up, even as he's made

(52:28):
it up to double A.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
Yeah. Jake Bloss who's started the year, you know, his
first pro full pro season started hi A. He's made
up to the bigs. He got traded to Toronto from Houston,
and then Brad Lord the National system started off in
hy A's up in Triple A. Now, I don't know
how much you've watched Lord, if any this preseason that

(52:50):
we were talking about the Nats system in their arms
right and how it was just like such a sleeper,
like I don't know, grasping to get excited about somebody
that wasn't you know, already rostered highly, like you know whoever.
And I feel like Lord is just kind of like
the king of that of that sort of profile. Like
is that a great season? I don't want to discount

(53:11):
his production. It's been awesome. I'm just not so sure
there's like stuff there to get too excited about, or
any sort of funkiness to get excited about, or deception,
lots of flyballs, not a ton of caves. Just kind
of overall feels pretty major league lackluster to me unless
I'm missing something that I don't.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
Think you're missing anything. And this is something that we've
talked about with that system. I don't know whether it's
the Nationals haven't or like maybe they've tried for some
of the pitchability guys and they haven't been able to
put it all together or what the deal is. But yeah, yeah,
I kind of agree with you on Lord.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
I kind of wonder with them if they're just of
the thinking, which I think is a very smart tact,
gather some of the pitchability skill if you will execution stuff.
Maybe maybe the tools the pictures aren't real loud and
then we can get them louder, And maybe that just
hasn't really panned out with some guys that they were
hoping for.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
Yeah, and you know, they've got the guys like Sikora
and ardenssan On those guys that I think are kind
of definitely the stuff Maven's and seem like they know
how to pitch a bit, especially in Sikora's case. I
wonder because they had like a few drafts in a
row where they took top like fireballing pictures pretty early

(54:32):
that maybe had some questionable injury history and I don't
know if that worked out for them or they were
trying to diversify their risk, but it really made a
lot of their system seem kind of boring outside of
like the top kind of pretty boy arms which looked
particularly risky to me. So I don't know whether that
was a systemic thing or what, but yeah, it's an
interesting phenotype that they seem to have.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Yeah, and those are the guys that are well beyond
beside roster percent. The next guy I'm want to bring
up here Hester passed that he's at five percent. He's
number twenty nine on the Brewers pipeline list. And I
know has been chatted about quite a bit in the discord.
But Casey Hunt with the Brewers started off in a

(55:17):
ball is now in double a right. Story with him,
he was mostly a reliever in Mississippi State or exclusively
a reliever, I don't know for certain, got drafted in
the twelfth round the twenty twenty two draft, but the
Pirates did not sign with them. I don't know what
the story is there why that was. And then he
went and played independent ball and then the Brewers signed

(55:37):
him last year. And he's put up some great numbers, right,
I don't know, his K minus BB's really good, his
strikeout percentage, all that stuff. Right, I've seen some little
you know, wo'd you rather when Casey Hunt and Logan
Henderson in the same conversation I'm just like, whoaha, whoa
why I can't I can't get on board that. I
don't know if you've watched Hunt Matt, but you're talking

(55:58):
about I don't know, fastballs like ninety one, ninety two.
He's right handed, high seventies. I think it's pretty decent.
Furmer slider change up right. He's got he's got the tools,
his good body, good size. He can pitch, you know,
although I have to say the outings that I've seen,
there's you know, a lot of the catcher calm for
something in the location and him him not hitting that,

(56:20):
him missing it. But you know, more more so than
someone i'd say was pitching real clean right. I wonder
if there's like a little Johnny right hander in him.
I see the fastball. When there's damage done, it's usually
the fastball. Tend to wonder if his pitchability and his
like you know, good secondaries, good use of secondaries, kind
of mask what could maybe be a big major league hurdle.

(56:44):
Wondering about that fastball quality, and I think he, I
don't know what's the best way to say it, Maybe
he knows the fastball and like his greatest pitch because
he is trying to tuck that thing down and down
and the way in the zone quite often. So I
don't know. I know some people are really excited about
Casey Hunt. He there's a lot of things that we
would like about him, right man. We like pitchability. Guys

(57:06):
like guys you can execute a whole arsenal and sequence differently,
and I think he's got some of that in this game.
I'm I'm just tampering some of my big league dreams
with him. But of course he's the type of guy
if he comes back next year and he put on
a couple of clicks on the fastball or reworked in
it's a better quality fastball, you could go Zebbie Matthews esque.

(57:27):
I think so I like it. I like it. I'm
just not sure I'm as excited as some I'll.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
Admit I haven't watched any of Hunt this year, and
that's probably a mistake because, like you said, it sounds
to me like there's a lot of things here that generally,
I like, you know, somebody that maybe isn't a fastball
first guy, or isn't succeeding in the minor leagues based
on a fastball only, and maybe had some of those
other traits to dive into. So let me hold off

(57:54):
my view until I get a chance to dive into
a start or two of hunts.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Yeah, the next guy I want to bring up, he's
the only one who wouln't teetering on the B side
popularity right now. Matt. He's at three percent and he's
gone from abel to high A to just promote it
to double A. I think he made one double A
start just the last couple of days. I'm not one
hundred percent on that, but that's cold Drake with the Rangers,
and I know Clegg has liked him quite a bit,

(58:22):
and I think I have to agree with Clegg. And
part of this is some other opinions that are closer
to the situation, but I think they really like him,
and well he's twenty one on the pipeline list, but
I think this is another candidate for like one of
the most underrated prospects maybe in all baseball. I still

(58:42):
want to see The Rangers for a long time have
had tons of interesting arms and the lowers, and then
they get to the uppers and they can't get them
over the hump. Like really, Matt Bradford's like the only
guy that they have totally developed or has totally come
up through their system. Everybody else that's been pitching for
them for several years now like wasn't you know. I
got to imagine that's a big emphasis for them that

(59:04):
they need some of their homegrown arms so they don't
have to pay all these high dollar free agents. But
I think Cold Drake, of all the interesting arms that
were in Hickory down East this year, and there's been
a lot, man, I think he might be the best
of the bunch.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
So I've watched a little bit of Cold Drake and
I agree with you. I think he's a nice underrated
prospect and definitely co signed him. Had I watched a
couple of the starts earlier this year that were impressive,
both in the pitchability realm of like he was executing
as you like to say. It wasn't just use leveraging
the stuff to get the results like it was. There

(59:42):
was you could see the intent, you could see the plan,
and you could see him executing that pretty well. So
I do like Drake, and he's one. It'll be interesting
to follow how his promotion to Double A goes. I
wanted to ask, have you seen another guy at Hickory
and I think he spent most of the year at
down East. Maybe good in his first couple of starts

(01:00:03):
in Hickory, and that's David de villov Yeo Deva Leo?
Is that that Deva Leo?

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
I think it's I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Know Deva Leo. I think because it's just the one
l first in the But anyway, he I've actually really
liked my looks at him. I agree the kind of
movement profile that's got some decent east west to it.
Induced his ground balls pretty well, but he still gets
some whiffs, seems to have decent command. I just have
got a couple of his starts, but I was pretty

(01:00:37):
interested in him. Like you mentioned, I think there have
been some good arms in the Lowers for Texas, but
he was one that I hadn't really heard many people
talk about. And I think he's a zero percent or
one percenter on fan tracks too that I have on
a couple of watch lists, like I want to see
a little more. I'm not sure there's the swing and
miss to the profile for the long term, but he's

(01:00:57):
shown some really impressive signs and it just seems like
UH has has some skills that I like to bet on,
including the fact that he's approaching one hundred innings already
as a twenty one year old in Low ay to
High this year.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Yeah, Matt, in my opinion, he he's a pitcher, he's
a young pitcher. He's he's got several weapons, can put
them in different places, can pitch differently. You know that.
You don't see that, you know, with a ton of
guys and a ball, butting some of all parts sort
of down for sure. And he was like my last
cut in a couple of deep leagues. As I dropped
him for like a reliever that might help me in

(01:01:33):
the playoffs sort of thing. I might end up regretting that,
but but we'll see. I caught four guys that started
the year in the DSL and are now in a ball,
So that's a I consider that a couple of promotions.
I caught Hayes, who's Flores of the Brewers, nineteen year old,
good sized kid. I watched them at Fredericksburg. Now he

(01:01:55):
came in with like one out, bases loaded, got down
three to zero, there was a wild pitch and then
I think a couple more run score and then he
put three more zeros up after that. I don't know
if there's anything to soundbriter alarms too much here, though.
He's got like a high eighties fastball and looks like
a big breaker and that seemed about it. But curious

(01:02:16):
as to why the Brewers might have him in full
season ball right now. They when they've done that with
players in the past, the pitchers in the past, they
tend to get interesting at some point. Houston kind of
older guy that was in DSL. For whatever reason, they
signed him internationally started him there, twenty two year old
by the name of Pedro Marquez. I don't think there's

(01:02:36):
anything too interesting there right now. It looks like a
kind of classic reliever. The Rangers had another older DSL
guy on Hill a Moscow, same thing a couple appearances.
I think he's probably a reliever all the way. But
then I saw now, I don't know, was this a
highbrow signing or something. Matt Anderson Brito of the Astros

(01:02:58):
is raster and two sent of leagues right now, and
I think he's like the number eighteen prospect on pipeline
for them right now, which I thought was interesting. He's nineteen.
I don't know how many innings he has with them
in a ball right now, but.

Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
Yeah, not many, just fifteen. But I think it was
on the back he had, like, oh, absolutely wild start.
Let me see if I can find it. I think
he had a start. Yeah, his last DSL start I
think blew up because he went four and two thirds
and had twelve punch outs and just one hit. And

(01:03:34):
I want to say Baddler or somebody down there like
posted about him after that, like saying, hey, this guy's
on a real heater. The Astros really love him, and
then they promoted him right to Complex. He had one
start the Complex, and then they promoted him to a
ball again as a nineteen year old. So I think
that was what it was. And I remember this because

(01:03:55):
I picked him up because of that in one league
where I had some I think that was right on
the trade deadline for me, and I had sent away
a whole bunch of prospects to try and shore up
a good team for the run, and he was one
that I was like, Oh, that's pretty interesting and seems
like there's something there. So I haven't actually watched him
at Lowa yet, but the I think the hype came

(01:04:17):
from baseball America.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Well, I was pumped because I saw that. What is
so his first A ball appearance was in Lafayette and
that's a crappy angle. It's like from right center field
wouldn't be so great for alariety. But then I was like, oh,
he pitched at Augusta. That's awesome. That's like one of
the best angles. And and then I turned on the
broadcast mat and for whatever reason, they weren't filming from centerfield.

(01:04:41):
It was really it was all from like the side,
from this weird angle that I've never even seen broadcasts
from Augusta. So, Matt, interesting, do you want to talk
about my Houston Astros conspiracy theory? They don't want people
to know how good their prospects are for some reason.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
Yeah, maybe I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
Telling you it's just weird stuff like that that happens.
But long story short, they didn't get any really good
looks at his stuff. Right, he's short, but he does
get down the mound, So that sided you. You know,
I'm not accustomed to watching a lot of pictures from
the side, but he's short, but he really gets far
down the mound, and the fastballs hitting upper nineties, there's

(01:05:22):
a curveball, there's a slider, there's a change up. I
don't really know. I was just really disappointed in that
broadcast Anderson Brito maybe a budding dude. And then the
next day one of those other DSL guys pitched, and
so I turned that game on and it was back
to back to center field camera.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
I don't know, that's so funny.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
It's just weird. Yeah, man, Like my conspiracy theory isn't like,
obviously teams are going to see them, but I just
feel like for some reason, they like don't want their
prospects like hyped in the public sphere or something. I
don't know, it's just weird.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
But your conspiracy theories, Nate, you know that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
There's just weird stuff like that that happens. And I'm
constantly being ranked at the bottom. Is weird to me
and for our purposes, for our b siding, it's like, honeypot.
I think like there's there's so many interesting prospects, so
many guys that jump up in that system and don't
get a lot of a lot of hype in the

(01:06:21):
public world.

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
Yeah, my money. Jose Fleury has has turned it on
after a slow start to the year and I think
injured for a bit, but he's been looking pretty good
of late.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Yeah, and there's I've had three more astro arms on
my list here, let's go. So maybe I don't think
I clarified either, I like eliminated a bunch of relievers.
I was just thinking starting pitchers here, so there were
a lot more relievers too that jumped multiple levels. And
I think, like in a legit manner, but maybe the
last I know, Jeff Ponce talked about this guy and

(01:06:54):
they I think we're talking about him to people their
last sort of like ds el stud pitcher that came
Stateside olimber Santa Santa. I don't think he's quite lived
up to the to the hope he did. He started
off in the complex this year and now he's in
double A. I kind of think though that it sure

(01:07:15):
seems like the track is a reliever right now, or
they're just really limiting his innings. I know they, you know, Piggyback,
I have a lot of guys they want to try
to develop, but he's not even getting like three innings.
He's like it's like two max. So I don't know,
I don't know what the whole story is with him there,
but well, he's one percent roster and he's number sixteen

(01:07:36):
on pipeline, but then two other guys that are sitting
at zero percent. If the Astros are promoting some starting pitchers,
I'm definitely going to take notice. But James Hicks and
Ethan Pecco went from a ball to double A this year.
I don't know if you've watched any of them. Matt
James Hicks, I think he was like mostly an SEC reliever.

(01:07:59):
I think I missed Sippy State. Maybe no at South
Carolina started a little bit for them, maybe, But this
is kind of when I think of an Astros pitching prospect,
or at least what they gobble up in the draft
is a fastball that plays really well up in the zone.
I think it's better than some of the grades I've
seen slapped on it, but it's not super high velocity,

(01:08:21):
low nineties, but I think it's got, you know, movement
profiles at work. I'm not like overly pumped about James
Hicks here, but he's a guy that if they I
think he does have a good breaker already, but if
the stuff sharpens up a little bit or comes up
a grade, he could be really interesting. Then Ethan Peco.

(01:08:41):
He's twenty one, big body, fastball breaker, another fastball up
in the zone guy. I think he's got with stuff,
with stuff that plays, you know, up and down. He's
he's more interesting to me than Hicks. But another guy
on in that pitching farm that's that's moving up, So

(01:09:02):
maybe that turns into a good pop up next year.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:06):
They are so good at taking these guys that are
just like late picks or under aft free agent signs
and nobody else is talking about and turning him into
potentially interesting players seemingly every year. So you know, I'm
not going to bet against that development team.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
Yeah, I know, right, Another arm that I guess technically
has like moved up three levels. But it's a little
maybe a little cheating here. But Wyatt Crowell of the Dodgers,
he was there, what fourth rounder from twenty twenty three,
but he had I believe he had Tommy John I
think cut his college well maybe last year short or whatever,

(01:09:48):
so this is really his first pro season. But he's
up in High A now, he's twenty two. He's a lefty.
I'm kind of surprised these zero percent roster do you
think you know, someone a picture that the Dodgers taking
the four or five rounds usually gets some pub from
Florida State. I think he's one of these sort of
potentially maybe like a tough angle from the left side.

(01:10:09):
He's kind of side armed three fourth a slot. He's funky,
interesting that he's, you know, like a funky left y.
I think he's got the good breaking ball that could
play well versus both hand hitters. Maybe a guy to
keep an eye on him has been a little slept on.
He's not like the biggest guy in the world. I
think they have him listed a six foot But yeah,
I don't know why A Crowel's career is underway, and

(01:10:33):
I think he's had some nice performances. Have you watched
him at all? I haven't no My Giants B side
arm Trevor McDonald, he really hasn't. Like last year, he
didn't throw a lot of innings, but they liked him
enough to throw him on the forty man and he
started off in a ball. He's in triple A now.
I still, you know, think that there's there's some nasty

(01:10:54):
stuff and there strikeout appeal. I think there's some pitchability
with him. I didn't look to see how his tria
A run has been going of late. But I think
he's still a very interesting starting pitching prospect that's only
two percent rostered.

Speaker 3 (01:11:10):
Has he thrown any innings, because wasn't that one of
my knocks on him, as like he couldn't stay on
the mound.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Pretty much pretty much? Yeah, But I mean I think
he's been there was another injury or something that kept
him out early. He's been thrown for a minute now.
Another guy who has jumped three levels from the complex
to High A. Another Ranger, Isaac Tiger. He was a
seventh rounder the Junior College and the last two drafts

(01:11:38):
ago twenty twenty three listened at six to two. I
watched the August fifteenth start at Hudson Valley, which I
think was like the only really decent angle in High
A from him. He started, he went three, four hits,
one and run three walks five k's fastball, dry ro slider,
and I think he uses pretty well the locates. Well,

(01:12:00):
there's I think there's plenty of developmental meat, you know,
still on the bone here, but there's just knowing the
rangers and stuff. There's got to be some sort of
outlier or weird characteristic with something with him that they
like him. He's been you know, there's a lot of
piggyback and there's a lot of arms to get innings
to and he's kind of rising above a couple other

(01:12:22):
names that I really like, at least, you know, level
wise and getting the three innings. So I don't know,
he's just kind of an interesting guy. I might watch
a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:12:30):
More of speaking of like kind of small sample size
Johnny cum lately's have you checked out Kumar Rocker since
he's been back?

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
Yeah, he shoved again today too.

Speaker 3 (01:12:41):
He looks so different and it's so good.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
Yeah. Well, I mean there's a reason why you got
millions of dollars, right.

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
Yeah, And I loved him in college. You know, his
run it in the playoffs was really special, and you know,
I didn't think he was like three overall talented, but
it's pretty cool to see him put it together after
so much injury and middling success. But that's what we're
talking about the Rangers. I was thinking about Rocker again.
It's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Yeah, he's been pretty good again, Like just horsepower, isn't
there is gonna stay on the mound? Is all this
stuff gonna hold up. I don't you know, there's no solid,
fool proof answer for that. You just gotta wait and see.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
But then the last guy I want to talk about, Matt,
who was who got me digging the most and thinking
the most doing this dive on the arm side. He
just got promoted to Double A. He started off in
a ball. There's been some shoulder stuff in his history.
It's why he's probably progressed a little bit slower or
moved up a little bit slower. He's twenty three years
old and I've wanted to bring him up a few

(01:13:45):
times prior Mat, but I'm terrified trying to pronounce his
name right now. But I reached out to Nathaniel Schultz
from Prospect Live, who I wrote like a super awesome,
great deep dive on him with video. You know, I
love that sort of stuff. That's my kind of prospecting there.
But he said that I should pronounce it Chen John

(01:14:08):
Ao June. Oh yeah, with the with the A's what
he's from Chinese Taipei? Is that right? But yeah? He
just I think it was a Double A debut or
maybe his second start with Midland, and he like struck
out nine. Man. He's he's interesting dude. He's got a
fastball that's hard and you know you can you could

(01:14:31):
just see eyeballs just rides. He's got a great change up,
really nasty change up. But he went like six scoreless
against Tulsa. There only two hits. One walk. Wasn't the
first time that I turned him on, but it was
definitely like a start that got me thinking about him more.
And then I read uh Nathaniel's piece and that was
awesome and got me thinking more. He's watched him a

(01:14:51):
lot in Midland, or excuse me, a lot in Lansing.
I think his numbers have been really awesome this year.
A little bit short on be the K side, and
I think that part Matt has a lot to do
with breaking ball stuff. His fastball change. Evidently has experimented
with a lot of different kinds of breakers, a different cutter,

(01:15:15):
maybe a couple of different cutters, but something of that
ilk right. So I think maybe Nathaniel suggested that part
of the lack of ks this season might be from
him throwing a lot of breakers and working on that.
He's a you know, decent sized guy. I don't think
he's real tall, but you know, he's strong looking. I
think there's a little bit of funk to his release.

(01:15:37):
I don't know what the height is on it, an
interesting arm, and there's system. He's one percent rostered right now.
Definitely a candidate for me to be my ASB side
next year if that roster percentage stays down. I think
he throws like six or seven pitches right now technically,
but I think a lot of that is just trying
to find that that third offering, that spin that he's

(01:15:58):
probably going to need, and that's probably going to be
the biggest question with him, and the biggest hurdle if
he's really gonna take off as a starting pitcher. But
Chen Jean al June, I think that's how you say it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
Do love the command, you know, low sub four percent
walk rate been up to double a this year. I
like that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
Yeah, And he's definitely you know, throws a ton of strikes,
Lou with the you know, fastball change up combination. I
will say, though I don't I don't know what his
command grades are and stuff like that, but it seems
more to me strike thrower than real like you know,
execute executing more sophisticated locations and stuff like that. But
you know that fastball is that combo so effective that

(01:16:42):
you know, maybe he doesn't have to be super pinpoint
with it. You know, he hasn't been up this level
of hitter, but who knows when he moves up. But yeah,
I don't know, man, that was probably you do Mutton,
and you do these long, tedious processes and stuff, and
sometimes there's not a whole lot at the end. But
this was the most interesting new new find, so to speak,

(01:17:04):
for me doing this.

Speaker 3 (01:17:05):
Nice And I'd seen him pop on a couple of leaderboards.
I think when I was looking at the low walk
guys who have built up some innings this year, he
was on that list. I think we talked a little
bit about that last week when I was quizzing you
one who was at the top of the walk leaderboards
in the miners, and he was, you know, midway down
that list. But I got to be honest, I haven't

(01:17:26):
watched any of him this year, So yeah, I'll put
him on the list and see if there's anything else
that stands out to me. But that sounds like a
pretty good recommendation there.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
Yeah, I think I think that you'd like him ultimately,
I don't know, you know how excited you get, but
I think you'd sign off as a decent little watch here.
I know he's pitched like internationally for that team against
like some big leaguers and stuff on WBC. Perhaps for
something that has had some success on that level, but yeah,

(01:17:57):
I don't know. Matt doing pretty dirty here.

Speaker 3 (01:18:00):
Got a little money today, Maybe.

Speaker 2 (01:18:02):
I'll start cutting up some video of Santa Bria. That
might be my next little project here. Yeah, I think
that'll do it for episode thirty nine of the Prospect
B Sides podcast. Unless you've got anything else you want
to talk about, Matt, I.

Speaker 3 (01:18:18):
Don't think so. We're still working on getting our special
guest in. Yeah, still sounds like he's he's into it,
but schedules have gotten in the way this week. So
hoping to get something in with with him in the
next week or two. But yeah, other than that, happy money.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
You will and we'll talk to you next time.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
Later, five miles an hour were riding to his head.
He hopped down first with the lump bonius face, and
on the very next pitch he up and stole second
face with greatest He wasn't born, he had dir yes

(01:19:03):
uniform

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