Episode 43: 2025 AL West B-Side Selections

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ninety five miles.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
An hour, riding too his head. He hop it down
first with the lumpbonius face, and on the very next
pitch he up and stole second phase.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
With gradest be he wasn't born, he had the yes univonn.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Well, thanks for joining us Prospect B Sides Podcast. This
is episode forty three where Matt and I will continue
our what six part series, going division by division, picking
out some of our favorite zero to one maybe two
percent rostered and fan tracks prospects we maybe like as

(00:48):
gaining some more Dynasty utility in twenty twenty five. Tonight
we're going to talk about aos selections and I'm looking
forward to it because it's been a week man, and
I'm just looking forward to talking some ball. Rook. How
are you.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm great, Nate. You know, it's always a good time
to talk baseball. I feel like none better than today.
I feel like this is what everybody's waiting for, is
this analysis about als B side prospects.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
Probably I can't think of.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Anything else happening in the world. Frankly, that's more important
than this on November sixth, So you know, we're just
giving the people what they need, what they want so,
I'm thrilled to be here and always bumped to talk
to you, buddy.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
It was a day. I'm getting pounded with snow. As
I told you before, I ate shit the other day
on my driveway twice. I am feeling very beat up,
but I'm going to power through here.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Any housekeeping stuff, I mean, I know you've been watching
some AFL, any any like things at the at the
top you want to hit on.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah, I've been watching some AFL, but I don't know
if there's anything like super outstanding noteworthy. Catching My attention
was almost over right. It's like, yeah, there after tonight,
there are five games left. I'm just trying to hang
on to my lead in the AFL. Rodo.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I was going to ask you your Caleb Durbin number
two overall pick is paying massive dividends. Are you going
to win the whole thing?

Speaker 4 (02:13):
It is? Going into tonight, I had a ten point
lead a lse it can change quickly though.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
A month one is just like three starters, right.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Right, Yeah, one of your bats has a monster night
that can bump you up quite a bit. But I
think my bats did well tonight, so I may have
found my most successful format the AFL road a line,
big Bucks, who do you want to talk about first?

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Here, you know, in the interest of dealing with fandom
and kind of getting the shitty stuff out of the
way first, Like, let's start with Houston. Let's start the
Houston trash can bang and astros.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
All right, Well, my arm, I don't think it's going
to be any surprise to you at least or anyone
in the dynasty dugout discord, But I.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Think I wrote this one down like months ago. Yeah,
this is Houston.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
Arm, no brainer for me. But I'm going with Ryan Gusto. Gusto.
I've heard it pronounce both ways on broadcasts as members
of that chat. Well know, I'm quite fond of him,
and maybe kind of lucked out because I wasn't going
to pick anyone who had debuted already in the majors,
and he was actually scheduled to make his debut their
last game of the season, which got canceled. Maybe a

(03:25):
bit of a technicality there, but he was still in
September only rostered in one percent of fan tracks leads,
so still within our constraints. Here's a twenty five year
old right hander listed at six ' four. He was
an eleventh round pick in twenty nineteen out of a
junior college in Florida, And Matt, you read that little
piece that that was shared right on him. Yep, it's

(03:46):
kind of a fun story. He didn't make his high
school team, tried out for like this juco school and
they want him and didn't realize. I don't think that
he didn't wasn't on his high school team. And the
gist of the story, in my take a way of
that piece, which was awesome, is that this is a.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Guy seriously, we should we should find that and share
that because that piece was so cool. Honestly, one of
the coolest stories of the year.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Yeah, Like, this is a guy who just I don't know,
just that's not himself and tells coaches what he's gonna
do and hops along and makes them take them and
he has had success and this season was phenomenal in
a few different aspects. I think, Matt, like, I don't
know if I've seen a player have quite a turnaround

(04:29):
at least production wise, as Gusto did in the PCL
like Man his first eleven starts, he went forty in
a thirty had era over eight, a whip over two,
striking out twenty one percent, walking thirteen percent, throwing strikes
sixty one and a half percent of the time, and
then his last eighteen starts he goes one hundred and
eight innings with a two point zero eight eer, a

(04:51):
point nine to five whip, a twenty three k percentage,
and cut his walks in over half at six point
four percent, throwing strikes at almost seventy percent. What he
finished the season with six fqos in his last eighteen
starts at a run, Yeah, mind you again in the PCL.
So I didn't really start paying attention to him until

(05:12):
I don't maybe one or two starts into that run,
and then I kind of watched him pretty religiously because
I was just kind of hooked on what was going
on here, and I just generically said, he's turned himself
into a pretty good picture, the type that I think
you and I like just kind of a lot of
offerings mixes it up well, all that sort of thing, right.
I don't think there's any offering that is off the

(05:33):
charts stuff wise. He's got a fastball that's like ninety
one ninety two, a curveball that comes in like the
high seventies. Velocity wise, he's got a slider, a cutter,
and a splitter. I think attack is maybe a bit
more north south than east west. He's got some interesting splits.
He's a little tougher on righties as a right hander,

(05:53):
and he was lefties. But I was curious that, like
what may have changed from it. It was literally the
cand turned to June and then he was just like
kind of a completely different pitcher, you know, production wise,
and so you know, him being in Triple A all year,
you get you know, all the Savant stuff. So I
was just curious what is usage and offerings might have
kind of looked like. And the last eighteen starts, he

(06:16):
actually his fastball was like a tick slower. The biggest
change that I can see, just like usage wise, as
he threw his cutter a lot when those first eleven
starts and then started throwing the slider a lot more
during his hot stretch. Like as far as spin rates
and velocity and like the kind of shape stuff that
you can look at on Savant, I don't think anything

(06:36):
really changed with his arsenal. Maybe a little bit of
different usage obviously probably had a role in some of
his success. The main thing was he just started pounding
the strike zone more and then that worked. You know,
he turned into a little bit more of a bowl
than a matador. And you know, anyone who's gonna get
starting pitching chance with the Astros will just like kind

(06:59):
of automatic get my attention. And I don't know how
good he might be in the majors, but at this
raster percentage in a deeper league or what have you,
I think it's a no brainer that you raster this guy.
If you got a spot, I think you could do
much worse with a roster spot than Ryan Gustau.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, if for the story alone, and we'll find that
and I'll make Nate share it on the Twitter verse.
Gusto definitely is that kind of some of all of
the parts kind of pitcher. I don't really feel like
there's a lot of latent upside. You know, it's not
like we're going to see we should expect a tick
or two of velocity. It's not like there's one pitch

(07:40):
that he needs to feature more. He knows how to pitch.
He knows how to do his thing, and his success
this year was super cool, especially that run to end
the year. We were both pretty excited about that possible
debut in the last day of the season.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
Reading that article. The intangible stuff like just having some
stones and having confidence, and I think he's got all
that sort of stuff in spades, and I'm always on
board with guys like that.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, definitely, definitely. Okay, Well, my guy, you know, doesn't
have quite as cool as story my arm here, I'm
going with Ethan Peco. Ethan Pecko. Did you get you
get a chance to watch Peco much?

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Yep?

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Mister Pecko is a college writing. It's a bit of
a theme for me. It seems to be the demographic
I leaned towards in this exercise a bit more. He
was out of Towson, kind of smaller school, didn't pitch
a ton his first couple of seasons, think due to
injury and ineffectiveness, but was their best starter down the

(08:37):
stretch in his draft season in twenty twenty three, and
Astros drafted him kind of late. I think, oh, no,
six rounds, so you know, mid rounds. Like, still got
a decent, decent signing bonus, and pitched a little bit
last year in pro ball, but it was, you know,
small samples, just fifteen innings, after the draft of solid

(08:58):
work but nothing calcular, and this year he showed kind
of what you expect a college arm with some pitch
ability to do. He really dominated a ball and punched
out a bunch of guys, kept the walks in check,
kept the homers in check, kept the babbitb in check.
Across forty six and two thirds innings in a ball

(09:20):
he ran a two seventy nine fifth with almost forty
six percent ground ball rate and a really healthy thirty
three percent strikeout rate to ten percent walk rate, so
you know, really good came iOS BB and was obviously
more talented than the pitcher than the hitters early in
the season. He got bumped mid season up to High

(09:43):
A and things on the surface didn't go as well,
but the strikeouts continued to be strong. He actually walked
fewer batters and so his k iOS BB actually went up,
which you always liked to see. He got hit a
little bit harder. The babbit was almost four hundred, so,
like his era, was really bad seven point one point

(10:04):
five in twenty two and two thirds innings at HIGA,
and he gave up some home runs, which again in
that kind of a sample, I'm inclined to say, like,
that's kind of unfortunate. It's probably just a luck thing.
I don't think anything about his arsenal has suggested that
he is definitely more homer prone or not. So to me,
that was a blip that makes him a buying opportunity

(10:26):
because then he got promoted again to double A and
closed the year out really strong, twenty six and two
thirds innings, doing the thing that the Astros tend to do.
He did some piggybacking. His outings were a little bit
shorter again because I think they were trying to manage
his innings, but he still struck out twenty seven percent
of batters, only walked eight percent of batters, and that's

(10:47):
really solid. Like, that's a very very good double A line,
even if the talent level might have been a little
bit down at the end of the season when he
was there and the outings were shorter. I really like
what Piccos got again part of this Astro pitching development,
which really do a good job getting a lot out
of their pitchers, even there unheralded mid major types. And

(11:08):
one of the reasons I like him is kind of
like Gusto, he has a ton of pitches in various outings.
I counted six different pitches, a four seamer, a two seamer,
a slider, a cutter, a change, and a curve. Now
he'll dial them up and down depending on the handedness
of the batter or even the outing. Like some outings,

(11:29):
I didn't really see that many two seams at all.
Others I saw quite a few. Again, his slider and
his cutter. I think maybe those blend at times, but
I saw enough that I thought there was a distinction there,
and I'm interested to see if he keeps the command
tight with like that many pitches at deep of a repertoire.
Sometimes what happens is they're all kind of fringy, and

(11:51):
or he loses command of some, and then he might
be prone to some blow ups. I saw enough that
I thought his command was gonna or at least the
control was going to be good enough to help him
not get into too many of those tough spots. And
maybe that's what he showed at Hia a bit, was
that those kind of blow ups can happen to him.
So maybe that's the downside version. But you can do
worse than kind of prototypical six to two hundred pounds

(12:15):
starter who's twenty three next year and going to probably
start the year in a double a rotation for Astros
rotation that I think they're going to have some open slots.
So I like Ethan Peco for a deeply target here,
and I really do think that he's a pitch ability
guy in not a derogatory sense, right, Like there's there's

(12:35):
a lot of clay to mold here.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
No, I think that's a great B side choice here.
I think the Astros are always chuck full with solid,
unpopular pitching prospects.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, I mean I had like four that I liked
last year, and.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
Yeah, you know, even right now, when I looked in September,
their most rastern pitching prospect was only at eight percent.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Aj Bluebell that blue Blah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
And then then three percent, three percent, two percent, two percent,
two percent. When Guso was gonna start, I was like,
all right, well, I'll go with Jackson Nazu like no brainer.
Kind of another similar type is Gusto. I think, just
like you know, some of all parts, lots of pitches,
good picture, but he's only one percent. Paco was zero percent.

(13:20):
Jose Flurry is still only one percent. I think is
one one percent. Yeah, Hicks, James Hicks, who I like
to zero percent, Like, I don't know, just it's just
that Astros thing.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Man.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
They're always I feel, very underrated as a system, and
so are a lot of their prospects.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
And yeah, produce Miguel Yola, he I think is like
low right, I think in mind.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
Yeah, he's their second most roster three percent.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Okay, yeah, I thought, yeah, and he's he's another good
one that I think is under roster. The command is
a little shaky for me there, but this stuff was fun.
I ended up watching quite a bit of him this year.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
Astros pitching farm always good, b side hunting grounds all right,
Astros on the side, Matt. I don't know how you
felt as a whole, but when you got down to
zero one, maybe two percent, it was tricky. It was
tough because I felt like most of those guys had
like a really big potential whammy.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Like some big negative yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, something that I was just like, eh, I don't
know if this is playable. There's you know, they tend
they like data, right, they like athletes, and I think
they take a lot of those hitters and try to
hope for the best right, and I think they've done
really well, like developing some some bats and some you know,
in the past, I think we've had some pretty good
B side astros bats, and you know they'll have pop

(14:35):
up guys like a lot Perfito or whatever. This particular
crop was tough for me, so I don't particularly love
my choice here. He wouldn't. He's not a guy I'm
like looking to roster unnecessarily. It's probably in my bottom third.
But I went with Jerron Williams. He was their ninth
round pick in twenty twenty three out of Toledo. He's

(14:56):
a middle infielder and play some third base. I think
he's got a real good arm. I've seen them just
just make some cannon throws. These good size listened at
like six one, twenty three years old. Right now, he's
split the season. He had one hundred and thirty one
played appearances in High A, then one hundred and fifty
four played appearances in Double A, and no doubt that
the double A run was not very impressive production wise.

(15:19):
It wasn't hi a double A. Not so much what
he slashed two oh four two sixty six three point
fifty two. He had three home runs, stole fourteen bases
in forty games. You know, not super impressive, but I
really like the athleticism. I think there is a little
bit of a power speed blend here, as we've seen
with astros hitting. I think part of the reason why

(15:40):
they get like ranks so lowly often as a system
is because I think it is tough to tell where
that you know who the pop up guy is, who's
going to blow up here, but they always seem to
have somebody, So I don't know. I don't know if
it will be Williams this year, but considering all my
my options, I kind of thought I just kind of, hey,
let's let's watch out. Athletic guy who can potentially do

(16:02):
a lot of things and play up the middle. Seems
to have a decent bat ball profile. Strikeouts on a
big issue. He only struck out what eighteen point two
percent of the time on the season. It was actually
less in double A than Hi A. He ran a
two thirty two babbit in double A. So maybe there
was just like some bad luck there. I don't know,
but just turning on the film, what both defense and

(16:22):
at the plate, like, I thought I could do a
lot worse and you know, maybe this year that double
A production kind of catches up to the talent a
little bit more.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, I like it. Did he miss some time this year?
Did he have an injury?

Speaker 4 (16:35):
He might? He only played seventy one games on the year,
so he had Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, interesting. I watched a little bit of Williams, and
I think I caught some of his Double A games
where he wasn't as impressive, But considering how short the
season was, I like a lot about this guy. He
was one of my kind of further down picks in
this that maybe I should give another look, especially if
you like him a bit. I think there might be
a little more here now that I'm hearing to talk about.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
Him and hi a Offensively, he's pretty dang good. Three ten,
three sixty six sledged five point fifty two. I know
that's Ashville and that Yeah right. Like I said, I
think he's just a better player than the surface numbers
show for Yeah, run.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
With decent contact skills and a willingness to steal bases
like that gives you a decent floor and doesn't seem
like the powers are zero. So yeah, that's an interesting one.
I'm gonna I'm definitely gonna keep an eye on him.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
Yeah, and who knows what the Astros what opportunity might
be on the left side of that infield coming up here,
because Bregman's like, gone, right, Yeah, I'm not expecting or
thinking Williams here is going to take over some sort
of every day role here, but maybe there'll be an
opportunity to get to the bigs.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Definitely. I had a couple guys that I wanted to
at least note. Kenny Gomez is one who I looked
at a bit. He's a young outfielder, played all over
the outfield up at Hi a steal some bags. I
think has a little more power in there than the
surface numbers might show. But I liked a little bit
about his game, So he's one that I want to
I want to agree.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
I think he's like a real center field there too.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
I think so too. I know they played him around
a bit, but he got most of this run in center,
and I thought he looked good out there, at least
in my limited looks. And then Tommy Sacho Junior, he
made it up to Triple A this year. He's a
little older but has that combination of things that I
really like in that he has solid contact skills, he
walks inn above average amount, he is athletic enough to

(18:29):
steal a few bases with not and not be a
zero in the power department. So Saco Junior, I liked
him a fair amount and is one I could see
being more of a utility guy for them. I don't
know if there's like a full time regular there and
the impact I think held me back from making him
my official B side. But Tommy Sacho Junior is another
one to keep an eye on if there's an injury opening,

(18:51):
maybe he gets some run. But the guy I wanted
to pick here is I don't know, maybe a little
unusual for the kind of hitter that I pick, but
I'm going with Austin deming Mate.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
Ye.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Like he's an older college bat out a BYU right
handed hitter, maybe a touch undersize, you know, like considering
he's probably got to be a third baseman and you know,
I think he's probably under six foot was my guest.
But he's pretty well built and I think very athletic.
Like I saw him make some decent plays at third

(19:22):
and think he could stick there. Don't necessarily think he
needs to shift somewhere else, though they have played him
at second, and I think the bat might play even
better at second. Got almost no money. I was a
tenth rounder and may even have been a senior sign
or something. So he yeah, because I think he's a
little bit older for the draft, and that's why nobody
cares about him. Nobody likes him. He's I'm pretty sure

(19:44):
zero percent what I like about him. His swing is
really really short to the ball. That is some in
common to like a chase the latter in like the
abbreviated finish piece obviously from the right side, with the
latter from the left, but there's some similar he's there,
but he still swings pretty hard, like I don't know
if I ever got any exit veulos on him, but

(20:06):
to me, he hits the ball pretty hard, and especially
the way he looked at Corpus Christie. He struck out
quite a bit in Asheville, which was odd and didn't
quite put up the numbers that you might expect, but
upon promotion to Corpus Christie, he kind of raked, you know,
two fifty five whatever, but eleven point six percent walk

(20:27):
rate good for a three fifty seven OBP and an
even five hundred slug as he socked seven homers across
one hundred and twelve plate appearances. That's pretty darn good.
And now some of this I think is like a
little bit of homer to fly ball luck. He's not
going to be this good. But I saw him hit
some nukes, you know, like he stays so short to
the ball, Guys try and beat him inside and he

(20:49):
just turns on it and ropes, ropes the ball out.
So I thought Austin Deming really had one of those
kind of underrated bats, Like I could see him being
a a major league regular, especially if he ends up
staying at second base for somewhere. Third base offensive bar
is a little bit higher, and he's shown, as I mentioned,
a propensity to strike out that might hamper him at

(21:12):
the upper levels, especially at the major leagues. But I
don't know. I thought that maybe some of that was
just he was trying to take advantage of the good
offensive environment and like or a expanded his own or something,
because once he was up at Corpus Christy, the strikeout
rate came down. The swinging strike rate is, you know,
a tick above average maybe, but isn't bad. I don't know,

(21:32):
I like him as a really polished college hitter who
maybe can play enough defense to be a major leaguer.
But I liked the bat a lot. He was one
that I came away surprised at how much I liked him.
And just as another note for our fantasy focus, he
steals bags too, and it's pretty good at it. He's
wiped thirteen this year and only was caught three times,

(21:54):
and I watched most of these. A lot of it
was it's not like he's got blazing speed, but he's
a good base dealer, and I think that's underrated and
is something that means it gives you confidence that he'll
keep getting the green light or at least the yellow
light to go sometimes.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
Nice. Yeah, he was definitely on my short list here.
He's getting some run in the AFL right now, and
I'm pretty sure maybe I'm misremembering, but I'm pretty sure
he kind of got Beck's attention a bit, and I
think Beck was, oh nice asking and talking about him
a little bit. I think he's had a couple of
loud games down there.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah, he's a good player.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
Yeah. The Astros just they get MLB worth from a
lot of guys that feel like deming.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
They're and everybody else right, Like, That's one of the
things I think either either BA or BP did some
study and it was just like astros far and away
got the most value out of this type of guy,
like the unheralded, never made a top prospect list, never
made a top hundred list, and then return positive war
value for them.

Speaker 4 (22:52):
And they're also good at at shipping them elsewhere, you know,
like right Canada, and then they started producing in the
major league level there, you know. Yeah, I think I
failed to note, but you can follow me on Twitter
at Pitching Specs. I'll be dropping some videos of my
picks here, Matt. I didn't get around to it yet,
but I do plan on making some videos of your
guys and dropping those two at some point.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Here, sweet, let's go to the city of Angels, which
I believe resides just to the north of a Wales
vagina or sorry, that's an old old wooden ship I think. No,
we're in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California,

(23:37):
in Los Angeles, I believe, And I wanted to go
to LA because you just mentioned that Beck has been
sniping some of my guys down in the AFL. And
I'm going to lead off with another one that he
mentioned just the other day in Sammy Neta junior. And
this is a very like he has to be zero
percent owned, right I didn't.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
Yeah, he was zero percent in September.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, because nobody cares about him because he's got like
very few innings this year, very few innings for his career,
Like there's almost no video to go on. But I
was kind of intrigued in a way that, like a
lot of the Angels pitching, they have some guys that
are pretty interesting but that mostly got them in trade. Right,

(24:20):
Dana is obviously a success story, and Nate's guy for
a while, Aldegary another in nates guys but got in trade.
George Klassen, who lit up the world last year. Like
those guys are all good and I think exciting, Like
those those are obviously way too owned for our purposes.
But I was kind of scrolling through the other guys
and I didn't like a lot of what I saw, Like,

(24:42):
like you said, there were flaws with each of them,
or something just wasn't quite right about them. Another guy
that we had almost no look at, And I don't
know if he's your guy or not. But Derek Clark
is another one of theirs to who we saw very
few innings, but I liked what I saw of him.
He's Derek Clark is like a super short arm action
and just nasty stuff. Like the stuff just moves all

(25:06):
over the place. Someone I want to monitor. Probably more
like relievery to me than starter traits. But he punched
out thirty four percent of batters in his eight innings
and didn't walk anybody, which I always like in his
short sample, and so he's a fun one too. But
Natara Junior just liked the way his pitches looked. His
fastball to me, looks a little erratic, and I think

(25:27):
that's something worth monitoring. The walk rate as a touch high,
and it seemed like it wasn't a consistent miss. You know.
His arm action is a little bit long, like he
kind of hides it back behind his hip and then
it maybe takes a little long to catch up, and
I wonder if that contributes to some of the command issues.
But the fastball was tough to hit. It seemed like

(25:47):
both kind of looked like he had a four seam
and I saw him run some that at least had
some armside. I don't know whether that was specifically different pitch,
but definitely a different shape. And the slider was absolute
murder on lefties. You just see him. And again some
of this might be camera angle and just at the
lower miners, you know, this was like at high A.
I think, hard to tell for sure, but these lefties

(26:10):
were just bailing out on this pitch and missing it
by like, I don't know, a foot off the end
of their bats because it was just moving so much
away from them. And I liked the change up to
righties too. He threw it a couple of times, and
I remember one in bat in particular that it was
like a three to two change up down and in
to a righty and they just like swung over the
top of it.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
I just love that left on right change up that
you kind of need as a lefty without being pigeonholed.
He's old for the level, so he's twenty four and
only just now was getting up to HIA, so that's
a bit of a ding. There are definitely some things
about him that look more relievery long term, but they're
still letting him start and there aren't as many innings

(26:50):
on him, So I think there's still viability here as
a starter. I'm not saying, like, rush out and go
get him unlike some of the other people that we'll
talk about this week. But he's definitely the most interesting
to me. These little scene B Side esque arms for La.

Speaker 4 (27:04):
That you and Beck have both kind of zeroed in here.
I had a hard time picking an angel arm here
because there were four that I that I really did like,
Oh interesting, who else? Yeah, it's tough because it's the
first year player. But we're definitely going to talk about
Trey Gregory Alford during our first year player draft stuff. Now.
It's a little tricky because they signed him for two
million dollars, you know. Twitch to me isn't really like

(27:26):
B Side right, you know, but yet because he was
the eleventh round pick, if Dynasty owners are going to treat
him like Dana, he's not going to be rostered, He's
not going to be getting drafted. But I don't know,
I felt like that was maybe a little, i don't know,
just a little weird for our constraints here, So I
decided against that. Natara was one of my four that
I was really interested in for a lot of the

(27:48):
reasons that you listen. I know that the walks have
been high, but watching him, like, I don't know, I
just like didn't really want to believe the walk rates
because it didn't feel like that. To me. It didn't
felt like there was much better execution going on and
my looks than those walk rates might suggest. So I
don't know, maybe the lively slider, you know, it could
be tougher to throw for strikes and what the.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
Movement, the movement on it, like it was so big
that I felt like, yeah, lost that sometimes. But to me,
it was the inconsistency with the fastball that I wondered
if that was something with the longer arm action. I
don't know, Yeah, we'll see, yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
And then I almost just like did a part two
with my twenty twenty three arm with them Ryan Cousteau,
who had Tommy John and came back and stuff. I
still am pretty interested in him, But long story short,
I ended up going with a twenty year old at
least twenty at the time, who was pitching in high
a Keith ol Key.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
I don't think I watched it.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
Probably at the bottom of my list of my thirty
arms here. I mean definitely riskier than those other three arms.
I mean, who knows what the prep guy, but we'll
talk about that later. Zero percent of ROSTERD. He was
an international free agent back in twenty twenty one out
of Venezuela. Technically four levels complex A ball High A
in double A Double A was just like this little

(29:03):
spot help relief thing. But I think we got a
couple of decent looks of him in Hi A. He
had six starts there, twenty nine innings, three point four
to one, ERA, one point three four whip struck out
twenty nine point eight percent, walked almost sixteen percent. Right,
not great there. This is like just some young arm

(29:23):
talent that I don't think is hopeless to get harnessed
a bit more here. It feels a little bit like
some of my more successful smaller pick or smaller look
picks from the past. With his walks, you gotta like
look at the mode and not the mean this is
a lean body. Maybe there's some violence in the delivery.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
That little head whack, Yeah, a little bit.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
Not the most balanced look in the delivery, right, But
he's got some armside run to a big like ninety
six mile per hour fastball likes the back door to Righty's.
I think there's a pretty good slider. There's a change
up that he throws against lefties. I don't think I
saw him throw any right on right change ups, but
I'm not one hundred percent on that. But I think
it's just some young arm talent that you know, the

(30:06):
Angels are probably gonna push and maybe a little bit
too much. But as far as just like a little
bit more electricity then you know, at least three of
those other guys, I think he's a little bit more
electric potential than the Naturo. So I'm glad that you
went with him and I went with Keeks. I wanted
to highlight both those guys. Again, Key is not a
guy that I'm going to be rostering or drafting, but

(30:26):
would not be shocked if he kind of pops up
a little bit this year.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Interesting, all right, one to watch? Who's your bat here?
I thought there were a couple that were kind of fun.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Yeah, I don't know. I had a hard time. I
think there are some decent options. I kind of wanted
to go with Cole Fontinelli, but I feel like we
kind of talked about him enough already, and m what
have you he was still only one percent, but I
landed on and ended up maybe a bit reluctantly so
on Tucker Flint. I don't know if you paid any
attention to him. I sure did, but yeah, Flint so

(30:59):
well zero percent of rosteries. Was twenty three years old,
played outfield in a little bit of first base. I
think he played all three outfield spots. I'm guessing was
probably more corner outfield. Listed at six ' to two,
good sized guy. He was a thirteenth round pick out
of Florida Junior College in twenty twenty two. Most of
the year in Double A, got a couple of weeks
in Triple A at the end where there was some

(31:20):
stat cast stuff to glean on.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah, you liked that oppo homer off of your boy Trevor.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
McDonald, Yeah, in the video there.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, I didn't look at the video. I saw that
live because this is ye. I looked at a lot.

Speaker 4 (31:31):
Yeah, and there's nothing like two outstanding hit, a couple
of home runs. Maybe only one home run over one
hundred miles per hour in those thirteen games, but one
hundred and four point seven or something like that. So
there wasn't a time to look at there necessarily, but
I like the look of his left handed stroke. On
the season, he had seventeen home runs, He stole fifteen bags,
walked fourteen percent of the time sixteen percent of the

(31:54):
time during the small triple A run he did strike
out almost thirty percent of the time. Though, you know,
line nothing too crazy, you know, two forty six, three,
sixty four, four, nineteen and double A. But I will say, Matt,
I don't know what you thought about the Southern League
this year, but I thought it was and I don't know,
I don't have Actually I did look at these numbers,
but I don't remember, but I think it was kind
of a worse run environment than it had been in

(32:16):
the past. And I don't know if that was because
of the level of pitching and what have you. Thought.
I thought the Southern League was kind of chuck full
with some good pitchers this year. But yeah, I mean Flint,
He's the bottom third of my thirty bats here for sure.
Not anyone that I'm drafting or rostering right now, but
the guy that I'm going to be watching, I think
because but as bad ball profile looks pretty decent right

(32:37):
puts the ball in the air, pulls it.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, that was actually my one note about him, because
I really liked Flint as well. I looked at him
long and hard for my B side, and another guy
just barely beat him out. But I would have been
happy to take Flint. My issue with him, I think,
other than the case which are a little higher than
I generally like.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
Yeah, and got to hit more home runs going to
strike out that much.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
But the reason I think he's not is he's putting
the ball in the ground a bit too much. At
double A he didn't. He had just like a thirty
eight percent ground ball rate, but all his other stops
were over fifty percent. And I think he's got enough
juice in there, you know, small sample at triple A,
and so maybe we'll see if the eggsyblows are actually there.
But like you, I really liked his left handed stroke.

(33:22):
I think he's short to the ball, but it's not
without some power. And I think maybe if he does
a little bit better job in the air, kind of
like he did in Corpus CHRISTI or sorry, in Rocket
City Rocket City, then he'll be He looks like a
major league regular to me if he can do that. Yeah,
So yeah, I liked. I liked Flint a fair amount.

(33:42):
I think he's a good a good deep league call.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
I don't know, I kind of like b side and
around in these day three Juco guys. I feel like
there might be a little bit developmental meat on the
on the bone there. I don't know, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Like I said, I did really like Flynt. I'm going
a different direction with a guy who has a really
long minor league track record. He got Rule five last
year from the Yankees, Eric Wagaman. Wagman was eligible in
the Rule five. Los Angeles took him. He'd been Yeah,
he'd been with the Yankees for obviously six years and

(34:17):
had been mostly below average, but had kind of figured
something out in Double A the last couple of the
in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, small samples both,
but the k rate was down, the power was up.
He was hitting the ball harder, and when Los Angeles
picked it, he wasn't really on my radar coming into

(34:37):
this offseason.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
We looked at a bunch of like Rule five guys
and I.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
Was talking like minor league portion Rule five right.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, So I was like not
on him, because it had been kind of just a
short sample over you know, call it two hundred and
fifty played appearances spread across twenty twenty two and twenty
twenty three of him like looking like a dude, and
then you and you watch him and he a man.
I had somebody in mind when I was watching his stroke.
He has that like really quiet, small leg raise, but

(35:07):
he kind of like leans on it, you know what
I mean. So it's not like a big leg kick.
It's not a stride. It's almost like a quiet lifted up.
But he's really spread, you know. I don't know if
I'm doing a good job describing that. And the swing
is a little long, like he's a big dude six
four two ten third baseman. I think he played some
first maybe two, but and the swing looks a little

(35:30):
long at times, and I wonder if that is people
look at it like, oh man, how is he? How
is this guy really gonna hit? But he doesn't strike
out very much, struck out only thirteen percent of the
time in triple A this year, walked just a hair
under an average amount. But I think it's because he's
got pretty good contact skills. But he also has power.

(35:51):
I mean, he launched twenty some homers this year across
the four levels. He did debut, and I you know,
I haven't used that as a hard and fast rule.
So he did get a few plays appearances with the
big club at the end of the year and kind
of looks like he belonged. You know, he plays third
base primarily. They're paying Anthony Rendon just an ungodly amount
of money, but Rendon never seems to want to actually

(36:13):
play baseball. So I don't know, maybe when Rendon inevitably
gets hurt, Wagman steps in and actually just looks like
the better hitter for what it's worth. The Steamer projections
just came out and they think that Wagaman's going to
be a league average hitter next year playing third base.
I don't know, you can do worse than that. The
other thing to note about him he has a pretty

(36:36):
even batted ball distribution, and not in a bad way,
Like when the ball's on the outer half, he smokes
it the other way. I saw him hit a couple
of triples like that thought last year. When it's to
the middle, he drives it to the middle. When it's inside,
he's happy to lift and pull. He's sort of those
one of those like you watch him and you're not
going to be wowed by your look. Maybe you watch

(36:58):
him enough times and you appreciate that this is what
a professional hitter kind of looks like in a way
that I think you'd appreciate, nate this, especially with the
driving it to all fields. He's a little more aggressive
than some guys that we disagree on. But yeah, Wagman
by Eric Wagman. I think it's somebody who he could
be a real contributor to the major leagues next year.

Speaker 4 (37:17):
Nice. And I don't have him on my list here
because I think I just deleted anyone who had any
major league running Yeah, yeah, probably, But do you know
what his rastered percentage was when I looked?

Speaker 1 (37:28):
But my numbers aren't as good as yours.

Speaker 4 (37:31):
Sweet right on? Yeah, that I wasn't even on my radar.
But I think that's a good a good call. All right, Matt,
I'm pumped for this. I'm pumped for this guy here.
I don't I don't even know if you're ready for this, Matt.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
I'm ready.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
Let's talk Rangers. Rangers.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
Yeah, the Rangers were tough.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
I agree on both sides, batside, armside. I think there
was a lot of a lot of decent choices, a
lot of different directions, which I kind of feel like
is always the case with the Rangers both sides, I think,
especially on the pitching side, like stuff just kind of
tends to fizzle out once they get to the uppers,
unfortunately for a lot of their guys. But I will

(38:08):
admit that I let my fandom of my choice here
to kind of break the tie. I think. Do I
think my guy here is a future big leaguer. I
think it's a long shot, but I love him. And
I'm talking about Arturo the Diesel Diesla Nice you watch
him at all? Matt, Yeah, we're talking big boy. Yeah.

(38:32):
This was shared with me and I was told I
could share this. The story of how they landed on
Diesela here is pretty interesting. He was an NAI guy
down in Texas and the Rangers international guy saw Diesela
saw excuse me, saw the Diesel on Twitter and then
had their like Ohio guy or Midwest guy go and

(38:53):
watch him during the summer league that he was in,
and then they signed him as an undrafted free agent
to some twenty three drafts right, and then he went
to the DSL because he's Dominican and then came over
his state side. This was his first year playing state side.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
That's an old guy, right, like he was the oldest
player in the DSL or.

Speaker 4 (39:13):
Something might might have been. I don't know. There's always
like a couple I don't know, twenty three twenty four
year olds that usually they come from like Mexico and
then they go to the l to start something like that.
But the Diesel here eighty seven games in a ball
and then moved up to High A for thirty four games,
and now the Rangers Lowers is tough, Matt, because Downy's
doesn't broadcast right. Actually, I think they have broadcast a

(39:36):
few games, don't quote me on that, but mostly you
can't watch any games in Downeast. And then Hickory just
started broadcasting, but it's a crappy press box view and
often they don't even update the what inning it is
on the graphic and stuff, so trying to hunt around
and find stuff is a nightmare. Yeah, but I cut up.
I'll share on Twitter at pitching specs. I caught up

(39:57):
his all of his broadcast home runs, believe, and we're talking.
I mean there are some bombs Mat, like the guy
in the booth will even on a few occages like
I've never seen somebody hit a ball out there before,
Like there's some wooded area out there and he is
just sending them. Dude. There's a nice look on the
video of his swings slowed down. It's like yermin Mercedes type,

(40:21):
just back of minor league pons.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Right, he's so fun.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
But what is so great about the diesel Mat is
that he is way more athletic than you might think.
I mean, I don't know what he's listed at six
' two. How much do you think he weighs?

Speaker 1 (40:36):
Oh two sixty?

Speaker 4 (40:38):
Yeah? That the baseball guys just hate us so much. Right,
he stole what? He stole four bases this year?

Speaker 1 (40:44):
Uh huh.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
None of them were broadcast, and he was caught stealing
three times, and all of those were broadcasts. But but
one of them, I'll say was a legit steal. It
was close, but it was a legit throwout. One of
the videos lags of him stealing. That wasn't my fault.
That was the broadcast. So he looks a little slow there,

(41:07):
But watch the other ones. One of them was a
delayed steal. Attempt, which is something that I think he
does that didn't work out. And then the other one
was a double steal where he basically gave himself up
so the run could score.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, that one was nice.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
But you can see him run on the video like
my man can move, big boy can hit bombs, you
can move some. And what I noticed watching him was,
and you know, maybe given his NAIA history and what
I wonder about his ability to catch up to like
professional velocity, I don't think he has like an opposite
field approach that you see as bad at ball apposo

(41:41):
field bad ball stuff is what it was, a thirty
eight percent or something like that. You throw the Diesel
a crappy breaking ball and it is gone. He will
destroy it. I mean, he's just like maybe a bit
coldish to me, Like I just I want to see
him succeed. I want to see a full season or
I want to see it know his second year state side.

(42:02):
You know, a right handed first base type is odds
are long. I get all that, but yeah, if the
Diesels mashing the shit ton of home runs next year,
I'm not going to be surprised, and that would gain
Dynasty attention, no doubt, totally.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
He was fun. I he was one that I was
close to picking up for a bat too, So I
watched a good bit of him and loved to swing.
Frank like the swing it the finish reminds me a
little bit of Marcelo Zuna, you know, just like the
he's swinging so hard that the bat just whips around
all the way behind him. Yeah, big right handed hacks

(42:36):
And yeah, and I had and like you said, the
twenty seven or twenty six percent k rate in hi
a as a twenty four year old or whatever he
is now, It's like, yeah, that's a big red flag
for a right handed hitting first place and only sure,
but he I agree, there's some real power here. And
he's a sneaky, decent athlete.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Let's let's see if maybe just you know, some more
mental you know, library like you say, maybe he can
give give him a little bit more time and let's
see what kind of home run production he does. But
these videos too that I share, I pick out what
I'm sharing for a reason because I think they highlight well,
if you're just going to look at a little bit
of a guy, just kind of the summary of my
thoughts on him. But his video was so hard to

(43:18):
cut down within the minute and a half time frame
that I have met, because there were so many good
pimp home runs and bat flips and stuff like that
that I wanted to include in there, but I also
wanted to get all the home runs in so nice.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Well, I did like him, but ended up moving off
because of the k rate, and I don't love the
guy that I'm picking here. I think there's a chance
he's a real like a big leaguer, but there are
some definite flaws to the profile that give me pause.
I'm going with Cody Freeman. Do you watch much of Freeman?

Speaker 4 (43:50):
I'm familiar.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Yeah, you know, he's been around a while. Was like
a fourth round or third round pick. He got almost
a million bucks five years ago. He's Rule five eligible
this offseason, and so it'll be interesting if somebody snaps
him up. This was his best year for sure as
a pro. Twenty three year olds old spent the whole
year in double a slash two sixty four three twenty

(44:12):
four thirty two, good for one o nine WRC plus
And as you said, like that league was pretty good
this year. He swiped fifteen bags, which is one caught stealing,
and I thought he was pretty good at that. I
would like to see him steal a little bit more.
He's not a burner, but a good athlete for sure.
Popped fourteen homers, that's kind of been his mo is

(44:32):
like at the kind of fifteen to twenty homer power
at like major League peak. You know, he's popped thirteen,
twelve and then fourteen in the last three years, so
I think there's some power there. It's not elite. Do
have concerns about the ground ball rate, like he does
put it on the ground a bit too much and
with not elite power, that's I think could be a

(44:55):
tough look. But what I do think he adjusted to
this year, and the reason I ended up choosing him
is it looked to me like he had an approach
where he was trying to pull the ball more, which
is the kind of approach that I think he'll need
to do to succeed with. And he has good enough
contact skills that this seems like he was able to
execute and get a little more power to the pull

(45:16):
side without really giving up much in terms of contact
or hits the other way. Roped thirty three doubles. That's
a lot of doubles to go along with two triples
and fourteen homers. That's pretty good some other of these
kinds of guys, He's one that maybe he needs a
position change to really be valuable for fantasy to get

(45:37):
a shot, because I don't know if that's going to
play at third. But the lucky thing is he's played
all over the place. They had him as a catcher
as recently as last year, so maybe he can catch
the innings and be a super utility. I don't think
he was great back there because they moved him off
this year and he primarily played third base, with a
sprinkling of second base in there too. So Freeman, though,

(46:01):
I think there's a He's a solid ballplayer all around
and had some good swag too. I saw him get
some big hits that he was pretty pumped about, and
seems like the team liked him. So I don't know,
you do worse than Cody Freeman. Not one of my
must go get guys, but he's my favorite in the
B side range for the Rangers.

Speaker 4 (46:20):
Yeah, I think that's a solid call. You know who
really is still probably the best B side bat in
their system is your boy from last year.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
Blaying Krim one hundred percent is and I was going
to talk about him too.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
He was still only one percent rostered on September twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
So Krim had the misfortune of bad timing with his
production last year because he started the year pretty cold.
I think it was, like I looked this up, like
an eighty WRC plus through the first two months. Maybe
it wasn't good. He wasn't hitting homers, he was striking
out a bit more. He just didn't look right, and

(46:55):
unfortunately they had openings like he might have gotten to play.
And like I think, like I said, last aast season,
I think he could have taken a job and run
with it if he had a season different because from
what I did, the splits from the second half on,
I think maybe from June on, or maybe even inclusive
of June. I forget, dude ran a one fifty two

(47:16):
WRC plus. He had like a thousand ops over that stretch,
and of course this is the PCL, so you got
to do some adjustment for that. But he did that
with a seventeen percent krate, twelve percent walk rate, twenty bombs,
thirty three doubles, Like dud, Dude is good he is
just such a good hitter. I'm so bummed. If he
had flipped that production and had that production in the

(47:37):
first half, I think he would have been the first
baseman for the Rangers all year. So yeah, blame crim
Still by far the best in the system, and I
would double tap him in a heartbeat, But I felt
like we should talk about somebody new.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
He's like still eligible for Rule five, right, someone can
pop him.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Oh I think he was right, right, Yeah, yep.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
So we'll see there. The deadline is coming up here.
November nineteenth is the deadline to be on the forty
and not be Rule five eligible for those and I
don't know if they're.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Gonna I don't know if they're gonna do it, but
somebody should let this guy play in the major leagues
because I really think the bat's gonna play.

Speaker 4 (48:12):
Yeah, and I won't lie Matt. I am so hoping
Durban ends up wearing some purple pin stripes this year.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
Well, I'm getting sidetracked. But he is everything that Bud
Black bitches about and wants more of in their lineup.
He is all of that, and if the Yankees do
not protect him, I don't know what the Rockies are doing.
If they don't take him in the Rule five.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
I gotta believe they're gonna with the holes they've got,
you know, glabor walking, and I don't know if they're
gonna slot him right into the infield there, but I
can't imagine they don't protect Durban.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
Yeah, maybe work a trade, yeah maybe AnyWho. Rangers arms
I found significantly more interesting than their bats this.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Year on this, totally agree.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
I think lots of ways that you could go. You
look at, and I know Matt like, they are thirsty
to develop some of their own and have some controllable starters.
So Kumar, Rocker, Lighter Back Porter, the three most popular,
Ali Jandro Rosario seventeen percent, Toyoto is fifteen percent, Own
White is still twelve percent, Winston Santos, Jose Corneille, Cole Drake.

(49:19):
Cole Drake's only four percent. That's that's a banger deal.
I think if he's still available in your leagues. Josh Steven,
who's having a really good AFL for whatever, that's worth
three percent, Mitch Bratt three percent, Aiden Curry three percent.
Everybody else in their system was I think one percent
or less, maybe two percent.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Or less gois that's a deep system, like with some
bangers at the top. Yeah, those guys I'm lukewarmon, but
that is a really good top of the system. And
they're even mentioned, yes, guys that we're going to talk about,
which I know I have three that I could have
picked and been thrilled with.

Speaker 4 (49:53):
So yeah, you know, but again, like I mentioned before,
their bug boos, just like when they get to the uppers,
a lot of them, a lot of these guys just
don't don't could pass, that don't progress beyond their like
high success. But AnyWho you want to go first, who'd
you go with?

Speaker 1 (50:07):
I won't bury the lead here. I went with Jose Gonzalez.
This is not a knock on like the other three
or four guys that I think we'll end up touching on.
And I'm pretty sure my number two was the guy
you're gonna pick, so because we've talked about it before,
but I went with Jose Gonzalez. Dude is a little
old for the level, so he was like twenty two

(50:28):
or I think he ended the year twenty as a
twenty three year old and spent most of the year
in a ball so like a little old. As we've
talked about before. I care about that a lot less
for pictures because pictures can come from anywhere and blow
up and be good. The reason I went, and you can.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
Go like like think about like Estrata, Right, he was
just kind of like this middling guy and abel at
twenty four or whatever, and now like he's legit, probably
on the precipice of getting a big lead shot a
year later. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
Yeah, Jose Gonzalez to me, at worst is gonna be
an elite reliever. At worst. That's not to like damn
anything else about him, but his stuff is disgusting.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
Sorry, remind me. He's like a he's like a three
fastball guy with like a skitter.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Yeah, and like primary pitch is like this cutter slider thing.
It's the thing he throws most often. And he'll just
throw cutter after cutter after cutter, and these dudes in
a ball looked atrocious against it. It was hilarious. He
would just throw like nine in a row and none
of them would get anywhere near it, like he wouldn't.

(51:37):
It would just be like you know, a ball mixed
in here and there, and then with ball with it
was like wild. And then you would see I think
there was this one outing against Red Sox, maybe might
have been the Red Sox is what I'm thinking of.
And he threw for the first like three innings it
was like ninety percent cutters and these guys weren't touching shit.

(51:57):
Then he switches up his approach and he starts throwing
this four seam fastball at the top of the zone
and these guys looked like it was one hundred and
five every time because they were all looking for this
like big moving cutter and it was this exploding fastball
at the top of the zone. These guys were getting
blown away, but it was hilarious. But he also he

(52:18):
also has a bigger slider curvebally thing too, and as
you said, a split change that he uses as a
change of pitch, which is also a good pitch. I
don't know, man like he was second in came minus
BB over the last ten years in a ball. The
only one better was Travis Dakora also this year, So
it's it's sort of historically good how good he was

(52:41):
at a ball. Now caveats aside, this was like eighty
sun the innings there, and he's old for the level,
and I think we've talked maybe about that the Carolina
League like wasn't the best this year, especially on the
hitting side. I think some of those teams were a
little bit weaker than they've been in years past.

Speaker 4 (52:59):
It's not all that most impressive league in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
I agree this year and looking at some of the
lineups that he was chopping up, like, not a lot
of guys I'm excited about in those lineups. Yet he
punched out thirty three percent of batters, walked six percent,
and I'm telling you, these pitches are nothing short of electric.
What gives me pause is he's not the biggest guy,

(53:22):
and so that might be like why they don't have
him on the like fast track to start kind of thing. Well,
I guess he's listed at six three. I always thought
he was more like six foot, but maybe he's a
little bit taller. Just now is sniffing hi A. And
so he got one start at HIGA to end the
year and it was bade whatever. It's one start. So

(53:44):
he's been you know, DSL complex for two years, a
ball for two years and then now just now is
getting up to HIA. I think he's Rule five eligible
this year. It says he has on fangrafts, which if
he is boy, I would this is one of those
guys like I think we might have talked about this before.
International guys like this pop up and a rule five eligible.

(54:08):
Some teams might try and look at a guy like this,
pen him for a year and then now he's theirs
for another three years or whatever it is, then keep
developing him as as a starter. So I thought Hose
Gonzalez was wildly impressive. I want to see it at
higher levels. I'm not sure that the approach is going
to hold up how he kind of goes after guys,

(54:29):
But there was basically no one more exciting in a
ball for me this year.

Speaker 4 (54:34):
Like we've talked about in the past, I think the
Rangers do a pretty good job of like seeking out
guys that are just like unique or have some a
unique trait or pitch or something like that. And that's
why I think you start to see, you know, like
with my guy DJ McCarty last year, or maybe even
like Ryan Lobis this year, like maybe the outcome is
a reliever, a major league reliever banking on like a

(54:57):
really good slider or whatever. Right, And maybe that's part
of why they haven't developed some of you know, more
major league starters, but they got a slew of guys
man like Bradon Mendoza. I liked a good bit too,
as a twenty old who was an AIA. Yeah. I
think Paul Benzogni is interesting. He was in Hi An.
This guy Josh Trinidou who was in Single Way, Isaac Tiger,

(55:20):
I think is really good. But did Tiger go down
with Tommy John or an elbow or something.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
I think he's a legit starting pitching prospect. So again,
kind of with the Rangers here to break my tie,
I kind of just went with the guy gave him
tiebreak because I'm just like a big fan and I
want to see this guy succeed. But I went with
David Devleo. Yeah, twenty one his last start. I think
he'll be twenty two this year. In high A. Stuff wise,
probably nothing that's going to like super jump out off

(55:49):
the page. The fastball is like eighty nine to ninety three,
sliders like eighty. There's a curve ball, there's a splitter
that's like high seventies. But this guy can really pitch
man like you talk about at least in stretches, maybe
probably not as consistent, but just talking about all four offerings,
just like dotted where he wants. And he has such

(56:09):
like a great presence in command of everything going on
on the mound, Like the dude is just in control
out there. He's running the show, and he's doing what
he wants to. Hitters at a pretty high clip, a
lot higher clip than you usually see in High A.
Sixteen starts, eighty innings in a ball, thirty innings in
High A to close out the year, and I know
there's like there's good competition for innings in this system.

(56:32):
Three of his last six games starts for FQOS. Two
of those were during his High A run. Probably not
the biggest guy in the world. And I don't know
what the story was. He was an international free agent
signing of the Mets and they let him go for
some reason and I don't know why, and I tried
to ask, and they didn't really know why. But the
Rangers picked him up I think two years ago. But
let's see on the season his well, we're talking a

(56:55):
twenty five point four strikeout percentage to a seven point
two walk percent. I don't know it doesn't really get
hit up very much. I just I kind of feel
like maybe something in the arsenal is going to have
to tick up to feel better about his major league prospects.
But I don't know, man, We see that kind of
stuff happen all the time. Like I'm willing to take
a gamble on a guy who has this sort of

(57:16):
pitchability and advanced like sequencing and stuff, and you could
show up next year and he's throwing three clicks harder,
like I'll ave Zebbie Matthews or something with that and
totally take off now right now as things sit, is
he like at the top of my B side armless
for this year? No, probably bottom third to maybe middle,
But yeah, I think you could do a lot worse.

(57:36):
Like davl Leo is a good picture, man.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
I can see this being a mid to even pushing
top ten arm for me in this kind of exercise.
I love the worm burning ways and it's it's in
a predictable fashion, right sinker that really dives down, He'll
get gifts on it, ball guys swinging over it, and
a ton of grounders. I wonder if he might benefit
from a curveball to offset because the slider. I think

(58:03):
he gets some soft contact with it and definitely some whiffs,
but it's more of a bullet slider, and I wonder
if another kind of downer pitch might.

Speaker 4 (58:10):
He throws a curveball from time to time. I just
don't think he has as much feel for it.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
Yeah, he throws a slider way more.

Speaker 4 (58:16):
Yeah. Right, And you can put those pitches where he wants.
It's such a high clip, like you can get away.
You know, he doesn't need the curveball right now. But
I hear what you're saying, maybe down the road.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
And he really just limits hard contact. Like it seems
like that's a skill for him that he's so far
in his significant outings. The highest homer to fly ball
or highest home runs per nine rate he had was
point five and that was seventeen innings on the complex
in twenty twenty three. Like he in eighty innings this

(58:48):
year at a ball, what do you give it? One homer,
two two home runs in eighty innings. That's really good.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
Yep A one point seventy nine ERA A whip just
over one and a ball is innings in high A
two point one e ra X FIP three point zero five. Yeah,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Man, I think he's a guy the x FIP is
going to underrate because I do think it's a skill
based on how he pitches that he is going to
limit home runs. So I mean, I I think that
this is a guy who I might buy that era
more than I buy the x FIP, but normally you should.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
Not do that.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
So anyway, I'm a big wo fan too. I think
he's really good. I love watching a pitch co sign.
Everything you said about his presence and demeanor on the mound.
I'm excited to see what the Rangers are going to
do with him this year. Like I wouldn't be surprised
if they challenge him pretty aggressively.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
Yeah, we'll see. Like I like I said, I know,
there's just a lot of guys that they want to
get innings too. And you look at the list and
the names is like you get it, Like, yeah, I understand.
I understand why you want to maybe keep trying Lobis
as a as a starter, because that dude could be nasty.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Yeah, Lobis is awesome too. I mean, we don't need
to labor it anymore, but this is a great pitching system.

Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
Maybe this was still only one percent rastered in September,
but I felt like we talked about him this season enough.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Yeah, but I mean like early leader in the clubhouse
for me for best pitching system in the miners.

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
But twenty twenty three choice my Ryan Garcia was even
like kind of had some sort of renaissance or something
to put some stuff together in trip Away this year
and wasn't walking to Brazilian guys and having a lot
of success like well.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
We'd even mentioned Mitch Bratt too, who also think is
has been in other systems. I would be happy to
take him as a shirt arm.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Man, this is wildly deep and talented bunch.

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
So a lot of good buds, yeah, a lot of
good mud, all right, Matt the Oakland, well, what are
they going by now?

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Oh shit, they're just the athletics.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
The Athletics and.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
West sacramentod fuck you, John Fisher, absolutely atrocious horseshit.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):
Anyway, I really like my two picks for the A's
this year. I think they're both at the top of
my This might not be a surprise, but I'm going
with my guy Will Simpson. Yep, still only one percent
rostered as of September twenty seventh. I think he did
hit pipelines top thirty at number twenty nine. When I
looked twenty two, I guess maybe he'll be twenty three

(01:01:19):
this year. Right handed first base type, so we know
that profile can be tough. But they did have him
playing some third base. I know he has played some
outfield in college. Good size, six ' three strong. I
love a lot of his mechanics and things that he
does in his swing, real balance, see a Washington boy, right.
We talked about him with Connor a little bit. Connor

(01:01:40):
didn't know him, wasn't there. We talked a little bit
about him. Spent most of the year in the Midwest
League High A. I was just like, just kept waiting
and waiting for him to get promoted to Double A.
He finally did for the last eighteen games. I think
he fared pretty well there. I hit a couple of
home runs. He hit eighteen home runs on the season.
Still a couple of bags. I don't think that's going

(01:02:01):
to be like a huge part of his game. Strikeouts.
I think, like we were talking about with Connor, or
maybe a little bit on the higher side, but I
mean not bad. Well. He was twenty four point five
percent on the year with enough you know, maybe he's
got can slug hit enough home runs. You know, that's
not that's not too bad. Two ten ISO one two

(01:02:22):
WRC plus one fifty five in his little double a span.
What I like about Simpson two I watched a lot
of them this year, is like, I feel like there's
sort of different periods of him as a hitter. You
can see him, you know, it was like line opposite field,
line drives going over second basement's head, like, seemed to
be hitting a lot of those. And then there was

(01:02:42):
times where it was like, all right, he's definitely trying
to hit the ball out in front and pull it
more and you know, and then home runs will pop
up a little bit more. I just kind of like
that versatility. I don't know what he's going to sort
of end up looking like in the end, but I
think he's got like kind of all of that again
in his good mechanics, can hit the ball hard when
he gets deep on him. I know, like I said,
right handed first base, that could be a long shot.

(01:03:04):
But for a B side type here one percent, I
kind of like my man Simpson here.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Yeah, I agree, Simpson's a great pick, and he would
have been mine that I knew that you liked him.
Still can't bring myself to pick a husky that wasn't
coached by Connor. You know, now they're going to be
my guys. But everyone that went before you're all dead
to me. Tim linscome included. Anyway. I liked a few

(01:03:30):
guys in the system, Simpson and then the two guys
I want to talk about, Brendan Malone and Nate Nankeel.
I think both are They're all have some things in common.

Speaker 4 (01:03:41):
Well, you went with Malone last year, right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
I did you know? I'm highlighting him again. I think
he's he did a lot of the things that I
expected him to do. I think he would be my
pick again here in a vacuum. But I wanted to
talk up nan Keel as well, but just briefly on Malone.
He still has the same kind of funky up. He's
still a pretty skinny looking guy that you think maybe

(01:04:04):
there's more meat on the bones there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
I don't know if it's ever going to really come
together in the power department. But his plate discipline, his
contact skills remain good. He's getting I think close to
his most the most you can get out of his
battle ball profile because he is hitting flyballs and does
have some power there, and he had a really good year.
So I think, you know, in a vacuum for me,
I would take Malone again. And that's no shade on

(01:04:30):
Simpson too. I actually liked him quite a bit. I
saw him live this year, one of the few.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
Malone was still I got to Malone was still just
one percent in September. Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
And I think both have both have some merit. But
I wanted to give a hat tip to Nate nan Kill,
who's college drafty out of cal State Fullerton last year.
Was not good in his very brief debut last year,
sort of a weird profile for thirty two WRC plus
like definitely didn't set the w on fire. But as

(01:05:00):
we've seen, we've been fooled by debuts on both the
positive and the negative end coming out of the draft,
and he was good at Fullerton, got a three hundred
thousand bonus out of like the seventh round. I think
he was a seventh rounder.

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
Yeah, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
Sure that he's going to have enough juice to be
a regular, and I think he's just a corner outfielder.
It looked okay in my looks like his his outfield play,
the little bit that I saw. I just don't know
if he's going to have the power that you kind
of need to be a regular in right field. He
does hit doubles, so he's got some doubles power. He

(01:05:36):
popped eleven homers between A and Hi A this year
and showed pretty good plate discipline for most of that
time too, So I think there's a good hitter here
without elite power, and I wanted to highlight that. I also,
he seems reasonably fast to me, but he doesn't steal
a lot of bases, so that might not ever be

(01:05:56):
a part of his game. So to me, he's not
like super exciting. I would prefer Malone or Simpson if
you're looking for something. I think both those guys have
a little more upside. But nan kill is the kind
of guy that I think could end up with a
decent career in his like twenty six to twenty eight
seasons in the major leagues for a team, perhaps after

(01:06:17):
free agency, after minor league free agency. So anyway, Nate
nan Keel, you could do worse. Not super excited about it.
But he's he's my pick this year.

Speaker 4 (01:06:25):
I think two. And we talked about Jared Dickey during
the season, and that would be a decent B side
choice too. Came over in a trade from the Royals,
but I kind of like some of the things that
he does and his kind of different, funky wide setup
from the left side. I think surprisingly hits more home
runs than you might think. And then Matt.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Arms arms for fun.

Speaker 4 (01:06:46):
Here they were and I think you could I think
there's a several decent options here. I mean I definitely
picked the best one, though, but just looking at the system,
you got like Luis Morales is eighteen percent. I took
this into Tember and Brady Basso was at fifteen percent,
but mind you, he was like getting some run yeah big,

(01:07:06):
So that was probably you know, spiked a little bit.
But what jt Gin is still thirteen percent? Gunner Hoglin
ten percent. Nason Barnett, was that your choice lest year?

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
I think I went with.

Speaker 4 (01:07:18):
For the Royals and then he came over in the trade.
Yeah yeah, even like Ekavria is still just three percent.
That's kind of surprising to me. But after that, I
think you could have could have done well with a
few calls, but I'm going with Will Johnston yep.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
Same, Yeah, dudetle Co sign here. Yeah, he's this is
one of my favorite arms. Yes here for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
I agree, he's probably one of my He's probably like
top five for me. Yeah, we might have a battle
during the draft to get John Man. We'll see what.
He was a thirteenth round pick out of Texas A
and M twenty twenty three.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
Right, yep, one of these relievers turned starters. I've had
a bit of a thing with these guys in the past,
but recently there's been a little more success with pro
teams doing this, so I'm less morally opposed to it,
if you will.

Speaker 4 (01:08:06):
Yeah, good size, listed at six ' three, but he
went three levels last year, right, abel high double A,
just two starts in double A.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Yeah, and he's six three. But like those limbs make
it look longer. I think the extension is better, and
his arm slot is like damn near right over the top,
and I think that's interesting in one of those fun ways.

Speaker 4 (01:08:26):
Yeah, definitely over the top, so you know, it's more
probably more north south attack, although I do find that
you know obviously that your hand orientation coming over the
top like that, You're not. Nobody really throws like these
wicked ass sliders from from that slot, but he does,
like yeah, yeah, yeah, he throws one that's like, you know,
it's not I don't know how many inches of break

(01:08:47):
you might get or whatever, but it seems pretty effective
and it's got some like decent movement on it. So
that's an interesting pitch to me. And of course over
the top left you like him. He's you look at
his splits. He's tougher against righty's then he is. Lefties
don't hate to see that. Now. Man, I don't know
if you saw this, but he was so he was
only INAA for two starts, and I don't know if

(01:09:08):
that includes his playoff appearance or not, but he was
pretty dang good. But his last ten year, ten games
on the season, forty three and two thirds innings, an
e area of one point eight eight, a whip of
point eight eight. Strikeout percent is just under thirty four percent,
what seven point seventy five percent through strikes at a
sixty six percent clip. Gave up one home run nine

(01:09:30):
earned runs. Not a bad stretch, especially considering that was
also an intro to the upper levels.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Yeah, he's awesome. I'm such a huge fan. I love
the way he attacks guys too, really gets down the
mound and is I'm a huge fan this. This definitely
is one of the most exciting arms I've found this year.

Speaker 4 (01:09:50):
Yeah, his artist fastball, it was probably like ninety one
ninety two, but it's a lefty I don't mind that. Plus,
you're talking about like some extension and a different name
curveball in the highest seventies, this slider cutter thing, and
then he throws a splitter.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Yeah, and I liked the slider or sorry that we
talked about the slider, but I like the curveball too.
That was his sort of primary off speed and I look,
oh yeah, and it's not a hammer, you know, it's
not like a big loopy one. But the way that
it plays off of his fastball, it gives such a
tough look to hitters. I think that's the reason for
it's a big part of his success. It's like the

(01:10:26):
way that both of those pitches come out, hitters can't
tell what's coming and it really separates. So that tunnel,
to me, I think is one that makes both pitches
really effective.

Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, righties hit one to eighty one
against him last year. But yeah, I agree, I think
this is a pretty I think he's kind of a dude,
and that's appreciated in the Dynasty world at least right
now hundred percent. Yep, Now, Matt, you're second team, right,
your local team. Yeah, that ends the Semen.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
Yeah, the Mariners, who are definitely going to sign one
Soda this offseason and speak it into existence and battle
one hundred percent happen.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
I'm sure I'm really curious to a bat that you
picked out here, because I won't lie, I struggle.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
I tend to agree, Like the bats either are really
well regarded, Like the top of their system has quite
a few well regarded bats in you know, Harry Ford,
Cold Young, Colt Emerson, Lazara Montes, Michael Royo. Like that
group is good. I think there's gonna be some good
major leaguers out of there, but they're also way too
owned for our purposes. You know, our guy Ben Williamson,

(01:11:31):
We've talked about him a bit. Legit might be the
best defensive player, best third baseman in the minor leagues.
Like he makes ridiculous play after ridiculous play, And you know,
I liked his bat a bit, another of those abbreviated
swing arieties. Not a ton of power, a lot of doubles,
some speed, Like I like Ben Williamson.

Speaker 4 (01:11:52):
I think he was. He was rastered a little bit
more than our constraints here, though. I think, let see,
he's at the series like three four percent. I think
he's at zero now on fan trash.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
That's why he made my filter, and I figured that's
who you would go with. But if he's outside your
parameters from September, I think that's probably right. You know,
he had a nice run there in in Everett, and
he was good ballplayer overall, good ballplayer.

Speaker 4 (01:12:18):
M ilb gave Caros the gold Glove at third base.

Speaker 1 (01:12:21):
Oh, I didn't know.

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
I feel that's good. I feel like that's a tough debate. Caros, yeah, Williamson.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
Yeah, Charris is good too. But I you know, I
maybe watched a little more. I guess I watched quite
a bit of both, but I I probably would have
given it to Williamson's. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):
I think I think I would have too. I think
I would have too.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
Not a knock on Carros, because I do think he's
really like it too. Okay, but the guy. I'm actually
quite excited about this guy, and I'm interested if you
if you watch him, did you watch much Victor Lebrata
a little bit?

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
But I actually wrote him up back in twenty twenty
one when he was tearing it up. The Kell League
had a bunch of these years that would just sound
a crazy hot run, and he was one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
Lobrota is really fun for a few reasons. Again, we're
caveating this a little bit because it's not like gonna
wow you with the tools. He's not gonna He's small,
like he's five eight, you know, undersized spark plug that
no one else really thinks is good. Fined as a

(01:13:20):
twenty year old, I think the international free agency, and
then the pandemic happened, so he didn't play. He debuted
in twenty twenty one as a twenty one year old
in a ball He has spent eleven hundred played appearances
in the cow League over the last four years or
the last four seasons. Got promoted a couple of times
to the Northwest League to hi A, but only for

(01:13:43):
kind of short stints and was never like great, wasn't
lighting the world on fire. And he made one Fangrafts
list as like a footnote that the basically the whole
footnote was nobody else thinks this guy's any good, but
maybe he can play the outfield. I love this guy.
He's he's best. I had gold Man like Cuban defectee
to the Dominican, like I said, underside, but he is

(01:14:06):
so fast, legit, seventy grade speed caught it. I got
him on a bunt at three five down the line,
but bunted for a hit three five down the line
and then swiped, second, swipe third. Love that shit so good.
His swing is pretty fun. The knock on him at
this point is that, like he might in the past,
I would say, like the power has been bad. He

(01:14:28):
had one pretty good season in twenty twenty two, where
he popped ten homers in four hundred and fifty played appearances,
but that was at Everett. He's a lefty. He put
a bunch over the short porch there and like nobody
thought that power was real. And then last year he
hit zero home run or maybe one home run in
the playoffs, I think, but that was it. This year
he hit ten homers and swiped forty nine bases. Do

(01:14:50):
you know how many people swiped more than forty nine
bases this year, be three little more than that, you know,
Like there's there's quite a few in like the forty
nine to fifty five range. Like there's there's like ten
guys that are all right in that range, and then
there's like four guys that were at the top of
the leaderboard. So he was like, I think nineteenth or
twentieth in the minors in this year. Do you know

(01:15:12):
how many ahead of him hit more home runs than
his ten?

Speaker 4 (01:15:16):
None?

Speaker 1 (01:15:16):
Just two one of them. You should know as a
Colorado Rockies stand a guy. Maybe we'll we'll talk about
who's still a ton of bases Kerrig?

Speaker 4 (01:15:25):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:27):
He stole a ton of bases, like you know, top
ninety fifth percentile in the minor leagues, and of that
group was the top ten percentile in home runs, so
not zero power. I also saw in a Baseball America
article that they posted he was one of the top
exit velocity gainers this year. Now he is ninetieth percent exile.

(01:15:50):
Exit velocity is just shy of major league gaverage. That's
I think they listed to him at like ninety three
point one and major league average is like ninety three
point five something like that for ninetieth So that's pretty
darn good. I might have the number strong. It might
be one o three. I think that's what. He's one
oh three point one and major league average is one

(01:16:12):
of three point five. I think that's right. Anyway, he's
like just a hair shy of major league gaverage as
far as power goes, which I think kind of matters.
Like that means that you look at this underside guy,
everyone's like, you're gonna hit for power.

Speaker 4 (01:16:25):
Buh b.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
I think that's not really true. He's stinging the ball
now and he's swinging and missing a little bit he
has in the past as well. But with the speed
and the ability to run the outfield, like, he's a
pretty good outfielder in my looks too. I can see
him getting some run in major league outfield, and you know,
small or no. The if the power is just shy

(01:16:48):
of average, like why the hell do we care? The
knock on him is the contact ability. He's mostly run
higher ground ball rates in the past, so like, even
though the power is maybe approaching major league average, with
the ground ball rate, he's probably always going to be
a little bit under that as far as like production
in the home run category for Rodo, but with the

(01:17:11):
steals and the speed and the willingness to bunt for hit,
he's just a super fun guy. Hit. I think it
was the playoffs last year he hit a grand Slam
for Everett and again they were already up a bunch,
but it was it was dope. He pimped it and
it was it was super cool. So Victor Lebrato for me,
super fun, not like top tier guy, just because I'm

(01:17:34):
not sure that with the ground ball rate, the power
is going to play, but the speed, the defense and
the story give me. Give me lebron as my Mariners
b side. The other the other issue with him is
that there are two other guys on the Mariners forty
man that are exactly like him, Ryan Bliss and Samad Taylor,
And so that's like, you know, I mean Bliss infield

(01:17:54):
or Taylor outfield, but still really similar kinds of production,
really similar players. But Lobratto, you know, he's fun.

Speaker 4 (01:18:02):
No, I agree, there was, Like Sunstrom was a little
interesting to me. Brack Rodin rotten Rodin, like he won
the second base gold Glove, they gave it to him.

Speaker 1 (01:18:12):
I'm surprised at that, but all right.

Speaker 4 (01:18:14):
Nice, Yeah, honestly, dude, I this is like number twenty
nine or number thirty on my bat's list, my choice here.
But there was just a first first year player, guy
Austin Saint Laurent, who played three games. Dude, we're talking
eleven did not three games, eleven played appearances. He was
their fourteenth round pick out of Appalachian State. By no

(01:18:36):
means do I really like get this guy or nothing,
But he was just a guy out of all those
I wanted to see more of him than anybody else.
Twenty one middle infielder played second base and choice stop.
I think both in college and his three games stint here.
It's probably about six foot. I like to like his
kind of like his build and his swing, Like I
think he's got a big swing, yet like still controlled.

(01:18:59):
He walked the same amount of times that he struck
out in his three games here, but I think that
was also kind of the case in college. I think
he was a walk more than strikeout strikeout kind of guy.
Cut up some video of some of his that bats.
Obviously there's not a lot to look at, but like
I said, he was just a guy that I wanted
to watch more. I was bummed that there wasn't more
video to see it because I was kind of getting interested.

(01:19:20):
That's it, that's it, all right, Mariners at this roster percentage,
I just had a hard time, I don't know, getting down,
but I liked I liked you shouting out Lebrato. I
think that's a good call. I didn't realize that stuff
about the exit velocities, and you had told me that information,
I probably would have, you know, picked.

Speaker 1 (01:19:37):
Him as well, nice, nice, well, excited to watch.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
Well, who knows. I mean, it could be a total.

Speaker 1 (01:19:43):
Dud, as most of your picks are.

Speaker 4 (01:19:45):
So all right, let's wrap it up with the Mariners arms, Matt,
you look at their system logan evans twenty percent, and
if you were listening to us last year, you would
have been a little bit ahead of the curve there.
Cheter Martinez is seven, Walter Ford's five percent, their new
draft choice, the ambidextrious guy, was already at three percent.

(01:20:07):
Then you got like Cole Phillips, Brandon Garcia, Taylor Dollard.
Their three percent morales is still only two percent, which
I was kind of surprised. Ryan Sloan's the first year player.
He's already at two percent. Revan Scooter, who we were
gushing about are fans of last year, He's at one percent.
But yeah, I don't know, Matt, who'd you go with

(01:20:28):
after that? Well?

Speaker 1 (01:20:29):
RVs my guy last year. As I said in our
initial pick, I thought the stuff was going to back up,
Like the results weren't going to be quite as good
at double A, but I still really believed in him.
The strikeout rate dig tick back a little bit more
than I thought at double A, but overall he still

(01:20:49):
had a really good year. He really just had one
outing where he gave up like seven runs in a
third of an inning. If you remove that outing, his
year looks remarkably similar to his year last year. A
couple of fewer innings, I think he might have dealt
with some Yeah, he was out for a little while
injury stuff. Yeah, so that held him back a little

(01:21:09):
bit too. But I'm still a big fan of Van
Scooter and think that he is a you know, number
five starter waiting in the wings that isn't going to
be a strikeout king, but gonna get a ton of
ground balls. And still love him as a pitcher. He's
super fun to watch. Like him a lot, and as
you mentioned, a couple of other guys in the system
that I think are still really good. Your Logan Evans
pick last year was awesome. Michael Morales is someone that

(01:21:31):
I have flirted with in the past of like, he's
had runs where he was really good, but his year
this year was very good. I liked what I saw there,
thinking him stepping taking a step forward, making it up
to double A and pitching decently. Definitely a fan. There's
a couple other arms I like here too. Luis Cravello
I think is going to be a big league reliever

(01:21:51):
probably next year. Great slider and the mold of the
Mariner's middle relief kind of pitchers. So I liked him
the fair amount. But I'm going with Brandon Garcia is
my pick. You watch much of Garcia this year.

Speaker 4 (01:22:04):
A little bit? Yeah, I think I kind of excluded
him from my search here because he was at three
percent then.

Speaker 1 (01:22:11):
But blast blast, so mine should have a zero percent
when I look, But I'm not surprised that he's kind
of at that three percent range. Another guy who was
a college reliever, and again like this is you know,
trade on Browski last year, Tyler Guilfoyle, Michael Prosecci. These
guys last year that I was really intrigued by that

(01:22:32):
were college relievers turned starters and having some success. And
those guys I'm usually skeptical about the durability. Can they
hold a starteris workload and the command because there's usually
a reason that they're in the pen in college and
it's usually one of those two things. Well, Brandon Garcia
hasn't necessarily answered both of those questions yet, but you
have to say that twenty twenty four was a huge

(01:22:54):
breakout for the eleventh rounder. Yeah, at a a M.
He had kind of a bad walk rate last year
only through fifty three and two thirds innings pitch last year,
but this year across the levels through one hundred and
sixteen innings, which I love to see, twenty seven percent
strikeout rate and the walk rate was a lot on

(01:23:17):
the year at nine point five percent, which is, you know,
a hair higher than you would like. That's probably a
touch above average. Still pretty darn good and didn't tick
up too much even as he got promoted for forty
seven and two thirds innings at double A this year.
So Arkansas for the Mariners is a pretty good place

(01:23:37):
to pitch Texas League. I don't know, like you're more
plugged into this than I am, but I feel like
most of the other places to pitch are lean a
little more hitter friendly. But then there's a couple of
parks like Arkansas, it's a little more pitcher friendly.

Speaker 4 (01:23:52):
Is what you say?

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
That's true?

Speaker 4 (01:23:53):
I think so. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:23:54):
Garcia dominated in ever Itt and Everett is a hitters park,
and then was pretty against better competition in Double A
for his second half of the year. So I think
both of those things show that he can pitch pretty
well irrespective of the environment. He's a funky, low slot lefty,
pretty athletic looking, but he has a weird mix and

(01:24:17):
I love that. Just love guys that come at the
hitters in a really weird way. He throws a cutter,
a lot, a four steamer, a sinker, a sweeper, and
a change. All the pitches can get it. And I
think that one thing I really appreciated about Brandon Garcia
is that he is unpredictable in his attack. He'll come
at a two to zero count and it's a change
up in the middle of the plate. It's two strikes

(01:24:39):
and he's nibbled to get it to like three to
two or something, and then it's just fastball out our
half and he dots it in the corner. Again. The
command is the thing that's holding me back from like
this is a no doubt top five B side arm
for me. But I wouldn't be surprised if he's the
one of the best of my B side arms this
time next week year, because the stuff to me looks

(01:25:02):
like major league play and he just needs to make
sure that the control is good enough and that he
commands the wide repertoire in order to be like setting
himself up for success in the major leagues. But overall, boy,
Brandon Garcia just looks like the real deal to me
and looks like a really really good pitcher.

Speaker 4 (01:25:20):
And I think that's real solid call. But he had
a teammate in Arkansas who I think is better, yeah,
and was rastered at zero percent, and this is a
blast from the past. I'm going I'm bringing one out
of the archives here and I'm I'm my twenty twenty
three Mariner's arm was one Mercedes and I'm going back
there because I think, all, well, I think my guy

(01:25:40):
has kind of arrived. Now he's twenty four. He's twenty
four this year twenty three twenty four, spent the whole
season in Double A in Arkansas. Like you said, good
place to pitch, twenty seven starts, one hundred and forty
four innings. You like to see that sort of horsepower, right, Matt, Yep? Yep.
He had a two eight seven ERA, A one point
zero nine whip, four point zero three x fit. Strikeout

(01:26:02):
percentage on the season was twenty one point three. But
put a pin in that for right now, Walkery was
four point four percent. Not too shabby, Mercedes. Back in
what would that been like twenty twenty two, he was
a young guy in Medesta or not in Modesto, And yeah,
in Modesto, basically a fastball slider, right, and he still
is basically a fastball slider guy, although you can spot

(01:26:24):
him throwing some change ups from time to time, and
he will throw change ups to righties from time to top.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
That love that, right, right.

Speaker 4 (01:26:31):
It has been a pretty middling prospect, I think, right
the last couple of seasons. But something happened this year, Matt,
and I can't say that I really know what it is.
He's throwing his fastball. I don't know. I mean at
the mercy of the broadcast guns in booth right ninety
five up to ninety six. Sometimes I don't remember him
throwing quite that hard in the past. But his last

(01:26:54):
thirteen games he went sixty six innings with a three
ERA one point one four whip. The strikeout percentage jumped
to twenty eight point sixty two percent. Mind you, this
is you know, pitching in the same league all year,
whereas before that he was sub twenties twenty percent. So
I can't say I totally know. Did something did the
slider get nastier? Was there more velo? I don't know.

(01:27:16):
He threw strikes at a seventy one percent clip over
those last thirteen starts. A couple of those were in
the playoffs, where I think he fared pretty well. Seven
home runs over the those sixty six innings. After you're
finding this sort of success at double A like with
the Mariners, like, what's the next step?

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
It's the Biggs. But the issue with the Mariners is
that their five top five starters at least are way
better than any of these guys in the minor leagues,
and so the concern with a guy like Mercedes or
Garcia or some of these other logan Eppens for example,
is that they get popped in the pen, right, that

(01:27:54):
turn into the kind of middle or high leverage relievers,
and that's what the Mariners are going to do with him.
Then need a few of them for depth starters. And
I think that certainly two or three of these guys
in the Manner system are better than Emerson Hancock. They
gave the most of their major league kind of six
starter slots too. But again, you know, maybe the Manners

(01:28:16):
don't have the same health luck that they've had with
their with their starting pitching, so maybe there's more innings
to eat here.

Speaker 4 (01:28:23):
Mercedes is rule five eligible. Seems like you might be
an arm that someone might have some interest in and
would pen. Like you say, I don't know, he's not
on the forty man at this juncture, right, No, I
don't think so. No, he jumped up the back half
of the year.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
Did you see any reason why. I mean, I've always
liked his command, but the strikeout rate has always like
kept held me back being really in you know.

Speaker 4 (01:28:47):
So I'd love to like look at some you know,
geeky nerdy data stuff because I think something that I
don't know if he was really pitching any differently. I
think something just got tougher on hitters, something was missing
more bats. Like watching him down the stretch, I couldn't
really I can't say, oh, it's definitely the fastball, or
oh it was definitely the slider, like maybe it was both.
I don't know. It didn't really seem like he was

(01:29:09):
pitching all that different to me, but he was just
getting more whiffs.

Speaker 1 (01:29:13):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:29:14):
Yeah, I don't know. But Mercedes, Mercedes versus gotta see
you this year. Let's let's look at that battle.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
Yeah, I think it should be a good one. They're
both good, good arms. I like them both.

Speaker 4 (01:29:25):
Yeah. Well, I think that does it for the Al West.

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
Huh Yeah, Al West strong and more on the arm side,
I'd say than the bats, although definitely a couple of
good bats mixed in there. But the arms. Here we
listed what nine because we both picked will Johnston, But
I think even the next nine, which we mentioned, most
of them would be pretty good in the other divisions.
I'd say, like, yeah, there's some quality and depth here

(01:29:50):
in the al Wes.

Speaker 4 (01:29:52):
I agree, And even though I might not prioritize half
the guys of my guys that we talked about in
like our draft per se, there's still guys that I
find a lot of fun. Yeah, and exciting too and
with some hope.

Speaker 1 (01:30:06):
I looked it up on Mercedes. He had like the
fifteenth most innings pitch this year in all the minor leagues.
So that's that's the worth horsepower.

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
We shall find out. But I appreciate you guys joining us.
I know it's getting money, but this is fun for us.
In the off season. Some of these guys will pop,
some of them will not, and it'll be fun to
watch and see who does. Absolutely, we'll do another division
next week or whenever we record next probably next week.
I don't know what division we're gonna do. We'll find

(01:30:40):
out again. I'm on Twitter at Pitching Specs. I'll be
dropping videos of these guys right when the episode comes out.
That good stuff, man, it was nice to chat with buddy.
All Right, you guys be well and we'll let Chicago
Farmer take us out later.

Speaker 2 (01:30:54):
Miles an hour riding to his head, you have them
down for with the lumpbon in his face, and on
the very next pitch he up and stole second face.

Speaker 3 (01:31:10):
With gradest speed. He wasn't born. He had the dirty
Yes uniform

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